Rob Corder

What Kering’s New CEO Reveals About the Future of Luxury — and Art In The Business of Fashion, Luca Solca offers a sharp, unsentimental letter to Luca De Meo, the newly appointed CEO of Kering, who arrives from the automotive industry into the turbulent waters of luxury fashion. Having steered Renault’s strategic turnaround through his now-celebrated “Renaulution” plan, De Meo is expected to apply a similar mix of industrial discipline and visionary risk to Kering — a group currently burdened by high debt, lagging brand performance (especially Gucci’s 25% sales drop), and investor skepticism. Solca outlines a clear roadmap: fix the balance sheet and fix the governance. Luxury, he argues, is no longer just about aesthetics or legacy; it is about strategic clarity, investor trust, and operational resilience. De Meo’s outsider status may well be his strength — but only if he can translate systemic thinking into cultural intuition. This shift — from cars to couture, from torque to texture — resonates far beyond luxury conglomerates. It reveals a deeper, quieter movement already reshaping the art world: the end of disciplinary comfort zones. When a fashion empire taps an industrialist to reimagine its soul, we are reminded that leadership today is no longer about specialization, but about sensibility — the capacity to navigate complexity, to listen across silos, and to reframe decline as potential. In the art ecosystem, too, we see institutions fatigued by old models: biennials recycling the same curators, galleries struggling to justify their overheads, museums trapped between blockbusters and bankruptcy. What if, like Kering, they looked beyond their own industry for answers? What if curators were selected not only for taste, but for systemic intelligence? What if the next museum director came not from academia, but from gaming, climate strategy, or logistics? De Meo’s appointment invites us to imagine a new kind of cultural stewardship — one that does not fear friction between worlds, but draws strength from it. After all, the great works of art, like the great turnarounds in business, often begin with a single bold reframe. A Letter to Kering’s New CEO- Luca Solca https://lnkd.in/eM4fzRiw

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In fashion jewelry manufacturing, we often face a fundamental question:   How can base materials like brass or stainless steel break through price limitations and move into higher-value consumer scenarios?   The answer doesn’t lie in raw materials, but in design language and craftsmanship.   Take this letter ring as an example. Instead of relying on conventional patterns or stone settings, it uses large-scale embossed letters combined with an oxidation finish to create depth and texture. A seemingly simple material, once processed with the right techniques and design logic, gains narrative and emotional value.   From a manufacturer’s perspective, the challenge is not just “can it be made,” but “can it be made with stability and consistency, so that differentiation in design can be scaled.”   Embossing requires precision to ensure clear, durable lines, while oxidation must balance tonal depth with uniformity. Only when these are controlled can a product achieve both expressive value and reliable manufacturability.   True value in jewelry does not come solely from materials. It is created at the intersection of craftsmanship and storytelling.   At Star Harvest, our focus has always been turning creative ideas into scalable, repeatable, and market-ready products—helping brands bridge the gap between design expression and consumer experience. #JewelryManufacturing #DesignInnovation #Craftsmanship #FashionJewelry #StarHarvest

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Most jewellery brands are stuck in the “insecurity economy.” The formula is lazy:  → Create a deficit (you’re not enough)  → Offer the sparkle as a fix From Fair & Lovely’s “fair = beautiful” to ads that suggest “you’ll only look desirable if you wear this ring”, the strategy is deficit monetisation. Here’s the business flaw: today’s customer doesn’t buy to fix herself. She buys to signal identity. Look at the numbers: As per Nielsen, 55% of global consumers distrust brands that link self-worth to purchases. In fine jewellery, buyers now demand proof of trust, hallmarks, certificates, transparent pricing and traceability before aesthetics even enter the funnel. This changes the playbook. Jewellery can’t posture as a rescue kit. It has to act as an identity amplifier, a product that matches her independence, taste, and values. Short-term insecurity triggers might spark a transaction. But jewellery isn’t fast fashion, it’s a long-cycle category.  Only trust compounds here. Ethera | Nitesh Jain

