Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops from Germany, review a planned deployment to Poland, and freeze a project to station Tomahawk missiles on German soil has set off alarm bells in European capitals. In the Old Continent, fears are growing that those moves could be the first step toward a structural reconfiguration of NATO — or even a deeper U.S. pullback within the alliance.

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PARIS, June 7 — Faced with a painful slowdown in recent years, the luxury sector is seeking to recover its mojo by juggling a back-to-basics approach with finding new ways to connect to clients.

The financial performances of the heavyweights – profits amputated last year at LVMH and Kering, while Burberry posted a loss for its 2024-2025 financial year – testify to the fact the market has undergone a change.

The causes are multiple, including the slowing Chinese market, aspirational customers becoming more cost-conscious, and concerns about quality.

“Following the Covid pandemic the luxury market was boosted by binge buying,” said Eric Briones, a cofounder of the Paris School of Luxury who recently published a book about the transformation of the sector.

“And when the luxury sector was confronted with that strong demand, the artisanal model came under pressure,” he said, pointing to recent outsourcing scandals in Italy.

Luxury overexposed

A major part of the luxury cachet is that products are made with superior materials by skilled artisans using traditional methods, which naturally limits production.

Italian police have been investigating major luxury brands for two years over work allegedly outsourced to poorly paid Chinese workers and grim labour conditions.

The post-Covid boom in demand was accompanied by price hikes of up to 50 percent for some labels, “without improvements in quality, and sometimes a drop in quality”, Briones said.

Not only prices increased. Volumes did too.

“It is a fundamental question,” said Christophe Cais, chief executive at CXG, a consultancy that works with premium and luxury brands about customer experiences.

“How many bags can you sell globally without becoming overexposed? Exclusivity is desirable and at the same time you want sales volume, so at what point does volume undermine exclusivity?” he said.

According to the consultancy Bain & Company, the luxury market lost 20 million clients between 2024 and 2025, after having lost 50 million over the previous two years.

Consolidation

Following years of economic and geographic growth for the big luxury groups, analysts say the time has come to prune.

“A phase of recentring and bringing some coherence to portfolios is underway,” said Lea Hubsch at Kearney.

“That may include stepping back or finding another partner for certain brands that aren’t so much part of the DNA” of a group, she added.

LVMH, the world’s largest luxury conglomerate, recently sold off US label Marc Jacobs after holding it for three decades.

In January, it sold the DFS duty free shops’ activities in China.

Kering, another luxury group based in France that is undergoing a major shakeup, sold off its beauty division to L’Oreal for €4 billion (US$4.7 billion; RM18.57 billion).

“This consolidation trend is sure to continue as conglomerates clean out underperforming or strategically less important divisions, focusing on core operations,” CXG said in a recent report.

That will provide opportunities for other companies to snap brands and create new combinations.

Italy’s Versace bought its home turf rival Prada last year for €1.25 billion (RM5.8 billion).

Other deals are expected: Giorgio Armani indicated in his will that he wanted his fashion house to eventually join a luxury group like LVMH or L’Oreal.

Desirability, quality, experiences

Kering’s new CEO Luca de Meo was quite clear in his presentation of the group’s turnaround strategy last month that consolidation was coming, but he also signalled a back-to-basics approach.

He called for an upgrade in quality and efforts to restore the desirability of its leading brand Gucci, which fell victim to overexposure thanks to streetwear.

“Our priority is to make Gucci unmissable again,” de Meo said.

“In one second, you must know it’s Gucci – and it doesn’t mean covering the world with GG.”

Analysts say that in addition to returning to an emphasis on craftmanship and quality, the industry is tuning into demand for experiences and tap into the wellness trend with customer service that rivals that of luxury hotels.

“Desire has shifted to ‘experiences’: beauty, hospitality, transformative luxury,” Briones said. — AFP

Christopher Mark Perez posted a photo:

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 (early) at f/8

Christopher Mark Perez posted a photo:

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 (early) at f/8

PARIS, June 12 — A leather bag made from Tyrannosaurus rex cells failed to sell yesterday, the Paris auction house Drouot said, commenting that bids were well below expected.

Auctioneers Giquello had touted the “one-of-a-kind” piece to sell for more than US$500,000 (RM2 million) but bids barely broke the US$150,000 mark, said the Drouot house where the sale took place.

Unveiled in the spring in Amsterdam, the bag was created from traces of collagen from the femur of a T‑Rex found in the US state of Montana 25 years ago.

“In recent years, we’ve developed techniques — biotechnologies that allow us to instruct a cell culture to produce, so to speak, genuine T‑Rex skin in the laboratory,” Iacopo Briano, a palaeontology expert associated with the sale, recently told AFP.

He noted the material differs from vegan leather, which is mostly made from plastic.

“In this case, it’s derived from a cell culture, so it’s 100 percent skin. And at the same time, it comes from an animal that went extinct 67 million years ago!” he said.

With no precedent to go on, Alexandre Giquello, whose auction house is organising the sale, explained they had to “come up with a price” that would reflect both the amount of investment required to create the bag and its rarity.

Giquello estimated the value at between €300,000 and €500,000. — AFP

Kaïopai° posted a photo:

à Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre, Paris, années 1960

At the latest edition of Paris Photo, held in November 2025, a series of black-and-white portraits caught the attention of both the public and the media. Their public display followed a large-scale installation from the 2024 edition, dedicated to the complete works of the German portrait photographer August Sander (1876-1964). That year, the newly-renovated Grand Palais had welcomed visitors with his celebrated project, People of the 20th Century.

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Christopher Mark Perez posted a photo:

Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 (early) at f/8

Kaïopai° posted a photo:

Pavillon Ledoyen, Paris, 1965 ou un peu plus tard

Street vendors and market stalls begin to pack up by mid-afternoon on Saturday. In the narrow streets there is the smell of roast lamb and on the terraces locals from the neighborhood, retired laborers, and third-generation immigrants mix with groups of young people with a hipster look wearing expensive clothes and drinking IPA beers. Saint-Ouen marks the first boundary between that Haussmannian Paris, already unaffordable for many family budgets, and its famous banlieue, until recently known for youth unrest, episodes of jihadist terrorism, and large concrete apartment blocks. But it is also the product of investment from the Olympic Games, a symbol of the gentrification of the Paris periphery and the home of the city’s oldest and most charismatic soccer club: Red Star.

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saltycotton posted a photo:

Lanselle Perfume
1945