Retail Unwrapped from The Robin Report

Why Chanel and A$AP Rocky Reignite Luxury

Jasmine Glasheen — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 05:01:00 +0000

Luxury brands need to attract next gen shoppers to survive. Gen Z and their younger cohort, Generation Alpha, are set to drive 40 percent of all fashion spend by 2035; heritage luxury brands that aren’t relatable to young consumers won’t make it into the 2030s. The issue is that younger consumers often have very different priorities than the luxury brands’ customer base. Stalwarts like Tiffany and Chanel aren’t packing the same punch; they didn’t even make the Lyst index of hottest luxury brands in Q4 of 2025.

Traditional luxury status symbols like Birkin bags don’t resonate with younger consumer demographics that are hyper-focused on individuation, forcing heritage luxury brands to rethink their marketing. For next gens, ubiquity reads as uniformity. So, brands are moving away from relying on legacy as their sole selling point and tapping into unexpected strategies to target Gen Z and millennial consumers. And they’re doing this in some interesting, dare we say, inspiring ways.

How can traditional luxury brands groom next gens as their future customers? Follow the lead of Chanel and Louis Vuitton in appealing to Gen Z’s sense of humor, personalized style, and desire for individuation.

Combatting Uniformity

Ubiquity and devaluation kill the perception of coveted luxury. Two years ago, The New York Times reported, “Luxury brands have triggered their own death spiral by selling overpriced, overexposed and lower-quality products,” calling out Prada, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci for price hikes, for some popular of their items those hikes were as high as 111 percent. Chanel and Marc Jacobs were lambasted for hiking prices while also cutting quality. Two years later, the price hikes continue, but luxury brands are justifying them by refocusing on artistry and quality.

Next gens grew up being exposed to brands like Balenciaga and Burberry through their diffusion lines at T.J. Maxx, so they don’t associate those name brands with a luxury experience. Craftsmanship is no longer assumed as exclusive to luxury brands, so they are highlighting their exceptional craftsmanship on digital platforms to reinforce brand prestige. When it comes to the artistry and quality of luxury brands, next gens need to see it firsthand (on social media or in store) to believe it.

Above all, next gens don’t want to blend in. Brands built around personalization, like the embroidery brand Abbode, are entering the marketplace. And brands including Louis Vuitton, Loewe (next gen favorite on the Lyst index), and Dior offer customization services as part of their value proposition.

Next Gens Say “Prove It”

BCG predicts Gen Z’s luxury spending will rise from 4 percent to 25 percent by 2030. So, how can luxury brands make themselves relatable to next gens without losing their quintessential style? And how can they get them to pay full price for a luxury item, rather than wait to find it at a consignment shop or thrift store? Chanel and Louis Vuitton’s recent artistic collaborations serve as inspiration.

Louis Vuitton and Murakami

Louis Vuitton harnessed Zendaya’s star power for the 130^th anniversary of the Monogram and the Speedy bag, and Japanese artist Takashi Murakami created delightful moments on the Monogram’s offerings and website. Murakami’s iconic re-edition pays playful homage to the LV Monogram. Vivid, color-saturated design livens up the luxury stalwart’s signature pieces. The Murakami experience is inspiring: His art creates an unexpected, immersive twist on an icon that immediately delights and rejuvenates an 1896 luxury staple.

Chanel Taps Gondry

Chanel’s teaser for its Métiers d’Art 2026 show is signature Michel Gondry—fanciful and completely devoid of dialogue film. The brand tapped Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Gondry and brand ambassadors A$AP Rocky, and Margaret Qualley for the charming mini film. Gondry is a master of technique including varied film speeds and surrealism juxtaposed with imagination to entertain and intrigue. The show’s title, translated from French, means “the art of doing it well,” and the film lives up to its name. Chanel (and the New York subway) stars as a perfectly normal wardrobe staple for next gens in a perfectly normal, relatable style in a joyful cinematic moment.

Signaling Safety and Shared Interests

The personalization trend isn’t just about overstimulated next gens trying to differentiate themselves from the herd. While some have called Gen Z’s hyper-personal style “virtue signalling,” it’s more about signalling belonging within their respective communities, on all sides of the political spectrum. In this contentious era, it’s become more important for people with similar leanings to identify one another, safely from afar. Many next gens care more about proclaiming who they are, whom they love, and what they believe in more than conforming to a gendered attractiveness standard. That’s why we’re seeing baggy, sometimes comedic silhouettes like the Alladinesque “balloon pant” and the camo pant of the early 90s come back into the cultural zeitgeist.

Don’t hate us, but the millennial statement tee is also back, buoyed by nostalgia for the early aughts and a bifurcated political climate. Consumers are walking billboards for their causes, interests, and senses of humor. But next gens are taking statement apparel to the next level, wearing statement bags, hats, jewelry, heck even nail art.

Affordable Luxury

Luxury brands ignore Gen Z’s financial reality at their own peril. Bank of America reports that Gen Z and millennial’s spend only rose by .05 percent YoY in August of 2025, compared to 2.4 percent for boomers. Even well-off Gen Zs don’t have the once-promising career prospects as their millennial predecessors, and let’s be real, it’s hard to justify buying a $4,500 Murikami bag with Afterpay if you have no prospect of enough money coming in. The result is a return to affordable, aspirational luxury brands, particularly those like Ralph Lauren and Coach, for staples.

Coach and Ralph Lauren received the top 10 placements on the Lyst index. Coach’s saw its total revenue rise 9.9 percent to about $5.6 billion for the 12 months ended in June. Ralph Lauren saw revenue rise 6.8 percent in the 12 months ended in March. Ralph Lauren’s cable-knit quarter zip sweater was actually the hottest luxury item last quarter. Next gen luxury consumers are also more interested in little-known luxury brands, investing in burgeoning brands like five-year-old Tokyo menswear brand A.PRESSE that focus on craftsmanship over peacocking wealth in recognizable ways that recognizable products aren’t.

In selling luxury to next gens, a recognizable product isn’t enough. For highly individuated Gen Z consumers, overhyped brand awareness can read as ubiquity and work against you. Quality craftsmanship isn’t a given for luxury brands anymore; customers need to see evidence that they’re getting genuine quality for their investment. And artistic inspiration, as we see from Louis Vuitton and Chanel, might just be the key to push prospective luxury customers into making their first purchase.

