Global Fashion Management Conference | Takeaways

Last weekend, the 2024 Gamma Global Fashion Management Conference (GCFM) at the University of Milan presented a rich line-up of studies by scholars from over 43 countries. It was an honour to contribute with my research on the integration of NFTs in luxury brand and art collaborations. My deepest thanks to the organizing committee, partners and sponsors, volunteers, the sessions chairs, and my fellow speakers for sharing their the state of the art research.

Here below some takeaways of the sessions I assisted to:

💡 The ‘eye of the beholder’ is key when planning luxury brand and art collaborations
– consumers’ fashion capital (prior knowledge and expertise in fashion) shapes their cognitive and affective responses towards artified luxury products
– activating art players familiar to a specific geo-cultural market leads to localisation strategies that eventually generate a stronger, meaningful brand equity

💡 The nuanced impact of technology on luxury and fashion
– luxury consumers appreciate tech-enhancement on peripheral services or aspects of luxury products, but they eventually seek the human-ness of products (this includes both millennial consumers and Gen Zers)
– The emergence of digital celebrities generates a very fluid and non-linear environment in fashion communication, with these new players challenging traditional hierarchies and the supremacy of established insiders

💡 Sustainability has become integral to any luxury and fashion proposition: how to manage its communication?
-We need to carefully consider how concepts are understood in different languages and cultures
– Crafting a clear and transparent communication, however, needs to go hand in hand with the quality of the luxury products, as consumers trust claims about sustainability only when perceiving that the high standards or attributes of luxury are anyway maintained

💡 Keep an eye on “quiet” and “mindful luxury”!
– “Quiet luxury” is a business proposition, an aesthetics, a SMNs hype. It is high time we examined the concept in all its semantic semantic areas – from hyper-exclusivity to sustainability.
– When we are less present to ourselves, we tend to spend more, and usually for products with high brand prominence (e.g., visible and flashier logo). The creation of a sensorially mindful retail space/services can deeply influence the items and how we purchase.