NUDITY AND TOT BAGS PROHIBITED
Time stood still in Cannes when, during the spring bloom of 2003, a famous singer delicately let her purple silk stole fall down her forearms on the esplanade of the Palais des Congrès. The day after her ‘Golden Ambition’ tour. The ‘doctrine of the Diva’ has been repeated on numerous occasions since, notably the previous year, when a certain Bella, bust unveiled in a chiffon creation on the red carpet, caused a sensation. A way of honouring the female figure, or an offence against decency, depending on your point of view, but the Cannes Film Festival has just put an end to it.
In an update to its official dress code, the institution has added a clause on the subject. ‘For reasons of propriety, bodily exhibition is forbidden on the red carpet’, it reads, after specifying the colour of trousers allowed (ebony) and the length of dresses (long, unless it’s a little dark dress).
GUCCI IN THE CATACOMBS OF DESIGN
It’s where sacred leather sleeps on blessed shelves, and bags whisper for moccasins to meditate on. It’s on a cobbled street, of course, because tarmac is too vulgar for fashion mysticism, and with an air of mystery before a heavy wooden porte cochere that opens like a dramatic period film, here is the candlelit concept store lining the golden catacombs of style: the Palazzo Settimanni, the chic mausoleum of Gucci’s heritage.
Once a leather goods workshop, then a hype sanctuary under Tom Ford and an exhibition space (remember: the days when a belt could make a nun blush), the place has been resurrected by Alessandro Michele, that bohemian druid with long hair and multiple rings. He said he wanted to ‘bring the objects home’. Which, in his case, mostly meant saving vintage sequined dresses and moccasins from eternal oblivion in the warehouses of Milan.
Since he left the boat in 2022, perhaps tired of having brought back too many things or perhaps a victim of too much brocade, the torch has passed to Sabato De Sarno like a shooting star, and then recently to Demna, the man who transformed jogging into a philosophical manifesto, the Gandalf of post-apocalyptic silhouettes.
BEAUTY TOP 100 2024
The annual ranking of the 100 largest beauty companies reveals a changing industry, confronted by a tense geopolitical context, rapid technological advances and more complex consumer behaviors.
Key figures :
Total sales of the Top 100 reach $252.09 billion, up 2.8%, a slowdown from 5.3% in 2023.
L’Oréal still dominates with 18.7% of total sales.
The top 10 companies account for 58.5% of the total, down slightly.
General trends :
73% of companies saw their sales grow, but only 29 posted double-digit growth (versus 37 in 2023).
17 companies recorded a drop in sales, 7 of them by more than 10%.
Notable winners:
Puig enters the Top 10 thanks to its performance in perfumery and skincare.
L’Occitane moves up 2 places with the success of Sol de Janeiro.
Proya, the first Chinese brand to enter the Top 30, moves up 8 places.
E.l.f Beauty and Cosnova become billionaire brands. Continue reading
MET GALA 2025
When stars cross-dress to seduce brands, we might think of a return to a form of glamorized slavery, the MET Gala 2025 once again rolled out its red carpet saturated with symbols, oversized egos and calculated provocations. This year, it was a Madonna flamboyant or perhaps tired of her own myth that made her mark, appearing dressed in a man’s suit, brandishing a huge cigar with the insolence of a wink addressed to Donald Trump. Provocative? Certainly. Subversive? Less sure.
Beyond the visual shock, this type of appearance raises a deeper question: how far are celebrities prepared to go to remain desirable in the eyes of luxury brands? After all, it’s no longer (just) the public that has to be seduced, but the giants of global marketing, who select their faces like models from a catalog.
Improbable” outfits, sometimes absurd, often uncomfortable, have become tools of communication, even submission. Here, clothing is a coded message, an act of branding disguised as art. It’s not Madonna who dresses like a man, it’s a carefully manufactured image, ready to be sold, shared, liked and, above all, sponsored.
In this masked ball of haute couture, celebrities willingly trade their freedom of expression for advertising contracts. They become walking shop windows, living billboards, where rebellion is a scripted posture and daring is dictated by PR teams. Continue reading
FENDI THE HANDS OF TIME
On the golden pavements of Rome, where the thread of history intertwines with that of precious fabrics, the House of Fendi celebrates its centenary like sewing a ball gown: with patience, audacity and memory.
