AI is being built, regulated, and resisted across the Global South at a pace that rarely makes it into mainstream tech coverage. Each week, The Algorithm tracks the most important developments: new models, policy moves, funding gaps, and the harder questions about who AI is actually for.

This week’s take

The story of AI in the Global South is still, at its core, a supply chain story. That is what this fortnight keeps coming back to, across every region.

In Nairobi, over a thousand workers who spent years labelling data, the invisible labour that makes AI systems function, were let go when a contract between two American companies ended. In Andhra Pradesh, farmers are watching their land get acquired under “public purpose” laws so that Google and Microsoft can build the data centres that will power AI for the world. In India’s tribal regions, languages are being digitised by government AI projects without any framework for the communities those languages belong to.

And then, in the same fortnight: a Bengaluru startup raises $350 million and becomes a unicorn. Morocco signs a billion-dollar infrastructure deal. South Africa publishes a thoughtful, autonomous AI policy.

The Global South is not passive in this story, it is building, regulating, and pushing back. But the tension between who is building and who is bearing the cost runs through all of it.

1. India’s sovereign AI bet just hit unicorn territory

Inc42 / Bloomberg, April 18, 2026 | Sarvam AI is closing a $300–350 million funding round at a valuation of approximately $1.5 billion, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Nvidia, and Amazon. The Bengaluru-based startup builds full-stack AI infrastructure designed specifically for India’s 22 official languages, positioning itself as the country’s most credible domestic answer to GPT-4 and its successors.

This round makes Sarvam the first clear unicorn to emerge from India’s sovereign AI push and a reference point for other Global South nations asking whether you can build serious AI infrastructure outside the US-China duopoly.

2. Over 1100 Kenyan AI data workers lose their jobs as Meta ends a contract

TechCabal, April 16, 2026 | Sama, the US-based “impact sourcing” company, laid off 1108 employees at its Nairobi hub after Meta terminated its content moderation and AI data labeling contract. These workers had been annotating training data for Meta’s AI systems, including its smart glasses. The mass layoff puts a sharp point on a question this newsletter has been asking for a while: who bears the risk in the global AI supply chain?

The data workers who make AI systems function do so without job security, equity, or visibility the same dynamic visible at the base of every extractive value chain.

3. South Africa chose sector regulators over a single AI authority

TechCabal, April 9, 2026 | South Africa released a new national AI policy framework that deliberately opts for decentralised, sector-specific governance rather than building a new centralised AI regulator. The risk-tiered classification system has surface similarities to the EU AI Act, but the underlying philosophy is different : existing regulators in finance, health, and telecoms retain control, and the policy explicitly prioritises the development of local datasets and African language NLP models.

It is one of the most clearly articulated African departures from the European regulatory template.

4. India is offering Big Tech a 20-year tax holiday to build data centres. Farmers are protesting.

Rest of World, April 13, 2026 | India has rolled out a 20-year tax holiday for foreign cloud providers to accelerate AI data centre construction, attracting billion-dollar commitments from Google and Microsoft in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The government is using “public purpose” land acquisition laws to fast-track the projects, which is generating pushback from farmers whose agricultural land sits in the path of the infrastructure build-out.

It is a microcosm of a broader contradiction: India’s digital sovereignty agenda is being physically built on the dispossession of its rural population.

5. Who owns a language? India’s AI expansion has no answer.

Observer Research Foundation, April 20, 2026 | A sharp analysis from ORF identifies a critical gap in India’s AI strategy: flagship government projects like BharatGen and Bhashini are digitising hundreds of languages, including tribal dialects, without any framework for community ownership of that linguistic data. India’s data protection legislation does not address collective rights over language, which means the cultural heritage of indigenous communities can be extracted and commercialised with no mechanism for consent or benefit-sharing.

The piece calls for Language Data Trusts and community-governed oversight. It is the kind of governance question that is invisible until it is too late.

