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 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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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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Oil at 200 dollars a barrel: Middle East conflict sends shockwaves through fashion
As the global conflict involving Iran escalates, the prospect of oil prices climbing towards 200 dollars a barrel no longer feels implausible. Fashion businesses across the UK and Europe are once again bracing for volatility, as energy markets react sharply to geopolitical risk. From fibre production and manufacturing to freight costs and...
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The fashion industry has a water blind spot
Water is widely recognised as fashion’s single largest environmental impact, yet it remains structurally overlooked in sourcing decisions, audit systems and sustainability reporting. At a time when 2.2 billion people globally lack access to safely managed drinking water, according to the United Nations, the fashion industry continues to consume...
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Trump targets ‘Made in America’ misuse
US president Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at cracking down on fraudulent “Made in America” claims, sharpening federal oversight of country-of-origin labelling at a time when domestic manufacturing has re-emerged as a political and commercial priority. According to a report by Reuters, the order directs the chairman of the...
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Calvin Klein’s Carolyn Bessette moment is an opportunity PVH didn’t take
When Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy appears on screen in the new television series Love Story: JFK Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, viewers see a fashion moment that once defined an era: slip dresses, camel coats, clean tailoring and an almost monastic restraint. It was the look of 1990s Calvin Klein, the label where Bessette worked as a publicist before...
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Haider Ackermann finds the sweet spot between seduction and restraint at Tom Ford
Everyone once in a while a runway show transcends the season, eclipsing expectations and injecting a genuine sense of excitement into the month-long fashion marathon. That moment came in Paris with Haider Ackermann’s presentation for Tom Ford Autumn Winter 2026. Paris Fashion Week is no stranger to spectacle - see Dior’s spectacular...
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Milan Fashion Week was an era of infinite opinions. Who is fashion really for?
As Milan Fashion Week drew to a close, one thing felt undeniable: everyone is now a fashion critic. Not just the front row. Not just the legacy editors. But analysts, Substack writers, TikTok commentators, luxury consultants, meme accounts and armchair aesthetes alike. The more interesting question is not whether opinions are polarised, they...
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Wuthering Heights rolls out global fashion-led marketing campaign
What appears at first glance to be another prestige literary adaptation has emerged as one of the most extensive fashion and lifestyle marketing campaigns attached to a film release, not seen since Barbie. Wuthering Heights has been supported by a global, multi-category rollout that positions the film less as a standalone cultural product and...
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