The Pattern
By Mike Litman
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Image by Mike Litman
Category: Daily News
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Episodes: 196
Description
Before it's obvious. Daily culture intelligence from 150+ sources. Fashion, design, technology, brands, music, art, and lifestyle. The patterns others miss, every morning at 8:30am UK time.
| Episode | Date |
|---|---|
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No. 196: Craft is the new code. Making things by hand is a strategic position.
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Sep 08, 2026 |
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No. 195: Nostalgia is now a product category, not a marketing tactic.
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Sep 07, 2026 |
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No. 194: Redemption arcs are the new brand strategy. Culture is rewarding return.
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Sep 06, 2026 |
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No. 193: Power is transferring to engineers. Culture will follow the hardware.
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Sep 05, 2026 |
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No. 192: Minimalism just became sneaker culture's most expensive flex.
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Sep 04, 2026 |
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No. 191: Identity is the new creative brief. Artists are rewriting their own names.
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Sep 03, 2026 |
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No. 190: Craft is how brands signal values now. Scarcity just confirms it.
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Sep 02, 2026 |
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No. 189: Cancelled culture just became the Met's new dress code.
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Sep 01, 2026 |
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No. 188: Community is the product now. Festivals proved it before brands did.
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Aug 31, 2026 |
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No. 187: AI is making culture faster. Authenticity is now the scarce resource.
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Aug 30, 2026 |
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No. 186: Resale data is now the best product research tool luxury has.
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Aug 29, 2026 |
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No. 185: Creators are becoming storefronts. The retail category just changed forever.
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Aug 28, 2026 |
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No. 184: AI has a branding problem. So does every category it touches.
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Aug 27, 2026 |
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No. 183: Pop culture is Gucci's new creative director. Demna just made it official.
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Aug 26, 2026 |
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No. 182: Netflix becomes a platform. The streaming era just ended.
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Aug 25, 2026 |
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No. 181: Gaming grows up. Furniture is how it claims the living room.
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Aug 24, 2026 |
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No. 180: Place is the new prestige. Seoul just became the proof.
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Aug 23, 2026 |
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No. 179: Authenticity now costs five dollars. Fugazi just set the price.
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Aug 22, 2026 |
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No. 178: Sport is the new retail calendar. Ralph Lauren just proved it.
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Aug 21, 2026 |
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No. 177: Collectible culture is repricing downwards. IKEA just moved the goalposts.
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Aug 20, 2026 |
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No. 176: Physical space is back as the prestige signal. Google just proved it.
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Aug 19, 2026 |
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No. 175: Street culture found its object fetish again. Supreme proved it.
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Aug 18, 2026 |
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No. 174: AI personas are getting hired. The talent industry just changed shape.
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Aug 17, 2026 |
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No. 173: Objects are becoming the new media channel. Brands noticed.
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Aug 16, 2026 |
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No. 172: Identity is the new product category. Brands are catching up.
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Aug 15, 2026 |
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No. 171: Music is becoming the architecture of resale. Fashion is following.
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Aug 14, 2026 |
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No. 170: Objects are becoming the new brand prestige signal.
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Aug 13, 2026 |
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No. 169: Body is the new building. Retail space is becoming skin.
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Aug 12, 2026 |
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No. 168: Anthropic is going public. The backlash is already priced in.
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Aug 11, 2026 |
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No. 167: Place is the new product. AI companies are buying postcodes, not pitching decks.
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Aug 10, 2026 |
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No. 166: AI is building a religion. Brands haven't noticed yet.
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Aug 09, 2026 |
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No. 165: Aspiration is back. Ralph Lauren just proved optimism sells.
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Aug 08, 2026 |
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No. 164: AI ate Canva's growth. Designers went somewhere else entirely.
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Aug 07, 2026 |
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No. 163: Venture capital just hired a following instead of a fund manager.
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Aug 06, 2026 |
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No. 162: Fans now remix the record. The artist just gets a royalty.
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Aug 05, 2026 |
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No. 161: Brands are buying credibility from institutions they used to ignore.
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Aug 04, 2026 |
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No. 160: Retail rebuilt itself around data. The store is the last argument.
