The Briefing Room | Issue No. 4
Ciao & happy Tuesday 👋🏼 from The Briefing Room: Your weekly pulse on the latest in brand moves, cultural shifts, and emerging trends. Curated insights, straight to your inbox. Subscribe now and stay in the know. :)
🧢 Fashion & Apparel
Ganni, the Danish fashion brand opens a flagship store on Madison Avenue (NYC), the first in the Upper East Side. This is one more step in the company’s expansion in the US. In this case, the goal is to connect with a different type of clientele, both the city’s uptown customers and international tourists. The company plans to expand to Italy and Japan in 2025 — link
Ganni’s store on Madison Avenue Via Montenapoleone in Milan is the world’s most expensive shopping street for the first time, dethroning New York’s Fifth Avenue and London’s Bond Street among others. Many factors came into play here, one of them being the city’s renaissance after the Expo in 2015 — link
Faircraft, a French lab-grown leather manufacturer raised $15.8 to hire more engineers and biologists and scale its operations. They are already working with luxury brands and the product’s demand is growing. This could be a solution for brands and consumers not wanting to compromise on quality and sustainability — link
🧴 Beauty & Personal Care
Khloé Kardashian to launch her own fragrance, XO Khloé, in partnership with Luxe Brands. The product will launch between the end of November and the beginning of December in the UK (Harrods) and the US (Ulta) — link
Clean Skin Club, a skincare brand known for its single-use face towels, raised $32m to help push its retail strategy and develop new versions of the hero product (the Clean Towel XL). The product became so successful because 1) its components are soil biodegradable and compostable, and 2) the towels are incredibly effective in removing makeup and are more hygienic on the skin, preventing breakouts — link
Clean Towels XL by Clean Skin Club Borghese, an Italian skincare brand with more than 60 years of history, is living its Renaissance era. Dawn Hilarczyk, the new CEO, says the brand is ready to make a comeback by re-establishing its core pillars and focusing on distribution — link
🧖 Health & Wellbeing
Eight Sleep, the AI-powered mattress cover (a.k.a. Pod), used Scarlett Johansson, Mark Zuckerberg, Kevin Hart, etc., announced its expansion to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where the founders see a big potential market — link
David Beckham, launches IM8, a wellness brand offering supplements. The products available include a drink powder and capsule. Customers can buy the products as a one-off or subscribe to plans starting from $75 for the Dailyy Ultimate Longevity to $129 for The Beckham Stack — link
David Beckham x IM8 Oura, the company manufacturing the health tracking ring, secures $75m in its Series D. The funding will help the company explore better how food impacts people, and in turn, help people understand their bodies better — link
🧃 Food & Beverages
KoRo, a natural snack brand out of Germany, raises €35m to further expand in Europe. The company offers a wide range of products from natural foods to clean-label snacks and functional foods — link
BrewDog, the British brewery, closed down bars in Mumbai, after it set out to open 100 bars in India saying at the time the country represented its most significant market globally — link
Whether or not you’re a tennis aficionado, you will probably have heard of Spanish tennis player and icon Rafael Nadal, the King of Clay. Nadal became a Nike athlete at 13 years old, winning two Olympic golds, and 22 Grand Slams (!)
Nike honors Nadal in a moving tribute before the player officially retires at 38. All of the campaigns reflect the new framing of Nike, which went from positioning itself as a brand for everyone (if you have a body you are an athlete) to being a brand that has a more binary vision, sort of all or nothing.
The below campaign is narrated by Phil Knight himself, which adds an extra touch. After the backlash of Nike’s repositioning, I am not sure whether the overall positive response was mainly due to the emotional attachment of the public to the tennis player or early signs of adoption of the new framing.
Despite how you might feel about Nike’s new strategy, it’s wonderful to see Rafa being celebrated.
Bonus campaign 🥲
Earlier this week, Jaguar, the iconic British car manufacturer, unveiled its new brand identity in an attempt to revamp the company and seek more alignment with its focus on electric cars.