Korean Brands Are Moving into a Mall Near You

Mark Faithfull — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 05:01:00 +0000

For much of the past decade, the dominant narrative for global retail has been framed around China and its manufacturing scale, digital platforms, ultra-fast and cheap fashion platforms, plus its ability to flood global markets with low-cost goods. Yet as regulatory pressure on Chinese exports intensifies in both the U.S. and Europe and geopolitical friction disrupts supply chains, South Korea, fuelled by the global phenomenon of K-pop culture, is emerging as a dynamic Asian force across beauty, fashion, lifestyle and specialty retail.

Korean Cultural Influence

The rise of Korean brands reflects a structural shift in how global consumers discover, trust and buy products. The visibility of K-Beauty has reached a tipping point, most notably next to London’s Chinatown, where tourists literally trip over one K-brand after another. There is no doubt that South Korea has arrived as a world influence.

What began years earlier as niche experimentation with off-the-wall beauty treatments from sheet masks and snail mucin has matured into mainstream adoption across the major retail chains. Brands such as premium skincare brand Laneige, nature-inspired Innisfree, derm-focused COSRX and skincare specialist Beauty of Joseon have moved from Asian beauty stores into Europe’s biggest chains, including Boots, Sephora and Douglas.

Sephora’s European rollout of Korean skincare lines accelerated last year, with COSRX’s Advanced Snail 96 Essence consistently ranking among its top-selling serums in France and Germany, while Laneige’s Lip Sleeping Mask became a viral bestseller thanks to TikTok-driven campaigns in the U.K. and Italy. Consumer appeal was not just about novelty but about perceived efficacy, transparency of ingredients and a narrative of innovation.

What’s the latest trend in Asian imports? And the answer is: Watch Korean brands that resonate with consumers with storytelling, propelled by evergreen K-pop culture.

Korean Brands Invest in Europe

At the same time, Korean beauty conglomerates have been laying the groundwork in Europe. Amorepacific—Korea’s answer to Estee Lauder—expanded its European logistics hubs in the Netherlands and Poland in 2025, reducing delivery times and opening direct-to-consumer channels. LG Household & Health Care, an equivalent to Procter & Gamble beauty or Unilever, strengthened its partnerships with European retailers and invested in localized product development, launching SPF formulations adapted to EU regulatory standards and European skin-tone ranges.

CJ Olive Young, South Korea’s dominant beauty retailer. broadly in the mode of Sephora or Ulta Beauty, also accelerated its international ecommerce push, recording double-digit growth in European orders last year. And in January, it forged a strategic partnership with Sephora in a move that marks the Korean firm’s entry into the fast-growing ‘middle vendor’ market connecting K-beauty brands with global distributors.

Korean Brands Beyond Beauty

Beyond beauty, Korean retail brands began to appear in categories previously dominated by Chinese players. XimiVogue, originally founded in China but increasingly repositioned with Korean-inspired branding and partnerships, expanded aggressively across Europe in 2025, with stores in Spain, Italy and Eastern Europe, with an offer that has often seen it dubbed the Korean Miniso. By 2025, Korean streetwear brands such as Ader Error, luxury menswear Wooyoungmi and eyewear specialist Gentle Monster had established flagship stores in European capitals and cultivated loyal followings among Gen Z consumers. Gentle Monster’s experiential retail spaces in London and Paris blurred the boundary between art installation and eyewear retail.

XimiVogue’s strategic pivot toward Korean cultural references proved timely. As European regulators tightened scrutiny on Chinese imports, particularly around product safety, sustainability claims and product dumping concerns as a fallout from U.S. tariffs, retailers with Korean branding have faced far fewer political and reputational barriers.

Indeed, this regulatory context is crucial. The European Union has introduced stricter enforcement of the Digital Services Act and tightened customs controls on low-value parcels, notably hitting Chinese ultra-fast fashion and marketplace platforms. And the mood music suggests that trade barriers for China will only become more challenging. Korean brands, by contrast, have benefited from South Korea’s status as a trusted trade partner with strong intellectual property protections and a reputation for quality manufacturing.

Korean Fashions Expand in the U.S.

Musinsa, Korea’s biggest curated fashion ecommerce platform, launched cross-border services targeting European consumers, leveraging curated Korean brands rather than mass-market imports. The same dynamic has played out even more dramatically in the U.S., where Korean brands have moved from cult status to mainstream retail. By the third quarter of 2025, the U.S. accounted for more than 51 percent of K-beauty’s global online sales, overtaking China for the first time as the world’s largest e-commerce market for Korean beauty products, with sales jumping 37 percent year-on-year.

NielsenIQ reported that K-beauty sales in the U.S. reached roughly $2 billion in 2025, far outpacing the growth of the overall beauty market and driven by facial skincare and rapidly expanding haircare categories. Major American retailers have responded by racing to integrate Korean brands into their assortments, with Sephora, Ulta, Target, Walmart and Costco having all expanded Korean product lines, while some retailers have created dedicated K-beauty zones.

Torriden officially entered Sephora’s U.S. network in 2025, rolling out hydration and derma products its products across more than 400 stores and online after viral TikTok exposure and a successful pop-up campaign. Amorepacific’s Aestura launched at Sephora early last year, positioning dermatology-led Korean skincare as a credible alternative to legacy brands. Herbal skincare specialist Hanyul debuted in over 300 Sephora stores in the same year, while independent Korean companies such as make-up and skincare brand Tirtir, premium d’Alba and Beauty of Joseon have started showing up within U.S. chains including Ulta, Target and Costco, reflecting a broader push into physical retail presence.

In grocery, Korean-origin supermarket chain H Mart has announced plans to open its largest-ever U.S. location in California, transforming a former Kohl’s site in Pacific Commons Shopping Center into a 100,000-square-foot experiential retail hub combining groceries, a food hall and dine-in restaurants. Construction is expected to start late this year.

Korean Big Picture

Amid it all, the role of entertainment is key. K-pop and K-drama continued to act as global marketing engines for Korean products and the international success of series such as drama Queen of Tears, global hit Squid Game and the sustained global tours of a myriad of groups, most notably BTS, have provided constant exposure for Korean fashion and beauty.

