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THE HOLIDAY ISSUE NEW YORK LOS ANGELES MIAMI THE HAMPTONS

FASHION MANNUSCRIPT

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November/December 2026

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PRESIDENT/CEO Jeff Mann EDITORIAL Editor Rose Leveen Editorial Consultant Debra Hazel Associate Editor Penelope Herrera Director of Communications and Marketing Penelope Herrera Graphic Design Virginia Sanchez Director of Newsletter Division Kristen Pooran

West Coast Office: 578 Washington Blvd., Suite 827 Marina Del Rey, CA 90292 866-306-MANN (6266)

ART DIRECTOR Virginia Sanchez

BUSINESS Technology Consultant Eric Loh

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY Panagiotis Paris O

DISTRIBUTION Mitchell’s Delivery Service

CONTRIBUTORS Angela Rhea David Harouche Debra Hazel Kimberly Carney Maegan Watson Merilee Kern Rabbi David Laine Ron Friedman Sarthak Brahma Shahrooz Shawn Kohan Tatiana Muñoz Zohar Gilad

California Distribution MD Service West Coast Advisor Daniella Platt DIGITAL MEDIA Virginia Sanchez Web Developer CS Designworks

East Coast Office: 450 7th Ave, Suite 2306 New York, NY 10123 212-840-MANN (6266)

The opinions expressed by our columnists are not reflective of the views and opinions of the publisher or the editorial staff of Fashion Mannuscript. Publication of such views and opinions does not constitute endorsement by Fashion Mannuscript. Any reproduction, including but not limited to internet usage, is prohibited without the express written permission of the publisher.

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November/December 2026

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ONE MANN’S OPINION As we come to the close of the year, this magazine is the culmination of our team’s hard work on every issue. With a sensational cover, fantastic features you’ll all love and great insights into what makes the industry tick, the issue is chockfull of great reading. Our events this month are tremendous, ranging from celebrations such as Fashion Group International’s Night of Stars Gala and Selima Salaun’s induction into the Accessories Council Hall of Fame to conferences and receptions hosted by the companies that power the fashion and retail business, including CGS BlueCherry and CIT. Highlighting these industry events has been a major part of Fashion Mannuscript over the three decades since I founded the publication, and it’s amazing to continue doing so each month. The end of the year is a time for reflection, and I’ve been thinking about Fashion Mannuscript’s role as a business-to-business magazine that also highlights consumer fashion and retail news. I think it serves a special niche, and I’m very proud of it. We’re always reinventing ourselves, and that comes from the wonderful team here that I work so closely with. I’m also grateful to the accountants, attorneys, banking professionals, supply chain specialists and other industry experts who help make this such a great magazine.

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.” — T.S. Eliot

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November/December 2026

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With October in the rearview mirror, I am excited to share Fashion Mannuscript’s final 2026 issue! As the fall and winter holidays approach over the coming weeks, I wanted this edition to capture the season’s events and themes, from features on cold-weather collections to insights into holiday fashion and the retail landscape. While the cover could belong anywhere in the calendar year, this month’s theme offers a great opportunity to spotlight a brand that provides inspiration for thoughtful gifting. Terramore, founded by entrepreneur Natalie Mackey, is a newly launched fine jewelry brand. Her experience founding the beauty brand Winky Lux has given her a strong understanding of how to build a brand around products that become meaningful to consumers and remain part of their lives through different occasions and milestones. With Terramore, Mackey has designed each piece to be worn for moments big and small and collected over time, rather than stored away until the “perfect” occasion. I think Mackey’s story is a great one to close out the year, and I hope you enjoy learning about the world of Terramore. As always, thank you to the contributors, columnists and everyone who helped bring this issue to life. Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!

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November/December 2026

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FASHION FAVORITES

42 ON THE COVER:

COVER FEATURE

Introducing Terramore: Natalie Mackey’s Vision for Everyday Diamonds

12 Fashion Group International Celebrates Visionaries Shaping Fashion, Beauty and Culture at the 42nd Annual ‘Night of Stars’ Gala

14 Mann Charitable Foundation’s Annual Golf Outing: Honoring Industry Leaders, Rain or Shine

16 Celebrating Relationships, Looking Ahead: CIT Commercial Services Hosts Northeast Reception

18 Where AI Meets the Work: BlueCherry by CGS Hosts 2026 Insight Conference

20 Photo courtesy of Terramore

The Accessories Council Celebrates Selima Salaun With Hall of Fame Induction

FASHION FABULOUS

5 One Mann’s Opinion

6 Editor’s Letter

24 411 Executive Changes

62 411 Tech

Photo courtesy of Robert Talbott

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November/December 2026

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Photo courtesy of Laurel Creative

FASHION FORWARD 38 Ottica: Behind the Scenes of the Luxury Eyewear Edit That Shops the World for You

40 525 America Embraces the Cozy Nostalgia of the Season for Holiday 2026

THE DEPARTMENTS 29 Logistics

60 Tech Feature

65 Columns

79 Editor’s Picks

80 Fashion Sphere

87 Mann’s Tradeshow Connections

Last Look: 2026 Holiday Gift Guide

46 Out West for the Holidays With Robert Talbott’s Fall/Winter 2026 Collection

48 T1L Further Notice: The Beauty of Becoming

50 Janet Howard Returns to Fashion With Collection Relaunch

60 Project Terrain: Whoop and Samuel Ross Expand ‘Performance for Life’ With Layer 2

80 Beatriz Accessories: The Art of Filipino Craftsmanship

82 Paka Apparel: Connecting Conscious Consumerism With Measurable Social Impact

84 Insis: Wrapping the Season in Wool

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November/December 2026

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FASHION FAVORITES Christian Siriano and Vlada Roslyakova

Photos courtesy of Sean Zanni and Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Fashion Group International Celebrates Visionaries Shaping Fashion, Beauty and Culture at the 42nd Annual ‘Night of Stars’ Gala 12 | FM

November/December 2026

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Fashion Group International (FGI) celebrated its 42nd annual Night of Stars gala at the Rainbow Room in New York City. The gala, themed “The Modernists,” brought together leaders from the fashion, beauty, entertainment and business worlds for a black-tie celebration honoring influential visionaries whose creativity, innovation and influence continue to shape the broader cultural landscape beyond their respective industries. Wes Gordon, global creative director of Carolina Herrera, received the Fashion Visionary Award, presented by Paige Paul, for his creative direction and contributions to modern American fashion. Lucien Pagès, fashion communications leader, received the Media Leadership Award, presented by Nicole Phelps, global director of Vogue Runway, for his influence in shaping the global narratives of leading fashion houses and creative talents. Roksanda Ilinčić, founder and creative director of Roksanda, received the Fashion Star Award, presented by Jonathan Saunders, creative director of Kate Spade New York, recognizing her distinctive approach to color, form and craftsmanship. Jane Hertzmark Hudis, executive vice president and chief brand officer of The Estée Lauder Companies, received the Beauty Award, presented by Aerin Lauder, honoring her impact as a brand builder and global beauty industry leader. Micaela Erlanger, celebrity fashion stylist, received the Style Award in honor of Edith Head, presented by Christian Siriano, recognizing her contributions to red carpet fashion, visual storytelling and the business of styling. Henry R. Muñoz III, business leader, designer and philanthropist, received the Changemaker Award, presented by actor, writer and producer Tonatiuh, celebrating his impact on design, architecture, culture and institutional equity. “Fashion Group International was founded almost 100 years ago by visionary women who understood the power of bringing creative minds together,” said Maryanne Grisz, president and CEO of FGI. “Their legacy lives on in our mission to connect, educate, mentor and champion talent at every stage of a career. Tonight, as we celebrate extraordinary achievement, we also invest in the next generation of visionaries who will define the future of fashion, beauty and our creative industries.”

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FASHION FAVORITES

“This year’s theme, ‘The Modernists,’ feels especially fitting because being a modernist isn’t simply about what’s new or what’s next,” remarked Alyce Panico, FGI chairperson of the board and gala co-chair. “It’s about having the courage to challenge convention, to see possibilities others may not yet see and to use your creativity and influence to move an entire industry forward. That is exactly what tonight’s honorees represent.” The evening began with a cocktail reception sponsored by Simon G. Jewelry and hosted by Brooke Brinkman, the brand’s chief operating officer, followed by a seated dinner and awards ceremony. In celebration of “The Modernists,” Simon G. Jewelry created a commemorative brooch for each honoree, inspired by the evening’s theme and the brand’s approach to craftsmanship and design innovation.

Alyce Panico, Frederick Anderson and Claudia Poccia

Sergio Soldano, the Italian fashion house guided by creative directors Giovanni Premoli and Dario Di Bella, was also among the evening’s sponsors. The revived heritage brand gifted its exclusive Sinopia tote bags to guests in attendance in recognition of FGI’s enduring influence on the global fashion community. “The world does not need another beautiful dress or a new handbag. What the world needs are new ways to tell the story of beauty,” said Di Bella. “FGI champions this creative vision, amplifying designers’ voices on the world stage. Our Sergio Soldano Sinopia tote bag, created exclusively for Night of Stars, celebrates the artistic intuition that precedes a masterpiece, from the first gesture to the finished creation, when fashion and design become an artistic statement that belongs to the world.” As one of FGI’s signature annual fundraising events, Night of Stars supports the organization’s year-round commitment to nurturing and connecting fashion and beauty professionals at every stage of their careers. Proceeds benefit educational programming, mentorship, scholarships, professional development resources and community grants, including initiatives administered by The Fashion Group Foundation.

Nicole Phelps and Lucien Pagès

Jean Shafiroff and Roksanda Ilinčić

Maryanne Grisz, Wes Gordon and Paige Paul Maryanne Grisz, Maria Nicanor, Henry R. Muñoz III and Tonatiuh

November/December 2026

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FASHION FAVORITES

Photos courtesy of Jack Miller

Mitti Liebersohn, Andrew Levy and Adam Goldenberg

Mann Charitable Foundation’s Annual Golf Outing: Honoring Industry Leaders, Rain or Shine 14 | FM

November/December 2026

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FASHION FAVORITES

The remnants of an early-season nor’easter may have kept guests off the golf course, but more than 100 luminaries from real estate, fashion and more gathered at the Fresh Meadow Country Club for the Mann Charitable Foundation’s (MCF’s) annual gathering to raise money. The Mann Charitable Foundation was founded over 20 years ago in memory of Marion and Irving Mann. Its mission is to fund research for geriatric diseases, Crohn’s and colitis, breast cancer, lymphoma, macular degeneration and liver diseases and to ultimately find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. The foundation also supports other organizations and causes, including the Bronx Historical Society, Community Mainstreaming, the National Jewish Museum and the Jewish National Fund.

Donald Carbone, Christi Hoffman, Aaron Boyajian, Alison Besunder, Bradly Marks and Brian Howley

This year’s event honored Brian Steinwurtzel of GFP Real Estate LLC and Jason Goldberg of CIT Commercial Services. Aaron Boyajian of Goetz Platzer LLP was also honored with the organization’s Humanitarian Award. Guests also enjoyed a special live musical performance by Rebel Strings, adding a memorable touch to the afternoon’s festivities despite the unexpected change in plans.

Jason Goldberg, Brian Steinwurtzel, Jeff Mann, Brian Nuzio and Aaron Boyajian

“Not even the greatest businesspeople in New York can defeat Mother Nature, but we were thrilled that so many came to dine, talk and support MCF, founded in memory of my parents,” said Jeffrey Mann, president and CEO of Mann Publications and president of MCF. “Huge thanks to everyone who made this day possible. And we know that next year, we’ll all be back on the links!”

Jeff Mann, Carlo Seneca, Thomas Linter, Maurice Gargano, Mark Petrone and Bruce Moshier Bobby Mann, Jeff Mann and Dean Palin

Stephanie Wong, Jason Goldberg, Amna Mahmood, Marc Federbush and Michael Hudgens Rebel

Strings mannpublications.com

November/December 2026

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FASHION FAVORITES

Photos courtesy of Jill Lotenberg Photography

Celebrating Relationships, Looking Ahead: CIT Commercial Services Hosts Northeast Reception 16 | FM

November/December 2026

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FASHION FAVORITES

Joshua Goodhardt, Joe Ferrone, Jeffrey Resnick and Jason Goldberg

Adam Winters, Howard Moore and Amna Mahmood

Michael Hudgens

At this year’s CIT Commercial Services Northeast reception, valued clients and industry colleagues came together to celebrate the relationships that have shaped the organization’s legacy and the opportunities ahead as First Citizens Bank. The evening brought together leaders from the fashion, apparel, footwear and accessories sectors for meaningful conversations, renewed connections and a chance to reflect on both past accomplishments and future possibilities. Against the backdrop of an industry defined by creativity, resilience and constant evolution, the event highlighted the enduring importance of collaboration and partnership.

Michael Hudgens, Amna Mahmood, Felicia Tenaglia and Sanjeev Chotirmall

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As the organization enters its next chapter, the reception served as a celebration of the trust, relationships and shared experiences built over the years. The CIT team was honored to celebrate alongside many longtime partners and looks forward to building what’s next together. November/December 2026

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FASHION FAVORITES

Photos courtesy of Dada Studio

Paul F. Magel

Where AI Meets the Work:

BlueCherry by CGS Hosts 2026 Insight Conference 18 | FM

November/December 2026

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FASHION FAVORITES

Paul F. Magel, Stephen Lamar, Brooke Roach and Corey Moran

BlueCherry by CGS welcomed fashion, apparel, footwear and lifestyle industry leaders, customers and technology partners to lower Manhattan for Insight 2026. Held at the People Inc. Event Center, the two-day conference connected industry perspectives with customer stories and technology demonstrations, exploring how innovation can deliver measurable business value. From AI Experimentation to Business Impact Sara Africk, managing director at Goldman Sachs, opened the AI conversation by exploring how organizations can balance innovation with responsible governance, emphasizing data protection, risk management and employee empowerment.

Cindy Stocks, Jamin Williamson, Brian O’Connor, Phil Friedman and Dolores Sisk

Africk also moderated a panel featuring BlueCherry Innovation Council members Bob Bowling of Peter Millar and Hervé Blache of Galaxy Universal (Reebok), alongside John Samuel, chief operations officer of CGS. Panelists discussed approaches ranging from employee-led experimentation to structured strategies around training, governance and security, with a shared focus on improving business processes. Navigating the Future of Fashion On Day 2, Paul Magel, president of BlueCherry by CGS, moderated a town hall featuring Brooke Roach, managing director of equity research at Goldman Sachs; Stephen Lamar, president and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association; and Corey Moran, chief marketing officer of Michael Kors and board member at FIT. Audience questions guided discussions of market trends, investor sentiment, global trade, regulation and the next generation’s influence on fashion. The conversation underscored the need for adaptability as consumer expectations and market conditions change.

Paul F. Magel and Phil Friedman

Customer Stories in Practice Lt. Col. Jamin D. Williamson, who oversees soldier clothing and individual equipment for the U.S. Army, described how his team is exploring BlueCherry to modernize apparel development. Moving from paper documentation to digital tech packs aims to improve how complex specifications are managed and shared with suppliers and manufacturers. Beth Grad of LT Apparel highlighted the company’s customer service transformation with CGS Nexus. Its nearshore partnership in Chile combines cultural and language

connections with process improvements and AIpowered self-service through Alma, CGS Nexus’ customer experience platform, contributing to a more than 65% year-over-year reduction in customer contacts. Bringing AI Into Everyday Work BlueCherry’s “AI everywhere” vision centered on embedding intelligence into everyday workflows. Attendees explored Blu AI chat, which lets users ask business questions in natural language, investigate exceptions and identify next steps within existing dashboards. Demonstrations introduced AI agents designed to monitor risks and flag exceptions under human oversight, plus an agent builder for creating workflows through plain-language instructions. BlueCherry Connect, a Model Context Protocol connector, supports these capabilities with governed access to business data while maintaining permissions and security. BlueCherry also announced ISO/IEC 42001:2023 certification for its artificial intelligence management system, independently assessed by A-Lign, reinforcing its commitment to responsible AI development, deployment and governance. Other demonstrations covered product life-cycle management, planning, supplier collaboration, warehouse operations and environmental, social and governance (ESG) compliance. A preview of the BlueCherry marketplace, planned for 2027, showed how applications, AI agents and partner workflows will come together. Turning Conversations Into Action Throughout Insight, discussions returned to practical AI use cases, responsible governance and modernization at a pace that works for each organization. The emphasis was on building on existing investments and introducing capabilities where they can make the greatest difference. Across presentations, networking sessions and hands-on demonstrations, attendees had opportunities to consider what these changes mean for their own organizations. The workshop brought those conversations back to decisions about where to begin and how to measure progress. A closing modernization workshop encouraged attendees to identify opportunities, prioritize workflows, establish measurable goals and develop actionable plans. The takeaway was clear: progress depends on how effectively companies connect data, people and processes to turn innovation into meaningful results.

