LVMH Vice President Delphine Arnault: "IT IS HARD TO REJECT FASHION" - 032c Workshop This article originally appeared in 032c Issue #30: “NO FEAR”, released in May 2016. It is available now. If industry wisdom is now crowd-sourced, who makes the decisions in fashion? The power-center once called “the establishment” has become an amorphous blob that dilates and contracts with the flux of trending topics. In this context, LOTTA VOLKOVA and DELPHINE ARNAULT are two opposite yet equally powerful sources of gravity. In this first instalment of the The Lotta-Delphine Complex, 032c talks to Delphine Arnault. Avenue Montaigne in Paris’s 8th Arrodissement is clean and sparkly at all hours of the day. Delphine Arnault, daughter of LVMH founder Bernard Arnault, leads this most profitable department, overseeing brands such as Céline, Christian Dior, Loewe, and Louis Vuitton, to name just a few. The eight finalists of the prize – who will face a jury featuring J.W. When I meet Arnault, I notice she is tall and striking, almost intimidating in her glossy appearance. Yes, it is. No.
Luxury brands must redefine the way they do business | Media Network There were times when China was the holy grail for global retailers. Logo-obsessed Chinese buyers seeking opulence were armed with cash fresh from the economic boom. Luxury retail brands flocked to the new market, with the result of 35% of sales for brands such as Omega, Harry Winston and Balmain coming from Greater China, according to estimates by Exane BNP Paribas. The region is responsible for a whooping 25% of sales at Burberry and 20% of sales at Prada. The strategy of growth by opening stores in emerging and existing markets is neither new nor unique to luxury retail. The logic of this is that if consumers aren’t buying your stuff, create more stuff. From 2008 to 2011, there was a 42% spike in the number of luxury retail stores in Asia, compared with a 28% rise in Europe and 5% rise in North America, according to Lux Redux report by Boston Consulting Group. Overexposure is a bad strategy. Exactly how dangerous, luxury retailers are only about to find out.
Vogue BBC Two Documentary Screening Air Date Picture credit: Linda Brownlee 24 August 2016 Scarlett Conlon FILMING has wrapped, production has finished, and the air date for the BBC Two documentary series depicting life at British Vogue, Absolutely Fashion: Inside British Vogue, has been confirmed. The first of two episodes will air on Thursday, September 8 at 9pm. Documentary filmmaker Richard Macer was given unprecedented access to life at Vogue for nine months as it prepared for - and started celebrating - its centenary year. Related Gallery "At Vogue we are more used to being behind the lens than in front of it," said Shulman. Episode one picks up from the end of the spring/summer 2017 fashion shows in September 2015 and follows Shulman, fashion director Lucinda Chambers, creative director Jaime Perlman, fashion features director Sarah Harris, editor-at-large Fiona Golfar, and the wider Vogue team. Absolutely Fashion: Inside British Vogue, BBC Two, Thursday, September 8, 9pm.
Fashion house Balmain sold to Qatar's Mayhoola sovereign wealth fund | Fashion The Qatari investment fund that owns the Italian Valentino label will take over the French fashion house Balmain, which has become a favourite of film stars, the adviser for the acquisition has announced. “After completing this transaction Mayhoola for Investments will hold 100% of Balmain’s capital,” said the merger and acquisitions company Bucephale Finance. The French financial daily Les Echos in reporting on the acquisition said the Qataris offered €485m (£372m) for Balmain, which is 70% held by the heirs of the former CEO, Alain Hivelin, who died in December 2014, with the remaining 30% held by management. The reported Qatari offer was higher than sale estimates of between €300m-€400m. Mayhoola is an investment vehicle supported by the emir of Qatar. Balmain was started in 1945 by designer Pierre Balmain and has passed through several hands and periods of financial difficulty over the years. Since 2011 Balmain has gained added momentum under artistic director Olivier Rousteing.
After Brexit, which way for fashion? The impact of Brexit on the fashion industry is daunting, brain-scrambling and multi-levelled. The industry directly contributed £28bn to the UK’s economy in 2015 and employs 880,000 in roles from manufacturing to retail. For many British designers and stores, there will be an immediate hit on costs and margins. Sample the FT’s top stories for a week You select the topic, we deliver the news. During the campaign the British Fashion Council (BFC) reported that of the near-500 designers it polled, 90 per cent planned to vote for Remain. In the short term, some in the industry are happy. Luca Solca, head of luxury goods at Exane BNP Paribas, calls this positive effect “margin tailwind”. Buyers and retailers are nervous about speaking openly — they want consumers to continue shopping as if nothing has happened. Currency volatility is a huge worry. Meanwhile, the only way many young British designers can afford to make their products is by having them manufactured abroad.
