>>> What to look at today - 4th of January 2024

Stocks in Asia dropped, with weakness in China adding to the risk-off mood after Federal Reserve meeting minutes indicated interest rates will remain elevated for longer. A gauge for regional shares slid for a third straight session as benchmarks declined from Australia to South Korea, with Chinese stocks also in a three-day losing streak. Japan’s Topix Index turned higher, reversing early losses on the first trading day of the new year after a holiday break. US stock futures gained slightly in Asia after the S&P 500 ended Wednesday 0.8% lower, extending a run of daily declines that began on the last trading day of 2023. The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.1%, a fourth daily drop, and the longest losing streak in two months. Attention will now turn to upcoming US jobs data on Friday after minutes from the Fed’s December meeting suggested rates could remain at restrictive levels “for some time.” Swaps traders have been reining in their bets on rate cuts after factoring in a full quarter point cut to the benchmark rate by the March meeting. Chinese stocks were the biggest drag in Asia following a report that showed wages offered to Chinese workers in major cities declined by the most on record. The CSI 300 benchmark extended a two-day decline to fall 1.4%. The selling came even as a private gauge of the country’s services activity climbed to the highest in five months in December.  Meantime, Chinese government bond yields fell to the lowest in more than three years, while the offshore yuan was steady. The People’s Bank of China weakened Wednesday’s currency fixing by the most in over six months, a sign policymakers may have shifted their focus from stabilizing the currency to monetary easing. The country’s finance minister said government spending will rise this year. Chinese equities are “still trying to find a bottom” and likely to “stay weak in January,” said Redmond Wong, a market strategist at Saxo Capital Markets. “I will not short the China/Hong Kong markets here but need confirmation for a meaning rally.” In currencies, a gauge measuring dollar strength was little changed after advancing for a fourth straight session Wednesday, its best run since November. The yen traded over 143 per dollar after weakening almost 1% against the greenback in the prior session.
The Japanese currency is coming under renewed pressure as the recent powerful earthquake makes it harder for the central bank to abolish negative interest rates.  Treasuries were mostly steady in Asia, following declines from one of the worst opening days to a year on record. The 10-year Treasury yield inched one basis point lower to 3.9% Wednesday as the Fed minutes showed the possibility of slowing the pace of quantitative tightening.  US manufacturing data on Wednesday showed activity remained in contraction. Separate figures showed the number of job openings fell slightly in November from the prior month’s revised number in a sign of labor market softening. Elsewhere, geopolitics remained in focus. Iran said attacks that killed almost 100 people in the country were carried out to punish its stance against Israel, intensifying tensions in the region. The tensions supported crude, which climbed further Thursday. Oil prices were also buoyed by supply disruptions in Libya and a statement from OPEC pledging to stabilize prices.  A slump in Bitcoin saw the cryptocurrency erase almost all gains it had made so far this year. Gold edged higher. US After Hours RGP +5.2% higher on earnings; CALM -6.5% slips on earnings; ABBV -2.2% slips as CVS Caremark to remove Humira from formularies; SAVE +2% on sale-leaseback transactions.

Nikkei -0.53% Hang Seng -0.14% CSI -0.87% Shanghai -0.39% Shenzen -0.77%

Eur$ 1.0928 CNH 7.1645 CNY 7.1557 JPY 143.78 GBP 1.2669 CHF 0.8490 RUB 91.6447 TRY 29.7886 WTI$ 73.37 +0.97% Gold 2,045 +0.16% BTC 43,150 +0.50% ETH 2,240 +0.50%

S&P +0.11% Nasdaq +0.13% EuroStoxx +0.22% FTSE +0.10% Dax +0.20% SMI +0.36%

Macro :
- Hedge Funds Cashed In on 2023 Rally, Retail Missed It, BofA Says
- Fed Sees Rates Staying High for Some Time With Cuts Eyed in ’24
- World’s Biggest Banks Made $3 Billion on Green Debt in 2023
- Oil Rises on Middle Eastern Turmoil, Libyan Supply Disruption
- U.S. Investor Bull-Bear Spread 25.1: AAII

Keep an eye on :
- ADS GY : Adidas to Set Up Global Business Services Hub in India: ET
- ALO FP : Alstom Signs Saudi Arabia Tramway Contract Worth More Than €500M
- EQNR NO : Equinor, BP Agree to End OREC Accord for Empire Wind 2 Project
- ENX FP : Euronext Completes €200M Share Repurchase Program
- EVT GY : Evotec Slumps as Cowen Calls CEO Departure Disappointing
- EVT GY : Evotec, Owkin Enter Strategic AI Partnership in Oncology, I&I
- GLPG NA : Galapagos to Pay BridGene Up to $727m in Drug Discovery Deal
- GLJ GY : Grenke FY Leasing New Business Volume EU2.58B
- GM US : GM, Other Carmakers See High Rates, Prices Dent Sales Growth
- IPH FP : FDA Lifts Partial Hold on Innate’s Lymphoma Treatment Trial
- LDO IM : Leonardo calls for reform of EU’s fragmented defence industry
- LBPH US : Longboard Said to Price Upsized $210M Share Sale at $21 Each
- MAERSKB DC : Maersk, Shipping Peers Jump on Red Sea Halt, Goldman Upgrade (1)
- NOVN SW : Voyager Therapeutics Extends Gain After Novartis License Deal
- ORSTED DC : Orsted’s New Wind Revenue Plan Could Earn Extra £2 Billion: BNEF
- PRTC LN : PureTech Hits 3-Month High as Jefferies Sees Company Undervalued
- RR/ LN : Rolls-Royce Needs Share to Power Profit Through the Decade's End
- SIFG NA : SIF Says Empire Offshore Wind Terminated Contract
- SIGNA (SDSELE) : Signa Units Seek Bridge Funding From Existing Investors: Spiegel
- SLIGR NA : Sligro FY Sales Meets Estimates
- STLAM IM : GM, Other Carmakers See High Rates, Prices Dent Sales Growth
- UHR SW : Rolex Is Hiking UK Watch Prices With US Pricing Unchanged
- TEF SM : Telefonica: Unions Agree to Pact Including Up To 3,421 Job Cuts
- 700 HK : Tencent Buybacks Hit Record as China Watchdog Roiled Markets

Business Of Fashion : The New Way Brands Are Battling, and Sometimes Even Beatin

The New Way Brands Are Battling, and Sometimes Even Beating, Bots
Rather than limit who can put in orders for limited-edition sneakers, watches and collectibles, retailers are throwing open their drops — and then using data analytics to quietly kick bad actors to the back of the line.

