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.
Small batch, big numbers: When fashion marketing meets production reality
In fashion, moments of unintended transparency, a back-end inventory number accidentally exposed, a production document leaked, a “limited” capsule that seems available forever, often illuminate the gap between how brands describe themselves and how they actually operate. These moments are revealing not because they expose wrongdoing, but...
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2025: The year luxury lost its sheen?
If 2025 will be remembered for anything in fashion, it may be as the year luxury brands discovered that belief in the idea of luxury itself is not infinite. After more than a decade of uninterrupted growth, price inflation and relentless “newness,” the social contract between luxury houses and their customers began to fray. Factory and marketing...
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LK Bennett seeks buyer as owner launches accelerated sale process
British fashion brand LK Bennett is urgently seeking a buyer, raising renewed concerns about its future just six years after its previous insolvency. According to Sky News, the company’s owner has appointed restructuring advisers Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) to run an accelerated sale process, with potential buyers and investors contacted in recent...
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Why loyalty, not discounts, is shaping retail’s next growth phase
As the festive rush fades and discount fatigue sets in, many retailers are entering the new year questioning whether traditional promotional playbooks are still fit for purpose. While deep discounts continue to generate short term spikes in traffic, they are increasingly failing to deliver what brands need most: repeat engagement, loyalty and...
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UK retail sales edge up as fashion outperforms in a subdued Golden Quarter
UK retail sales painted a nuanced picture in November as the Office for National Statistics data showed modest resilience beneath a soft monthly headline. While total sales volumes dipped slightly over the month, fashion and non food categories continued to hold steady, reinforcing the sense of selective rather than broad based consumer spending...
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Phan Huy becomes the youngest designer ever selected for Paris Haute Couture Week
At just 26 years old, Phan Huy has reached a milestone few designers ever approach: selected to present at Paris Haute Couture Week. His upcoming show on January 29th marks not only a personal breakthrough, but also a historic first for Vietnam, which will have an official representative on the couture calendar for the first time. Paris Haute...
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Panic Weekend set to inject over 3 billion pounds into UK retail as shoppers leave Christmas buying to the wire
After a subdued build-up to Christmas, the UK retail sector is bracing for a sharp late surge. Panic Weekend, taking place on 20–21 December, is forecast to deliver 3.43 billion pounds in sales, up 12.8 percent year-on-year, as consumers delay festive purchases until the final possible moment. According to the latest Shopping for Christmas...
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Britain’s retail recovery is running on fewer people
December trading numbers and footfall trackers may suggest that UK retail has steadied itself. But behind the apparent normality of peak season sits a more structural concern that cannot be solved with a strong weekend or a good Christmas run: the sector is operating with materially fewer people than it once did. For many retailers, staffing has...
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Why Britain’s busy Christmas shopping season hides a more cautious consumer
Visit any high street in the run-up to Christmas and you’d be forgiven for thinking the downturn never arrived. Shops are packed, tills are ringing and there is a genuine sense of seasonal joy in the air. But beneath the bustle, UK consumers are making far more calculated decisions than the crowds might suggest. According to new Deloitte...
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Fashion prediction 2026: Between caution and course correction
If 2025 was the year fashion learned to live with uncertainty, 2026 is shaping up to be the year it decides what to do with it. Many of the pressures that defined the past 18 months will not magically disappear on January 1st. Tariff uncertainty remains a structural concern, particularly as trade tensions between major economic blocs continue to...
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