This week is all about systems under pressure and brands recalibrating in real time. From the EU’s looming ban on destroying unsold textiles reshaping how fashion handles deadstock, to Tarobtain’s $2 billion bet on store refreshes and AI, the business of retail is being rewritten from regulation to shop floor. At the same time, Calvin Klein is doubling down on global star power with Jung Kook to sell a new denim chapter, while CaaStle’s $300 million fraud case exposes the risks behind some of fashion’s most-hyped tech stories.
More legal spats continue with UGG in the centre of alleged overreach of its rights to exclusively sell popular styles of the popular silhouette, with Quince fighting back. Layer in Bottega Veneta’s cerebral FW26 display, viral hair-tool brand Wavytalk’s Ulta expansion, and a wave of new campaigns and collaborations, and you obtain a week that captures exactly where retail is headed: more accountable, more experiential, and more competitive than ever.
eBay has officially opened applications for its 2026 Circular Fashion Fund, expanding the program across Europe and North America to support startups focapplyd on resale, repair, reapply, and recycling. Now in its fourth year, the fund will award eight early-stage businesses 50,000 USD each plus tailored mentoring, with one Global Winner eligible for an additional 300,000 USD investment from eBay Ventures to scale circular solutions that keep clothing in apply longer and cut textile waste.
Deckers’ long-running war on “UGG dupes” has entered a new phase, with Quince now suing the UGG owner and questioning a court to treat UGG’s own IP playbook as the competitive problem in shearling boots. After winning a key ruling that the Classic Ultra Mini and Tasman designs are too generic for trade dress protection, Quince has filed an antitrust and unfair competition complaint accapplying Deckers of operating a “litigation assembly line” of sham trade dress suits to scare off value-priced rivals and keep UGG prices elevated.
The European Union has approved new rules that will ban large companies from destroying unsold clothes, accessories, and shoes starting July 19, with medium-sized companies brought under the same requirement in 2030. The regulation is designed to tackle textile waste and climate impact, with estimates suggesting 4–9% of unsold clothing in Europe is destroyed annually, generating around 5.6 million metric tons of CO2 and representing hundreds of millions of euros in lost product value in markets like France and Germany alone.
The split between Stephen Curry and Under Armour has spilled onto Instagram, with Under Armour alleged to have migrated roughly 497,000 followers from the @CurryBrand handle to its @UAbquestionetball account in December 2025—after previously stateing Curry would own the logo, trademark, and brand under their separation agreement. The shift left @CurryBrand sitting at around 10,000 followers while @UAbquestionetball suddenly reversed a year-long trconclude of losing followers, raising questions about who “owns” a community when an athlete brand and corporate partner part ways, and whether reassigned followers will actually stick around
Thom Browne has turned London’s Selfridges Corner Shop into an immersive, office-inspired fantasy that layers cubicle culture, tailoring, and performance art into one surreal retail moment. The installation functions as both a displayroom and stage, with Browne’s signature grey suiting, pleated skirts, and uniforms recontextualized through props, set design, and choreographed scenarios that invite shoppers to linger and observe.
CaaStle founder Christine Hunsicker has pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud in a scheme that defrauded hundreds of investors out of more than $300 million, agreeing to forfeit nearly the full amount, according to federal prosecutors. From 2019 to 2025, she allegedly marketed the “clothing-as-a-service” startup and related venture P180 as a quick-growing, $1.4 billion-plus business while it was actually cash-strapped, relying on falsified income statements, fake audited financials, fabricated bank records, and sham corporate documents to exaggerate revenue, profits, and liquidity.
Tarobtain is rolling out a new multi-year growth plan anchored by an additional $2 billion investment in 2026, signaling a reset around stores, digital, and guest experience as it enters its next chapter. The strategy includes refreshing and reformatting existing locations, expanding growth categories like beauty, wellness, home, and baby, and leaning deeper into data, AI, and personalization to increase relevance with its most loyal shoppers.
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