Nina Mae Fowler, Love VI. Copyright the artist, courtesy of COB Gallery

The Stand is a new digital art platform that raises money for charitable causes through curated online auctions, featuring works by early to mid career artists. Here, LUX speaks to the company director Beth Greenacre about the aims of the initiative, millennial collectors and addressing the art world’s gender imbalance

1. How did the concept for The Stand come about?

The Stand was the brainchild of Robin Woodhead, former Chairman of Sotheby’s International. When the pandemic hit, and live fundraising events were cancelled many charities started turning to artists to donate work. The strain this puts on artists, who are effectively donating work for free, can be difficult at the best of times and especially so during the last twelve months. It was clear to us that artists also needed support and so The Stand was born, a sustainable social impact model which puts the artist at the centre, whilst enabling them to donate a proportion of the sale price of their work to causes they feel passionate about.

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2. Why do you think collectors are becoming more comfortable with buying art online?

I have long been a believer in the potential of the internet to bring art to wide audiences. In 2000, David Bowie and I launched the Bowie Art website to support emerging artists and provide a platform to connect them with new audiences. People said we were mad and that no-one would look at art online; we had over a million hits most weeks and people still talk about it today as a place where they discovered now well-known artists. Much has changed since then; more and more of us research artists online and connect with them and the galleries we love. For collectors and the art market, the online space has opened accessibility and participation. Add to this the fact that millennials are the biggest spenders in the art market and most comfortable buying online and the digital imperative grows stronger.

Anna Liber Lewis, Bocat, 2015, Oil on canvas. This work is part of the ‘desire series’. Copyright and courtesy of the artist.

3. How did you select the artists to include in the The Female Gaze auction and are there any works that you’re particularly excited about?

I am excited about all the artists that I have selected for our first auction. There are many things that unite them, not just that they are non-binary or female identifying but that they all explore the female form through their practice, a subject that has historically been colonised by men. As someone who has navigated the art world as a woman, they really resonate with me.

Read more: The rise of millennial art collectors

Female artists still sell less than men and are not as well represented at auction. It was important to me to launch The Stand with an auction that raises awareness of issues in the art world. Each of these artists deserve our attention, and let’s not forget, the investment potential of all marginalised artists is incredible.

4. Why did you make the decision to focus on early to mid-career artists?

There has been a growing divide in the top and low ends of the market for years. It is harder for early to mid-career artists and their galleries to be seen and so it’s important that we give these artists visibility. I have long wanted to see a more holistic art market and in supporting and celebrating artists in their early to mid-careers and connecting them directly with collectors I believe that we will strengthen their market position and the market as a whole. For our collectors there is also great growth potential in terms of value.

Gill Button, Eve, 2020, Oil on linen. Copyright and courtesy of the artist

5. What are your predictions for the art world post pandemic?

I believe that our priorities and values will shift dramatically. I think Covid-19 has brought environmental and social issues to the fore with unexpected urgency. I believe that the commitment towards social impact investing that we saw before Covid will continue to grow. In the art world, I hope artists, collectors and galleries will want to do more and bring about change. I am proud of the The Stand as a sustainable social impact model which celebrates the artist.

6. Now that galleries and museums are opening, what are you most looking forward to seeing?

I am seeing Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Zanele Muholi, both at Tate, this week and I cannot wait. Lynette was one of the first artists that appeared on Bowie Art. I am also looking forward to seeing friends and colleagues in the art world now we can do so with more ease.

The Stand’s inaugural auction “The Female Gaze” is now open for registration and bidding. Find out more: thestand.art

Marie-Claire Daveu with Elodie Brunstein of ecological engineers Solicaz in French Guiana. Image by Magneto.

The Kering group, owner of Gucci and Bottega Veneta, led the luxury industry by pioneering a sustainability strategy years ago. Marie-Claire Daveu, who spearheaded this move, explains how environmental accounting and the blue economy are good for business, consumers and the planet

DEUTSCHE BANK WEALTH MANAGEMENT x LUX

Marie-Claire Daveu. © Benoît Peverelli

The fashion industry is dependent upon nature’s resources to manufacture. It is also a vast industry and, unfortunately, one of the most polluting. This means we have a specific responsibility to act now and transform our business model to mitigate the diminution of resources, loss of biodiversity and climate change that we already see affecting our industry and our planet. Sustainability is not an option; it is a necessity. And it demands definitive action from the fashion industry and beyond.

The blue economy in particular has to be a huge focus for everyone. The oceans are the lungs of the Earth, producing more than half the world’s oxygen and helping regulate our weather. But in the past few hundred years they have absorbed vast amounts of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions, raising their temperature and changing their chemistry and ecosystems. Marine animals and humans rely on the oceans to live, and the only way to mitigate the harm being done is to change the way we operate here on land – from reducing plastic and chemical waste to choosing renewable energy sources where possible.

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Kering has already implemented a series of measures specifically in recognition of the rapidly degrading ocean environment. We have been working for years to preserve ocean biodiversity via programmes and partnerships with recognised associations – most recently, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). And in 2017, our chairman and CEO, François-Henri Pinault, presented the Fashion Pact to the G7, incorporating ocean protection as one of its main environmental goals. It proposes a set of concrete actions, such as the adoption of pollution controls to safeguard the rivers and oceans from chemicals released through the fashion production processes; and compels companies to develop innovations that will eliminate microfibre pollution from the washing of synthetic materials.

Such innovation is vital to growing a sustainable blue economy. In 2017, we committed to reducing our environmental footprint by 40 per cent by 2025, and half of that reduction will come from innovation, which is crucial if we want to bring new solutions into our business model.