LUXURY HAS A MELTDOWN
It’s official: even €3,000 handbags are feeling the blues. The latest earnings season in the luxury sector sparkled about as much as a Chanel bag after a spin cycle. LVMH, Kering, Hermès… all walked the runway of disappointing news. Even Moët Hennessy had to cork it demand for cognac in China and the U.S. dropped lower than an influencer’s self-esteem during a brand blackout.
Financial analysts who’ve swapped gold watches for smart ones to monitor their blood pressure blame it on a drop in consumer confidence. Translation: the rich are worried, and the ultra-rich have decided 15 watches might actually be enough.
Add to that a trade war between the U.S. and China, tariffs falling faster than a Dior dress with a broken zip, and GDP growth doing the moonwalk in reverse… and voilà: the luxury sector’s sparkle has dulled. It still shines just more “fake diamond” than “cartier bling.” Continue reading
CHANEL CRUISE 2026
Take a timeless palace – the Villa d’Este, an outdated pearl of globalised luxury, frozen in the cliché of Italian refinement. Add a few well-trimmed hydrangeas, golden light falling on the tranquil waters of Lake Como, and a handful of fashion journalists already fed up with corporate prose. Bring in the tutelary shadow of Visconti, summon the graceful ghost of Romy Schneider draped in Gabrielle-era Chanel, and inject a pinch of cinematic nostalgia. Shake it all up with a bit of pre-digested storytelling, and you get… the Chanel Croisière 2026 fashion show.
DIOR SALES DREAMS AND ILLUSIONS
May is a month when many things blossom: cherry trees, pollen allergies, and Charlize Theron, 50 years of calibrated freshness, as the new incarnation of Dior high jewellery. Yes, you read that right. For the first time ever, the French fashion house has decided it’s time to slap a face as smooth as it is retouched on its cast-iron, multi-zero charms.
And who better than Charlize, Hollywood star recycled as luxury icon and mistress, to sell the dream mounted on rose gold and marquise-cut diamonds? Under the penetrating eye of photographer Mario Sorrenti, the former queen of Mad Max’s post-apocalyptic stunts struts her stuff in jewellery with a name so evocative you’d think you were reading a Michelin-starred menu: Milly Dentelle Couture Fleurie, an overpriced floral embroidery that looks like it’s been lifted from grandma’s lace tablecloth.
CHANEL AND THE LAC DE CONNE
The quintessence of elegance… and a healthy bank account. For their next event, the “cruise” presentation (because a normal fashion show is so plebeian), the brand has set its sights on picturesque Lake Como. Charming, to be sure. But wait for the highlight: the accommodation option for the modest sum of 2,370 euros a night. Yes, you read that right. The price of a small electric city car for just one night. Imagine the breakfast included: unicorn tears and toast sprinkled with stardust.JACQUEMUS CONQUERS L.A WITH A BANANA
Jacquemus conquers Los Angeles with a banana. Thursday night in Los Angeles, a momentous event shook the balance of the world: Jacquemus opened a boutique. Yes, forget wars, global warming and your tax problems, because Simon Porte Jacquemus has brought flowers, lemons, bananas and, the ultimate in cultural innovation, soft banana ice cream, straight to the pulsating arteries of West Hollywood. Whew, we can breathe easier.
So, after literally revolutionizing the Texas scene with an immersive bowling event (we’re already imagining strikes in draped dresses and satin mules), Jacquemus decided the world didn’t have enough selfies in front of yellow walls. That’s why its team has transformed Melrose Avenue into Provence on steroids, but be warned, an Instagram-filtered Provence, where every lemon is photogenic and every flower has signed a modeling contract.
