• The Luxury Market Spectator: LVMH

    (DISCLAIMER: The purpose of this article is merely to illustrate the performance of a luxury company that I care about. I’m not a market guru, manage your money wisely.) When I buy a bag, I try to expiate my sins (and to forget the negative balance on my bank account) by convincing myself that I’ve made a good investment which is going to last. But you know what? Why don’t’ you make a real fashionable investment buying a stock – of a luxury company, of course? The company I’m analyzing today is LVMH. Decrypting the acronym, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy. The company, given its fame, doesn’t even need an introduction, but…

  • Creative Directors: What’s Ahead?

    Two days ago we were hit by the fresh news: Massimiliano Giornetti to exit Salvatore Ferragamo. Could have been striking, but with all the recent shifts in fashion houses’ creative reigns we just close the article tab thinking “agaaaaaaain”. Seems like in the world of fashion there’s just some kind of agreement to drive the observers crazy.. What’s going on? Alexander Wang, Stefano Pilati.. In between the whole buzz about Raf Simons. Shock and regret to wave goodbye to Alber Elbaz leaving Lanvin, speculation, rumors and guesses about the future of Hedi Slimane. While in case of the first events we reacted strongly, discussing, wondering and questioning, now it feels…

  • Reinventing 2.0: Dark Side.

    Working on the article about superheroes’ influence on fashion, I defined that a number of world-famous designers literally got inspired by various imaginary heroes from comics. And then I realized I was missing something that the couturiers didn’t miss. When we open a comics book, do we only worship superheroes? When we turn on «The Dark Knight», is it only Batman who interests us? Actually no. I only focused on one part before, but without another one there is no «whole». No Batman without Joker, no X-men without Mistique, no good without evil. And «evil» is sometimes not bad, at least not in terms of style. Today on lustinfashion we will…

  • The Fashion Industry in the Great White North

    As many of you might already know, I am Canadian and so proud to represent my country abroad and in Italy. There are so many great things our country has, however when you think of Canada you don’t link it to fashion, why? Well, on my flight back to Canada last week I had a ton of delays aka loads of time to finally catch up on some great reads and I came across this great article in The Financial Post called “Why Fashion Brand Success Stories are so Few and Far Between in Canada”. That’s when it really hit me, yes nobody in Italy would ever think that Canada…

  • LVMHxBOCCONI Spring 2016

    If you are a Bocconian, your geolocation can oscillate around piazza Straffa for the whole day. Looking for a place in the library for fifteen minutes makes sense, as well as having no time for studies because of studies. However, in spite of all the hard times we share times of pride. As part of the cooperation program between Università Bocconi, ESSEC and LVMH the last couple of days our university hosted the “LVMH days”. The main event of the program was the inauguration held on the 16th of March. Toni Belloni, the Group Managing Director, started off with the introduction of LVMH (though the 78-billion-worth conglomerate does not seem…

  • Is The Luxury Market In Trouble?

    The luxury industry has continually experienced growth in the last 5 years, and has rightfully gained its nickname as the “recession-proof” industry with the major consumers located in America, Europe and Asia. The largest one, Asia, accounts for 40% of global luxury sales in 2015. Recently, however, the luxury market has been put to the test. In the last few years, China has played an increasing role in the growth of the luxury market. Chinese natives are now players in international tourism, and this has given a huge boost to luxury brands worldwide, especially in Paris, Milan and New York. Every name brand has since opened stores in China, and…

  • The Difference Between Style And Fashion.

    “Fashion fades style is eternal” Yves Saint Laurent Every season we are spectators of the newest creations from our beloved stylists. We know new radical trends, colors and shapes. We see models, literally rocking the runway wearing the latest must have, that we’ll probably never have. We stare at this wearable and enchanting creativity, that comes and goes away on the catwalk in few seconds. This is fashion.

  • A Conversation With Two Neapolitan Excellences

      The 8th of March, BS4F had the great honour to host at Bocconi University two successful Italian entrepreneurs: Luciano Cimmino and Fabio Attanasio.  Luciano Cimmino, Pianoforte Holding’s chairman, started working for his father as an agent and after many years of apprenticeship decided to set up his first own business: Original Marines. However, due to the difficult relationship with the other founders, Cimmino decided to leave the company and to start another project, founding the well-known lingerie brand Yamamay. In 2001 the company started with a single store in Milan, but in only two years the number of stores grew to 50 all over Italy, reaching 1000 shops all over the World…

  • American Apparel: The Story Behind The Bankruptcy.

    American Apparel started out as an idea Dov Charney, the founder and long-time CEO, had in his Tufts University dorm room in 1989. The company started out as a wholesale retailer of high-quality cotton T-shirts. This proved to be extremely successful and the company quickly expanded to selling its manufactured goods in 260 shops in 19 countries. In 2005 it was listed among the fastest growing US Companies with a 440% three-year growth and revenues of over $ 211 million. The clothes manufacturer is known for its “Made in America” policy, which shuns the sweatshops of Asia to support US manufacturing. It is a vertically integrated company: all storefronts are…

  • Chords of Trussardi.

    The past weekend here wasn’t a piece of cake: Milan was rainy, grey and thus depressing. When weather turns to its dark side, there’s only one reason to leave home on Sunday, and every fashion addicted knows what it is. In spite of the raindrops attempting to ruin our hair, makeup and outfits, at 5PM we were running through the puddles in the direction of Palazzo Serbelloni to see Trussardi.