Today, we are looking for and investing in innovations that can address blue economy challenges, including closed-loop recycling, alternative materials and sustainable sourcing. But there is still a long way to go. One of the main challenges the blue economy is facing is plastic, used to pack, transport and store garments. The fashion industry needs to urgently tackle polybag-packaging waste. One possible innovation has been developed by the Plastics Packaging Project – a Fashion for Good initiative supported by a coalition of companies, including Kering. The project aims to reduce the impact and use of plastic packaging, and recently launched a pilot for the collection and recycling of garment polybags. They will be transformed into new plastic film products, closing the loop and dramatically reducing the amount of plastic waste that often ends up in our waterways.

Kering’s Materials Innovation Lab. Image by Jean-Luc Perreard

Transparency will be vital to the longevity of such initiatives. Studies show that millennials and Generation Z are very sensitive to sustainability – with a keen focus on traceability. They also have very high expectations. Generation Z entering the workforce, together with increasing sustainability questions from consumers, will drive further efforts in the fashion industry and increased transparency around a product’s origins.

Read more: These photographer-activists are capturing underwater beauty

Corporate sustainability agendas must take into account a product’s entire impact, from the raw materials to products reaching clients. At Kering, this has become an essential part of our products’ excellence, and we have made that process transparent through the creation of our Environmental Profit and Loss (EP&L) system, which measures, monetises and monitors the full environmental impact of a company’s operations across the entire supply chain, including greenhouse gas emissions, water use, water and air pollution, waste production and land use change. When you think about what is behind luxury, sustainability is often already built in: we use the highest quality raw materials; our products are made by skilled craftspeople; and some of them are passed down from generation to generation. They have to be perfect; even their sustainability must be perfect.

Building a sustainability strategy is about taking your whole supply chain and its impacts into account, and activating programmes to mitigate these impacts. The blue economy can be fully part of an environmental policy, and sustainability as a whole should be very much integrated in a company’s strategy. As an example, we know that the high-quality raw materials in luxury goods are ‘pre-designed’ for circularity, because of their value and versatility. But brands can extend product life cycles even further by employing recycled and upcycled materials. One blue-economy example within our supply chain is our collaboration with Econyl, makers of regenerated nylon yarn made of recycled fishnets, textile and industrial nylon waste. It has the same high quality as less sustainable alternatives, but can be endlessly regenerated.

Innovative collaborations such as these are the answer to accelerating sustainability. Our collaboration with IPBES is helping to strengthen the evidence base for better informed decisions about nature. And our EP&L hackathon in October 2019 brought developers and sustainability experts together to create digital tools that provide greater transparency around fashion’s footprint.

The message is clear: we want to play a pivotal role in leading the shift towards a sustainable future, but we can’t do it alone. Our action must be science-based and results-oriented. The private sector, governments and international organisations need to collaborate to protect nature and build a globally sustainable economy.

I am a very optimistic person, and I can see that a real shift has happened recently. Sustainability is at the heart of every conversation, both from companies and media, and this is a very good sign. Now it’s time for implementation, with unwavering determination. Fashion’s influence holds the key to accelerating those sustainable practices, both within our industry and beyond.

Marie-Claire Daveu is Kering’s chief sustainability officer.

Find out more: kering.com/en/sustainability

This article originally appeared in the LUX x Deutsche Bank Wealth Management Blue Economy Special in the Summer 2020 Issue.

Portia Antonia Alexis is a leading consumer business analyst, neuroeconomist and mathematician

Portia Antonia Alexis is a neuroeconomist and consumer goods analyst specialising in the luxury and beauty sector. Following the publication of a recent research paper entitled ‘The Global Elite,’ the McKinsey alumnus speaks to LUX about how populism is just another form of protection for ingrained elites, why more women will become entrepreneurs, and how self-made billionaires are not always what they seem

LUX: Recent elections in the US, UK and elsewhere have returned a populist message. Yet US President Donald Trump and UK PM Boris Johnson are part of the elite themselves, and their elections are benefitting the elite more than anyone else. How can this be?
Portia Antonia Alexis: Right-wing populism emerges when the political and economic status quo fails the majority of people. Populist politicians build their base by constructing an in-group – in this case, hardworking white Britons – and pitching themselves as the champions of this “oppressed” group. They then blame the out-group – Muslims, migrants and scroungers – for the hardships everyone else is suffering.

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In doing so, they channel widespread anger away from the powerful – the economic and political elites – and towards the powerless.  They may claim to be tearing up the status quo, but their fundamental objective is to protect capitalist institutions when they are at their most fragile.

This strategy extends into the realm of policy. Johnson’s electoral agenda – from clamping down on crime to ending freedom of movement within the EU – will polarise politics around an opposition between white, working-class Britons versus migrants and welfare scroungers. He will declare himself tough on crime and migration while casting his opponents as out-of-touch elites who don’t understand the concerns of ordinary people.

Right-wing populism must be seen for what I think it is: a symptom of a crumbling capitalist order that no longer promises a better future for most people.

LUX: An increasing number of super-wealthy are self-made. Is this good?
Portia Antonia Alexis: This question reminds me of the controversial Forbes cover story naming Kylie Jenner a “self-made” billionaire.

Critics cited that it was irresponsible for that magazine not to address how Jenner’s family fame helped her amass her fortune. And it’s true, in a way. Calling Jenner self-made connotes a sense of empowerment and a narrative that she lifted herself by her bootstraps. In contrast, her successful company is not so much the result of being self-made but rather an extension of the already successful empire that’s driven by her sisters.

Most bottomless pockets, not just Jenner, consider themselves entirely “self-made.” Rich people are very conflicted about their entitlement. To cope with this conflict, many simply pretend to be self-made. President Trump is a glaring example. Even though he grew up wealthy, he introduces himself as an entrepreneur.

The best evidence of this bias to claim “self-made” status? The annual September release of the Forbes magazine list of America’s 400 richest.

The necessary conclusion from these findings: Forbes is spinning “a misleading tale of what it takes to become wealthy in America.” Most of the Forbes 400 have benefited from a level of privilege unknown to the vast majority of Americans.

