Category Archives: BREAKING MODE
BEAUTY KERING RICHEMONT AND OTHERS
Richemont is building a Laboratoire de Haute Parfumerie and Kering is taking beauty in-house. Building a business in this industry isn’t easy, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. There are four main reasons why beauty is a lure today: growth, resilience, desirability, and margins.
Fragrance and cosmetics are a big, fast-developing business, with the category generating sales last year of approximately $430 billion. Whereas the fashion business, with its discretionary categories, has become more difficult, beauty is part of a daily routine, and people will keep buying beauty.
In addition to its frequency of use, beauty has a high perceived value. Despite difficult economic times, people continue to buy it because they are pleased with the value. As with handbags, beauty’s margins are among the highest in luxury.
Kering seems to be tearing a page out of the LVMH playbook by creating multiple avenues into the brands, and potentially spreading their marketing budgets across all the fragrance brands. Funny NO? Who will Kering include in its basket of perfumes?
A.I IN FASHION
Artificial Intelligence does not stop its expansion, and in fashion, the word intelligence is certainly badly used: creation of images, writing of texts, generation of music… This is a simple reuse of existing or real artistic creations. The question divides the profession and raises questions about the future of creators who are now in dire straits.
The fields of intervention of AI in the image sector are expanding more and more every day. It is possible to create your logo, your visual identity, your photographs and videos like “Jacques muse-muse”, to manipulate the consumer. The promise is to generate the design with little effort, which helps many designers like Rous-tintin and many others who do not know how to draw or make a pattern or dress worthy of the name with their hands.
Generative AI works on the principle of “machine learning”; technology based on experience acquired through the digestion of content from web databases. Thus, many artists are worried about the use of works in AI databases, because, in fact, many images have been retrieved from the internet for AI training and used without permission. consent of their Rights Holders. The lack of legal framework for the exploitation of these bases is a subject at the heart of numerous debates. Continue reading
TAPESTRY PLAY AGAINST LVMH
Tapestry, Inc. is an American multinational luxury fashion holding company. It is based in New York City and is the parent company of three major brands.
Tapestry Inc. has agreed to purchase Capri Holdings. Capri, owner of Michael Kors, Versace, and Jimmy Choo, is expected to be valued at $8.5 billion after the acquisition. The company’s shares are purchased for $57 each. The LVMH garden will be endangered by this new luxury group.
The six brands now owned by the two companies generate more than $12 billion in annual sales.
We are excited to own these brands and maximize their value. We think we’re a good landlord, and we have a lot to offer.”, says Roe.
ADIDAS A SMOKING GUN
In its ongoing battle with Thom Browne over the designer brand’s use of stripes, Adidas believes it has uncovered a smoking gun.
In court papers filed with the U.S. The District Court for the Southern District of New York found on Thursday that Thom Browne improperly withheld several e-mail chains which admitted that there was a likelihood of confusion between Adidas’s three-stripes and the company’s ‘four bar’ design.
Adidas alleges that four emails were exchanged between Browne and Rodrigo Bazan discussing the potential confusion in the market if four bars were used on sport-related products.
“Thom Browne’s concealment of these highly relevant and highly damaging e-mails denied Adidas a fair trial,” the brief stated. “Adidas is therefore entitled to relief under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(2), which provides for relief when a party uncovers evidence that likely would have changed the outcome of trial.”
L.A. FASHION START BY UKRAINIAN DESIGNER
DURAN LANTIK PARIS FASHION WEEK
You are probably already familiar with Duran Lantink’s fashion designs, even if his name doesn’t ring a bell. The Amsterdam-based fashion designer is the creator of the infamous vagina trousers worn by Janelle Monáe last year in her music video Pynk. Continue reading
CHANEL PORQUE TE VAS
Show, show, show the screen will be show. Here, it is the Villa Noailles, but, in reality, we are at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, and I watch my fear live which suddenly becomes obscure. A Victorian sap “invitation to the coronation obliges” had to sing or shut up, so I loosened my fist from my calame and grabbed Virginie Viard’s harvest, just for a moment.
There appeared to me a multiple rainbow made of flesh and dust, which rumbles to the door of my spirit, a new breath so that my pain of waiting ends.
THE GRAND VUITTON HOTEL
COMME DES GARCONS
The Comme des Garçons show on Friday evening felt like she could not stop herself from adding more zany prints, color, texture, sparkle and volume, resulting in some of the largest, strangest collections yet.
Metal brooches and large gemstones adorned the ankle boots and Salomon sneakers.
The gargantuan Peter Pan collars had something uplifting and even humorous about them.
There are silhouettes that resemble giant turtles and conch shells. A harness in candy colors was added here and there by Kawakubo.
HOW TO MAKE A COLLECTION IN TEN DAYS
If you can create a collection in ten days which usually takes six months, either you are a Picasso or you are a liar, it’s up to you to judge.
TOM HAWKING AND FORD

ROBERTO CAVALLI 2024
FENDI PARIS 2024
GUCCI AND SABATO
Sabato De Sarno’s High-Stakes Gucci Debut and the designer’s first outing this Friday will be a major test for the Italian megabrand and owner Kering.
Born in Naples, De Sarno started his career with Prada in 2005. He later worked for Dolce & Gabbana and, from 2009, as director of men’s and women’s collections at Valentino.
