Sunday 24 March 2024

Hermès sued in California For Unfair Practice's Around Birkin Sales Model.

 


Luxury goods have long been acknowledged as having odd requirements in to to obtain the most desirable types of these.  The most significant being the requirement to spend large sums of money in order to acquire them.  Yet, beyond this, many brands seem to require consumers to purchase large quantities of "standard" luxury goods before being permitted to buy the "exclusive" pieces.  Watch dealers are most notable for this, and Hermes with it's Birkin bags has also been said to do it, and two American consumers are so upset, they are suing Hermès for antitrust practices.

The two individuals action, the filing of which can be seen here, allege that Hermès "require" customers to purchase "ancillary" products before offering them the right and opportunity to buy a Birkin, which is an illegal and unfair marketing practice known a "tying".  The crux of the lawsuit appears to be that after spending many thousands of dollars on Hermès product's, those that brought it were told that Birkin's are "reserved for clients who have been consistent in supporting the brand's business".  Interestingly, Hermès CEO Axel Dumas directly responded to an accusation on this point in 2023, and told Business of Fashion that Hermès did not engage in the practice at all.  

The reality is that, despite our enjoyment of luxury goods, demonstrated by our writing about them, beyond a certain point they are merely marketing.  In many cases, luxury versions of simple everyday goods sell for hundreds of times the cost of unbranded versions.  We have written on some of the most egregious examples, such as Loro Piana's £175 plastic frisbee.  There is nothing that will ever make a plastic frisbee worth £175, and in truth, there's not really anything that makes most luxury goods worth what people pay for them.  

Creating artificial scarcity, and clever advertising tricks, are these businesses only real methods to trick consumers into thinking they are worth even close to the prices they ask.  Any reasonable consumer would know this, and we suspect the litigants in this matter are taking action from emotion rather than reason.  Probably because they feel bad they weren't allowed to buy a Birkin.  We doubt this lawsuit will succeed, however, it may bring some unwanted attention to the practice, and in our view, this is rather more likely to be the rationale of those who initiated it.  Sour grapes?  Most certainly.  Possibly effective in causing damage to Hermès?  Maybe.

Sunday 10 March 2024

Heritage Brand Baracuta Collab with Mastermind and Pull it Off.

 


Collab's are everywhere nowadays.  With many of them being highly questionable.  Every so often one comes along that manages to succeed, and the recent limited collection from the established British brand Baracuta, and Japanese brand Mastermind, is a good example of when this occurs.  The selection includes some bland and forgettable tee's, and hoody's, which is understandable, as boring tat is Mastermind's staple.  However, the classic Baracuta G4 and G9 jacket's have been done surprisingly tastefully.

We say surprisingly, as Mastermind is known for neither taste, nor restraint.  It is known for overpriced, and relatively poor quality, streetwear, emblazoned with skull and crossbone logo's.  Perhaps the brand's designer's think skulls are edgy, or maybe they saw one too many pirate movies growing up.  In any case, Mastermind is mostly mocked for it's £1,000 tee shirts with no discernible stand out features, and the fact that this energy was toned down for the Baracuta collaboration is fairly remarkable.

We suspect the Baracuta team are responsible for the subdued nature of the collab.  Which would make sense given the brand's storied status.  The two jacket's are quite good in our view.  With very subtle skull logos on the back, and hidden in expanding cuffs (G9), or with just the logo's embroidered on the cuffs (G4), discreet skull zippers, and nothing else.

What makes this collaboration particularly interesting, and something which we again are sure Baracuta is responsible for, is the reasonable price.  A normal no limited G4 or G9 is £350 - £450, while the Baracuta x Mastermind G9 is £475, and the G4 is £585.  Compared with the prices Mastermind stuff goes for, this is a bargain.

Baracuta still has some in stock at time of writing, if interested, shake a leg.




Monday 26 February 2024

Loro Piana Attempt to Streamline with a Sleeker, Smoother Attitude, but is Lifeless and Dull.

 


Loro Piana has showcased it's 2024/2025 fall/winter collection, and it has a marked similarity to a number of currently popular mainstream brands.  One stand out detail is the cardo-shaped pins closing the collars, which is seemingly a reference to thistle's, which have a textured touch.  However, it's the fact that the collection looks virtually identical to Zegna's Fear-Of-God collection that is more surprising.

Or perhaps, not so surprising.  Loro Piana is in fact owned by LVMH, and has been since 2013.  Antione Arnault has been steering the ship since 2022, and as anyone familiar with the fashion industry knows, the Arnault family and LVMH are like the Apple of luxury goods.  Sleek, polished, bland and dull, and completely devoid of creativity.  It is therefore entirely unsurprising that they have simply copied Zegna after seeing how well it did, as that's their trademark.

It's sad to see Loro Piana slide into being merely another lifeless husk of a brand, without any originality.  However, as long as LVMH continues it's expansion and approach, this will continue to be the case.






Sunday 18 February 2024

Swaine Adeney Brigg Rebrand and Relaunch as "Swaine London".

 


Storied English brand Swaine Adeney Brigg has rebranded following acquisition in 2022, and shed it's former stores, workshops, and name.  The brand left its St James store when the lease ended in 2018, and moved to Picadily Arcade.  In truth, the brand has had a rocky history, and the name being three families combined in itself was an attempt to merge to be stronger in difficult times.  However, the effect of COVID-19 was too severe, and the brand was acquired by French luxury group Chargeurs.

