California Apparel News

Global provider of enterprise-resource-planning and supply-chain software Aptean announced it has signed an agreement to receive a strategic investment from Insight Partners, a New York–based global private-equity and venture-capital firm, and existing investor TA Associates. With its new investment, TA, a leading global-growth private-equity firm, will become the lead shareholder of Aptean. Charlesbank Capital Partners, a middle-market private-investment firm, will continue as a shareholder, while Vista Equity Partners will fully exit its stake in the company. “We are excited to partner with Insight and leverage the firm’s significant experience investing in software companies to advance Aptean’s growth journey,” said TVN Reddy, CEO of Aptean. “Insight’s investment and TA’s recommitment demonstrate enduring confidence in our strategy and results.”

“The future of fashion and design is to align beauty and the planet,” said Enrique Silla, president of Jeanologia, during the inauguration of “Future of Fashion,” an international congress on the sustainable transformation of fashion held in Valencia, Spain, Oct. 5–6. Valencia has been designated the World Design Capital 2022 by the World Design Organization. “The designer of the future is a technological artisan with a scientific mind,” said Silla, “who joins forces with cutting-edge technology to create a better world, who manages to design and manufacture products in a sustainable way while maintaining the spirit and soul of an artisan. With the tools of the future we are no longer going to collaborate with scissors but with robots.”

The Folklore Connect, a wholesale platform for diverse brands in global markets, partnered with Lagos Fashion Week to power the Digital Buyer’s Preview and Trade Show held Oct. 11–14 in anticipation of Lagos Fashion Week at the end of the month. The initiative aims to ensure Africa’s fashion brands are included in international market season, which typically closes before collections officially launch during fashion week at the end of October. Top participating brands include Orange Culture, Gozel Green, Shekudo, Cute-Saint and Nola Black. The Folklore Connect is a conglomorate of B2B, consumer and media partners that uses modern technology to enable the global ecosystem to seamlessly discover and shop diverse brands in emerging markets.

re—inc, Klarna and the Angel City Football Club, L.A.’s newest professional-sports team, have released a limited-edition collaboration called “New Everyone Club,” which includes a range of gender-free staples. In line with the participating brands’ values, 10 percent of proceeds of the collab will be donated to the Downtown Women’s Center, which Klarna will match. The “New Everyone Club” celebrates and embraces underrepresented groups and creates a community where all walks of life—women, people of color, nonbinary individuals and other marginalized groups—are invited to the table to mutually empower one another. The concept of the “New Everyone Club” is meant to redefine the narrative surrounding historically noninclusive spaces, including board rooms and golf courses, and the collab reimagines what those clubs and spaces could be.