Some trends are emerging in our times

1. Nostalgia or Back to the Future
   Even if, as wisely Tim Harford on the FT Weekend wrote, “in the scramble to get what is new, we shouldn’t overlook the value of what is old”
2. Ideological Conformity
   In the respect of every position and with a peaceful attitude, freedom of speech is the sign of civilization and when it is put in danger by a monolithic unquestionable thought it gets toward a perilous direction.
   “We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without the professional consequences” wrote 153 writers and intellectuals in a letter to Harper’s magazine and signed by the likes of Noam Chomsky, J.K. Rowling and Salman Rushdie.
3. Rebooting Suburbia
   The lockdown imposed new social rules. Remote working has been one of them ever since. Cities like Milan that relied, for the life of the central areas, on commuters and tourists are sort of ghost towns.
   People realized that a different way of working is possible and companies that expensive office buildings are not so necessary. Suburbia and far away places came back to life. Maybe forever?
4. Plan B
   “Life is all about how you handle you plan B”
   That’s it
5. Breathe
   Nature, fresh air, rural landscapes are so up lifting.
   Concrete is not good.

What scares the most the fashion system today?

The economic crisis?
The retail shutdown?
The new customer attitude?

No, it is scared by change

And it wants to go back to “a new normal”…

But is it normal that fashion, the most hectic and supposedly creative industry is unwilling to drive change and desperately agonizing for getting back to the glorious past?

Why the fashion industry abandoned the pioneering spirit that made its success, the unstoppable quest for beauty and the will to inspire people just to get stuck in an ivory tower of privilege and self-referral?

Because it cannot allow to lose privilege and established positions.

Because diversity and inclusion are just superficial beliefs.

The fashion industry is losing its appeal because it is giving up on understanding the reality.

When I read things like this –
“If the current crisis has taught us anything, it is that new for the sake of the new is just a PR stunt; that the urge for senseless change is a toxic marketing trick”
– written on one of the key media in the industry by one of the brightest minds (Angelo Flaccavento on BoF) I think that something risks to go very bad.

It’s not the urge for senseless change…

it’s the need to understand that THE WORLD HAS CHANGED FOR GOOD

Fashion and luxury do not need revolution nor “renaissance”…

They need:
– a business model
– a carefully crafted brand strategy
– a yearly action plan
– a strong vision
– a unique path to be developed through all the key state-of-the-art tools
– a motivated and dedicated team of professionals open to innovation

Christian Dior Couture is the classic example of successful brand evolution.

In one week they scored:
– best project for haute couture with Maria Grazia Chiuri “The Myth of Dior” movie directed by acclaimed director Matteo Garrone
– a huge queue in front of the store in Paris selling the Nike Dior Michael Jordan edition by Kim Jones

Great strategy + impeccable execution

And, no it’s not just a matter of money invested…

Just a video with dancing models…and some amazingly deja vu craftmanship videos

Maybe it’s time to look ahead, instead of just focusing on the ‘80s…

Maria Grazia Chiuri vision beats Virginie Viard

While Dior seemed dreamy and refreshing, Chanel emerged ad stucked in the past…

Will Phoebe Philo come to rescue the French Maison?

“What got you here, won’t take you there” is the bestselling book of one of the brightest minds in coaching: Marshall Goldsmith

The title says it all about the resistance to change, and much more…It’s a great read, and following Marshall Goldsmith webinars is Invaluable.

And I always wonder why all the prestigious consulting firms (the one attached is just an example) investigate about the future of fashion and luxury asking questions to C-suite executives of the same industry they have contributed to get on the brink of the ravine…

I am sure that 10 years ago they asked General Motors, Fiat and Peugeot about the future of the car industry.
But they certainly forgot to ask Elon Musk forecast.

Breaking news from Bloomberg Media Distribution:
“Tesla overtakes Toyota Motor Corporation to become the world’s most valuable automaker”

 

What do you think?

Powerful women

Rose Marcario

2006: she left a high-flying private equity job to go to India and restore herself following a burnout.

2007: she said that “the business world’s addiction to quarterly earnings was suicidal.”

2008: she joined Patagonia.

In 2020 she stepped down as CEO to “focus on the next steps in making systematic change to corporate benefit to the world”, especially leveraging technology and media.

