Articles by Don-Alvin Adegeest
Don-Alvin Adegeest is a consultant and specialist in brand strategy, communication, and design with extensive experience in the fashion and luxury retail industries. Since 2003, he has collaborated with FashionUnited as a senior editor, contributing analysis, interviews, and in-depth reports focused on the international fashion business. His career includes leadership roles at companies such as Hugo Boss or LVMH giving him a deep understanding of the market and the sector’s value chain.
The rise of the late bloomer: why fashion’s most resilient founders are starting late
For decades, fashion has mythologised youth. From freshly graduated designers launching labels straight out of Central Saint Martins to digital-native founders scaling brands overnight, the industry has long equated innovation with immediacy. Yet a quieter shift is underway—one that favours experience, patience and long-term thinking over speed....
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What rising energy prices mean for fashion, retail and manufacturing
Oil markets have surged to multi-year highs as tensions between the US and Iran intensify, with Brent crude climbing above 120 dollars per barrel. According to Bloomberg, prices briefly spiked by more than 7 percent to over 126 dollars amid fears of prolonged disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical oil transit...
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The Tech Gala: When fashion’s front row is bought, not built
The red carpets have been non-stop this past week. A state visit from King Charles to the United States, the global premieres of The Devil Wears Prada 2 (DWP), and a beautiful Chanel Cruise show in Biarritz have kept fashion in a constant state of performance. Stylists like Micaela Erlanger, Erin Walsh, and Jessica Paster have been working...
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Who is actually shopping in luxury boutiques?
The velvet rope outside a luxury boutique has become as much a fixture of the world's premier shopping streets as the cobblestones beneath them. In Paris, London, Milan, and Tokyo, queues snake past flagship windows with a regularity that suggests demand has never been stronger. But step closer, and a more complicated picture emerges. During...
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Fashion takes over Design Week as brands blur the line between runway and room
The crossover between fashion and the home is nothing new. From Hermès blankets to Missoni towels and Versace ceramics, luxury brands have long extended their identities beyond clothing. But at this year's Milan Design Week, running alongside the 64th edition of Salone del Mobile, that crossover has reached a new level of ambition, and...
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Resale surge and value retail strategies redefine fashion spending
Rising living costs across Europe are accelerating a structural shift towards resale, with Vinted emerging as a key beneficiary. The platform reported gross merchandise value of 10.8 billion euros, up 47 percent year on year, while revenues climbed 38 percent to 1.1 billion euros. Founded in 2008 in Lithuania, the company has scaled rapidly...
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The 4 billion dollar shoe that fashion never wanted: the rise and fall of Allbirds
In 2016, a New Zealand football player-turned-entrepreneur and a biotech engineer launched a wool sneaker on Kickstarter. They hit their 30,000 dollars goal in five days, raised 119,000 dollars in total, and set in motion one of the most instructive brand stories of the decade. This week, Allbirds agreed to sell all of its intellectual property...
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The Antwerp Six at 40: How six hungry students changed fashion forever
When six students at the Antwerp Academy were studying in the early eighties, they were hungry and open-eyed. Charged with ideas and ideals. They never thought they would collectively be known as a movement: The Antwerp Six, which this year celebrates its 40th year, have been a cultural reference point for many decades, and the exhibition that...
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Italian luxury brands stage citywide retail takeover in Manhattan
From April 9 to 11, Manhattan’s luxury corridors will double as a distributed exhibition space. Under the banner “Icons of Italy,” 43 flagship boutiques representing 56 Italian brands spanning fashion, design, jewellery, automotive, yachting, food and wine will host installations and cultural activations aimed at reframing retail as a vehicle...
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AI moves into fashion’s C-suite
As fashion navigates economic uncertainty and technological disruption, the C-suite is being redrawn. Artificial intelligence is no longer confined to design studios or marketing dashboards, it is now reshaping executive leadership itself. At Kering, CEO Luca de Meo last week appointed the group’s first chief digital, AI & IT officer, Pierre...
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