FORMULA 1 isn't just about fast cars. Brands Love It. Sponsors Pay The price F1 has become a traveling luxury circus where cars happen to go 200 mph between champagne parties, watch launches, celebrity sightings, $10,000 hospitality packages and paddocks filled celebrities. And luxury brands absolutely love it. Why? Because F1 has assembled an extraordinary concentration of wealthy, aspirational, young and globally connected consumers. Monaco, Miami, Las Vegas, Singapore and

It's quite a time in Luxury. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? There is a lot to talk about Wintour blew it. Saks went bankrupt. Lululemon needs rescuing. Quince is coming. Used is cool. And Ralph Lauren may be the sanest guy left in the room. Fashion and luxury are having one hell of a moment. Unfortunately, much of it resembles a very expensive cocktail party where half the guests are drunk, nobody knows who's paying the bill, and Anna Wintour is still shuffling place cards. Let's

The Once Popular Brand Is Stuck In a Downward-Dog There was a time when Lululemon could slap its tiny logo on a pair of black leggings, charge $128 and watch suburban America stampede toward the register. Those days appear to be doing downward dog straight into the floor. Lululemon just delivered another ugly quarter. Revenue fell 4% to $2.4 billion, comparable sales dropped a brutal 9%, and sales in the Americas—the market that built this stretchy little empire—fell 8%. Amer

Anna Wintour, John Galliano and Fashion’s Convenient Case of Amnesia Galliano Tribute Cancelled *LESS THAN 12 HOURS AFTER THIS ARTICLE WAS POSTED, THE MET'S ART AND COSTUME INSTITUTE/S BOARD CANCELLED THE GALLIANO TRIBUTE OVER SEVERE BACKLASH. THE CHOICE TO EVEN CONSIDER THE EVENT SHOULD DRAW EVEN MORE SCRUTINY. READ THE UPDATED PIECE BELOW: Well, congratulations, fashion. You’ve officially run out of people to honor. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute (on kne

For Many Brands, It's Still Chasing Summer Vacations What is Q2 2026 telling us? The latest Lyst Index (https://www.lyst.com/the-lyst-index/) is out for Q2 and if there is one overriding message from fashion consumers, it's simple: We're hot. We're going somewhere dreamy and please stop showing us wool coats in July. 2026 Q2 Searches Chanel remains No 1. Chanel could probably release a $2,000 beach towel and have a waiting list by Thursday. Its Coco Beach and Métiers d'Art 2

Isaac Mizrahi Comes Home to Target Issac Mizrahi Some designers make fashion, but not many make fashion fun. Isaac Mizrahi has always belonged in the second category. His return to Target (this time as the retailer’s first Creative Director at Large) feels less like a corporate appointment and more like an old friend coming home. An old friend who knows exactly where the good stuff is hidden. But there’s another reason Mizrahi’s return is so interesting. Target may be the ret

Apparently, We’re Shopping, Obsessing and Going Back to School. The TikToc Numbers Are Staggering If you ever wanted a snapshot of what America is thinking about (without having to talk to America) then TikTok has graciously provided one. The results are fascinating, occasionally predictable and just a little disturbing. Let’s start with the undisputed heavyweight: #TikTokShop with 148.9 million posts. Not views. Posts! Apparently, TikTok is no longer merely where people wast

Why Brands Are Courting Customers On The Way Up Challenger Brands Are Delivering For years, luxury retail operated according to a simple rule: follow the money. The best sales associate, the private shopping room, the first look at a new collection, invitations to dinners and special events… all were generally reserved for the customer already spending enormous amounts of money. But something interesting is happening in fashion. Some of the smartest brands are beginning to re

The Late, Great Titles There was a glorious, extravagant, economically irrational period when magazines didn't merely report on culture, they dictated it. Children born after 2005 think Vanity Fair is a website with a paywall. They have absolutely no concept of the institution it once was. A 300-page issue wasn't an event. It was every 15th of the month.. Under Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair wasn't run like a publication. It was run like a benevolent monarchy with an unlimited

Desire leads to purchases. Who is leading the way? Louis Vuitton On Top You likely buy from Luxury brands…you know the ones: Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Chanel and others. But purchasing is the end result of desire. Before placing the Black Card down, you probably had an itch, saw an ad or needed some retail therapy. So, what brands lead the half-year mark for desirability? Latest rankings show Louis Vuitton firmly at the top of the global luxury hierarchy, not simply becaus