Read more: Inside artist Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar’s Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat studio

LUX: When will women start to have a significant presence in the ranks of the super-wealthy?
Portia Antonia Alexis: While women still represent a relatively small part of the billionaire community, they are a continuously growing segment. Perhaps more interesting is that the percentage increase in self-made women was more significant than the rise in the number of billionaires overall, which could signal a change in who will create and control wealth moving forward.

Much of the increase in super-rich women is due to entrepreneurship. These women, like all self-made successes, exhibit several core characteristics. For example, they typically have high levels of self-efficacy, are adept at strategic networking, and are accomplished negotiators.

Women that have created their wealth are different from those that marry or inherit their wealth in several essential ways. They are more willing to take calculated business risks, and they are often motivated to take steps to enlarge and enhance their fortunes through new business ventures, sophisticated tax and investment strategies, and the creation of family offices.

There is unconscious bias in the system, though. I believe many men would like to see more women at the top. I don’t think they’re all actively trying to keep women out, but some discrimination still exists.

I am confident that we will achieve gender parity in top income generation over the next generation. The girl who can dominate a field of robots is a woman who can dominate a field of men.

LUX: As millennials mature, will the nature of consumption change?
Portia Antonia Alexis: Millennials are less wealthy than people were in the past, which makes them very price-sensitive for brands and products that are not differentiated from competitors. But while they have less money, they are very value-focused and are willing – thanks to their parents’ finances – to pay for quality or status.

And they are very tech-savvy, having grown up on the internet and with smartphones. They are well-informed and quick to adopt new technologies. Finally, they are into health and wellness, taking a more active role in physical fitness than keeping to an ideal weight or getting enough sleep.

LUX: Are millennials and Gen Z investing more into the ESG and impact investing sectors, or is it lip service?

Portia Antonia Alexis: When investing, millennials are committed to environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices. They want to be responsible investors.

In the early days, this mainly amounted to the exclusion of investments exposed to industries such as tobacco, alcohol or armaments. Still, it is now turning to broader ESG and sustainability policies. For example, we are increasingly asked about board diversity: millennials want to know how many women are on boards or in senior management.

Millennials are not the end of the generational transformation of consumption patterns. Some 77 million members of Generation Z, also known as centennials, have been born since 1997 – making them as large a cohort as the millennials. They are the most diverse generation, with almost half of them belonging to a minority group.

The potential for higher returns from companies that position themselves to benefit from the changing consumption patterns of millennials and centennials should make them especially attractive for investors.

Read more: How Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah is establishing itself as a cultural hub

LUX: Can you invest ethically and get the same return as investing without regard for ethics?
Portia Antonia Alexis: A common assumption is that sustainable investment is about conscience rather than profit. Almost three out of 10 people avoid ethical funds because they believe the returns will not be as high as more conventional alternatives.

Very often, people assume you have to give up decent returns to do good with your money. But this isn’t philanthropy, and it’s about people, planet and profit. The research bears that out, showing that sustainable funds are often generating better returns than more traditional funds. Some still regard ethical investing as a fringe activity for do-gooders, but evidence shows how wrong this assumption is.

This year, the National Trust announced it was divesting its investment portfolio from fossil fuels. Meanwhile, equity research house Redburn recently removed buy ratings from the biggest oil companies, saying that demand for oil is set to decline as the focus moves to renewables.  Not only is it savvy to maintain a varied portfolio, but sustainable investing is also becoming increasingly mainstream, opening up more impact investing opportunities to all levels of the investment community.

Research shows this type of investment can provide equal, if not better, returns than more conventional funds. And also, the variety of companies financed by impact investment funds – those that score highly on ESG factors – perform better. These businesses typically have lower costs of capital and higher returns.

LUX: Is ethical investing being led by the West, and does the rest of the world need to catch up?
Portia Antonia Alexis: In most Western countries, between 40 to 80 per cent of investors want to invest “ethically”. They desire to make money and create a better society. However, the funds screening investments for ethical conduct usually make up less than 3 per cent of total mutual fund, unit trust, or ETF assets in those countries. These ‘ethically screened′ funds frequently focus on investments related to the environment and sustainability, social responsibility, or are faith-based, and so on.

Investing ethically, for some investors, is essential as they believe it also impacts their personal or spiritual development. They think they ultimately share in the responsibility for the activities of the company, companies or funds that they invest in.

In many Muslim countries, ethical investors invest in Islamic financial products such as Sukuk—Islamic bonds. These assets sometimes represent a significant proportion of total financial system assets in these countries, in contrast to the socially responsible investment (SRI) priorities of many Western investors such as mitigating climate change or regulating genetically modified foods. SRI in developing countries may need to address health care provision, poverty alleviation or food security. The SRI schedule tends to be shaped by a market dogma that can elevate or marginalise issues according to their perceived “financial materiality” to investors preoccupied with finding a business case for acting ethically.

Read more: Boundary-breaking artist Barbara Kasten on light & perception

LUX: How are the children of the super-elite dealing with the wealth created by their parents?
Portia Antonia Alexis: I often describe elite kids as having “well-fed child syndrome.” The idea is simple enough: they’re not made aware of their limits, only of their capacities. They get a sense of the world not as rules and regulations, but instead as an open terrain to be negotiated. Whereas the experience for a lot of disadvantaged kids is that of “you can’t” — of the limits placed upon you, the rules you have to follow, and the punishments likely to be laid down on you, the experience at St. Paul’s is that “you can.” This is an empowering way to treat children. This ethic — this sense of potential and an open world before you — helps with success.

A lot of very wealthy people are not accountable to their community, they’re not responsible to the people they love, they show their power and control through the transaction, and they are unhappy, from what I can tell. The people I know who are very wealthy and are happy are all contributing something to society.

