💵 The New York-based streetwear juggernaut, founded in 1994, was resold by the US apparel group VF Corp. to French-Italian eyewear conglomerate EssilorLuxottica this week for $1.5 billion in cash, a significant markdown from the $2.1 billion VF paid for it in 2020.
📉 The deal gives VF Corp. access to quick cash as it seeks to shore up its balance sheet amid falling sales at its much bigger brands — such as Vans, where sales plunged 26 percent in its most recent fiscal year — and mounting debt. EssilorLuxottica gets to expand from eyewear into new categories and the opportunity to lean into Supreme-branded eyewear that it can sell through its huge distribution network.
🌹 The question is where Supreme goes from here. Like Ralph Lauren, it rose to the top with contemporary Americana, albeit a version that wasn’t fully mainstream. But today, the youth subcultures Supreme stood for no longer feel so niche. Hip-hop is massively commercialised, skateboarding and breakdancing are in the Olympics and even rebellious subcultures like graffiti have been transformed into industries ironically intertwined with corporate advertising.
👕 Even under corporate ownership, Supreme was able to scale on its own terms, given the freedom to scout skate spots before opening new stores and hire the right local scenesters to run them. After Supreme sold to EssilorLuxottica, Jebbia suggested its approach wouldn’t change, saying in a statement, “In EssilorLuxottica, we have a unique partner that understands that we are at our best when we stay true to the brand and continue to operate and grow as we have for the past 30 years.”
DOLCE & GABBANA CEO READY TO OPEN CAPITAL TO NEW INVESTORS | [FASHION SYSTEM]
🗣 “We are now ready to consider opening our capital to third parties through a listing or other financial instruments,” CEO Alfonso Dolce said in an interview published on Monday in Corriere della Sera’s L’Economia weekly supplement.
📈 Dolce & Gabbana’s revenue for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which ended in March, was up 17 percent to €1.871 billion ($2.04 billion), said Dolce, adding that he hoped to repeat this growth this year.
🏪 The fashion house will open 12 new stores in the US, including at 695 Madison Avenue in New York, the former Hermès location, with more than 2,000 square metres over five floors.
🌎 “The United States are vital, we already have 72 stores, plus four in Canada, together they represent 28 percent of our turnover, compared to 16 percent in China,” said Dolce.
LINKEDIN ROLLS OUT PUZZLES IN A BID TO BECOME A DAILY DIGITAL PIT STOP | [SINGULARITY]
👀 As the professional social network looks to compete with other social media sites for users’ eyeballs, and the ad dollars that come with it, it is incorporating new attention grabbing features like AI and puzzles.
🗣 The goal of the new features is to bring users’ to the social media site more often, and to keep them around once they’re there, said LinkedIn editor-in-chief Daniel Roth. “It’s about building this daily habit,” Roth told the Financial Times. “Once you’re on LinkedIn, it’s time to share your knowledge, get knowledge, get information and get content.” *
👑 Among the new puzzles is Queens, a game that involves strategically placing crowns so that only one appears per row and column. Another, Pinpoint, challenges a user to identify the common category for a series of related words. The games are relatively simple to play but challenge users who want to take “a quick brain break,” Roth told Fortune. In addition to letting users post their scores publicly, LinkedIn also tracks how often you play to encourage users to keep up a daily streak.
💥 For its part, LinkedIn said it had seen record engagement of 1.5 million content interactions per minute in June, the FT reported. Still, last year the company laid off more than 5% of its 20,000 employees as it recorded slower year-over-year revenue growth for eight consecutive quarters.
🤖 Its ChatGPT-backed AI additions, which the company started rolling out to premium subscribers late last year, are meant to provide a personal touch for professionals. The company has added features such as “Collaborative Articles,” which helps compile users’ thoughts on varied business subjects accompanied by an AI-produced summary. The company also introduced AI tools to help recruiters craft messages to potential hires.
