The luxury sector faces the new challenge of sustaining momentum after the post-pandemic recovery - they must continue to cater to high spending customers, while also broadening their appeal to attract new demographics. Emerging trends in China that are resulting in a shift away from ostentatious luxury items and a crackdown on ‘money worship’ may threaten the bounceback and force luxury brands to adapt.

Italian sneaker brand Golden Goose postponed its Milan IPO this week as volatile market conditions linger, in the wake of European election uncertainties and depressed demand from China. Despite this backdrop, Bain’s 2024 forecasts for the luxury market remain broadly unchanged and ‘desirability of luxury products is still there’, so while uncertainty may be the new normal, underlying stability remains.

Luxury brands are already utilising the power of AI to cut production and operations costs - providing opportunities in fashion and retail across multiple categories ‘from the way trends are consumed to the retail customer journey’. We know it will profoundly impact the workforce - but just how much?

There’s been a surge in luxury brands using AI to put design in the hands of their customers. DIY products and ad campaigns from Reebok, Adore Me and Versace invite people to use generative art to create new works inspired by the brand’s look and feel.

After a great first quarter, luxury sales in China have reported a very mixed bag of results, no longer growing in the double digits. China still remains a critically important market for luxury and brands must focus on how they can boost sales in China amid this downturn.

We all know about the luxury e-commerce slump of late and have been spending the time dissecting what and where it all went wrong, but attention of the market has turned to some new smaller marketplaces beating the odds with a focus on emerging accessible luxury brands and operating costs.

Companies’ strategic alignment of prices of products and services across different markets and channels –has been a recurring topic of discussion in the luxury segment over the past decade or so, and despite a media attention to the practice of harmonized “global pricing”, the number of companies that have actually embarked upon fully-fledged price harmonisation campaigns is relatively few.

From Le Labo’s mixing rituals and a clever Carhartt label to hospitality experiences that hark back to tradition, Matter Of Form’s latest piece unpacks some of their team’s favourite cases of branded rituals and moments that actually mean something – more so than the tedious race to conversion.

AI has become so commonplace in luxury retail, we don’t always even realise we are interacting with it. LCC GCC explores the various ways it is transforming the luxury retail landscape.

The new Cannes Luxury & Lifestyle Lion will provide a global benchmark for brands in the luxury space, recognising and celebrating the most impactful creative work, experiences and creative business solutions for the luxury sector.

The New Codes of Luxury report by Havas Media Lux explores the Joy Rejuvenators - a new and fascinating, large cohort of luxury consumers, predominantly women. Driving the luxury sectors forward, partcularly the travel industry, this group are finding rejoice through luxury in otherwise tough times.

Everybody’s talking about longevity. You’ll have heard of Blue Zones, you might have read Peter Attia’s bestselling book, Outlive, and you should have some recall (if vague) of the tech billionaire trying to de-age using his son’s blood. Ultimately, what you need to know is the opportunity for wellness hospitality brands in this space is vast – Matter Of Form will push you to consider how.

The spending power of Gen Z (and the even younger Gen Alpha) is set to grow 3x faster than that of other generations by 2023, according to a report by Bain. With this in mind, heritage luxury brands can no longer rely solely on their history to generate sales, instead needing to tap into Gen Z behaviour and desires, and above all, stay relevant.

From maintaining brand exclusivity to battling counterfeit products, several factors contribute to the struggle of luxury brands in the digital realm and make bricks and mortar hard to beat

The British Fashion Council are teasing a new format for this summer’s London Fashion Week that ‘aims to ignite a cultural moment’.

The recent collapses at both Matchesfashion and Farfetch represent a dramatic repositioning for the luxury ecommerce sector, which until recently had benefitted from some of the most powerful trends of the past decade - the historic boom in luxury sales and COVID.

Projected to reach $29.9bn by 2032, the luxury fragrance market is one of the most nuanced. With no dedicated jargon to speak of, borrowing language from botanics (floral, herbal), music (notes, accords) and architecture (base, top, etc), perfumery is steeped in the art of storytelling. And when it comes to branding these chemical poems, the stakes are seductively high.

Was the boom in demand for high-end watches during the pandemic a “once-in-a-generation event”? Arjen van de Vall, CEO of Watchfinder says it was “almost a hype that I would compare with cryptocurrencies, and to some extent whisky and luxury cars”, but recent profit misses from WOSG and Swatch could suggest the boom has come to an end.

Funding for startups that use artificial intelligence — and particularly generative AI — is booming, with more than 400 AI companies raising funding in 2023 equating to overI $21bn globally. With investons now well-versed in generalist AI tools such as Chat GPT, they are now looking at individual industries to find, and fund, the AI tools that will help solve specific problems.

Saudi Arabia has seen a recent emergence onto the global travel stage, with the previously off-limits destination now drawing curious travellers globally, keen to explore ancient ruins, captivating landscapes and incredible diving in the Red Sea.