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Sidney - Australian Fashion Week's fourth edition has wrapped-up on Friday the 14th of May here.

Born out of the idea of becoming the worldwide showcase for Asian and Pacific fashion, the event presents its spring/summer collections every month of May and plans to ultimately hold the autumn/winter shows in November. Visited by international and domestic buyers, as well as by the fashion press, the event is produced and marketed by Australian Fashion Innovators Pty. Ltd., a member of The Lock Group of Companies.

This Australian Fashion Week, which started May 10th, presented a wide range of designers (24 in all), some of whose shows can be seen archived on the Internet. (NOTE: In order to do so you need to have the Flash Player and Real Player.) If you already have them and want to see the shows click here.

La Coruña - Spain's giant retail conglomerate and men's/women's apparel manufacturer, Inditex, reported a 33% increase in pretax profits to US$ 253 million (39.244 million pesetas) on a 32% rise in sales to US$1.7 billion (266.708 million pesetas) for the year ending January 31. This represents a net profit climb of US$ 164 million (25.480 million pesetas) over the previous year.

The La Coruña-based company owns the super-trendy Zara chain (men's/women's/children's), Massimo Dutti (men's/women's), Bershka (women's) and Pull & Bear (young men's/boy's).

In addition, Inditex opened 120 stores during the year - 70 outside Spain - for a worldwide total of 741. Hottest of the new Zara locales include units in New York's Soho and Flatiron districts.

Last fall, as reported in FashionClick's 'Short Takes,' Zara inked an agreement with Germany's vast mail-order house, Otto Versand, to open 5 stores (Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Cologne) by fall 1999. An earlier venture with Italy's Benetton, signed spring 1998, has since been dissolved. - Barbara Barker

ZARA