Phil Friedman and Vicky Carignan mannpublications.com

November/December 2026

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FASHION FAVORITES

Photos courtesy of Dhrumil Desai

The Accessories Council Celebrates Selima Salaun With Hall of Fame Induction 20 | FM

November/December 2026

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FASHION FAVORITES Legendary eyewear designer and entrepreneur Selima Salaun was inducted into the Accessories Council Hall of Fame at New York City’s Indochine restaurant. The evening brought together a gathering of fashion and eyewear industry leaders, designers, artists and longtime friends to recognize her remarkable career, creative spirit and lasting contributions to the accessories industry.

Fern Mallis and Selima Salaun

Karen Giberson, Marjorie Axelrad and Thomas Burkhardt

A pioneer in the world of eyewear, Salaun has spent more than three decades transforming glasses from a functional necessity into a powerful statement of personal style. From her early career working alongside renowned eyewear designer and mentor Alain Mikli to establishing Selima Optique in 1993, her distinctive aesthetic, innovative approach and commitment to craftsmanship have made her an influential force in fashion. Among the notable guests were Mikli, Rafe Totengco, Fern Mallis, Lisa Smilor and fashion icon Linda Rodin, who shared heartfelt remarks about her friendship and creative collaboration with Salaun. The evening also highlighted Salaun’s passion for art and design, with artist Pedro Silva, creator of the whimsical illustration featured on the event invitation, and Kreg Harrison, who designed a one-of-a-kind sculpture crafted from sunglasses in her honor.

Theo Salaun, Zoe Salaun, Selima Salaun and Jean-Marie Salaun

The crowd gathered over cocktails and canapés in the warm, vibrant setting of Indochine, graciously hosted by owner Jean-Marc Houmard and his team. The restaurant’s atmosphere provided the perfect backdrop for an evening celebrating a designer known for her Parisian flair, individuality and unmistakable sense of style. Beyond her creative accomplishments, the celebration also reflected Salaun’s compassion and lifelong devotion to animals. Half of the evening’s net proceeds benefit Tamerlaine Sanctuary & Preserve, with Gabrielle Stubbert representing the organization among the guests. Sponsors of the event included Look Optic, EssilorLuxottica and Kavanagh Consulting, whose generous support made the evening possible.

Selima Salaun and Tarrence Lackran Kreg Harrison, Selima Salaun and Sydnie Peebles

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More than a celebration of an extraordinary career, the evening paid tribute to Salaun’s enduring influence, her meaningful friendships and the creativity and generosity that continue to define her legacy. In welcoming Selima Salaun to its prestigious Hall of Fame, the Accessories Council recognized a true original whose vision has forever changed how we see eyewear—and fashion.

November/December 2026

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FASHION 411

EXECUTIVE

PATRICIA NASH DESIGNS APPOINTS JENNIFER VANDERINK TO BRAND PRESIDENT Patricia Nash Designs announced the elevation of Jennifer Vanderink, the daughter of CEO Patricia Nash, to president of the family-owned brand. Vanderink, who previously served as vice president of operations and strategy, remains deeply involved in the logistical, legal and commercial sides of the business. In her expanded role, she will bring additional focus to the company’s operational and business ventures. “My mother has always had a rare combination of creative vision and real business instinct, and she has methodically and very transparently shared with me all the lessons and experiences she has amassed in business over the years,” said Vanderink. “I am extremely honored that she has put this trust in me to carry her legacy forward, and I do feel an added sense of responsibility to work harder than ever to protect and grow what she has built.” The promotion comes as Patricia Nash Designs looks toward continued growth, including rebuilding its footwear business, reaching new audiences and supporting Nash’s creative vision with an expanded design team. Looking ahead, Vanderink is focused on reaching more women, strengthening relationships with customers, vendors, retail partners and employees, and continuing to grow the brand’s philanthropic efforts, which include local and national giving and increased support for Susan G. Komen. Additionally, the company is preparing for its first major brand collaboration with Paddington in Spring 2027. “It’s a huge undertaking for us, and we’re bringing it to life with our retail partners through in-store experiences, activations and pop-in shops,” said Vanderink. For Patricia Nash Designs, the leadership evolution represents a new chapter for the business while preserving the creative vision, values and family foundation that have shaped the brand for years. As the company grows, maintaining this quality and design integrity remains central to its strategy.

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November/December 2026

Photo courtesy of Patricia Nash Designs

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FASHION 411

EYEWEAR

BONBONWHIMS AND GLASSESUSA.COM LOG BACK INTO Y2K WITH A CHARMLOADED EYEWEAR COLLECTION GlassesUSA.com and BonBonWhims announced a new eyewear collaboration inspired by nostalgia, personalization and self-expression. The collection features 10 eyewear styles alongside seven interchangeable magnetic charms that attach at the temples and can be mixed, matched and switched depending on the wearer’s mood. Inspired by the early internet, the collection looks back at a time when customization was part of everyday culture. For millennials, the collection taps into the nostalgia of the era. For Gen Z, it reimagines the colorful, imperfect and highly individual digital world of the early 2000s through a new lens. “Eyewear is already one of the most personal accessories we wear every day, so adding an element people can actually change and play with felt very natural,” said Lihi Kopel, head of design at GlassesUSA.com. “BonBonWhims has such a distinctive point of view around color, nostalgia and self-expression, and we wanted the collection to feel just as playful. The frames are the starting point, but the charms let each person make the look completely their own.” “Eyewear is an exciting category I’ve always had in the back of my mind, as it’s such a natural extension of BonBonWhims’ whimsical world of accessories. When GlassesUSA.com approached us about a collaboration, their industry expertise and passion made them the perfect strategic partner to bring our vision to life,” said Clare Ngai-Howard, founder and CEO of BonBonWhims. “For me, accessories have always been about how they make you feel, and the idea that you can be a chameleon through accessorizing. The interchangeable magnetic charms capture exactly that freedom, along with the playful spirit we’re known for. This collection really evokes the nostalgia of the eyewear we wore as teens and is a gentle reminder we are all still kids at heart. Like everything else in the BonBonWhims universe, we know they will bring joy and a smile to our customers.” The partnership brings BonBonWhims’ approach to playful accessories into a new category, using eyewear as a canvas for styling rather than a fixed finishing touch. By pairing magnetic charms with prescription-ready eyeglasses and sunglasses, the collection gives wearers an easy way to change the feel of a frame without changing the frame itself.

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Photo courtesy of Weston Kloefkorn

November/December 2026

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FASHION 411

COLLECTION

AVIATOR NATION TIPS OFF ITS FIRST-EVER NBA COLLECTION Aviator Nation is debuting its first-ever officially licensed NBA merch collection, featuring six of the league’s franchises: the Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat and New York Knicks. The launch marks a major milestone for the brand as it continues to expand its footprint across professional sports, bringing its unmistakable aesthetic to one of the world’s most passionate fan bases. The debut lineup features Aviator Nation’s signature hoodies, crewnecks, sweatpants and tees, all designed and produced in Los Angeles but reimagined through the lens of each franchise. Franchise logos, bold team colors and Aviator Nation’s lightning bolts and rainbow striping transform classic team merch into lifestyle pieces designed to be worn well beyond game day. “Community is a huge part of our brand,” said Paige Mycoskie, founder and CEO of Aviator Nation. “When I started Aviator Nation 20 years ago, I always wanted our company to align with sports and entertainment. It’s so rad to finally be reaching the fan base of the NBA. We are stoked to be launching with teams that our customers are following.” For Aviator Nation, the NBA marks the next chapter in a sports journey that has become a natural extension of the brand. Rooted in California’s surf, skate and music culture, Aviator Nation has always been built around the communities that bring people together. Sports have become an increasingly important part of that story, with successful partnerships spanning professional baseball, football and college athletics. The brand’s first NBA collaboration continues that evolution, introducing its handcrafted approach to one of the most inf luential sports leagues in the world.

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Photo courtesy of Aviator Nation

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FASHION 411

SEASONAL

PRIMARK DEBUTS ‘STYLE YOUR SEASON’ CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN

Primark has launched “Style Your Season,” its 2026 Christmas campaign. The campaign brings together party wear, winter knitwear, gifting and homeware, alongside the retailer’s largest festive pajama collection to date. Party wear forms the core of the campaign, with pieces aimed at occasions ranging from office parties and nights out to family gatherings. Coleen Rooney returns with her third “By Coleen” collection, featuring velvet, satin and sequins, along with coordinated looks. Irish actor Emmett J. Scanlan makes his debut as the face of Primark’s 2026 Christmas menswear campaign. The collection blends heritage references with a relaxed approach, featuring textured and slim-fit suits, checked car coats, borg-lined jackets, padded bombers and Fair Isle knits. The festive pajama range includes matching styles for the whole family. Designs range from f lannel, tartan and stripes to character prints featuring the Grinch, Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse, with matching options available for dogs. The homeware collection draws on traditional festive motifs and features illustrated bedding, cushions, throws, candles, decorations and tableware. The gifting range spans beauty, fragrance, accessories and stocking fillers. Alongside the campaign, Primark stores will support local charities and organizations through the company’s Good Neighbour Fund, with many stores making donations to local causes during the season. “The festive season looks different for everyone, and ‘Style Your Season’ is all about helping our customers make every moment their own,” said Matt Houston, chief customer and digital officer at Primark. “We’ve brought together great fashion, quality and value across everything from party wear and matching pajamas to gifting and homeware. Whatever the occasion, we want our customers to be able to find what they’re looking for at a price they’ll love.”

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Photo courtesy of Primark

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Photo courtesy of Adobe/moofushi

THE MOVEMENT OF FASHION

SUPPLY CHAIN, LOGISTICS AND FINANCE mannpublications.com

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LOGISTICS

Holiday 2026 Another Trillion-Dollar Season, But Retail’s Winners and Losers Are Diverging By Ron Friedman

Hello again! The Dodgers’ season came to an end with the Milwaukee Brewers taking four straight games to move on to the World Series. A year ago, the Dodgers beat the Brewers in four straight games, so this is their payback. They were by far the better team in this series, and as I predicted, they beat Tampa Bay, too. We can now move on to football and basketball season, as I love to follow sports. It’s also the time of year when I like to look at the upcoming holiday retail sales. Anyone watching cable news might conclude that American consumers have run out of money and are struggling to make ends meet, yet retail sales continue to rise. Holiday spending is expected to top $1 trillion again, and retailers from Walmart to Amazon are preparing for a robust shopping season. The apparent contradiction says less about the economy than it does about the growing divide between financially secure households and those living paycheck to paycheck. I think two realities can exist at the same time, and that helps explain the apparent disconnect between what people see on television and what the retail sales numbers are telling us. First, many media outlets naturally focus on problems. Stories about rising credit card balances, layoffs at a major employer or consumers struggling to pay their bills tend to attract more attention than reports that most consumers are doing about the same as last year. Negative news tends to draw larger audiences. Second, the media often highlights the experience of the marginal consumer rather than the average

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consumer. There absolutely are households that are financially stressed. Credit card debt remains elevated, housing affordability is challenging, and many lower-income consumers are feeling pressure from food, gasoline, insurance, healthcare and utility costs. Those stories are real. However, when you look at actual spending data, consumers as a group continue to spend. Retail sales have continued to grow, holiday spending has reached record levels, travel remains strong, restaurants remain busy, and luxury spending has generally held up better than many economists expected. Looking ahead to the 2026 holiday season, major forecasters, including the National Retail Federation, Mastercard Economics Institute and Bain & Company, are projecting another year of holiday sales growth. As a CPA who follows retail closely, you may appreciate another factor: averages can be misleading. A large portion of consumer spending growth has come from: • • • •

Higher-income households Homeowners with substantial equity Investors who have benefited from rising asset values Consumers who are still employed and receiving wage increases

•

Consumers carrying high-interest debt face significant financial stress.

Both groups exist simultaneously. In my view, one of the media’s shortcomings is that it often presents the economy as either “good” or “bad.” Economies are rarely that simple. The 2026 economy appears to be characterized by what I would call uneven prosperity. If you own a home, have retirement assets and remain employed, you may feel like you’re in reasonably good financial shape. If you’re renting, carrying significant debt and facing rising living costs, you may feel as though you’re in a recession, even if gross domestic product (GDP) and retail sales are growing.

How 2026 Compares With the Last Three Holiday Seasons Year

Holiday Sales

Growth

2023

$936 billion

3.9%

2024

$976 billion

4.3%

2025

$972 billion

3.1%

2026 forecast

$1.013 trillion

4.2%

Meanwhile: • •

Renters have generally faced more pressure. Younger households often struggle with housing costs.

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LOGISTICS

The Major Themes of Holiday 2026 Three trends will likely define the season: •

•

Value matters more than brand prestige: Consumers continue to seek promotions, discounts, loyalty rewards and private-label alternatives. Even higher-income shoppers are increasingly price conscious. Digital sales remain the growth engine: Bain expects online sales to grow about 9%, significantly outpacing growth at physical stores. Mastercard projects online sales growth of approximately 11%. AI is becoming a shopping tool: Adobe, Bain and Mastercard highlight the growing use of AI-powered shopping assistants, product discovery tools and recommendation engines. Retailers with strong digital capabilities may gain market share.

•

Retailers Facing a More Challenging Holiday •

Retailers Likely To Have a Strong Holiday Season •

•

Walmart: Walmart remains one of the bestpositioned retailers because it combines value pricing, grocery traffic, strong e-commerce capabilities and a growing marketplace business. Consumers looking to stretch holiday budgets are likely to increase spending at Walmart. Costco: Costco continues to benefit from affluent shoppers seeking value. Its membership model, strong private-label offerings and limited inventory strategy should support strong holiday performance. Amazon: Amazon is expected to capture a large share of online holiday spending. Earlier promotions, AI-driven recommendations, fast delivery and Prime membership loyalty give it significant competitive advantages. Target: After several difficult years, Target appears better positioned for 2026 due to

inventory discipline and improvements in discretionary categories such as home décor, toys and seasonal merchandise. Success will depend on promotional effectiveness. TJX companies (TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods): Off-price retail remains one of the strongest sectors whenever consumers become value conscious. Shoppers trading down from department stores should benefit TJX and similar retailers. Dick’s Sporting Goods: Sporting goods continue to benefit from consumer interest in health and wellness. Dick’s has improved merchandising and omnichannel capabilities and could outperform specialty retail peers.

•

Depar tment stores: Traditional department stores such as Macy’s and Kohl’s face ongoing challenges. Both rely heavily on discretionary spending and face intense pricing competition from Walmart, Amazon and off-price retailers. Mid-tier apparel retailers: Many mallbased apparel chains continue to struggle with traffic declines, higher sourcing costs and intense competition from online sellers and fast-fashion operators. Consumers appear increasingly willing to buy fewer but betterquality items. Home furnishings retailers: Furniture and home goods sellers may experience a softer season because consumers have shifted spending toward experiences and essentials rather than large-ticket home purchases.

purchases without a compelling value proposition could face slower growth if consumers become more selective.

Outlook Perhaps the most important takeaway for holiday 2026 is the remarkable resilience of consumer spending. Retail sales are expected to grow at a faster pace than in 2025, but growth will not be evenly distributed. Value-oriented retailers, offprice chains, warehouse clubs and digital leaders appear poised to capture the lion’s share of holiday spending. Meanwhile, department stores, weaker apparel retailers and companies lacking strong e-commerce capabilities may find the season considerably more difficult. The winners of holiday 2026 will not necessarily be the retailers with the strongest brands. They will be the retailers that offer the best combination of price, convenience, inventory availability and digital engagement at a time when consumers remain eager to spend but increasingly determined to get the most for their money. Until next time, remember what I always conclude with—if you are not having fun, then do something else!

Ronald S. Friedman, CPA, is an advisory and assurance managing director in the Los Angeles office of CBIZ and a practice leader in the firm’s consumer and industrial products group. Contact him at ron. friedman@cbiz.com.