Key Insights
  • The spread of the drop model from sneakers and streetwear to categories like luxury has created the need for more reliable methods of filtering out bots and bad actors.
  • While big players like Nike have built their own defences, others have turned to external tech providers like the Australian start-up EQL, which has emerged as a leader in managing fashion and footwear releases.
  • Businesses are trying to reassure customers they're doing all they can to make launches fair, including prioritising shoppers who missed out on previous releases.

The launch of New Balance’s latest collaboration with Joe Freshgoods last month was destined to be a target for bad actors looking to flip the shoes on the resale market.

The Chicago designer and creative director is behind some of New Balance’s most coveted sneaker releases of the past few years. With limited quantities available, his “1998″ collection of three versions of the brand’s 990v4 model was sure to be irresistible to buyers using automated bots or multiple accounts to snatch up as many pairs as possible, leaving ordinary shoppers empty-handed or forced to pay a premium once resellers listed the shoes online.

Freshgoods had tried different methods designed to get his sneakers into the hands of fans, including a release through Instagram Shop. But running a drop that filtered out resellers without creating problems for regular buyers had proved difficult.

For the “1998″ drop, he teamed with EQL, an Australia-based start-up founded by three ex-Google employees that has quickly become a popular line of defence for retailers looking to protect their product releases from bots and bad actors.


Since launching in 2021, EQL — pronounced “equal” — has run sneaker drops for retailers such as Atmos and A Ma Maniére and expanded into industries from luxury goods to art and collectibles, including managing Tiffany’s sale of a line of Pokémon-themed jewellery this past November.

Its rapid rise is the latest example of the escalating arms race between retailers and resellers. Bots have become a nuisance in the release of just about any hyped product that can be resold at a markup, whether it’s sneakers, gaming consoles, concert tickets, toys or watches. Nike, a constant target of bot attacks, has said they can account for as much as 50 percent of raffle entries for some releases on its SNKRS app. US lawmakers have even proposed outlawing bots. The legislation has never moved forward, but in what’s become something of a holiday tradition, Rep. Paul Tonko, a Democratic congressman from New York, reintroduced his “Grinch bot” bill in December.

“A lot of consumers don’t understand how hard it is to release sneakers,” Freshgoods said. “As technology on stopping bots continues to rise, the people that control the bots and all that stuff, they get wiser too.”

Big players like Nike have built their own defences. Those short on resources or technical expertise can turn to outside providers like EQL, which has emerged as a leader for footwear and fashion releases. To date, it has run more than 4,000 launches in 15 markets for brands and retailers from Crocs and Foot Locker to Bulgari and Tiffany, including the jeweller’s Nike Air Force 1 drop.

It’s hard to say exactly how effective the various anti-bot measures employed by retailers are proving. Companies don’t often publicise their release quantities, or the share snatched up by bots. Consumers may also blame bots for missing out on an item when the reality is there was just far more demand than supply available. But with resellers continuing to snatch up inventory — and posting pictures online of rooms full of items that were supposed to be protected from bots — many consumers want to see retailers doing more.

“There are clear signs that brands are thinking about this stuff, and they’re a little bit better about it,” said Mike Sykes, who writes the sneakers and business newsletter The Kicks You Wear. “But still there are times where it just seems like resellers are able to slip through the cracks and scoop up crazy amounts of these sneakers. It’s definitely frustrating for people.”

Battling the Bots
The basic strategy for battling bots in the past was to separate the computer programs from the humans and block them before they could enter a draw. CAPTCHA tests were an early tactic. But with advancements in machine learning and computer vision, bots are now faster and better than humans at identifying objects or distorted letters, according to a 2023 study.

Rather than try to put up a wall that bots can’t scale, EQL, which patches into e-commerce platforms like Shopify and Salesforce Commerce Cloud or can host sales through its own web domain, uses security methods that are invisible to shoppers and resellers alike.

While any user can submit an entry through its raffle system, EQL analyses hundreds of thousands of signals to evaluate and score users based on their characteristics and activity, including across different launches, much like a bank evaluating a customer’s qualifications for a loan, according to Andrew Lipp, EQL’s co-founder and chief executive. It looks at unique fingerprints like IP address and browser details, as well as examining user groups and behaviour to determine the likelihood that someone submitting an entry is a real person or a reseller’s bot.

It runs live-learning models, too, that assess ground data. If the volume of users in a zip code seems off, for instance, the models will search for other signals that indicate whether something nefarious is going on. One obvious attempt to game the Joe Freshgoods raffle came from a user who submitted 40 entries with the same name and address.

“The thing that we do that’s quite different is we let everyone in,” Lipp said. “If you’re a bad actor, a scammer, someone dodgy, you still think you’ve come through our platform. You won’t know if you’re being clipped.”

The platform is able to give preference to groups like loyal customers or locals. That was an important point for Freshgoods, who wanted to reward his fellow Chicagoans by releasing one colourway from the drop, the “Keisha Blue,” only for local pickup in the city.

The users EQL determines to be following the rules get ranked higher. EQL awards wins to the “best” users first and works its way down the list, automatically processing payments and allocating the inventory that the retailer has put into the system. Towards the end of the Joe Freshgoods raffle, EQL found three percent of entries coming from bots and bad actors, while nine percent showed signals that could impact their chance of winning.

On the Monday the Joe Freshgoods raffle went live, sneakerhead Adham Abousalem joined the draw for two of the styles. He signed into EQL, put in his personal information and submitted the size he wanted. Then he waited. When the draw closed on Friday, he won one of the styles he tried for, the predominantly black “Outro.” EQL automatically charged his card and processed the order for Joe Freshgoods to fulfill. It was no different than other raffles he’d entered over the years, he said.

“Now, talking from the back end, I believe there’s something behind the scenes going on,” Abousalem said. “In terms of the bot community, a lot of the bots that were used for raffles have given up entirely on EQL, saying that they filter very hard.”

