The Best of BoF 2023: The Year Luxury Outgrew Fashion

Was 2023 the 12 months luxury outgrew fashion? This 12 months, the trade’s largest model Louis Vuitton appointed the producer, performer and entrepreneur Pharrell Williams as males’s inventive director — signaling how cultural methods that stretch past vogue, throughout sports activities, music, artwork and media have gotten more and more vital to manufacturers. Trend manufacturers amped up their presence at concert tours, Formula One races, tennis championships and extra.

The transfer got here amid a luxurious panorama in flux. The post-pandemic party is finally over, with manufacturers throughout the board experiencing important slowdowns in Europe and the US. Restoration within the crucial China market remains uneven. Financial turbulence is prompting aspirational consumers to claw again discretionary spending, leaving the ultra-wealthy to gasoline the market. In the meantime, emblem fatigue and the “quiet luxurious” phenomenon is reshaping the market at all levels. (This was most likely most evident at Gucci, which debuted a brand new designer vision below Valentino alum Sabato De Sarno in September.)

In a sector affected by change and uncertainty, scale is seen as a key benefit. Tapestry (which owns Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman) agreed to buy rival Capri (Michael Kors, Versace and Jimmy Choo) for $8.5 billion, whereas Gucci-owner Kering introduced a deal to acquire 30 percent of Valentino, amid continued underperformance at its flagship model.

However corporations can’t depend upon scale alone, as seen with the dramatic decline of e-commerce giant Farfetch. Amid stories of a dire monetary scenario, South Korean retailer Coupang agreed to purchase the positioning, in a de-listing deal that’s poised to depart many bondholders and shareholders emptyhanded. A take care of Richemont to amass Yoox-Web-a-Porter fell aside. Even when Farfetch secured a “white knight”, worrying indicators on the outlook for multi-brand luxurious persist.

Prime Tales

Pharrell Williams: The Future of Luxury Is ‘Freedom’: Along with his first Louis Vuitton males’s present behind him, BoF 500 cowl star Pharrell Williams shares his long-term imaginative and prescient for the way forward for Louis Vuitton, and luxurious itself, with BoF’s Imran Amed.

Can Luxury Brands Grow in 2024?: For over a decade, luxurious manufacturers might depend upon casualisation, China and a post-pandemic growth to drive report gross sales and earnings. Now that these elements have performed out, it’s unclear the place they may flip subsequent for progress.

Case Study | Inside Hermès’ Best-in-Class Leather Goods Strategy: How a singular method to provide chain, design, communications and retail has powered blockbuster demand for iconic baggage just like the Birkin and Kelly, enabling the French leather-based items home to face down rivals and turn out to be a worldwide megabrand with a market capitalisation better than Nike’s.

Daniel Lee’s High-Stakes Burberry Debut, Explained: The previous Bottega Veneta designer’s first assortment is London Trend Week’s hottest ticket. Forward of the present, BoF breaks down what’s at stake for the British megabrand.

The Business of Gucci’s Designer Debut: Shares rose 4 p.c following a Milan Trend Week outing which noticed Sabato de Sarno hone the model’s universality and upscale enchantment. Critics have been left wanting extra in methods each good and dangerous.

Phoebe Philo: The Big Reveal: In Philo’s first seems for her long-awaited namesake label, there’s the luxe minimalism she was recognized for at Celine, but in addition a uncooked, shredded edge which breaks together with her rapid previous, reveals Tim Blanks after an viewers with the designer.

The BoF Podcast | Leena Nair on Leading Chanel Into the Future: Chanel’s world CEO Leena Nair joined BoF founder and CEO Imran Amed at BoF VOICES 2023 to debate the imaginative and prescient she’s crafting for the enduring French luxurious model.