The store, located at 8804 Melrose Avenue (because the address is also branding, darling), is the brand’s first foray onto the far-flung and exotic West Coast. Did you think contemporary fashion needed an existential rethink? Bad news: what it really needed was bananas. Continue reading
LUXURY GETS PRICER
Louis Vuitton Hikes U.S. Prices to Dodge Tariff Tantrums. In yet another dramatic plot twist in the luxury-meets-politics soap opera, Louis Vuitton has decided that your next handbag should come with a side of international trade policy. Analysts at Bernstein and Barclays report a 4% price increase on the brand’s U.S. website a polite, monogrammed way of saying “tariffs are not our thing.”
The timing, unsurprisingly, aligns with the latest 10% import duty served up by the Trump administration like a surprise bill at a five-star restaurant. But insiders whisper that Louis Vuitton likes to nudge prices around this time anyway, perhaps as a spring tradition like tulips, but with more cowhide.
Meanwhile, Japan saw a 3% rise and France a modest 2%, because apparently luxury inflation is also a world traveler. Continue reading
KERING I WILL SURVIVE
Kering reported revenues fell 14 percent to 3.88 billion euros in the first quarter of 2025, dragged down by low store traffic and weak wholesale numbers at Gucci, where sales dropped 25 percent on a comparable basis.
The numbers trailed the performance of Kering’s larger luxury rivals LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which reported a 3 percent dip in first-quarter revenues to 20.31 billion euros, and Hermès International, which bucked the trend and delivered a 7.2 percent improvement to 4.13 billion euros. Continue reading
VODKA CAFÉ FOR 50 BUKS
Do you like coffee as well a vodka? Do you like spending $50 on something you’ll regret from the first sip. Congratulations, Belvedere has literally distilled your dreams or nightmares into a single bottle. “The Belvedere Dirty Brew. Because yes, why settle for drinking an espresso and a vodka separately when you can combine the two and make your taste buds and your banker weep?
Available at Selfridges, the London temple of people who find the word “sale” an insult, this sensory marvel is sold for the modest price of $50, or around 47 coffees to take away, or half an evening in a decent bar.
It’s an expensive-looking bottle, with a name vaguely reminiscent of a dodgy website, and inside it’s coffee and booze playing Battleship in your stomach. But be warned, this isn’t just any coffee. No. It’s craft coffee.
Because when you put the word “artisan” on anything, you can sell it for twice as much as the Arnault lord. At that price, you’d at least hope that the beans were ground by a Tibetan monk at the top of the Himalayas during a full moon. And for those who find the name a little… suggestive, “Dirty Brew”, that’s normal: Belvedere wanted a drink as “daring” as the price.
FROM SS TO KYLIE JENNER PERFUME COTY
In 2024, Coty, the beauty giant and expert in bottling, luxury and ego, continued to bet on perfume as one would bet on a horse that has eaten Red Bull: with hope, confidence and a hint of panic. Fragrance is their engine for growth, their olfactory Elon Musk, their balance sheet booster.
In a burst of fragrant audacity, Coty has signed pacts (like arranged marriages between great families) with brands as prestigious as Swarovski (to sparkle like a disco ball), Marni (to smell like a contemporary art gallery) and Etro (which is never pronounced the same but always smells expensive). They’ve even enlisted Lena Gercke, a German presenter and model with a minimalist techno name, to launch “LaGer”, a line of mainstream fragrances. Yes, mainstream, like a lukewarm beer… but in a designer bottle. The name sounds like peach and vanilla.
Internally, Coty has also come up with a premium line called ‘Infiniment Coty Paris’ because nothing says “class” like a long name with ‘Paris’ in it. They’ve stuck their ‘Molecular Aura™’ technology on it, which is supposed to make the fragrance last 30 hours. Yes. Enough to survive a techno night, a morning after drinking, and a family brunch without re-parfuming. Bimbos, you’ve been warned, it’s going to smell strong in the Uber.
COSTARELLA DIED AT 60
Australian designer Aurelio Costarella has died at age 60 after a recent diagnosis with Creutzfeldt Jakob.Western Australia’s most successful designer, Perth-born a stalwart of the Australian Fashion Week schedule for a number of years.
At his peak he was selling to Barneys New York, Harvey Nichols, Henri Bendel and Villa Moda, with 100 stockists in Australia, including the David Jones department store chain.