The Art of the Drop
The spread of the drop model means more companies need strategies for dealing with people looking to game the system. Lipp also pointed out that, as luxury businesses look to reach younger audiences with these collaborations, they’re appealing to more shoppers accustomed to drops. A bad launch, however, can potentially tarnish the experience a brand tries to create with the design and storytelling around its products and undermine consumer trust, as many sneaker sellers know all too well.

In April 2022, for example, the sneaker and streetwear retailer Union Los Angeles apologised to customers for the bot protection on its Jordan 2 launch being “a bit too good” after many genuine shoppers were left unable to check out, leading to complaints online.

The problem isn’t just bots. Often there’s far more demand than inventory. EQL calculates a “hype score” on each drop, calculated as total number of inventory available divided by number of entries. One day into the Joe Freshgoods launch, the “Keisha Blue” colourway in size 14 for in-store pickup had 28 times more entries than there was inventory available.

“You will see a lot on social media of people saying they hate EQL because they never win,” Abousalem said.

Sykes of The Kicks You Wear pointed out that many shoppers are feeling fatigued with all the bots, competition and stories of retailers doing backdoor sales. They want more transparency from brands about the quantities available, and really just to know that things are being handled fairly. The whole situation is arguably contributing to a softening of sneaker resale prices.

Businesses are trying to reassure customers they’re doing what they can. Nike, for one, has responded by running drops that prioritise shoppers who’ve lost previous raffles. EQL has introduced what it calls the EQLizer Score: every raffle a user fairly enters and loses increases their chances of winning at that retailer next time.

“The raffle system works for us because it just makes it fair,” Freshgoods said. “What I deem a proper drop is sell-through and if people that have been supporting me can get it and new people can get it — and just fairness. I want to see real people wearing them.”

LE Figaro : Une Rolex unique des Jeux Olympiques aux enchères chez Artcurial

Une Rolex unique des Jeux Olympiques aux enchères chez Artcurial


Lors de sa prochaine session horlogère monégasque, la maison de vente propose une véritable capsule temporelle des épreuves olympiques de 1968.

Durant la prochaine semaine d'enchères monégasque, du 14 au 17 janvier prochains, Artcurial prend ses quartiers d'hiver à l'hôtel Hermitage. Elle y organise notamment une vente horlogère le 15 janvier, au sein de laquelle figure notamment une pièce parfaite en cette année de retour des Jeux Olympiques en France.

En 1968, déjà, les Jeux Olympiques d'Hiver s'y déroulaient, à Grenoble. Le lot 44, une Rolex Oyster Perpetual Date, ref. 1500 (Vers 1967 - Est. 10000 - 15000 €), en provient directement. Et il est tout simplement aussi unique qu'olympique. Gravée au dos "Rolex Fairplay Cup, World Ice Hockey Championship Grenoble 1968 ", et présentée dans un écrin incroyable, celle-ci a en fait été offerte par la marque à la couronne à l'organisateur des épreuves de Hockey sur glace des Jeux Olympiques d'hiver. Ces épreuves auront marqué l'histoire de la discipline puisque cette année-là, elles faisaient également office de championnat d'Europe et de Championnat du monde pour la dernière fois de l'histoire. C'est donc un triple titre que convoitaient alors les meilleures équipes mondiales.

Introduite dans les collections Rolex en 1962, la Date 1500 est un must have incontournable pour tout amateur de vintage en quête d'une montre facile à porter au quotidien. Commercialisé jusqu'à la fin des années 1970, ce garde-temps fut l'un des plus grands best-sellers de la marque. Mais la rareté de cette pièce réside dans le fait qu'elle soit gravée au dos "Rolex Fairplay Cup, World Ice Hockey Championship Grenoble 1968". En effet, cette Rolex fut offerte par la marque à l'organisateur des épreuves de Hockey sur glace des Jeux Olympiques d'hiver de 1968. Organisées à Grenoble, en France, ces épreuves de Hockey sur glace ont marqué l'histoire de la discipline puisque cette année-là, elles font également office de championnat d'Europe et de Championnat du monde pour la dernière fois de l'histoire. C'est donc un triple titre que convoitaient les meilleures équipes mondiales en 1968. Avec un tel enjeu, pas sûr que le fair-play soit la priorité des hockeyeurs sur la glace.

C'est pourquoi Rolex avait décidé, à compter de 1963, de remettre un prix du Fair-Play. « Le Hockey sur glace est un sport dur et rapide, expliquait alors la marque dans un courrier. Mais il doit avoir des limites. C'est pourquoi un prix spécial est traditionnellement remis à l'équipe ayant reçu le moins de minutes de pénalisation durant ces championnats. Cette Fair play Cup Rolex est un des prix les plus courus. » Cette année-là, Rolex a remis à chaque membre de l'équipe de hockey la remportant, et aux joueurs ayant marqué le plus grand nombre de points, un « chronomètre Rolex Oyster 100% étanche à l'eau, automatique et calendrier, présenté dans un écrin-souvenir contenant une petite canne de hockey et un véritable puck ». Une montre alors exceptionnellement exposée à Grenoble chez Gay, rue Motorge.

L'exemplaire mis aux enchères chez Artcurial mi-janvier encore plus particulier : il a directement été offert par Rolex à celui qui a organisé et coordonné les épreuves de 1968. Lui-même ancien hockeyeur, ce sportif de haut niveau avait participé aux Championnats du monde de 1950 en défendant les couleurs de la France. Après sa carrière sportive, il continuera de dédier sa vie au Hockey, en fondant notamment l'équipe du Racing Club de France et en dirigeant la Fédération Française des Sports de Glace. Conservée par sa famille, sa montre est présentée pour la première fois en vente publique, accompagnée d'archives personnelles et de photographies d'époques. Une véritable capsule temporelle des épreuves olympiques de 1968.

WWD : Luxury Price Growth Set to Slow Down

Luxury Price Growth Set to Slow Down
Prices for luxury goods will continue to rise, but at a slower rate, while brands will likely broaden their entry-price offers to win back the aspirational customer.

As growth in the luxury sector normalizes, prices are likely to moderate after years of steep increases before, and during, the pandemic.

Erwan Rambourg, global head of consumer and retail research at HSBC, predicts prices on personal luxury goods could climb 2 to 3 percent in 2024 — below the high-single-digit to low-double-digit hikes seen the last three years.

