💎 Brilliant Cut No. 21:
💎 Brilliant Cut No. 21:
Cartier Ups Prices, Gucci Too Trendy?, Off-White Accepts Crypto, Few Galleries Sell NFTs, Dior's BeReal Campaign, Louis Vuitton Newsstand, Balenciaga Stays Hot, China Luxury Slows, LVMH Lab-Grown Fur
Welcome to this edition of Brilliant Cut, a free monthly newsletter that helps you smartly navigate the most important luxury marketing stories and insights.
Issue #21 | May 2, 2022
Furious Russian influencers are slamming Chanel for banning them
(Fortune) Russian influencers are publicly criticizing brands like Chanel on social media because they can no longer get their favorite accessories. Read more
Cartier increases prices and mulls opening additional boutiques in the United States
(WatchPro) Cartier is increasing prices for its watches and jewelry, the company’s chief executive officer Cyrille Vigneron has revealed. He says strengthening of the US dollar and Chinese yuan against the euro has prompted what calls “mild” price rises. Read more
How a luxury brand best known for silk scarves made the next great watch
(GQ) Hermès’s new H08 is converting collectors who are ready to think differently about who can make a killer timepiece. Read more
Is Gucci Too Trendy?
(WSJ) Europe’s luxury brands have shrugged off the pandemic and inflation but fickle tastes in fashion still have the power to trip them up. Read more
Luxury is now accepting crypto. But how sustainable is it?
(Jing Daily) On April 1, Tiffany & Co. staged a timely prank on its consumers as an April Fools joke, claiming that the label was venturing into crypto-trading. Read more
Luxury retailer Farfetch invests in Neiman Marcus
(Reuters) Farfetch Ltd, an online retailer of luxury fashion products, said it will make an investment of up to $200 million in Neiman Marcus Group, gaining a stronger foothold in the U.S. as part of a deal to develop the high-end department store's online business. Read more
How the fashion industry can get into a metaverse mindset
(McKinsey) Shoppers, particularly those in Gen Z, are spending more time online and exploring the possibilities of the metaverse. Here’s what fashion and luxury players need to know about this emerging frontier. Read more
A $300,000 Dolce & Gabbana tiara you can only wear in the metaverse
(WSJ) Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Burberry and other luxury-goods companies see promise in digital markets where—just as in real life—rarity and exclusivity can translate into high prices. Read more
Want to spend your crypto on fashion? Off-White now accepts it
(Vogue Business) Off-White will accept cryptocurrency payments in flagship stores in Paris, London and Milan. Will consumers swap their crypto for physical clothes? Read more
Rolex seals top spot as the world’s most Instagrammable watch brand
(WatchPro) It will come as no surprise to anyone that Chrono24 research has found that Rolex is the world’s most Instagrammable watch brand. Read more
Few galleries selling NFTs, despite the hype
(Vigour Times) It is just over a year since Beeple’s non-fungible token (NFT) work “Everydays: The first 5000 days” (2021) sold for a staggering $69.3mn. Since then, the craze for art NFTs has seemed unabated but, according to a survey of 870 gallerists, very few have jumped on the bandwagon — while those that did made relatively little money from it. Read more
Hermès' 'Time Travels The World' installation at Watches & Wonders 2022
(Designboom) On the occasion of Watches & Wonders 2022, Hermès presents Times Travels the World, an installation created in collaboration with Canadian artist Sabrina Ratté. Inspired by the new Arceau Le Temps Voyageur watch, the immersive artwork invites visitors to travel, discover, and experience the universe of Hermès time — a non-linear one. Read more
Christian Dior’s new ads, 5 things to know about BeReal
(WWD via Yahoo) Dior’s pre-fall campaign is all about the sisterhood. Maria Grazia Chiuri’s collection, inspired by school uniforms, is worn by a group of models, including house favorites Sofia Steinberg and Maryel Uchida, in a series of group portraits by South African photographer Alice Mann — in line with Chiuri’s commitment to working exclusively with female imagemakers on her photo shoots. Read more
Louis Vuitton takes over Venice's historic news kiosks during the Biennale