Retailers Overexposed to Premium Consumers While higher-income shoppers remain healthy, brands that rely solely on premium discretionary

Photo courtesy of BillionPhotos.com/Adobe

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LOGISTICS

Dressing the Season: What Winter Wardrobes Reveal About the Hidden Work of Sourcing By Angela Rhea, Vice President of Product and Industry Consultant at TradeBeyond Every winter, a familiar scene plays out in stores and on screens. A camel coat drapes over a mannequin, a cashmere scarf is wrapped just so, and a velvet dress glitters under holiday lights. What shoppers don’t see is the months of work behind each piece. Long before the first snowfall, someone had to find the wool, secure the yarn and confirm that every thread could be traced back to where it began. That work is getting harder, and the textile supply chain is where the strain shows most.

The smartest buyers have also changed how they count. Instead of chasing the lowest factory quote, they weigh the total cost of compliance, testing, transit time and the risk of trade penalties. A cheap sweater that arrives after the holidays, or gets held at the border, is no bargain. It’s a stocking filled with coal.

A Thinner Wool Blanket at Home

Think of your supplier network as a holiday guest list. You want to know who is coming, what they bring and whether they’ll show up on time. Too many companies still manage that list through scattered spreadsheets and endless email chains, which makes it easy for a certificate to expire or a delay to go unnoticed.

North American brands have watched domestic textile capacity shrink for years. U.S. production of fibers, yarns and fabrics has continued to contract, and local mills now account for under 10% of a typical fashion company’s sourcing footprint, according to recent industry benchmarking. Even makers who proudly label their goods “Made in the USA” often depend on imported fabric and specialized trims. When a single input is hard to find, the whole collection can stall, much like a holiday dinner waiting on one missing ingredient.

Rules That Follow the Thread Trade policy adds another layer. Under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), duty-free trade depends on “yarn-forward” rules of origin, meaning the yarn itself must come from the region for a garment to qualify. Brands want to keep that regional advantage, but finding enough local yarn and fabric to meet the rules is a real puzzle. Add shifting tariffs on goods from major manufacturing hubs, and the plan you made in spring can look very different by the time that first frost arrives. Then there’s the matter of provenance. Laws like the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) require importers to document raw cotton and yarn back to their origins. That demands tracing, testing and paperwork that reaches well beyond the first factory on the list. It is the right standard, and it is also a heavy administrative lift.

Gifting Season Thinking: Look Past the Price Tag Many brands are responding by spreading their bets. Some are shifting orders across Asian hubs such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Indonesia. Others are nearshoring to Mexico and Central America to gain speed. Neither is a cureall, since component materials still travel through tangled global networks.

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Knowing Your Supplier Like Your Guest List

Digital supplier management can bring that information together in one place. A centralized supplier record can give teams visibility into each supplier’s capabilities, certifications, performance history and compliance standing. Self-service portals also allow suppliers to update their own profiles and documents, reducing the time teams spend chasing paperwork. The result is a more structured onboarding process and fewer attachments buried in inboxes. Performance tracking is equally important. Supplier scorecards can monitor lead times, delivery reliability, cost adherence and service levels, while dashboards can help teams identify gaps and dependencies before they become larger problems. Connecting supplier information with third-party audit and assessment data can provide additional insight into potential risks, while multitier mapping can reveal vulnerabilities beyond direct suppliers. That visibility matters most when the holiday rush is already underway. If a mill falters during peak season, knowing which alternative suppliers have the right capabilities, certifications and capacity can help teams respond faster and keep orders moving.

packs, bills of materials, samples and line sheets in one shared workspace. When a fabric becomes unavailable, designers, merchandisers and factories can see the change, review version history and approve a substitute without a dozen back-andforth emails. AI-assisted should-cost models add another useful tool. They benchmark supplier quotes against market data and simulate margin scenarios, so teams can negotiate with confidence early, before expansive late-stage changes pile up. Fewer sample rounds mean fewer wasted yards of fabric and fewer missed windows. This provides infrastructure that companies can grow from.

The Gift of Preparedness The brands that will shine this winter are the ones that were preparing in spring, while the holiday rush was still a few months away. That means mapping supply chains deeper than the first tier, treating compliance as a daily practice instead of an end-of-year scramble and giving every team, from design to sourcing, the same current information. Fashion will always be about the romance of a beautiful coat or a perfect holiday dress, but behind that magic is a web of decisions made well or poorly, long in advance. This season, the most valuable thing a brand can unwrap is a supply chain it truly understands. Angela Rhea is the vice president of product and an industry consultant at TradeBeyond, where she helps shape innovative supply chain, sourcing, compliance and traceability solutions for global retailers and brands. With more than 30 years of experience spanning product development; sourcing; quality; environmental, social and governance (ESG); and supply chain transformation, Angela brings deep industry expertise gained through leadership roles at leading retailers. She is passionate about helping organizations build more transparent, sustainable and resilient supply chains while fostering strong partnerships across the global sourcing ecosystem.

From Sketch to Shelf, Without the Tangles Sourcing doesn’t happen in isolation from design. The same disruptions that rattle a supply chain ripple back into product development. That’s why supplier visibility should be paired with product life-cycle management, which keeps tech

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LOGISTICS

Building the Perfect Snowman: What Fashion Retailers Can Learn About Warehouse Management By Tatiana Muñoz, Director of U.S. Business Development for Hardis Supply Chain There is something deceptively simple about building a snowman. You roll a few snowballs, stack them up, add a carrot nose and a scarf, and suddenly you have a winter centerpiece. But anyone who has built one with children knows it rarely goes exactly as planned. The snow may be too wet. One section may be too heavy. The base may start to shift. You may run out of snow just when you need it most. And if the weather changes, the entire strategy may need to change with it. Retail warehouse management can feel much the same, particularly in fashion. A successful operation depends on getting many individual pieces to work together at exactly the right time. Inventory must arrive, move and be stored, picked and shipped efficiently, while retailers maintain the flexibility to respond to changing demand. When those pieces are coordinated, the result looks effortless. When they are not, the entire structure can become unstable.

Start With the Right Foundation When building a snowman, everything begins with the base. If the first snowball is uneven or too small, everything stacked on top becomes more difficult. For fashion retailers, that foundation is inventory visibility. Retailers may manage thousands of stock-keeping units (SKUs) spanning different sizes, colors, styles, seasons and product requirements. Inventory can also move through multiple channels, including stores, e-commerce, direct shipments and other fulfillment models. Without a clear understanding of what is available, where it is located and where it needs to go, even the best-laid fulfillment plans can unravel quickly. A modern warehouse management system can provide the real-time traceability needed to establish that foundation, giving teams greater visibility into inventory and warehouse activity from receiving through shipping.

Build Each Layer With Purpose A snowman is more than three snowballs. Each layer needs to fit with the others. The same is true inside a fashion distribution operation. Receiving, put-away, inventory management, picking, packing, shipping and transportation cannot operate as isolated activities. They are connected parts of one larger flow.

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Warehouse technology can help retailers coordinate those processes while adapting to different operational requirements. Shared flows can also make it possible to pool compatible products and processes across the supply chain, rather than creating unnecessary silos. That matters when retailers are balancing replenishment for stores with e-commerce orders, seasonal merchandise and other competing priorities.

Keep the Structure Flexible Every snowman is different because every pile of snow behaves differently. Retail warehouses face their own variables. Demand changes, promotions create spikes, new collections arrive, seasonal products have narrow selling windows, and customer expectations continue to rise. A warehouse management system needs to accommodate those changes rather than forcing every operation into the same mold. Configurability is especially important in fashion, where processes can vary significantly between retailers and product categories. Technology should adapt to the business, supporting different inbound, picking, inventory, shipping and transportation processes while connecting with other warehouse technologies as needed.

Make Sure Every Piece Reaches Its Destination There is no point in building a perfect snowman if the head never makes it onto the body. Likewise, warehouse efficiency ultimately has to support the customer. Products need to reach the right store, fulfillment location or consumer at the right time.

A product that is in high demand today may be difficult to move tomorrow. A seasonal trend can accelerate unexpectedly. A delayed shipment can affect an entire assortment. Warehouse operations need the visibility and agility to respond. A well-managed warehouse may not look as charming as a snowman standing outside a storefront, but the principle is surprisingly similar. Start with a strong foundation, connect every layer, remain flexible, and make sure every piece has a purpose. Tatiana Muñoz is the director of U.S. business development at Hardis Supply Chain, where she leads strategic growth and partnerships for advanced warehouse and supply chain software solutions across North America. She brings nearly 20 years of experience spanning transportation, warehousing and supply chain technology, offering a strong practitioner’s perspective on operational modernization. Previously, she led warehouse management system (WMS) business development at SC Codeworks, partnering with third-party logistics providers (3PLs), manufacturers and retailers to guide warehouse assessments and digital transformation initiatives. Earlier in her career, she held senior logistics and operations leadership roles, overseeing transportation networks and implementing WMS and transportation management system platforms to enhance efficiency and visibility. Tatiana holds a bachelor’s degree in supply chain management and is Lean Six Sigma certified, combining process optimization expertise with hands-on operational leadership to help organizations build scalable, future-ready supply chains.

That requires coordination across multichannel operations and the ability to manage both stored and just-in-time flows. Efficient warehouse processes can also help retailers protect margins by reducing unnecessary storage and transportation costs. Just as a child might place a hat on the snowman at the very end, retailers need the final steps of fulfillment to work just as smoothly as everything that came before.

Prepare for the Weather To Change Perhaps the biggest lesson from building a snowman is that conditions are never guaranteed. Fashion retailers understand this better than most.

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LOGISTICS

The Holiday Isn’t Over Until the Returns Are Counted By Shahrooz Shawn Kohan, CEO and co-founder of AIMS360 Adobe expects shoppers to spend $275.1 billion online in November and December, up 6.7% from last year, with $51.3 billion of that on clothing. Plenty of it will come back. Retailers expected 17% of last year’s holiday sales to be returned, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF), which also estimated total U.S. returns for 2025 at $849.9 billion. So January hands you two jobs at the same time: processing those returns and counting your inventory for year-end. Most brands handle them as separate chores, but returns are one of the most common reasons a year-end count comes out wrong.

one. Plan on more returns than your sales numbers alone would suggest. Consider these steps before you count: 1.

Process every return. If you can’t get to all of them, put the unprocessed ones in a marked area and count them separately.

If you sell wholesale, don’t take a box without a return authorization number. Retailers often deduct returns from what they pay you, so match every deduction to a return you actually received before the year closes.

Say your records show 10,000 units, but 600 of them are missing, damaged or were never really there. At a $12 cost per unit, that’s $7,200 of profit that exists only on paper. If the count is too high, you can end up paying tax on money you never made. If it’s too low, you understate what you own when you go to a lender for credit. Your CPA decides how the inventory is valued. Getting the count right is on you.

Move damaged returns to their own location so you write them off on purpose. Keeping them apart also shows you what can go to resale, donation or recycling.

Count the boxes that are packed and waiting on the dock. They haven’t shipped, so they’re still yours. Anything that already left should be invoiced.

Leave out production that hasn’t been received in your system. If you count it now and receive it next week, you’ve counted it twice.

If you are preparing for year-end inventory, reviewing the count process before Dec. 31 can help surface gaps while there is still time to address them.

If a third-party warehouse does the count for you, ask for total units on hand. Many warehouses report “available” stock instead, which subtracts anything already on an open pick ticket. If 400 units are waiting to ship and you load the available number, your count drops by 400 units that are sitting right there. Agree on the count date, time and file format before anyone starts.

Count by style, color and size inside each box. A carton marked black medium with two smalls inside is a mistake you’ll ship in March.

Stop shipping and receiving while you count. If you can’t, write down the exact time you started so the count lines up with your records.

When the count is done, compare it to what your system expected. Look into big gaps before you adjust anything, and have a second person sign off on large adjustments.

Where Returns Throw off the Count The first problem is timing. A box that came back on Dec. 28 and never got processed is sitting in your building but not in your books. Count it as stock, and your numbers won’t match. Leave it out, and it disappears. Condition is the next one. A returned sweater with makeup on the collar can’t be sold, but if it goes back on the shelf, it gets counted at full value. Then there’s fraud. NRF found that 9% of returns are fraudulent, so check each return against the original sale. If a store was invoiced for 50 units, you shouldn’t be crediting 60. Also, close to twothirds of shoppers admit to at least one costly return habit, like buying three sizes and keeping

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The brands with the easiest year-end counts don’t depend on one big count. They cycle count all year, a few styles or a few shelves at a time. Start with your best sellers and your most expensive styles, since that’s where a mistake costs the most. Many brands still do a full count every six months, and with cycle counts in between, that full count mostly confirms what you already know. The same principles should carry into the systems a brand uses to manage returns and inventory. Returns should be tied back to the original invoice, damaged goods should be separated from sellable inventory, and physical counts should be compared against a fixed snapshot so discrepancies are easier to identify before adjustments are made. Barcode scanning and regular cycle counts can also help teams catch mismatches earlier, while a clear audit trail makes it easier to understand when and why inventory changes occurred.

What a Bad Count Costs You Your year-end inventory number flows into your cost of goods sold. That sets your profit, and your profit sets your tax bill.

Don’t Wait Until Next December

Shahrooz Shawn Kohan is CEO and co-founder of AIMS360, the Beverly Hills-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) software company for consumer brands, which has worked with more than 10,000 fashion and consumer brands over 40 years. Before leading AIMS360, he worked as a programmer inside brands including True Religion, Frame and Beyond Yoga. He hosts the “Fashion Means Business” podcast. See how AIMS360 handles returns and inventory counts at aims360.com/demo.

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November/December 2026 FM | 37 mannpublications.com Products and services are oﬀered by Capital One, N.A., NMLS ID 453156, Equal Housing Lender and Member FDIC. © 2020 Capital One. June | July 2024 FM | 39 mannpublications.com

FEATURE

Ottica: Behind the Scenes of the Luxury Eyewear Edit That Shops the World for You Ottica was born from the idea that customers should be able to discover the world’s leading designer eyewear brands, stay on top of trends and enjoy boutique-level curation and service from home. As a modern luxury eyewear destination redefining how consumers shop for prescription designer glasses, Ottica brings together a carefully curated selection of some of the world’s most coveted luxury eyewear brands, including Gucci, Prada, Tom Ford, Dolce & Gabbana, Saint Laurent and more, on a single online platform designed specifically for premium eyewear. By incorporating advanced virtual try-on technology, a 45-day home try-on and high-quality prescription lenses assembled in the United States, Ottica is changing the way consumers shop for prescription designer eyewear. At Ottica, customers view eyewear as part of personal style, not simply as a functional necessity. They care about craftsmanship, design, brand identity and how a frame fits into a broader wardrobe. At the same time, luxury customers increasingly expect the convenience of e-commerce without compromising the experience or service. Ottica was created for that customer, offering access to premium designer eyewear alongside the tools and optical support needed to shop for prescription glasses online with confidence. Curation is central to that experience, and leading the effort is Mor Margalit, director of brand merchandising and head of curation at Ottica. Margalit and her team aim to offer enough variety for customers to discover something that feels distinctly their own, while ensuring that every brand and collection on the platform earns its place. For Margalit, one of the most interesting parts of working with major fashion

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collections, meeting directly with brands and constantly looking for new designers who could be the right fit for Ottica. “At the same time, buying is highly analytical. My team and I closely follow sales performance, customer behavior, product trends and what is resonating on the site,” Margalit said. “The challenge is to balance that data with instinct. A buyer cannot only react to what is already selling. Part of the job is anticipating what customers will want next and identifying a shape, color, designer or trend before it becomes obvious.”

houses is seeing how closely eyewear connects to each brand’s broader identity. “With luxury brands, the direction comes from the fashion house itself, so the eyewear reflects the same visual codes, materials, colors and design language seen throughout its wider collections,” she said. “That makes the buying process much more than evaluating a frame on its own. It means understanding the world each house is creating and how eyewear fits into it. The strongest brands are incredibly disciplined about protecting their identity while still finding ways to evolve it season after season. Seeing that relationship between eyewear, ready-towear and accessories is one of the most compelling parts of the role.” That understanding of brand identity infor ms Margalit’s day-to-day work, which combines creative instinct with analytical decision-making. When asked what a day in the life of a buyer looks like, Margalit notes that no two days look exactly the same. Her responsibilities range from traveling to trade shows and showrooms to reviewing upcoming

That forward-looking approach also shapes how Margalit tracks trends. For her, eyewear is particularly interesting compared to other fashion categories because of its gradual evolution. One direction she is particularly drawn to right now is the growing use of brown across eyewear, from rich, deep shades to softer translucent tones. “It is appearing across both current and upcoming collections and feels timeless while still giving customers something different from classic black or traditional tortoiseshell,” she said. “Lens color is another area becoming increasingly important. Designers are experimenting with more tints and shades, making the lens itself a stronger part of the overall design rather than simply a functional element.” Margalit expects that to become even more visible in future collections. Beyond individual trends, Margalit draws inspiration from the fashion houses Ottica works with and the way strong luxury brands build a clear identity over time. “What is particularly inspiring is their ability to maintain consistency without becoming predictable,” she said. “A great brand can introduce something new while still making the customer immediately understand who created it.”