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Aug 03, 2026 |
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No. 159: Pop stars stopped making albums. They started building eras instead.
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Aug 02, 2026 |
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No. 158: Resale is building the store network that retail abandoned.
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Aug 01, 2026 |
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No. 157: Luxury is meeting customers halfway. That admission is the strategy shift.
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Jul 31, 2026 |
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No. 156: Legacy assets are being repackaged as experiences. Pophouse just showed how.
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Jul 30, 2026 |
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No. 155: Prestige institutions are now culture's fastest credential launchers.
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Jul 29, 2026 |
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No. 154: Ordinary moments are the new brand strategy. Banking just proved it.
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Jul 28, 2026 |
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No. 153: Cheap wins the AI budget war. Premium loses the narrative.
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Jul 27, 2026 |
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No. 152: Open source AI just became the culture war nobody saw coming.
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Jul 26, 2026 |
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No. 151: Tech is shedding bodies while culture keeps spending on them.
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Jul 25, 2026 |
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No. 150: Place is doing the brand work that campaigns no longer can.
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Jul 24, 2026 |
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No. 149: Decentralised music failed. Centralised platforms just bought its best parts.
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Jul 23, 2026 |
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No. 148: Entertainment's format walls are falling. The platform that owns attention wins everything.
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Jul 22, 2026 |
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No. 147: Craft is becoming the new scarcity. Heritage brands missed the shift.
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Jul 21, 2026 |
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No. 146: Supply chains are the new brand strategy. Luxury just learned that publicly.
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Jul 20, 2026 |
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No. 145: Hollywood bought AI infrastructure. The creative class notices.
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Jul 19, 2026 |
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No. 144: State capital just bought a seat at the AI table. Read that carefully.
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Jul 18, 2026 |
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No. 143: Physical presence is the new proof of concept for digital brands.
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Jul 17, 2026 |
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No. 142: Retail distribution is the new brand signal. Salomon just proved it.
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Jul 16, 2026 |
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No. 141: Ingredient brands are winning AI search. Storytelling just became a liability.
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Jul 15, 2026 |
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No. 140: Heritage sites are becoming brand activation spaces. Culture just changed landlords.
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Jul 14, 2026 |
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No. 139: Culture is rejecting the hardware AI wants to wear on your face.
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Jul 13, 2026 |
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No. 138: Agentic AI is creating jobs. The displacement story just reversed.
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Jul 12, 2026 |
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No. 137: Platforms are becoming archives. The ownership question just got urgent.
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Jul 11, 2026 |
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No. 136: Homespun is the new luxury. Simplicity just became aspirational again.
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Jul 10, 2026 |
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No. 135: Couture just split in two. Piccioli chose the quieter half.
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Jul 09, 2026 |
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No. 134: Publishers are moving to Netflix. The attention war just changed floors.
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Jul 08, 2026 |
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No. 133: Sport is the new fashion week. Brands just noticed.
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Jul 07, 2026 |
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No. 132: Discount grocers found the fashion playbook. Luxury is watching.
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Jul 06, 2026 |
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No. 131: Climate is the new creative brief. Fashion just made it structural.
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Jul 05, 2026 |
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No. 130: Tech platforms are becoming fashion houses. The category war just started.
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Jul 04, 2026 |
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No. 129: Craft is the new territory. Luxury is buying the supply chain.
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Jul 03, 2026 |
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No. 128: Privacy is becoming a premium product, not a policy position.
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Jul 02, 2026 |
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No. 127: Bodies are the new frontier. Brands are building for heat, not aspiration.
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Jul 01, 2026 |
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No. 126: Archival brands are becoming design languages, not product categories.
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Jun 30, 2026 |
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No. 125: Luxury is courting tech money by selling it the sea.
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Jun 29, 2026 |
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No. 124: Furniture tourism just became the new design education.
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Jun 28, 2026 |
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No. 123: Brands are hiring craftspeople to fix what marketing broke.
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Jun 27, 2026 |
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No. 122: Design is now the intellectual property. Tech companies just proved it.
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Jun 26, 2026 |
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No. 121: Print is back. But this time it is selling a lifestyle, not content.
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Jun 25, 2026 |
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No. 120: Hollywood's AI anxiety is a distribution problem, not a creative one.
