Daily LInks
1. Lawmaker Seeks Investigation That Could Ban Shein in the US. A member of Congress who co-sponsored the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is asking a Department of Homeland Security task force to investigate fast-fashion retailer Shein and potentially ban it from the US. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. AI researchers uncover ethical, legal risks to using popular data sets. An audit of 1,800 data sets on sites such as Hugging Face, GitHub, etc. found that about 70% didn’t specify what license should be used or had been mislabeled with more-permissive guidelines than their creators intended. – Read More on the Washington Post
3. If Amazon, why not Walmart? Both companies sell fresh food, in addition to T-shirts and coffee tables. Walmart, which bought Jet.com in 2016 for $3 billion, is also just as discerning when it comes to online pricing. – Read More on Reuters
4. Tech Over Luxury: Consumers Flock to Devices Over Fashion. A swing towards tech further cements an increasingly evident trend—a craving for digital experiences and technological advancements. Reliance on tech and the overwhelming value offered by the digital realm suggests that luxury fashion is now relegated to the background. – Read More on Newsweek
5. Kering’s Picky Shoppers Shun Gucci. Kering is trying to revive its top label, Gucci, just as the environment gets tough. Last month, the brand’s new designer showed his first collection, but it’s still too early to say whether it has been a success. – Read More on the WSJ
1. The Problem with Counterfeit People. Computer scientists have the capacity to create almost indelible patterns that will scream FAKE! under almost all conditions—so long as the manufacturers of cellphones, computers, digital TVs, and other devices cooperate by installing the software that will interrupt any fake messages with a warning. – Read More on the Atlantic
2. AI developers are failing on transparency, new index shows. Unless AI companies are more forthcoming about the inner workings, training data and impacts of their most advanced tools, users will never be able to fully understand the risks associated with AI, and experts will never be able to mitigate them. – Read More on Axios
3. How Nike Fell Behind in the Innovation Race. From design concept to store shelves, footwear development at Nike can take about 18 months. The pandemic, and subsequent supply-chain snarls, messed with Nike’s production pipeline. It is also working through inventory problems. – Read More on the WSJ
4. Taco Bell’s battle to free the “Taco Tuesday” trademark is officially over. Gregory’s surrender marks the final hurdle of Taco Bell’s legal battle of eliminating the trademark from its two holders. – Read More on CNN
5. Brunello Cucinelli’s billion-dollar growth formula. for the first time in history, Brunello Cucinelli has purchased part of the supply chain: as you mentioned, we partnered with Chanel to buy part of Cariaggi. Chanel and Cucinelli own 24.5 percent each. – Read More on McKinsey
6. Hermès records industry-beating growth as sales rise 16%. Luxury goods seller Hermès International on Tuesday said its sales continued to grow in the third quarter, on the back of “sustained momentum in Asia and in the Americas,” despite fears around a slowdown in the wider luxury sector. – Read More on MarketWatch
1. Will the watch industry profit from going green? The luxury watch industry is in a unique position to grow its business by reducing its production while charging more for its products, but the momentum is clearly toward more production. – Read More on WatchPro
2. This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AI. The tool, called Nightshade, could damage future iterations of image-generating AI models, such as DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, by rendering some of their outputs useless—dogs become cats, cars become cows, and so forth. – Read More on MIT Tech Review
3. Why actors are fighting for AI protections. Advancements in AI that can replicate performers’ voices, appearances and movements raise critical concerns about individuals’ control over their own likenesses — and how lifelike replicas are used to generate profit or spread disinformation. – Read More on the Hill
4. Luxury slowdown further challenges Gucci revival. Shoppers in Europe and the United States are cutting down on high-end purchases, while the sector’s performance in China – a key growth engine – is complicated by record high youth unemployment and a property crisis. – Read More on Reuters
5. How a $100 Sweatshirt Is Taking on European Fashion Houses. Lorenzo has pulled this off by building not one collection, but three. There is his high-end main line; Essentials, the economical label built on $100 hoodies and $95 sweats; and the third and latest brand, Athletics, is a sportswear-focused line produced in partnership with Adidas. – Read More on the WSJ
1. Niche luxury: less bling can mean ka-ching for top brands. Quiet luxury eschews bling. This is something that the confident, wealthy buyer increasingly prefers, especially in China. Almost half of Chinese high-end fashion buyers prefer minimal logos and timeless clothing pieces. – Read More on the FT
2. RELATED READ: What Does Quiet Luxury Mean from a Trademark Perspective? Fashion/luxury’s biggest brands may be most synonymous with their well-known word marks, logos, and famous monogram prints, but research suggests that trade dress and other types of trademarks can play just as a big a role when it comes to consumers’ purchasing decisions. – Read More on TFL
