AI try-ons, a resale surge, and one fashion-tech founder headed to prison—let’s find out which numbers can actually be trusted. If you’re joining us mid-episode, here’s the short version: retail tariff refunds are now a live margin-and-pricing question across broadline retail. Target received $994 million in pre-tax refunds in Q2 and said it would put that toward lower prices rather than directly refunding shoppers. Walmart, BJ’s Wholesale Club, and Amazon are also weighing whether the refunds go to prices, margins, or customer refunds. This is Fashion Business Daily. Today: a retail-tech demo asking for belief, a new off-price scoreboard, and real resale heat in women’s watches. Let’s start with the AI mirror. The Times of India writes:
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (ABFRL) is showcasing AI-enabled virtual try-on technology at its Aditya Birla Fashion Excellence Day in Mumbai, with PointAI as its artificial intelligence (AI) partner. PointAI is demonstrating its In-Store Virtual Trial Room and AI Fashion Advisor, and plans to bring the technology to ABFRL’s brand stores shortly.
One-second virtual try-on sounds cute. But ABFRL and PointAI are showing this at an Excellence Day in Mumbai; shoppers haven’t gotten to test it yet. Precisely. PointAI says it plans to bring the virtual trial room and Fashion Advisor into ABFRL brand stores shortly. So far, it’s a showcase. There’s no signed nationwide rollout, and no conversion or sell-through figures attached. And the physics simulation has to survive actual clothes—tailoring, knits, weird proportions—not just a clean screen render. If it helps someone build a look in-store, great. If it’s another mirror people play with for twelve seconds, it’s furniture. This one's from DTC Dispatch:
Ross Stores has overtaken TJX as the standout performer in off-price retail. The company reported Q2 fiscal 2026 results on August 20, posting $6.26 billion in sales, a 13% increase year over year, with comparable store sales rising 10%. Shares jumped 7.92% to $247.12 in after-hours trading.
Ross reported $6.26 billion in Q2 sales, up 13%, with a company-reported 10% comp. Against TJX, let’s be precise: Marmaxx—T.J. Maxx and Marshalls—managed 1%. That’s a very wide gap. Everybody wants a good off-price lease. Ross is giving customers a reason to make the trip: 10% comps for a second straight quarter says the assortment is landing, not just the store count. The beat showed up in the bottom line: diluted EPS was $2.66 versus the $1.94 analyst consensus, while net income rose 68% to $851.3 million. The tariff-refund story matters here too—Ross turned $253 million in IEEPA refunds into a visible margin tailwind. Sure, the refunds helped. But even excluding them, operating margin rose 205 basis points—above Ross’s own 130-to-150-point guide. That’s a quarter TJX’s Marmaxx team is going to feel. From Retail Gazette:
The founder of fashion rental technology business CaaStle has been sentenced to five years in prison after admitting to orchestrating a $300m (£223m) fraud that deceived hundreds of investors. Christine Hunsicker, the former chief executive of CaaStle, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court on Thursday after pleading guilty to one count of securities fraud earlier this year.
Christine Hunsicker gets five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to securities fraud tied to $300 million. Prosecutors say CaaStle investors were shown falsified income statements, fake audits, and fictitious bank records. The financials were fabricated. And CaaStle wasn’t some garage-project app. It sold rental infrastructure to LK Bennett and Moss Bros while pitching a valuation above $1.4 billion. Everybody loves the future of fashion right up until somebody asks where the cash actually is. The conduct allegedly ran from 2019 through 2025, and prosecutors say she sought more funding even after the board removed her as chair in December 2024. A showcase, a valuation, or a retailer logo can’t substitute for verified revenue and cash. We just talked about PointAI at a Mumbai showcase. Fine—show the tool. But CaaStle is the brutal reminder that a fashion-tech pitch can look very polished while the underlying business is on fire. From María Bertero at Modaes Global:
The Mexican company closed the second quarter with a 1.5% increase in revenue, reaching 57.29 billion pesos, and net income that soared 55% to 5.122 billion pesos, although that jump is primarily due to an accounting effect: in 2025, the company absorbed the costs of its move to Arco Norte, where it set up its new distribution center.
Liverpool cut its 2026 same-store-sales outlook to 2.5% to 3.5%, and Suburbia now sits between minus 1% and plus 1%. That’s a retailer planning for a consumer who’s very much still on the couch. And they’re choosing margin over panic markdowns. I respect it—if the fashion isn’t moving, spraying discounts everywhere just trains people to wait for the red sticker. Revenue rose 1.5% to 57.29 billion pesos. Net income jumped 55% to 5.122 billion, but Modaes says that largely reflects last year’s Arco Norte relocation costs. It’s a useful accounting comparison, but it doesn’t mean demand suddenly came roaring back. Exactly. They sold 345,000 Mexico jerseys during the last co-hosted World Cup while the rest of fashion stayed flat. Event product can spike; building a whole department-store plan around that kind of heat would be ridiculous. This one's from Glossy:
Wristwatches are a historically male-dominated category. Most prestigious and best-selling models are larger watches designed for men’s wrists. But that’s shifting. New data from secondary watch dealer Bob’s Watches, shared with Glossy, shows that some of the best-performing watches in the last six months have been women’s watches.
The Lady-Datejust is moving like a proper drop now. Bob’s Watches says five of its 10 fastest-appreciating Rolexes are Lady-Datejust variants, and the Datejust 31 climbed almost 70% from December to May. We’re looking at resale-market evidence here. Glossy’s data puts Lady-Datejust pricing around $5,000 to $10,000 on Chrono24, and that more accessible entry point is clearly meeting real demand. Zendaya in a diamond-paved Lady-Datejust helps, sure. But Bob’s Watches’ Paul Altieri is right: celebrity can create a bump; it doesn’t usually manufacture a 68% jump. People are finally treating smaller watches as collectible objects, not just accessories beside the serious men’s model. The category is already a $27 billion annual market, with projections nearing $50 billion over the next decade. If those resale gains hold, the women’s watch market is closing in on the current $52 billion men’s market—with numbers the trade can actually audit. If Fashion Business Daily is part of your routine, please subscribe and leave us a review wherever you’re listening. Reviews help other people find the show, and we’re grateful you’re here.
Links to every story are in the show notes, so take a look at the ones you’d like to explore further. That’s all for today—thanks for listening. This is Fashion Business Daily, a Lantern Podcast.