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Jun 24, 2026 |
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No. 119: The living room is the next platform war battlefield.
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Jun 23, 2026 |
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No. 118: Simplicity is the new luxury flex. Prada just proved it.
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Jun 22, 2026 |
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No. 117: Authenticity has an API now. Students just built it.
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Jun 21, 2026 |
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No. 116: Ritual is the new product. Packaging just became the proof.
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Jun 20, 2026 |
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No. 115: Sport just became New York's most valuable cultural real estate.
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Jun 19, 2026 |
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No. 114: Luxury picks its infrastructure bets. Supply chain is the new brand story.
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Jun 18, 2026 |
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No. 113: Post-smartphone computing is already being worn. The race started quietly.
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Jun 17, 2026 |
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No. 112: Fox buys the remote control. Distribution just became the only content strategy.
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Jun 16, 2026 |
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No. 111: Challengers are eating incumbents by refusing to act like brands.
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Jun 15, 2026 |
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No. 110: Sovereignty is the new brand strategy. AI just proved it.
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Jun 14, 2026 |
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No. 109: Death makes the canon. Hockney's exit reshapes what British art means now.
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Jun 13, 2026 |
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No. 108: Size is a system. Balenciaga just declared it optional.
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Jun 12, 2026 |
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No. 107: Ownership is the new creative brief. Culture's power brokers are buying the source.
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Jun 11, 2026 |
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No. 106: Editing is the new creative superpower. Omission beats addition.
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Jun 10, 2026 |
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No. 105: Tactile culture is winning the attention economy. Screens cannot replicate touch.
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Jun 09, 2026 |
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No. 104: Regional beauty is rewriting who gets to set global taste.
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Jun 08, 2026 |
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No. 103: Scarcity is the new strategy. Culture just proved it with bodies.
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Jun 07, 2026 |
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No. 102: Physical space is the new media buy. Brands figured this out.
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Jun 06, 2026 |
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No. 101: Heritage IP is the new infrastructure. The content wars shifted quietly.
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Jun 05, 2026 |
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No. 100: Brands that own the moment beat brands that own the message.
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Jun 04, 2026 |
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No. 99: Physical togetherness is now a product category. Someone noticed.
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Jun 03, 2026 |
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No. 98: Personality is the last moat. Brands with none are already losing.
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Jun 02, 2026 |
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No. 97: Luxury is moving its runways west. The money already did.
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Jun 01, 2026 |
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No. 96: Bundling won the streaming wars. Now it rewires every subscription business.
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May 31, 2026 |
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No. 95: Ferrari went electric. Jony Ive designed it. The car is almost beside the point.
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May 30, 2026 |
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No. 94: Slow retail is the new luxury. Speed was always the wrong bet.
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May 29, 2026 |
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No. 93: AI search killed the click. Now brands have no map.
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May 28, 2026 |
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No. 92: Creators without credentials are rewriting who gets a seat at the table.
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May 27, 2026 |
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No. 91: Heritage brands are making nostalgia do commercial work again.
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May 26, 2026 |
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No. 90: Tech companies are lobbying the Pope. The authority gap just got theological.
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May 25, 2026 |
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No. 89: Exploitation is the business model. Fashion just stopped hiding it.
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May 24, 2026 |
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No. 88: The hand is back. Craft just became the sharpest competitive signal.
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May 23, 2026 |
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No. 87: Luxury just decided taste is the only currency that matters.
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May 22, 2026 |
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No. 86: Frenzy is back. Scarcity just got a $400 price tag.
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May 21, 2026 |
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No. 85: Style is wrapping itself around your face. Quietly.
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May 20, 2026 |
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No. 84: Ownership is the new strategy. Everyone is shedding what they built.
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May 19, 2026 |
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No. 83: Crowds queued for days. Tear gas flew. The drop is ungovernable now.
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May 18, 2026 |
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No. 82: Demna took Gucci to Times Square and refused to explain himself.
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May 17, 2026 |
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No. 81: Soft power travels on a six-year-old's shoulder bag.
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May 16, 2026 |
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No. 80: Luxury is cosplaying as novelty. The queue knows it.
