2025: On the Eternal City and Long Lasting Brands Secret and What is it, Saint Laurent?
“Embrace reality even if it burns you.”
― Pierre Bergé
Dear DeLuxers,
How are you? I had an amazing week in my beloved Rome, the Magic City as the late Paolo Ettorre, legendary CEO of Saatchi Rome was used to define it (in a kind dispute against Michael Burke supporting Paris).
“La Grande Bellezza” as per the masterpiece movie of Paolo Sorrentino and the place where chaos creates the highest level of Beauty, because it comes from the Soul. As we all know there is no Life without Chaos.
“Out of chaos God made a world, and out of high passions comes a people.” - Lord Byron
I had intense days of work on a men’s brand brand platform (with lots of nice surprises), delicious food like carciofo alla romana (artichoke cooked in the Roman way) with a stunning Pantheon view at night and the special blessing of the new Pope, Leone XIV, in piazza San Pietro the day of the announcement of his election. I couldn’t ask for more.
It’s a great time for new beginnings and the message in the air for all of us is very clear: never look back and always move ahead. As the Roman wisdom highlights “when a pope dies, a pope and a cardinal are made”. I always loved this philosophical way to approaching life.
Rome is the city where everything happens and everything lasts, there is a very relevant stratification of architectural styles and everything coexists peacefully and chaotically in a wonderful setting.
In fashion, brands don’t seem to be so wise to be prepared to integrate different chapters of their history and they tend to slowly fade away from the interest of the customers because they become too messy. Their top executives certainly did not study the Roman history enough, only Michael Burke did it, and his career path immensely benefited from it. He was so fascinated by the Roman “Giano Bifronte” symbol, as per Wikipedia “Janus (Latin: Ianus) is the god of beginnings, both material and immaterial, and is one of the oldest and most important deities of Roman, Latin and Italic religion. He is usually depicted with two faces (the so-called Janus Bifrons), since the god can see the future and the past.” The month of January is dedicated to this God, and it is the portal between the past year and the coming one.
The balance between past and future is a very delicate objective for a fashion brand, that has to be very carefully designed before starting new chapters, otherwise the risk is disintegration or boredom.
And impeccable branding is the secret to its long lasting success.
On this issue we will focus on Yves Saint Laurent, or Saint Laurent, or YSL. Like we did before with “Is this Ferragamo?” because it is the same deep issue that takes to business downfall: Branding.
Following Kering official 2024 annual results, YSL revenues were “down 9% both as reported and on a comparable basis.” Last 2024 quarter was -8% and Q1 2025 recorded a down 8% as reported and down 9% on a comparable basis.
It’s a slow but steady drop despite the investment on fashion show collections and store renovations and the boost of the Michelle Pfeiffer campaign. So what is the problem? And what are the solutions? In one word: Branding Consistency.