Fashion houses pull out of Russia

It is absolutely devastating what Russia is doing to Ukraine and everyone that is affected by it around the world.  My thought and prayers are with you all.  So many people have had to also make some really difficult business decisions, including fashion brands.  Russia is huge and it holds 155 H&M stores, fashion giant Inditex which owns Zara, has closed its 502 stores and many more other stores have also closed that I will list here:

Uniqlo

Pandora 

Adidas

Crocs

Next 

Fortum & Mason

Harrods 

Chanel 

LvMH 

Hermes

Inditex

John lewis

J d sport

Mango

H&m

Nike

Burberry

Asos

Boohoo

Net a porter

Richemont 

Prada

Gucci

Louis vuitton

Balenciaga 

All the above have closed their stores temporarily and many have made large donations to charities that are helping aid in Ukraine.  Luxury online retailers Net-a-Porter and Farfetch have also suspended deliveries in Russia.  The news comes after a report that wealthy Russians were buying designer jewelry and watches in an effort to preserve the value of their money ahead of the decline of the value of the Russian currency. You can store your money in gold, put it in a handbag or a quarter-of-a million-dollar watch, which is going to have a very high resale value.

Many fashion stores are still paying the wages of their staff in Russia even with the closures.  Pronovias is stopping any new wedding dress sales in Russia, but is honouring all wedding dress sales in motion with brides already saying 'love will overcome war'.  These moral standings prove Europe to be holding its moral grounds even in a country that has none.

The financial impact is not huge at this stage as most stores have a very low percentage of their income from Russia.  Russian customers account for 3% of global luxury sales.  This could change in the future though if other countries become allies of Russia.  The important thing here is the political and moral impact in a war where the world is finding it hard to know how to help and support.