Op-Ed | Why Nascent Luxury Brands Need Middlemen | Op Ed | BoF The Kiko Kostadinov space at Dover Street Market in London | Source: Dover Street Market LONDON, United Kingdom — Direct-to-consumer e-commerce pioneers like Warby Parker and Everlane pride themselves on bypassing the middlemen who operate third-party retail distributors. In the telling of their success stories, these middlemen are often painted as meddling intermediaries, taking an unreasonably high margin that serves neither brand nor consumer. As argued recently by Richie Siegel, third-party retail distributors can offer clear business benefits by taking on the task of merchandising and selling product, enabling brands to focus on design. The value of fashion is about much more than pure functionality. A century and a half later, Paris remains the world’s most important fashion capital. Building a powerful brand identity in the luxury market relies principally on a capacity to produce a desire for the product in contemporary consumer culture. Sure, there are alternatives.
Russian mink farms where thousands are slaughtered and left to rot to make $1m coats These disturbing pictures expose the macabre truth about the fur farms in Russia and China which supply the fashion market in the world's leading cities, including London, Paris and New York. Across ten time zones, the images show the reality of mink and sable gulags - many set up during the harsh Communist past - where prized animals are bred for slaughter, bringing in millions of pounds to the Russian economy every single year. An investigation by MailOnline also reveals the appalling conditions in which wild animals, including different types of fox, are captured and killed, from being skinned alive to being poisoned by the faeces in the air, and reveals the heartless farm owners who can't see beyond their profits. And there are certainly profits to be made: a sable 'blanket' sold for a record-breaking $900,000 to a royal just a few years ago, while a coat at last year's Fendi show was rumoured to have a price tag of $1.2million. Animals forced to suffer and starve in Russian fur farm
Your first look at Gigi Hadid’s line for Tommy Hilfiger Just last week former One Direction member and Dazed cover star Zayn Malik made his fashion design debut, unveiling a footwear range he’d created in collaboration with Italian designer Giuseppe Zanotti. Today his girlfriend, model Gigi Hadid has done the same – revealing a capsule collection she’s worked on with American brand Tommy Hilfiger. Modelling in the lookbook herself (see above), Hadid’s collection includes clothing, footwear, accessories and fragrance and sees the California native put “a West Coast stamp on Hilfiger’s signature East Coast classics.” However isn‘t the first time Hadid has worked with Hilfiger, she’s actually an ambassador for the brand, has starred in its AW16 and The Girl fragrance campaigns, and has walked in its three most recent runway shows. Modelling itself can be a collaborative process and in a way, designing just takes this concept one step further.
The Blonde Salad Ups the Ante | Intelligence | BoF LOS ANGELES, United States — Chiara Ferragni’s stream of selfies has drawn more than 6.5 million followers to her personal Instagram account. But the super-influencer has transformed her digital property The Blonde Salad, which she launched as a personal blog back in 2009 that now attracts an average of 500,000 unique visitors each month, into a full-fledged magazine that relies on plenty more than her outfit photos. “When I started back then, I just wanted a personal space,” says Ferragni, whose movie-star looks and playfully bold Italian style have earned her adoring fans the world over. “But for the last three years, we haven’t been a blog. Now, the Los Angeles-based Ferragni is taking The Blonde Salad further, launching e-commerce at Shop.theblondesalad.com on September 6. Of course, Ferragni has learned a few things about retail from launching her shoe collection, which started out as a licensing deal in 2010. For the last three years, we haven’t been a blog. Related Articles:
Luxury Institute's Seven Trends Shaping Luxury in 2015 NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Nov 11, 2014) - The following is a White paper by Milton Pedraza, CEO of Luxury Institute, LLC: All around the globe, the luxury industry has navigated against strong headwinds in 2014. Growth in China has slowed due to government crackdowns and macroeconomic forces, Russian clients are buying far less for obvious reasons, and key European countries dependent on streams of wealthy tourists and aspirational buyers have also stalled. The situation is comparatively better in the United States and in Japan but both nations are growing far below their long-term economic potential. To these cyclical challenges, add in the secular change of online buying cannibalizing store and it has been a tough year for most luxury goods and services providers. There are exceptions to the rule of sluggish sales. Looking ahead, the future has the potential to be very bright for luxury. 1. There are too many luxury and premium brands in the world. 2. 3. Dr. 4. 5. 6. 7.