His designs were worn by names including Queen Mary of Denmark, Cate Blanchett, Charlize Theron, Rihanna, Geri Halliwell and Dita Von Teese.In 2017, citing the difficult retail economy and mental health struggles, he shuttered his business to focus on art.
RALPH LAUREN RETOUR A MANHATTAN
Yesterday, TriBeCa was abuzz with emotion as Ralph Lauren illuminated New York in broad daylight, abandoning its nocturnal splendour to make the most of natural light. The autumn 2025 collection was unveiled in the elegant setting of Jack Shainman’s new flagship shop, in a suspended moment that only Ralph Lauren knows how to create.
Continue reading
DIOR MAN TO MAN
Oyé oyé braves gens, listen to the news that has just broken, crisper than a lukewarm croissant on a Sunday morning! You see, our fashion mogul, the lord of the Arnaults himself, has decided to play fashion journalist, but with an announcement that’s… shall we say… unexpected!
Just imagine the scene: the cushy shareholders sipping their overpriced mineral water, when PAF! Le Bernard drops the bombshell: “Ladies and gentlemen, hold on to your designer bags, because Kim Jones, the master of scissors for these gentlemen at Dior, will be replaced by Jonathan Anderson.
It’s even rumored that in the group’s hushed corridors, jaws dropped faster than summer sale prices. Interns almost spilled their coffee (organic, of course), art directors briefly considered becoming sock sellers at the market, and Fabienne de Sourdis nearly fainted.
So get ready, gentlemen, because the Anderson version of Dior style promises to be… how can I put this… interesting! We can already imagine the models parading around in lobster-shaped hats and jackets made from lacquered duck feathers, made in China. Continue reading
THE POETICS OF DAILY
Dear lost children of fashion, you who live in the age of excess, I, the sublime Alessandro Michele, am going to spit out a few truths in red 99. Because someone has to shout while everyone else is bawling. Alessandro, that aesthete with the fingers of a fairy and a baroque heart, wanted to whisper to us a pause. A little break from the din, a breath in the circus of images, words and trends swallowed up and then thrown away in the moment like a lukewarm milkshake on a terrace.
LANTINK INHERITS THE SAILOR THRONE
Shudder fashionistas, Duran Lantink has just been crowned Jean Paul Gaultier’s new creative director. Yes, Lantink, the king of improbable cuts and recycled looks with the swag of an eco-fashion designer. And guess what? He’s become the very first official successor to Jean Paul himself. It’s a bit as if Gaultier had handed him the keys to the family dressing room and said: “Go on, son, have fun!
He will make his debut in September at Paris Fashion Week, where he will resurrect JPG’s ready-to-wear collection, which has been missing for over ten years (some of the dresses were probably sleeping in fashion cryogenics). Haute couture, on the other hand, will have to wait until January 2026. In the meantime, we’re burying the “collab à gogo” phase of the house: no more guest DJs on the catwalks, now it’s Duran who plays the fabric solo.
He’s not coming empty-handed: fresh from winning the Woolmark Prize, he’s already shaken up the fashion world with his crazy silhouettes. Gaultier himself describes him as having ‘the energy, audacity and desire to have fun with clothes’. In other words, he has all the makings of the new “enfant terrible”… except perhaps Madonna’s conical breasts. But hey, let’s give him time.
FM
FREE FALL IN THE HIGH SPHERES
When the rich cough, the stock market catches a cold. Black Monday on the Champs-Élysées of the CAC 40: luxury giants stumbled on their crocodile moccasins. A blow for caviar lovers and six-figure watch wearers: the group owned by the lord emperor of overpriced bags and inaccessible champagnes has announced a drop in sales.
Yes, you read that right: down 2%, or 20.31 billion euros, which is still… 20 billion more than we have in our account. The wines and spirits division was particularly hard hit: -9%. It would seem that even the ultra-rich have turned their backs on Dom Pérignon. After all, if you toast everything and anything, your liver says no.
