Fashion
Bestseller CEO’s Klarna stake drives $1.7 billion investment comeback
By
Bloomberg
Published
September 11, 2025
Anders Holch Povlsen has accumulated stakes in listed online retailers, banks, and other finance firms over the past two decades, while overseeing one of the world’s largest closely held fashion fortunes.
But it’s a lucrative bet on Klarna Group Plc that’s currently driving the 52-year-old billionaire’s wealth revamp.
Povlsen, chief executive officer of Danish clothing retailer Bestseller, is among the biggest winners from the initial public offering of the financial technology company, which began trading Wednesday in New York and closed almost 15% above its offering price of $40 per share.
He now owns a roughly $1.4 billion stake in the Swedish business, making it his largest holding in a publicly traded company, while also cashing in at least $250 million from the offering, which priced above the marketed ranges, according to Bloomberg calculations. Povlsen has overall gains of more than 600% from his investment in the provider of buy-now, pay-later financing, taking the value of his disclosed holdings in listed companies to about $2.5 billion, the calculations show.
A representative for Povlsen — who has a total net worth of $6.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Despite Klarna’s current valuation falling well below its 2021 peak of $45.6 billion, Povlsen’s investment underscores one of his most successful efforts to diversify a family fortune that began five decades ago, when his parents founded Bestseller as a women’s clothing store in a small Danish town.
Povlsen acquired a 10% stake in Klarna in mid-2017 through his family office, Heartland, just weeks before the fintech was valued at approximately $2.3 billion. He earlier used the investment firm to acquire holdings in e-commerce fashion sites Zalando SE and ASOS Plc. Heartland’s other listed assets include Funding Circle Holdings Plc, a London-based lending platform that has struggled since its initial public offering in 2018.
While also a major landowner in Scotland, most of Povlsen’s fortune remains tied up in Bestseller, where he first began working as a teenager before taking over from his parents as owner and managing director in 2001.
In a rare interview this year to mark Bestseller’s 50th anniversary, Povlsen said he originally wanted to start an e-commerce firm before deciding to work in the family business, underscoring his long-standing interest in the sector that Klarna has helped transform since its own creation in 2005.
“My parents did everything they could to dissuade me from following in their footsteps,” he told the Spin Off fashion magazine. “The more they tried, the more my interest in Bestseller grew.”
Other winners in Klarna’s IPO include the founders Victor Jacobsson, Niklas Adalberth, and Sebastian Siemiatkowski, who’s also its CEO. They cashed in at least $50 million of their combined holdings in the oversubscribed IPO, which valued the company at approximately $15 billion, according to filings.
The three now control overall stakes worth more than $2 billion in Klarna, a company that has evolved from a European clone of PayPal Holdings Inc. to one of the world’s biggest providers of short-term consumer loans as it seeks to disrupt the banking sector.
“You have to be willing to push the envelope,” Siemiatkowski said in an interview Tuesday with Bloomberg News.
Fashion
Martine Rose and Nike launch gaming-inspired collection
Published
October 28, 2025
Martine Rose and Nike are expanding their ongoing partnership with a collection inspired by the world of gaming.
Launching globally on October 30, the Nike x Martine Rose collection reimagines esports as an arena of athleticism, style, and self-expression.
Eight years into their creative collaboration, Martine Rose and Nike have consistently blurred the boundaries between sport, culture, and identity. This latest chapter celebrates the inclusivity and individuality of gaming communities.
“It’s the idea that anyone can be a hero, and I love that, that anyone can find a place in gaming where they’re celebrated for skill, it’s not about your physical prowess, it’s about something else,” explained Rose. “There’s a place where you can be celebrated for those aspects that you might be rejected for in mainstream culture and I think that’s really heartening.”
The collection includes relaxed, functional silhouettes such as football kits, ski jackets, hoodies, and track pants. The oversized hoodie and joggers nod to Martine Rose’s Spring/Summer 2015 collection, while a red colourway channels early-2000s grime culture.
Other highlights include a reinterpreted football kit featuring a new Nike x Martine Rose crest, and a ski parka referencing retro “nerdwear”. Accessories include a reissued cross-body bag adapted from Nike’s archives, a subtle nod to UK street style.
Lastly, the collection introduces two new colourways of the Shox MR4 — the hybrid dress shoe-sneaker first launched in 2022. The silhouette, notable for its squared-off toe and heeled Shox columns, will now be available in white and silver.
It launches with a campaign featuring elite gamers ANa, Billy Mitchell, Scarlett, SonicFox, and TenZ.
Copyright © 2025 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.
Fashion
WRAP resets Textiles Pact Roadmap 2030 challenge as soaring textile volumes derail progress
Published
October 28, 2025
Eco group Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has released the latest results of the industry’s progress towards the ‘UK Textiles Pact’ which targets a 50% reduction in carbon and 30% reduction in water by 2030. And those results don’t make good reading.