“For some, excess pricing has already translated into a volume hit,” he explained. “For most, who have been reasonable, it will just not support sales growth as much. Moncler and Hermès stand out as having been the most subtle and likely can increase more in 2024 than peers.”

Johann Rupert, chairman of Compagnie Financière Richemont, also believes pricing won’t be a workable lever for the next two years.

“We are very glad that we did not use pricing like one or two of our competitors because, today, the customers remember. And there is reluctance,” he said on the Swiss group’s first-half earnings call last November, suggesting some brands may regret having passed on exorbitant increases to customers.

In its recent report, “Goodbye Stellar Growth,” HSBC analysts checked prices on 19 iconic luxury products in France, and found that some doubled since October 2019, including Prada’s Galleria leather bag and Louis Vuitton’s Speedy model in a Damier check.

In addition, the price of Chanel‘s classic 2.55 flap bag rose by 81 percent; Prada’s Double bag by 90 percent; Canada Goose’s Shelburne parka by 84 percent; Gucci’s Marmont bag by 75 percent, and Cartier‘s Trinity Ring by 64 percent. On average, prices jumped 50 percent, according to the HSBC report.

Generally speaking, prices have risen for a variety of reasons, including inflation, which ran rampant in Europe in 2022 and the first half of 2023 following the lifting of lockdown, and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Brands also took advantage of post-pandemic revenge spending and looked to tap into the pent-up savings that customers had amassed during lockdown.

Jonathan Siboni, founder of the data intelligence company Luxurynsight, believes another big reason behind the steep increase in pricing is the big brands’ push for uniform, international rates.

“If you want to keep prices at a uniform level internationally, you cannot decrease them. You can only level up,” said Siboni, adding that some brands don’t want consumers gambling on exchange rates, taking advantage of pricing discrepancies in various markets, or scouring the globe for deals.

Those discrepancies — and the prospect of customers searching internationally for bargains — can create a lot of problems for luxury companies which are vigilant about protecting brand equity, desirability, and the perception of scarcity for their most iconic products.

Siboni said Chanel has been at the forefront of uniform pricing and believes the strategy has been working.

“It hasn’t been easy, but they stick to it and it has played a strong role in the desirability of the brand. And it’s the only way to ensure that there is a coherent approach,” he said.

Rambourg, however, argued that Chanel, Saint Laurent and Burberry “have seemingly gone too high too quickly.”

He noted that a Chanel 2.55 bag, now retailing for around 10,500 euros in France, puts it in the price zone of a piece of jewelry at Cartier or a Rolex watch.

While consumers are “likely hoping Chanel is the Patek [Philippe] of handbags and they can pass it on to the next generation, we think consumers are likely on average to think otherwise.”

Rambourg said that “we don’t know for a fact if Chanel’s big price increases have affected volumes, as the company is private.”

He lauded Burberry under new creative director Daniel Lee as more joyful and colorful than during the Riccardo Tisci era, “but it’s priced a lot higher and core Burberry consumers may also have been priced out.”

“If, like Burberry, a chunky part of your profits is generated in outlets, your pricing power in full-price stores will be somewhat capped,” he explained. “If, like Balenciaga, you have been driven by youth, sneakers, street, it’s likely to take some time to motivate higher-end consumers.”

He described Saint Laurent’s brand equity as “rock solid, so we are not concerned long-term, but the next few quarters are likely going to suffer from pricing out aspirational consumers,” he said.

While the price increases may have driven away that aspirational customer, they did nothing to deter the high-end one.

HSBC’s recent trip to China revealed that “the higher end of all brand pyramids was outperforming the base,” said Rambourg, making “ubiquity issues” slightly less problematic.

Rambourg added that Dior and Cartier “very intelligently accompanied the shift toward higher end VICs via services — for example, Dior’s VIC restaurant in Pudong — and event spaces like Cartier’s ‘La Residence’ concept that enable them to be front-of-mind for a higher-end consumer,” he said.

According to HSBC, the price increases explain why margins in the sector have grown 500 basis points in the past four years to an average of 26 percent from 21 percent.

Given the expectation of more “reasonable” price increases going forward; rising marketing costs and capex budgets, those margins are likely to expand at a slower pace in the years to come, from 25.6 percent in 2023 to 26.2 percent in 2025, the bank has forecast.

Siboni believes that growth will return if the brands broaden their entry-level offers to lure back the aspirational consumer.

Brands, he said, “will need to bring in new products that are much more affordable. Customers will still dream of owning the icons, but in the meantime” they’ll buy what they can afford — a silk tie, a bottle of fragrance or a keychain.

“Prices cannot continue to increase,” as they have for the past few years, Siboni said. “Going forward, there will be a more diverse pricing strategy. Some brands have been doing this forever — selling products that range from 100 euros to 100,000 euros.”

By contrast, other brands have only focused on making expensive things — and charged handsomely for their products. “Those brands now have to learn how to have a better product mix to accommodate all of their customers,” Siboni said.

WWD : Pharrell Williams’ First Collection for Louis Vuitton Lands in Stores

Pharrell Williams’ First Collection for Louis Vuitton Lands in Stores
The French luxury brand is unveiling dedicated store concepts across more than 50 locations worldwide in its largest menswear activation to date.

PARIS — Pharrell Williams won the media attention sweepstakes with his debut men’s collection for Louis Vuitton last June. With the line landing in stores on Thursday, he now faces his first major test of commercial success.

The French luxury brand pulled out the stops for the rollout, with splashy activations including a temporary location on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris and a takeover of its flagship on Fifth Avenue in New York City, both fully decked out in the checkerboard motif that was a keystone of the spring 2024 collection.

Vuitton is unveiling dedicated store concepts across more than 50 locations worldwide, including a pop-up and 16 windows at Selfridges department store in London and a makeover of its permanent pop-up space in Seoul. The installations will remain in place for a period of one to three months, depending on the location.

In tandem, the brand plans in-store happenings, DJ residencies and food concepts, reflecting Vuitton’s self-described positioning as a “cultural” brand with broad reach across segments including sports, gaming, music and art.

