For non-American readers the Super Bowl is the culmination of the American football season and a showcase event when companies spend vast sums to have their ads played during the very many breaks in play American football provides. There is fascination with who comes up with the best ads and the most imaginative ad companies…
The New York Times profiles the well-known designer’s decision to refocus his life and business around family and craft. The idea of the article is that the fashion industry is finally waking up to the need to balance work and life (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/fashion/fashion-family-parental-leave-narciso-rodriguez-children.html?rref=collection/sectioncollection/fashion&action=click&contentCollection=fashion®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront). I don’t doubt for a second that in a lot of companies the two…
Handbags sit at the heart of the business of fashion, accounting for about 90% of total revenue at some brands. Why? In a recent post (http://www.ethicsoffashion.com/fashion-marketing-unconscious/) I discussed a Jungian marketing strategy proposed by the dean of the Italian fashion school Polimoda, Danilo Venturi. Venturi argues that the unconscious is populated by archetypes and…
As readers know, this website is a huge fan of Warhol and thinks that pop art raises all manner of extremely interesting questions about the relationship between veneration and refinement, vanity and the sacred. Each year Loyola hosts a lecture these questions so how super it is to learn that the Vatican will host a…
Here is a very interesting, short video lecture by Danilo Venturi of the Italian fashion school Polimoda (https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/education/polimoda-lecture-three-branding-the-subconscious?utm_source=Subscribers&utm_campaign=68d172373f-what-makes-a-great-fashion-ceo-anne-chapelle-reboo&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d2191372b3-68d172373f-417297929). Contrary to H&M’s move to tribalism, niche, and fragmentation (see my previous post), Venturi argues that there are eight archetypes lodged in the unconscious to which fashion should appeal. Not only will this make for good…
H&M has been in the news recently and not in a good way (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/world/africa/hm-south-africa-protest.html). It has also started a new brand /Nyden for millennials. The business plan is built around the idea of tribes. The basic idea is to contract in tribe leaders and give them a free hand in creating new clothes: these…
An interesting article concisely pointing out some sharp differences about luxury spending in the two countries: https://jingdaily.com/chinese-and-indian-consumers-want-different-things-from-luxury/
The British press recently exclaimed in horror that the Queen spends 16 Pounds for a pair of socks. As mentioned in these pages frequently, cheap clothing means only one thing: unjust working conditions. In fact, the Queen wears the socks I myself favour 🙂 Corgi. The company is family owned and managed, hand-finishes,…
In a recent interview, an important French commentator on Lacan describes him as an enlightened conservative (https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/1600-elisabeth-roudinesco-interviewed-on-the-30th-anniversary-of-jacques-lacan-s-death). I was happy to read this given my recent post over at Law and Liberty (http://www.libertylawsite.org/2018/01/17/jacques-lacan-conservative-icon/). Trying to understand Lacan is very hard — no one disputes this! — but if I had to say in a…
Luther, starring Idris Elba and Ruth Wilson, is one of my favourite TV programmes. In a number of the opening scenes, the ever-brooding Luther is seen looking down a hole or into empty spaces. When he first visits arch criminal Alice Morgan in her flat they discuss a picture of a blackhole hanging on her…