While it shows carbon’s down 6% and water’s down 9% per tonne compared to 2019, “the progress made at a per tonne level has been eradicated by the continued growth in the production of new products – something WRAP has issued stark warnings about”, the report highlighted.
So with 17% more textiles for sale in 2024 compared to 2019, the Pact’s total carbon footprint is up 10% while water use is 7% higher, highlighting the “radical transformation [that] will be needed to meet… crucial milestones”.
But following “urgent talks with signatories”, there’s now a new Roadmap to meet 2030 targets, “having identified the barriers preventing the scale and speed of progress needed to achieve the Pact’s goals and turn the tide on the impact of the textiles industry”, the report said.
That means a new UK Textiles Pact Roadmap is “setting a new direction for the sector through collaboration”.
This will include focusing attention on the most impactful actions through the introduction of new indicators, “enabling signatories to reduce time deciding what to do and increase time acting; encouraging greater flexibility by providing a framework for signatories “allowing them to lean harder into some indicators relative to others in accordance with their individual business needs, which collectively will add up to the Pact’s shared targets”; and tackling upstream emissions through the introduction of a new workstream on ‘Supply Chain Decarbonisation’.
Catherine David, CEO at WRAP, said: “The Textiles sector is as fizzing with innovation and new thinking as ever. As a sector we face a huge challenge: how to decouple commercial growth from the use of carbon and water-intensive primary materials, and make the transition to Circular Living – with better products and services for consumers.
“Through the UK Textiles Pact, we’ve seen game-changing advances in the technologies and business models of the future with new collaborations challenging old assumptions and turning what was niche into mainstream consumer behaviour.
“Our new Roadmap provides updated tools and pathways for the next phase of circular growth in our textiles sector – together we’ll crack the systemic challenges that prevent the scale of change needed, and provide rocket fuel to the innovations which can accelerate the pace of change, in pursuit of our shared environmental goals, and a thriving and exciting textiles industry.”
Circular Economy Minister Mary Creagh added: “We are committed to moving towards a circular economy where waste is cut and resources are valued; fashion should not cost the Earth. Through our Circular Economy Strategy, we will support growth in the sustainable textiles sector, and I welcome the updated UK Textiles Pact Roadmap as a key step in driving climate action and circular innovation – as well as encouraging reuse and repair.
“WRAP’s new Roadmap sets a plan for achieving true circularity in the industry and we welcome the opportunity to work with as many businesses as possible to join us on this journey.”
Copyright © 2025 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.
Fashion
ITMF elects new board at 2025 Yogyakarta conference
On October 24th, 2025, during the ITMF Annual Conference & IAF World Fashion Convention 2025 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, the Committee of Management of the ITMF elected the members of the ITMF Board for the period 2025-2027.
At the ITMF Annual Conference & IAF World Fashion Convention 2025 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Juan Parès (Spain) was unanimously elected ITMF president for the period 2025–2027.
Mustafa Denizer (Turkiye) and Yan Yan (China) became vice presidents, with Ernesto Maurer (Switzerland) re-elected as treasurer.
KV Srinivasan (India) was named life member.
Mr. Juan Parès (Spain) was unanimously elected as the new ITMF President of the Federation.
Mr. Mustafa Denizer (Türkiye) was re-elected, and Ms. Yan Yan (China) was elected as new Vice Presidents of the Federation.
Mr. Ernesto Maurer (Switzerland) was re-elected as Honorary Treasurer.
The following persons were re-elected as Non-executive Board Members:
- Mr. Salman Ispahani (Bangladesh)
- Mr. Yingxin Xu (China)
- Ms. Suchita Jain Oswal (India)
- Mr. Tae Jin Kang (Korea)
- Mr. Anees Khawaja (Pakistan)
- Mr. Stefan Hutter (Singapore)
- Mr. Uday Gill (Thailand)
The following persons were elected as new Non-executive Board Members:
- Mr. Ernst Grimmelt (Germany)
- Mr. Sanjay Jayavarthanavelu (India)
Mr. Rafael Cervone (Brazil), Mr. Mohammad Kassem (Egypt), Mrs. Michelle Tjokrosaputro (Indonesia), Mr. Loek de Vries (Netherlands), and Mr. Muharrem Kayhan (Türkiye) were co-opted to the Board.
Mr. K. V. Srinivasan (India) was appointed Honorary Life Member of the Federation in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the Federation as Vice President (2018-2023) and as President (2023-2025).
Note: The headline, insights, and image of this press release may have been refined by the Fibre2Fashion staff; the rest of the content remains unchanged.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (HU)
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