But what distinguishes Korea’s retail expansion from China’s is not just aesthetics but strategy. Chinese platforms have often relied on price leadership and logistical scale, pushing vast volumes of low-cost goods through digital channels. Korean brands, by contrast, have emphasized brand equity, storytelling and innovation. The Korean approach aligns more closely with premiumization trends in Western markets and the Gen Z era of little treats in a world that is offering them little comfort.

Regulation at the Heart of the Korean Approach

Another critical factor is agility when it comes to regulation and compliance. Korean companies have historically operated within stringent domestic regulatory frameworks, particularly in cosmetics and electronics. This has translated into smooth adaptation to European standards and, as a result, when the EU introduced updated cosmetic ingredient regulations in 2025, Korean brands were able to reformulate and relabel products faster than many of their Chinese competitors. Similarly, Korean electronics and lifestyle brands have leveraged their existing compliance culture to expand into smart home accessories, wearable devices and design-led consumer electronics.

Yet as more Korean brands enter European and U.S. markets, competition is intensifying. The risk of overexposure, brand dilution and the loss of their first mover advantage is real, particularly in beauty, where dozens of Korean brands now compete for shelf space and digital attention amid a fickle and short-memory customer base.

Korean retail has also been caught up in the ever-fluctuating U.S. tariff battles, and although most beauty, fashion and general merchandise goods face a 15 percent tariff, some categories, such as automobiles, are currently facing 25 percent tariffs. Balancing global expansion with authentic identity will be the defining test of 2026.

The Olympics Is a Runway Grab

Glyn Atwal — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 05:01:00 +0000

The Olympic rings are among the world’s most recognized symbols. Brands invest millions to be associated with the event’s values and global visibility. At the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, legacy sponsors like Coca-Cola and Visa leveraged this platform to reinforce their brand stature. But a new gold medal contender has stepped onto the podium: luxury fashion. As Yuki Bi, CEO of Helios Worldwide, notes, “The ‘fashion as sport’ trend has been strong since the Paris Summer Olympics, and it is here to stay, at least for a while.”

What’s the latest shiny influencer strategy for fashion brands? And the answer is: Olympic champions.

Sportainment

The emotional pull of Brazilian skier Lucas Pinheiro Braathen winning South America’s first-ever Winter Olympics medal cannot be measured in social media metrics. It also helps explain why the Opening Ceremony, which featured not just Mariah Carey but also a runway show of white EA7 Emporio Armani and Ralph Lauren Americana-themed-uniforms, broke viewership records.

“It’s not new for brands to sponsor or design national team uniforms for major games,” says Bi, “but how it is being promoted, and the amount of attention they are garnering this Winter Olympics, is unprecedented.” This attention is driving demand for Olympic-themed merchandise. Polo Ralph Lauren’s Team USA Opening Ceremony Toggle Coat ($1,998) is already sold out in all sizes on the Ralph Lauren U.S. site. However, a key impact is the potential for brand earned media revenue (EMV), which can rival other sponsorship deals. According to data from Launchmetrics, Ralph Lauren had already generated $8.3 million in Media Impact Value (MIV) before the Winter Olympics even started!

This merging of sport and entertainment, or ‘sportainment,’ is a now-familiar formula across global events like Formula One. At the Winter Olympics, it is redefining engagement entirely. Clips of Snoop Dogg, Honorary Coach of Team USA, dominate feeds because sport has become storytelling for a new generation. According to Bi, “The popularity of the Olympic Games among Gen Z audiences stems from the vlog-like snippets of content across social media, especially TikTok and YouTube Shorts. In fact, most Gen Z audiences are watching the Winter Olympics via 15–30-second social media shorts.”

Fandom

Athletes have always been role models. Veteran skier Lindsay Vonn has been a Rolex Brand Ambassador since 2009. But recently, luxury fashion houses have been joining the race to sign the next sporting icon. At Beijing 2022, 18-year-old freestyle skier Eileen Gu’s gold medal tally led to a high-profile partnership with Louis Vuitton. The Winter Games have amplified celebrity endorsements into an entirely new form of influence. A game-changer is how fandom is creating a direct channel for brand storytelling at an unprecedented scale. Jutta Leerdam, who is an Omega Olympic ambassador, has over 6.2 million Instagram followers. Authentic content is driving engagement. Canadian speed skater Brooklyn McDougall’s unboxing her Lululemon gear went viral on TikTok.

High Performances

Luxury fashion partnering with sport isn’t new, but the Winter Olympics gives brands a stylistic signature and mass reach. Armani outfitting Team Italia makes cultural sense, but the Games also offer a platform for function-first brands such as Lululemon with Team Canada and Uniqlo with Team Sweden to elevate their fashion credibility.

“Fashion brands are realizing that their audiences and sports fans are no longer mutually exclusive,” Bi says. “In fact, Gen Z finds sports a very cool topic that adds social credibility to their lives. So, when brands invest in the Winter Olympic Games, they are also acquiring a brand new, aspirational young audience that they can grow in the future.”

The Winter Games are a live product demo under some of the most extreme conditions imaginable. When Lucas Pinheiro Braathen won gold wearing a white Moncler race suit, it was a victory for Moncler’s technical innovation. The brand extends the message with Moncler Grenoble’s “The Beyond Performance” exhibit in Milan. As Bi notes, “Younger audiences are learning from this year’s Milan Winter Olympics that competition gear can be fashionable and attractive while maintaining functionality.”

Brands are also replicating the Olympic experience in their retail environments, from the snow-white Armani jackets at Milano Linate Airport to experiential formats such as Ralph Lauren’s Olympic-themed pop-ups stretching from Cortina d’Ampezzo to Aspen.

Inclusivity

As the Winter Paralympics approach, inclusivity is emerging as a defining narrative. This is less about logo-first branding and more about meaningful design. Brands like Lululemon have introduced “Paralympian-approved” adaptive gear with magnetic zippers, seated-fit silhouettes, and braille details. It’s a powerful message that fashion and sport have no boundaries.

The Winter Olympics in a fashion capital is more than a natural convergence of sport and style. The Games have become a global podium for luxury brands. The result is a boost in brand prestige and reputation. Brand Finance reports that luxury apparel buyers who followed the Paris Olympics rated Louis Vuitton more highly for ‘reputation, social commitment, brand I love, trust, and recommendation.’