The collection release coincides with the launch of a campaign featuring basketball star LeBron James touting Williams’ new interpretation of the Speedy bag, as well as a 24-hour digital world tour of the bag design. Taking the form of CGI renderings, the new Speedy P9 will journey from Shanghai to Paris via the house’s social channels and in-app filters.

Louis Vuitton chairman and chief executive officer Pietro Beccari was not available to comment on the launch, which the brand described as its largest menswear activation to date.

Williams took advantage of his presence in Hong Kong for Vuitton’s first physical pre-fall menswear show to take a short business trip to China in early December, which coincided with the installation of three giant inflatable Speedy bags: one outside the Louis Vuitton flagship in Chengdu and two in Shanghai, one of which floated down the city’s Huangpu River.

“I definitely wanted to make my mark in bags and trunks,” Williams told WWD in Shanghai. “And I just felt like when you think about nice handbags, luxury handbags, the first thing that pops in most people’s minds is the Speedy.”

The handbag was a focal point of the musician’s spectacular debut show in June on the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris, which drew celebrities including Beyoncé, Zendaya and Rihanna, and culminated with a live performance by Jay-Z.

The show was the top-ranked of the men’s season, with a media impact value of $42.6 million, according to data research and insights company Launchmetrics. The event broke records by garnering 775 million views on Vuitton’s owned platforms and an additional 300 million video views on press accounts, the brand reported.

In the wake of the runway display, the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned house broke the threshold of 3 million subscribers on YouTube, making it the most followed luxury label on the platform, with 16 million views of the main film of the show.

Vuitton is betting on the new handbags in primary colors, originally teased with a campaign featuring a pregnant Rihanna, to drive sales. The Speedy P9 is made from calf leather instead of canvas, playing into a long-term upscaling strategy for Vuitton leather goods.

“It’s a different vibe, and just sort of an opportunity to let people know that our job and our partnership and working together is about leveling up and not just a few steps, but floors up,” Williams explained. “We were already using really nice textiles, and there was a lot of craftsmanship that was just already super stellar, but you can’t stop there.”

The bag will be available in a limited network of stores worldwide, including the Champs-Élysées store in Paris, the New Bond Street boutique in London and the SoHo location in New York, with a strategy centered on exclusivity that is expected to generate waiting lists. In Paris, the Speedy P9 can be viewed by special request in an all-black “secret room” on the first floor.

Most of the much-hyped crocodile Speedy P9s with gold and diamond hardware, with an eye-watering price tag of 1 million euros, have been sold, according to a Vuitton spokesman. The brand did not specify how many were produced.

The entrance of Vuitton’s temporary residence space at 100 Avenue des Champs-Élysées is covered in a circular gold version of the brand’s signature Damier check pattern, in an echo of the sunray motif on the stained glass invitations for the June show.

Inside, mirrored gold and silver paneling evokes the giant gold Damier pattern that covered the pavement of the bridge that was used as a runway. The store concept also integrates Paris landmarks like the traditional dark-green bookseller stands on the banks of the Seine river, and the Morris columns used to display advertising posters, which date back to the 19th century.

The Paris activation spreads across three floors. A basement room is lined with wooden shelves shaped like speakers, in a nod to the recording studio that Williams has installed at the brand’s headquarters. It houses clothing and accessories featuring his new Damoflage motif, a pixelated pattern that splices the Damier check with camouflage, and LVers emblem.

Novelty items include portable Nanogram speakers, a sneaker trunk with a transparent front window, and a reusable coffee cup with a golden metallic monogram-engraved straw, identical to the one Williams uses.

On the ground floor, a giant screen broadcasts footage of the show behind a row of mannequins. It is home to accessories including jewelry, featuring gender-fluid offerings such as the brooch with a pearl chain worn by James in the ad campaign.

These chime with the “dandy club” on the first floor, an area with pale green walls adorned with an LV coat of arms, dedicated to dressier outfits and exotic leather bags. Visitors will be able to take part in photo calls at a Parisian kiosk and create personalized Louis Vuitton posters, the brand said in a statement.

Other locations will feature variations on the same theme, with Selfridges’ pop-up showcasing a reimagined version of the Pont Neuf bridge made from 3D cubes. Visitors are invited to walk through the arches of the bridge where a music installation broadcasts the show soundtrack, featuring “Joy (Unspeakable)” performed by gospel choir Voices of Fire.

The miniature golden recreation of the Pont Neuf is one of two global installation models, with the other consisting of a small-scale reconstruction of Paris buildings and monuments. In Seoul, the launch will be accompanied by an in-store culinary animation, reflecting Vuitton’s growing inroads into the hospitality segment.

In some locations, purchases will be packaged in limited-edition carrier bags featuring the Damoflage motif and LVers logo.

Sales associates will wear bespoke uniforms consisting of a suit in a white Damoflage pattern with matching shirt, a gilded LVers pin and white sneakers, matching the looks worn by members of the live orchestra who performed at the show.

WWD : At 60, French Luxury Association Comité Colbert Is Firing on All Cylinders

At 60, French Luxury Association Comité Colbert Is Firing on All Cylinders
Chief executive officer Bénédicte Epinay details plans for the year ahead, from events in Saudi Arabia and China to a multimedia strategy for attracting young talents to careers in craftsmanship

PARIS – As it celebrates its 60th anniversary, French luxury goods association Comité Colbert is expanding its reach, with events planned this year in Saudi Arabia and China and a multimedia strategy aimed at attracting young talents to careers in craftsmanship amid a shortage of skilled workers.

In an exclusive interview with WWD, Bénédicte Epinay, chief executive officer of Comité Colbert, detailed the upcoming initiatives, which range from a craftsmanship showcase in Shanghai in November, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between France and China, to plans for a “MasterChef”-style TV show featuring luxury artisans.

Created in 1954 at the initiative of Jean-Jacques Guerlain, Comité Colbert aimed to rekindle desire for French luxury goods after years of war deprivation. Starting with just 15 members, it now boasts 117, following the addition on Jan. 1 of French sound equipment maker Focal, as well as the Eiffel Tower, a symbol of France.

“I have a waiting list of about 30 houses,” said Epinay, noting the applicants come from areas including fashion, jewelry, fragrances, and wines and spirits.

While the French luxury sector has changed beyond recognition over the last six decades, rival brands continue to work hand-in-hand when it comes to defending their interests on the global stage.

