To save office, break it up — “I know it’s a hassle to come into the office, but if you’re just sitting in your pajamas in your bedroom, is that the work life you want to live?,”Malcolm Gladwell recently asked on The Diary of a CEO podcast. “Don’t you want to feel part of something?” …

Luxury brands don’t build worlds. They build games. — Tom Perkins, a VC, built his super yacht in 2006. Called “Maltese Falcon,” it has been the largest in the world that year. For the boat’s launch in Istanbul, Perkins decorated it with various flags. …

What Japanese denim industry can teach us about innovation — David Beckham has a pair of bespoke jeans with five 18-carat gold buttons. They’ve been made by a Japanese denim Evisu in Kojima, a seaside town near Okayama. Kojima is the spot of the first locally-made Japanese jeans (previously, there were only American imports in the country). The pioneering pair…

2x2 of modern culture — The vibes map aims to capture and structure what’s happening in our culture right now, from brand products to places to art and design. It tells us where the zeitgeist is going and what we collectively gravitate to. The purpose of the vibes map is to direct brands in their…

When perfectionism and visual culture come together — In his recent essay for The Economist, psychoanalyst Josh Cohen detailed the human psychology behind perfectionism. “From Emerson’s provocative defense of “self-reliance” in 1841 to the rise of the self-help industry from the 1930s and the emergence of our own selfie culture, selfhood was regarded as our highest value and…

Everyone participates but the prize is unclear — Have MSCHF’s “Satan Shoes,” released in 666 units and priced at $666 been a success? The sneakers were sold out in under one minute, but the question is N/A. The biggest impact of MSCHF is its refusal to participate in the performance culture. The performance culture is a culture that…

Why Kardashians are afraid of bots — Once upon a time, the most liked photo on Instagram was the picture of an egg named Eugene. With more than 56 million likes and 4.8 million followers, Eugene represented a mystery. The mystery of who created it and why has been since solved. …

How to use merchandising to build a brand — A winning product strategy takes into account brand and business objectives, target audiences and an integrated marketing and merchandising approach. Product strategy is closely linked to a company’s competitive strategy as it powers the market segment and growth model that a brand pursues. Here is how brand and business objects…

Seriousness is the new provincialism — At the couture week, Daniel Roseberry, creative director of Maison Schiaparelli and l’homme du jour, shared that in his designs he wanted to avoid that “dreary self-seriousness.” Same. There is little worse that a fashion brand taking itself literally. Earnestness in following traditional luxury codes veers dangerously in the bourgeois…