LUX: Are experiences replacing luxury goods as the purchasing focus of the wealthy?
Portia Antonia Alexis: At the end of November of last year, the Savigny Luxury Index, compiled on the stock values of 18 leading luxury companies, reported a drop in average stock prices to reach a lower level than at the beginning of the year.

In the past, luxury was associated with champagne, caviar and designer clothes. Nowadays, with increased affluence, luxury is no longer the preserve of the elite. More and more consumers have traded up as old values of tradition and nobility have become less critical. People are enjoying much more material comfort in comparison with previous generations, and this has resulted in a trend of a cultural shift for cultural fulfilment and aspiration through experience. Therefore, it could be argued that luxury is increasingly about experience and authenticity rather than monetary value.

The focus on aspiration and experience means there is an increasing emphasis on personal transformation through, for example, well-being and travel. Therefore, luxury is becoming more challenging to define because the language has changed. Luxury today is not necessarily expensive. It can be accessible to a mass market, not traditional; it can also be personal, authentic and experiential. However, the old-world luxury of consumption and elitism still prevails.

LUX: Does elite mean wealthy, or does it mean privileged in other ways? Can you be one of the elites without being wealthy?
Portia Antonia Alexis: Elite suggests by definition that it goes for both wealthy and privileged. An elite is a relatively small group of people with the highest status in a society, or in some domain of activity, who have more privileges or power than other people due to their condition. Elitism is believing in or promoting this sort of arrangement, whether that be in the academic world, politics, art, sports, or anywhere else. Almost all the national income gains over the last 40 years have gone to the wealthiest 5 per cent of Americans.

If you think that only the top 5 per cent of American earners have become more productive or been the sole producers of value, you don’t understand how an economy works. Elites have used their power to extract a greater and greater share of the national wealth. And that must be addressed.

I don’t know if you can be one of the elites and not wealthy. But I do know ones who can be against the elite and still be wealthy and privileged.

Read more: Examining the work of visual artist & philosopher Wolfgang Tillmans

LUX: So far, populism in the West has returned right-wing, free-market, nationalist political leaders in the UK, US, Poland, and elsewhere (see Q1). Will high tax/socialist politicians succeed?
Portia Antonia Alexis: The resurgence of populism has abruptly reshaped global politics over the past few years, but what it means for economic growth and financial assets has yet to become apparent.

Although markets are quick to respond to individual events—such as a populist party’s rise to power or the introduction of a tax cut or spending increase—they have not yet grasped how populism could affect the global economy over the long term.

This poses a challenge for investors, as they need to understand the economics of populism to position their portfolios over the years ahead effectively.

The early stages of the policy profile outlined above can be glimpsed in President Trump’s deficit financed tax cuts and the ruling Italian populist coalition’s battles with the European Union (EU) to push through an expansionary budget.

The fiscal accounts of Hungary and Poland have structurally deteriorated after the election of rightwing populist governments, and the market’s price in an economic deterioration in Mexico under the newly elected left-wing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

It is worrying that most of the populist governments that undertake these fiscal expansions lack the fiscal space to do so.

LUX: What is the most exciting trend you have observed among the elites?
Portia Antonia Alexis: The rise of populism has become a global obsession in the last year. Whether it’s Donald Trump or the Brexit movement, the rise of populism has helped crystallise the fact that there are two kinds of elites: those who like to bash populists for being foolish, and those who wish to bash other elites for failing to give populists enough of what they want.

What’s interesting is that the anti-elite elites don’t seem to have policy preferences that differ that considerably from other elites. Everybody thinks the status quo needs changing in one way or another. And I don’t think points based on skilled immigration systems and relocation vouchers aren’t what most anti-immigration protesters have in mind.

Nor do I think a vigorous points-based immigration system, relocation vouchers, or any policy ideas of anti-elites would have done much to stop the current global wave of populism that we’re seeing. Had anti-elite elites been handed the wheel 15 years ago, I think we’d pretty much be right where we are right now.

LUX: You initially trained to become an equestrian show jumper, today you are an economist, mathematician and business analyst. What changed?
Portia Antonia Alexis: I spent an extensive amount of time training to become an international equestrian. Ultimately, I found I loved mathematics more. When I was volunteering as a youth counsellor with the London Metropolitan Police, offering counselling and therapeutic care to youths who had been victims of crime, I witnessed a range of diverse socioeconomic issues. These issues concerned me, and I found it interesting to analyse the problems from an academic, investigative and human lens. I wanted to find a way to research the determinants relating to wealth, income, poverty using a range of the method. And to predict the probability of wealth distribution income inequality and social mobility in detail. The rise of the global elite and the rise of income inequality and the decline of the social movement.

The most important thing I learned as a mathematician is that I can’t explain it all on my models, I must get out and meet the world. I enjoyed the process, and it motivated me: the people and their stories. Economics studies the behaviour of people. There are a lot of variables that can’t be explained in the models. Even if they could, those models would be useless. When I started working as a researcher, I didn’t spend my time thinking about what Keynes or Hayek said, nor did I try to show how the mathematical models work. I just went to the data, applied some statistical analysis and applied them on the real world.

This is the kind of work that counts, the type of knowledge that is useful, because it’s not doomed to stay on a shelf for centuries, and it has a connection with the people out there.

I still love horses and ride and show jump for leisure these days. I take part in equine therapy once a week, which involves activities with horses and other equines to promote human physical and mental health. I also occasionally write research papers on trends within the horse racing industry and the global equine industry.

Follow Portia on Instagram: @portiaeconomics

How well do you know your socio-economic and demographic grouping acronyms?

Abercrombie & Kent founder and LUX contributor Geoffrey Kent discusses how a new generation of consumers are influencing brands

How well do you know your socio-economic and demographic grouping acronyms? From the best-known, like Yuppie and Wasp, to the more recent, Sinbad – there seems to be an acronym for everyone.