“It’s a sector where brands are outwardly competitive, but in reality, they collaborate a lot,” said Epinay, adding that she marvels at the organization’s ability to ride out drastic industry evolutions.

“Of those 15 founding members, which already included Hermès, Dior, Cartier, Baccarat and Puiforcat, some have gone from small family-run affairs to behemoths, but they remain committed to this collective approach,” she remarked.

Comité Colbert has dedicated working groups, but also informally gathers executives from areas ranging from human resources to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and heritage.

“We all work together on public affairs,” said Epinay, noting that the system is the envy of other countries. “Everywhere I go in the world, it arouses curiosity and admiration.”

A longtime journalist at French newspaper Les Echos, where she launched the luxury supplement Série Limitée, Epinay succeeded Elisabeth Ponsolle des Portes as CEO of Comité Colbert in 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic went into full swing.

Speaking in her office in Paris in early December, the lively and outspoken executive had just returned from India, where she attended the first-ever luxury symposium organized by the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

“I believe that India is at the stage now that China was between 2005 and 2010 when all the brands were opening stores in Beijing and Shanghai,” she said. “I think it’s the first in a long series of trips that we’ll be taking there.”

While the Indian market presents plenty of opportunity, with luxury brands rushing to open in shopping centers like the recently opened Jio World Plaza mall in Mumbai, it continues to present a number of challenges, such as heavy bureaucracy, she said.

Makers of premium footwear are particularly concerned about the implementation of quality control orders by the Bureau of Indian Standards, designed to boost domestic production and limit imports from China. Some luxury brands are worried that the cost of getting their footwear factories certified could be prohibitive, Epinay said.

With global luxury consumption expected to moderate in 2024, the search for alternative markets has taken on added urgency.

As part of its ongoing outreach efforts, Comité Colbert members plan to travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in April to meet local authorities and retail operators to explore commercial opportunities.

The event in China is designed as a dialogue between French and Chinese craftsmanship, to be curated by Shang Xia founder Jiang Qiong Er. Due to run from Nov. 1 to 10, it is scheduled to coincide with the China International Import Expo fair, where France will be the guest of honor this year.

Comité Colbert also plans to stage its educational fair “Les de(ux)mains du luxe” outside Paris for the first time, with events planned in Lyon and Cholet, two cities that are home to specialized schools located in regions with strong recruitment needs in fashion, leather goods and jewelry.

“These are our three major sectors that are recruiting and that are struggling to recruit,” Epinay said. “Going forward, we plan to switch every other year between Paris and the rest of the country.”

For the second edition of the annual event, held last month, Comité Colbert partnered with TikTok to launch a challenge aimed at young artisans. The first prize, with a cash endowment of 5,000 euros, went to young embroiderer Yanis Miltgen, whose video described how he incorporates unusual materials such as watch faces into his designs.

Since joining TikTok last year, the luxury association has garnered 27,400 followers. While this remains relatively modest, Epinay points out that many of its members still have little to no presence on the platform. “I was very surprised. Chanel, for instance, has not published anything,” she said.

“We opened the way for a number of our houses to become active on TikTok,” she added, saying that Comité Colbert filmed videos spotlighting different artisans in locations including Chanel’s Le19M craftsmanship hub and École Boulle, a Paris college of fine arts, crafts and applied arts.

Many of these are grouped under the hashtag #savoirfaire, which has garnered 428 million views on TikTok so far, a promising sign for industry officials.

Comité Colbert plans to pursue its social outreach this year, in tandem with plans for a TV show inspired by the success of cooking competitions. A pilot episode was presented to French Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak and pitched to public broadcaster France Télévisions, which was enthusiastic. “So now, we have to find the financing,” said Epinay.

While sector leaders including LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton have flagged a dearth of specialized workers, Comité Colbert has no reliable estimate of current needs. “I have the figures that our member houses give me, but I don’t have figures for tier one, tier two and tier three suppliers,” Epinay explained.

That’s why the organization has launched a comprehensive sector study in partnership with the Culture Ministry, the National Institute of Crafts, the Fondation Bettencourt Schueller and the Terre & Fils endowment fund.

“By the end of 2024, we will have a real snapshot of métiers d’art in France. I’m so pleased, because we’ve been giving rough estimates for a long time, but now we’ll know the real demand by sector and by profile,” she said. “Between a lone feather artisan in the depths of the Auvergne region and Le19M, there’s a huge gap.”

Aside from recruitment, the major challenge facing luxury brands is sustainability. “The road ahead is long, but the good news is that everyone is taking action now,” Epinay said.

Comité Colbert’s third in-depth CSR study, to be published in mid-February as a supplement with The New York Times, will show that 96 percent of luxury brands calculate their Scope Three emissions, while 100 percent have implemented policies to recycle materials and reduce waste, she reported.

“I’m pretty satisfied with the numbers we found,” the executive said. “There are actions being implemented at every stage of the product cycle, so that’s the story we will tell via specific examples.”

Nonetheless, she warned that the sector is broadly unprepared for a raft of new European Union regulations designed to support the bloc’s Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles. “Nobody’s ready. And even if the larger houses might be, their suppliers won’t,” Epinay said.

Comité Colbert has stepped up its lobbying to ensure that the legislation takes into account the specificities of the luxury sector.

“Textile labeling is a topic we’ve been working on for three years and the tests are still not satisfactory. Another regulation that’s been a major focus of our advocacy efforts concerns glass bottles for fragrances and wines,” Epinay said.

She recounted that in an effort to reduce the weight of glass bottles, the European Commission initially suggested that perfume houses all use the same 10 standardized shapes, a prospect considered unimaginable in a sector where bottle designs are strong brand markers. “We are a creative industry, and nobody had thought of that,” she said incredulously.

The battle is far from over. “In Brussels, we are very small in the face of the huge lobbies of fast fashion and green NGOs, so it’s very hard for us to make ourselves heard,” Epinay opined.

Still, she’s confident that there’s strength in unity. Comité Colbert’s 93 French luxury houses, 18 cultural institutions and six European members work in tandem with other national associations under the umbrella of the European Cultural and Creative Industries Alliance, known by the acronym ECCIA.

“Today, some of our members are a million times more powerful than Comité Colbert ever will be. On the other hand, we’re the only ones that can claim to represent French luxury and art of living under a single banner. That is our raison d’être,” Epinay said.

