The emotional connection between luxury brands and consumers has never been more critical than in today’s complex global marketplace. Sharon Buntain, who brings experience from iconic houses like Gucci and Montblanc, joins Ana Varava, former editor-in-chief of L’Officiel Ukraine and Austria, to explore how fashion brands are reimagining their activation strategies.
What makes a luxury consumer choose one brand over another? Our guests reveal that it’s no longer just about product quality, but about creating immersive brand universes that engage all the senses. From Gucci Garden in Florence to Louis Vuitton’s partnership with League of Legends, successful brands have moved beyond traditional marketing to foster genuine emotional connections with their audience.
The conversation delves into the delicate balance between human touch and technology. While AI-powered virtual try-ons and magic mirrors enhance the shopping experience, the most forward-thinking brands are simultaneously investing in human connections—hiring hospitality professionals as “welcomers” rather than traditional salespeople.
Against the backdrop of trade wars and tariffs, our experts examine how established luxury houses and emerging designers must navigate challenging economic conditions alike. The discussion reveals fascinating insights into market expansion strategies, with Varava sharing how she launched L’Officiel in new territories by creating educational experiences, such as haute couture shows at embassies and branded restaurant menus.
Perhaps most compelling is the concept of “fashion diplomacy” -how brands like Chanel utilize their cruise collections to build cultural bridges while maintaining brand integrity. As we look toward a future of hybrid experiences and increasing sustainability concerns, one thing remains clear: the brands that foster genuine connections across generations and markets will be the ones that thrive.
Whether you’re a fashion industry professional, a marketing strategist, or simply curious about the future of luxury, this conversation offers valuable insights into how brands create meaningful relationships in an increasingly complex world.
Alex:
Hi, this is Alex Romanovich and welcome to Global Edge Talk. Today we have a podcast about fashion, about luxury and about brand activation, and I’m privileged to have two guests in our studio Sharon Bontane welcome and Anna Varava welcome. And let me tell you a little bit about Sharon and Anna first.
Alex:
I’ve known Sharon for quite some time. We were good friends at the club called the Chief Marketing Officers Club and we stayed in touch, and Sharon is a seasoned fashion retail executive with a lot of expertise in brand activation, brand development, international expansion which is exactly what Global Edge Markets cares for and consumer retail strategies. She spent time with such amazing and iconic brands as Gucci, montblanc, cross and a few others. Sharon will fill in a few other details, and Anna comes to us from the world of fashion industry strategy, but also from the world of publishing and fashion content. She was an editor of a famous publication, worldwide global publication, called FUCL She’ll talk a little bit more about that and she runs a global fashion consulting group and she’s also helping us in global edge markets. Both welcome to our studio. Maybe you want to say a few words about yourselves and your background, please do.
Sharon:
Okay, thank you for that kind introduction. You’re right, I have always, my entire career, been in the luxury sector. I’ve worked for multiple Swiss watch companies, as well as the brands you mentioned. I was the CEO. At the beginning and the end of my career I was in the home sector, but at the luxury end I do have a passion for that. I have always been in a European environment. I’ve always reported to a European, never had an American boss or American company, so I’m very comfortable in this environment Great.
Alex:
Thank you, sharon and Anna. A few words about yourself.
Ana:
Yeah, thank you, alex. A few words about myself. I’ve been working in fashion and media business for more than 18 years already. I started in Ukraine. For 14 years I was editor-in-chief and the lead of Oficiel in Ukraine and actually I did activate the brand enormously in Ukrainian market. Then I launched Oficiel in Austria with the same brand but in different market with mental peculiarities, national and so on. As for the media brand, I also worked in Uzbekistan with launching. It’s still a media brand, but in different markets and with different ways how we can activate and develop the brand there. I worked with a huge number of fashion and luxury companies around the world, mostly in Europe, but also in the US, because we had the headquarters in Europe, but also in the US, because we have the headquarters in Europe but the companies operated, for instance, in the US. Now I’m happy to join the podcast and actually work in this field of brand activation of luxury and fashion on both European and American markets, with global edge markets.