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May 15, 2026 |
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No. 79: Discovery is the new distribution. TikTok just proved it.
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May 14, 2026 |
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No. 78: Retail is shrinking on purpose. Scarcity is the new store strategy.
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May 13, 2026 |
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No. 77: Subscription bundles are quietly becoming the new loyalty programmes.
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May 12, 2026 |
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No. 76: Identity is the new uniform. Institutions are dressing the part.
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May 11, 2026 |
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No. 75: Analogue keeps winning because digital keeps disappointing.
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May 10, 2026 |
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No. 74: Luxury is relocating. The store is now the argument.
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May 09, 2026 |
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No. 73: Western brands are outsourcing cultural fluency to local photographers and dead designers.
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May 08, 2026 |
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No. 72: The comments section is now the most powerful shelf in retail.
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May 07, 2026 |
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No. 71: Luxury is editing its portfolio. The era of everything is over.
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May 06, 2026 |
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No. 70: Governments are hiring brand architects. Identity is now a state project.
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May 05, 2026 |
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No. 69: Machines make the hands. Humans make the music. The split is permanent.
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May 04, 2026 |
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No. 68: Sports kits are now the most valuable real estate in pop culture.
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May 03, 2026 |
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No. 67: Handmade is the new protest. Beauty is the new argument.
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May 02, 2026 |
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No. 66: Culture is becoming the infrastructure brands fight over, not the decoration.
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May 01, 2026 |
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No. 65: Access to tools is the new brand flex.
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Apr 30, 2026 |
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No. 64: Brands built on hype are quietly erasing their own origins.
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Apr 29, 2026 |
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No. 63: Tech is trading people for chips. Culture will feel it first.
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Apr 28, 2026 |
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No. 62: Fashion brands stopped explaining themselves. Now they build rooms instead.
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Apr 27, 2026 |
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No. 61: Craft is the new CGI. Apple proved it with a MacBook film.
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Apr 26, 2026 |
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No. 60: Atmosphere is now the product. Brands selling objects have already lost.
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Apr 25, 2026 |
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No. 59: AI is becoming your lifestyle concierge. Status follows obedience.
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Apr 24, 2026 |
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No. 58: Luxury keeps hiring creatives. Luxury keeps shrinking.
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Apr 23, 2026 |
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No. 57: Hardware is back. Apple just handed the keys to an engineer.
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Apr 22, 2026 |
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No. 56: Governments are co-opting wellness influencers to shape health policy.
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Apr 21, 2026 |
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No. 55: Brands are hiring their own photographers to control the image supply chain.
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Apr 20, 2026 |
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No. 54: Design week is becoming a year-round brand strategy, not an April event.
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Apr 19, 2026 |
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No. 53: Luxury houses are targeting China whilst their home markets contract.
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Apr 18, 2026 |
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No. 52: Design tools are competing products now, not distribution platforms.
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Apr 17, 2026 |
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No. 51: Hermès is slowing down whilst everyone else chases speed.
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Apr 16, 2026 |
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No. 50: Platforms now make more selling ad infrastructure than selling ads.
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Apr 15, 2026 |
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No. 49: War is now a quarterly earnings variable for luxury houses.
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Apr 14, 2026 |
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No. 48: Luxury is hiring corporate operators, not creative directors.
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Apr 13, 2026 |
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No. 47: The physical installation is becoming the new product launch.
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Apr 12, 2026 |
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No. 46: Luxury brands are now hiring for culture fluency, not category expertise.
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Apr 11, 2026 |
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No. 45: Luxury is hiring hospitality people to solve a retail problem.
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Apr 10, 2026 |
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No. 44: Design becomes a C-suite discipline as AI commodifies creative output.
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Apr 09, 2026 |
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No. 43: China is turning stealth wealth into a product category before the West notices.
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Apr 08, 2026 |
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No. 42: Luxury learned from Shanghai. Now it has to unlearn everything else.