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Photos courtesy of Ottica

FEATURE

That balance between a recognizable point of view and constant evolution also influences how Margalit approaches curation at Ottica. “The goal is not simply to bring together a large number of brands but to build an assortment with a clear perspective,” she said. Since launch, Ottica has continued to expand its portfolio with major designer brands while remaining selective about what is added. Launching the platform itself remains one of the brand’s most significant milestones. Building a new luxury eyewear destination meant establishing the platform, developing relationships with leading global fashion houses and creating an assortment strong enough to give customers a real reason to shop for luxury eyewear differently. Most recently, Margalit and the team attended Silmo in Paris, one of the eyewear industry’s key global trade shows, to meet with brands, review upcoming collections and identify new names that could be right for the platfor m. For Margalit, growth is not about adding brands for the sake of scale. Every addition has to strengthen the overall curation and make sense for the Ottica customer. Looking ahead, Ottica will continue to expand its portfolio while protecting the level of curation that defines the platform. Margalit and the team are constantly looking for new luxury brands, emerging names and collections that can bring something distinctive to the assortment. At the same time, the goal is to continue improving the online experience so that shopping for premium prescription eyewear feels as considered and elevated as shopping in a great luxury boutique.

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or Holiday 2026, 525 America invites a little nostalgia into the winter wardrobe. Drawing inspiration from the cozy charm of a winter getaway, the New York knitwear brand looks to ski lodges, fireside evenings and the familiar pleasures of dressing for the season. The result is a collection that balances classic American style with playful details, thoughtful craftsmanship and versatile silhouettes designed to extend well beyond the holidays. Rooted in the brand’s knitwear heritage, the approximately 60-style collection spans sweaters, cardigans and outerwear alongside an expanded assortment of bottoms, dresses and accessories. The collection celebrates the nostalgia of the season by reimagining classic winter dressing through a distinctly modern lens. Familiar heritage influences are balanced with playful details and contemporary silhouettes, creating an effortless approach to holiday style that feels both timeless and fresh.

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“Our Holiday ’26 collection is inspired by the cozy charm of a winter getaway, blending classic American style with playful seasonal details,” said Wen Huang, head of branding and marketing for 525 America. “From luxurious yarns to thoughtful craftsmanship, every piece reflects our commitment to quality, with fresh, timeless designs made to be worn well beyond the holidays.” Color plays a central role in establishing the collection’s warm, inviting character. Deep cherry, coffee brown, forest green and tortoise-inspired

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FEATURE

neutrals anchor the palette, punctuated by festive reds and softened with touches of pale pink and powder blue. Classic shades of cream, heather gray, navy and black provide balance, allowing the collection’s more playful motifs and textural details to take center stage.

Accessories further reinforce that idea, with arm warmers, scarves and integrated knit details offering approachable gifting options while extending the collection beyond traditional sweaters. Core 525 America essentials also return in expanded color offerings, providing a counterpoint to the season’s more directional pieces.

Texture, in particular, becomes one of the season’s strongest design stories. Brushed and marled yarns are worked into a wide range of intricate stitches, from honeycomb and waffle to shaker, herringbone, bobble and traditional cable. Fair Isle appears in both classic and exaggerated proportions, while quilted cable constructions give familiar sweater silhouettes a more dimensional feel. The effect is tactile and layered, lending even the collection’s most nostalgic references a contemporary point of view.

Ultimately, Holiday 2026 succeeds by resisting the idea that festive dressing needs to feel temporary. Alpine nostalgia, Western references, collegiate styling and luxurious textures come together in a collection that captures the mood of the season without being confined to it. It is warm, tactile and occasionally whimsical, yet grounded in the kind of timeless knitwear that has long defined 525 America.

The alpine theme emerges through oversized Fair Isle turtlenecks, ski-inspired embroidery and substantial sweater jackets that feel made for a weekend in the mountains. Yet 525 America avoids leaning too heavily into literal après-ski dressing. Instead, those references are offset by an unexpected Western thread, with bandana-inspired collars, yoke detailing and even a trompe l’oeil Western shirt rendered entirely in knit.

The result feels less like a wardrobe created specifically for the holidays and more like an invitation to settle into winter— preferably somewhere fireside.

Photos courtesy of 525 America

That interplay between familiar American codes gives the collection much of its personality. Collegiate influences appear through polos, rugby shapes, plaid minis and bomber jackets, while integrated scarves, faux-fur collars, fringe, rhinestone buttons and military-inspired hardware add a playful sense of occasion. Suede collars and panels introduce another layer of texture, bridging the softness of knitwear with more structured wardrobe pieces. Holiday 2026 also signals an evolution in how 525 America approaches dressing as a whole. Rather than focusing primarily on standalone sweaters, the brand continues to build a more complete wardrobe. A deeper selection of knit outerwear is joined by skirts, trousers, leggings and dresses, allowing pieces to be styled as coordinated sets or layered into head-to-toe looks. Bomber silhouettes, bubble hems, puff sleeves and streamlined minis bring a more fashion-driven dimension to the collection without abandoning the ease and wearability at the heart of the brand. That expansion is particularly evident in outerwear, where sweater jackets blur the line between knitwear and traditional coats. The category feels like a natural progression for 525 America, translating the comfort and tactility associated with the brand into pieces capable of anchoring an entire look. Cashmere provides the collection’s quieter luxury story. An expanded capsule encompasses classic crews, cable knits, mock necks, cardigans and accessories, including an oversized blanket scarf. Rather than reserving cashmere strictly for special occasions, the assortment reflects the broader philosophy behind the collection: pieces should feel elevated enough for holiday dressing but effortless enough to become part of an everyday winter wardrobe.

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Photos courtesy of Terramore

Photo courtesy of Deonté Lee/BFA.com

g n i c u d o r t In e r o m a r r e T

NATALIE MACKEY’S VISION FOR EVERYDAY DIAMONDS

iamonds for the white tank and the little black dress. Sparkle from the 9 a.m. meeting to the 9 p.m. reservation. That’s the beauty of Terramore, the new fine jewelry house from entrepreneur Natalie Mackey. Terramore is built on a simple idea: the best pieces are the ones you’ll find a hundred reasons to wear, no special occasion required. Rooted in a modern sense of romance, Terramore treats diamonds not as something reserved for life’s big milestones but as a way to celebrate everyday wins—made to be worn, layered and collected over time.

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“I’ve always believed in romanticizing your own life,” Mackey said, and the brand’s debut makes a convincing case for it. For her, jewelry is about more than the stones themselves. It’s about the memories that gather around the things we choose to keep, the people we associate with them and the moments that become part of our personal histories. Terramore takes that idea and gives it a distinctly modern expression: fine jewelry that feels meaningful without needing a milestone to justify it. Start with the Aegis pendant, the launch’s hero product. It’s named for

the mythical shield the Greek goddess Athena wore over her heart and is designed to be worn the same way: as a symbol of the people we love and want to protect, and as a daily reminder of our own strength. An ethically produced, one-carat pear-shaped diamond is wrapped in titanium and hung from a 14-karat gold chain. The stone’s soft teardrop shape balances the sleek, almost armored frame, and the result looks equally beautiful at a gala or with your favorite T-shirt. There’s something appealing about the combination of softness and strength. The diamond brings the

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COVER STORY

familiar brilliance of fine jewelry, while the titanium setting gives the pendant a more contemporary edge. Worn close to the heart, Aegis is intended to carry its meaning into everyday life rather than spend most of its time tucked away in a jewelry box. It’s a piece with a story built into its design and enough versatility to become part of your own. That sense of meaning runs through everything Terramore makes. Each piece traces back to a love story, whether it’s one of Mackey’s own, one of her friends’ or one borrowed from the great romances of history and legend. You can hear it in the pieces’ names, too: Lovebirds, Twin Flame, Lucky Girl and North Star. Choosing a ring or a pair of earrings starts to feel less like shopping and more like deciding which story you want to carry with you. It’s a thoughtful premise in a category that can sometimes feel tied to specific occasions. Engagements, anniversaries and milestone birthdays have long been the traditional reasons to buy fine jewelry, but Terramore makes a case for a more personal approach. A necklace can mark a new chapter. A ring can serve as a reminder of a promise to yourself. A pair of diamond studs can simply be the thing you reach for every morning. The meaning doesn’t have to be assigned by an occasion. It can develop through the act of wearing a piece, day after day. Alongside the Aegis, the debut is anchored by two additional collections built for everyday wear. The Castle collection reimagines the classic tennis bracelet. Its signature design circles the wrist with three carats of round diamonds in solid 14-karat yellow gold, each stone raised in a sculptural setting that adds dimension to the familiar silhouette. It has the recognizable sparkle of a jewelry-box staple, but the setting adds a little architectural character. It’s the sort of bracelet that can stand alone when you want a single statement or join a stack of favorites as your collection grows. The Open Bezel collection takes a quieter approach. Round, pear and emerald-cut diamonds sit in partially framed settings that let more light in, across studs, pendants and slim bangles. The effect is clean and unfussy, with the diamond itself taking center stage. With studs starting

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COVER FEATURE

under $500, it’s the natural entry point to the house, and the kind of piece you put on in the morning and forget to take off. These are designs that work with the rest of your jewelry rather than demanding to be the main event, making them particularly suited to the art of everyday layering. Terramore’s debut also tells the most classic love story of all through its signature engagement rings. Crafted in 14-karat gold and platinum, the pieces carry names like Tesoro, Reverie and Union. They come in oval, pear, marquise and emerald cuts, including invisibly set designs where the diamonds appear to sit together without metal between them. The collection draws on the enduring appeal of traditional engagement rings while offering different shapes and settings for different tastes. And for anyone whose love story doesn’t fit a template, the house also offers bespoke ring design. Across all four collections, the goal is to build a jewelry wardrobe with room to evolve. Terramore launches with more than 100 styles spanning rings, bracelets, necklaces and earrings, available in natural and lab-grown diamonds. Prices range from approximately $250 to beyond $6,000, offering different ways to enter the collection and add pieces over time. Rather than presenting fine jewelry as an all-at-once investment, the house invites customers to start with one piece that speaks to them and build from there. What ties the collections together is craftsmanship. Every piece is made by hand and designed to be added to your personal collection over the years rather than bought all at once. The emphasis is on jewelry that can be worn, lived in and eventually handed down—not simply admired on special occasions. The idea of collecting becomes personal: each new piece has the potential to mark a relationship, a change, a small triumph or a chapter that only grows more meaningful with time. Mackey’s own background helps explain the thinking behind the brand. An artist by training, she has spent 17 years building consumer brands, most notably Winky Lux, the beauty label known for creating an immersive world around its products. With Terramore, she is moving from beauty into fine jewelry, but the underlying instinct

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COVER STORY

remains familiar: to create more than an object, instead building a world people can connect with. Here, the emphasis shifts from sparking joy to sparking romance, with diamonds serving as the medium for deeply personal stories. She’s joined by partner and advisor Beryl Raff, one of the most respected names in jewelry retail, who spent more than a decade as chairman and CEO of Helzberg Diamonds and previously led Zales Corporation. That pairing brings together Mackey’s experience in brand-building and creative storytelling with Raff’s deep knowledge of the jewelry business. Still, Terramore’s real proposition isn’t any single diamond. It’s a shift in mindset: stop saving your best things for someday. The pendant, the ring and the stack of bracelets belong to an ordinary Wednesday as much as to an anniversary dinner. In a culture increasingly lived through screens, there’s also something reassuring about objects that can be held, worn and kept. Jewelry becomes a tangible connection to a person, a place or a period of life—something that travels with you, gathering meaning along the way. Terramore’s vision is captured in its own language: pieces preserved in time and set in gold, designed to be collected, worn and adored through every chapter of a life lived with love. The idea isn’t to wait for a storybook moment to wear your diamonds. It’s to let the moments themselves become the story.

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FEATURE

Out Westfor the Holidays With Robert Talbott’s Fall/Winter 2026 Collection 46 | FM

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Photos courtesy of Robert Talbott

This holiday season, Robert Talbott is heading back to where so much of its story began: out West. For Fall/Winter 2026, the California-born menswear brand heads to Yosemite for a campaign that brings together traditional tailoring, relaxed knitwear, suede and patterned shirts against one of America’s most recognizable landscapes. It’s an unexpected setting for a suit and tie, but that’s part of the point. Robert Talbott was founded in 1950 by Robert and Audrey Talbott, who began with hand-sewn neckwear made in their Carmel, California, home. More than 75 years later, the brand remains grounded in fabric, craftsmanship and traditional menswear, but the idea of what that wardrobe looks like has expanded far beyond the tie. That evolution comes through clearly in the Fall/Winter 2026 collection. That original California spirit has always offered a slightly different perspective on dressing well. The brand’s story began far from the traditional centers of American tailoring, with an emphasis on beautifully made pieces and the people who would actually wear them. Yosemite feels like a natural place to revisit that history: familiar, distinctly Western and not the first place you’d expect for a menswear campaign. Throughout Fall/Winter 2026, tailored jackets are worn alongside patterned shirts and textured knitwear, while bold colors and familiar silhouettes lend personality to everyday dressing. A blazer can be worn over a knit instead of a shirt and tie. A patterned shirt can carry a look on its own. Even the more formal pieces feel less tied to a particular occasion. The contrast is part of what makes the imagery interesting. In one frame, a suit stands against granite; in another, colorful layers sit comfortably in the open landscape.

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FEATURE

There’s nothing especially precious about how the clothes are presented. They look like pieces to be worn, mixed, taken somewhere and lived in. That makes the collection especially relevant for the holiday season, when getting dressed often means moving between several different versions of the same day: travel, lunch, dinner, drinks, family, work events and weekends away. Rather than building a separate outfit for every occasion, the appeal lies in finding pieces that can do more than one job. Rather than relying on obvious holiday colors, the collection moves through tobacco, camel, navy, deep red, blue and layered patterns. There is warmth, but not in a way that feels limited to December. The colors work just as easily in January, February and beyond. Texture does some of the work too, giving familiar shapes more depth without making them difficult to wear. Robert Talbott’s neckwear remains one of the clearest links to its history. Silk ties have been part of the brand since the beginning, including its “Best of Class” assortment and the seven-fold constructions it became known for. Today, neckwear exists alongside a broader wardrobe of knitwear, tailoring, shirts and outerwear. The categories have grown, but an appreciation for fabric and detail still connects them. Robert Talbott’s answer isn’t to abandon classic menswear. It’s to loosen the rules around it. For holiday gifting, the assortment offers everything from signature neckwear and pocket squares to knitwear, tailoring and outerwear. A silk tie makes sense as a smaller gesture, while a cashmere-blend knit or tailored jacket is more substantial. The appeal isn’t just in how they look under the tree, either. These are the kinds of pieces that can find their way into someone’s regular rotation long after the season is over.