Alex:
Wonderful. Thank you, let’s jump right into it. There’s so much to discuss. First of all, let’s begin with brand activation. Please tell our audience your understanding, maybe a different perspective, on what brand activation is really all about. What does it mean, how it’s implemented, what do brands do and why it’s important? Who wants to go first? Sharon, maybe you can respond first.
Sharon:
It’s interesting because the personal engagement, the necessity of that and the importance of that has definitely increased. Brands are looking to have an emotional connection with their clients rather than just a billboard or other marketing spends that were popular in the past. So I think that the biggest need is that personal connection, to have something that gets loyalty rather than just a single purchase. Those are the things that brands are going to spend their marketing money on now.
Alex:
Those are the things that brands are going to spend their marketing money on now and Anna, from a standpoint of not just fashion brands but also how they promote themselves, your experience at major public fashion publications. What have you seen in brand activation and how do you define it?
Ana:
Yeah, first of all, I would like to add that brand activation, dealing with creating and expanding the brand universe. So it’s the whole number of elements that is around the brand and, for instance, there is a great example of Gucci Garden. When they created in Florence right, it was not just a store, but it was the whole immersive experience where people get into the brand, they can understand what is all that about, they can be engaged with all senses of that and it’s super emotional. Yes, as Sharon mentioned, it’s not about the purchases, but it’s about creating that emotional experience and engagement with the audience.
Alex:
Now we have a lot of different forces acting upon us in terms of brands, in terms of companies. First we had COVID, then we have the European war I should say we can certainly count the Israeli war as part European, if you will and then we have tariffs, and then we have major trade disagreements versus trade agreements, and brands are obviously very concerned. So in this post-pandemic market let’s call it that how should the brands even respond? What have we seen of how brands are responding to all of this? Are they even responding?
Sharon:
Tell us about some of your experiences. As Anna just mentioned, this business of engaging the client on a personal level is very important. There’s a couple quick examples where they are welcoming their clients. For instance, louis Vuitton has a cafe in their store now, and for Dorf Goodman I negotiated a cafe for Janori, which is a Richemont brand, there. So there they are in an immersive situation, just like the Gucci Gardens she mentioned, and they connect with the brand on a completely different level. We know that the consumers have always. Now influencers are a little more important than they used to be. It’s not just going up and down the aisles looking at clothes yourself. Influencers have definitely had an effect on that. Covid and all this tariff nonsense. I think the emotional connection that happens with experiences is very important and I think the brands will focus more and more on that.
Ana:
Yeah, and they want to strengthen this connection more and more. Like, given some examples, for instance, nike Town, when they created the whole universe of Nike, where everyone I mean everyone does sports, or mostly everyone they felt what is Nike, what is Nike universe? They can do some sports over there, they can understand, if they like the brand or not. So, the brands I think they put more attention to, not to engage new clients, but to be and to strengthen connection with existing ones Of course, the new ones and to understand.
Ana:
It’s also very important to understand what’s your audience, what’s your target audience. For instance, like with Balenciaga, they understood that millennials is the people whom they have to point their attention at. That’s why they created this immersive AI experience with Metaverse, with Fortnite, and, yeah, that’s why they engaged young audience. When they are playing games online, they could purchase the products from Balenciaga in the real world, and that’s why they brought all their attention and built up those emotional connections and also their involvement into the brand and, yeah, that’s why they became so successful in so short time. So that’s what I could say was the right example of that.
Sharon:
If I may just add to that, just like what I was saying, urpary and Snapchat had a whole AR thing they did, which they got very good response for, and Louis Vuitton partnered with the League of Legends, which is another one of those kind of platforms that you would never expect Louis Vuitton to do Exactly.
Alex:
I love being surrounded by Europeans and people with European background, with all this amazing accents and pronunciations, and that’s what makes it truly global and truly open for trade.
