Aviteur Brand Goes From Strength to Strength in Travel Luggage.

 

We like deserved success stories, and in our view, Aviteur fits the bill.  Helmed by Patricia Gucci, of the Gucci family, the company has been producing high quality cabin luggage for the past few years, and in a crowded marketplace, it presents an alternative of sorts.

The four wheeled luggage is clad in supple leather, and covered in a woven pattern not unlike Bottega, but different enough to make it stand out.  

The touch which really makes these stand out from competitors is the lucite extending handle.  This affords them a feeling they are 'gliding' as they move along, an arresting image, and one which is quite striking.  

We have to leave room for the possibility that Ms Gucci is merely a figurehead, and has no connection to the output, and this I just a clever marketing stunt.  That works only in so far as the products, and here, they pass muster.  

The original cabin luggage that set the ball rolling retails from £6,153.00, and they have recently expanded their range to include small leather goods and other luggage pieces.  We hope they succeed, and aren't purchased by LVMH leading to them being stripped of everything that makes them special. 

 

VIPP Launches Impractical Outdoor Furniture

 

The images presented here seem like they show a range of minimal, Scandinavian type furniture, ready for any sympathetic environment.  However, the truth of matter is that these are intended to be outdoor furniture.  The new range from VIPP, the Danish brand best known for their high concept bins, have debuted this range of interior pieces which according to them are eminently suitable for the outdoors.  The only problem is, no they're not.

Anyone with even the most minimal experience of outdoor furniture will see a glaring and significant issue with these, which for the untrained eye is the upholstery.  These being woven makes them completely impractical for outdoor use.  The fact is, woven fabrics create gaps, which moisture can enter into, this means that ambient moisture in the environment seeps into a product, and saturates and degrades it.  This is why the rare examples of outdoor fabrics are solid flat weave nylons that don't allow water to get through the outer surface.  But it gets worse.

Not only is the woven design impractical, the material theses are made from is not synthetic, it is a natural fibre, in particular, yarn.  This isn't something VIPP appear to want consumers to immediately know, they call the fabric "Dune" and it's necessary to really dig into the website and surrounding material to discover this is yarn.  Even then it's quite Delphic, leaving open ended what it's truly composed of.  However, anyone with a modicum of common sense will know that natural fibres can't be used outdoors, as the elements will utterly destroy them in no time at all.

What this means is that anyone who want's to use these will need to remove all the upholstery and pack it away every time they come to recline in their garden furniture, and set it up every time when they want to use it.  Relaxing early morning sit on the porch watching the sunrise?  Nope, got to get all the cushions set up first.  Chill evening then off to bed after a drink with friends, nope, got to pack up all those cushions, it might rain!  Summer tea with friends in the garden?  Better check the weather report first.

This is sad in out view, VIPP is a brand we love, and strongly support their high quality products.  We love the expansion of their products to incorporate more diverse products.  Also, their furniture is quite stylish.  But this is a swing and a miss.  The prices are at least relatively reasonable, staring at £545 for the basic chairs.

ERL Statement Flip Flops Attract Needless Controversy

 

ERL, the namesake brand of the photographer Eli Russel Linnetz, has been producing the type of decent, high quality casuals that typify LA brands like James Perse and Pasadena Leisure Club.  Their pieces have never been inexpensive, with sweats being in the £400.00 region, but they've been attracting controversy for their Flip Flops.  Which as our title suggest is quite unnecessary.

The Brand has produced three versions, the low, with a 1 inch sole for £205.00, the big, with a 5 inch sole, for £407.00, and the huge, with an 8 inch sole, for £1390.00.

Online media has written a great deal on the fact that ERL are on the face of it selling $1,500 Flip Flops "in this economy", however a child should be able to see this is clearly a marketing move.  The only model 90% of consumers might buy is the 1 inch model, and at £205.00 it's relatively reasonable in the luxury Flip Flop market.  For example, the Hermes Oran sandal is £510.00 and Brunello Cucinelli's rubber Flip Flop is £350.00.  ERL's standard model is therefore, in universe, quite reasonable.