WWD : Brand Reshuffling Fuels VC Activity in China

Brand Reshuffling Fuels VC Activity in China
A reshuffling of lifestyle-driven brands will drive dealmaking in 2024.

With worldwide dealmaking volume reaching a decade low in 2023 — according to Statista data — global M&A activity is expected to pick up the pace again in 2024, albeit with a subdued appetite.

In line with key global markets, in 2023, China‘s deal volume declined 15.3 percent compared to the same period last year, according to GlobalData, but the drop was relatively lower compared to its peers, including the U.S., the U.K. and India, which dropped 42 percent, 26.9 percent, and 38.4 percent, respectively.

In the near future, China remains a top APAC market for VC funding activity aside from the U.S. in terms of deal volume and value, according to GlobalData’s analysis.

In the first 11 months of 2023, China accounted for 16.1 percent of global VC deals, with funding value at 17.9 percent of international deals.

Yet for some investors, restrictions on capital flow, slower-than-expected economic recovery, high U.S. interest rates, Chinese equities’ sluggish performance on the U.S. stock exchange, and geopolitical trade barriers are also dampening investor interest in China.

“Investors are still busy offloading projects that took a blow after the collapse of the consumer goods valuation bubble in 2020 and 2021,” said a former BCG consultant, who requested anonymity, pointing to well-known retail labels such as beauty retailer Harmay and beauty label Perfect Diary as overpriced deals that sobered the market up.

However, Chinese consumers’ appetite for newness will still drive dealmaking in 2024.

Adrian Cheng’s recent investment in 1017 Alyx 9SM, Anta’s acquisition of Chinese sportswear brand Maia Active, luxury e-commerce platform Senser’s investment from Xiaohongshu, L’Oréal’s investment in Chinese supply chain operations, and Estée Lauder Cos.‘ Code Mint and Melt Season deals in China are examples of how investors are staking a claim in the country’s consumption-driven economy revival.

Cheng, who heads the family business empire as chief executive officer of New World Development and founder of K11 Group, said his recent investment in Alyx, which was made via a new private vehicle that he described as a “lifestyle platform” spanning from fashion to entertainment, will help the brand accelerate its development, hire more staff and expand its accessories, footwear, and jewelry offerings in particular.

His plan for the new private vehicle is to “strategically invest in cutting-edge designers and companies who are redefining the boundaries of fashion” and ones that “cross-pollinate fashion with art and music, community, and culture as well.”

It means brands under Cheng’s ownership could form a synergy with his K11 art mall retail concept, which is expanding swiftly across major Chinese cities. A major landmark project to be unveiled in 2024 will be K11 Ecoast in Shenzhen, a vast waterfront complex that will incorporate a mall, multipurpose art space, office building, and promenade.

For Angelica Cheung, founding editor of Vogue China-turned-venture partner at HongShan, formerly known as Sequoia China, investing in China is the same as everywhere else. “Therefore, to me, fashion investment has always been an international approach,” said Cheung.

FT : Rome seeks to boost sale of electric cars ‘made in Italy’

Rome seeks to boost sale of electric cars ‘made in Italy’
Giorgia Meloni administration adjusts €1bn incentive scheme to favour domestic production

The Italian government plans to spend up €930mn this year to spur consumers to replace their petrol and diesel cars with electric vehicles, with a preference for models manufactured in Italy.

Rome will offer as much as €13,750 to low-income families that exchange Euro 2 cars — which are more than 20 years old — for EVs, according to a concept note seen by the Financial Times. 

The right-wing government of Giorgia Meloni is seeking to boost sales of EVs made in Italy, after nearly 80 per cent spent in a first phase of the scheme set up in 2022 was allocated to foreign-made cars. Among the goals of the incentive scheme, the concept note said, is, “to stimulate the purchase of cars actually produced in Italy”.

The programme will be financed by an €8.7bn automotive fund set up by the previous government led by Mario Draghi, which earmarks up to €1bn per year up until 2030 to finance the greening of Italy’s automotive fleet.

The scheme, developed by the Italian industry ministry in consultation with global carmaker Stellantis, will offer calibrated incentives that depend on the age of the car being scrapped, and whether the new car purchased is hybrid or fully electric. 

Italy has one of Europe’s oldest — and most polluting — car fleets, with an estimated 11mn vehicles at or below the Euro 3 standard, which ceased production 19 years ago.  

The country also has one of the lowest uptakes of electric vehicles in Europe, in part because of its poor charging networks outside of major cities. Only 3 per cent of the cars sold in Italy between January and October last year were fully electric, compared to an average in western Europe of 16 per cent, according to data from Schmidt Automotive.

While EV sales have risen strongly across almost all other markets — up by more than 30 per cent in Spain, the UK, Germany and France — sales of battery cars in Italy rose by just 1 per cent.

The country’s poor charging network means that Italy is also one of only four markets in Europe — including Spain and Greece — where sales of hybrid cars that can plug-in to charge outpace battery-only cars, as consumers are unwilling to make the move to full electric models because of fears of running out of charge.

The development of the scheme comes as Meloni’s government has been in talks with Stellantis — the only large car producer in Italy — to encourage the company to boost its production in Italy to 1mn vehicles of all types each year — an output level last reached in 2017.

Stellantis Italy sold just under 600,000 vehicles in Italy last year, accounting for about 38 per cent of the estimated 1.57mn new cars purchased in the country.  

FT : Brâncuși in Romania: homecoming for a pioneer of Modernism

Brâncuși in Romania: homecoming for a pioneer of Modernism
The city of Timișoara is hosting the country’s first major show of the sculptor’s enigmatic works for more than 50 years

Constantin Brâncuși’s sandstone column “The Boundary Stone” was the last in an almost life-long series that developed his signature emblem, “The Kiss”, towards ever greater abstraction. It may also be his only sculpture with an overt political meaning, created in 1945 as the Soviet Union wrested territory from his homeland, Romania. Seen as a message of peace, with its intimately entwined couples, eyes and lips locked, it might also embody a challenge to imposed borders — a desire for inseparable union.

