In an effort to be more inclusive, Victoria's Secret has hired Ali Tate-Cutler as the brand's first plus-size model. The company has been working on rehabilitating its image ever since their former chief marketing officer Ed Razek made transphobic remarks and made it clear he had no desire to see plus-size models at the Victoria's Secret fashion show.Tate-Cutler will star in the new campaign for the collaboration between Victoria's Secret and U.K. lingerie label Bluebella. Tate-C

Swiss luxury group Richemont's e-commerce platform Net-a-Porter is opening a flagship store on Tmall Luxury Pavilion, Alibaba Group's channel for luxury brands. It will feature exclusive capsule collections from Net-a-Porter and its menswear counterpart, Mr. Porter, and deliver customised brand pages, personalised content, exclusive VIP rewards to shoppers.Pic: Net-a-Porter"Net-a-Porter's store will offer more than 130 luxury and designer brands at launch, then continue to expan

John Lewis & Partners is paying customers to return preloved clothes to its Oxford store in a bid to “address the increasing volumes of clothing being sent to landfill.”The ‘BuyBack’ trial, which launched on 4 October and runs for six weeks, allows ‘my John Lewis’ members to return preloved items from any womenswear and menswear brands stocked at John Lewis & Partners. Customers will receive 3 pounds per item up to a maximum of three pieces of clothing. The money can then be spent with J

Marks and Spencer has relaunched one of its most well-known sub-brands, Per Una, in a refresh that aims to shift customer perceptions of the brand from ‘too frilly’ to ‘stylishly feminine’.It is the first major campaign for Per Una in over five years and comes as part of the British retailer’s initiative to simplify its sub-brand offering in order to improve the customer shopping experience, an initiative that includes scrapping ‘Classics’ as of Autumn/Winter 2019. The rebrand also sees a new lo

Hazard assessment workshop. © ASBCIThe importance of hazard identification in product design, understanding foreseeable use, and mitigating the commercial risks of global supply chains were just some of the topics discussed at the interactive and educational technical seminar on effective risk management organised last month by the ASBCI and sponsored by TÜV SÜD.The ASBCI’s latest technical seminar opened with a comprehensive overview of product safety regulations from keynote speaker Sheikh Min

Topman has outlined a new strategy for Autumn 2019 which will see it relaunch its in-house brands and reduce its pricing structure by 10 percent.The Arcadia-owned group announced it will re-launch a number of in-house brands helmed by its recently-appointed trading director, Mitch Hughes. Eleven new concession brands including Hermano and Marshall Artist will also be added to the retailer, and it will expand its leisurewear category - taking it to a fifth of the total business.On the sustainabil

Contemporary clothing brand Knickerbocker has teamed up with The New York Times to open a pop-up store in Soho after being announced the winner of Appear Here’s Space for Ideas competition.Located at 357 Canal Street, the 1,300-square-foot store will be open between 25 September and 7 October and will preview The Times Store and Knickerbocker’s collaborative work along with their fall and holiday collections.Appear Here, a marketplace for retail space, hosts the competition annually, offering wi

Trendstop brings FashionUnited readers a first look at the key collections to grace the runways of Milan Fashion Week.Trendstop's catwalk experts bring you the top designer showcases from Milan Fashion Week. The empowerment of the woman was a talking point for many collections, taking masculine codes and reworking them into womenswear that was both desirable and practical, from utilitarian tailoring to lower heeled footwear. The environmental impact of the fashion industry on the wider world

Outfits can be made more fashionable through style change suggestions using a new Facebook artificial intelligence (AI) system called Fashion++. Designed to offer help on everyday style dilemmas, it may recommend tucking in a shirt, ditching an accessory or swapping a skirt for jeans—easy adjustments that would not force a person to spend on a new purchase.Pic: FacebookAI scientists are increasingly finding that technology can amplify human creativity in unexpected ways, said Facebook on its web

British designer Stella McCartney was among the winners at this year’s Green Carpet Fashion Awards, Italia, which recognised the commitment of individuals and Italian fashion houses to sustainability.The awards, now in its third year, closed Milan Fashion Week and saw McCartney awarded with the ‘Groundbreaker Award’ by her friend Amber Valletta, while Francois Henri-Pinault, chairman and chief executive of Kering Group, received the ‘Visionary Award’ and Flavia La Rocca, took home the Franca Soz