6. Morocco signs a $1.28 billion deal to build an AI factory

TechCabal, April 14, 2026 | As part of its Digital 2030 strategy, Morocco has signed a 12 billion dirham memorandum with UK-based Nexus Core Systems to develop a large-scale AI factory, a high-performance computing centre, AI training hub, and innovation campus all powered by Nvidia infrastructure.

Morocco is positioning itself to become North Africa’s compute hub, in direct competition with Egypt and the Gulf for regional AI infrastructure dominance. The deal is also a reminder that the Global South’s AI ambitions are not uniform: some governments are racing to attract investment and build capacity while others are still debating whether to regulate.

7. Brazil is using AI to clear its notorious tax backlog and it matters beyond the bureaucracy

Valor Internacional, April 14, 2026 | Brazil’s Administrative Council of Tax Appeals has deployed an AI system called Iara to accelerate tax ruling proceedings, with the stated goal of cutting average case duration from nearly four years to two. It is a prosaic story, but it signals something significant: Latin America’s largest economy is quietly embedding AI into its institutional architecture at pace, and the use cases being prioritised are not about productivity theatre, but they are targeting genuinely dysfunctional systems. Brazil’s AI bill, currently moving through Congress, is also being pushed to include voice protection provisions for the country’s significant dubbing industry, under pressure from voice actors organising against AI displacement.

That’s it for this edition of The Algorithm. If you spotted a story we missed — a startup, a policy move, a community using AI in ways nobody’s writing about yet — reply to this email. The best leads come from readers on the ground.

1. The Gulf’s AI infrastructure just became a military target

Source: Rest of World · March 2026

On March 1, military drones struck Amazon Web Services data centers in the UAE and Bahrain, the first confirmed attack on hyperscale cloud infrastructure in history. Billions in committed AI investment are now under threat: Microsoft’s $15B UAE commitment, Amazon’s $5B Riyadh hub, OpenAI’s five-gigawatt “Project Stargate” campus in Abu Dhabi.

Seventeen submarine cables pass through the Red Sea, the data arteries connecting Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in an active war zone, repair ships cannot safely operate. Standard commercial insurance policies exclude acts of war. CSIS had warned explicitly, weeks before the conflict began, that adversaries would target data centers the same way they target pipelines and refineries.

Tech giants are already rerouting critical data workloads to India.

The Gulf had positioned itself as the AI capital of the non-Western world. It became its most visible liability overnight.

2. From Chile to Kenya, communities are pushing back against AI’s physical costs

Source: Rest of World · March 24, 2026

AI has always had a physical footprint. The Global South is where most of that footprint lands.

The environmental and labour costs of AI are landing hardest in the Global South, and communities are starting to organise. In Chile, environmentalists are protesting the seven billion litres of water consumed annually by Google’s data centers in drought-stricken regions. In Kenya, previously invisible data labelers have formed the continent’s first annotation workers’ union. In the Philippines, Code AI is responding to mass white-collar tech displacement. In Mexico, new legislation aims to criminalise AI deepfake political propaganda.

In this piece in Rest of World, read about the people taking charge of this conversation.

3. Egypt quietly launched Africa’s first sovereign AI model

Source: Cape Times · March 20, 2026

Egypt’s Ministry of Communications unveiled Karnak, a 30–80 billion parameter Arabic-language sovereign AI model. Applications unveiled alongside the model include SIA, a personalised AI tutor for Arabic language and Egyptian history, a legal assistant to help citizens and small businesses navigate regulatory frameworks, and healthcare AI engines for early detection of diabetic retinopathy and breast cancer, developed in collaboration with the UNDP.

Egypt has been building toward this since 2019, when it launched a national AI strategy prioritising skills development, data governance, and sector-specific deployment. Karnak is the most visible output of that strategy's second phase.

