Luxury 360: Italian fund offers most for Versace stake, Kering i...

To view this email as a webpage, click here     Thursday December 05 2013     Luxury 360   Italian fund offers most for Versace stake   Versace family is reviewing bids from buyout investors but Fondo Strategico Italiano's offer is highest and is 16 times ebitda of €70m       Kering in talks to sell La Redoute arm   Sale of mail-order unit to its managers would bring group closer to completing its transformation of focusing on its luxury and lifestyle businesses     Ford sallies forth with new Mustang   Originally launched in 1964 the new version is expected to mark the start of a concerted effort to turn the Mustang into a global brand     Gold mining stocks look like value traps   In an equity market rally remarkable as much for its uniformity as for its strength, the underperformance of gold mining stocks sticks out ever more     Design space: Air France recycles cutlery   The airline reuses plastic forks, knives and spoons from flights to help produce ecologically friendly tableware for its passengers     Strong US sales boost Detroit Three   Rebound in US car market continues as General Motors, Ford and Chrysler benefit from falling fuel prices, cheap finance and improved model ranges     Consumer electronics: look out for these high-tech trendsetters   'Wearable tech' including watches, clothing and glasses; 3D printers and scanners; and '4K' or Ultra HD televisions will be among must-have products     Adidas chief admits impact of mistakes   The chief executive of the German sports equipment company says it has made mistakes and not performed as well as senior executives hoped         Financial Times   In the midnight hour   Look to cocktails, dinner and beyond for the third part of our six-week series       The new velvet revolution   Not just for dandies, velvet is as apt for day as night – its old-money charm sparking a comeback in womenswear as well     Pirelli's calendar at 50   In the first of a series on festive parties, a report from the tyre company's 50th anniversary     Skiwear: stay on trend when you go off piste   Are the new skiing fashions fit for purpose? Two seasoned skiers set off for the nearest slopes to put the latest designs to the test     In the foot hills of high fashion skiwear   The luxury ski brand turned stylish must-have is put through its paces   Material World   Rei Kawakubo repudiates the fashion 'inspiration' myth   There's a terrific essay by Rei Kawakubo, the high priestess/founder of Comme des Garcons, in the current issue of System magazine that casts doubt on a piece of fashion conventional wisdom that has under-pinned the industry, and the designer myth, as far as I can remember. I am speaking here of the "inspiration" trip/book/cultural event. Is it a bunch of hooey? Maybe. Read more       EU plans to plan to lure even more Chinese luxury tourists   Just as the Chinese government cracks down further on luxury spending at home, and more company results demonstrate a flattening of the local market causing fear and trauma in heritage luxury brands with major capex in Asia, enter Antonio Tajani, EU Vice-president and commissioner for industry, to attempt to stem the pain. Their hero! Mr Tajani, aka luxury's friend in Brussels, has "an action plan on the competitiveness of the European fashion and high-end industries". Or a kind-of action plan. A beginning action plan? A small movement plan? You know what I mean. The point is: there's a plan. Read more     The fashion billionaires list   It just keeps growing! As Forbes pointed out, the Versace stake currently for sale would value the company at $5.8 billion – most likely vaulting Allegra and Santo Versace into the B-league. They would join fellow Italians Giorgio Armani, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, Renzo Rosso, and Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli at the top of the luxury earners list – at least as of last year (this year's rankings are still being tabulated). That makes Italy, as far as I can tell, the land with the largest amount of luxury industry billionaires. Interesting, no? Read more     Amazon sidles into high fashion via Zappos and André Leon Talley   Despite its amazing Black Friday results, Amazon has not quite become the player rumour says it would like to be in high-end fashion; luxury brands still see it as overly mass. So news of a new upmarket approach at Zappos, the accessible (and highly successful) shoe site, made all my luxury strategy sensors start vibrating in anticipation. And no, I am not confusing my apples with my oranges. See, Amazon owns Zappos, but "Zappos" doesn't come with all the strings and global supermarket associations that the name "Amazon" does. Which makes it a great testing ground for any new strategy directed at luring luxury brands and HNWIs into the consumer fold. So what is this brave new strategy? Read more     Luxury brands still not convinced about Facebook?   This being Black Friday in the US, and the topic of spending money being very much in the news, here's an interesting study on the latter: BusinessInsider.com has put together a list of the 35 biggest advertisers on Facebook this year. And guess what? Despite all that lip service paid to interaction and transparency and so on and so forth, there's only ONE luxury brand on it. Also only one fashion brand. And they are probably not the ones you would expect. Read more         Manage email    Forward this email   Feedback    Manage portfolio Subscribe to the FT Follow the FT   Unsubscribe | My Account | RSS | Privacy Policy | About Us | Help   © THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2013 You have received this email because you have signed up from the NBE preference page. 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