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How I would fix the frustration of Hermès resale & counterfeit 👨🏼‍🔧 In a recent article, CEO Axel Dumas explicitly said that the luxury brand sees the 'secondhand frenzy' as a 'threat' to serve 'real customers'. ❌ Unlike Gucci or Balenciaga, Hermès has NO appetite to legitimize resale. 🔐 Absolute control is most important. So here's what I'd do: ___________________ 1️⃣ Integrate → We'd take craftsmanship one step further and modernize it by sewing an NFC chip elegantly into each new product. 2️⃣ Apply → Potential customers apply through their blockchain-based, encrypted, Maison Profile. This profile includes verified past purchases, event attendance, service history... = a loyalty fingerpint. 3️⃣ Vet → Hermès discreetly vets applicants based on purchase history, loyalty and behaviour (frequency, resale activity, social graph). 4️⃣ Issue → Once approved, the bag's embedded NFC chip is linked to the customer's blockchain-based profile. 5️⃣ Unlock → The user unlocks the Digital Passport when they tap the NFC (only accessible from their verified account, linked with the item they now own). The passport shows the date of production, artisan name/code, leather origin, personal milestones, service options & exclusive content (including private event invitations). 6️⃣ Monitor → Any resale requires re-registration of the bag. When a reseller taps the NFC, Hermès knows the bag changed hands. ↳ 🔴 If resale occurs within a minimum holding period (e.g. 5 years), penalties can apply to the profile like loss of priority access or blacklisting. ↳ 🟢 If service & resale is done via approved channels, the customer retains/grows their status. This is all programmed via smart contracts. 7️⃣ Track → The blockchain profile + NFC system allows Hermès to track every resale event globally. Which markets are reselling most, at what prices, ... It allows for early detection of flippers vs loyal customers and offers absolute market control. They can flood or dry up inventory strategically. ✨ Bonus points: Link the Maison Profile with luxury perks like concierge services at the best malls, airport lounge access across the world, etc. and you've created the ultimate "luxury lifestyle passport". What do you think? Should Hermès roll this out soon? 💬

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Dubai: Challenging the Monopoly of Traditional Diamond Centers Monthly Diamond Market Update – July 2025 https://lnkd.in/gF6gDbR8 For centuries, the global diamond trade was concentrated in a handful of historic capitals, each with its own clearly defined role. Antwerp, Belgium — with over five centuries of expertise — long held the title of “world diamond capital,” handling up to 80% of the rough diamonds circulating globally. Tel Aviv distinguished itself as a hub of excellence for trade and technological innovation, while Mumbai, home to the massive Bharat Diamond Bourse — the largest diamond exchange in the world — secured an undisputed lead in cutting, processing over 90% of the world’s stones. New York, with its historic Diamond Dealers Club, and Hong Kong, the key gateway to Asian markets, completed this near-oligopolistic system for decades. However, the past two decades have brought rapid change. Rising from the heart of the UAE desert, a new player has emerged to rewrite the map of the diamond trade: Dubai. Its rise in the sector is not an isolated event but part of a broader transformation that has seen the city evolve, in just a few decades, from a regional port into a global hub for luxury tourism, finance, trade, and commodities. Iconic skyscrapers, cutting-edge infrastructure, and aggressive economic policies have turned Dubai into a strategic crossroads for goods and capital — and diamonds are no exception. Since 2021, Dubai has officially overtaken Belgium as the leading center for rough diamond trading, with more than $22.8 billion exchanged that year. The growth has been remarkable: up 76% since 2015 and an impressive 83% in a single year between 2020 and 2021. At the heart of this success is the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), a free zone that hosts more than 1,300 companies in the sector and the Dubai Diamond Exchange, located in the Al Mas Tower (also known as the “Diamond Tower”) and home to the largest diamond auction room in the world, capable of accommodating over 200 buyers at once. Several factors are driving this surge. First and foremost is Dubai’s strategic geographic position — midway between major diamond-producing regions (such as Africa, Russia, and Canada) and leading consumer markets (Asia and Europe), with direct air links to all key hubs. On the fiscal side, the UAE has offered unmatched advantages: since 2018, the 5% VAT on wholesale transactions has been eliminated, and companies enjoy a preferential tax regime with exemptions guaranteed for decades. Access to credit is also more flexible compared to markets like Antwerp, where banks have progressively tightened financing conditions.

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Because bigger diamonds are rare, really rare, doubling the carat weight, the price goes up by FOUR times. The opposite is true for man made diamonds. Well, except that many retailers charge a lot more for larger lab diamonds, because consumers expect larger stones to cost more per carat. We all know that is untrue. Retailers are also charging much bigger margins for D-E and Flawless to VVS diamonds than the cost of say a G-H VS2-SI1, even though there is almost no production or wholesale cost difference. This, in economist terms, is called TRADING OFF A SUPERIOR PRODUCT. Many people argue that natural diamonds are not rare. Little ones are not. But larger diamonds are. But just you watch Henry Higgins – Natural diamonds are going to become much rarer. At average values per carat, the under 1,716 @ 0.10ct diamonds per one carat stone, are in total worth about the same amount as all the 1.00 – 1.20ct diamonds (the data is in the chart – fact check me). We are already seeing that larger diamond prices are not falling much compared to smaller stones. That is because the under half carat and lower quality diamonds are largely being replaced by lab grown diamonds. Consider the implications for miners: if they lose a quarter to a third of their sales to lab diamonds used in every day jewellery, many mines will close. That means there will be far fewer of the larger rarer diamonds wealthy people buy. Wealthy people will still buy diamonds to celebrate special occasions. Expect there to be half as many. Supply will be outstripped by demand.

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