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FEATURE

T1L Further Notice THE BEAUTY OF BECOMING

For New York-based womenswear label T1L Further Notice, femininity is not defined by a single ideal but by the freedom to evolve. Founded and led by designer Miqi Wang, the brand explores the space where romanticism meets rebellion, creating clothing for women who embrace contradiction, challenge convention and define themselves on their own terms. With select pieces from the Spring/ Summer 2027 collection recently unveiled during New York Fashion Week, T1L Further Notice sharpens this perspective, presenting a vision of modern femininity that is as intentional as it is unpredictable. At the heart of the label is a philosophy born from uncertainty. Wang conceived T1L Further Notice during a period of personal transition, before she had fully determined what she wanted to create or where her path

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would lead. Rather than waiting for clarity, she began anyway. The brand’s name reflects that decision: a reminder that there is rarely a perfect moment to take the first step, and that progress often comes from the willingness to move forward without knowing exactly what lies ahead. Today, that sentiment remains central to the label’s identity, informing collections that view clothing not simply as adornment but as a form of armor for women navigating their own transformations. For Spring/Summer 2027, Wang turns her attention to the pivotal moment when dependence gives way to self-definition. The collection considers what it means to grow into an identity that is entirely one’s own, moving beyond the familiar narrative of coming of age as a gentle or uncomplicated process. Instead, transformation is presented

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FEATURE as an active undertaking, marked by experimentation, tension and the courage to embrace the unfamiliar. It is a process that can be beautiful and uncomfortable in equal measure, and Wang translates these opposing sensations into garments that balance softness with structure, restraint with exposure and discipline with release. The resulting collection inhabits a compelling space between delicacy and defiance. Ro m a n t i c e l e m e n t s coexist with more architectural constructions, while unexpected details disrupt otherwise controlled silhouettes. Boning and fishbonelike structures are integrated directly into the fabrics, creating forms that can bend, shift and respond to movement rather than remain fixed. These constructions lend the garments a sense of tension, suggesting the invisible frameworks that shape us even as we work to move beyond them. Structure becomes less about restriction than about possibility, providing a foundation from which new forms can emerge. This interplay between control and spontaneity is also reflected in Wang’s approach to design. At T1L Further Notice, not every garment begins with a predetermined destination. Some pieces develop organically through the act of making, with their final shapes emerging through experimentation, adjustment and discovery. Materials are tested, ideas are reconsidered, and unexpected outcomes become part of the creative language. The result is clothing that feels alive with possibility, reflecting the belief that identity, like design, is rarely a finished product.

Photos courtesy of T1L Further Notice

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Importantly, the Spring/Summer 2027 collection also considers the different ways women engage with fashion. Alongside its more experimental, editorial pieces are commercially minded designs that bring the label’s distinctive sensibility into a more accessible wardrobe. Rather than

treating wearability and artistic expression as opposing priorities, Wang allows both to exist within the same universe. Each serves a different expression of the T1L Further Notice woman, whose style may shift between understated and audacious or between romantic and assertive, without losing its sense of self. That versatility feels particularly relevant to a generation of women who are increasingly resistant to being defined by a single aesthetic or expectation. The contemporary wardrobe must accommodate multiple identities, shifting ambitions and changing circumstances. T1L Further Notice responds with a design language that leaves room for contradiction, recognizing that strength does not require the absence of vulnerability and that softness need not signal fragility. Its woman is not interested in choosing between opposing qualities; she understands that they can coexist, often making each other more powerful. With its Spring/Summer 2027 collection, T1L Further Notice offers more than a seasonal exploration of silhouette and construction. It presents an evolving point of view on what clothing can represent when it is rooted in personal agency. Wang’s designs acknowledge the uncertainty inherent in becoming oneself while rejecting the idea that certainty must come first. In this world, femininity is neither prescribed nor perfected. It is something continually shaped through experience, instinct and the freedom to change. Ultimately, T1L Further Notice is a label built on forward motion. Its vision of rebellious romanticism invites women to embrace the tension between who they have been and who they are becoming, finding beauty not in resolution but in the process itself. The message is simple, yet resonant: there is no need to wait until every answer is clear. Sometimes, the most meaningful transformation begins when you decide to move forward.

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Photo courtesy of Philippe Rohdewald

Photo courtesy of Laurel Creative

Janet Howard Returns to Fashion With Collection Relaunch Everyone loves a comeback. With a career spanning nearly four decades, designer Janet Howard is returning to the fashion landscape with the relaunch of Janet Howard New York. The collection brings her signature precision tailoring, architectural silhouettes and unexpected detailing to a modern wardrobe, introducing a fresh expression of the design sensibility that established her place in American fashion. A defining voice in 1990s American design, Howard built her reputation on clothing that balanced strong construction with a distinctly feminine point of view. Her collections, including Janet Howard Collection, Misc. and Slates Janet Howard—backed by Levi Strauss & Co.— were carried by Bergdorf Goodman, Saks 50 | FM

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Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s. Her work earned recognition from the Council of Fashion Designers of America and leading fashion publications, establishing a foundation that continues to inform her approach today. Janet Howard New York revisits that perspective with an instinct for how women dress now. Impeccably tailored blazers and sharply constructed trousers anchor a collection that explores the tension between masculine tailoring and femininity. Fluid satin, sheer lace, expressive prints and rich texture bring softness and movement to structured silhouettes, with a subtle rock ’n’ roll sensibility adding an unexpected edge.

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Photo courtesy of Philippe Rohdewald

FEATURE “I felt it was time to return,” said Howard. “Design has always been in my DNA. I’ve always said I’m only good at a few things, and creating beautiful clothing is one of them; it truly is my life’s work. I came up in the ’90s, so being back in this moment feels right.” Thoughtful construction remains central to the collection. Jackets are beautifully lined to feel luxurious from the moment they are put on, while considered proportions and distinctive finishing give each piece its own character. Howard approaches these details as part of the experience of wearing the clothes: the way a jacket feels, the line of a trouser and the balance between structure and ease. The collection is designed for a woman with a clear sense of self who appreciates polish while leaving room for personality. A tailored jacket can ground an expressive print, while a fluid blouse can soften a sharply cut suit. These combinations reflect Howard’s belief that clothing should invite individual interpretation, giving women the freedom to make each look their own. Across the collection, this balance creates a wardrobe with a consistent point of view and room for different personal styles. “After all these years, the vision remains the same: create pieces that are timeless, intentional and beautifully made,” said Howard. “It’s about precision, but also personality. Those small details that make something feel truly special.”

Photo courtesy of Laurel Creative

The relaunch connects Howard’s established design language with a contemporary approach to dressing. Her return brings renewed focus to the qualities that have always defined her work: a precise cut, an architectural eye and the unexpected detail that makes a familiar silhouette feel entirely personal.

Photo courtesy of Laurel Creative

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TECH FEATURE

Project Terrain: Whoop and Samuel Ross Expand ‘Performance for Life’ With Layer 2

hoop debuted Layer 2 of Project Terrain, its multiyear collaboration with British designer Samuel Ross and his design atelier, SR_A. Building on the sold-out debut collection launched in March 2026, Layer 2 expands Project Terrain to its next season, connecting lifestyle and performance for movement, adaptability and zone-based training. While the first Project Terrain collection harnessed dense cities and modern training grounds, Layer 2 explores perfor mance through material, silhouette and tactility. Drawing on the textures, conditions and flux of the natural world, the collection introduces a newly developed system of Whoop bands, Italian technical apparel, outerwear and accessories designed to move between urban and outdoor settings.

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Photos courtesy of Whoop

Performance extends beyond sport and competition. It is how we move, recover, adapt and continue doing what we love. Whoop helps people better understand their bodies so they can make smarter choices across sport, health and life. Designed for changing states, Layer 2 brings SR_A’s distinct architectural language to gar ments that combine tactile materials, considered construction and technical requirements. The collection uses nature’s terrain as both i n s p i r at i o n a n d p rov i n g g ro u n d , c r e a t i n g p i e c e s designed to perform across environments.

“I’ve always said our ambition with Whoop is to create something that’s either cool or invisible,” said Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of Whoop. “Our partnership with Samuel Ross pushes that philosophy to the next level. Project Terrain reflects the respect we’ve always had for great design and our belief that the technology you wear every day should be something you love wearing.” “ P ro j e c t Te r r a i n i s a n expression of intensity and resilience, designed for those who embrace exploration,

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TECH FEATURE

discipline and the pursuit of performance,” said Ross. “Our second collection draws inspiration from the transition between dense urban environments and expansive rural landscapes, creating functional garments that adapt across all five zones of training. Combining exceptional technical fabrics, precision construction a n d re f i n e d s i l h o u e t t e s, the collection balances performance with everyday utility. At its core, Project Terrain is about creating resilient, purposeful garments for those who push beyond their limits.” The limited-edition Layer 2 collection includes two new band designs for Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG, alongside a range of men’s and women’s apparel, outerwear and accessories. “As wearable technolog y becomes increasingly i n t e g r at e d i n t o h ow we live, the opportunity lies in rethinking how and where it is wor n. Following the sellout of our debut Project Terrain collection, Layer 2 builds on Whoop’s AnyWear technology to explore new sensor placements across technical gar ments, extending from performance apparel into outerwear and everyday wear,” said Yi Ng, co-founder and CEO of SR_A. “At SR_A, our thesis is to apply design thinking to the next evolution of wearable technology and changing ways of living, combining material innovation, functional utility and purposeful form to create products that move beyond c o nve n t i o n a l c a t e g o r i e s. Project Terrain challenges c o nve n t i o n a l b o u n d a r i e s between technology, garment design and everyday life.”

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TECH 411

REISS AND CASTORE REUNITE FOR MEN’S PERFORMANCE COLLECTION Sportswear brand Castore and fashion brand Reiss have teamed up again for a joint menswear collection. The range brings together Castore’s background in technical performance wear and Reiss’s design signature, resulting in what the brands describe as elevated sportswear. The collaboration plays into the growing overlap between performance and lifestyle clothing. The pieces are designed to be worn across training, travel and everyday settings, built on the idea that clothing should work as hard as the person wearing it. The collection pairs technical fabrics, including sweatwicking and water-resistant f inishes, with relaxed silhouettes and understated details. The color palette is premium and understated, with pieces in brown, stone, black and sage green. On the lifestyle side, the range includes an oversized quarter-zip sweatshirt with a funnel neck and wide-leg joggers, both made from a soft, f leece-backed cotton blend. An oversized 100% cotton T-shirt completes this part of the offer, finished with small chest branding and a statement graphic on the back. For training, the collection draws on Castore’s own fabric technologies. A lightweight vest is made from the brand’s AerTek sweat-wicking fabric, while 2-in-1 shorts and the new Flex Hoodie use the high-stretch, quick-drying ProTek fabric. Streamlined woven joggers with perforated calf detailing for airf low and ref lective branding round out the training pieces. The outerwear offering centers on the padded Bench Jacket, designed for lightweight protection in changing conditions. It features a water-resistant finish, a peaked hood, storm cuffs and a heat-sealed two-way zip, as well as ref lective detailing on the sleeve and back for visibility in low light. Professional rugby player Orlando Bailey, part of Castore’s roster of athletes, fronts the accompanying campaign. The campaign presents the collection through authentic movement, highlighting its performance qualities while ref lecting the premium positioning of both brands.

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Photo courtesy of Reiss x Castore

November/December 2026

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TECH 411

THE NORTH FACE UPDATES NUPTSE JACKET WITH TWO NEW STYLES

The North Face introduced two new versions of its Nuptse jacket, the Summit Nuptse and the Pertex Reversible Nuptse. The launch comes as the brand marks six decades of producing apparel and equipment for explorers. Both styles preserve the jacket’s familiar silhouette while adding newer performance materials and technical details. The collection is designed for alpine environments as well as for the city. The Summit Nuptse was developed with input from The North Face’s athlete team and tested in demanding conditions, making it the lightest and warmest Nuptse to date. It retains the brand’s color-blocked look and is the first Nuptse with an insulated hood. The jacket is made from recycled nylon and features an ultralight woven ripstop fabric with Spectra yarns in targeted areas for durability and abrasion resistance. Its Cloud Down construction is designed to reduce cold spots and improve packability, while the ProDown insulation helps the jacket retain loft in wet conditions. Further details include a relaxed fit for layering, secure zip hand pockets, two internal drop-in pockets, stretch-knit cuffs with FlashDry technology and an adjustable, packable hood that fits over a climbing helmet. The Pertex Reversible Nuptse is aimed at both mountain use and everyday wear. One side has a cleaner, more modern look, while the other references the original Nuptse with oversized baffles and classic color blocking. The jacket uses wind-resistant and water-repellent Pertex Quantum fabric, which supports the thermal efficiency of the recycled down insulation. It also features zippered hand pockets, internal hem adjustments on both sides, articulated sleeves and elastic fold-over cuffs. “When the Nuptse jacket first launched in 1992, its innovative construction and reliable protection in extreme conditions quickly made it a sought-after essential on expeditions. It soon achieved icon status in both performance and lifestyle circles around the world,” said Chris Goble, global brand president at The North Face. “The introduction of two reimagined Nuptse styles not only honors the heritage of the original jacket through its distinctive, beloved design but also delivers pinnacle performance through innovative product features and modern materials for explorers everywhere, no matter where their journey takes them.”

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Photo courtesy of The North Face

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COLUMNS

DEB’S RETAIL DISH AND DEALS: HAPPY HOLIDAYS By Debra Hazel

DEBRA HAZEL Debra Hazel Communications North Las Vegas, Nevada 201-618-5247 A slew of openings in late summer and early fall will make for a busy holiday shopping season. Have a safe, happy and profitable holiday season! All About Apparel and Accessories Well-to-do Brooklynites no longer need to cross the river into Manhattan to get their Hermès fix. The legendary leather brand, which tested a pop-up in the borough, has opened a permanent store at 111 N. Sixth St. (also 130 Berry St.) in Williamsburg. Anyone looking to give athleisure as a holiday gift can now visit the Beyond Yoga pop-up at 108 Fifth Ave. in Flatiron through January. Moncler’s largest global flagship (23,680 square feet over two levels) has come to 767 Fifth Ave., once home to FAO Schwarz. The spectacular design by Gilles & Boissier pays homage to Times Square with black granite set with strips of light, resembling a theater. For the Tots It’s a happy holiday for kids and their Geoffrey the Giraffe-loving parents, as Toys “R” Us announced a major U.S. retail expansion, with 120 standalone stores opening across the country this holiday season in partnership with Go! Retail Group. The brand currently includes 40 standalone stores and Toys “R” Us shops inside Macy’s stores nationwide. Stroller and car seat brand Uppababy has relocated its Brooklyn store to 156 Montague St.

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To Your Health and Beauty

California Dreamin’

Century Cricket Centre, an Australian-backed indoor cricket and sports-tech concept, will open its first U.S. location in a 14,000-square-foot space at 25 W. 39th St. near Bryant Park. The center will occupy the entire fourth floor of the property and is expected to open in a few months. The location will introduce Century Cricket Centre’s technologydriven approach to cricket training, development and engagement to the U.S. market, combining indoor batting facilities with interactive technology designed to create an experience similar to the techenabled model that has helped popularize indoor golf concepts.

Birkenstock Americas has opened a store at Cross Creek Ranch in Malibu, California. Jessica McCormack’s diamond jewelry can now be found in a 1,600-square-foot shop at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa. Cami NYC has expanded west with its womenswear, adding a new location at Lido Marino Village, 3444 Via Lido Lane, in Newport Beach.

CorePower Yoga has a new flagship studio at 420 Albee Square West in Downtown Brooklyn. This flagship location expands CorePower Yoga’s presence across New York City and joins its existing Brooklyn studios in Park Slope and Williamsburg. Sephora has relocated its Meatpacking store to 401 W. 14th St. Wining and Dining New Jersey-based upscale Indian restaurant and lounge Samudhra has taken 10,000 square feet at The Ellery, the luxury mixed-use residential development at 312 W. 43rd St. in Hell’s Kitchen. The addition brings a new full-service dining destination to The Ellery. The space will include a dedicated dining area, bar and lounge. The new location will mark Samudhra’s first outpost in New York City and second location overall. Fast-casual restaurant concept Glaze Teriyaki has signed a 10-year lease at Under 30 Rock at Rockefeller Center, opening in fall 2026. Rockefeller Center is the company’s seventh location across New York City and Chicago. Glaze Teriyaki offers customizable teriyaki dishes featuring premium proteins, farmfresh vegetables and house-made sauces, also offering vegan, keto, paleo and gluten-free options. Chicken Salad Chick, the fast-casual chicken salad restaurant concept, opened its first restaurant in New York at The Shops at Village Plaza at 5 Southside Drive in Clifton Park. The new Clifton Park restaurant offers in-restaurant dining, take-out, third-party delivery and catering options.