It’s a return on investment that can translate into long-term revenue growth. The 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles will be even more of a spectacle and will put pressure on luxury brands to up their game. Which brands are ready to go for the gold?

Eyewear Outperforms Luxury Categories

Glyn Atwal — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 05:01:00 +0000

Why do the Kardashians always wear sunglasses? TikTok may have its own addictive answer, but celebrity influence has given luxury eyewear renewed life for aspirational customers. While the global market for personal luxury goods stagnated in 2025, eyewear continues to outperform other categories; Bain & Co. is projecting growth of 2 to 4 percent. And there are no signs of slowing.

Is luxury eyewear a growth opportunity? And the answer is: Eyewear outperforms other categories, projected to grow two to four percent, and design innovation no longer comes from a single creative vision; it is the result of an ongoing dialogue between design, data, and culture.

Licensing Leaps

Customers can now own a piece of the celebrity-driven luxury lifestyle as wannabe style setters, whether they wear prescription glasses or not. Licensing eyewear deals have made luxury logos accessible to an expanding base of consumers, many of whom are first-time luxury buyers. This business model continues to reap rewards. EssilorLuxottica, the world’s largest eyewear company, manages licenses for luxury brands including Giorgio Armani, Brunello Cucinelli, Burberry, Chanel, and Dolce & Gabbana. In Q3 2025, it reported its best quarterly performance ever, with revenue rising 11.7 percent to €6.9 billion. The consumer investment is significant, with luxury eyewear ranging from $202 for the A$AP Rocky Ray-Ban Wayfarer Puffer to $6,721 for the diamond edition.

The allure of the logo remains a critical decision point. According to the EY Luxury Client Index 2025, 42 percent of “prestige aspirational” luxury clients buy luxury fashion as a marker of status. That said, the global success of South Korean eyewear brand Gentle Monster is a reminder that for Gen Z, eyewear is less about status and more about self-expression as a statement of identity.

As luxury brands scale up eyewear operations, including launches like Victoria Beckham Eyewear with the Safilo Group, the landscape will only grow more crowded. This market demands agility as brands compete for consumers’ wallets and eyes amid unprecedented competition through social media exposure and expansive product choice.

Eyewear as a Proxy for Luxury

Accessories have historically been entry products for aspirational luxury customers, and eyewear is no exception. An impressive 71 percent of luxury clients are primarily driven by a desire to own high-quality products. Quality and provenance matter. Persol, for example, has been crafting sunglasses by hand since 1917 with artisans at its Lauriano plant in Turin, Italy, ensuring its Craftsmanship Campaign.

Sustainability gives luxury consumers the confidence to signal purpose. Nearly one-third (31 percent) of luxury clients rank sustainability among the top five factors influencing purchase decisions. Savvy eyewear brands merge sustainability with innovation. Balenciaga’s Blackout sunglasses (€1,200, made in Italy) use Eastman Acetate Renew, combining cellulose derived from wood pulp with recycled plastic that would otherwise end up in landfills.

Eyewear is also a visual extension of a brand’s DNA. Here’s where the ephemeral influence of emotion, identity and possibility play critical roles. Longchamp, for example, says its sunglasses “reveal the allure of the Longchamp Parisienne.” Maybe that’s true, but brands sell when they excite and surprise. According to Mor Margalit, Director of Brand Merchandising at GlassesUSA.com, “Design innovation in eyewear today no longer comes from a single creative vision. It is the result of an ongoing dialogue between design, data, and culture.”

Successful eyewear also rivals the versatility of today’s designer handbag collections. Gentle Monster is redefining the category through collaborations such as Tekken 8 and its Pocket Collection with Bratz, transforming culture and community into eyewear icons. Coach x GlassesUSA.com’s limited-edition Milky Pink Frame for 2026 embraces the concept of fusion fashion, which, according to Mor Margalit, is “recognizing that people don’t dress according to one fixed aesthetic. They blend moods, styles, and personal expression throughout their everyday lives.” For fashionistas (and the easily bored), multiple branded eyewear is the norm, similar to a closet full of handbags.

Celeb collabs are table stakes for luxury brands. Identifying eyewear-specific brand ambassadors creates emotional connections akin to those in beauty and fragrance. Orlando Bloom, for instance, is a brand ambassador for Porsche Design’s timepiece and eyewear collections.

Visionary Innovation

According to The State of Fashion 2026, smart eyewear is “poised for a breakout in 2026.” Despite Mark Zuckerberg’s infamous failed Meta Ray-Ban demo, consumer interest remains high, with waiting lists for AI-enabled glasses that take photos, record videos, make calls, play music, and access Meta’s AI assistant. Yet smart eyewear is not only about technology. BoF and McKinsey & Co. survey data show that style influences one-third of smart-glasses buyers. It’s a wake-up call and an opportunity for luxury brands to differentiate.

Eyecare is a new, cool, integral to both the fashion runway and the everyday wardrobe. Fashion and lifestyle brands without a core eyewear business may be leaving brand equity on the table. Visionary creativity is essential to capture a share of this growing market. After all, in the world according to the Kardashians, staying relevant and relatable may simply come down to how you frame the future.

Is Your Brand Scented?

Dana Wood — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 05:01:00 +0000

With offices on four continents, more than 500 employees toiling in 119 countries, and a client roster that includes Marriott and Westin hotels, Heathrow and Tampa International airports and an eclectic mix of retailers (Kookaï, Altar’d State, Plato’s Closet and Play It Again Sports)—not to mention a bustling DTC business in home diffusers—ScentAir likes to describe itself as “the global leader in scent marketing.”

Of course, it’s the client ScentAir won’t confirm, Disney Resorts, that probably contributes a mega chunk to the 32-year-old, Charlotte, North Carolina-based enterprise’s bottom line. “As a privately held company, we respect the privacy and preferences of all our clients and do not disclose client-specific information without their express permission,” says Evin Ellis, ScentAir’s Director of Global Marketing & E-Commerce. “Many of our clients consider their scent programs to be an integral part of their brand experience and differentiation and therefore choose to keep these details confidential.”

But here’s what Ellis is more than happy to share: the positively rosy current state of the ambient scent market. “We estimate the total addressable market (TAM) for scent marketing at around $3 billion globally,” he says. That’s a lot of piped-in perfume.

Does scent marketing work? And the answer is: Just ask Baccarat, Altr’d States, The Northface, and Disney.