She is also promoting the idea that “if capitalism is serving multiple stakeholders, then I think it can be compassionate. Then you care about your employees, you care about your suppliers, you care about your community, it’s different than just caring what your earnings per share is. That’s not going to lead you to a good long-term effect.2

And that …
“And we can do it! I ran a business that’s a really successful business by any indicator…and we were doing a lot of good in the world”

She took the green brand to almost 1 billion $ revenues and she launched the infamous campaign “Don’t buy this jacket”.

She could make the perfect CEO for a big brand in fashion aiming at being sustainable, walking the talk.
Will she?

Some fashion and luxury brands are stuck in the sandpit, too afraid to move on and too nostalgic of the “old normal”

Some of them are rigid because they have never done maintenance, some others are thinking big and cutting costs.

The most interesting ones are exploring the New World.

Instead of shutting down projects they have changed them, instead of doing propaganda they are sniffing what’s going on in the air.

And they are bold enough to go outside of their boxes on discovery path, focused on a new keyword:

#outdoor

 

Burberry and Dior are going to show outdoor their new collections.

Dior will organize a Cruise show in Southern Italy, in the jewel city of Lecce, Puglia and Burberry will show in the magnificent British countryside.

The two brands couldn’t be more different but both demonstrate the will not to just survive the pandemic outbreak but also to explore new paths for the industry.

What do they have in common? Italian Ceo and Creative Director.

And they will take us live outside of the claustrophobic places where we lived until now: our houses and devices.

It won’t just be a techno show with trance music.

It will be a journey.

It will be a borderline experiment of bold people willing to uplift us.

Thank you.

Are you convinced that Inditex Zara brand is going soon into trouble because it’s shutting down 1.200 stores?

Or do you read between the lines and you analyse what’s going on inside this smart fast fashion company?

Certainly these are very challenging times for the fashion system and anything could happen.

What Zara can teach us is very interesting anyway:

1. A strong branding does not mean huge investments in advertising nor in press. It means creating a strong relationship with your community through different touch points: the store, the (social) media, the positioning on the market
2. A strong brand is not rigid: it can re-size its retail network, it has hugely invested in logistics, it has a growth mindset
3. Pivoting ability is the key success factor. This means leaving behind attachment, nostalgia, accomplishments and being ready to: understand the evolving world, adjusting the strategy and the execution, setting up new business objectives.
4. A marketing strategy is broader and deeper than press office activities.
5. As per the slide attached from Statista, the group has grown steady but smartly. It has a high level of cash flow and it’s getting ready for the next chapter.

It’s a wrap!

The first online edition of The Fashionable Espresso Club is over!

We spoke about:

• Creativity and Curiosity
• Sustainable E-Commerce platforms
• Social listening
• Sustainable Fashion Start Ups
• Lockdown Coronaviruses Youtube stars
• The state of the industry
• The potential of China
• New technologies for fashion: Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

The full webinar series is in the Linkedin group of The Fashionable Espresso Club.
Please join us and bring your own cup!

Thank you very much to all our guest speakers for the insightful conversations:
Marina Savarese
Ludovico Durante Staiy
gianandrea facchini Buzztech
Iris Skrami Renoon
Marco Crisci
Jiaqi Luo
Amrita Maria Obsess

Next edition coming soon!

Thank you The Student Hotel for hosting the conversations.

The luxury of thinking

Our days tend to be full of things to do, to prepare, to share.

We are always in motion, even if we are stuck at home. Our commitments keep us always on. For the family, for the company, for social media, for the world outside.

We risk not to take the time we need to think before we act.

We tend to over-act and under-think.

Strategy has never been so important, yet neglected, in our lives and in our companies.

Strategic thinking is a key process in human beings lives as well as in companies management.

It requires the ability to focus on openness and curiosity matched with the analysis of opportunities and problems from a broader point of view.

It is helped by information and understanding and by reflection on what has come out from research made.

It asks for ideas formulation and leads to decide what actions to take.

And it has to integrate the management of change, the adjustments and the maintenance to be done.

Strategic thinking is a must, before planning.

So very few occasions are left in these hectic days of budget revisions, projects negotiations and even family adjustments to dedicate time to this crucial process.

To dedicate time to strategic thinking is the best things we can do for us, our family and our work.