Alex:
Trade should be open, it should be free, flowing, right, and what trade means Exactly, and that it should be we have to treat it on the merits of creativity, of innovations, of technology, of aesthetics and so forth and so on. Speaking of technology, obviously we are in the midst of the major artificial intelligence revolution that we’ve ever seen in our lifetimes, and the question then becomes human versus tech. Right, let’s talk about that, because the human touch we agreed that human touch is extremely important. The personalized experiences is extremely important. The personalized experiences are extremely important, and there’s activation that takes place on the tech side, especially for folks like Gen Zs and millennials, and an activation that takes place on the other side. If you will, it’s a multi-generational type of scenario and we see a lot of activations that are a lot more physical, a lot more human Activations, through chef experiences and real estate developer experiences and some other experiences. How do you balance? How does a brand balance between the two? I’d love to hear your opinions on that.
Sharon:
I think everyone’s still working on that. I’m not sure everyone has it balanced yet, but the KPIs are very different, obviously, and I think more and more the retail factor is beginning to understand the immersive benefit. There are many brands now where you don’t have to go into a special room to try on a dress. You just stand there and that dress shows up on you in the mirror, which is an AI experience which is very immersive and quick and practical. I think that is one thing that is good. There are these AI pops that happen. Ikea has done not a luxury brand, but a big brand has done some very interesting things An actual pop-up made a New York subway so people could actually sit on the furniture. But then also the AI version where you can online. Go online and you look at the dress or the whatever furniture you’re buying tabletop accessories and you can see it in your own room. That’s amazing. Yeah, alone, you see, does it fit, does it work? That’s an amazing feature that they now have.
Ana:
There’s a whole list, but yeah what I also noticed that furniture is a great idea because you can place any furniture in your room and see how it looks like, so you don’t need to order and then be mistaken in a way that you ordered the wrong thing. But these days I tried the same sunglasses and you can try it online. The number of returns is huge in Europe. For Eurovac. I can tell for sure that millions of billions of euro expenses and online platforms don’t know what to do with that. So in order to cut these expenses and make returns, they need to work with digital tools that are very refillable. From one point, they can really reduce the returns and from other point, it’s a gaming experience. They can engage younger audience. They can engage younger audience.
Ana:
We have so much information nowadays Great and relaxing to try something on, not even buying, but just to feel the new sunglasses, the new dress. I would like to try it on. We are adults growing up. We don’t play games, but to play with clothes, it’s always fun. I think it could be also a nice experience and actually from professionally yes, from business side and from personal side it can work and more and more brands they try to use these technologies or they try to substitute with digital models their physical models. Actually, I saw a boss, if I’m not mistaken, this campaign with David Beckham. I’m not sure it was done physically or with the help of AI, because a lot of they used it already in the gaming industry, when they digitalized celebrities or actors and used them in the campaigns, and now it’s more and more with digital models. So we live in this world already, yeah, with AI working in all ways possible.
Sharon:
And, if I may, alex.
Alex:
You may, you may.
Sharon:
The flip of that, because Anne is completely right, that’s where we’re going Retail store are trying to hire different kinds of people to welcome Instead of just when you’re walking. How can I help you? They’re actually hiring people from the hospitality industry now to be the welcomers, not the salespeople, the welcomers which the salespeople, the welcomers which is a whole new concept.
Alex:
It’s like a hostess or a host in a restaurant.
Sharon:
Exactly Again, to engage and then maybe explain how to use this AI function where you can try something on.
Alex:
Yeah, it’s possible with in-store activations, with tech where you can have a magic mirror to try different things, for example, and if those things are available in the store, great. If they’re not, we can order right away. Or look at the inventory, or maybe another store can send it tomorrow Please stop by or whatever. But there’s so many different things in tech that is almost eavesdropping on you when you’re in the retail environment.
Sharon:
To keep every size in stock.
Alex:
Right, that’s right. But there are other environments where you have literally cameras following you and looking at your emotions, right, looking at how you are. Actually, if you’re holding a garment, because a lot of people like to touch, they like to feel the fabric and so forth, they are literally capturing their emotions as they’re doing this. So there’s so many different dimensions of that. Now, sharon, specifically for you, I’m sorry, anna, you want to say something.
Ana:
Yeah, before it was on Netflix. Yeah, it was the emotions. They use it and they caught the emotions of people who was watching this or that program or movie and now they use it everywhere. But it’s very smart, I think yeah, because it’s all about emotions.