4. Burkina Faso is building AI tools for four languages that the Global North has never heard of

Source: Ecofin Agency · March 26, 2026

Burkina Faso, one of West Africa’s least-resourced nations, launched a national workshop to build AI voice tools for four local languages: Mooré, Dioula, Fulfuldé, and Gulmancema. The project, part of the country’s 2030 digital roadmap, focuses on voice recognition and machine translation to bring the non-French-speaking majority online. This is happening as Tunisia and Algeria launch a joint AI research platform and Ghana begins training its civil service in AI literacy. The infrastructure for African AI is being built simultaneously at every level of government, from the smallest to the largest.

5. India is moving from data labeling to training frontier AI models

Source: TechCrunch · March 25, 2026

India-based Deccan AI raised a $25M Series A to scale its network of over 1 million Indian domain experts, doctors, lawyers, and PhDs, who provide high-level feedback for training frontier AI models at clients like Google DeepMind. Workers earn between $10 and $700 per hour, with top contributors reportedly earning up to $7,000 per month. India wants to move away from the image of the world’s back office for cheap annotation. It is moving towards becoming the essential expert layer that makes the most powerful AI systems reliable.

That’s it for this edition of The Algorithm. If you spotted a story we missed, a startup, a policy move, a community using AI in ways nobody’s writing about yet, drop a line in the comments. The best leads come from readers on the ground.

AI is being built, regulated, and resisted across the Global South at a pace that rarely makes it into mainstream tech coverage. Each week, The Algorithm tracks the most important developments : new models, policy moves, funding gaps, and the harder questions about who AI is actually for.

1. India puts itself at the center of global AI governance
   Press Information Bureau, India · March 11, 2026

At its AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, India secured over $250 billion in investment commitments from 92 countries and got 13 major model providers to sign the “New Delhi Frontier AI Impact Commitments.”

More notably, India released practical AI casebooks for agriculture and healthcare built specifically for Global South contexts. This is a direct bid to be a rule-shaper, not a rule-taker, in how AI gets built and deployed globally.

2. The language wall is getting chipped away , from two directions
   Tech-Ish (Kenya) · March 5, 2026 / UCT News (South Africa) · March 18, 2026

The GSMA launched the world’s first open Swahili reasoning model at MWC 2026, built with Zambian and Zimbabwean partners and designed to run on $40 smartphones.

Separately, a consortium of four South African universities, backed by the National Research Foundation and Telkom, announced a national effort to build LLMs for isiXhosa, isiZulu, and Sepedi, aimed at improving healthcare in communities that have never had a model that speaks their language.

Two very different approaches, one commercial, one institutional, converging on the same problem.

3. Nigeria: 122 startups, 79% can’t raise
   Leadership Nigeria, citing Nigeria AI Outlook 2026 · March 2026

The Nigeria AI Outlook 2026 mapped 122 active AI startups, including Ubenwa Health, which diagnoses infant neurological conditions by analysing a baby’s cry, but found that nearly 4 in 5 founders struggle to access capital, with 40% bootstrapping entirely. The ecosystem is real, however, the money is not.

The report outlined that this funding gap shows that Nigeria’s AI innovation economy is still fragile. “Without strong local investment networks or government support, many founders are forced to grow their companies with limited resources, often putting long-term survival at risk.”

4. Kenya wants to send you to jail for deploying unapproved AI
   TechCabal · March 17, 2026

Kenya’s proposed Artificial Intelligence Bill 2026 would criminalise the deployment of unapproved high-risk AI systems in finance, health, and biometrics — with company directors facing personal liability. If passed, it would make Kenya one of the first African countries with dedicated AI legislation that carries criminal enforcement.

4. Brazil draws a hard line between AI and elections
   Courthouse News Service · March 5, 2026

Ahead of its 2026 general election, Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court issued 14 new resolutions banning AI chatbots from offering voting advice, requiring mandatory labelling for AI-generated campaign content, and imposing an AI media blackout around election day. Brazil has quietly become one of the most assertive regulators of AI’s role in democracy, without waiting for a national AI law to pass first.