Fashion and leather goods posted a slight -5%: apparently, the “bag that costs a minimum wage” collection no longer appeals as much as it used to. Perfumes were down 1%. Perhaps the rich are finally feeling the pinch? Kering, Gucci’s parent company, took a big hit with -5.2%, while Swatch Group and Richemont had a little hiccup, -1.1% and -1% respectively. It’s hard to believe that even luxury watches are struggling to come to terms with the downturn. The only one to keep a smile on its face in this depressing ball is Hermès, with a glorious +0.2%. Continue reading
VUITTON WEST OF THE EDEN OF REFINEMENT
Welcome to the luxury western. It’s in Texas that the lord has set down his suitcases, or how to mess up a leather goods show with panache. So, fasten your seatbelts (made of cowhide vaguely tanned with plastic), because the “made in USA” luxury rodeo is in full collapse. The famous luxury house, apparently the empire of French refinement, had decided to plant its golden pumps… in the heart of the state near the Rio Grande. The result? A factory that looks more like a Monty Python sketch than a high-end craft workshop.
A “significantly insufficient performance,” the man from Toledo is said to have said. Translation: it’s a disaster. Apparently, there’s a shortage of talented leather craftsmen… Who would have thought it? Offering $17 an hour to make bags worth 3,000 quid, without requiring any experience, what a brilliant strategy! It’s like asking a teenager watching “Road Bull” to build a cathedral.
And what’s more, it took them years to learn how to sew a pocket. A pocket! Not a damp squib like Musk, not just a pocket! And meanwhile, the leather waste rate reaches 40%, twice the norm. When the bag is ugly and poorly made? Hey presto, it’s incinerated. Literally burned in a huge fire of shame, or sold to Mexican migrants as a counterfeit. “No, I’m just kidding.” Continue reading
GUERLAIN SPA IN A BIG APPLE
Attention, overworked New Yorkers, dehydrated models, and globe-trotting CEOs in desperate need of spiritual realignment: your salvation has arrived. And it smells like lavender hand-picked by aromatherapy-certified elves. This summer, Guerlain is gracing us with the grand opening of its largest spa ever inside the legendary (and recently zhuzhed-up) Waldorf Astoria New York. Yes, you read that right: a 30,000-square-foot wellness cathedral dedicated to inner glow, outer glow, and deep post-brunch hydration.
After years of renovations, the Waldorf is finally reopening, more committed than ever to being the final frontier of capitalist self-care. Guerlain, once the spa partner in a former (less opulent) life, is back and bigger than ever with a space so luxurious it’s probably tiled in caviar and draped in PhD-level towels. But don’t call it a spa. It’s a Wellness Spa. Three words that, when said together, roughly translate to: “Please swipe your Black Card now.”
PARIS FASHION WEEK 30 DAYS TO DRESS BERCY
Dgena Mouclier, embodying the union of luxury and eco-responsibility. She dresses the first French rapper in audience as well as the entire French rap music scene. The initials “DM” not only reflect the designer’s name but also her heritage, with “Dgena” meaning “paradise” in Maure and “Mouclier” evoking “mouclade,” a dish from Vendée associated with French royalty. Continue reading
PRADA AND THE GOLDEN MEDUSA
We know L.V as the luxury behemoth, capable of absorbing houses like a trophy collector. But this time, while everyone was waiting for The lord to pull off another coup, it was Prada that stole the show by buying Versace for the modest sum of 1.25 billion euros. A deal conducted with the finesse of a Milanese tailor, while LV, perhaps distracted by a vineyard acquisition or yet another flagship store on the Champs-Elysées, looked elsewhere.
After months of rumours and whispers in the hushed salons of the fashion world, Prada has made official its acquisition of 100% of Versace from Capri Holdings. And the Milanese giant has made no secret of its delight. ‘We are delighted to welcome Versace into the fold of the Prada Group and to write a new chapter for this iconic fashion house’, said Patrizio Bertelli, head of the Prada Group, with the small, satisfied smile of someone who has just pulled off an excellent coup.
The deal will be financed by €1.5 billion in debt, proof that Prada is serious about its ambitions. Andrea Guerra, the group’s CEO, has assured us that Versace has ‘enormous potential’ and that it will take ‘time and discipline’ to drive this evolution. Translation: Donatella has done a good job, and now we’re going to roll out our plan gently.