What do you think?
Rate this book
How Luxury Conquered the World: The inside story of its pioneers
How did the business of luxury become a global powerhouse? Author and journalist Astrid Wendlandt conducted a four-year investigation into the secretive world of fashion and luxury involving hundreds of interviews with top executives and designers.
How Luxury Conquered the World explains how this industry has become one of the pillars of the global economy, putting it on a par with Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple combined in terms of job creation and economic might. Karl Lagerfeld, the last great couturier, shares his thoughts in an exclusive interview. Three pioneers reveal what it takes to turn a small maison into an international brand: Alain-Dominique Perrin, Jean-Louis Dumas and Yves Carcelle, who respectively built Cartier, Herme`s and Louis Vuitton. These hugely successful business empires would not exist if consumers did not crave social recognition and status symbols. Then three contemporary leaders confide their ambitions and their doubts: Jose´ Neves, founder and CEO of fashion and luxury online giant Farfetch; Ralph Toledano, chairman of the French Federation of Haute Couture and Fashion and of British brand Victoria Beckham; and Jacques von Polier, author of the renaissance of Raketa, Russia's oldest watchmaker.
Through the prism of their own experiences, each one of these "Magnificent Six" tells a bigger story about the mysterious, magical and ruthless world of luxury.
How Luxury Conquered the World explains how this industry has become one of the pillars of the global economy, putting it on a par with Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple combined in terms of job creation and economic might. Karl Lagerfeld, the last great couturier, shares his thoughts in an exclusive interview. Three pioneers reveal what it takes to turn a small maison into an international brand: Alain-Dominique Perrin, Jean-Louis Dumas and Yves Carcelle, who respectively built Cartier, Herme`s and Louis Vuitton. These hugely successful business empires would not exist if consumers did not crave social recognition and status symbols. Then three contemporary leaders confide their ambitions and their doubts: Jose´ Neves, founder and CEO of fashion and luxury online giant Farfetch; Ralph Toledano, chairman of the French Federation of Haute Couture and Fashion and of British brand Victoria Beckham; and Jacques von Polier, author of the renaissance of Raketa, Russia's oldest watchmaker.
Through the prism of their own experiences, each one of these "Magnificent Six" tells a bigger story about the mysterious, magical and ruthless world of luxury.
298 pages, Paperback
Published November 3, 2019
3 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 26, 2020
This book help us to understand the luxury industry: how it evolved along the years, who are the big players and the next trends. It takes us through the biggest brands empires, the culture that they created and the strategies they took to succeed.
It called my attention by two main reasons: the diversity of leadership styles and luxury world adaptability.
The first one is revealed on the strategies used to motivate teams, where leaders use groundbreaking approaches to keep their employees aligned with the company vision. The second one really caught my attention. I understood this industry needs to cope with the different generation's expectations while keeping the luxury level. For instance, nowadays this business needs to keep the balance between a luxury product and a generation who values environment and experiences (instead of goods).
Favourite quotes:
* “A nice story product in not enough! You need to have a good story behind it."
* "The better your staff understands the general direction of where the boat is going, the fewer instructions and orders you need to give them"
* "We are now more into “being” and living experiences than into “owning” stuff."
Last but not least, I would like to Thank Farfetch for the opportunity to meet this piece and to learn more about our industry.
It called my attention by two main reasons: the diversity of leadership styles and luxury world adaptability.
The first one is revealed on the strategies used to motivate teams, where leaders use groundbreaking approaches to keep their employees aligned with the company vision. The second one really caught my attention. I understood this industry needs to cope with the different generation's expectations while keeping the luxury level. For instance, nowadays this business needs to keep the balance between a luxury product and a generation who values environment and experiences (instead of goods).
Favourite quotes:
* “A nice story product in not enough! You need to have a good story behind it."
* "The better your staff understands the general direction of where the boat is going, the fewer instructions and orders you need to give them"
* "We are now more into “being” and living experiences than into “owning” stuff."
Last but not least, I would like to Thank Farfetch for the opportunity to meet this piece and to learn more about our industry.
Displaying 1 of 1 review