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Apr 07, 2026 |
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No. 41: The first casualty of the Iran war is pricing power
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Apr 06, 2026 |
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No. 40: Corporate acquisitions are now about buying narratives instead of revenue streams
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Apr 05, 2026 |
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No. 39: AI companies are buying both media properties and biotech startups this week
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Apr 04, 2026 |
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No. 38: Media platforms are becoming publishers by acquiring their own creators
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Apr 03, 2026 |
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No. 37: Legacy conglomerates are merging whilst their brands collapse separately
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Apr 02, 2026 |
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No. 36: AI funding reaches religion levels whilst AI products keep collapsing
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Apr 01, 2026 |
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No. 35: The Phoebe Philo diaspora now runs half of luxury fashion
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Mar 31, 2026 |
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No. 34: Big Tech wants fashion's cultural gravity while fashion rewires for survival
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Mar 30, 2026 |
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No. 33: Children are the battleground between tech's growth addiction and state protection
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Mar 29, 2026 |
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No. 32: Italy criminalises marketing to children whilst luxury chases desirability metrics
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Mar 28, 2026 |
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No. 31: Desirability replaces growth as the new CEO incentive metric at Kering
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Mar 27, 2026 |
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No. 30: Big tech launches music tools whilst Aerie wages culture war against AI
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Mar 26, 2026 |
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No. 29: Retail borders collapse as beauty consolidates and China exports store formats
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Mar 25, 2026 |
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No. 28: Beauty consolidation and Chinese retail expansion redraw global commerce maps simultaneously
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Mar 24, 2026 |
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No. 27: Chip sovereignty replaces platform wars as tech's defining battleground
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Mar 23, 2026 |
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No. 26: Hardware is back, and everyone's building their own chips now
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Mar 22, 2026 |
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No. 25: Tech companies are buying physical robotics to own the last mile
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Mar 21, 2026 |
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No. 24: Fast fashion discovered luxury directors cost less than celebrity collaborations
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Mar 20, 2026 |
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No. 23: AI arms race splits between military compliance and conscientious objection
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Mar 19, 2026 |
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No. 22: Age verification and military AI contracts are the same lobbying strategy
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Mar 18, 2026 |
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No. 21: Nvidia just turned the fashion calendar into a tech industry footnote
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Mar 17, 2026 |
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No. 20: Awards season just became the last place brands can buy cultural legitimacy
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Mar 16, 2026 |
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No. 19: Streaming platforms are rebuilding television as a shopping channel with algorithm controls
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Mar 15, 2026 |
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No. 18: Streaming platforms become geopolitical tools as services weaponise paywalls and access
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Mar 14, 2026 |
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No. 17: War becomes a product feature as tech companies rebrand conflict infrastructure
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Mar 13, 2026 |
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No. 16: Luxury discovered it can charge more by making customers wait less
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Mar 12, 2026 |
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No. 15: The Pentagon just weaponised procurement to reshape AI's competitive map
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Mar 11, 2026 |
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No. 14: Founders are stepping down everywhere and nobody's asking why
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Mar 10, 2026 |
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No. 13: Luxury brands treating pop-ups as theatre rehearsals, not retail experiments
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Mar 09, 2026 |
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No. 12: Pentagon patronage splits Silicon Valley along new ethical production lines
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Mar 08, 2026 |
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No. 11: Brands are buying the infrastructure, not just selling the product.
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Mar 07, 2026 |
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No. 10: Big luxury's creative crisis meets sportswear's data land grab for consumers
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Mar 06, 2026 |
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No. 9: Financialisation reaches physical objects as watches become tradeable assets like stocks
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Mar 05, 2026 |
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No. 8: Luxury financialisation reaches its logical extreme with Rolex derivatives trading
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Mar 04, 2026 |
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No. 7: Meta Tests AI Shopping Research Tool to Rival ChatGPT
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Mar 03, 2026 |
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No. 6: Creative directors inherit empires then immediately soften the product
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Mar 02, 2026 |
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No. 5: Fashion's identity crisis goes institutional whilst AI arms race plays defence
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Mar 01, 2026 |
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No. 4: Today's top signal comes from fashion & style
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Feb 28, 2026 |
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No. 3: Being late to AI now costs sixteen times more than being early
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Feb 27, 2026 |
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No. 2: Fashion houses are building AI hardware businesses faster than tech companies
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Feb 26, 2026 |
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No. 1: Luxury's quiet revolution: pragmatism over spectacle is winning.
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Feb 25, 2026 |