Translating a Retailer’s Core Values Into a Signature Scent

Though she isn’t as willing to hazard a guess at the scope of the ambient market as Ellis, Scent Marketing, Inc. CEO Caroline Fabrigas is equally bullish on the category’s prospects. Serving clients that span boutique and mega-chain hotels (Arlo,1 Hotels, Hyatt Place, Baccarat, Auberge Resorts), retail (The Northface, Converse, Wayfair, Aeropostale), wellness (Physique 57, The Well) and commercial real estate developers (Fisher Brothers, SL Green, Naftali Group), when she says the scent marketing business is booming, it’s an understatement.

“For a smaller company, we have some great clients,” says Fabrigas, who has a core team of seven working from the company’s Scarsdale, New York, headquarters and an equivalently sized crew to whom she outsources projects. She mentions Coach as a new retail win, and recent experiential ventures like scenting Fifth Avenue during the holidays. When we spoke, she was just about to head to Boston to discuss partnering with the MTA.

But how, exactly, does Fabrigas and her team translate a hotel, retail store, workout studio or multi-unit Miami condo into a scent? There are multiple ways; the most elaborate and costly is custom development. For Kindling, the signature scent for 1 Hotels, Scent Marketing took the key stakeholders through a four-step process that includes: Discovering the brand’s core values and unique connection with nature; defining the initial prototype via an exclusive olfactory ingredient palette; designing and developing a prototype scent; and delivering and diffusing the finished product throughout the brand’s properties.

“We call it a journey,” Fabrigas says of the custom process. “It takes about 10 to 12 weeks and starts with an intake session and analyzing the brand.” After Scent Marketing has landed on an initial prototype, the ideal next step is an in-person “sniffing session” that may yield a request for a tweak or two. “But that’s rare,” says Fabrigas, “because of all the pre-work we’re doing.”

If a brand doesn’t have the budget, time or desire to express itself by building a signature fragrance from scratch, other options for landing on a scent for a public space include “Guided Scent Curation.” In this case, Fabrigas and team visit the untapped archives of some of the world’s major oil houses. The third, least costly, process is for a brand to buy directly from the company’s in-house scent library.

With a quick look at the scent library section of the Scent Marketing website, retailers can pick from ready-made fragrances. The names of the scents evoke their emotional and psychological effects: Full of Energy, Teak & Herbs, Walk in the Woods, Fresh Tea, Exaltation, Pink Grapefruit and Mint Focus.

Evoke a Beloved Vacation Scent at Home

While it doesn’t have direct ties to hospitality or real estate, Tocca has long had a stellar candle and reed diffuser business. An offshoot of the boho-chic namesake fashion brand, which launched in 1994, Tocca’s home products followed beauty, which made its debut in 1997. According to COO Joyce Barnes, Tocca added home in 1999, kicking off with its still-popular “blue box” classic candle collection. “We were a fashion brand at the time and had started to dip our toes into beauty with three products: a solid perfume, a dry body oil and a laundry delicate,” Barnes recalls. “We saw home as a logical next step in our beauty division. And to be frank, our candles were popular straight out of the gate.”

Named for posh vacation destinations—think Chamonix, Amalfi, Montauk and St. Tropez—the candles and diffusers have been a solid boost to Tocca’s balance sheet. “We are first and foremost a fine fragrance house, so our eau de parfums continue to be the majority of our business,” says Barnes. “But we’ve been pleased with how home fragrance gives us the opportunity to expand into other channels.”

And for now, at least, the home scent sector is looking bright. “People are investing in their homes, and fragrance is a beautiful way to really personalize their environment,” says Barnes. “We also continue to see customers’ interest in exploring different ways to layer fragrance in their lives. They don’t just want to wear their favorite scents; they want to live among their favorite scents, too.”

From Commercial Lobbies to Living Rooms: The Rise of D2C

Even more extensively than ScentAir, Scent Marketing is making sure consumers have multiple ways to nab the fragrances they become addicted to when staying at chic hotels and shopping at their favorite stores. On scentfluence.com, its D2C site, a full range of property-affiliated candles and room sprays is on offer—everything from Fireside for Baccarat and Deep Blue Med Spa Collection to Fisher Bros @Ease. The company’s physical store, Scentfluence Aroma Design Studio, is based in Scarsdale. Scentfluence is about to make its debut on Amazon in addition to the debut of “The Perfect Weekend” candles currently landing at Wayfair stores across the country.

None of the category’s success is a surprise to Dr. Liz Lehman, licensed physician and CEO of Alluminate Life, an international wellness brand crafted to enhance mind-body health. “Any public gathering place that is designed to evoke a mood, feeling, or brand identity benefits from an ambient fragrance,” she says.

And while public scenting is on the uptick, it certainly isn’t new. “I remember Disney World smelling like sunshine and laughter as a child,” Lehman recalls. “Hospitality groups have used scenting for years.” Today, the phenomenon is on a distinct upward trajectory. “As research studies continue to publish the psychological link between scent, behavior and mood, and consumers desire a more enhanced experiential environment,” says Lehman, “I have no doubt that scent in public spaces will be as important as furnishings and lighting.”

Fabrigas couldn’t agree more. “I think of scent as being ‘a logo in the air,’ another way to communicate your brand message,” she says. “It’s really powerful and actually more memorable than something you can see.”

A New Formula for Luxury Marketing

Kate Newlin — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 05:01:00 +0000

“What becomes a legend most?” Remember the famous ad line when fur was in fashion, and that fame-saturated double-page photo shoot vision appeared in every fashion magazine. But that was back when there were real fashion magazines, not today’s celebrity showcases masquerading as style books.

Legacy as Liability?

Today, I ask the question from a different angle of the cultural prism: What becomes a legacy legend most? More specifically, a luxury legacy legend. Why luxury? Because luxe is where the money is, and legacy brands have an embedded baseline of that most difficult and expensive asset: consumer awareness of their origin stories.

But there’s a flip side to awareness. I’m talking about the risk of once-great brands suspended in hibernation in the depths of memory. These are the ones, theoretically at least, awaiting resuscitation. They may be tempted by some Chimera, that fire-breathing animal of Greek myth with a lion’s head, goat’s body and serpent’s tail: AKA, stupid money and stupider debt. These luxury brands are charades as uber confident and a total denigration of customer respect and product knowledge.