The other models are designed to get tongues wagging.  Which worked.  Because, like it or not, even as meta commentary, we are discussing it. Well done ERL, well played.

LVMH's Loro Piana Faces Legal Challenges over Worker Exploitation.

 

While we enjoy consumption, as demonstrated by hours of blurb, an aspect of the luxury goods industry often ignored is the workers that assemble them.  It is extremely easy as a luxury goods consumer to imagine that all the goods we enjoy are crafted in quaint workshops in small French or Italian villages, with sunshine streaming through the antique critall windows, and workers who have regular breaks, and enjoy a glass of fine wine while considering the beautiful artisanal products they produce.  Or diligent young tailoring apprentices full of hope for the bright future when they start their own brands, sweating away in shop basements in cool centrally located areas, going to meet their young friends at trendy bars when they finally finish that customers garment.  The reality is however far more depressing, and quite dark.

This reality has had a light shone into it over the past year, with the workshops of LVMH owned Dior, the Valentino Group, and Armani Group, all being placed under administration by Italian courts for poor treatment of workers.  Another of LVMH's brands, Loro Piana, has now also received this sanction as of May 20 2025.

According to publicly available information form the Court transcripts, Chinese immigrant workers in the factory outside of Milan, 5 of whom were not documented as having entered the country, were kept in unsanitary conditions, forced to work 90-hour work weeks, beaten, and faced wages being withheld.  These wages incidentally, were €4 per hour, meaning a $5,000 cashmere jacket would cost around €118 in labour.

There's very little to add to this.  It's a harrowing tale, which exposes that LVMH, a brand we have repeatedly criticised for it's sanitising and deadening effect on the luxury goods market, is in fact allowing practices which can only be described as despicable to be carried out in their factories.  The counterargument is of course they are not directly involved, as the abuses are perpetrated by contractors they instruct.  But that's a pretty pathetic argument, as when the labour for your garment costs you probably €150 maximum, what did you think is happening to those workers?  It is amusing however that while these brands have such sterile aesthetics, under the surface they are mired in filth.

Vollebak SpaceShop for Bang Olufsen Anodised Aluminium Beosound 2 Vollebak Edition and Vollebak Anodised Jacket

 

 

We've written about Vollebak before, which is unsurprising as we discuss luxury goods and Vollebak price points put it firmly into the luxury goods category.  However, Vollebak, started by two English brothers in 2016, creates unusual pieces.  For example a Graphene jacket we wrote about.  It's pretty reasonable to observe therefore that either due to an understanding of marketing, or desire to stand out, their projects and products are not pedestrian.  The latest set of releases from them tends to suggest they enjoy both spectacle, and are excellent at marketing.

The project is in fact quite difficult to understand conventionally.  What the brand has done is engaged Saga Space Architects, a company which designs products used in the International Space Station, and Bang & Olufsen, which needs no introduction, and created a pop up shop designed like a space ship.

It's quite easy to dismiss this as merely a marketing gimmick to sell two new products, a speaker and a jacket.  Which principally is right, but that would entirely fail in our view to appreciate the level of creativity and craftsmanship that went into this.  We often write about tired cliches of brands collaborating to produce nothing other than an existing product in a new colour, and repeatedly level criticism at the profound lack of creativity in the obvious attention grabbing creations designed for attention only of brands such as Louis Vuitton.  Yet to fail to be even slightly impressed by the SpaceShop suggests a person lacks heart.  Just look at the way they positioned the Beosound 2's, they're like little laser guns on the front of this space fighter jet.