Above are 30 seconds of my life I will never get back. The campaign and the new brand caused a huge backlash from the public. Lots of new material for meme culture. Even Elon Musk commented on X asking the company if it was selling cars…
Most think this was an attempt to connect with a younger generation of consumers. But they completely forgot and disregarded what makes luxury brands appealing to people, their history and craftmanship. And most importantly who the core customers are and what they like.
The new Jaguar identity feels disconnected and not culturally relevant. The company has tried to defend itself on LinkedIn and other social media platforms with poor results.
The rebrand comes at a very interesting time when Porsche launches a collaboration with Aimé Leon Dore, dubbed by the New York Times the “post-streetwear heritage brand”. With this collaboration, both brands nail the aesthetic and manage to execute excellently the zeitgeist of the moment while drawing from the archives of Porsche. The capsule collection fits perfectly as people lean into nostalgia as well as looks that feel clean and trendy.
💤 Spending Ourselves to Sleep: How Rest Became Beauty’s Latest Luxury
Sleep is becoming increasingly viewed as a key component of beauty and wellness. Many consumers believe a good night’s sleep is essential for looking and feeling their best.
The “sleep wellness” market is booming, with various products that promise to help people fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. These products include everything from magnesium supplements to high-tech mattresses that track sleep patterns.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced a shift from “hustle culture” to a focus on self-care, which included prioritizing sleep. During this time, the public’s awareness of sleep's importance for overall health increased as discussions about the connection between sleep, immunity, and vaccine efficacy became commonplace.
Some companies, such as Eight Sleep, are reframing sleep as a form of productivity through the concept of “sleep fitness,” which involves measuring and optimizing sleep. Wearable devices like the Oura Ring track metrics like heart rate and temperature and provide users with a “sleep score.”
Many spas and wellness centers now offer sleep programs that focus on sleep as a skill that can be learned, such as Equinox Hotels’ Global Sleep Symposium and Canyon Ranch’s sleep and insomnia retreat.
While some people are willing to spend significant amounts of money on sleep wellness products, this trend highlights the growing sleep gap between the wealthy and the poor. Lower-income individuals and people of color often face greater challenges in getting enough sleep due to factors such as demanding work schedules and socioeconomic disparities.
Some healthcare professionals are concerned that the focus on expensive sleep products distracts from the fact that many sleep problems are rooted in systemic issues, such as poverty and lack of access to healthcare. Think of people who have to work two jobs, etc.
👜 The Rise of “Middle-Tier” Fashion Brands
The investment by LVMH Ventures in Our Legacy a couple of weeks ago, after the company already invested in Aimé Leon Dore, marked a new strategic move into a rowing fashion segment “middle-tier”
This is important as these brands occupy the sweet spot between accessible fashion and luxury. They are defined by 1) competitive price points, 2) high quality, and 3) cultural relevance
Strategic Pricing
Traditional luxury companies like Prada, charge consumers GBP 600+ for a shirt, while brands like Our Legacy and Mfpen’s prices range between GBP 150 - 300
The biggest chunk of people are middle class, that can afford the latter but not the former
Europen luxury brands have been increasing since 2019, leaving these middle-tier brands the space to attract style-conscious consumers. They are expensive enough to feel aspirational (unlike Zara) but accessible in price
High Quality
These brands prioritize fabric and construction over logo power — aligning with consumers shifting to quiet luxury and having fewer items but better
Cultural Relevance
The Scandinavian fashion scene has created powerful creative networks with designers collaborating and supporting one another
Most luxury houses were built in a different era, with infrastructures designed for old markets — middle-tier brands, are born digital and are great at building loyalty through direct customer relationships
According to edition+partners, the investment of LVMH Ventures in Our Legacy isn’t just about the brand itself, but rather accessing a new playbook
See you next week!