The Monocle Minute

After a week of attending runway shows in Florence and Milan, visiting an array of stands across the Pitti Immagine Uomo fair and having conversations with the designers and sales executives who were in town to sell their new collections, it became clear that the fashion industry is in flux and dynamics are quickly changing.

There was a visible reduction in attendees at the world’s premier menswear trade show, particularly US-based buyers and editors. At Milan’s runway shows, the front rows were less densely populated, suggesting that brands are tightening – or at least rethinking – their marketing budgets. It would be easy to look at the subdued mood and draw a bleak picture about what’s next for the luxury-fashion landscape. Brands, especially those that are independent, should brace for a challenging first half of 2024 as consumption slows down and retailers invest more cautiously.

“Not losing is winning at this stage,” an up-and-coming designer tells Monocle in Florence. But there’s also an opportunity here to restructure, reassess and build healthier business models. Many Italian brands have already taken on the challenge and found that the answer lies in going back to basics, honouring their heritage and aligning themselves with the far-reaching appeal of brand Italy. It’s why Gucci has painted Milan’s trams in its new signature shade of burgundy, taken over the city’s famous Bar Basso, played the famous 1978 Italian song “Ancora, ancora, ancora” at its shows and put Italian classicism and tailoring at the centre of its design direction.

In a market overflowing with new products, you have to look beyond fashion to connect with customers on an emotional level. But for change to take place, industry stakeholders need to get on board and support brands’ new directions, marketers should think beyond generating clicks from digital campaigns, media should stop asking what the latest trends are and retailers should buy smarter. It’s a slower approach but those willing to play the long game will come out as winners.

Natalie Theodosi is Monocle’s fashion editor. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

A group of 420 urbanists, architects, economists and environmentalists issued an open letter this week urging Tokyo’s governor, Yuriko Koike, to suspend a $2.5bn (€2.3bn) project to convert the city’s Jingu Gaien park district into a commercial area.

The redevelopment, whose opponents include prominent figures such as novelist Haruki Murakami, would involve the felling of hundreds of trees and the demolition of a historic baseball stadium to make way for three new skyscrapers. Petitions to scrap the plan have attracted some 325,000 people, while almost 70 per cent of respondents to a poll by the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper were against the initiative. In its Tokyo Green Biz report, published in October 2023, the metropolitan government claimed to be “taking every available opportunity to create and preserve greenery” in the city, working in partnership with residents. With Jingu Gaien, however, Koike – dubbed by critics “the Empress of Tree-Cutting” – seems to be doing the opposite.

Entry to the world’s most-visited museum is becoming less accessible as the Louvre announced this week that its ticket prices would increase by almost 30 per cent. Entry into Paris’s coveted glass pyramid will now cost €22. It is the first price hike in seven years, with the institution citing rising energy tariffs as the reason for the jump.

The Château de Versailles and Arc de Triomphe have also raised their ticket prices ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to €21 and €16 respectively. Other Parisian museums, however, including the Musée d’Orsay, have absorbed the costs of rising energy prices. But keeping culture as democratic as possible is becoming increasingly difficult, especially when the city is committed to hosting an event as costly as the Olympics this year.

Nancy Durrant and Matt Wolf join Robert Bound in the studio to preview the very best theatre to look forward to in 2024. They discuss a lively ska musical, a new play about the architect of the NHS, a Broadway debut from one of America’s biggest comedic actors and much more.