Brand strategy
Bugatti Stopped Selling Horsepower. Here's What It Sells Instead.
Frank Heyl didn't lead with horsepower this time. Bugatti's send-off for the W16 engine, the Mistral "Blanc Éternel," closes on a line about porcelain, not a lap record. When a luxury brand changes what it names, it's changing what it sells.
Brand strategy
Chanel, Blazy and the end of Lagerfeld's market
Matthieu Blazy just did something no Chanel creative director has managed since Karl Lagerfeld died: sell out a collection within days. The question is not whether Blazy is Lagerfeld's successor. It's whether Chanel needs one.
Brand strategy
Louis Vuitton's new Chief Product Officer for Men comes from beauty, not fashion. That is precisely why he was hired.
Giulio Bergamaschi joins on September 1 as Chief Product Officer for Men at Louis Vuitton. He has never run a ready-to-wear or leather goods line. His path: Bocconi, Procter & Gamble, L'Oréal Luxe, Coty. This is not an anomaly — it's a signal.
Intellectual property
Louis Vuitton won a $1.5 million case. It hasn't said a word.
A Suzhou court has ruled against Molly Tea for infringing seven Louis Vuitton Monogram trademarks. The damages: $1.5 million. Louis Vuitton has not issued a single statement. Silence is also a communications decision.
Brand strategy
Your brand doesn't have a sustainability problem. It has a habit-design problem.
Since 2010, Hermès has been collecting the leather, silk, crystal and porcelain offcuts left over from its workshops and handing them to artisans to turn into new objects. They don't call it recycling. They call it Petit h. Sustainability that works isn't announced — it's designed.
Brand strategy
LVMH and Inditex made almost the same claim about AI. Only one of them can be checked.
Marta Ortega says "the true value is in people." Gonzague de Pirey says exactly where. Two AI statements, seventeen days apart — but only one names a boundary you'll be able to check in twelve months.
Heritage, Luxury & Legacy
Moreau Paris is being sold off in a French court. No one in Paris is fighting to keep it.
A maison founded in 1764 enters liquidation. No lobby, no institutional campaign. Thirty bidders, most of them not French. What happens on July 9 is not a business story.
Brand strategy
Under Armour let a designer's runway carry its biggest announcement of the year
Feng Chen Wang leads the narrative; Under Armour brings performance and distribution. She wasn't commissioned — she was recognised. Internally this isn't product. It's brand communications. Authenticity outperforms exported messaging.
Fashion policy
France's fashion law: a trade instrument dressed as sustainability
France passed Europe's first law targeting ultra-fast fashion. Unanimous vote, two years of battles. But the question nobody asks loudly: why Shein and not Zara or H&M. The difference is not environmental. It is fiscal.
Brand strategy
Balenciaga's new CMO has never worked at a luxury house. That is precisely why she was hired.
Drieke Leenknegt arrives from Nike. Substack as owned media. Techwear as philosophical product. Three simultaneous decisions revealing a communications architecture assembled in real time.
Brand transition
Versace: the leadership vacuum nobody wants to name
Prada paid €1.25 billion for Versace. No CEO, no active creative director. In strategic communications, that is not a clean transition. It is a crisis in slow motion.