(Designboom) As the Venice Art Biennale 2022 opened its doors to the public over the weekend, visitors making their way through the winding streets of the famous canal city will have noticed a series of revamped news kiosks with pink ‘Louis Vuitton‘ logos. The temporary takeover is part of the French fashion house’s initiative to celebrate these historic and much-loved newsstands and return them to their former glory. Read more
Fashion and luxury flock to the Venice Biennale
(Fashion Network) After the Cannes Film Festival, the Milan Furniture Fair, and Art Basel in Miami, the luxury and fashion industries have set their sights on a new playground: Venice and its Art Biennale. Read more
ThredUp releases report reviewing branded resale programmes
(Fashion United) Resale platform ThredUp has revealed a new report offering a detailed review of brands and retailers that are currently operating dedicated resale programmes. Read more
Balenciaga continues its reign as hottest brand in the world for Q1 2022
(Hypebeast) Balenciaga has one again found its way to the top, reigning as the world’s hottest brand for Q1 2022. According to the Lyst Index, Demna‘s vision continues to stay top of mind, re-writing the rules of what luxury fashion means in today’s world. Read more
Shanghai residents in lockdown flaunt their wealth by hanging shopping bags of luxury brands on doors
(Business Insider) Shanghai may be under a strict lockdown, but the city's well-heeled have still found a way to show off their wealth and status — using paper bags. Read more
China: Luxury growth rate to slow in 2022 with fewer entry-level shoppers
(Vogue Business) A reshuffle of the composition of Chinese luxury consumers is predicted this year with a slowdown in the surge of entry-level shoppers, according to a new report by Yaok, a Chinese luxury research firm. Overall, the luxury goods market in China is predicted to grow by 15 to 18 per cent in 2022. Read more
LVMH sidelines China’s middle class shoppers
(Jing Daily) LVMH’s results published on April 12 are still trending with citizens — and for all the wrong reasons. The hashtag #LVMH is betting on the high-end market in the future# is trending on Weibo with 239,000 views as netizens discuss the luxury conglomerate’s courting of ultra-high net worth shoppers. Read more
RIMOWA x Porsche collaborate with hand-carry case, offering only 911 editions
(Designboom) Two historic German companies RIMOWA and Porsche have unveiled an iconic collaboration, debuting the RIMOWA x Porsche Hand-Carry Case Pepita. Read more
Mercedes-Benz launches limited-edition car designed by Virgil Abloh
(Dezeen) German car brand Mercedes-Benz has unveiled a car designed in collaboration with Virgil Abloh along with a collection of clothing designed by the late fashion designer's Off-White brand. Read more
Gucci x MLB sets a new stage for blended luxury
(Hypebeast) When you think about luxury goods, sports is not always the first thing to come to mind. But Gucci’s Alessandro Michele is expanding the brand’s maximalist gaze that is no stranger to blending everything in sight. As such, Gucci is gearing up to release its official collaboration with Major League Baseball. Read more
BMW becomes the Kentucky Derby’s first official luxury automotive partner
(duPont Registry) One of the most iconic luxury events in the United States now has an equally luxurious and iconic brand as a partner this year, and it’s BMW. With this partnership, BMW becomes the first luxury automotive brand to officially partner with the Kentucky Derby, and through this partnership, the brand plans to turn the most exciting 2 minutes in sports into a long-lasting collaboration between two loved icons. Read more
How luxury watch and jewellery houses are supporting gender equality
(SCMP) Since the #MeToo watershed broke in 2015, the ripples of change have been felt across our social landscape, with long-overdue efforts to promote gender equality and empower women kick-started in almost every field, and the watch and jewellery industry has made its own collective response. Read more
LVMH, Fendi open the door to sustainable, plastic-free lab-grown fur
(Vogue Business) Fashion is trending away from fur and even major alternatives are made from plastic, which is neither luxe or good for the environment. Now, LVMH, one of the remaining luxury groups still using fur, is attempting to create a new, sustainable option using keratin, the main protein in hair, as the starting point. Read more
How luxury watch brands are becoming more sustainable and ethical
