the most exciting part of this week was coming back to europe after 2 weeks in the far east for a job. manufacturing has never interested me so much as it does today

what’s happening in fashion is that after a quiet august, the unraveling of the industry’s real face is happening very quickly - zara collaborations, met cancelling culture and so on show us an industry struggling to maintain an intellectual spine, to borrow and widen a phrase from Robin Givhan. art and fashion should interrupt our perception to make the world larger, as we are in desperate need of a critical apparatus whose reason for existing is different than commerce. and instead..

the news this week

before any exhibition conversation, Germany blamed Russia for an attempted drone attack last month, in a significant escalation of tensions between europe and its eastern neighbor - just to keep things in perspective for the industry business while another fashion season is about to start

an overnight attack on a cargo ship in the strait of hormuz sent oil and bond yields to multi-year highs yesterday — nike closed at a 20-year low the same day. that’s another backdrop for a fashion month about to open

in the meantime, vogue world is three weeks away and the press articles are starting to be released online. it reads bla bla bla and i am not into it

galliano’s tale is about the power of money, the state of culture today and the descending parabole of anna wintour. don’t just because you can

the V&A should see this as an opportunity and take home a Galliano exhibition - remember Savage Beauty?

translating the galliano drama into commercial success for zara is not a question — there is plenty of money in the world that doesn't hate Galliano enough to make it one

film director Luca Guadagnino and production designer Stefano Baisi have created a range of homeware and clothes for Zara. shortly after, 0fr communicates that they also did a collab with Zara. in all of this, one recurrent thought: beyond products, zara is the best, truest, closest cultural translator of the customer mind today

talking about a different exhibition, to mark the beginning of NYFW, eBay is unveiling a one-night retrospective on what has shaped american fashion history at large, calling it endless runway. it is curated by carlos nazario and hosted by jenna lyons with the chance to bid some pieces from this archive. i am very curious

ib kamara is exiting offwhite - it doesn’t move the needle

Kris Van Assche relaunching his brand - gen Z will know more Kris’ work than any millennial

j.crew vintage, j.crew tiny rollneck — so much activity while we're left wondering what the real state of the business is

shein’s debut on the HK stock exchange market opened down and closed weaker, but while consumers trade fast fashion for reasonable secondhand, i am looking at its expansion plan: shifting production hubs closer to western consumers (like Turkey and Brazil) and transforming its platform into a global marketplace for third-party sellers

luca de meo explores mexico and tries a gen z approach to IG - stay close to stay connected

Victoria Beckham - in a first for the company founded in 2008, it posted an operating profit of $9.9 million. how? new exec team and cutting mind-blowing operational inefficiencies—such as spending $70k annually on office plants and flying furniture across the globe. this profit though is a drop in the bucket compared to the approximately $86 million in cumulative losses the brand racked up since its foundation, let’s remember that too

pieter mulier's first vision for versace has materialised via nicole kidman in lace. sexy and intelligible so far. let’s see. sexy but not edgy, that’s how you sell. anyway i realise that i am so tired and overstimulated by the system that a genuine opinion is everyday harder to make

sezane rebrand: everyone hates it but everyone shops it

the designs at loewe are so referential, the images do more than the product

speaking of referential, what about the new bag from toteme? another box bag and i die

coach's most successful bags exist because of Reed Krakoff. now he's at Gap — launching Sept 8 — and his genius has always been making things that don't need explaining. they simply are Gap. have you seen his bags there?

rhode is coming to europe! 28 days from today

justin bieber’s skylrk tech audio material is a vibe: ipod/tamagotchi, headphones, wired headphones

moodboard brands - still private equity material

you can tell me what you want, but if i see you with meta glasses i’ll run fast. even if they are simply wayfarer, just in case, i’ll run

the 83rd Venice International Film Festival just began and Maggie Gyllenhaal already made it interesting

my wish for the LVMH prize? my velvet witch Colleen Allen to win

thoughts this week

people think their phone is their best friend

places that challenge reality instead of just affirming it, those should be the modern cathedrals

we are so quick to see the boat approaching our harbour and not the storm that led it there

everyone looks and dresses the same. is the future of fashion uniforms? if politics didn’t make us wear them, the algorythm is

dupe culture says more about production innovation than you would think. the winning manifacturer is no longer the one with the best product, but the one with the fastest supply chain

i think it costs more selling the product than making the product

i keep coming back to Rob Rodin: the three insatiable demands of business - free, perfect, now

let’s go back to when it was more about the product than the brand

if you buy a brand you get the aesthetic but what about having your own aesthetic, a mix of several things at once that make you, you

celebrities are ruining the fashion game, instead of encouraging personal style, they encourage a life of algorithmic pursuit

microdrama: more than 100 episodes, vertical format, 3 min each. a trend that feeds our most innate hungers: drama and velocity

wealth in the west is a performance, wealth in the east is foundational. the prestige displayed is inversely proportional to the real authority

nothing like asia makes you understand that good retail is not dead

watch this week

the movie on anthony bourdain is out

read this week

we are not ready for the new order of things

every behind-the-scenes details that led to the cancellation of the Galliano exhibition

about the need for an intellectual spine

*ciao and grazie

the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it

Cos

Cosversation is a weekly business newsletter for people who want a thinking partner. This work is about business, fashion, culture, social but ultimately is for you. You can use these takes in your next presentation, your next conversation, your next brainstorming.

My goal is to build equipment for a community of thinking people. You already belong here, you just didn’t know there was a here.

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i love talking to myself

it’s that simple, if i feel i buy

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still true, karl

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MET, if it wasn’t tragic it would be ridiculous

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when i write is mainly for laughs but watch out you might learn something

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