5. Uruguay and Microsoft open South America’s first AI for Good Lab
   BNAmericas · March 16, 2026

The Government of Uruguay has partnered with Microsoft to launch South America’s first AI for Good Lab, a facility focused on health, education, and government services. It is a small country making an outsized bet and the model is notable: neither the US commercial approach nor the EU’s regulation-first posture, but a state-directed, public-good-oriented third way that other Latin American governments will be watching closely.

6. Western AI doesn’t know what a cassava plant looks like
   Rest of World · March 12, 2026

Agricultural AI models built on Western training data routinely fail to identify local crops in Kenya and forest types in India — producing outputs that can actively mislead the farmers relying on them. As the global digital farming market approaches $84 billion, organisations like Digital Green and NASA Harvest are building localised datasets as a counter. But the structural bias in how training data gets assembled is a design choice, not an accident.

That’s it for this edition of The Algorithm. If you spotted a story we missed — a startup, a policy move, a community using AI in ways nobody’s writing about yet, reply to this email. The best leads come from readers on the ground.

There have been many moments before. Moments validated by Western runways, celebrated by international press as aesthetically appropriate export, framed through the lens of what India could offer a global aesthetic. The whole east meets west era in storytelling is over.

This one is different. It isn’t dressed for export.

The depiction of Indian fashion today from its homegrown brands is raw, self-aware of its own credentials, designing for itself first.

As this version of Indian fashion gets more visibility on the global stage, so does the backlash against cultural appropriation and a lack of giving credit where it’s due. Although, I will say, I’m not a big fan of the word “mainstream” — it implies a kind of power I’d rather not give to any particular stream of thought.

The last 12 months have been those of many firsts. First off, Shah Rukh Khan made his MET Gala debut in a bespoke Sabyasachi, Caratlane made it debut at Fashion Week, Bhavitha Mandava became the face of Chanel, Karthik Research is making all the rounds in Paris and New York. There’s a lot of India, everywhere.

India has always been at the heart of spectacular craftsmanship and beauty, however, the last few decades were spent back-staging that talent. Indian crafts have dressed global stages, kings and queens across the world, and the most storied luxury houses in history.

What has changed? Why India is now stepping into the global centre stage is a socio-economic question, much of which I've explored in today’s newsletter.

The answer is two things: storytelling, and an Indian consumer with money in their pocket and no one to impress but themselves.

Fashion here has always been a proxy for more existential questions: belonging, sovereignty, nostalgia. To tell that story from its roots, by the people of the culture, and for the people of the culture, that is the work now being done.

India’s growing domestic market means Indians are now spending on fashion designed for themselves, not for an audience in the Middle East, or an offshore market in Europe or America. This rebuilding of fashion storytelling, for Indians, by Indians, during the hyper-real internet era is the shift that changes everything.

The 2010s: The artisan enters the frame

Social media fundamentally rewired who got to tell the story — and how.

“Fashion is a form of expression and storytelling… The biggest star of fashion in the last two decades has been social media. It has changed everything, created new icons, shaken the foundation of old establishments and pushed fashion from being ‘exclusive’ towards becoming ‘inclusive’.” — Ciceroni

Provenance, process, and maker identity became part of the product itself in the 2010s, propelled by social media. This is the era that saw Raw Mango, founded in 2008, become a reference point — refusing fast fashion cycles and insisting that the making of a textile was as important as the wearing of it. The brand’s storytelling centred weavers, not models.

Meanwhile, indie labels began carving out distinct narrative spaces. Nor Black Nor White fused Indian kitsch with sportswear, quietly redefining what a global fashion label shaped by Indian craftsmanship could look like.

The 2020s: World-building and heritage as authority

Brands today are going beyond a singular vision to immerse consumers in a tactile, layered world. In India, Sabyasachi is the obvious early case study — the label’s stores feel closer to plushly curated living spaces than conventional retail. The brand story now lives in architecture, fragrance, and hospitality, not just thread.