SYKY'S APPLE VISION PRO APP BRINGS DIGITAL FASHION HOME | [METAPHYSICS]
❣ Japanese fashion label Anrealage is known for its avant-garde exploration of technology and the future of the physical world. In February, designer Kunihiko Morinaga dressed drones. Last year, his “photochromic” fabrics, which change colour when hit by ultraviolet light, went viral, thanks in part to a custom piece worn by Beyoncé during her 2023 Renaissance World Tour. Now, the experimental designer is trying a new form factor: mixed reality.
💥 Today, Anrealage becomes the first brand to debut on the new Syky app for the Vision Pro, Apple’s splashy mixed reality headset that debuted in February. This is the first Apple Vision Pro (AVP) fashion app that features fashion inherently designed to be experienced only digitally. Previous AVP experiences — for those including luxury retailers Mytheresa, and brands Gucci and Balenciaga — required brands to retroactively digitise pieces that were made for the physical world. In other words, metaverse fashion is coming to the most significant metaverse device yet.
🌹 To begin, the app focuses on aesthetics and storytelling, rather than sales. The app opens with an open-air courtyard that mimics the Syky website, with wisteria branches draping over arches and columns. Similar to the Gucci and Balenciaga apps, it is formatted as a wide screen that appears to be floating in the wearer’s own environment, rather than a fully immersive virtual reality experience. Additional details lean into the magic of mixed reality, however, with purple blossoms and a butterfly extending beyond the screen, lending a feeling of both digital immersion and familiarity.
🗣 This blend of digital content in the physical world is how Syky founder and CEO Alice Delahunt envisions the future of spatial computing, offering a window into a designer’s world that extends beyond the two-dimensional screen of today. “I firmly believe that our day to day will be more of a mixed reality experience versus a totally immersive one, and I think building and growing that muscle, in terms of how you create and build, is a really helpful thing to do,” she tells Vogue Business during a preview of the app. “There’s something quite incredible about seeing your space and seeing a garment and the extra additive details coming to life and not necessarily overtaking you, but being supplemental. There’s something innately human about that, versus disappearing into totally technological worlds.”
LVMH REVENUE SLIP SIGNALS CONTINUED GLOOM FOR LUXURY | [FASHION SYSTEM]
📉 LVMH’s revenue slipped for the second consecutive quarter amid a market slowdown for luxury goods that even the sector’s leading conglomerate is struggling to shake off. Second-quarter revenues fell 1 percent in absolute terms for the Louis Vuitton and Dior owner, but were slightly positive on an organic basis, rising 2 percent after currency shifts including a sharp decline in the Japanese yen were taken into account. The results missed analysts’ forecasts of 3 to 4 percent organic growth.
💹 A 14 percent drop in sales in Asia (excluding Japan) deepened versus a 6 percent drop the previous quarter as LVMH’s brands struggled to shake off macro-economic gloom and shifting consumer priorities in the key Chinese market. China’s central bank cut interest rates this week in a bid to revitalise struggling property markets, which is one key factor dampening consumer confidence. But authorities also pledged to “properly regulate excessive incomes” in the latest sign that glitzy lifestyles are falling out of favour.
⌚ Watches and jewellery (including blockbuster acquisition Tiffany & Co.) and wine and spirits were LVMH’s hardest hit categories, with sales falling by 4 and 5 percent, respectively, while the group’s key fashion and leather goods division reported a 1 percent organic increase. The selective retailing division, dominated by Sephora, was the brightest spot, rising 5 percent, while the perfume and cosmetics segment that sells makeup and perfume for Dior, Givenchy and Fenty grew by 4 percent.
💎 But the group maintained a rapid pace of store renovations at units including jeweller Tiffany & Co. “Consistency and long-term thinking are of the essence in this business, and we are walking the talk,” chief executive officer Jean Jacques Guiony said.
💥 Guiony struck a cautious tone for LVMH’s outlook in the rest of the year, citing uncertainty regarding how China’s policy changes will be implemented — and how customers will respond. Guiony defended a recent price increase at Louis Vuitton as “routine,” however, and said that LVMH’s brands were not exploring lowering their price mix. Upgrading products (and the prices charged for them) remains “an essential component of the growth going forward,” Guiony said. “What we are doing since 30 years is not coming to an end just because the aspirational customers are a little under pressure.”