(SCMP) A sustainable article could be said to be one that exists for generations. Speaking at Watches and Wonders 2022, Zenith CEO Julien Tornare said, “How many objects will still potentially be working in 400 years? Not many. But a mechanical watch, maybe yes.” Read more
The Luxury Item is the #1 podcast on the business of luxury. Listen to my recent interviews with the leaders who are shaping today’s luxury landscape:
Matteo Atti, EVP of marketing and innovation at global private aviation company VistaJet, talks about UHNW globetrotters driving the private flying boom and positioning the brand in a hyper-competitive field. Listen on Spotify
Dirk Schönberger, global creative officer at German luxury brand MCM, talks about how he's been taking the brand to new heights since joining in 2018. Listen on Spotify
Julie Wagner, CEO of the Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau talks about marketing the most recognizable luxury destination brands in the world. Listen on Spotify
Don’t forget to listen and subscribe to The Luxury Item podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Mixed Gems: Featured writers on luxury, fashion, and culture
✨ Meet The New(ish) CEO Of The Americas For Audemars Piguet (By Nora Taylor in Hodinkee ). Read it here
✨ Forget Logos, Fashion Houses Are Clamoring for Colors (By Katie Deighton in WSJ). Read it here
✨ Why Buy a Multimillion-Dollar Home When You Can Live Aboard a Yacht? (By Katherine Clarke in WSJ). Read it here
Thank you for reading this issue. - Scott
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Ya I really do think a lot of these luxury brands may miss on trying to go all in on "metaverse" and "NFTs".
Gen-Z (speaking as one, cannot represent the whole group of course), default operates on low-to-zero trust for brands and is used to micro-transactions and allergic to monetization strategies that come off as shoe-horned and not well thought out (or sucker into them short term but drop off.)
I don't think you can really shoehorn new technology and call it a day to sell it to Gen-Z and have a long lasting customer base that will buy from you again if your brand breaks trust in the short term (unless the products are exceptional in quality.)
Gen-Z definitely want real items, or if they are going to buy luxury digital items, it has to be tied/looped into a product that has high retention. All of these tactics break if there isn't a core loop these are integrated in when it comes to digital strategy, otherwise most of these brands are going to get stuck in linear-campaign-funnel-hell and really not have much value long term. That is why supply chain moats and IP moats (think Assouline's product development process for books being hard to copy by print-on-demand companies) will help, the question then becomes, is this item something Gen-Z can and will allocate for in the in the future? How does remote work type living play into this? Another dynamic is that if you make your customer appear to be a sucker after purchasing your item (NFTs for example, it's metadata on-chain, you don't own anything really, you just now have a receipt on a public blockchain, and receipt displaying itself is tasteless, so signaling status through NFTs makes no sense because we do that already today in games such as Call of Duty where the backend uses a regular database instead of storing it in some tx-based state machine like Ethereum. Oh and the counter about cross play, and interopability is not there engineering standards-wise so let's not go down that rabbithole either, we are far away from a Gucci item in Call of Duty being used in Fall Guys, etc.)
There are a lot of footguns here, and I only see leaky buckets for most initiatives until these monetization strategies are actually tied into some core loop, or the product is so good, people buy it repetitively. There is a big shortage of quality and physical experience of physical products, and to double down on bells and whistles may be good for demos, but nothing I see providing a may elevated experience than actual quality and craftsmanship given that's where the gap is today.
I think the best vector to actually get Gen-Z is through education, in-depth, non-manipulative, and clear and open communication strategies that inform them and cause them to eliminate desire for the low quality and cheap. Look at the "McMansion" dynamic, it is now a filter I use to make sure I don't overpay for a house, and learning what good is supposed to look like.
Thoughts?