Is luxury legacy a risk or a liability? And the answer is: If brands trade on a mutation of the relevance of luxury legacy that dilutes their value, they risk losing the past and the future.

Luxury Odyssey

As a trained future trends analyst, I have spent the past 18 months consulting for one of the premier legacy luxury businesses, which came of age in that long-ago and far-away ‘what becomes a legend most’ era. I have learned much on this business strategy odyssey. The focus is on the mission-critical centrality of the Ultra High Net Worth audience – and its influencers – as the last bastion of margin-accretive growth. The exploration showcases the obvious age-old edict: The rich really are different. During this journey I had the great good fortune of engaging with savvy luxury brand stewards, sales associates, private wealth managers, so-called creative agency executives, comatose retailers, and the journalists who cover them. These kaleidoscopic viewpoints coalesced into my current vision, and I have developed the reignition model for luxury legends built on seven non-negotiables.

Seven Truths in Pursuit of Genuine, Sustainable Growth

Truth One. The uber luxury market is the only one poised for genuine, sustainable, profitable growth. It’s time to forget about the ‘aspirational’ consumer, lusting after high-end, name-checked logos and settling for an over-packaged bottle of a marquee brand’s fragrance. Forget too, while we’re at it, the quaint notion of ‘masstige.’ Why? Because life changes at the macro-level while marketers change at the micro-level. Aspirations change. The definition of prestige evolves. The culture shifts.

Truth Two. Private equity and its doppelgänger, personal greed, are actively ringing the death knell of retail. Ask not Saks for whom the bell tolls. All the while, we avert our gaze from the obvious impossibility of carrying or ever repaying the gravitational pull of race-to-the-bottom debt. This all takes place during a technological revolution upending the notion that we’re willing to leave home for the acquisition of goods. Not clothing. Not jewelry. Not groceries. Not nothing. Unless and until it’s personally relevant. Interesting. Exciting. In short, bespoke.

Truth Three. The Ultra High Net Worth customer does not ‘shop’ in a mall or at the car dealership or at the auction house. They dispatch lesser mortals to deal with lesser mortals. Yes, the fabulous designer invites the equally fabulous client to fly in on the corporate jet to Paris or Milan, but it’s the stylist’s job to curate the wardrobe and speak with sales associates to deliver options to be chosen in the privacy of the client’s various homes. Knowledgeable human to knowledgeable human. How to reach the UHNW? See them as individuals. Meet them where they spend their time and money—unapologetically. Our model shows the power in valuing their values: Their non-profit galas, their family resorts, their joie de vivre pursuits, and their friends.

Truth Four. Successful luxury brands use their retail locations as ads that we walk into. They provide the luxury ‘lifestyle experience’ on display in case the merely wealthy—personal shoppers, tourists and husbands in search of ‘something’—stumble in the day before or on ‘the day’ itself: Valentine’s, anniversary, birthday, and the ‘I’m so, so sorry, and it will never happen again’ day.

Truth Five. Marketing and product creativity are at their nadir. This goes for the conventional creative and performative hype of AI. Luxe marketing demands the personal engagement and recommendation of ‘one person I know,’ in preference to some desperate cool hunt for anonymous ‘friends’ pestering us in bot-speak. Creatives who grew up in the world of CPG marketing are ill-equipped to understand the un-commoditized revelations of genuine craftsmanship. They are even less able to communicate through the dog-whistle tropes of exclusivity to be noticed by the one percent of the one percent. Equally, designers tremble at the notion of separating the exquisite workmanship of their vision from its ability to be manufactured on the cheap two oceans away.

Truth Six. Modern retail is a gauntlet to survive, not an experience to engage. Nor even enjoy. Much of our work over the past two decades has centered on a core understanding of the customer. Freud said it best: We all want to feel significant. We hunger for it. We mourn its loss. When we speak to consumers under hypnosis – yes, hypnosis – they describe that sought-after feeling of a great shopping experience as ‘I felt lucky.’ The easiest way to cheat that ‘lucky’ feeling is to mass produce and ‘buy one and get 50 percent off another.’ This generation of marketers has literally addicted consumers to price promotion. But for the Ultra High Net Worth, that doesn’t work. Paying a hefty luxury tax on their most recent fill-in-the-blank acquisition offers unstated bragging rights of the ‘what me worry?’ mentality.

Truth Seven. The long-heralded transfer of wealth from one generation to another is near. But it won’t mean an après moi le deluge spending binge. Rather, the old guard has set up Family Offices with savvy financial managers to educate and exert fiscal restraint in ways that may well irritate next-gen revelers. Thanks to ever-increasing longevity, boomers have had quite a bit of time to monitor their children’s and grandchildren’s behaviors, and they are not going gently into the night.

Legacy as an Asset

For any brand, revive your legacy, reconnecting with those who already know and love you. Reach out to past and present clients and their trusted advisors to prove you’re an investment-grade acquisition. Then ignite exploration by next-gen audiences for whom you may be ‘new to you’ but are worthy of respect. Finally, show up where they are and reinforce that you share their values and humanity. All the while, focus on the unmet need of those most willing to exchange money for genuine cultural currency. Then, stand back and watch your legacy transform your business into a goldmine. Finally, what becomes a legend most? The spotlight.

Is Netflix House the Next Big Retail Thing?

Warren Shoulberg — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 05:01:00 +0000

I have seen the future of the Great American Shopping Mall…maybe. And I survived. As department stores crash and burn, specialty chains fold up like cheap lawn chairs, and food courts become Ozempic victims, a new potential victor has arrived on the retail scene. And it’s not coming from a traditional retailing company, startup from techdom or a visitor from another planet. It’s from a streaming entertainment behemoth.

Is Netflix House a new retail paradigm? And the answer is: More likely it’s the latest shiny, new retail toy. But it does have a few superpowers: capturing the attention, imagination and wallets of its loyal fans. Is it sustainable with repeat visits? We’ll see.

Streaming Retail

Netflix House is the latest riff in retailing, with its first two stores having opened late last year, and at least one more on the way in 2027 in Las Vegas. It represents a potential new format that could rescue shopping malls from the ongoing deterioration in American retailing. Then again, it could be the latest colossal failure in a long line of retail concepts that promised big things and ended up with padlocked doors and large going-out-of-business signs in their windows. Or worse, dream malls that became food courts and carnivals.