As for the products, the Vollebak jacket is made from the same type of anodised aluminium which NASA makes it's astronaut garments out of, and which are given to participants in race's to insulate, and costs £2,995.  While the speaker is an unusual design.  We don't mean to sound effusive in our praise here, but we often criticise Bang & Olufsen as precisely one of the brands that lacks creativity, by committing the sin of releasing a different colour and charging more.  However with this they have created something quite unusual.  The finish looks different enough to justify the premium, and it's priced at £4,450.

After its debut in Copenhagen the SpaceShop will tour the world.  It's a matter for you whether you're enthused by the jacket and speaker.  But we feel whatever you think of the products, it behooves you to be impressed at the presentation, and of the SpaceShop.

Sotherby's Hermes Bag Sale demonstrates collectable market remains lucrative

F Scott Fitzgerald never said "the Rich are different from us", and Ernest Hemingway didn't reply, "yes they have more money".   This often referenced fictional exchange is best exemplified in no other market than art and collectibles.  Things of no other value than what those are willing to pay for them.

For some time now second hand fashion items have comprised part of the collectibles market, and this met it's final boss so to speak at auction in Sotherby's New York on 10 July 2025 for $10 million.

There's little to say on this.  Item's like this selling in this manner transcend concepts of value, and clearly represent something other than supply or demand.  Another example being the Leonardo Da Vinci Salvatore Mundi painting which was bought by the leader of Saudi Arabia for $450 million, who then gave it as a gift to the leader of the United Arab Emirates.  All while the provenance of the work remains in question.  

These sales and purchases, they transmit power, dominance, and ownership. They display wealth, and move money around in ways that aren't possible by other vehicles.  Or allow for tax write offs.  In the case of this handbag, it was purchased by Valuance Japan, a luxury goods reseller.  The purpose here is therefore quite clear.  A signal of Valuance's importance, free advertising drawing consumers to them, while simultaneously increasing the overall value of the second hand handbag market.

 

Anish Kapoor Limited Edition Remy Martin XO Cognac adds nothing

 

Celebrity collaborations, as we have often noted, are either pointless cash grabs, or particular and specific expressions of a creator and a brand.  The new Anish Kapoor Remy Martin XO Cognac falls firmly into the first camp, being at best pointless, at worst insulting.

According to Kapoor in a press release for this collaboration Remy Martin has special associations for the artist, as their father often drank it, and it had connotations of sophistication which that they wanted to express this with their collaboration. We can't help feeling they failed.  There really doesn't seem anything to distinguish this release from the standard XO, other than the rose gold coloured top, and slightly smoothed bottle shape. 

You really get the sense that LVMH's marketing department sent a couple of emails to Kapoor's team, and a fee for their name was negotiated, after which a few designs were sent over, one of which Kapoor gave a nod to.  Nothing makes this stand out from normal XO, and other than the price, which appears to be about a 15% premium on standard XO at £195 a bottle, it's pretty forgettable in our view.  

Dyson Admit Defeat and finally Discontinue Zone Air-Purifier Headphones

 

A few years ago Dyson announced their Air-Purifier headphones.  We predicted they would fail, and we appear to have been proven correct, as they've been discontinued, without any replacement announced.  In fact the ignominy is pretty extreme, with stockists foolish enough to buy sets not even able to shift them for £200 new, a whopping 75% off their initial retail price.

In fact, we went further than just saying they might or would fail.  We suggested it was an April Fool's joke as they seemed so ludicrous (here), and after it was finally released we maintained the position it was an April Fools joke, but that a senior Dyson Engineer got so upset about the ridicule, they decided to to make them (here).

We haven't changed our mind.  This sad experiment has limped along since 2022, and we have only seen a pair once in London, and we laughed, loudly.  There is simply no escaping the fact they look incredibly stupid.  But worse than that, they never even did anything particularly useful.  If they were some sort of rebreather, that would one thing.  But they just blew cold air at your face.  

Goodbye Zone, and good riddance. We look forward to the next joke of a product an over-sensitive Engineer decides to make out of spite after seeing how ridiculous people think they or their company is.