Shein’s reset is colliding with retail earnings that may have a tariff tailwind. Here’s how we got here: Retailers’ IEEPA tariff-refund benefits are now an earnings-season test. Does that relief show up in lower prices, restored margins, guidance, or buying flexibility? It moved beyond one-off disclosures when TJX reported a net $219 million Q2 benefit that lowered its cost-of-sales ratio, making refunds a visible margin driver across retail earnings. This is Fashion Business Daily. Today: what survives when the pricing loopholes close—and whether those shiny margins have any actual product underneath them. From Danny Parisi at Glossy:
After several years of ups and downs, the Chinese fast-fashion brand Shein finally went public this week. But the IPO wasn’t what Shein hoped for. For one, it came four years late. The company first started attempting to go public in 2022, but a series of political hurdles in New York and then London led to long delays. Finally, Shein went public in Hong Kong this week at a valuation of around $25 billion, down from $100 billion in 2022.
Shein at roughly $25 billion versus $100 billion in 2022— de minimis was a business-model advantage, not a cute footnote. Once those cross-border economics changed, the valuation had to reflect the real cost of getting a haul to somebody's door. Glossy points to three drivers: de minimis changes, political scrutiny, and weaker Gen Z demand. Now the public market will be watching sell-through at current price points—and whether that $25 billion holds after lock-ups expire. Gen Z support dropping as much as 20% in some months matters because Temu and resale offer alternatives, and polyester fatigue is real. You can outspend a bad week of press; rebuilding desire is a lot harder once the audience decides the product feels disposable. Four years from the first IPO attempt to a Hong Kong listing at a quarter of the old peak. The listing answers one reporting question, then opens a much less forgiving quarterly-results story. This one's from Stock Titan:
Quarterly net income attributable to ANF grew to $183.7 million, with diluted EPS of $4.17 versus $2.91 in 2025, helped by higher average unit retail and cost leverage. Results were also boosted by about $100 million of IEEPA tariff refunds plus $3 million of interest, reducing cost of sales and lifting interest income.
Abercrombie reported $4.17 in Q2 diluted EPS and a 19.9% operating margin. Put a storefront-sized asterisk on that: about $100 million in IEEPA tariff refunds reduced cost of sales. Yeah, $100 million makes for a good-looking quarter. Higher ticket prices and flat inventory are encouraging; a government refund isn’t a new shirt people suddenly needed. The tariff-refund story widens again: Abercrombie booked about $100 million in IEEPA refunds into Q2 margin. Strip that from $252.7 million of operating income, and the underlying operating margin is closer to 12% than 20%—still profitable, just a lot less miraculous. Americas and APAC grew; EMEA softened. So the product story has some legs, especially with athleisure traffic struggling, but don’t hand the turnaround a trophy for a refund check. Here's Vinay Lochav at Kalkine Media:
Kohl’s reported a 0.9% decline in net sales to $3.3 billion for the quarter ending August 1, 2026, while net income reached $151 million. The company achieved a 305 basis point expansion in gross margin and reduced SG&A expenses by 0.9%, partially offsetting sales pressures and influencing its second-quarter earnings performance.
Kohl’s got gross margin up 305 basis points while comparable sales slipped 0.9%. Net income was $151 million, yes—but it’s a margin story until sell-through proves the volume can come back. Footwear was down 3.7%, women’s down 1.6%, and men’s down 1%. You can tidy the markdowns, but weak apparel categories don’t suddenly add up to a product win. Digital sales rose 2.8% and reached 27% of net sales, while home grew 1.2%. Those are the pockets to watch; the company says transaction count and average ticket both fell, evenly. Set against Abercrombie, Kohl’s has a very different kind of margin gain. ANF has heat in the assortment; Kohl’s has to show that pulling back on promotions didn’t just make the spreadsheet prettier. Here's Kang Seung-yeon at The Herald Business:
Last month, CJ OnStyle exclusively launched Vera Wang in South Korea. The brand's 2026 fall/winter original collection, which debuted Saturday, generated about 2.5 billion won ($1.84 million) in sales during its first broadcast. The collection's signature "Arte Sheer Knit" sold at a rate of roughly 2.8 units per second while on air.
Two-point-eight Vera Wang knits per second on a live broadcast? That’s a real demand signal—people bought the garment instead of politely admiring a brand deck. CJ says that first Vera Wang broadcast brought in roughly 2.5 billion won, or $1.84 million. For a South Korea-exclusive launch, that gives CJ OnStyle evidence for its premium push beyond the word “portfolio.” The smart move is Brooks Brothers teaming up with Needles in September, followed by Subak Vintage in October and Eastlogue in November. Needles has genuine archive-fashion credibility; it can make a 200-year-old American shirt brand feel less like somebody’s dad’s outlet run. CJ has the early velocity. Now it needs repeat demand at full price—and its offline expansion into department stores and outlets will test whether those four pillars hold up outside a broadcast window. Zofia Zwieglinska, writing in Glossy:
For fashion brands, showing up in AI search is quickly becoming table stakes. The harder question is what shoppers find when they get there. At Aviator Nation, AI-attributed sales are still in the early stages. Over the last 30 days, the California lifestyle brand saw around 20 orders come through ChatGPT, according to Curtis Ulrich, the company’s director of e-commerce. Compared to the company’s total order volume, that figure is “fairly insignificant,” he said.
Aviator Nation reported roughly 20 ChatGPT orders in 30 days, and its own e-commerce director called that fairly insignificant. That’s the most useful AI-commerce number on the board: an actual order count from an actual brand. Twenty orders is tiny. Still, I like that the problem they found wasn’t just metadata—the models kept flattening Aviator Nation into MLB and festival collabs, when the clothes are supposed to carry a whole California identity. Shopify says AI-referred traffic is up eightfold across its platform; Aviator Nation gives us a useful brand-level reality check. Traffic can multiply from a very small base, and 20 orders doesn’t yet support a revenue narrative. And no amount of enriched product fields rescues a weak product proposition. If AI becomes a shopping front door, brands need the machine to understand why somebody wants the sweatshirt—not merely that it exists in three colors. If you’re enjoying Fashion Business Daily, please subscribe or leave a review wherever you’re listening. Reviews help other people find the show, and your support helps us keep bringing you the latest fashion business news.
Looking ahead, Brooks Brothers will release limited collections with Needles in September, Subak Vintage in October, and Eastlogue in November. Links to every story are in the show notes, so take a look at the ones you’d like to explore further.
That’s Fashion Business Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.