Walking on Sunshine (State) Michael Kors has opened a Michael Kors Collection boutique at the Colony Hotel (155 Hammon Ave.) in Palm Beach, Florida. New Yorkers who have relocated to Florida will see a familiar sight—a new ABC Carpet & Home, occupying 18,346 square feet across from Mizner Park at 601 N. Federal Highway in Boca Raton. The transaction marks the luxury home furnishings brand’s return to South Florida and its first Boca Raton location. Healthy food chain Sweetgreen brought its first-ever Jacksonville location to 4624 Town Crossing Drive in St. Johns Town Center. The restaurant marks Sweetgreen’s first location in northeast Florida. Around the US L.L. Bean unveiled its “rebooted” flagship in Freeport, Maine, after a seven-year, $50 million renovation. Loewe’s Spanish leathers have come to Scottsdale Fashion Square in Arizona. Bandai Namco Amusement America Inc. and Bandai Namco Toys & Collectibles will open Bandai Namco Cross Store and The Gundam Base at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Both stores mark the second U.S. locations for their respective retail concepts. Bandai Namco Cross Store brings together a diverse collection of official shops and entertainment brands in one destination, allowing fans to discover a wide range of products, including character goods, toys, games, collectibles, stationery, plush and more. The Gundam Base is an official Gunpla destination created for “Gundam” fans around the world.

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COLUMNS

THE INVISIBLE WORK BEHIND A BEAUTIFUL WARDROBE By Maegan Watson

MAEGAN WATSON Founder, Watson Style Group

When someone opens her closet and finds exactly what she wants to wear, there is a certain ease to that experience. Everything fits, the pieces work together, and she knows how to wear them. What she may not see is the enormous amount of work that goes into creating that ease. One of the biggest misconceptions about personal styling is that our work is primarily about shopping. While we select beautiful clothing and introduce clients to designers they might love, shopping is only one small part of maintaining an exceptional wardrobe. A Wardrobe Is a Living, Changing Collection I think of a wardrobe as something that needs to be managed rather than simply organized. New pieces arrive, others need alterations, shoes need repairing, and clothing that worked last season may no longer suit a client’s needs. Our clients travel, attend events, move between homes and have changing calendars. Their wardrobes need to accommodate all of that. When we begin working with a client, we want to understand how her wardrobe supports her life. What does she wear to work, to dinner or when traveling? Which pieces does she reach for, and which have been sitting unworn for years? We document her clothing, evaluate fit and condition, identify gaps and build outfits around what she already owns. Sometimes the most valuable discovery isn’t something new to buy; it’s a wonderful piece she forgot she had, or a jacket that becomes useful because we’ve found five different ways to wear it.

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That is when a collection of clothing becomes a wardrobe.

Because owning the right clothes and knowing how to wear them are two very different things.

The Work That Happens After the Shopping

Organizing the Closet Around the Woman

Finding the right piece is exciting, but purchasing it is not the end of the process. Clothing needs to be ordered, received, tracked, fitted and sometimes altered. We coordinate with boutiques, designers, tailors and other specialists to ensure each piece arrives in the right condition and fits beautifully.

A perfectly arranged closet can be visually beautiful and still be difficult to use. Our goal isn’t simply to create a beautiful space. It’s to make the wardrobe intuitive. We consider which categories she uses most, which pieces should be accessible and how her closet can support the outfits we’ve created.

A new skirt may require a different shoe proportion. A jacket may need tailoring. A blouse might work with several existing suits, but only with the right accessories.

We also maintain a digital record of her wardrobe, allowing us to develop new combinations and plan for travel or events without always being physically inside her closet.

We also manage returns, repairs, cleaning, shipping, inventory and the movement of clothing between locations. For clients with multiple residences, we need to know what lives where, what should travel and what needs to be available for the next season.

But a digital closet filled with photographs is not the same thing as a properly styled wardrobe.

A beautiful wardrobe cannot function if half the pieces are in the wrong house, the favorite trousers are still at the tailor or the shoes needed for an outfit haven’t arrived. The Seasonal Wardrobe Transition One of my favorite parts of our work is transitioning a client’s wardrobe from one season to the next. People often imagine this as simply moving summer clothing into storage and bringing winter clothing back into the closet, but a thoughtful seasonal transition is much more involved. We begin by looking at the season ahead. Where will our client be spending her time? What trips, events or professional commitments are planned? Then we revisit the wardrobe, assessing what should remain accessible, what can be stored, what needs attention and what might no longer deserve space in the closet. Pieces are inspected, cleaned, repaired and organized. We evaluate what still fits, what our client loves and how her style may have evolved. A fall wardrobe isn’t complete simply because the sweaters and coats are back in the closet. It’s complete when our client has outfits for every part of her life, from professional meetings and relaxed weekends to travel and special occasions.

The real value comes from connecting the pieces, understanding the client’s preferences and creating complete outfits she can reference and wear. The Luxury of Having It All Taken Care Of The longer I do this work, the more I believe that one of the greatest luxuries we provide is removing the mental and logistical burden of managing a wardrobe. Our clients have full lives, with careers, families, travel and commitments that deserve their attention. They shouldn’t have to wonder whether alterations are finished, where a jacket is located or what to pack for an upcoming trip. Our responsibility is to anticipate those needs, coordinate the details and ensure the wardrobe is ready for the life they’re living. Sometimes that means finding an extraordinary piece of clothing. Other times it means tracking down a missing button, arranging a repair, reorganizing a closet or creating outfits from things a client already owns. Because the ultimate luxury isn’t simply owning beautiful clothing. It’s having a wardrobe that works. And when we’ve done our jobs well, our clients don’t have to think about everything it took to make that happen. They simply get dressed and go live their lives.

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COLUMNS

HOLIDAY HIRING IS CHANGING. RETAIL READINESS MUST CHANGE WITH IT. By David Harouche

During the holidays, there is little time for a gradual introduction. New employees may find themselves assisting customers almost immediately, while experienced associates balance higher traffic with coaching responsibilities. Traditional onboarding remains essential, but completing orientation is not the same as being prepared to sell.

DAVID HAROUCHE Founder and CEO, Multimedia Plus The holiday season has always been a critical test for fashion retailers. New collections arrive, promotional calendars accelerate, store traffic increases, and customer expectations rise. Traditionally, retailers have responded by expanding their seasonal workforce. This year, however, the hiring equation is changing. Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas forecasts approximately 450,000 seasonal retail jobs during the fourth quarter of 2026, reflecting a more cautious approach to holiday staffing. Retailers are increasingly relying on existing employees, flexible scheduling and more targeted seasonal hiring. For fashion retailers, this raises an important question: How can stores maximize sales opportunities when they may have fewer additional associates to support the busiest shopping period of the year? The answer goes beyond staffing levels. It depends on how effectively retailers prepare every associate to contribute. A Shorter Path From Hiring to Selling Seasonal associates have always faced a steep learning curve. They must quickly understand the brand, merchandise, service expectations, store procedures and selling techniques. In fashion retail, the challenge is particularly complex. Associates need to understand f it, fabrication, styling, product differentiation and the relationships between collections. They also need the confidence to recommend complementary merchandise and help customers make purchasing decisions.

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Retailers should prioritize the knowledge and behaviors that allow associates to become productive quickly, then reinforce those skills throughout the season. Product Knowledge Is a Revenue Opportunity Today’s shoppers frequently arrive with substantial product knowledge. They have researched merchandise online, compared prices, read reviews and explored alternatives. The value of an in-store associate is no longer simply providing information customers can find themselves. It is helping them make confident decisions. An associate who understands how a garment fits, why a fabric performs differently or how to complete an outfit can influence both the customer experience and the sale. That expertise can also create opportunities to increase average transaction value through thoughtful recommendations rather than aggressive selling. Yet expecting seasonal employees to master an entire assortment is unrealistic. A more effective strategy focuses on priority products, key collections, current promotions and the questions customers are most likely to ask. As merchandise and selling priorities change, learning should change with them. Training Must Keep Pace With Retail One of the overlooked challenges of holiday preparation is the time required to create and distribute training content. Product launches, promotional adjustments and inventory changes can happen quickly. Traditional content development processes may struggle to keep pace. Artificial intelligence is creating opportunities to accelerate the development of product education, short-form video and multilingual learning materials. Retailers can increasingly transform existing product descriptions, images and merchandising information into practical training resources.

The opportunity is not simply to produce more content. It is to make relevant information available when associates need it. A brief product update before a promotional weekend may have more immediate value than an extensive course completed weeks earlier. This approach also benefits experienced employees, who must continuously adapt to new merchandise, customer expectations and operational priorities. Connecting Readiness to Business Results Retailers invest considerable resources in attracting holiday shoppers. Marketing campaigns, merchandising strategies and promotional offers are designed to bring customers into stores. But converting that traffic into revenue depends heavily on what happens once customers arrive. Associates who understand the merchandise, communicate confidently and execute consistently are better positioned to improve conversion, support larger transactions and build customer loyalty. Retailers should therefore evaluate holiday readiness through more than training completion. Product confidence, selling behaviors, customer feedback and store performance can provide a fuller picture of whether preparation is translating into results. The goal is not simply a trained workforce. It is a workforce capable of contributing to the business. Making Every Holiday Opportunity Count A more selective seasonal hiring environment does not necessarily mean fewer sales opportunities. It does mean retailers must be more intentional about preparing the people they have. Successful holiday execution requires continuous learning, timely communication and a clear connection between corporate priorities and frontline behavior. Retailers spend months preparing their merchandise, marketing and stores for the season. Preparing associates deserves the same strategic attention. Because ultimately, holiday success is not determined solely by how many customers enter a store. It is determined by how effectively every interaction becomes an opportunity to serve, sell and build a lasting relationship.

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COLUMNS

THE PINK TAX, SURVEILLANCE PRICING AND THE GROWING DEMAND FOR TRANSPARENCY IN FASHION By Kimberly Carney

automatically mean a retailer is intentionally charging women more. Synthetic fibers can improve stretch, shape retention or ease of care. But consumers deserve a clear explanation of what they’re paying for. For years, women have questioned price differences across everything from personal care products to clothing. What is now changing is how easily shoppers can compare products and publicly challenge those differences.

KIMBERLY CARNEY Founder and CEO, FashWire

Abercrombie & Fitch is facing backlash over something that seems straightforward: two sweaters, the same price, but very different materials. The men’s sweater is reportedly made from 100% merino wool, while the women’s version contains just 30% merino wool, with the rest made from synthetic fibers. Both retail for $95. Naturally, consumers are asking why. The controversy has brought renewed attention to the pink tax, a term used to describe how women often pay more than men for comparable products. But here, the prices are the same. The question is whether women are receiving the same value for their money. Having owned a fashion retail store for 17 years before launching FashWire, I know apparel pricing is not as simple as looking at a fabric label. Manufacturing costs, production volumes, construction, sourcing and margins all play a role. Two sweaters that look similar can cost very different amounts to produce. I understand the frustration. If I am purchasing a $95 sweater, I want to know what I am getting. And if a comparable men’s sweater is made entirely from wool and the women’s version contains significantly less, it is reasonable to ask the retailer to explain the difference. That does not

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But there is another pricing issue I think consumers should be paying attention to: surveillance pricing. Most consumers are familiar with dynamic pricing. We have seen it with airlines and hotels, where prices fluctuate based on demand and availability. Surveillance pricing is different. It involves using personal data, potentially including browsing history, location and shopping behavior, to influence the price or offer presented to an individual consumer. Two people could potentially look at the same product and receive different prices or promotions because an algorithm predicts what each might be willing to spend. To be clear, there is no indication that surveillance pricing played a role in the Abercrombie sweater controversy. These are separate issues. But both raise questions about how retailers establish prices and how much consumers know about those decisions. When I launched FashWire, I wanted to change how consumers discover fashion brands. Today, AI gives us opportunities to make that experience even better. At FashWire, our focus is helping consumers discover fashion brands and products that match their interests, while giving brands a better understanding of how shoppers engage with their products. AI can introduce consumers to brands they might never have found, help them compare options and make product discovery more relevant. I do not believe that knowing more about a consumer should automatically become an opportunity to charge that person more. There is a difference

between personalization that improves the shopping experience and personalization that takes advantage of the shopper. So, what should consumers do? First, read the fabric label. I have seen plenty of expensive garments over the years that did not justify their price based on materials or construction. A recognizable name does not guarantee quality. Second, compare products across brands, and do not overlook men’s collections if the fit works. Sometimes, you will find better materials or construction for the same price. Third, pay attention to online prices. Compare retailers and occasionally check prices without logging in to your account. Differences are not necessarily evidence of surveillance pricing, but it is worth understanding how online activity can shape the offers you see. Review privacy settings and think twice before sharing information a retailer doesn’t need. Finally, consider cost per wear. A well-made sweater that lasts five years can be a better purchase than one that loses its shape after a season. Having been on both sides of the retail business, I believe brands need to be more transparent about how they price their products. Consumers do not expect every garment to be made from luxury materials, and they do not expect every product to carry the same price. They do expect honesty and transparency about what they are buying. The Abercrombie controversy shows how closely shoppers are paying attention. Social media gives them a way to question decisions that might once have gone unnoticed. After more than two decades working in fashion and retail, one thing hasn’t changed: consumers want to feel good about what they purchase. Ultimately, they should be able to trust that the quality of what they are purchasing is reflected in the price they are paying.

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COLUMNS

WHY FASHION NEEDS CONVERSATIONAL COMMERCE THIS HOLIDAY SEASON By Zohar Gilad

ZOHAR GILAD CEO and Co-Founder, Fast Simon Inc.

Buying a sweater for yourself is easy enough. Buying one for someone else is more difficult. You might know your recipient likes a particular color or style, but translating those preferences into the right product can be challenging, especially when traditional search is built for shoppers who know exactly what they’re looking for. Conversational commerce offers another way: shoppers can describe what they need in everyday language and receive recommendations grounded in the retailer’s catalog. It’s like a multiturn conversation you’d have with a sales assistant in a brick-and-mortar shop. For fashion brands, conversational commerce can help gift shoppers find the right products, resolve questions and shop with greater confidence during the holiday rush. Why Traditional Site Filters Fail Holiday Shoppers (and How AI Fixes It) Fashion shopping is visual. Shoppers often discover what they want by scanning product grids and narrowing their options using standard site filters. Gift shopping complicates that process. Someone buying a sweater for an aunt who is always cold might not know which fabrics provide warmth without adding bulk. Abstract intent can’t be captured by rigid filters. Conversational commerce translates open-ended requests into relevant recommendations. Instead of

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guessing which filters to apply, shoppers can explain their needs and compare products.

holiday shopping. That doesn’t necessarily rule out conversational commerce.

The benefit extends beyond discovery. An AI shopping agent can answer pragmatic questions about sizing, materials, shipping and returns, helping shoppers resolve doubts and make purchase decisions.

Some specialized product discovery tools integrate with existing platforms without extensive changes to core architecture, taking two weeks or less to go live, test and optimize.

Conversational commerce can also help combat cart abandonment by monitoring on-screen behavior in real time, popping up with contextual assistance (e.g., “I see you’re hesitating on this jacket. Can I clarify sizing for you?”) to secure the sale.

Fashion retailers can prepare for a conversational commerce launch by:

In our data, 70% of interactions with AI agents in apparel and footwear are related to discovery. The other 30% address support and post-purchase questions (e.g., “Did my order ship yet?”). This suggests that conversational commerce can even support customer service teams during peak season. Better Recommendations Start With Better Data The essential requirement for conversational commerce is good data. If a product listing lacks details about fabric, fit or construction, the AI agent may struggle to recommend the right sweater. AI models can help enrich catalogs by extracting attributes from product descriptions and reviews. Depending on the available data, they could identify a boot as having a “’70s vibe” or a coat as “quiet luxury,” helping shoppers discover products without knowing exact product keywords. Because shoppers expect a brand to know its own inventory intimately, the tolerance for “close enough” is much lower on brand sites than on Google. Retailers should prioritize accurate information about sizing, materials, construction, style, inventory and fulfillment. Guardrails are equally important. An AI agent shouldn’t promise delivery before the holidays without reliable fulfillment data or offer unauthorized discounts. Retailers should define clear rules for promotions, returns and inventory claims (e.g., “Never discount low-inventory products”). Deploy Conversational AI Before Peak Season

•

• •

Identifying friction points: Find categories and questions where traditional search falls short. Auditing catalog data: Make sure the agent has accurate information to answer common shopper questions. Setting guardrails: Define rules for what an AI agent shouldn’t do. Testing realistic scenarios: Include ambiguous gift requests and product comparisons.