I just got back from Dallas, where Netflix House has set up shop; its other location is in King of Prussia, PA. And I’m here to tell you it’s exciting, innovative and was packed on a busy Saturday afternoon. Whether it will succeed is, of course, an entirely different matter. We’ll see how it fares in a whimsical customer-driven retail marketplace.

What’s in the House?

The Dallas Netflix store, opened in December in what had once been a Belk store in the still popular upscale Galleria, including Nordstrom, Macy’s, Louis Vuitton, an ice-skating rink and architecture inspired by Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele shopping space. Netflix measures out at 100,000 square feet on two floors with direct access from both the interior and exterior of the mall (with a big red square emblazoned on the store’s wall that Netflix hailed as an homage to its mail-in DVD envelope origins). The King of Prussia store is similar in design.

While it’s free to enter, once inside, the meter starts running the minute you actually want to do anything. The star attractions are two interactive experiences (c’mon, what else can you call them?) based on wildly popular Netflix series: Stranger Things Escape the Dark and Squid Games Survive the Trials. Tickets for these immersive experiences run about $40, depending on the timed entry and other factors. What do you get for that? Good question. As we were clearly not the right target demographic for either room (in fact our mere appearance at the place brought up the average age of the crowd by a factor of two), all we can tell you is that they are part game room, part escape room and part nightmare. The Stranger Things room carries a “parental supervision required for guests under 14 due to graphic content” warning.

Long lines to enter both spaces called “Studios” on a busy Saturday afternoon seemed to indicate they had winners on their hands, though you have to wonder how many repeat visitors these kinds of things will get. We also thought it odd that both these experiences were located on the lower level of the place (we can’t quite call it a store) rather than more visibly on the larger main floor. For such a hot ticket, it seems shortsighted to have only one kiosk on-site to purchase tickets. But just like movie theaters, the popular online ticketing service guarantees timed reservations.

Level Up

The main floor showcased the Netflix Bites restaurant, which, in addition to the usual teenage wasteland burgers, pizza and fries assortment, features a few Netflix property-themed offerings such as Red Bite Green Bite fried chicken and Perfect Pickle Pie. If you have to ask, you probably are sticking with the burger. There’s a bar with more Netflix tie-ins like Streaming Optimism and Passion on Demand. There’s also plenty of giant servings of iced tea; this is the South, after all. It should be noted that Netflix road-tested the Bites concept last year with pop-ups in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, both of which are now closed as the company has moved to the House concept.

Then there’s the game room, called RePlay, featuring a wide assortment of arcade games, many of which are naturally themed to Netflix properties and offer multi-player competitive contests. Again, Netflix’s targets of loyal fans (and next gens) totally get how to play these games

The Merch

Of course, there’s the prerequisite, high-margin gift shop. It’s huge, maybe 10,000 square feet and full of anything and everything you’d ever want in Netflix products. Given the creativity shown in the rest of the House, we were a bit disappointed to see a fairly standard assortment of apparel, water bottles and fashion accessories with only the occasional inspired item. How could they not sell squid?

No matter, the lines were long here, snaking through a checkout lane that offered last-minute pick-up items in the best tradition of a Bed Bath & Beyond and Sephora. And they weren’t giving anything away either, mind you.

Is a House a Store?

As well done as Netflix House is on most levels, let’s remember it’s not exactly a new concept. Disney tried—and failed—with urban shopping area themed attractions two decades ago. In the 1990s, Radio Shack rolled out a giant retail concept called Incredible Universe which, while it didn’t include interactive areas, was a theme park kind of experience. It too failed. And American Dream in the swamps of Jersey is nothing if not an amusement park masquerading as a shopping center with rides, a water park, ice skating and enough interactive storefronts to keep a family of four occupied (and broke) for days at a time. It remains to be seen if it will be the success its developers keep saying it will become. All said, the Harry Potter immersive stores seem to be holding up.

If you’re in the retail business, you really need to see a Netflix House. It is onto the most compelling reasons for retail to succeed: customer engagement, surprise and delight. It captures the imagination and attention, plus the dollars of its fans. See for yourself and decide if this is truly the next big thing. Retailing has always been a game. It’s Netflix’s (potentially) winning move right now.

Costco: The Robin Report Retail Miss of the Week, 1.31.2026

Warren Shoulberg — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 05:01:00 +0000

Yeah, you’re reading this right, the do-no-wrong-best-retailer-in-the-business Costco might have just screwed up. A proposed class action lawsuit has reportedly been filed in San Diego claiming that Costco’s labeling on its famed $4.99 rotisserie chicken contains “No preservatives, MSG, gluten, artificial flavors, or colors” is…foul (fowl?). The suit alleges that the chickens contain “additives sodium phosphate and carrageenan.” We have no scientific definition of what those are, but they sound suspicious. On the best-retailer-we-know plus side, Costco now says it will remove the “no preservatives” signage and explains that these substances “support moisture retention, texture, and product consistency during cooking. Both ingredients are approved by food safety authorities.” OK, Ok, although watchdog consumers don’t want you to have to read the small print. This has to count as a blemish on a company that has just about the best reputation in the retail world, not to mention the most loyal customer base. We’re fans of their chicken, by the way, and this misstep isn’t going to stop us from getting just about the best bargain out there. But Costco has clearly lost a game of chicken with its customers.

Creeping Out Customers Is the New Normal

Jasmine Glasheen — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 05:01:00 +0000

Brand marketing has long hawked the illusion of perfection with flawless models, soft lighting, and “aspirational,” i.e., highly photoshopped beauty. But walk into a store right now, and you’re just as likely to see models with contorted faces and gothic product packaging. Take Elf Beauty’s new “corpse paint” collab with Liquid Death water, which is literally packaged in mini coffins. Brands like Elf, that cater to Gen Z, are intentionally creeping out customers to cut through the noise of an oversaturated market…and it’s working.

The creep-out trend is driven by a greater aesthetic shift away from the pursuit of perfection, which smacks of AI’s veneer. Next gens are moving away from the dated and increasingly unattainable, idealized “filtered look” towards Uncanny Valley, reflecting today’s dystopian elements of the economic and political landscape. Whether it’s Columbia’s social media account for the Grim Reaper or everyone and their mom walking out with Wednesday’s dark lipstick, these looks leverage the psychology of fright to create an indelible memory, both glamorous and otherwise.

