Most read articles from 2014

Fashion

With 2014 coming to a close, the FashionUnited team have gone through this year’s archives to see what the most popular stories were – with news of retail openings, up-sizing and administrations dominating the FashionUnited’s Top 10 most read articles of the year.

Taking top spot was Spanish retail giant Zara with the news that it was upsizing its Liverpool One store by more than a third to create a 27,221 square foot ‘regional flagship’ in the city. The store opened this autumn and was part of the brand’s strategy to expand due the “strength of the brand's performance” in the region.

This was followed by the news that budget fashion chain Primark was to continue its expansion into France with the opening of its second store in Paris in the suburb of Villeneuve la Garenne. The store marked the retailer’s fourth opening in the country following successful openings in Marseille, Dijon and Aulnay-sous-Bois Paris.

Taking third place in the top 10 stories was a trend piece on the inside look into the must-have prints for spring/summer 2015 in an exclusive partnership with Trendstop.com, while fourth spot belongs to the international value retailer, Hema, entering the UK marketplace. In March, the chain announced that it had signed the lease for its first UK stores, one in Kingston and one in Victoria Station, London. These openings were confirmed as the first of many new stores, with Hema stating that they have 10 London stores planned, before rolling out across the rest of the country.

2014 was another difficult year for retailers with a number of administrations hitting the headlines, with Rowlands Clothing coming fifth in FashionUnited’s top 10. The chain’s administration came two years after it was saved from closure by Rosemex Trading, a subsidiary of London-based New World Private Equity. The fashion catalogue and online went onto be acquired by Scotts & Co.

A big draw for FashionUnited this year has been our ‘Clash of the Fashion Titans’ series, which compares key fashion retailers from around the world. Up first in the chart is the battle between Gap and Fast Retailing, following the Japanese group’s announcement to list in Hong Kong as part of its aim to become the largest clothing retailer in the world by 2020.

This was followed by the fifth instalment in the series, Adidas vs Nike, two of the world’s leading active wear retailers. The article examines how the two sportswear giants continue to compete, utilising different strategies and tactics to be crowned the world’s leading retailer in athletic wear. While FashionUnited’s eighth most popular story of the year belongs to the online battle between Asos and Zalando, both striving to become the number one stop for online fashion. Asos has been a strong performer for a number of years and the article examines the expansion push of German fashion e-tailer Zalando.

Fur was also a big issue in 2014, with animal rights group Peta making strides against the use of angora with fashion retailers including Asos, Forever 21, H&M, Boohoo and Monsoon Accessorize all declaring a ban on the use of angora in its products, however it was the #SaveKimi campaign by international animal welfare organisation Four Paws that capture FashionUnited readers in ninth spot.

The campaign, featuring an open letter to Burberry and an online petition, highlighted the harsh reality endured by animals raised and slaughtered on farms to provide fur for the fashion industry, with the British heritage brand being targeted due to the fox cub in question living on a fur farm in Finland operated by Saga Furs, Burberry’s main supplier.

Rounding off the top 10 was Inditex’s announcement that it was opening the first UK store for its younger womenswear label, Stradivarius, to sit alongside its other successful fashion chains Zara, Bershka, Pull & Bear and Massimo Dutti. Stradivarius has more than 850 stores in 60 different countries but it was only when the young fashion chain hit global sales of over 1 billion euros that the expansion to the UK was considered. The chain opened in Westfield Stratford City this autumn and followed the successful launch of its online store in the UK last year.