Luxury and Wealth Surrounds You For decades, polo has occupied a strange place in the sporting world. Everyone knows what it is don’t they? Fast horses, flowing champagne, royalty, oversized hats, high heels in turf? But very few people have ever actually watched a match, let alone swung a mallet. It's been less of a sport and more of a symbol: a shorthand for old money, private jets, and the kind of people whose calendars include "Amalfi/Capri." Yet lately, something curious

Sometimes Worth Billions and Everyone Wants You Out When it all ends. There is perhaps no greater insult in business than creating a company, spending years building it into a global powerhouse, watching it become worth millions or billions, and then being politely informed by security that your key card to the elevator no longer works. Luxury, fashion, and premium lifestyle brands love founder stories. Investors love them too…until they don’t. The founder is portrayed as a v

Once Glamour and Glitz- Now Blah Vogue Magazine used to make readers dream off Paris, Milan, Ferrari’s and private villas. Couture gowns we all wanted, extraordinary jewelry, beautiful people and dare I say, privilege. Today, Vogue feels like it wants readers to dream of pottery and dry flowers in a milk jar. This seems to be the vision of its new director, Chloe Malle. Malle recently sat down for an NPR interview intended to introduce readers to her vision for the magazine's

SEX SELLS Victoria's Secret looked destined to join the retail graveyard alongside Abercrombie's shirtless greeters, Ed Hardy trucker hats, and whatever happened to Juicy Couture tracksuits. The brand that once ruled American malls with an iron push-up bra appeared hopelessly out of touch. Sales sagged and in the bra business, that’s a bad direction. Cultural relevance evaporated. Wall Street wondered whether Victoria's Secret had become little more than a nostalgic souvenir

Price Yikes! $3,000 Sport vests, $4,500 off the rack suits and denim over $4,000. WTF? Remember when luxury clothing prices made a sort of romantic sense? You bought a well-made cashmere sweater because it lasted 20 years. A beautiful Italian blazer because the shoulders looked like a Napalatano sculpture. A leather bag because someone in Tuscany cried while hand-stitching it to perfection. Those were the days… Now? Somewhere between the pandemic, Instagra

A Simple Note and Great Sunset Many times it's the little things that make it. Not the expense. Luxury has spent decades convincing people it lives behind velvet ropes, inside gated communities, or parked in climate-controlled garages. The word itself has become tangled up with private aviation, six-figure watches, impossible restaurant reservations, and handbags that are forgettable… but hard to get. Somewhere along the way, luxury stopped sounding aspirational a

LVMH continues to get its house in order amid lagging sales For two decades, LVMH operated like the Roman Empire wearing alligator slip-ons. If a billionaire in Dubai, Palm Beach, Shanghai, or Saint-Tropez wanted to signal wealth, odds are Bernard Arnault’s empire was there waiting with a monogram, a diamond, a bottle, or a leather shopping bag large enough to fit a small child. Problem solved. The Stable Now? The machine tightly controlled by the family Arnault, suddenly loo

The luxury industry has always liked to pretend it operates above gravity. For the better part of a decade, it almost did. Prices went up, demand followed, and the world’s largest luxury houses convinced themselves that aspiration had no ceiling. $800 bag charms, $10,000 cross-body bags, $1,500 sneakers and a "waitlist" to spend tens of thousands. That illusion is cracking. The first real story in luxury right now is the slowdown. Not a collapse, not a crisis, but a meaning

Pre Owned or Gently Used is Very Acceptable Certified Pre Owned By Rolex There was a time when buying secondhand luxury was whispered about like a scandalous affair. One didn’t admit to it. One certainly didn’t build an entire personality, or business model around it. And yet here we are, in a world where pre-owned Hermès Birkin’s are traded with the intensity of commodities, and “vintage” has become the socially acceptable euphemism for “someone else got there first.” Eith

+ or - ? F or an industry that prides itself on resilience, mystique, and the ability to charge whatever it pleases, luxury has recently been forced into an uncomfortable position. Tariffs didn’t destroy luxury, but it did cause brands to explain themselves. They exposed who actually deserves to be called “luxury” and who was simply riding the wave of aggressive pricing and clever marketing. Let’s start with the numbers. Global luxury sales declined roughly 2% in 2025 , ma