Alex:
Well, again, we can forget about privacy from that standpoint, but again, the argument that the fashion brands will make is that if you want it to be personalized, then we have to have information, we have to have the experiences, we have to have your reactions, and so forth and so on.
Alex:
Now I’m going to switch topics a little bit. We’re in the midst of a major trade war tariffs and it impacts tremendously the fashion, accessories, textile segments and, sharon, you have a lot of interesting background in terms of not just aesthetics and not just brand activation, but also sourcing, pricing strategies, with Christoffel and a few other brands. What is brand going to do, for example, what is going to be their reaction to all of this? Are we going to basically assume that, okay, if that Louis Vuitton bag was $2,000, now it’s going to be $3,000, right, so it’s going to pass directly to consumer? Or is there something else that brands can do, especially some of the new brands trying to break into the market and compete, some of the startups or some of the boutique stores or artisan type of manufacturers or something like that? What is a brand to do in this very stressful environment?
Sharon:
It is very stressful. Many of them at the moment are just on hold waiting to see what’s going to happen. The watch industry, the Swiss watch industry, has put things specifically on pause and have announced that I think inventory levels will be reduced here on this side of the Atlantic for sure, until such time we can figure this out. I know that it is a conversation also about pre-owned luxury goods. They came before all this and they have a kind of a double benefit, because you could be considered eco-friendly when you do that. You purchase pre-owned goods and then you’re not affected by the tariffs, unless, of course, everything goes up just because they can. So those are two conversations I’ve heard for sure. The third thing is luxury brands who have dealt with countries like Brazil. No-transcript, I was part of a brand that did that. So I think at the moment it’s stalled. They’re exploring these other channels. I don’t think anybody exactly has a solution right now.
Alex:
Anna, do you want to elaborate on that? Maybe you have some thoughts on that as well.
Ana:
Yeah, I’m actually wondering how they want to solve it, because it’s mostly not about the goods itself, but it’s about manufacture, yeah, about fabrics, about parts of the process here. So the silk was from china or from other fabrics from turkey and so on and I’m just wondering yeah, I understand that it’s it’s stressing the local economy, but from the side, where do they take the fabrics to produce all those goods for Americans? Yeah, if it’s made in America? I actually was from the COVID times several times in US and from time to time I saw that the prices for European goods were higher and higher and a lot of goods just disappeared and that was really disappointing because from one side, I could compare the prices in Europe and in the US to understand why people buy there or here, but a lot of people are missing very great products from Europe and it’s a lot of people missing very great products from euro and it’s also a big limit for purchases for consumers in a variety.
Ana:
So, yeah, I think something will be done, because that’s we saw also protest and I’m very positive that the trade will go on and the more we become global, the more we want to be local. Yeah, and it’s a little bit controversial. Yeah, for one point we have to stress two strengths in the local market, but from the other one we have to develop the global interactions. So I think that people and the who decide all that they need find a solution and a balance in protecting the local goods but from that point to enhance the cooperation with other countries.
Alex:
I’m pretty sure that a lot of senators and congresspeople and the folks in the White House are dressed with some of the European brands. Right, they’re not all American brands, we know that, so you can’t just. Fashion is all about being global to begin with. Right, it’s all about comparisons, it’s all about showing off something new, it’s all about moving forward, it’s all about having the best, and so forth and so on. That’s what fashion really is all about on the aesthetic side.
Alex:
But so what has to happen for some of the well-known brands in terms of deepening their experiences or deepening their brand activation with the consumer? Do you think that the emotion alone or incentives alone are going to offset the costs, or do you think there has to be something else? There should be an integration of digital and AI with real experiences, or something like this. I know a lot of folks are implementing platforms with avatars and digital and AI-based lookbooks and so forth and so on. If you’re a brand new brand, you almost have nothing to lose. You can experiment, you can be bold, and so forth. When you’re an established brand, yeah, you can do the same, but there’s a lot more at risk. Are you agreeing? Not agreeing?
Ana:
Yeah, I would say because there was a tendency. Maybe you can argue with that, but I really noticed that a lot of old brands that we forgot already they were bought and they were brought to life, so they existed in the beginning of the last century and so on. The brand is really a huge asset that can be developed in the right way and, for instance, with Italian brands, a lot of them go into real estate now, so they make branded residences or branded hotels or branded real estate experience. Look at Bulgari, for instance. Actually, it’s a great experience.