This work from the Pompidou Centre in Paris is now on show in the first major Brâncuși exhibition in his native land for more than 50 years: Brâncuși: Romanian Sources and Universal Perspectives, at the Timișoara National Museum of Art (MNART) in western Romania. Conceived by the Art Encounters Foundation behind the city’s biennale — as the finale of Timișoara’s European Capital of Culture 2023 programme — the show is a symbolic homecoming. It assails what its curator, Doina Lemny, describes to me as myths about the pioneering Modernist, who seldom revealed the sources of his art. Though Brâncuși (pronounced Bran-kush in Romanian) lived in Paris from 1904 until his death in 1957, becoming a French citizen at 76 and bequeathing his collection to the French state, his ties to Romania, Lemny contends, were never cut.

Romanian museums furnish early works. But many loans, from the Pompidou, the Guggenheim in Venice and Tate in London, have never been seen here before, signalling a momentous shift in a country still scarred by the Ceaușescu dictatorship. MNART, in the Baroque Palace of Timișoara (cradle city of the 1989 revolution), was awarded national museum status in 2020. A €2.5mn county council grant has since transformed it into one of a growing number of museums in the country geared for high-value international loans. The purpose-built Museum of Recent Art (MARe) in Bucharest — a short walk from the Ceaușescus’ former mansion — was founded in 2018 as Romania’s first private museum, and recently hosted 46 masterpieces from the Picasso Museum in Paris. They were stunningly displayed in The Picasso Effect alongside 65 Romanian artworks inspired or provoked by them since the 1960s.


In Timișoara, Brâncuși’s path to abstraction is traced in more than 100 works, which include the exquisite bronzes “Sleeping Muse” (1910) and “Danaïde” (1918). There are rare photographs by the artist (lent by the collector David Grob), such as “Self-Portrait with his Dog Polaire in Front of the Studio” (c1924). While Brâncuși kept his studio in Montparnasse for five decades — his Paris friends ranging from Marcel Duchamp to Erik Satie — his work was also shown among an appreciative avant-garde in Romania.

His skinless man, “L’Ecorché” (1902), a debut made in coloured plaster as an anatomical teaching aid, astonished compatriots with its expressive power. It was proof of Brâncuși’s classical training to those who mistook his as the raw genius of a Carpathian peasant. Born in 1876 in Hobita village, at the foot of forested mountains, he studied arts and crafts in Craiova and was an apprentice woodcarver in Vienna, before graduating from the National School of Fine Arts in Bucharest.

At 28, he arrived in Paris. “Pride” (1905), a naturalistic bust of a girl, was praised by Auguste Rodin, in whose studio Brâncuși spent a few months in 1907. Yet he left, because “Nothing grows in the shadow of a big tree.” His first “The Kiss” (1907), in pale Marna stone, was a direct challenge to Rodin’s symbolist sculpture. Breaking with portraiture (“We come at simplicity as a way to approach the truth,” he wrote), it was also a revolution in technique. Abandoning the moulding prevalent since the Renaissance for direct carving, he tapped sources from Romanesque churches and Carpathian woodcarving to African sculpture and Gauguin.


Brâncuși’s photograph of “The First Step” (1914) captures his wood carving of a child, its diagonal slash of an eye above a gaping triangular mouth. According to Lemny, the artist destroyed this figure as too obviously African in influence, keeping only the ovoid head. “Head of First Step”, here in a 1917 plaster version, inspired the pared-down Newborn series, ultimately refined into an egg in “The Beginning of the World” (1920).

“He adored African sculptures,” Lemny says. He discussed African art with Modigliani, “but he didn’t collect masks like the Cubists. He admired, but didn’t want to approach.” Brâncuși, who favoured salvaged wood for its past lives, noted that African sculptors “also preserved the life of matter in their sculpture. They worked with wood. They did not wound it.” Perhaps he sensed affinities with Romanian woodcarvers steeped in pre-Christian beliefs about the natural world.

“Brâncuși didn’t need to look at Africa; he had his own backyard,” Dan Popescu, of the H’Art Gallery in Bucharest, tells me. “Modernists harvested the peasantry.” The birdlike bronze “Maiastra” (1911), from Tate, takes its title from Romanian folklore about a songbird-turned-princess. It may also allude to wooden birds on Romanian grave columns, symbolising the soul’s flight.


The show offers reminders of how shocking and contested such sculpture could be. “The Kiss” installed in Montparnasse cemetery in 1910, revealing the lovers’ squatting legs, scandalised with its hint of pagan fertility. The polished bronze “Bird in Space”, refined to an aerodynamic spear, appears alongside news headlines asking “But is it art?”: Brâncuși sued US customs for levying import duties on the metal as though it were no artwork — a court battle he won in 1928.

The view from communist Romania was as complex. “The communists needed heroes,” Lemny says. Yet the Romanian Academy blocked Brâncuși’s induction in 1951. After Ceaușescu took power in 1965, “stylistic diversity” in art ousted socialist realism — partly to annoy the Soviets. (“Romanians were nationalists before they were communists,” Popescu says.) When Ceaușescu opposed the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, a cultural door to the west reopened, and Brâncuși’s official standing rose. Following a posthumous exhibition in Bucharest in 1970, a house museum opened in his natal Gorj county in 1971. Yet the three-room wooden hut with geraniums on the veranda is not the original: a stone in the front yard marks where his vanished birthplace stood.

Nearby, Brâncuși’s monumental ensemble to the first world war dead, constructed in the city of Târgu Jiu in 1937-38 (documented in his photographs in the exhibition), was neglected until the 1960s. Today the place of pilgrimage is guarded by an attendant with a whistle. “The Gate of the Kiss”, a travertine arch with a familiar lovers’ frieze, leads to a round-stone “Table of Silence” beside the river. “The Endless Column” soars at the park’s centre, its metallic yellow rhomboid beads recalling both funerary columns and a rustic oil-press screw in the artist’s studio, whose motion conjured infinity.


Persistent disputes about the sources of Brâncuși’s art — stressing or downplaying Romanian motifs — seem curious today, as though inspiration from folk art might diminish his universality. “He is not a Romanian sculptor,” the critic Sidney Geist once asserted. “He is international.” Surely, at last, he can be both? Cutting through these debates is Brâncuși’s plea for his own sculptures: “Do not look for . . . mysteries. I give you pure joy. Look at them until you see them.”