NOW COMES THE HARD PART The Prada Business Model When the Prada Group dropped its 2025 numbers, the headline was respectable: revenue climbed 9 percent to $6.63 billion. Not bad in a luxury market that has recently been wobbling like a fashion editor in stilettos. But the real story buried in the earnings call wasn’t Prada’s numbers. It was Versace, the Italian house Prada quietly bought and now must fix. Because buying Versace is the easy part. Turning it back into a power

Jewelry designers are jumping in the saddle Hermes Every twelve years the Chinese zodiac hands luxury brands a perfectly gift-wrapped marketing opportunity, so when the Year of the Horse galloped into 2026, jewelry designers jumped in the saddle and grabbed the reins. Horses already live comfortably inside the luxury imagination. They symbolize power, speed, elegance, and wealth, which are keywords to many luxury brands. The top category for this seems to be jewelry, or more

Creative Directors Take The Heat In 2026 Hot or Not Luxury fashion has officially entered its “try everything, fire everyone” era. Creative Directors are being hired, hyped, memed, blamed, and let go before their business cards even yellow. What used to be a creative marathon has become a three-season sprint down the gang plank. Growth has stalled . Aspirational shoppers, once known as the handbag foot soldiers, have been kneecapped by inflation, rent, and the realization

Do Fashion Influencers Help Sell Goods or Are They Just a Trend? Tastemakers or Cons There was a time that fashion houses relied on editors, buyers, and the occasional aloof socialite to whisper what was “in.” Now? A 24-year-old with a ring light and a discount code can move more product than a glossy September issue ever dreamed of…or can they? The influencer economy is now a multi-billion-dollar ecosystem that has convinced brands that relevance is only a Reel away. A singl

Q4 Rankings The Lyst Index . The quarterly mood ring for what the world actually wants to wear issued its Q4 rankings and there are some surprises and disappointments all at the same time. Basic Is Sometimes The Best Saint Laurent reclaimed the crown it first nabbed back in Q3, proving that ‘basics will win every time. Fashion Director Anthony Vaccorello (named Met Ball Chair…that helps) kept things simple and leaned into loafers as their marquee product and it worked. I g

Saks May Have Sunk The Slow, ‘Spectacled’ Fade of Saks Global UPDATE 1/3/26- Saks Global CEO Mark Metrick has "stepped down" effective immediately...as in, "don't let the screen door hit you on your way out". Saks Fifth Avenue never had to explain itself. It was the luxury retailer. Period. The lighting was flattering, the buyers had taste, and the bills (most importantly) were paid. Today, Saks (now called Saks Global) feels less like a

There was a time ( The Alessandro Michele Era) when Gucci was the crown jewel of Kering, the overachieving child everyone bragged about at corporate dinner parties. Today? Gucci feels less like a luxury maison and more like a case study in executive dysfunction. Between leadership meltdowns, collapsing sales, and internal competition cannibalizing whatever oxygen is left in the room, the brand is spiraling into an identity crisis. Starting with the boardroom’s favorite spo

HOW SPANDEX BECAME A FORTUNE Let’s be honest: when SKIMS launched, most of us rolled our eyes so hard we nearly sprained a socket. Another celebrity brand? Another Kardashian “this-changes-everything” announcement? Another beige bodysuit promising to solve world peace, cellulite, and the mystery of Kim Kardashian’s rear end. And yet, SKIMS didn’t just survive. It has conquered . It became the shapewear version of a tech unicorn. Kim Kardashian, mammoth cultural reach has rock

The House That Taste Built: Ralph Lauren’s Rising Performance Ralph Lauren, America’s reigning monarch of tasteful preppy aspiration just served up a quarter that made Wall Street loosen its collar. The company reported a 14% year-over-year revenue jump (on a constant-currency basis), breezing past expectations like Ralphs favorite thourobred at the Derby. In a luxury landscape where so many “heritage” brands are tripping over their own logos, Ralph Lauren is doing the impro

Luxury Sales Slide Remember when luxury meant hand-stitched perfection and service so fawning it bordered on performance art? Those days...