My favourite example is from Shift.

Designer Nimish Shah relaunched his clothing with an artist residency, held in a fabric manufacturing unit in the village of Ranasan, Gujarat. Artists from outside fashion were invited to respond to screenprinting, to each other, to the landscape. No clothes. No call to action. Shah is candid about the economics: there are none.

India is the reference point now. What brands are trying to say: you're welcome to the party, but we're not rearranging the furniture for you.

Further reading:

• Reviving Heritage: The Brand Culture of Indian Wear in Contemporary India

• The Established: The rise of worldbuilding among Indian fashion brands

• Reviving Heritage: The Brand Culture of Indian Wear in Contemporary India

• Raw Mango

• Nimish Shah’s residency in Gujarat

• Nimish Shah’s Shift

• Nor Black Nor White x NIKE

Can it be then that the book is truly back? We think so.

Spotify just announced it's selling physical books.

Not ebooks, but the real kind: actual paper, cardboard, ink. This spring, users in the U.S. and UK will click through from an audiobook to purchase its physical counterpart via Bookshop.org, bridging what the company calls "discovery" and "ownership." They've even built Page Match, a feature that scans your paperback and jumps you to the exact spot in the audiobook.

Spotify’s move into physical books isn’t about revenue. It’s about becoming indispensable to how people discover and collect culture.

Stripe, a payments infrastructure company, runs Stripe Press, a publishing house focused on technological and economic advancement. We tested, this is not a marketing gimmick. It is a sustained, multi-year curatorial project featuring meticulously designed covers and reprints of forgotten classics.

Margot Robbie's Wuthering Heights press tour has spawned a "literary girl" aesthetic, and brands from coffee shops to wellness companies are launching book clubs.

For brands, books create what algorithms can’t: curation as connection. These clubs are exploding because they transform companies from product-pushers to cultural curators. MUD\WTR launched with “Atomic Habits.” Aesop already sponsors The Paris Review. Miu Miu launched its "Writing Life" Literary Club during Milan Design Week 2024, transforming the Circolo Filologico into a literary salon. Warby Parker stocks indie publishers in-store. London cafés charge £85 for book club dinners with authors.

So why is this happening?

The reasons are economic as much as cultural.

• After years of inflation and "greedflation" in luxury, meaning "the idea that you've gone too far, too high, too quickly", over 50 million shoppers left the market. What remained were customers demanding substance over hype. Books deliver that. They're analog in a deepfake world and carry cultural capital that outlasts any trend cycle.

• Physical books now represent 73% of trade publishing revenue. Gen Z prefers print over e-readers. Independent bookstores hit their highest membership numbers in 20+ years. Reading has become both self-care ritual and social currency. A curated bookshelf signals taste in ways algorithm-driven content never quite does.

  

  

  
  
  The literary resurgence is happening precisely when fashion faces crisis, streaming platforms saturate, and AI-generated content floods feeds. For over a decade, we were told the future was frictionless: streaming, scrolling, algorithmically served. For many of us, books became interchangeable with podcasts or Netflix. But friction, it turns out, has value. Attending a book club demands presence. Buying a physical copy when you could stream it suggests the object matters, not despite the content, but because of it.

  

  
  This is not very far from what we are trying to do here at Subject Matter: throwing light on indigenous ways of production, preserving unwritten cultural language using tradition as competitive advantage, provenance and craft over mass production. Not to mention, our own community in Paris is slowly taking shape. Do have a looking and share it with a friend?

  

  Culture is commerce again. Some things gain value by taking up space. On shelves. In hands. In conversations that happen face-to-face.

  ---

  On that note, we would love to know what you are reading right now? Drop a line in the comments!
  

The democratisation of baseline skills through AI have blurred traditional boundaries and has seen the rise of the full‑stack marketer. Whether you’re talking to a procurement committee or a consumer at a market stall, the heart of persuasion remains the same: trust, storytelling, and brand.