That discomfort creates thumb-stopping content. Look at millennial skincare brand The Ordinary’s “Periodic Fable” video, a hack on the “non-scientific” table with actors coated with dystopian facial masks promoting the truth about beauty, not exactly the aspirational look we’re used to from beauty brands. But therein lies its genius. Their truth is a shot of adrenaline that triggers a stronger trust to purchase than the uniform, airbrushed celebrity endorsements. Next gens are informed; they know Kim K isn’t really drinking that diet tea.

The human mind remembers what stands out and, for this most individualistic generation, uniqueness is the top signal. These creepy dabbles into darker tropes are meant to differentiate the brand and delight the cynical, overstimulated consumers they’re meant to target. More mature consumers may be alienated by the same content, although they’re missing the point. Brands that cater to wider age ranges have to walk a fine line: go too dark, you’ll alienate a loyal customer base; be too uniform, and next gens won’t remember your ad at all. The key takeaway? If you want to connect with next gens, go to the dark side and embrace the shadows.

The State of Gen Z in 2026: The Checked-Out Generation

Jasmine Glasheen — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 05:01:00 +0000

The generation we thought would be radically progressive is now embracing tradwife aesthetics. In 2026, we anticipate Gen Z purchasing behavior to continue in a disturbing trend: They’re spending less and expecting more from retailers––affordable, upscale-style brands that align with their values. And affordability isn’t an afterthought, either. In a five-year review of Gen Z consumers, PwC found that more than 79 percent wait for products to go on sale, and only 21 percent regularly pay full price.

Who could fault Gen Z for being discerning? Headlines are rife with tales of the unfriendly “no-hire, no-fire” labor market they’re trying to break into, and a generational mental health crisis that now seems could last their whole lifespan. Political and economic uncertainty dog them around every turn, and job opportunities are few. Gen Z is a politically bifurcated demographic of stressed-out, risk-averse consumers facing career stagnation and uncertainty in 2026. Let’s talk about how their lifestyle differs from previous generations and how to sell to them.

Why are so many young consumers disconnected from popular influencer memes? And the answer is: They no longer see their future in influencers (or Emily) wearing Balenciaga boots to frolic in Paris when they have more in common with the person working the McDonald’s counter.

The Economic Reality

It’s hard to sell the American Dream to a demographic for whom it feels unattainable. Gen Z’s obsession with the 2010s “Millennial Optimism Era” isn’t indicative of a longing for financial certainty. Millennials faced the aftershocks of the Great Recession and, according to a Pew Research Center report from 2014, were the “first in the modern era to have higher levels of student loan debt, poverty and unemployment, and lower levels of wealth and personal income.”

But that still feels halcyon to people in their early 20s today. Unemployment is up 2.1 percent for consumers aged 20–24. That number is even higher for those aged 16–19, up 3.5 points. Oxford Economics estimates that 1 million more young adults are living at home than pre-pandemic trends indicated. Gen Z is entering a less hospitable professional playing field than their predecessors faced, so it only makes sense they’re reluctant to spend.

Does it really surprise retailers that twenty-somethings still living with their parents are more concerned with survival than ephemeral fashion trends? Oxford Economics found that consumers who still live at home spend $1200 less annually than their peers who move out, creating a $12-13 billion hit to U.S. consumption. Critics often point to the fact that Gen Z has less student loan debt than their predecessors, assumiung their more positive economic prospects. To put this in perspective, credit card delinquencies are actually rising, which points to an alarming trend: Gen Z is spending less and still falling behind.

A Generation Raised on Quantification

Gen Z was raised on metrics. They learned to chase social media likes and high test scores before they could drive. They were funnelled into the high-pressure American education system, where schools operate like publicly traded companies. Of course, their mental health would be suffering. Nearly 1 in 4 17-year-old boys have ADHD, nearly 32 percent of adolescents have been diagnosed with anxiety, and more than one in 10 have experienced a major depressive disorder.

A generation raised on the constant quantification of social media is now entering adulthood, only to be met with a grim reality of the current job market, which holds few opportunities to reach the success metrics they see on social media. Like their millennial predecessors, “first” homes and mortgages feel unattainable to Gen Z. Perhaps it’s the lack of opportunity that’s made Gen Z nostalgic for a time in which they’ve never lived and returning to tradition where they can revive old fashion, beauty, and lifestyle norms.

Being thin has returned as the model body standard in fashion. While some luxury brands like Coach are still outspokenly size inclusive, many brands are once again pivoting away from crafting clothing that fits their core consumer base to court an unattainable body ideal.

Aesthetics Shift to Identify In-Groups

The U.S. political climate is causing a bifurcation in next-gen fashion proclivities between those who ascribe to a “return to traditional values” and those who don’t. Next gens are watching brands they once loved for their unretouched inclusivity (anyone remember AE’s Aerie line?) that drank the Kool-Aid and began catering to the tradwife aesthetic with modest prairie dresses and the Ozempic-fueled re-engineering of body positivity. Heroin chic 90s aesthetics are back. The dystopian feeling of witnessing celebrities who were once body positivity icons dwindle away is yet another nod to the creep-out aesthetic that’s dominating every vertical, from fashion to CPG.

Fashion is becoming more about in-group identification between gender bifurcated “traditional values” customers and those for whom self-expression and inclusivity are still a priority. Fashion also reflects the strained job market with pandemic styles like athleisure, pajama dressing, and quiet luxury falling by the wayside. Fueled by nostalgia for the millennial hipster life of the 2010s and a strained job market, young people are wearing office attire everywhere.

The Voice of Reason

The Gen Z consumer of 2026 is overwhelmed, still living at home, and nostalgic about fashion. Many are no longer spending to express their individuality; they are spending to express their values in a politically bifurcated society. In this environment, the old methods of aspirational marketing no longer work. Young consumers no longer see their future in influencers (or Emily) wearing Balenciaga boots to frolic in Paris when they have more in common with the person working the McDonald’s counter.

Ignoring Gen Z’s sober economic reality will only alienate them. Instead, meet them where they are (their parents’ house) with transparency, value, and awareness while they weather the storm. And, for goodness’ sake, don’t pull your plus-size section.