If you are a frequent reader of my columns here on LUX or if you’re familiar with our luxury travel company, Abercrombie & Kent, you might be forgiven for thinking that we concentrate on attracting Dinkies, Tinkies (two incomes, nanny and kids), Glams (those who are greying, leisured, affluent and middle-aged), or even Rappies (retired affluent professionals), but in fact, we, like all brands, are increasingly turning our attention to the Henrys.

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Nothing to do with the Hooray Henry, this term was coined by Fortune magazine and stands for ‘high earners, not rich yet’, Henrys are those on their way to affluence, but not quite there yet due to high living costs and other factors. While Henrys span both the millennial and GenY generation, it is millennial Henrys, which are of so much interest to entrepreneurs and their marketers for two simple reasons.

Firstly, their numbers: as revealed in an all-important announcement in 2015 from the U.S. Census bureau, millennials (born between 1980-2000) surpassed Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) as the largest generation in the U.S. (where this type of research frequently seems to stem from and of interest to me because of A&K’s American offices (A&K is headquartered in both London and Downers Grove, Illinois). Plus there are many, many more of them in comparison to their parents’ generation.

Secondly, their spending power: from now until 2040, millennials will be entering their prime spending years. They will be the key consumer segment driving the world’s economies.

The millennial generation had its biggest birth year in 1990, so using them as an example, the top 20 per cent Henrys (high earners, not rich yet) born in 1990 earn over $50,000 per annum and the top 10 per are earning more than $75,000 a year approximately. They are well on their way to affluence, and are more educated, better informed and setting the trends that other millennials will emulate.

And with millennials driving economies, as brands try to win their business, millennials will change the businesses and their offerings, thus affecting us all. They are driving what is coming to be called the ‘experience economy’, moving from consumerism towards experientialism (read more about how they are redefining luxury travel here). If you have a subscription to a streaming service and no longer purchase DVDs or boxsets for example, it’s all down to millennials and this trend. If you have noticed more travel companies urging you to experience a destination like a local or learn something on holiday, you now know who the cause is. This isn’t exactly new ground for A&K – we’ve been encouraging travellers to make horizon-broadening connections since the early 1960s – plus ça change.

Read more: Kuwait’s ASCC launches visual arts programme in Venice

Millennials and the Henrys among them are focussed on value, not price point, and interested in feeling proud of their purchases and the things they do. They are design-led, crave authenticity and want for everything they do to be climate positive (or at a bare minimum, neutral). They are the type to choose a travel brand that is philanthropic and does good in the places in which its guests travel (such as A&K). They want a curated experience, that does no harm (i.e. is socially responsible) and that is Instagrammable. They share their experiences in the same way that their parents related theirs at dinner parties.

They are searching for a connection to their communities, other cultures and the world at large. Travel is a practical way to process and respond to an increasingly complex globe.

Thanks to childhoods, lifestyles and the psychology of millennials, they are the ‘Do It For Me’ customer – exactly the type that appreciates a well-travelled and knowledgeable travel expert who will arrange their luxury holidays for them. A match made in heaven? Who knows, but it certainly was a match made sometime between 1980 and 2000.

Discover Abercrombie & Kent’s luxury travel itineraries: abercrombiekent.co.uk

Working with several designers, Van Cleef & Arpels have breathed new life into their classic collection

This season, we’ve got our eye on the new, youthful additions to Van Cleef & Arpels’ Perlée collection

Perlée is one of Van Cleef & Arpels’ long-standing, classic collections so-called after the maison‘s signature style of beaded jewels. The newest additions offer a fresh twist on the traditional and have been visualised in youthful graphic campaigns created in collaboration with designers such as Santi Zoraidez and Oscar Pettersson, both of whom are known for their playful, pastel aesthetics, digital geometric formations and sizeable Instagram followings.

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This might mark the first steps to a more millennial approach for the traditional French jewellery brand as does the focus on bespoke design. For example, the transformable long beaded necklace allows wearers to swap in the central ring with a variation of three colours (onyx, turquoise and coral) to better suit their mood, outfit or the occasion.

The transformable long beaded necklace with a coral inner ring

One of Van Cleef & Arpels’ new ‘secret watches’ in bracelet style with rose gold and diamonds

Even the more grown-up pieces such as the secret watches have been made-over with contrasting gemstones and precious metals – rose gold paired with diamonds, deep green malachite and orange coral, yellow gold studded with diamonds and lapis lazuli. It’s an effortless, refreshing new look for the collection, and the brand.

Find out more: vancleefarpels.com

The Heritage Corum Lab 01

Luxury Swiss watch brand Corum is known for its boundary-pushing designs and adaptability. Following the relaunch of the iconic Golden Bridge collection with a brand new all-black aesthetic, we asked the brand’s CEO Jérôme Biard six questions.

Jérôme Biard

1. What comes first innovation or heritage?

Innovation comes first as it becomes very quickly heritage: time is flying. We need innovation to go forward.

2. How does Corum capture and hold the attention of millennials?

We like to play with our Bubble collection and artistic partnerships. We are also coming out with disruptive collections like our new Corum Lab 01.

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3. Are women becoming more influential in the luxury watch market?

Women represent 50% of the population on earth which means that we have the potential to expand. Also, watches are more and more used as fashion accessories and specifically created for women, they do not make a man’s watch into a woman’s watch. This is the reason why, we recently launched the Eleganza, the epitome of classic female elegance and subtly. We also launched during Baselworld our new Golden Bridge Round Jewellery. Beside, we have Elisabetta Fantone, Canadian pop artist + Juliette Jourdain, French photographer as ambassadors since 2016.

The Eleganza collection by Corum

The Golden Bridge, Corum’s iconic timepiece

4. Is there such thing as a unique design?

We launched the Bubble collection in 2000 to push our customers limits and introduce them to the quirkiest designs on the market. At 52mm, the statement Bubble is instantly recognizable due to its size and weight. On the other end of the scale, we recently launched the Bubble Mini, a 17mm cocktail watch that can be stacked or worn alone.