Twelve years on, I’m still learning, so the following reflection comes from deep observation and from the advice of some experts in the domain that I deeply respect.

What we are seeing across both sides of the marketing spectrum is that we’re all returning to something more essential. As you will see the essay, the differential between brands is no longer in speed or scale- it’s in substance. That’s what this new era, what Lippincott, called the “post‑AI correction” is all about.

#1 The Return of Human Craft and “Meaningful Friction”

By 2026, the landscape of marketing and advertising has shifted from a fascination with technological speed to a profound “post‑AI” correction. This era is defined by a move away from the “frictionless” efficiency of the early 2020s toward a world that prioritises human craft, trust, and meaningful resistance.

According to Lippincott, the novelty of AI has met a “swift and fierce” backlash, leading consumers to celebrate human‑made as a badge of honor and a driver of price premiums. Motto echoes this sentiment, noting that as generative “AI slop” floods digital feeds, nuance, restraint, and imperfection have become the new markers of authenticity.

A tangible storytelling shift is emerging: the intentional reintroduction of friction. Mouthwash Studio points out that brands are moving away from “slick, smoothed‑out realities” toward more complex, textured expressions of value. Burberry’s nine‑minute film of a man doing nothing is cited as a “friction‑forward” act—provoking attention not through speed, but through deliberate slowness. Similarly, Lippincott observes design returning to skeuomorphism, with Apple’s “Liquid Glass” aesthetic mimicking tactile textures to evoke calm and humanity in a synthetic world.

#2 The “Year of the Normie” and the Death of Performance

When was the last time you looked reviews of a product you wanted to buy and were shared an “unsponsored” post? Probably 15 years ago.

Storytelling in 2026 is no longer about performing for algorithms. According to Emily of , 2026 marks the “Year of the Normie,” where influence becomes quieter, smaller, and harder to fake. The once‑dominant “influencer economy” is giving way to creators with day jobs and deep niche passions - people who market with a “buy this or don’t, whatever” authenticity.

As cultural power shifts into private spaces like DMs, group chats, and community circles, the mechanics of audience connection are breaking old rules.

Motto calls this the age of “authenticity fatigue,” where audiences crave credible, values‑driven brands over highly performative ones. The implication is profound: as performance marketing loses its dominance, credibility beats oversharing, and brand equity becomes the ultimate form of trust capital.

#3 Brand as an “Operating System”

The modern brand has evolved beyond visual identity or voice, it operates as what Motto describes as a “living brand OS.” In this model, every element, vision, strategy, product, and culture, is interconnected to express a unified worldview.

According to Motto, “alignment is the new speed.” Companies like Stripe and Notion exemplify this shift: their brand beliefs guide product development, pricing, and even internal rituals. This reframes branding as infrastructure, not decoration.

Marketers, in turn, are moving from creative briefs to trust briefs, designed to establish credibility within both human networks and AI‑powered ecosystems. As Lippincott’s internal AI, Brandy, suggests, the brands that thrive will be those recognised as authoritative sources by digital agents and consumers alike—ushering in an era of authority‑first marketing where reliability equals reach.

#4 Storytelling as a Bulwark for Humanity

At its core, storytelling in 2026 carries a purpose beyond selling—it acts as what Obi Okolo of BitterSweet Creative calls a “bulwark against unchecked innovation.” As automation scales, it awakens a deeper desire for human intimacy and imperfection.

Motto notes that automation doesn’t kill creativity; it amplifies the need for micro‑moment authenticity, those spontaneous, unfiltered expressions that AI cannot mimic. Personal stories from employees, unpolished founder notes, and small acts of transparency now hold more power than high‑production ad campaigns.