Ana:
I’m not a customer of Bulgari, but I love the hotel in Milan and when you are there, you experience the whole sense of emotions and senses over there, starting from fragrance to all the products. It doesn’t deal with the watch’s jewelry itself, but it’s the whole experience. Same with Armani. Maybe not everyone is a customer of Armani, but when you are, for sure you will be in a cafe, therefore going to the cafe or to the club or staying at the hotel, or they have some events over there. So for sure, everyone knows that and that’s why the brand strengthens its position. It becomes closer to the audience and it has more friends worldwide going into this direction.
Sharon:
Yeah, I agree with you on it completely. Those experiences Batgra, porsche, aston Martin, they all do this with residential buildings and it is a long-term loyalty that they’re after, as opposed to a moment maker. And that, I think, is the argument that has to happen, or the thought process that we’re going through now is not just a seduction for the moment, but to create a true partnership mentality, just like when people partner with sports. I have a lot of experience with that one. We can talk about that later, but that’s the same thing. It’s an emotional connection, it’s not just a moment maker.
Ana:
Yeah, and I think customers also. Nowadays they need more trust and the world is shaking in so many directions. People need to have something stable and if they know the brand, they have a chance to buy, or they want to choose to buy just a residence or to buy an apartment in Armani residence. And this Armani residence has more trust in the mind, in the emotions of the consumer here, because they heard about it for many years. They have their own trust If they are not a customer themselves, but still, yeah, they will go there and people want to have something more stable and the brands who exist for many years and expand in the right direction, they give these feelings to the customers.
Alex:
I personally would love to be in the Porsche or Ferrari residence. There’s a Porsche building in Miami but I have to check my finances, especially after tariffs and consumer pricing going up. We’ll have to take a look at that.
Sharon:
The brands can do in those buildings, in addition to just the emotional connection we’re talking about, is they can give those residents special privileges. It could be that those residents of limited editions they get first chance, for instance, or when there’s a launch, maybe they have a little shop, it can be made into an experience on top of just the branding.
Alex:
Absolutely. Now let’s peel the onion a little bit on that one. Obviously, all of these activations require, or you better have some really good, strong partnerships right, especially when you’re describing real estate and luxury brands or chef experiences, or what have you and a few others right? Maybe it’s a logistics partner, maybe it’s a distribution partner, maybe it’s an agency partner, what have you? How do these partnerships work? Maybe you could tell us a little bit more about some of the examples of licensing, of some of the details as to how one would approach some of these things, even if you’re not a famous brand or you’re trying to get some brand awareness and get yourself into a market or expand within the market. What are some of the details and tactics behind all of this within the market? What are some of the details and tactics behind all of this?
Ana:
I can say just from the fashion media side yeah, because when you launched a fashion media brand in any country, you need to have a local partner. It’s the same situation with fashion brand when you open a boutique, you need to have a trusted partner locally who understand the market and who know how to develop the business, and so on. So we had it like in Ukraine, in Austria, in locally, who understand the market and who know how to develop the business, and so on. So we had it like in Ukraine, in Austria, in Uzbekistan, the brand or the headquarters they want to have this trusted partner who understand the market, who know what to do yes, of course, has the investment and who has this audience. For instance, when I led Oficiel in Ukraine, we had all this. It was my idea, but still I think even now it works and it’s what brands do.
Ana:
But before I understood that the brand is not known at all in the market and you need to educate people first. So I was doing collaborations with high-end restaurants here to create an officiel menu, to be in touch with the audience. I made educational seminars, fashion educational seminars, with Instituto Marangoni. It’s a well-known school of fashion and fashion business in Europe. So just to show the level of partnership we have and, of course, to bring the audience the understanding of what is this brand about. And after 10 years everyone knew about that. It was zero awareness at the beginning, but then everyone knows about that, even if they couldn’t pronounce it in a French way and it was a lot of different funny ways how people pronounced it but still they understood what is the brand, what it built, which partners do they have and how they can collaborate. And everyone wanted to work with us, everyone wanted to be on the pages and so on.