Our in-line baguette movement set in our Golden Bridge has been unique on the market since its launch in 1980, and there is still nothing else like it.

Read more: Why Lake Como’s appealing to a new generation of travellers

5. Will smartwatches take over?

I don’t think that classic watches are in competition with smartwatches. I believe that people will always desire hand-crafted pieces made from luxury materials and know-how. The style, the craftsmanship exceed the function.

6. What’s your favourite Corum watch and why?

It’s difficult to choose only one. Golden Bridge + Admiral Legend 42 mm blue bracelet and blue dial. We recently launched the Admiral Legend 42 Cabinet de Curiosités de l’Hotel de Crillon par Thomas Erber, beautiful!

Discover Corum’s collections: corum-watches.com

The Buckingham Gate entrance at Northacre’s No.1 Palace Street development

Luxury real estate developer Northacre was founded in 1977 by German architect Klas Nilsson. Owner of The Lancasters, a luxe development of 77 apartments in Bayswater, the company is currently developing No. 1 Palace Street, a Grade II listed building featuring 72 apartments overlooking Buckingham Palace’s Gardens and The Broadway in Westminster, which will be composed of six residential towers framed around a 20,000sq ft public thoroughfare and pedestrianised piazza. LUX Associate Editor Kitty Harris speaks to CEO Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro about Brexit, millennials and the importance of understanding your customer

Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro

LUX: Northacre provides management, interior architecture and design services. How do all of these components work together?
Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro: How would it function without it is the question. I am always surprised to see other developers that don’t have an interior designer or architectural arm in-house because ultimately, what are we selling? Hopefully, beautiful apartments that people want to live in, and hence you have to create the emotional attachment between what you do and what they’re buying because without it you don’t create a premium. For us, the central part of our DNA is the design. Northacre is the only development firm in central London that was started by an architect. Klas Nilsson started Northacre roughly 30 years ago – he was a pioneer in space and an architect hence design has been at the core of what we do and not an add on. It’s a 360 degree holistic approach to developing.

LUX: Do you think there are irresponsible and responsible developers?
Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro: You know I don’t know if it is about being responsible or irresponsible, I think there is a naivety and short-sightedness in cutting corners. The most important thing that Northacre has is its track record, doing the same thing thirty years in a row and doing it successfully. And so it would be very short-sighted to CGI and erase buildings in front of ours in order to make ours a better view because it takes a client to visit once and then you’ve lost them forever.

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LUX: Do you have repeat customers?
Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro: Absolutely, we have quite a few. We’ve probably sold close to 700 homes in central London in the high-end space. At the moment there are 330 transactions about the five million pound mark of which we have sold a decent percentage. One client of ours, who until very recently still lived in our show apartment at Kings Chelsea, subsequently bought another house in Kings Chelsea and he had bought 13 apartments at The Lancasters. He’s bought four more of ours at Park Street, and hopefully he will buy some at The Broadway too. He is a repeat customer, I think like many others, for several reasons. One is that he loves the homes, which I think is the crucial part of it. And secondly, the properties have done incredibly well investment wise.

If you look, for example, at The Lancasters, when we were doing bank evaluations they were saying no way would you be able to sell £1700 a square ft. because the area is at best £1000. A 70% premium is a damn good premium. But when we got it financed, the average sale price at the end was £2850. So yes, the market might have moved, but not from £1000 to about £2850 in the space of about 4 years. Even if it had doubled, it would be at £2000. So clients realised that we have quite a resilient product and in fact, the gentlemen that bought all of the developments I mentioned, decided he wanted to sell one at the beginning of this year. He was an early buyer, he bought in 2015, which we could argue was probably the peak of the market, he made 109% (£700,000) net return on his 10% deposit and it wasn’t on a small apartment in a market that’s gone down.

The lobby in The Broadway – a current development by Northacre

LUX: Which is your keenest market area and are you selling more now to millennial generations?
Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro: Our markets really depend on the development because certain things that appeal to one kind of nationality do not appeal to another. Take two examples, No. 1 Palace Street and The Broadway. We retained the 1870s façade at No. 1 Palace Street, which overlooks the gardens at Buckingham Palace, but stripped the building completely so it is entirely new inside. The Asian market doesn’t see this as new and they don’t like older buildings so I would say that the largest group of buyers in that development are from the Middle East. Monarchy is very big there, they love it, and so you can see the different points of affinity between them.

When we bought The Broadway, we thought that it would be perfect for the Chinese market and for the Asian market in general because it was one of the very few mixed new build schemes where you are able to create a destination in central London of its size. It’s 1.7 acres and 268 units with all the amenities, and it has four world heritage sites around it. The mix of these two and its fantastic views resonates very well with them.

Read more: President of Monaco Boat Service Lia Riva on the romance of the riviera 

Where do I start with millennials…they think very differently. We’ve found that millennials are actually very asset light. They love experiences, and they don’t want to be necessarily burdened by having a big asset whilst they could be travelling and creating experiences. And so we haven’t targeted them especially. We will be putting out a property that will resonate with millennials very soon, but it is a different beast completely and so we are looking to target that in a completely different way.

LUX: How do Northacre approach developing?
Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro: Ultimately, we want to create an emotional attachment by making our buyers understand that we understand them. And I know it sounds like the ABCs of any company, i.e. understanding your customer, but look at some of the developments around you, it’s clear that the developer doesn’t understand their end customer. The reason is that there are a lot of improvised high-end residential developers because asset prices went up and high-end residential was the best use of these assets. They became high-end residential developers overnight and they don’t realise that it’s not an easy task. Hence they don’t deliver what buyers necessarily want. By understanding your clients, and knowing that real luxury to them is spending time with loved ones, we deliver something that creates an emotional attachment, enabling them at the same time, through in-house services, to focus on what they should be focusing on.