BitterSweet Creative draws a useful analogy here: for decades, marketing resembled a car‑centric city, optimising for speed and efficiency at the expense of connection. By 2026, we’ve returned to a “walkable city” model of storytelling—designing digital and physical spaces that prioritise interaction, community, and curiosity. Lippincott sees this embodied in the rise of collectible ephemera—physical objects (like Starbucks’ nostalgic “bearista” toy) that re‑enchant consumers by reconnecting to tactile delight.

Even the corporate office is being reimagined as an engine of human energy and narrative, rather than a productivity factory, a potent symbol of how brand is once again in service of humanity.

If you’re in a Marketer in the arena, I’m sure you noticed that the work that feels most alive right now is slower, more crafted, and more principled. If the last decade was about speed, this next one, for me, is about standards: what I’m willing to put into the world, who I’m building for, and which stories are worth telling even when there’s no obvious performance “win” attached.

Sources:

1. The 12 brand, marketing and experience trends set to define 2026.

2. Cool Kids Table

   The Year of the Normie

   This week I heard a marketing executive confidently declare that 2026 will be the year of the influencer…

   Read more

   4 months ago · 69 likes · 26 comments · Emily

   The Year of the Normie

3. Humanity in the Age of AI

4. Findings by MW.S

   A Brave New (Frictionless) World

   Findings is a monthly newsletter on the influences and trends that are quietly shaping our culture by Mouthwash Studio. This post may be too long for email, read online for the best experience…

   Read more

   4 months ago · 61 likes · 1 comment · Mouthwash Studio and Edmond Lau

   Brave New Frictionless World

Paris just rolled out the red carpet for SHEIN, with a brick-and-mortar store, none other than the iconic BHV, stirring up drama that’s got government, activists, and fashion industry squirming. I must admit that this is physically painful, so let’s call it what it is: the world’s most infamous (ultra) fast-fashion brand cozying up to one of the biggest fashion capitals in the world in a attempt to clean its image.

Stealth Mode Tactic

Not only was it an odd pairing, but it was also done so quietly that no one noticed. Not a peep about SHEIN x BHV until just before the opening day. It might come as a shock to you but many stakeholders, non-profits, journalists and such, did not realise it was supposed to be SHEIN’s first permanent flagship store in the world, many thought this would be a pop-up.

The press release came out only about a week before November 5, 2025, the launch day.

The outcome was revolting for some consumers and shocking for activists and media alike.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s office later admitted that Hôtel de Ville (or City Hall) wasn’t informed that SHEIN would be occupying space in BHV.

(By law, BHV did not need to get approval from the city for a concesSo, city officials only responded after the store was publicly open.)

That was the beginning of the catastrophe: the brand tainting of BHV, and the actual exodus of brands from the mall.

Herein lies the dichotomy. Not only has this fast-fashion brand tried to find a fit in one of the fashion capitals of the world, a culture that respects savoir faire, but has also targeted some of the iconic retail locations for it, namely, BHV or Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville, a place for French-made prêt-à-porter.

You might think: how does a brand like SHEIN think this country and this location is a fit for a physical store, and how does it hope to succeed here?

In many ways, this is a classic story, one that reveals much about human values and desire. We’re going to dive deep into all of it today.

Part I. Why Start With France and Why Now?

“By choosing France as the place to trial physical retail, we are honoring its position as a key fashion capital and embracing its spirit of creativity and excellence,” said Donald Tang, SHEIN’s Executive Chairman.

SHEIN’s intent for France was : let’s try the hardest market first.

They have the following rationale:

• From the revenue standpoint:

  • France represents roughly 5–6% of global sales, making it a top 5 markets, up there with US, followed by Germany and UK.

  • Amidst the biggest fast fashion players in the French market, such as, Zara (Inditex), H&M, Kiabi, Jennyfer, Temu (online imports), SHEIN is a major disruptor in France. It has been able to dominate these markets through aggressive digital marketing, ultra-fast logistics, and adaptation to local market preferences, particularly among Gen Z shoppers.

  • While Vinted is the biggest ecommerce player in the French market, by % share of users in France, SHEIN takes the bigger pie.

