In Review, February 2025: TALA, John Lewis and LFW topped this month's news agenda

Chloe Burney

28 February 2025

As February comes to a close, otherwise known as Fashion Month, TheIndustry.fashion reflects on a month of beautiful chaos. London Fashion Week took over the town with a city-wide celebration, from experiental and retail pop-ups to countless runways cropping up.

Meanwhile, retail news showed no signs of slowing down. Highlights included TALA announcing its brick-and-mortar debut, Mango's massive retail expansion and John Lewis' new senior appointment.

From openings to closures, appointments to promotions, TheIndustry.fashion has compiled a selection of the month's biggest fashion news.

New openings

In Pictures: Abercrombie & Fitch unveils two new London stores

Abercrombie & Fitch opened its highly anticipated new London stores at 325 Oxford Street and 132 Long Acre in Covent Garden.

The light, bright and "engaging spaces" are integrated with omnichannel shopping capabilities, connecting both digital and in-person shopping for an enhanced customer experience. Both stores carry the brand’s men’s and women’s collections, including Abercrombie’s athleisure brand, Your Personal Best (‘YPB’), and the Best Dressed collection, including dresses and shirts.

Mango to open 20 new UK stores

Mango ramps up expansion with 20 more UK store openings in 2025

As part of high-street brand Mango's expansion and consolidation plan, it announced the opening of 20 new stores in the UK. The new stores, which will open by the end of 2025, will be found across London, Central England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Cardiff.

Daniel Lopez, Director of Expansion and Franchising at Mango, said: "The UK is one of the priority markets for Mango’s international growth, Our 2025 expansion plan follows the store openings success in 2024 to move forward in capillarity and getting even closer to our customers with stores in which we can offer them the mango experience."

FatFace

FatFace increased retail footprint in Ireland with new store in Westport

British lifestyle brand FatFace, which was acquired by high street giant NEXT in October 2023 for £115 million, has opened a new 1,571 sq ft store at 33 Bridge Street in Westport – its first on Ireland’s West Coast.

The new store emphasises FatFace’s fresh commitment to expanding its retail portfolio in Ireland, having opened a 2,000 sq ft store at Blanchardstown Centre in Dublin in May 2024. That was the brand’s first full-price store opening in Ireland for 14 years, adding to five existing stores.

Kate Spade to bring its signature dose of New York to London with first outlet

Kate Spade, the fashion brand known for its playful leather goods and trinkets, is bringing a dose of its New York heritage to the Outlet Shopping at The O2 this Spring.

The new 2,408 sq ft store on the outlet’s upper level is the brand's London outlet debut. The space is inspired by elements of both uptown and downtown New York, the brand’s hometown. This nod to its heritage and the merging of the two distinct neighbourhoods will act as a runway for its extensive womenswear offering.

Founder Grace Beverly revealed TALA's first-ever store is coming to Carnaby Street

It's official, TALA is bringing its cult-favourite activewear and leisurewear to brick-and-mortar retail for the first time, opening up shop on London's famous Carnaby Street.

Beverly took to LinkedIn to make the store opening announcement, writing: "I can’t believe I’m actually writing this, but after nearly 6 years of TALA, and 2 years of pitching & planning, I can finally tell you that we’re opening our first ever TALA store, our Flagship on Carnaby Street in Central London.

Strathberry

Strathberry added a second store in its home city of Edinburgh

Fast-growing Scottish accessories brand Strathberry opened its fourth retail store close to home, on the independents’ haven of Victoria Street, Edinburgh.

Situated only 1.5 miles from Strathberry’s elegant townhouse head office, the new space at 4 India Buildings on Victoria Street reflects Strathberry’s successful mantra of “accessible luxury”.

Lululemon doubled the size of its London flagship

Global performance apparel, footwear and accessories brand Lululemon moved its Regent Street flagship to a larger location, making it the brand’s largest store in the EMEA region.

The new store, which spans 8,923 sq ft, is double the size of the previous space and features Lululemon’s range of clothing and accessories for yoga, running, training, and beyond.

Notable store highlights include the brand’s largest pant wall in Europe, the biggest menswear collection in EMEA, and elements of Lululemon's latest store design concept. Additional features include a water bottle personalisation station and a dynamic staircase light display that changes with the time of day.

AllSaints goes bigger and better in Birmingham with new store, and here's why

AllSaints, the British brand known for its rock n roll aesthetic and grungey leather jackets, announced the opening of its first store of 2025 in Birmingham’s Bullring as it looks to expand its presence across the UK, US, Europe and Asia.

AllSaints at Birmingham Bullring, which is 3,207 sq ft, is spread across two floors on the upper level of the shopping centre – a site previously occupied by Ted Baker. Before this, the retailer occupied a single-storey Bullring store.

Big name appointments

M&S shook up leadership, appointing ex-Boohoo CEO to drive clothing business

Marks & Spencer appointed a new Managing Director of Clothing, Home & Beauty, as well as a new Director of M&S Woman and Director of Home & Beauty, as it set out to "transform" its Clothing, Home & Beauty business.

Ex-Boohoo CEO John Lyttle will be joining as Managing Director of Clothing, Home & Beauty in a planned succession. He brings extensive retail and transformation experience, having spent five years at Boohoo and nine years at Primark as COO.

John Lewis tapped YNAP for Chief Commercial Officer

John Lewis appointed Vikki Kavanagh, MD of Net-A-Porter and Mr Porter, to run its commercial function.

Kavanagh joined John Lewis from YOOX Net-A-Porter Group (YNAP). Before her MD positions, she previously served in senior buying and merchandising roles at department stores including Harvey Nichols, House of Fraser and Fenwick.

With almost seven years at YNAP, Kavanagh boasts two decades of retail experience, starting her career as a Buyer for Fenwick in 2005.

River Island's Chair was replaced by company veteran Ben Lewis

River Island, which is owned by the Lewis family dynasty, has today announced that its Executive Chair Richard Bradbury will be stepping down due to 'personal circumstances', with immediate effect.

Ben Lewis, a member of the retail dynasty that owns the retailer, 'knows the business inside out'. He will return to the role of Chief Executive Officer, a position he previously held for almost a decade until 2019. Clive Lewis will resume his previous role as non-executive Chair.

Freemans appointed ex-N Brown exec as Chief Commercial Officer

Digital department store, Freemans, appointed Paul Horsfield to the newly created position of Chief Commercial Officer.

Prior to his appointment, Horsfield held the role of Director of Group Transformation at N Brown since 2022. He joined N Brown in 2019 as its Director of Group Trading and Merchandising. Before this, he was the Merchandising Director at Boohoo and spent over ten years at Shop Direct.

Marks & Spencer bolstered its leadership to drive international growth

Marks & Spencer announced three senior appointments within its international division as part of the retailer's strategy to accelerate growth overseas.

Victoria Jones was appointed as Commercial Director for International Operations. The retailer has also named Manish Kapoor as Managing Director of Marks & Spencer India. Additionally, Richard Davies has been promoted to International Partnerships Director.