On 23 May, Vogue Business partnered with Thélios on the second in a series of discussions, the Vogue Business x Thélios Talks: Framing the Future of Luxury Eyewear. Following the launch of the series in New York, this event took place among the grandeur of Palazzo Brancaccio in Rome, where Thélios — freshly rebranded and now sporting the tagline LVMH Eyewear Excellence — hosted an elegant exhibition of its Fall 2023 collections. VIP guests were invited from luxury department stores, travel retail and eyewear specialists to engage in the conversation and continue it during drinks in the splendid grounds after.
The panel discussion, led by Vogue Business head of advisory Anusha Couttigane, included Fendi chairman and CEO Serge Brunschwig, Thélios chief brand and product officer Sara Osculati and leading industry analyst Luca Solca, managing director of luxury goods at private wealth management firm Bernstein. While the first edition of Vogue Business x Thélios Talks focused on the role of visual merchandising, this discussion explored the power of luxury to elevate eyewear by creating an enhanced buying experience with an adapted environment, stronger storytelling and clienteling.
Osculati kicked off the discussion by explaining the ambition of Thélios, the eyewear company founded by LVMH in 2017, to take control of the category’s entire value chain for its Maisons, including Dior, Fendi, Givenchy, Loewe and Stella McCartney.
“We believe that it is important to grant a perfect consistency on three aspects; the excellence of the product, the integration of the category in the general communication strategy of the Maison…and the selectivity of the distribution.” It sounds like a classic product, promotion, place formula, but as one of the founding members of Thélios after 15 years leading eyewear at Christian Dior Couture, Osculati is passionate about ensuring clients across eyewear specialists, department stores and travel retail have the tools to give eyewear collections the same dignity as other categories created by luxury brands.
When it comes to defining what makes a luxury brand, Brunschwig crystalised this in three clear ways: “It’s about creativity, it’s about excellence, and it’s about entrepreneurship.” Expanding on this more, he explained: “The word ‘luxury’ comes from ‘luxus’; it comes from ‘luxation’ — it comes from ‘twists’. So we have to imagine that the story of Fendi is a series of twists.” He cited pivotal moments in the brand’s history to illustrate these ‘twists’, including Karl Lagerfeld joining the brand in 1965, bringing new ideas about how to transform designs.
Brunschwig also commented on the value of collaboration between newcomers with foreign ideas and family, with Fendi benefitting from the involvement of the fourth generation of Fendi women in the leadership of the brand.
Osculati continued this point, saying, “You can create this magic with the discussion between technical people bringing innovation and the creative team bringing the vision.
Moreover, values that are so deeply embedded in a brand can be challenging yet stimulating to implement in the eyewear category. Osculati alluded to a “ping pong” dynamic in the way Thélios works with its Maisons to deeply understand their DNA, what they stand for and how to translate this into eyewear.
Thinking about other challenges the industry faces, Fendi — in line with other LVMH brands — has remained resilient in spite of economic volatility. Brunschwig puts this down to continuous investment: “I think the most important thing is the long-term approach that we take to everything…building the desirability of the brand in the long term is the main objective. With an objective like this, you are invited to permanently create, invest, improve.” As part of this investment, Fendi built two new factories last year and acquired majority ownership in another manufacturing site in Tuscany. On 15 June, during Pitti Uomo, Fendi will host its showcase inside the factory in celebration of the brand’s craftsmanship and the stewardship of these skills.
Joining the conversation, Solca spoke about post-pandemic relief: “Nobody wanted to be the richest person in the graveyard. We have a higher willingness to spend, which we are seeing across certain categories…people are spending much more on everything…luxury companies are experiencing record growth; we are experiencing a very positive dynamic, especially in the higher end.” Looking at price segments, Solca says that the growth in spend from 2019 to 2022 is higher in the highest price point of consumer goods. This creates a strong justification for multi-brand retail businesses to invest in the luxury segment and focus more resource on selling at this level.
Solca also highlighted the pandemic as a tipping point in the way luxury brands communicate with both customers and stockists, explaining that new digital tools have encouraged a better dialogue throughout this ecosystem. In his view, it has led to improvements in clienteling that have been sustained long after lockdown, with the “double hatting” of sales associates, who play a vital role in maintaining relationships with clients, as well as selling in stores.
Brunschwig added that new omnichannel capabilities have given Fendi a lot more autonomy as a brand, saying it means a limited network of stores has an infinite reach capacity. When asked about how Fendi collaborates with multi-brand partners, he reinforced the point that Osculati made at the beginning of the conversation when talking about the exclusivity of distribution: “When it comes to distribution with department stores or optical stores like those in the room today, let s do it, but let s make sure first to be selective. It s impossible to do it well with an infinite number of [touch]points. It has to be the crème de la crème.” He also stressed the importance of people, as this is what makes the biggest difference compared to self-service online.
This makes training in storytelling a priority so that customers understand the brand beyond the logo that appears on the frame. He ended this point with an invitation to the audience, comprising opticians and other multi-brand partners, to work together better to elevate the story of brands when selling.
This focus on training is something that Thélios is prioritising too, according to Osculati. She stated that it s something that goes beyond awareness of the brands, their stories and the products, extending to taking the best practices from LVMH when it comes to selling luxury. To this end, Thélios is offering 1-2-1 training sessions to clients and digital learning tools. Given that Thélios is a B2B company, she explained how they work with the Maisons on digital activations to create a synergy with mainline campaigns. New tools, like augmented reality, are also being adopted by some of the Maisons to create a more seamless experience for customers engaging with the eyewear category. Other innovations, like 3D rendering to optimise fit, are helping Thélios to create better experiences for younger demographics too. Ensuring stockists are fully aware of these tools is, therefore, an important step in delivering that elevated experience of eyewear.
The talk ended with Brunschwig saying that the collaboration with Thélios is the first “jumping point” and that it is a partnership that will go further, while Osculati concluded that this is a partnership that includes deep collaboration with stockists who are, in turn, reaping the benefits of luxury growth.