A master bedroom in The Broadway development

LUX: What makes The Broadway different to the other developments?
Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro:  The Broadway is a very challenging project; very few developers have ever delivered 268 high-end units in prime central London. But also it’s different in that it’s the first real mix-used scheme of high-end residential development in central London and many other cities. We believe this is the direction developing is going take, because you have got to create a sense of place that goes beyond the location itself. It’s important to control the types of shops and coffee shops on the site for the kind of buyer we attract. It’s also very important for the surrounding community because you are curating in an unexpected way by not putting generic shops in. Pret and Boots are fantastic, but we’ve seen enough of them. We are in a position to control that, which other developers can’t if it is just residential.

LUX: And how do you decide what locations to build on?
Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro: The formula of Northacre hasn’t changed in the last 30 years. If you took a map of London and plotted all the Northacre developments by the year they were created, which is very important because areas change, you will see that the formula has always been the same. We develop in areas that are very central or very close to, but not in ‘the’ centre. We create a product that is better than anything else in that particular area, and then we play the price conversion. For example, No. 1 Palace Street: one would say ‘how absolutely fantastic to overlook Buckingham Place, but it would be nicer on the Mayfair side of Buckingham Palace’. Yes it would be, but on that side it was £6000/ 7000 per square ft. and this area is at £2000 and so we could push prices to £3000-4000. You need to understand the macro and micro of areas and of buildings themselves because it needs to become an aspirational building. The Lancaster was 140 metres of 1870s odd, white stucco façade overlooking Hyde Park. How many assets are there like that in London? Hardly any. How many times can you buy a whole block of 5 different architectural styles all in one next to Buckingham Palace like at No. 1 Palace Street? You can’t. So the fact that these buildings enable you to create an aspirational product, create additional value as well.

Read more: Model of the month Emma Laird on juggling acting and modelling

LUX: Do you think that phrase ‘re-defining luxury’ is dead?
Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro: I never really understood the phrase to tell you the truth. For the simple reason that it might not be luxury to you, and it might not be luxury to me. Luxury is personal. For Millennials, like my son who is 16, ownership of an object is absolutely irrelevant. I said to him a few years ago: ‘When you turn 18 I will give you my watch’. ‘Why do I need a watch?’ was his response. Whereas if I gave him £10,000 for an incredible trip somewhere he would love it. So I’ve never been a fan of that phrase. I think you have to strike an emotional cord with people because that, to me, is how you convey luxury. Look at the things that the wealthy collect like art – how personal is art! You might love a painting I might not like it. Vintage wines too. All things are that are personal and rare –  you cannot have the same that I can have.

The Swimming Pool at No.1 Palace Street – a development by Northacre

LUX: How do you think Brexit will affect the market, if it hasn’t done so already?
Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro: It will affect it but there are many things that are affecting the market in general. We have to take a step back for a second and consider that from 1994 to 2014 we had twenty years of a booming market. We shouldn’t be too surprised that there is a pause in this market.

And what does Brexit do? First of all we don’t know what Brexit looks like because no one does. We only know it creates three things. Two that are negative and one that is positive. The first one is uncertainty. No one likes uncertainty, and in times of uncertainty asset prices don’t go up and it doesn’t give buyers a sense of urgency. Second, it is creating an opportunity for foreigners because the pound is weaker, which is the positive. However, this also has a negative ramification to it as well. This being that the weak pound gives an excuse to a lot of the foreign work force working in construction to go back home because their countries are booming more than they were before. They are now sending much less money home than they were before because £1 before was €1.40 now it is €1.14 – a very big difference.

If you look at it more granularly though, what I think is really happening is the market has become binary and it goes back to the fact that you have a lot of improvised high-end residential developers that are creating a product that does not actually meet what people really want. And so when someone says ‘the high-end market is down 15% from the peak’, that is a very misleading number because yes, if you take the who aggregate of it, but if you then look at properties that are actually really nicely developed property by a reputable developer that don’t have any compromises to it, there aren’t many and so the developer still has pricing power. It is not because the customer has become poorer all of a sudden, he is just picky, and rightly so because he is spending a lot of money. So the other developers that are developing a product that is not really ticking all of the boxes can’t attract the high-end market because those buyers want to spend their money on the best. They are not interested in something, even if you give them a 20% discount, they will say: ‘But I still don’t like it, it is not that I like it more’ so then they have to start selling to a different kind of market and that’s why the prices drop because the other buyer says, ‘OMG, it is nice and so expensive.’

LUX: What are your future predictions?
Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro: Did you bring the crystal ball?! We do have to look ahead, I think that there are clear trends in the market in general that have nothing to do with high-end residential. I think high-end residential is going slightly back to basics in the sense that for a long time you had developers that thought that the more expensive the property, the more you have got to put in it. And everything has to be covered up because that is going to give a sense of luxury and how much they have spent. Electronics, big screens everywhere etc. The fact is that high-end people like to turn the switch on and off and the button for fading the light is the most they want to see, right? So we are stripping back the technology to basics. And the sense of luxury really is the beautiful light switch. To touch it there’s a sense of satisfaction, it is bit like a door handle that it is the right length, the right thickness, the right feel, the right weight. We are really focusing on those subtleties.

And then there is nothing wrong with a white wall, because ultimately, for these customers, it’s about the art that they are going to put there. All their friends have nice apartments, they don’t need to go and show it off. But what differentiates them is that they have art that nobody else can have because it is one piece. And so how do you create gallery spaces? How do you create as much wall space as possible? So these are the trends that I see: the pairing back, the few great materials and simplicity, ultimately.

Read more: Why you should be checking into Monte Carlo Bay, Monaco this month

The other trend is really focusing on the staff of the development, so the concierge, the valet etc. How do you enable them to deliver the service you talk about them delivering? I’ll give you a practical example, when we were doing No.1 Palace Street and I was new at Northacre, I said let’s go and interview all the guys that work at the front desk in our past developments. Let’s learn from them because they are the ones that are in the front line. And it is interesting that they were saying, at the Lancaster they were saying: ‘you know we receive two bags of mail every single day, we receive three racks of dry cleaning every single day. Northacre did not give us enough space to put all of these things, and so we’ve got a few there, a few there, a few there.’ These are things you have to consider.

