The International Association of Department Stores (IADS) has selected its new leadership duo. At the 66th General Assembly in Hong Kong on November 12, members elected Nicolas Houzé, chair of the Galeries Lafayette Group’s executive board, as president of the organisation. He will be supported by Francisco Irarrázaval, managing director of Falabella Retail, who has been appointed vice-president.
IADS members – IADS
This marks a return to the helm for Houzé, who resumes leadership of the IADS seven years after his first term, while Galeries Lafayette has been a long-standing member of the association since 1960.
Aged 50, Houzé succeeds Kamshim Lau of Lifestyle International Holdings Limited (Sogo Hong Kong). The French executive became chair of the family group’s executive board in 2024, having led the Department Stores division (Galeries Lafayette) from 2013 to 2024. He also serves as chair of the Comité stratégique de filière (CSF) Mode et Luxe and of the Union du Commerce de Centre-Ville (UCV).
While the French executive is well acquainted with the association’s leadership, the election of Irarrázaval as vice-president is a first for Falabella Retail. The South American group has been a member of the IADS since 2006. Aged 50 and a Harvard alumnus, he has been managing director of Falabella’s department stores division (Chile, Colombia and Peru) since 2021.
The executive committee is rounded out by Kamshim Lau, Holger Blecker (CEO of Breuninger), Olivier Bron (CEO of Bloomingdale’s) and Peter King (Magasin du Nord).
“IADS provides a unique strategic platform where sharing expertise, access to powerful tools and the ability to anticipate trends enable us to turn challenges into opportunities,” said the new president in a statement. “Our ambition is to reinforce the global leadership of department stores and prepare the future of retail.”
IADS, which recently welcomed John Lewis & Partners, now provides practical tools such as Retail Hub (technology sourcing), RH-ISAC (cyber security) and Newstores (retail trends). It also runs the IADS Academy, a mentoring programme for young talent.
Together, IADS members account for more than €40.5 billion in combined revenue, with 549 stores and 251,000 employees across 28 countries.
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Another creative director departure at a major brand is shaking up the fashion industry. It is now the turn of Austrian designer Norbert Stumpfl to leave Brioni. The label has just confirmed the end of its collaboration with the designer in a statement. Stumpfl had designed Brioni’s collections for the past seven years.
The fashion house founded in 1945, which in 1952 became the first menswear brand to stage a fashion show (in Florence’s legendary Sala Bianca), has expressed its “deep gratitude for the contribution he has made over the years. During his tenure at Brioni, Norbert interpreted with precision the concepts of lightness and discretion, contributing to the evolution of the men’s wardrobe with a modern approach that pays homage to tradition,” Brioni said.
Federico Arrigoni, CEO of Brioni, said, “Our journey continues, and the Maison will continue to consolidate its tradition- perfection of craftsmanship, exceptional materials, and innovation in tailoring techniques- to create true masterpieces, from formalwear to leisurewear and accessories. Brioni pursues its mission of defining the contemporary codes of Italian elegance, while elevating its mastery of high tailoring and bespoke craftsmanship for those who lead and accept nothing but the exceptional.”
Since 2011, Brioni has been part of the Paris-based French luxury group Kering. From 2018 until his departure, the brand’s collections were designed by Norbert Stumpfl, the acclaimed Austrian menswear couturier, celebrated for his blend of impeccable tailoring and cutting-edge fabrics- among his creations were dinner jackets woven with 24-carat gold threads and enzyme-treated silk-linen blends with a soft, distinctive handle. During his tenure, Brioni also expanded masterfully into womenswear, expressing discreet luxury with rare aplomb.
A pinnacle of Roman sartorial luxury, the Italian label marked its 80th anniversary in late November with an exhibition of its superb tailoring and a gala dinner at the Chiostro del Bramante in Rome.
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An Hermes handbag that once belonged to Jane Birkin was sold for $2.86 million (2.45 million euros) at auction in Abu Dhabi on Friday, just months after the record-breaking sale of her first bag from the French brand, Sotheby’s said.
Jane Birkin with one of her signature Hermes bags – Sotheby’s
Hermes first created the design for the British singer and actress in 1984 and it has gone on to become a modern and highly prized classic, sought by fashionistas the world over. The first prototype was sold for 8.58 million euros ($10 million) at a Sotheby’s auction in Paris in July, smashing previous price records for a handbag.
The one sold on Friday was a ‘Birkin Voyageur,’ which was gifted to the former wife of French singing legend Serge Gainsbourg in 2003. The final sale price was around six times times higher than the estimated price range of $230,000-$430,000 given before the sale.
“Jane Birkin’s handbag legacy continues to captivate collectors,” Sotheby’s said in a statement sent to AFP, adding that bidding took place over 11 minutes between six collectors. The new owner was a phone buyer and has not been identified.
The handbag was one of four owned by the late celebrity, who used to sell them to raise money for charitable causes. It has a handwritten inscription in French inside from Birkin that reads: “My Birkin bag, my globetrotting companion.”
A third Hermes bag owned by Birkin is set to go under the hammer on December 15 at the Hotel Drouot auction house in Paris. It was entrusted by the late star to her friend and biographer Gabrielle Crawford, who is selling it to help fund the future Jane Birkin Foundation, Drouot said in a statement.
Produced in very limited numbers, the modern Birkin bag manufactured by Hermes has maintained an aura of exclusivity and is beloved by celebrities such as the Kardashians, Jennifer Lopez, and Victoria Beckham. The most expensive fashion item ever sold at auction was a pair of ruby red slippers worn by actor Judy Garland from The Wizard of Oz in 1939, which sold for $32.5 million in 2024 in Dallas, Texas, according to Sotheby’s.
Artificial intelligence (AI) continues its march to transform businesses’/consumers’ lives with customer advocacy platform Mention Me launching ‘AI Discovery IQ’, a free-to-use tool that “helps brands reach target consumers in the new age of generative AI search”.
Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP/Archives
It claims to allow brands to “instantly audit how discoverable they are within popular AI systems” such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity.
According to Mention Me, 62% of UK consumers now turn to generative AI tools for product recommendations, brand discovery and comparisons, “bypassing traditional search engines entirely [so] businesses are under pressure to respond to this behaviour change,” said the platform’s CEO Wojtek Kokoszka whose platform works with firms including Charlotte Tilbury, Huel and Puma, “helping marketing teams to boost consumer awareness and sales”.
With AI, it says the modern customer journey, powered by natural language prompts instead of outdated keyword strings, means consumers are 4.4 times more likely to convert if they find a brand through a large language model (LLM).
“The rise of ‘agent-mode’ assistants and AI-driven voice search has pushed brands into a new world of digital visibility. Despite this, most brands have little to no insight into how they appear in AI-generated answers”, said Kokoszka.
AI Discoverability IQ claims to give brands an overall LLM discoverability score, specific details on areas such as technical website elements, content and structured data, and actionable recommendations to improve their AI discoverability.
Its tool generates “measurable, trackable outputs” like AI Visibility Score, brands’ prompt-based results, and a side-by-side comparisons with their competitive set. This means brands “can react quickly to improve their discoverability scores” with Mention Me’s wider suite of products and unique first-party data.
It’s also “innovating and evolving” its platform to include more capabilities, such as the ability to benchmark against competitors, to drive further improvements for marketing leaders in the age of AI.
Mention Me CMO Neha Mantri said: “AI Discoverability is not yet a named practice within most marketing teams; the same way SEO wasn’t in the early 2000s. But when up to 31% of consumers say they’re more likely to trust responses from generative AI than traditional search results, this needs to change. Mention Me is naming the problem and providing a solution at just the right time.”