PARIS FASHION THIEF
Clothes expected for the upcoming Balmain show at Paris Fashion Week have gone missing after a truck transporting the collection was stolen, according to an Instagram post from Olivier Rousteing.
Was the delivery diverted or the truck stolen? Thank goodness the driver is safe,” the creator wrote in a message to his 9.8 million followers. So it would have been more of a truck jacking!
The show scheduled for September 27 near the Eiffel Tower would continue as planned, we are in the process of redoing everything but it’s so disrespectful, he continued, especially for others but he doesn’t know that when we have the patterns it’s easy to redo all in a few days.
A big intellectual scam, for a fictitious theft certainly, welcome to the wonderful world of fashion. Oh by the way, there are always GPS trackers when transporting a collection. The truck from China got lost on the Silk Road!.
LONDON FASHION WEEK
Sarah Burton is stepping down as Artistic Director of Alexander McQueen after 26 years, 14 of which she spent as Creative Director. Her departure marks the end of an era, and raises questions about the future of this legendary British fashion house at the start of London Fashion Week. Continue reading
BACCARAT DESERTED BY THE CHINESE
Baccarat is for sale. Tor Investment and Sammasan Capital, the two Hong Kong creditors who became shareholders of the prestigious crystal factory when its Chinese owner disappeared in 2020, have mandated the bank Messier & Associés to find a buyer, according to our information.
Around six to seven contenders are still in the running, according to sources familiar with the matter. Asian and Gulf investors, an industrialist from northern Europe, as well as a Swiss fund and another from the Maghreb.
The glass factory founded by King Louis XV in 1754, however, no longer interests French investors. The French industrial group Chargeurs, which seeks to strengthen its position in luxury, was interested in the deal.
“They found the sellers’ price expectations unreasonable in view of the performance and closed the file this summer,” indicates a source. Since then, its manager Michaël Fribourg has turned to other acquisitions in the luxury sector. Sammasan Capital hopes to raise more than 400 million euros from the sale of the emblematic Lorraine factory.
A GIFT OF “SILK

EVENTS AROUND THE BOOK
For twenty years Jean-François Spricigo has developed an artistic language of rare power, mixing different photographic writings often nourished by dialogue with writing, sounds, video or staging. At the foundation of this radical work, the intense relationship with nature which animates the artist, refuting any hierarchy between forms of life: “Humbly, I observe nature and recognize it as the only tangible norm in the face of the changes in our societies” . As the only place, also, of possible reconciliation between the imaginary and the real.
The book Wild Prayer, published in 2021, testified to the strength and integrity of this journey.
We the horizon will remain alone (title to be read in two groups of words), is a story of recent travels on the island of Reunion, in Mayotte and in Guyana, for an intimate quest for the sensitive, thus marking a new stage in the work of the artist. Inspired by the fierce and indomitable dimension of overseas coastlines, this new book relates, in words and images (but also in sounds during a show), the memories of human and animal encounters, and echoes of ever-renewed wonder at the immensity of life.
ARMANI IN VENI VIDI VENICE
The Venice One Night Only event, which has so far taken place in Tokyo, Beijing, Rome, New York, Paris, and Dubai, coincided with the Venice Film Festival. Continue reading
KERING BEAUTY
The French luxury house announced in early February that it had taken its beauty activity back in-house, and appointed Raffaella Cornaggia as CEO of Kering Beauté.
Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Pomellato, and Qeelin asked her to develop a beauty team.
In late June, Kering Beauté made the bold move of acquiring Creed, the oldest existing high-end niche fragrance house. The deal was reportedly worth 3.5 billion euros.
During a call regarding Kering’s half-yearly 2023 results, François-Henri Pinault said Creed had revenues of around 250 million euros in 2022, with a very high EBITDA margin.
Creed was acquired after Kering chased Tom Ford International, which was ultimately acquired by Estée Lauder Cos. Inc., for $2.3 billion. A reported 1 billion euros was paid by Puig for luxury brand Byredo, which Kering was interested in acquiring.
FRAGRANCE HERITAGE A NICHE MARKET
The Cherigan Paris 1929 fragrance brand was discovered by Luc Gabriel in 2016, 87 years after its launch and more than a half century after its demise. The name cheri, French for darling, and gant, French for glove, intrigued him. Cherigan was part of the Art Deco period, which Gabriel adores.
As the executive learned, the brand had created iconic perfumes such as Chance, Parisienne, Bleu Impérial and Fleurs de Tabac. It owned a store on Paris’ Champs-Élysées. In the U.S., Australia, and France, Gabriel found some vintage Cherigan bottles and sampled their scents.
In faraway lands such as Cuba and the U.S., Cherigan was highly regarded by jetsetters. The label went under in the 1960s, so Gabriel purchased the rights from various people before relaunching it in 2022.
It’s spreading to other domains. Beauty brands with a sense of place and history are becoming increasingly popular. Ditto for make-believe heritage brands emitting a true identity. Continue reading
BERGDORF’S AND BOTTEGA
With an energetic launch of Bottega Veneta’s winter 2023 collection, Bergdorf Goodman puts the spotlight on the Italian house.
Bergdorf’s is offering clients early access to the artfully crafted pieces designed by Bottega Veneta’s creative director Matthieu Blazy. Continue reading