🗣 Overall, “We have no idea what the outlook will be,” Guiony said. “We’ll have a slightly more favourable comparison base in the second half of the year. Is it sufficient to be optimistic? I don’t know.”
META'S NEW LLAMA MODEL COULD BE A GAME CHANGER— BUT THERE ARE A LOT OF UNKNOWS | [SINGULARITY]
💥 People are buzzing about today’s release of Meta’s new Llama 3.1 model. What’s notable is that this is Meta’s largest Llama model to date, with 405 billion parameters. (Parameters are the adjustable variables in a neural network, and give a rough sense of how large an AI model is.) And according to benchmark performance figures that conveniently leaked onto Reddit the day ahead of the official release, Llama 3.1 exceeds the capabilities of OpenAI’s latest and greatest model, GPT-4o, by a few percentage points across a number of measures, including some benchmarks designed to test reasoning.
💎 Not only that, but Llama 3.1 is, like the other Llama models Meta has released, an “open model,” meaning anyone can potentially build their own applications on top of it without paying, and even modify the model in any way they desire. But the models Meta has released before have been smaller, and less capable than any of the proprietary models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, Anthropic’s Claude 3 Opus, or Gemini’s Ultra or 1.5 Pro models. The fact that Meta’s new Llama 3.1 may have now closed the gap to GPT-4o has a lot of people excited that Llama 3.1 405B will be the model that finally enables many businesses to really unlock the return on investment from generative AI.
🦄 Anton McGonnell, head of software products at SambaNova Systems, which builds AI hardware and software for big companies, said in a statement that Llama 3.1 405B might be a game changer because it will allow two things: one is that companies can use the 405B parameter model to create synthetic datasets that can be used to train or fine-tune small open models to hone them for specific applications. This “distillation” process has been possible before but there were often ethical concerns about how the data used for “distillation” had been sourced (with data being scraped from the web without consent, or derived from the use of poorly paid human contractors).
🌵 McGonnell also applauded Meta’s decision to release Llama 3.1 405B as part of a family of Llama models of different sizes (there are also upgraded 70 billion- and 8 billion-parameter models) and to release a “Llama stack.” This is a set of related software built on top of and around the AI models themselves. Meta’s AI stack includes guardrails software, to prevent the AI models from generating harmful or dangerous content, and security software to try to prevent prompt injection attacks against the Llama models.
ALIBABA BACKS $2.8 BILLION FIRM IN THIRD MAJOR AI DEAL OF 2024 | [VALUE PROPOSITION]
👾 Chinese AI startup Baichuan is valued at 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) after its latest fundraising round as Beijing seeks to boost the Asian nation’s capabilities in emerging technologies to counter US curbs.
💰 Baichuan raised 5 billion yuan in the most recent round with financing from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen governments, the company said in a statement on Thursday. They were joined by existing investors include Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Tencent Holdings Ltd., and Xiaomi Corp.
📈 Earlier this year, Chinese President Xi Jinping said his country needs to step up innovation because other countries dominate certain key technologies, comments that underscore his nation’s escalating semiconductor confrontation with the US.
SOCIAL MEDIA SHOWS ARE FASHION'S NEW ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITY | [FASHION SYSTEM]
🗣 “Strap in for a makeover fit for the circus,” declares creator Clara Perlmutter, aka @TinyJewishGirl, on the debut episode of her new makeover show, Clarafied, in which she tackles the wardrobe of a professional clown.
👧 Perlmutter’s show is one of several popping up across Instagram, YouTube and TikTok as creators seek new ways to engage their audiences while navigating ever-changing algorithms. Model and influencer Anaa Saber launched docuseries Behind the Scene — featuring New York creatives — in July 2023, while Leah Thomas, founder of non-profit Intersectional Environmentalist, debuted a show titled Earthy Stuff to mark Earth Month this April, which has remained ongoing. In It Girl (The Series), creator Bailey Taylor interviews ‘It-girls’ on the streets concerning their outfit choices, what they do for a living, and the women who inspire them.