Ana:
The same story was in Austria as well. We didn’t have anyone, but just okay, the local people who wanted to launch the brand, this media business and I had to make. Actually it was the first haute couture fashion show that we held with Officiel in French embassy in Austria. It never existed before. Yes, we know about opera, balls and so on, but never they had any fashion show with international haute couture fashion designer and by this means a lot of people got to know what is officiel, that is haute couture, that is high fashion and so on, and what is really haute couture. So it’s a kind of educational component if you go to the market where the audience is not really knowledgeable or they’re not educated in this way. So it’s the task of a local partner to educate or to have these people around themselves, or to have the power to bring all this knowledge to the local market and, of course, to be supported by the strengths of the brand and the name of international name of the brand.
Alex:
Sharon, your perspective on this.
Sharon:
Yes, I think it’s all about different KPIs. I agree with Anna that the brands don’t always know the market they’re shipping to or selling in. I was responsible for the Americas but dealing with European brands. So there has to be some localization, or whatever you want to call it, that makes it resonate with the markets. It’s not about defining how many users, but which ones. You have to make sure you have the right community that you’re trying to connect with. To what you described doing with the restaurant menus, that’s very cool because that hit the right community. Same thing with these residential buildings that partner with high-end brands. They’re not going to be just anywhere. They have to define the right space and location and then the right partner and do it that way. So, like I say, it’s not how many, but which ones. Completely different KPI.
Ana:
But also to have a trust. It’s very important when the headquarters, they have trust in you, because I had projects with a lot of international brands and, for instance, chanel, they checked everything. If we had any project with the local people let’s say celebrities or some well-known one they wanted to check and they wanted to know who they are. We don’t know, but still after several years they were so happy because they trusted Okay, that was a risk from them, one, two, three, but then they trusted and we had great projects and after that they see, okay, the market with whom you’re working and we trust you, because they can’t know the local market.
Ana:
They can’t know, let’s say, celebrities or key people from the market and we didn’t have that much media before social media. So you need to have local people to understand that. Or, for instance, like if you go to Middle East now they are not really everyone in social media. Middle East now they are not really everyone in social media. So they need to have local partners who understand who are these key people to work with, who really are those trusted partners, and to build these connections and then you can launch the brand successfully over there.
Sharon:
It’s just global marketing, yeah.
Ana:
Yeah.
Sharon:
Alex, like you had mentioned, about how brands can license their identity effectively without diminishing the brand somehow. To what Anna was just talking, I have a perfect example. There’s a Swiss brand who wanted to partner with motorsports in the United States. They just looked at how many followers or how many attendees to the races and this kind of so when I joined them, they were partnering with NASCAR and I was a little shocked A fine Swiss brand. I’ve never been to a NASCAR race, so I said I’ll just wait, let me go.
Sharon:
Went to a couple and noticed that nobody wears fine Swiss watches In the audience, not even in the suites. So anyway, we renegotiated. They understood, but the perfect example of what Ana was talking about is we don’t always understand the culture in their countries, and so we instead moved $20 million over to the NBA basketball. $20 million over to the NBA basketball. And that one is we still are there in Memphis Square Garden and everywhere, and they’re still doing that. And there are a number of people who watch American basketball in China is more than the population in the United States. So not only did they get the US market, but it’s a perfect example. We can license the identity, but we have to make sure we have the right audience and someone with boots on the ground is more likely to know that.
Ana:
Go ahead, go ahead, please. Actually, to add here, because I loved what Carla Giff did with Chanel and was personally presented for several of these very intimate shows like Chanel in Cuba, and they really did with these cruise collections the great move, because that’s how they integrated into local markets. So they made the collections dedicated to certain markets to India, to Singapore yeah, it was like inspired by Cuba when Cuba was open to India, to Singapore. Yeah, it was like inspired by Cuba when Cuba was open to public and so on. And this is also the way of cultural diplomacy or fashion diplomacy, how brands build it. But it’s also the great tie with the local market, understanding their peculiarities and adjusting to their needs.
Sharon:
Cultural diplomacy. I love it.