3. These Companies Have All Sued Their Workers’ Unions Claiming Trademark Infringement. In addition to Starbucks, Medieval Times and Trader Joe’s have made trademark claims against their respective workers’ unions. – Read More on HuffPost
4. How the Fashion Industry Uses Generative AI. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has numerous applications in the world of fashion, including the creation of new designs, as a way of tailoring marketing campaigns, and as a tool to help personalize a customer’s shopping experience, among others. – Read More on Decrypt
5. Three Things I Learned About What’s Next in AI. Meta’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, said there’s room for neutral bots and more playful options. This sort of AI messaging capability will soon help businesses more efficiently answer customer questions on Meta’s platforms. – Read More on the WSJ
6. AI is causing panic for authors. Now the courts are involved. OpenAI, for its part, has contended that training an AI system falls under fair use protections, especially given the extent to which AI transforms the underlying training data into something new. – Read More on the LA Times
1. After US IPO stumbles, companies under pressure to offer bargains. Companies pursuing U.S. IPOs after a string of lackluster stock market debuts are receiving advice from investment bankers to lower their valuation expectations. – Read More on Reuters
2. Shein opens up about forced labor, data privacy as it looks to clear key hurdles before possible U.S. IPO. Shein says that data on American consumers is stored in the U.S. and it’s taking steps to expand its supply chain outside of China. – Read More on CNBC
3. Sanctions Fail to Stop Kim Jong Un Snapping Up Luxury Watches, Bags. The volume of the products imported to North Korea from areas near its borders with Russia and China has been recovered from the second half of last year following a slump during the pandemic. – Read More on Bloomberg
4. As North Korea Continues to Boost its Imports, a Look at the Role of Luxury in the Hermit Kingdom. The Seoul-based Korea Herald asserts that “since the young dictator Kim Jong-un took over the regime in 2012, luxury item imports have continued to rise.” – Read More on TFL
5. As Google pushes deeper into AI, publishers see fresh challenges. Since May, Google has begun rolling out a new form of search powered by GenAI, after industry observers questioned the tech giant’s future prominence in providing consumers with information following the rise of OpenAI’s query-answering chatbot, ChatGPT. – Read More on Reuters
6. How Meta and AI companies recruited striking actors to train AI. Hollywood actors are on strike over concerns about the use of AI, but for as little as $300, Meta and a company called Realeyes hired them to make avatars appear more human. – Read More on MIT Tech Review
1. Sustainability: Lawmakers begin to catch up with fast fashion industry. Part of the machine operating the fast fashion business model is the constant dumping and destruction of goods, exacerbated by online sales and mail order returns. – Read More on IBA
2. Chanel tops second-hand luxury market as shoppers embrace resale trends. Based on data from Jan. to Sept. 2023, covering purchases, consignments, and completed sales in Korea, Chanel topped the list of the most popular luxury brand for resale this year, followed by Hermès, Rolex, Louis Vuitton, and Cartier. – Read More on Inside Retail
3. Sick of It All Sue Mobb Deep and Supreme for Trademark Infringement. The hardcore band accuses the streetwear brand and the rap group of copying its dragon logo for a capsule collection. – Read More on Pitchfork (and find the complaint here)
4. As Snap Seals Its AR Fate, Brands Dive Deeper Into Augmented Retail. Retailers are turning to augmented reality to craft consumer experiences that not only resonate and leave a lasting impression but also instill greater confidence in the brand, ultimately motivating consumers to make a purchase. – Read More on PYMNTS
5. Entrupy Becomes an Official TikTok Shop Authenticator. Entrupy is bringing its luxury authentication to social media, announcing its official partnership with TikTok as an official TikTok Shop authenticator in the U.S. – Read More on Yahoo
6. RELATED READ: As TikTok Prepares for U.S. E-Commerce, Could it Be Looking to Luxury Resale? A number of signs suggest that TikTok might make a fully-fledged luxury resale play as part of its impending stateside e-commerce push. – Read More on TFL
1. Pressure rises on online retailers to fight fakes. “The two acts together, one for transparency and one for liability, are needed, and they tie into the two major efforts to curtail the distribution of counterfeit products in our country right now.” – Read More on Roll Call
2. Google says data-scraping lawsuit would take ‘sledgehammer’ to generative AI. Google has asked a California federal court to dismiss a proposed class action lawsuit that claims the company’s scraping of data to train generative artificial-intelligence systems violates millions of people’s privacy and property rights. – Read More on Reuters
3. ‘Made in Germany’ Won’t Go Out of Fashion, Bundesbank’s Nagel Says. “As far as I’m concerned, ‘Made in Germany’ will continue to be a sought-after and successful trademark.” – Read More on Yahoo
4. Amex Trendex Reveals the Latest Trends in Luxury Shopping, Travel, and Dining. With the rise of trends like ‘Stealth Wealth’ and ‘Quiet Luxury,’ consumers are focused on sustainability and craftsmanship when shopping for luxury goods. – Read More on AmEx