👔 These fashion-focused programmes join an existing list of influencer-hosted shows that have developed loyal followings, from Davis Burleson’s TikTok interview series What’s Poppin? to comedy shows like Rachel Coster’s Boy Room, and Kareem Rahma’s Keep the Meter Running and Subway Takes. For brands, there’s a clear opportunity to tap into the fashion cohort — as long as they adapt to what this audience wants (hint: it’s not polished sponcon).
🗨 These shows help to further democratise fashion, says Maria Coilero, senior youth strategist at trend forecasting and consumer insights agency Fashion Snoops. “What was once an industry reserved for a small group of elite influencers is now expanding into the realm of nano or micro content creators and, in many ways, they are much more in tune with the subcultures of fashion, humour, street style and bubbling micro-aesthetics,” Coilero says. “There’s a lot more dialogue now. Consumers and creators feel more connected than ever.”
👚 The sponsorship opportunity is clear, but creators say they prefer to integrate their partners into the shows in some way, to make it feel more organic. The first episode of Clarafied, for example, was sponsored by Urbn-owned rental subscription service Nuuly, and the participant was given a complimentary subscription as well as styling by Perlmutter in the first month’s selection of clothes; the second was backed by dating app Hinge, whereby the participant’s Hinge profile was given a makeover.
RAY-BAN MAKER ESSILORLUXOTTICA CONFIRMS META INTERESTED IN STAKE | [SINGULAIRTY]
💰 CEO Francesco Milleri said the maker of Ray-Ban and Oakley sunglasses isn’t planning a capital increase dedicated to Meta and the US firm would buy shares on the market if it wants to become a shareholder. Chief executive officer Francesco Milleri said that the US tech giant intends to become a shareholder in the French-Italian group potentially building on a years-long partnership to develop smart glasses.
👑 Speculations emerged earlier this month that the owner of Facebook is considering taking a stake of up to 5 percent in EssilorLuxottica. Milleri said the maker of Ray-Ban and Oakley sunglasses isn’t planning a capital increase dedicated to Meta and the US firm would buy shares on the market if it wants to become a shareholder.
📈 The world’s biggest manufacturer and retailer of eyewear posted adjusted net income of €1.75 billion ($1.9 billion) in the first half, 10.6 percent higher compared to the same period last year at constant exchange rates and higher than consensus. Revenues were in line with analysts’ forecasts at €13.3 billion.
👓 EssilorLuxottica and Meta have been cooperating on smart glasses for a few years. In 2021, Meta unveiled its first Ray-Ban smart glasses set on the Wayfarer frame to let users take photos and videos, listen to music and answer calls. Newer glasses incorporate MetaAI, an artificial intelligence assistant based on its Llama AI model.
LUXURY FASHION'S OLYMPIC AMBITIONS GO BEYOND SPORTSWEAR | [FASHION SYSTEM]
🎖 On the eve of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games opening ceremony, the event is set to showcase not only athletic prowess but also a significant shift in the fashion landscape. Luxury brands are making unprecedented inroads into an arena traditionally dominated by sportswear giants, signaling a new era of high-fashion presence in sporting events as they stand at the height of the cultural zeitgeist.
👾 LVMH, the world's leading luxury group, secured a premium partnership for the Games, deploying a diverse portfolio of brands in various capacities. This strategic move, valued at an estimated 150 million euros, aims to double the group's media value and boost digital engagement by up to 30 percent during the event, reported Pambianco. Already the group’s star brand, Louis Vuitton, has seen multiple pr activations from its trunk and torch designs, and Chaumet for its medals.
👚 Other fashion powerhouses are also stepping into the Olympic spotlight. Dior, Skims, Ralph Lauren, and Berluti are among those joining sportswear stalwarts like Nike and Adidas in outfitting national teams and creating Olympic-themed initiatives. Giorgio Armani continues its partnership with the Italian team, while emerging brands like Mongolia's Michel & Amazonka have garnered social media acclaim for their uniform designs, Pambianco said.
🤝 By aligning with athletes and sporting events, luxury brands are not only tapping into new markets but also redefining their image and consumer engagement strategies. This symbiosis between high fashion and sports is reshaping marketing dynamics, consumer perceptions, and brand positioning across both industries, heralding a new era of multifaceted brand experiences that blur the lines between luxury, performance, and popular culture.
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