Articles by AFP
European luxury, spirits shares sink on China worries
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Shares in European luxury and spirits companies sank on China concerns Tuesday, as Beijing announced anti-dumping measures on brandy imported from the EU and held off on announcing more economy-boosting measures. The stock prices of French spirits companies Remy Cointreau and Pernod Ricard dropped after China announced the latest salvo in an...
Carpe diem: the Costa Rican women turning fish into fashion
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Costa de Pájaros, Costa Rica - On a beach in Costa Rica, as fishermen land the day's catch, two women are hard at work on a slimy sea bass skin, rubbing, scraping, washing, and tanning the hide to turn it into leather. Two years ago, both Mauren Castro, 41, and Marta Sosa, 70, were stay-at-home mums dependent on their fishermen husbands to...
Russia's Wildberries completes controversial merger: CEO
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Russia's largest online retailer Wildberries has completed a controversial merger deal, its CEO said Tuesday, following a bitter takeover dispute that led to a deadly shootout at its Moscow office. Founder Tatyana Kim, Russia's richest woman, and her estranged husband Vladislav Bakalchuk have been embroiled in a public spat for months over...
Feathers fly at Chanel's Paris fashion return
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Chanel returned to the Grand Palais -- scene of the late Karl Lagerfeld's most legendary triumphs -- for the first time in four years Tuesday with a birdcage-themed Paris Fashion Week show that recalled the label's past glories. The famed French house turned the newly refurbished Belle Epoque edifice into a giant aviary, with a white birdcage at...
'Billions of birds' killed for fashion says designer McCartney
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British designer Stella McCartney lamented the "billions of birds" that have been killed to make people look good after her Paris show on Monday in which she appealed for the fashion world to change its ways. The campaigning creator who has blazed a trail for sustainable style, provocatively called her show "It's about... time" -- a reference to...
Naomi Campbell lashes out at 'flawed' charity probe after ban
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Former supermodel Naomi Campbell on Saturday hit back at a UK watchdog after it banned her from running a charity for five years. The Charity Commission identified "multiple instances of misconduct" in the running of Fashion for Relief including use of charity money to pay for her to stay in a five-star hotel in the south of France, including...
UK clears 4 billion dollar AI partnership between Amazon, Anthropic
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Britain's competition regulator on Friday cleared Amazon's investment of up to 4 billion dollars in Anthropic, an American developer of artificial intelligence, following a short probe. The Competition and Markets Authority had examined the significant investment by the US e-commerce giant amid concerns among global antitrust watchdogs regarding...
Six EU countries call for stricter supervision of Shein and Temu
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Six European Union countries, including the Netherlands and Germany, are calling on Brussels to tighten the screws on online shopping sites Temu and Shein, which are suspected of selling products that are sometimes dangerous to consumers. “Every day, hundreds of thousands of parcels arrive at our homes, mainly from China, with goods that do not...
Former Chanel executive takes helm at Tod's
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Milan - Luxury Italian shoe company Tod's on Thursday named John Galantic, a former top manager at Chanel, to replace founder Diego Della Valle as chief executive. The appointment comes after L Catterton, an investment fund associated with luxury giant LVMH, made a friendly takeover bid for Tod's in February, which allowed it to delist from the...
Hong Kong cheongsam master in the mood to retire after 75 years
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Hong Kong - Bent over a magenta chiffon fabric, an elderly Hong Kong tailor wearing thick glasses meticulously stitched on embroidered butterflies, working to transform the shimmering material into an elegant, high-collared Chinese dress known as a cheongsam. At 88, Yan Kar-man is one of Hong Kong's oldest master tailors of the cheongsam --...