Alex:
By the way, I think it’s a wonderful concept fashion diplomacy. I love that, Anna. I’m sure that our first lady would be a great ambassador for fashion diplomacy, and now is the right time for her to get involved, to collect all his global brands and bring them to the table and bring them into the White House and talk about free trade, talk about this fashion diplomacy, talking about brand activation and so forth and so on. I think she would be a perfect fit for that. Final reflections by the way, I love the conversation.
Alex:
I think we should continue with this and I even came up with a little brand for our talks going forward. I call them the fashion gems, which is a good take on our brand and your personal brands and our conversation. I think it’s extremely valuable and I think I’ve learned a lot today and I’ve worked with a couple of fashion brands in the past, but you never cease to learn. Okay, final question, and we will wrap this up what’s to expect Three to five years? If you had a crystal ball, what do you think is going to happen in the fashion industry? Accessories, luxury goods, automobiles and so forth and so on?
Sharon:
I don’t think they’re going away. I think we’re going to experience something slow down until everybody gets over this a little bit. But the whole idea with lingerie brands is it’s not fast fashion. You buy quality because it lasts and it has a heritage and longevity longevity, and that’s not going to go away. So I think that’s one thing.
Sharon:
Secondly, I think with the addition of ai and all the digital things that are going on, I think retail will improve. I think, just as you can take an ai application and have it redesign your interior, you can do that in a store as well, especially with the digital KPIs that you’ve received about where people spend their time and so forth, and they can remodel their stores to be more appropriate. And then, finally, I think one thing I think is really missing that they should do is think about airports. I think there is a huge potential or an opportunity to do some of what we’ve talked about with cafes or whatever in airport lounges. Those people have some money, they have already had a little more global mentality than maybe some others don’t travel, and I think both the airlines and the airports could be a good opportunity for brands to expand their branding, if you will.
Ana:
Actually started already with Jack Mu, who created Ramos for first class. I guess it’s the great idea I don’t know like why they didn’t Actually Ukraine in a way. Don’t be skeptical, but Ukraine has very great ideas and we had, years ago, our designers made a uniform for airlines and it was already designer’s uniform. Okay, it’s worth locally, but the idea is the same, so you can promote your brand. Everyone flies nowadays here and uses different airlines. It is more and more airlines and it’s a stable. Yeah, promote the brands over there.
Ana:
I think that it will be more and more of hybrid experience, physical and digital ones. Nowadays. Here, brands can appeal for both audiences for younger, gen Z, young generation and our generations or adults, more traditional ones and they will point more and more attention to consumers to make their ties and make their connections stronger from day to day, and I hope we will have more personal experiences. Yeah, it will cost more, but still it’s a long-term strategy when you build a relation and when you develop the relation between consumers and the brand longer and what they purchase, like Hermes bag, it’s the best investment. Nowadays, plus 14%, no gold, no cryptocurrency, these traditional brands, they will stay and develop. I hope and I think so and I hope we will have less and less return, more sustainable approach to fashion and it will be less production because we have Less inventory.
Ana:
They don’t need as much Exactly Overproduction production because we have less inventory. They don’t need as much exactly overproduction and a lot of we have in stocks that is just burned or I don’t know like what they do with that, but it we don’t need so much so we’re not going to have textile factories in the united states pumping out, pumping out products for walmart and target and a few other department stores and so forth.
Alex:
Yeah, look, it’s been a great conversation. I appreciate both of your experiences and you, sharon and Anna and I would love to continue this conversation as part of Fashion Gems. We can do this on a regular basis and see, maybe next time we talk things will come down a little bit in terms of trade wars and tariffs and so forth. The world needs no barriers. I should say the world needs open trade, the world needs zero trade and there’s just so much to gain. Europeans can explore Californian wines and Americans can explore French fashion and so forth and so on, and both can travel for personal experiences. Right, you look at some of the airline ticket pricing and some of the concerns that some of the airlines are having right now for international travel, and that’s also very concerning. But I want to thank you again, wishingishing you a wonderful week and let’s stay tuned up to what’s happening in the world of fashion and luxury. Thank you so much.
Sharon:
Thank you for your welcome, alex, thanks, thank you.