We are also creating an app, where you will be able to do everything from booking a massage to making sure the car comes up to seeing your service charges to booking a personal trainer, so that everything is done in a very, very simplistic way. That then frees up the time of the guys downstairs and enables them to deliver the best possible service.

LUX: Do you have your favourite residential area in London?
Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro: Well, I have been living in Chelsea for 21 years now, so that is my neck of the woods. I love it because it feels like a little village, but at the same time, you are 100 metres away from the hustle and bustle and if you have got to get to other central parts of London it is super, super close and it is very close to my office. But there are a lot of exciting places in London, not only where we develop, but also some parts of the East End are super interesting, and I think that how they are attracting tech start-ups is incredibly interesting. And actually the East End is really starting to cater to the millennial generation. Anywhere you go in London houses are very expensive. And so we have to start finding a new model based on how people will be living that also reflects how the millennials think, and that is what we are working on at the moment.

According to Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro, No.1 Palace Street has been Northacre’s most challenging development to date

LUX: What has been the most challenging development for Northacre?
Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro: No.1 Palace Street without a doubt! It has five architectural styles in one block with a façade retention of about 70% of the original façade with a great tall building in the middle. We had to demolish everything inside and dig down four floors underneath. We are doing a top-down construction approach, where you pour the ground floor slab, and then you start digging down whilst going up at the same time. The façade is not thick at all so it’s scary because you are creating the structure and then you have to tie it all back together. And obviously these façades are delicate.

LUX: Don’t blow!
Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro: Exactly. When there were high winds last year we were praying a crane didn’t move, because can you imagine? Who is going to go to Westminster and tell them that the façade has come down?

LUX: We hear you are a keen sailor. What’s been your most memorable voyage?
Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro:  I sailed from the South of France to Hawaii and then from Hawaii to San Francisco. I did about 15,000 miles on a 39 ft. catamaran. The first 2,000 miles I did without a GPS – it was a fantastic trip!

To find out more about Northacre’s past, current and future developments visit:  northacre.com

In Kenya at Sanctuary Olonana, Abercrombie & Kent guests have the opportunity to go on walking safaris and take survival lessons led by Maasai warriors. Image supplied by Abercrombie & Kent

Luxury travel is evolving, but who’s driving the change? Millennials, says Abercrombie & Kent Founder Geoffrey Kent. Welcome to the age of transformational travel.

The first generation of digital natives, millennials, as defined by the Pew Research Center, were born between 1981 and 1996. This age group – which we increasingly need to recognise for their affluence and significant spending power – have led the way in redefining what the term ‘luxury’ itself means.

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Prior to late 2007, luxury was linked to ostentatious spending and opulence. Within the travel industry this equated to first-class flights, five-star hotels, Michelin-starred restaurants and designer souvenirs. After the global recession, a major shift occurred, and luxury has become much more experiential.

‘Experiential travel’, and its evolutionary step of ‘transformational travel’, are the industry’s biggest trends. Millennials have rejected the term ‘tourist’. They don’t want to visit a destination to trod well-worn tourist trails, eat at restaurants that cater to non-residents and have pictures on the menu, or meet the same type of people they see in their local coffee shop on the way to their 9:00 am meeting. Millennial travellers want total immersion in a destination and want to make connections with interesting local personalities.

The Ganden Sumtseling Monastery in the Yunnan Province, China. Image supplied by Abercrombie & Kent

In the last decade, as an industry, we have seen this generation beginning to travel in style despite economic uncertainty. Just-published studies reveal that millennials see travel as more important than buying a home, paying off debt or investing in a car. Wary of investing for the long-term, they spend freely on travel, seeing it as an investment in themselves.

Read more: An aesthetic adventure in India’s chaotic capital Delhi

The next step beyond experiential travel, which is becoming ubiquitous and therefore unappealing to millennials, is transformational travel. In an excellent article, Vogue magazine has called transformational travel, ‘experiential travel, but a step further – defined by a shift in perspective, self-reflection and development, and a deeper communion with nature and culture’. More than memory making, it is the type of travel that inspires an inner journey and leads to life changes when travellers return – and exactly the type of travel worthy of investment by these 20 and 30-somethings.

There is nothing new in the transformative power of travel, or young people looking to step out of their comfort zones as they develop and grow as global citizens. Think of the Grand Tourists (young aristocratic men touring Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries) or the Beat Generation on epic American road trips. Change – through the broadening of one’s horizons – is palpable when one travels.

Geoffrey Kent outside a safari tent in Manyara, Tanzania. Image supplied by Abercrombie & Kent

In 1958, when I was 16, I rode a motorbike from Nairobi to Cape Town. On this 3,000-mile journey of self-discovery along some of Africa’s most dangerous roads, the mantra that I would build my life and business upon came to me: adventure by day, security and luxury by night. More than 55 years after founding A&K, I still like to push my boundaries (by day) and like to encourage travellers to expand their horizons.

In southwest China, A&K guests meet with the ‘Living Buddha’ at the Songzanlin Monastery in Shangri-La in Yunnan province, a Tibetan autonomous region. This exclusive, one-to-one interaction gives A&K guests a profound understanding and insight into this traditional culture.

The Lion King is many children’s first introduction to Africa. At A&K, we’ve arranged for millennials and their young families to watch the film on a large screen in the middle of the bush, followed by walking safaris and survival lessons from Maasai warriors – the live-action version of “the circle of life.”

Do these kinds of experiences have the power to transform a person’s life… I think so.

To find out more about Abercrombie & Kent’s luxury travel experiences visit: abercrombiekent.co.uk