After launch, monitor agents’ conversations and shoppers’ ratings in real time. This lets merchandisers spot data gaps in the catalog and optimize recommendations throughout peak season. Average conversion rates in the fashion industry are 2.7%. With conversational commerce, we’ve seen rates as high as 22%. During high-traffic periods, like holiday shopping season, conversational commerce can offer a serious boost to revenue. Prepare Your Site for Conversational Commerce Conversational commerce works best when shoppers can describe what they need and the catalog can support a reliable answer. Before holiday traffic peaks, identify where shoppers struggle, ensure product descriptions include all relevant information and establish clear rules for recommendations and promotions. Then test the experience against realistic shopping questions. When grounded in accurate data, supported by clear guardrails and measured against meaningful outcomes, conversational commerce can help shoppers choose with confidence and help retailers make the most of their holiday site traffic.

Many fashion retailers introduce an October code freeze to avoid disrupting their sites during

November/December 2026

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COLUMNS

CELEBRATING CHANUKAH IN 2026 By Rabbi David Laine

the menorah and the one-day supply of oil lasted for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity. To publicize these miracles, the sages instituted the festival of Chanukah. How Chanukah Is Observed

Chanukah begins Friday evening, Dec. 4, 2026, and continues through Saturday, Dec. 12, 2026. It is the Jewish eight-day winter “festival of lights,” celebrated with nightly menorah lighting, special prayers and fried foods. The Story of Chanukah In 168 B.C.E., Jerusalem came under Syrian rule, and the Syrians tried to force the people of Israel to accept Greek culture and beliefs instead of observance and belief in one G-d. Against all odds, a small band of faithful but poorly armed Jews, led by Judah the Maccabee, defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it to the service of G-d. When they sought to light the Temple’s menorah, they found only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Syrians. Miraculously, they lit

At the heart of the festival is the nightly menorah lighting. On the first night, we light just one flame. On the second night, an additional flame is lit. By the eighth night of Chanukah, all eight lights are kindled. On Friday afternoon, care must be taken to light the menorah before Shabbat candles are lit, and the following evening they are to be kindled only after Shabbat has ended. Special blessings are recited, often to a traditional melody, before the menorah is lit, and traditional songs are sung afterward. A menorah is lit in every household and placed in a doorway or window. It is also lit in synagogues and other public places. In recent years, thousands of jumbo menorahs have cropped up in front of city halls and legislative buildings, and in malls and parks around the world. •

•

Chanukah foods: It is customary to eat foods fried in oil, like potato latkes (pancakes) and jelly doughnuts. Dreidel: On Chanukah, it is customary to play with a “dreidel.”

Sweet Potato Latke Recipe Ingredients: • • • • • • • • • • •

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½ medium yellow onion ½ pound Yukon gold potato (about 1 large) ½ pound sweet potato (about 1 medium) 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon kosher salt Pinch of cayenne 1 large egg, lightly beaten Vegetable oil 4 teaspoons light sour cream 4 teaspoons beet or regular horseradish 2 to 3 sprigs flat-leaf parsley

November/December 2026

•

Chanukah gelt: It is a tradition to give Chanukah gelt (money) to children. This gives the children the opportunity to give tzedakah (charity).

Hanukkah Meaning Today The Chanukah candles teach us: 1.

Never be afraid to stand up for what’s right. Judah Maccabee and his band faced daunting odds, but that didn’t stop them. With a prayer on their lips and faith in their hearts, they entered the battle of their lives—and won. We can do the same. Always increase in matters of goodness and Torah observance. Sure, a single flame was good enough for yesterday, but today needs to be even better. A little light goes a long way. The Chanukah candles are lit when dusk is falling. No matter how dark it is outside, a candle can transform the darkness itself into light. Take it to the streets. Chanukah is unique in that its primary mitzvah (good deed) is observed in public. It’s not enough to be a Jew at heart, or even at home. Chanukah teaches us to shine outward into our surroundings with the G-dly glow of mitzvahs. Don’t be ashamed to perform mitzvahs, even if you will feel different. Rather, be like a menorah, proudly proclaiming its radiant uniqueness for all to see.

Directions: 1. 2.

Preheat the oven to 200°F. Place a wire rack on a baking sheet and put it in the oven. Grate the onion on a box grater into a large bowl. Grate both potatoes into the same bowl, grating lengthwise to get long strands. Toss the potatoes with the onions as you work to prevent discoloration. Place the potato mixture in a clean dish towel and wring out the excess liquid. Toss the latke mixture with the flour, salt and cayenne. Stir in the egg. Heat a ¼-inch layer of oil in a large cast iron or other heavy skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, spoon about ¼ cup of the latke mixture into the skillet, pressing lightly to form 3-inch pancakes. Take care not to overcrowd the pan. Cook, turning once, until just golden, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to the rack in the oven while you cook the remaining batter. Serve the latkes topped with a small dollop of sour cream and horseradish. Garnish with a parsley leaf. Serve immediately.

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COLUMNS

THE HIDDEN VALUE IN FASHION’S INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY By Sarthak Brahma

operations were separated, allowing the IP to be valued and commercialized independently. Lego offers a complementary lesson. It combines proprietary franchises with licensed properties such as “Star Wars” and Harry Potter, choosing what to own and what to license. Revenue reached DKK 74.3 billion in 2024, approximately $10.8 billion, up 13%. Its performance also reflected product demand, execution and supply chain strength.

SARTHAK BRAHMA CEO and Managing Partner, Hex Advisory Group

Picture a due diligence call. A buyer asks who owns the fabric technology behind a best-selling line. Merchandising points to design. Design points to the mill. The supplier agreement is silent. The call goes quiet, giving the buyer another reason to question the business’s value. Control of intellectual property (IP) determines who captures its value. Yet the value created in brands, designs, proprietary know-how and customer insights may be largely invisible on the balance sheet. Accounting rules generally prevent internally generated brands and similar intangible assets from being recognized, even when they contribute significantly to competitive advantage and future earnings. This creates a gap between the value a company builds and what its financial statements show. What Clean Ownership Looks Like Authentic Brands Group (ABG) shows what happens when IP becomes the core business. Its portfolio, including Forever 21, Brooks Brothers, Reebok and Guess, has been reported to represent approximately $10 billion in IP value. In September 2026, CEO Matt Maddox told Bloomberg that ABG expects this value to double over two years. ABG licenses its brands to operating partners, generating revenue from IP while partners manage much of the retail operation. The Guess transaction offers a clear example. In early 2026, ABG secured a 51% stake in the entity, holding substantially all of Guess’s intellectual property. Guess’s co-founders and CEO held the remaining 49%, while management took ownership of the operating business. Brand ownership and retail

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The lesson is to know where ownership creates an advantage and where partnerships deliver more value. Where Fashion Companies Lose Control For many fashion companies, the picture is messier. Fabric technology is developed with suppliers, customer data sits across platforms with different terms, and design archives and product insights are scattered across systems and partners. AI adds another layer of complexity. When retailers’ data is used to train AI models or generate designs and insights, the company’s rights to those outputs can depend on contractual terms. Who controls those outputs, and can the retailer keep using them if it changes providers? The answers determine whether the company retains the value it helped create.

For fashion leaders, AI can also help identify price discrepancies across suppliers, surface contract terms that no longer reflect market conditions and reveal opportunities to consolidate spending. The value comes from translating these insights into sourcing decisions and supplier renegotiations, then tracking whether the expected savings reach the bottom line. Capturing these gains requires reliable data, clear processes and contracts that preserve access to platform-generated insights. Retailers are increasingly bringing strategic capabilities in-house to gain greater control over how work gets done, how data is used and where IP resides. Global capability centers (GCCs) can support this shift while creating strategic optionality: a platform to integrate acquisitions with less friction, replicate capabilities across brands, reduce vendor lock-in and preserve flexibility for future sales or separations. As the platform scales, these capabilities can contribute to long-term enterprise value. Clear agreements on IP ownership remain essential. Four Questions for Your 2027 Planning Meeting 1.

2. Unclear ownership weakens licensing negotiations and complicates due diligence. Paying for technology or innovation does not automatically secure every right to the resulting data, designs or insights. 3. The silent contracts, the ones that say nothing about who owns the output, are the dangerous ones. The issue extends beyond legal ownership. Retailers must understand the economics of the relationships through which value is created. Can the company reuse the insights it funded? What would it cost to move a capability to another provider? These questions connect IP rights to supplier economics, switching costs and decisions about which capabilities to build internally and which to source externally. AI Is Changing the Economics of Sourcing AI-enabled sourcing platforms can analyze spending, compare suppliers, review contracts and automate purchasing work that once required substantial manual effort. Looking ahead to 2027, the opportunity is to lower operating costs and redirect resources toward product innovation and customer experience.

What do we own, license or share? Map the designs, data, product knowledge and technology behind your most important products, starting with key supplier and technology relationships. Can we reuse what we pay for? Check whether contracts protect your rights to access, retain and reuse data, designs and insights, including when a supplier relationship ends or a platform changes. Where can AI improve sourcing economics? Identify opportunities to uncover price discrepancies, consolidate spending and renegotiate supplier terms. Determine which capabilities require direct control and how savings will be measured and captured. Could we prove ownership quickly? If a buyer, licensee or lender asked, could you demonstrate ownership and usage rights in days rather than months?

Ask your general counsel and procurement leader which questions they can answer today. Resolve the gaps before they weaken a negotiation, constrain growth or complicate a transaction. The value is already being created. The question is who has the right to capture it.

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EDITOR’S PICKS

EDITOR’S

PICKS

1. Meshki: Sammie Fringe Knit Top in Charcoal Designed with tactile fringe detailing and long sleeves, this knit top pairs a wide neckline with an inverted V hemline. It is fitted through the waist, balancing the textural qualities with a slim silhouette. $105 | meshki.com 2. & Other Stories: Labradorite Hoop Earrings in Gold Crafted from gold-plated brass, these earrings feature labradorite drop pendants suspended from a smaller loop attached to the main hoop. The double-hoop design creates subtle movement. $45 | stories.com 3. Alice + Olivia: Maeve Side-Slit Midi Skirt in Cognac Made from smooth vegan leather, this slip skirt falls to midcalf and features a side slit for ease of movement without compromising its polished silhouette. Its dark reddishbrown tone is an ideal pairing piece for fall and winter outfits. $350 | aliceandolivia.com

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4. Guess: Leonie Leather Clutch in Red This genuine leather clutch offers a compact, minimalist profile and a buckle for secure closure. Polished gold-tone hardware accents the design’s clean lines. $200 | guess.com 5. Violette_FR: Plume Lip in Syrah Fumé Formulated with a hydrating gel-cream texture, this liquid lipstick comes in a matte, medium-coverage finish. The smoky, deep berry color applies smoothly for lightweight, long-lasting wear. $31 | violettefr.com

6. Jeffrey Campbell: Daring-2 Boot in Dark Wine This pointed-toe stiletto boot hits at the ankle, pairing dramatic lines with a stable, comfortable base. Crafted from crinkle patent leather, it has a high shine and a soft, vintage-inspired finish. $165 | jeffreycampbellshoes.com

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Beatrizories Access

The Art of Filipino Craftsmanship

Somewhere between tradition and reinvention lies the art of making something distinctly one’s own. For Beatriz Accessories, this comes to life through color, texture and the intricate geometry of handcrafted design, celebrating Filipino creativity through the joyful spirit of its people. Established in 2015, Beatriz Accessories grew from founder Carissa Cruz Evangelista’s deep appreciation for Filipino craftsmanship. Before launching the brand, Evangelista worked closely with communitybased enterprises and livelihood communities across the Philippines, gaining firsthand insight into the artistry, resourcefulness and talent of local makers. These experiences shaped a vision that places Filipino creativity at the heart of contemporary design. From its earliest collections, Beatriz Accessories has embraced individuality, vibrant color and a distinctly Filipino perspective. Its signature bags embody this ethos, combining bold palettes, distinctive silhouettes and intricate geometric patterns. Each piece begins with a lightweight clutch structure, onto which individual strands of thread are carefully arranged by hand. Using a specialized gluing technique, artisans transform these strands into intricate compositions, balancing precision with artistic expression. Every detail matters: the placement of a single strand, the rhythm of a pattern and the interplay of colors. This meticulous, labor-intensive process demands patience and skill while allowing room for experimentation, giving Beatriz Accessories its youthful and unmistakable design identity. The brand’s distinctive approach quickly gained international recognition. In March 2015, Beatriz Accessories received the Katha Award for Fashion during the 61st edition of Manila Fame, a trade show held by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM). The following year, it was featured in Oprah’s “Favorite Things,” introducing its colorful creations to a wider global audience.

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FASHION SPHERE Photos courtesy of Beatriz Accessories

Today, Beatriz Accessories continues to reach new milestones. Its newly launched Fractal Collision Star Clutch in Astra was named a finalist in the 2026 Design Excellence Awards by Accessories Council in the handbags under $1,000 category, marking another achievement for the brand. Its creations have also reached prestigious cultural institutions and retail destinations, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as well as the Wait and See boutique in Milan and select upscale boutiques and department stores. Despite its growing international reach, Beatriz Accessories remains deeply connected to the communities behind its craft. Through collaborations with local makers, the brand champions Filipino skills, supports creative livelihoods and gives traditional artistry new relevance in contemporary fashion. Craftsmanship becomes not only a production technique mannpublications.com

but also a means of preserving knowledge and bringing Filipino talent into a wider design conversation. As the brand evolves, Beatriz Accessories continues to explore new materials and techniques while staying true to its founding principles: meticulous craftsmanship, thoughtful design and an unrestrained love of color. Each new direction expands its visual language without losing the character that makes it distinctly its own. More than a decade after its founding, Beatriz Accessories remains a celebration of Filipino ingenuity and creative possibility. Through every carefully placed strand and unexpected combination of color, the brand transforms local craftsmanship into contemporary design, creating pieces that honor their makers while inviting personal expression. Its story is a testament to what happens when Filipino artistry explores a world ready to embrace it. November/December 2026

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Paka Apparel: Connecting Conscious Consumerism With Measurable Social Impact By Merilee Kern, MBA

A chance encounter on a rooftop in Peru helped launch an apparel company that now connects American outdoor enthusiasts with centuries-old Andean weaving traditions. For Paka founder Kris Cody, the experience began during a backpacking trip through South America, where a woman named Gregoria introduced him to the craft of working with alpaca fiber. The Mamani family of weavers subsequently helped create his first hoodie. What began as a personal fascination became a business Cody launched from his college dorm room in 2016. That first hoodie attracted an enthusiastic audience. According to the company, Paka’s Kickstarter campaign exceeded its fundraising goal by 1,700%. A decade later, the Certified B Corporation has expanded into outdoor apparel, performance layers and accessories while maintaining relationships with the Peruvian artisans and alpaca-herding communities that shaped its origins. The timing is significant. Textile Exchange’s September 2026 materials market report estimates that global fiber production reached 139 million metric tons in 2025, up from 132 million the previous year. Polyester accounted for 59% of production, while textile-to-textile recycling represented only 0.76%. As apparel consumption continues to expand, Paka has built its identity around a different relationship among clothing, its origins and the people responsible for making it.