5. Getting ESG Reporting Ready and Uninsurable Risks. One of the things that keeps Ann Tracy, chief sustainability officer at consumer products company Colgate-Palmolive, up at night is that compiling sustainability data is very onerous and manual. – Read More on the WSJ
6. The US Just Escalated Its AI Chip War With China. The American government has tightened its restrictions on exports of chips and chipmaking equipment, closing loopholes that let Chinese companies access advanced technology. – Read More on Wired
1. Adobe has a plan for AI art and copyrights, but can it work? Adobe places responsibility on contributors to disclose AI-generated content, but the system isn’t without fault and artists have complained of infringement on Adobe Stock after people began adding AI art to the library generated using rival tools. – Read More on Creative Bloq
2. China proposes blacklist of training data for generative AI models. China has published proposed security requirements for firms offering services powered by generative artificial intelligence, including a blacklist of sources that cannot be used to train AI models. – Read More on Reuters
3. D2C Brands Increasingly Take Over NYC Retail with Brick-and-Mortar Shops. Even brands that do not typically sell physical products are finding ways to leverage physical spaces to drive customer connections, with Netflix planning to open retail stores in 2025 to sell clothing and merch related to its shows. – Read More on PYMNTS
4. Trader Joe’s lawsuit against a similarly named crypto firm may not be “a slam dunk.” Even if Trade Joe’s wins in court, that may not be enough. That’s because the company has only identified one person behind the trading site – a Chinese national in Singapore – and listed the other defendants as John Does, meaning it likely will struggle to enforce any court victory it obtains. – Read More on Fortune
5. H&M Plans Debut Green Bond as Fast Fashion Pushes Sustainability. The company is holding investor calls with an expected €500 million ($843 million) eight-year green offering set to follow. H&M already has debt tied to sustainability targets such as emissions cuts and recycling. – Read More on Bloomberg
6. Hollywood’s AI issues are far from settled after writers’ labor deal with studios. As it stands, the industry faces several questions about AI and writing now that the deal is ratified, particularly about copyright law, detection of AI usage and how studios will behave. – Read More on CNBC
1. America can’t resist fast fashion. Shein is tailored for it. Shein shoppers are mostly Generation Z and millennial women, and while these consumers are worried about the environment and seeking sustainability, Shein broke through, tailor-made for our age of social media and microtrends. – Read More on NPR
2. Fashion brands want you to be able to identify counterfeits. Authentique is just one version of a so-called digital ID or passport: a digitized ‘twin’ of a designer piece that allows buyers to verify it is genuine and track its life cycle. – Read More on CNN
3. LVMH is suffering a vibe shift in the luxury business. It has been safe recently to bet on growing wealth, rising inequality and aspirational buying in China and other countries. But even ultra-luxury department stores think that some handbags have become (whisper it) too expensive. – Read More on the FT
4. Consumers Are Less Interested in Brands Taking Stances on Sociopolitical Issues, Survey Finds. People expect companies to take action on pay equity, healthcare and climate change, according to an annual Gallup survey on business in society, but have decreased interest in sociopolitical stands. – Read More on the WSJ
5. Google to defend generative AI users from copyright claims. Google will defend users of generative artificial-intelligence systems in its Google Cloud and Workspace platforms if they are accused of IP violations, joining Microsoft, Adobe and other co. that have made similar pledges. – Read More on Reuters
6. ICYMI: Extreme weather may cost the global fashion industry $65 billion by 2030. Major garment manufacturing centers including Dhaka, Phnom Penh, Karachi, Lahore, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi are already confronting extreme heat and humidity. – Read More on CNN
1. New Laws on Kids and Social Media Are Stymied by Industry Lawsuits. Federal judges in three states have blocked children’s privacy and parental oversight laws, saying they very likely violate free speech rights. – Read More on the NY Times
2. Why Luxury’s Loss Could Be Big Tech’s Gain. Tech stocks remain red hot amid a potential cool-down in demand for luxury goods. – Read More on Barron’s
3. The power of the luxury carrier bag. A curious parallel market has emerged in used luxury product packaging on sites such as eBay, where large paper Céline carriers are listed for about £25 each. – Read More on the FT
4. LVMH catches the eye with high-end lab-created diamonds – just don’t call them fake. The most interesting part of this article, the fact that it was “refiled to replace ‘fake’ and ‘synthetic’ with ‘lab-created’ throughout the story and the headline.” – Read More on Reuters
5. The AI revolution is coming. Invest in $10,000 handbags. While you would have done very well by owning a portfolio of US tech stocks since the mid-1990s, “the pre-eminent growth sector” has been French luxury stocks. – Read More on the Guardian
6. “Repair is the new cool.” Amsterdam has the ambition and appetite for radical, necessary change – it aims to go fully “circular” (creating zero waste and using zero new materials) by 2050. – Read More on the Guardian