The French group have changed the store location, moving them to the Burlington Arcade, changed their factory to a new one in Sawston Cambridgeshoire, and opened a flagship at 127 New Bond Street, with a workshop in the building.  They have also changed the logo and brand name to "Swaine", and abandoned the Times font for trendy Arial/blocky text.  Along with launching some new "trendy" bags.

Frankly, it's sad to see yet another brand fall under the relentless sanitising drive that was spearheaded by LVMH in brands like Berluti and Rimowa.  Once again, we see the same dull cliches:  Sans-serif font black on white, big clean minimal stores, marketing campaigns of models pouting holding products.  It's so tired, and so boring.  Whether this will revitalise the brand or just mean it limps along for a while longer remains to be seen.  In either case, light a candle for another traditional brand that has fallen into mediocrity.

Sunday 14 January 2024

Luxury Brands cash in on Children with Kid's Fragrance's.

 


As businesses and luxury brands seek ways to strip the remaining capital from consumers in new and inventive ways, they appear to be becoming slightly desperate in this objective.  For several years now brands have been creating ranges of products for children, and accessorising younger persons has become the growth market.  We wrote about this previously, but more recently, a new product aimed at kids has been doing the rounds, and that is fragrances for children.
In truth, fragrances for children have existed for decades, but they were usually for parents to odorise after the inevitable early years accidents that come along with parenthood.  They were usually brightly coloured, featuring favourite characters of children, being shaped in childlike designs.  Aside from being alcohol free to not harm young children, one other feature was virtually universal.  They were extremely inexpensive, costing £5 or £10 at most.


As luxury brands have targeted this area, affordability has gone out the window, with Hermes offering costing £100, Bulgari's £110, and the recently discontinued Creed for kids being £230.  This in our view, is ludicrous.  The aforementioned reason for kids fragrances is for parents to make kids smell nice, not for kids to impress anyone, as they have no-one to impress, for they are children.  It's yet another tone-deaf money-making venture by increasingly out of touch luxury brands which are, as noted, becoming desperate.

Saturday 6 January 2024

The Arnault Family is real life Succession Roy's as Frédéric Arnault now CEO of LVMH Watches.

 


Over the past few years the television series Succession has placed the ultra-wealthy family the Roy's in people's homes.  Their family drama, and their style has been raved about.  However, one family which closely resembles the Roy's is the Arnault family.  Most significantly due to their rampant nepotism.

We discussed the appointment of Alexandre Arnault to Rimowa, and how how in our view they frankly ruined the brand turning it into another bland luxury snooze-fest.  However, Bernard, or the wolf in cashmere, as he is sometimes  called, has really outdone himself on the total naked family promotion this time.  He has placed his youngest son of a mere 28 years of age as CEO of LVMH Watches.

For context, LVMH Watches is a 1.9 billion dollar subsidiary of LVMH which holds Hublot, Tag Heuer and Zenith, as well as other watch brands.  How a move to place such an obviously inexperienced youth into such a position of overwhelming responsibility is frankly mind-boggling.  Something proven by the fact that his previous role as Tag Heuer's CEO from 2020 saw the brands popularity and influence decline, according to a report by Statista

If the heads of other divisions of LVMH are to be believed however, this is all business as usual.  With Stéphane Bianchi, head of LVMH Watches and Jewelery saying Arnault's "unique and disruptive vision", and “I am extremely pleased to have Frédéric [Arnault] join me now within the LVMH watches and jewelry division to oversee our three watches maisons, and eager to see what his unique insights and vision will bring to fuel additional and sustainable growth for them," in a statement to Women's Wear Daily.  Although, we question their credibility, as in the same article they also credited Arnault for Tag's "spectacular transformation", and we see how spectacular that really was.

The Arnault family seem determined to continue promoting their own family members in a disappointing show of nepotism, creating a modern day dynasty of Duke's and Prince's.  However, given the incompetence of most of their issue's thus far, it seems likely they will fail dismally as the aristocracy of old did, blinded by short-sighted arrogance. 

Friday 15 December 2023

Louis Vuitton Launch Tableware, But Hermes Did it Better.

 


Louis Vuitton have shocked no-one by launching a tableware selection.  We say this as Hermes storied tableware collections have existed for decades, and it's frankly surprising LV took so long to launch their own.

However, like much of what Louis Vuitton does, it's a pale imitation of Hermes efforts.  Hermes bold and elegant designs evoke romantic scenes, or abstract shapes, such as their Guadalquivir collections.  Louis Vuitton's on the other hand as just their logo, over and over and over again.  

While it's disappointing, it's not surprising, Vuitton generally plays to their consumer base, and these people love big flashy logos, and and vulgarity.  There are exceptions of course, a well chosen monogram accessory can be extremely tasteful, but the branding for most of their products is Outre.

The prices also happen to be astronomical, for example, a set of 2 dinner plates are £350, compared to just £125 each for Hermes, vastly superior, offerings.  If you disagree, the collection is available now from Louis Vuitton directly, however we suggest looking elsewhere.