Off-White is losing its director just as Shein hits the market. Here’s how we got here: Shein’s IPO chase had already moved from New York and London to Hong Kong after regulatory scrutiny made those earlier routes harder. Before this listing, expectations had reset from a near-$100 billion private peak to roughly $27 billion. The question was whether ultra-fast-fashion growth can hold up under tariffs, fulfillment costs, and low-value-parcel rules. This is Fashion Business Daily. A creative exit, a public-market reality check, and an Indian activewear brand making a sharp turn. We start with Off-White. Here's Glossy:
But since Abloh’s death, the brand has appeared listless. It spent several years with no specific individual in the creative leadership role. It has had multiple owners, including New Guards Group, Farfetch, which purchased New Guards in 2019, LVMH through a 60% ownership stake in 2021 and finally Bluestar Alliance, which purchased the company in 2024.
Ib Kamara is out, and Off-White still hasn’t named a successor. Four owners in roughly five years—from New Guards to Farfetch to LVMH to Bluestar—and they’re still treating a creative house like a transferable asset. The clearest signal is The RealReal’s company-provided resale data, cited by Glossy: Off-White GMV fell nearly 9% over the past year. That comes alongside a closed New York flagship and a shuttered China retail network. Now they’re testing lower-priced distribution while the creative seat is empty again. Bluestar Alliance may know trademarks and licensing, but Off-White needs someone with a point of view people actually want to wear. Kamara’s exit is confirmed. A replacement isn’t. Until the house names one—and demand stops sliding—the turnaround talk is empty. So Shein is public in Hong Kong at last—but is this a fresh growth chapter, or just a more constrained way to fund a business whose old advantages are under pressure? It’s both a capital raise and a reset in who gets to judge Shein. After unsuccessful attempts to list in the U.S. and UK, it reached public-market investors through Hong Kong. Reuters reports the listing valued Shein at $26.3 billion, far below its near-$100 billion peak valuation, and shares fell 8% on their first day of trading. The company planned to raise $1.8 billion. According to Sourcing Journal, a watchdog group’s reading of the filing said 80% would be split equally between technology and global marketing, while 10% would go to sustainability. Public trading puts Shein’s growth, margins, and spending plans in clearer view for investors, instead of leaving valuation mostly to private funding rounds. But the listing doesn’t resolve the regulatory and operating issues weighing on the model. Reuters says new levies pushed Shein to a first-quarter net loss, and the company expects customs duties, tariffs, fees, and logistics costs to pressure first-half operating margin. The BBC notes labor-practice and environmental concerns were raised during Shein’s earlier listing efforts. Hong Kong gives it a market venue, not immunity from scrutiny in the West. And that’s the central tension, right? Shein built its edge on speed and low prices—can more spending on technology and marketing preserve that if duties and compliance costs keep climbing? Public investors will test that quarter by quarter: can Shein protect demand and its ultra-low-price proposition while absorbing higher cross-border costs? The weak debut suggests they’re not yet convinced a listing alone can restore its old growth story. Watch the margins and how it spends the IPO proceeds. Then see whether tariffs and duties force lasting changes to pricing, logistics, or the supply chain. From Shriya Sahni at The Ken:
Blissclub, the women’s functional apparel brand, has secured a new high-profile backer. This month, Vidit Aatrey, Meesho’s co-founder and CEO, invested in his wife’s venture as part of its Series B round, which was led by Singularity AMC and raised Rs 160 crore.
Blissclub raised Rs 160 crore in a Series B led by Singularity AMC, after company-reported FY25 revenue grew 51% to Rs 131.5 crore. Now it wants men in the mix. That expansion has to lift basket size without blurring a brand built around women’s functional apparel. Men’s activewear is crowded with gym clones and sad little logo tees. If Blissclub can bring the same actual-function obsession to men’s clothes, great; if it’s just neutral joggers for tech guys, congratulations, you invented another beige drawer. Vidit Aatrey of Meesho investing in founder Minu Margaret’s company puts a very prominent consumer-tech name behind the round. Now investors get a clean test: does menswear add profitable demand, or just a larger marketing bill? I’ll take a women-led brand moving outward over the usual playbook, where a men’s brand discovers women five years late. But Rs 160 crore buys a lot of experiments. The pants still have to survive a workout. This one's from Modern Retail:
Unlike Simon’s previous work with advertisers, the difference is that Simon is letting brands target people who shop in its malls in other environments and use new measurement capabilities based on Simon’s consumer data. As part of using the Wi-Fi network at a Simon property, consumers consent for their geolocation data to be used for collecting, storage, use and sharing of geolocation data for security and traffic-counting purposes,” according to its terms of service.
Simon has almost 4,000 screens, and now it wants to follow people who logged onto mall Wi-Fi onto connected TV and social. You went in for sneakers and came out as an audience segment. The offer is consent-based, per Simon’s Wi-Fi terms, and Jared Blechman says advertisers will be measured against control groups for incremental visits and transactions. Fine—then publish the lift methodology, match rates, and transaction definition. “Audience intelligence” is a very polished name for knowing I lingered near a shoe wall. The question for brands is simple: did the campaign move a pair of shoes, or just prove somebody was already at the mall? And signing onto Wi-Fi is a thin layer of permission compared with a loyalty member actively opting in. Simon may have a powerful physical-data asset, but this pitch lasts only if shoppers clearly understand what they agreed to. If you’re enjoying Fashion Business Daily, please subscribe and leave us a review wherever you’re listening. Reviews help people find the show and help us keep bringing you the fashion business news that matters.
We’re watching for Shein’s first public margin and cross-border cost disclosures after its Hong Kong listing. Links to every story are in the show notes, so take a look at the ones that caught your attention. That’s Fashion Business Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.