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Perhaps the clearest expression of that philosophy appears in a small detail sewn into its sweaters. Each garment bears a handwoven “Inca ID” that links it to the woman who created it through the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco (CTTC). Master Quechua weaver Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez, who has directed CTTC since 1996, oversees the weaving team. The arrangement provides ongoing work for more than 300 women artisans. Paka supplies raw materials and equipment, supports predictable income and helps facilitate biweekly gatherings where weavers and their children share meals and traditional knowledge. For customers, the identification creates a personal connection to a craft that might otherwise remain anonymous. That emphasis on provenance extends to the fiber itself. Paka introduced its first traceable alpaca hoodie in 2022 and expanded the initiative with traceable alpaca 2.0 in 2024. Its 2025 impact report shows that 45.4% of total fiber use is traceable alpaca. The company reports that 98% of its fibers, totaling more than 146,000 kilograms, came from natural, organic, cellulosic or recycled sources. Its material composition included 26.3% recycled nylon and polyester, 12.1% Tencel, 11.3% organic cotton, 2.9% wool and 1.7%

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FASHION SPHERE

Photos courtesy of Paka

virgin synthetics. Paka also avoids restricted substances and intentionally added PFAS. Its product development reflects an effort to make those materials practical for contemporary lifestyles. The men’s ultralight crewneck sweater blends royal alpaca, organic pima cotton and recycled polyester, incorporating Coolmax moisture management, raglan sleeves and a tapered silhouette. Paka promotes alpaca’s thermoregulating and odorreducing properties, positioning the garment for travel, outdoor recreation and everyday wear. The company’s commitments extend into the Peruvian highlands, where alpaca herding sustains families living at elevations above 15,000 feet. Through fiber purchases and ongoing supplier relationships, Paka reports supporting approximately 7,300 herding families, known as alpaqueros, in 2025. Community investments have included renovating a school with improved classrooms, a library, a kitchen and bathrooms, along with two greenhouse projects intended to improve access to fresh vegetables. Nutrition education addresses anemia prevention and dental hygiene, while another initiative prioritizes herders older than 70. The health of the animals is equally important. Paka reports providing veterinary care, parasite control, vitamin supplementation and farmer education benefiting more than 60,000 alpacas across eight communities. The company also distributed 40 breeding males across two communities to strengthen herd genetics and reduce inbreeding. Education has become another defining commitment. Through its partnership with Peruvian Hearts, the Paka scholars initiative awarded 15 full university scholarships to young Peruvian women in 2025, bringing its cumulative total

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to 24. Four scholars graduated during the year, with participants pursuing fields including medicine, dentistry, psychology and tourism. The company also introduced an entrepreneurial fund, awarding its first grant to a scholar developing a local floral business, and has provided more than 16,000 community meals. These programs now operate through the Paka Foundation, which was formally established in 2025 as a nonprofit. The company commits 1% of annual revenue to Peruvian communities through initiatives with CTTC, Pacomarca, Semilla and Peruvian Hearts. Gisella Garate, Paka’s director of Peru and impact, helps coordinate the work. Paka’s commercial footprint continues to expand through its Breathe by Paka activewear, developed with SeaLegacy; its Pakafill insulation; and its flagship store in Cusco, Peru, which opened on Plaza de Armas in 2024. Many members of its design, operations, finance and customer service teams work in Peru. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates textiles generate 2% to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Paka’s sourcing disclosures and community investments offer tangible evidence of its approach, although independently verified life-cycle impacts and longterm program outcomes remain important measures. For Cody, the company’s identity still traces back to Gregoria’s rooftop and the family that helped make his first hoodie. Ten years later, Paka’s growth has given that original encounter a much larger audience while keeping its Peruvian relationships central to the business.

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Insis

Wrapping the Season in Wool

In the quiet of long winter nights, counting sheep is a universal habit: a gentle, repetitive ritual meant to empty the mind and surrender to sleep. But as the year draws to a close, it takes on a different warmth. We no longer count to drift away but to look forward, marking the days until we gather with the people we hold dear. Chinese label Insis, founded in 2015, dresses the season differently: not in tinsel, but in wool. There is no countdown clock, no rush to check boxes before the year ends, just the slow return of thicker layers and the patient math of how 84 | FM

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many days remain until the table is full again. That waiting unfolds through three elements Insis keeps returning to: nature, body and time. Stepping away from the loud, superficial clichés associated with festive symbols, Insis grounds its holiday story in the tactile warmth of natural wool. Counting sheep becomes counting the days on a calendar. Natural ease this time of year means not reaching for anything louder than wool.

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FASHION SPHERE Nature: The Unspoken Texture of Celebration Insis was founded on a simple belief: a garment should never lose its value because the season has changed. In an industry built on novelty and obsolescence, it offers a steadier wardrobe, with pieces that accompany the wearer through seasons and years. “Nature” begins with raw materials and their inherent qualities. “Body” is about how clothing moves with us. “Time” tests the lasting relationship between a garment and the wardrobe it belongs to. Together, they turn attention from fleeting visual imagery toward what often remains unseen: exceptional fibers, thoughtful construction and the grounded experience of everyday wear. This thinking carries naturally into the brand’s latest seasonal collection. As winter settles in and the 2027 Chinese Year of the Goat approaches, Insis weaves sheep and goat motifs into warming, tactile knitwear. While holiday dressing often relies on shiny synthetics, ornaments or costume-like motifs, Insis finds celebration in texture and material origins. Winter’s warmth is rooted in nature before a single thread is spun or dyed. From fine merino to blends of sheep’s wool, alpaca and yak wool, this season’s soft animal fibers carry the resilience of open meadows, holding warmth and breathing effortlessly against the frost. Without flashy logos or glitter, these unpretentious knitwear pieces borrow the unpolished beauty of the natural world: festive, yet real. Body: The Architecture of Intimacy Winter celebrations are defined by physical proximity: long-awaited embraces, crowded, laughter-filled dining tables and shared spaces that soften the coldest months. How clothing feels against the body shapes how fully we can be present. Winter often confines us to rigid layers and heavy, restrictive outer shells, inadvertently creating a barrier between ourselves and the world around us. Natural ease offers clothing that follows the body’s rhythm rather than imposing a prescribed silhouette. Knitwear serves as the purest expression of this belief. A knitted loop is, at its core, a delicate structure of trapped air and yarn, designed to yield, stretch and return, leaving room for movement and breath.

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Before the holidays, crisp air draws us toward heavier, more comforting sweaters. A marked wall calendar and gradually thicker layers make time’s passage visible. In these intimate settings, clothing should require neither rigid postures nor constant adjustment. Softened shoulders, generous sleeves and clean, seamless construction minimize friction against the skin. When family and friends embrace, there is no cold synthetic shell between them, only the soft, responsive loft of natural fibers. Natural ease becomes a luxury of comfort so complete that you forget what you are wearing and give your full attention to the people around you.

Photos courtesy of Insis

Time: The Calendar and Permanence A pen circling a date on a wall calendar is one of the season’s most familiar images. In a culture of instant gratification, the deliberate act of waiting has become a luxury. We count the days because the moments ahead carry real weight and meaning. The fast-fashion cycle urges us to buy a disposable “holiday outfit” for one evening and then abandon it when the new year begins. Insis was established precisely to reject this cycle of waste. Time means a garment should hold its meaning long after the purchase itself is forgotten. Free of loud, transient gimmicks, this season’s natural knitwear, including premium wool blends, is built to last. Subtle sheep and goat motifs woven into jacquard patterns lend the cloth a gentle, living rhythm. These garments are made to witness your laughter this December and to remain in your wardrobe, offering familiar comfort next year and for years afterward. Attention to yarn integrity and precision in construction create clothing capable of holding the memory of more than one winter. “Counting the days” is a meditation on how we spend a year’s final weeks. Winter reminds us that time is meant to be felt slowly. It whispers that the finest way to honor a season is to dwell in it, not rush through. In the tactile depth of a wool sweater, the comfort of natural fibers and that circled calendar date, Insis offers a quiet reminder: true warmth is never made overnight. It is gathered, loop by loop, day by day. We no longer count sheep to drift into silence. We count the days to awaken in unhurried comfort, alongside the ones we love.

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TRADESHOWS

EXCLUSIVE DETAILS FOR SHOWS IN: • Dallas • Denver • Las Vegas • Los Angeles • Nashville • Orlando • New York

MANN’S CONNECTING THE FASHION INDUSTRY WITH THE WORLD OF TRADESHOWS mannpublications.com

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TRADESHOWS

Denim, Recast.

Botter Brings Its Creative Process to Denim Première Vision In November 2026, Denim Première Vision will present its latest edition at Superstudio Più in Milan, Italy, celebrating quality, expertise, creativity and innovation. The show will unveil “Denim, Recast.,” a collaborative project developed with the avant-garde fashion label Botter. Through an open atelier, visitors will discover the research, experimentation and craftsmanship that shape the creative process, from initial idea to finished garment. A Global Showcase of Denim Expertise For this edition, Denim Première Vision will bring together 50 exhibitors representing the full diversity of the denim industry. Fabric and denim mills will account for 60% of the offering alongside garment manufacturers (16%) and accessory suppliers (6%), complemented by specialists in chemicals and fibers. The Mediterranean region will be well represented, with notable participation from Italian and Tunisian manufacturers and a significant Turkish delegation of 10 exhibitors. Asia will also have a strong presence, with seven Chinese exhibitors, six Japanese mills and two exhibitors from Bangladesh. The show will welcome new exhibitors, including Sumitomo Chemicals and Kahiara. Among the exhibiting companies, Sharabati, Pioneer Denim, Maritas, Howa, Kuroki and Advance Denim will showcase the diversity of expertise represented at the show. Initiatives focused on responsible production, such as those led by the European Recycling Project and Chloris, will demonstrate the industry’s growing focus on sustainability. Pakistani manufacturers such as Asghar Nine and Chottani Industries will further highlight the strength of the region’s offerings. “For the past 10 years, our show has been committed to bringing together a carefully curated selection of exhibitors, with quality always at the heart of our approach,” said Fabio Adami Dalla Val, show manager of Denim Première Vision. “Our goal is to offer visitors an enriching and inspiring experience by showcasing the diversity of the denim industry across its entire value chain, from mass-market to premium and luxury segments. By bringing together a broad range of expertise and creative perspectives, we strive to reflect the full richness of the denim ecosystem and inspire industry professionals to explore new ideas, innovations and opportunities.”

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Denim, Recast. With Botter: From Creative Vision to Material Experimentation With Denim, Recast., Botter and Denim Première Vision will explore the creative potential of bringing designers and manufacturers together around a shared ambition: to expand the possibilities of denim through experimentation and technical exchange. Botter explores denim through material research and transformation, drawing on its Caribbean roots and its close relationship with the natural world. “We are drawn to the way surfaces evolve under the influence of their environment and over time. This inspires us to experiment with textures and processes, allowing unexpected qualities to emerge from the material. It is an ongoing exploration of how a familiar material can take on new expressions,” said Botter founders Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh.

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Photos courtesy of Première Vision

TRADESHOWS

For the project, Botter will provide creative direction, concepts and cultural perspective, while the Denim Première Vision fashion team will facilitate connections with specialists across the denim industry. Participating manufacturers will contribute their technical knowledge and production capabilities. An Open Atelier: Experience Innovation in the Making Denim, Recast. will take physical form as an open, evolving working environment. Part atelier, part material library and part laboratory, the installation will reveal the stages of a process usually hidden from view. The space will bring together designers’ inspirations, material research, fabric developments, experimental printing and bonding, washing tests, gar ment construction and prototypes. Early trials will sit alongside more developed solutions, revealing the decisions, adjustments and discoveries behind each experiment. Visitors will discover the results of months of collaboration among Botter, the Denim Première Vision fashion team and participating industry specialists, including material developments created specifically for the project.

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TRADESHOWS

Photos courtesy of Performance Days

Performance Days Sets New Benchmark With Autumn 2026 Edition, Confirming Success of Expanded Show Concept Perfor mance Days concluded its autumn 2026 event at Messe München with 5,170 trade visitors, an increase of approximately 20% compared to the previous autumn edition. With 599 exhibitors and approximately 27,500 square meters of exhibition space, the October event marked the largest edition in the trade fair’s history. The two-day event confirmed the strength of its unique combination: a highly focused business and sourcing platform complemented by forwardlooking innovation, expert knowledge and valuable networking opportunities. “The response to this edition has been outstanding. We took an important step by expanding the show, and the feedback from across the industry confirms that this was exactly the right direction,” said Marco Weichert, CEO of Performance Days. Expanded Show Concept Strikes a Chord With the Industry The expanded exhibition space created new opportunities for exhibitors while allowing Performance Days to further develop its established forum concept. Specialist areas offered a comprehensive overview of developments shaping the functional textile industry, from alternative fibers and innovative garment construction to digital design processes and circular business models. Sustainability Exchange: A New Hub for Industry Dialogue One highlight of the expanded concept was the new sustainability exchange. Developed as an evolution of the established sustainability lounge, the dedicated area brought together solution providers, certification organizations and industry initiatives to address the growing complexity of sustainability requirements.

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The integrated sustainability stage and accompanying workshops attracted strong interest, with discussions fo c u s i n g o n E u ro p e a n U n i o n legislation, circularity, biodiversity, next-generation materials and the practical challenges of implementing more responsible business practices. The new repair service, supported by YKK and Duraflex, provided a tangible example of circularity in action, offering garment repairs at the fair and highlighting the growing importance of durability and repairability. Expert Talks: A Platform for the Issues Driving the Industry Across the expert talks, sustainability stage and new breakout stage, industry specialists addressed the questions currently driving the textile sector. Bio-based materials, fossil-free performance, circularity, regulatory developments and emerging technologies featured prominently in discussions that connected scientific progress with commercial realities. A particular highlight was “The Road to Fossil-Free Performance,” an expert talk featuring Weichert alongside Dominik Fuss of The Natural Laboratory and Satish Tailor of Vollebak. The discussion explored the challenges and opportunities of reducing the industry’s dependence on fossil-based resources without compromising technical performance. Trend Forums and Innovation: From New Fibers to MarketReady Solutions Innovation remained at the heart of the event. The autumn 2026 focus topic, “Bio-Based Materials: From Fiber to Fabric,” provided a central theme for exploring renewable raw materials, alternative fiber technologies and their potential for functional textile applications.

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The expanded trend forum landscape offered curated insights across apparel, accessories, footwear, bodywear and wool. The new cellulose forum highlighted the growing relevance of cellulosic fibers, while the garment tech forum placed greater emphasis on the technologies and processes transforming innovative materials into functional garments.

welcoming environment. “Performance Days is currently the platform where suppliers in the textile industry simply need to be present. Why? Because despite its impressive growth, the show has remained a true business platform. This is not just a place for networking; this is where real business gets done, projects move forward and new partnerships take shape,” he said.

The digital design journey demonstrated the creative and technological possibilities of digital product development, while the innovation forum and innovation hub by Future Fabrics Expo presented forward-looking solutions and emerging material concepts.

“The premiere of the cellulose forum was an overwhelming success for us. We had consistently excellent, in-depth conversations and experienced tremendous interest in cellulosebased materials. The new format truly captures the spirit of the times. More and more brands are exploring natural and renewable fibers, looking for innovative, high-performance material alternatives,” said Niccy Kol, regenerative partnerships lead for Raddis Cotton.

The Performance Days awards ceremony was another highlight, recognizing outstanding developments in textile innovation. Flytec received the Performance Award for Flytec Defend, a material featuring a microporous polypropylene membrane. Together, the forums, awards and innovation areas reflected an industry undergoing transformation, driven by the need to combine high performance, responsible material choices and commercially viable solutions. Industry Voices: The Right Audience, the Right Atmosphere The positive feedback from exhibitors and media partners reflected the overall atmosphere of the event. Jochen Schulz, regional senior account manager of Duraflex, particularly appreciated the fair’s clear target-group focus and

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Looking Ahead: Continuing the Success Story With record attendance, strong exhibitor participation and an overwhelmingly positive response to its expanded concept, Performance Days has further strengthened its position as a leading international sourcing and innovation platform for the functional textile industry. “The success of this edition shows that our approach works. The industry needs a place where business, innovation and knowledge come together, but where personal exchange remains at the center,” concluded Weichert. “We will continue to develop Performance Days together with our community, always with the ambition to create real value for everyone involved.”

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LAST LOOK

GIFT GUIDE

1. Lego: Claude Monet — Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies | $250 | lego.com 2. Compartes: Treasures of the Orchard Chocolate-Covered Fruit Gift Box | $74 | compartes.com 3. Ark: Dog Tails Bookmark | $15 | arkcolourdesign.com 4. The Old Yew Plant Shop: Chinese Money Plant | $28 | theoldyew.com

5. Alohas: Aven Rift Burgundy Leather Loafers | $195 | alohas.com 6. Otter Wax: Leather Salve | $10 | otterwax.com 7. Orebella: Signature Parfums Bundle | $131 | orebella.com 8. Damson Madder: 2 Pack Socks in Mix Choc Stripe | $45 | damsonmadder.com 9. Skippy Cotton: Heart in Hand Lavender Scented Token | $28 | skippycotton.com 10. Officine Universelle Buly: The Rebel Comb | $46 | buly1803.com 11. Atorie: Lazy Retro Shoulder Bag | $249 | atorie.com 12. Osea: Undaria Algae Body Oil | $84 | oseamalibu.com 13. Cyklar: Sacred Santal Sensorial Body Wash | $35 | cyklar.com

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LAST LOOK

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