Welcome in, today is Tuesday, September first, and we begin in Paris, where France's ultra fast fashion levy starts charging today. Following our earlier report on the final text of the anti fast fashion law, the per item charge now has a scale. Per The Straits Times and France twenty four, details were published on August twenty eighth. This year the fee runs from fifty cents on underwear to two euros on a T shirt, nine euros on jeans and twelve euros on a jacket, and that reporting says it climbs to nineteen euros fifty per item by twenty thirty, capped at half the pre tax price. Which goods qualify still turns on the two criteria we flagged before, market volume and repair cost against price. So this is a live landed cost per unit for sellers shipping into France, not a future one. The same account states the ecological transition ministry is building a tool to collect that data independently, rather than rely on company declarations. It adds that the ministry said in July the levy would not apply to retailers such as H and M or Zara, drawing criticism that it spares European companies, and that the ministry says European Commission questions over EU law compliance have been dispelled. China called the regulation discriminatory in July and warned of possible retaliation. Industry reaction leans toward reading the levy less as a per item cost than as a template other member states could copy. Staying with Shein. Bloomberg argues the playbook that built the company, an intensive social campaign behind five dollar halternecks and ten dollar pajamas, landing while shoppers sat at home during the pandemic, is now the hard part, and that regaining that momentum is an uphill battle. That read travels beyond one retailer, because the template was widely copied. It comes as Shein was valued at twenty six point three billion dollars in its Hong Kong listing on Monday, according to AFP. Industry reaction treats this as a unit economics story rather than a demand story, with a recurring framing that duty and de minimis exemptions acted as a temporary subsidy rather than a moat. Also today, a cluster of Italian leadership change. WWD reports Versace remains in transition under new owner Prada Group after chief executive Emmanuel Gintzburger left in June with no successor named, leaving executive chairman Lorenzo Bertelli in charge of a brand with first half sales of three hundred fifty million euros and ten stores closed. That account notes chief creative officer Pieter Mulier arrived in July, though his first Versace designs are not due until early next year. The same reporting has the Prada brand without a chief executive since June of last year, Ferragamo without one since March of last year despite returning to first half profit, and Romain Spitzer arriving today as chief executive of Bottega Veneta. For suppliers and wholesale partners, that is a lot of second half buying and creative direction sitting with interim hands. Separately, WWD reports Kohl's has hired former Walmart fashion executive Ryan Waymire as its new chief merchandising officer, a post that sets assortment direction for anyone negotiating mid tier department store space in the United States. That account frames the appointment against changes already underway on the selling floors, with more work to do on the turnaround. Chatter is thin, though a recurring thread treats Walmart as the talent farm of choice for merchandising turnarounds. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. WWD reports on the five shoe categories behind four hundred forty seven point nine million dollars of TikTok Shop sales over the last twelve months, with sneakers taking the biggest share. Following our earlier report on the Frasers Group takeover, Drapers editor Jill Geoghegan writes that questions are being asked of Frasers over the future of Harvey Nichols, as the website shutters and the Dublin store teeters on closure. Per Drapers, British Fashion Council chair David Pemsel steps down on September thirtieth after four years as executive chair, and The Business of Fashion reports no successor has been named. And finally, The Business of Fashion reports Target shares fell after it pulled a Halloween costume that evoked blackface, and WWD reports the bodysuit came from a Target owned brand rather than a third party vendor.