• From regulatory standpoint:

  • France has some of the strictest sustainability and consumer-protection laws in the EU, SHEIN reportedly saw value in adapting to France first to later claim EU-wide compliance leadership.

  • This also ties into their ongoing plan to IPO in 2026, for which European ESG compliance is crucial.

  

  Their brand strategy was built on the following hypothesis:

1. Legitimisation & brand prestige
   By opening a store in Paris, one of the world’s fashion capitals, SHEIN was clearly trying to make a point. They were also trying to experiment.
   The Brand team within SHEIN imagined that this move would position them alongside luxury names (BHV and Galeries Lafayette are historic institutions), a way to rebrand from “cheap e-commerce” to “accessible fashion with experience.”

2. Consumer trust & sensory validation
   As per a study by Ipsos, French public lists price (62%) and quality (58%) as the top criteria when buying clothes; values like sustainability come lower (32%). Having said that, through the same study, we can see that 52% of people are opposed to SHEIN opening a store in the iconic department store BHV Marais in Paris.

   Despite these studies, SHEIN reflected that seeing, touching, and trying items before ordering online would increase credibility and reduce return rates in the future.

3. Local expansion pilot
   Paris was meant to be the test case for a broader French rollout: five more cities were planned (Dijon, Reims, Limoges, Angers, Grenoble) via similar department store corners.

   

Part II. What does this say about the consumer market in France? A cultural and economic paradox.

Five years in Paris taught me one thing: French consumers give a fair amount of damn about sustainability and knowing where their clothes come from. Fashion here thrives in originality, hunting for beauty in high and low, vintage gems, keeping your old pieces alive, repairing instead of tossing, and cheering on small makers.

Call it confirmation bias, and a little bit of romanticising, if you like but, many French consumers and industry voices see SHEIN’s ultra-fast-fashion model as contrary to French fashion culture, which emphasises quality, durability, craftsmanship.

But people only put their money where the mouth is when things are alright. The economic reality of most French consumers does not necessarily overlap with its cultural ideals of eco-fashion and preserving heritage and savoir-faire.

• French consumers, especially under 35, face stagnant wages and high living costs (housing, food, transport).

• INSEE data (2024) shows the average disposable income per capita grew only ~1.2% after inflation, far below the EU average.

  The result is that people want to buy ethically, but can’t afford to at scale.

Eco Anxiety + Convenience Paradox

Surveys show that while nearly half of French consumers report negative views of SHEIN, a striking 43% of 18–34-year-olds admit to buying from the platform recently, often justifying these choices as occasional or “just for specific trends”.

This compartmentalisation, or moral rationalisation, reflects a broader global tension when talk about sustainability: people espouse green values but face real financial or social pressures that steer them toward convenience and cost-saving options, creating what some call the “eco-anxiety + convenience paradox”.

In practice, economic realities and peer influence can outweigh sustainability ideals, leading many to accept compromise purchases as minor or necessary.

Dr. Guillard, a leading researcher in consumer behaviour, explores the forces driving today’s fashion consumption. Her work reveals how digital ads, social pressure, and rapid product turnover make ultra-fast fashion irresistible, while habits and marketing intensity make breaking the cycle extremely difficult.

As a result, even in countries that traditionally value heritage and quality, consumers may feel conflicted about their choices.

Explosive Growth v/s Regulatory Lag

SHEIN knows how to scale. And fast. Localised website, French-language customer service, and EU logistics hubs (Belgium/Netherlands), leveraging TikTok and Instagram “micro-influencers”, flash sales and aggressive app engagement (push notifications, gamified coupons), attracting younger, digitally native audiences. Its textbook - and it works.

Regulations are often just playing catch-up to this explosive growth. Before the 2025 fine, SHEIN operated freely with cross-border VAT advantages and minimal customs scrutiny. That kept prices 30–40% below European fast fashion.

The French state has since tightened oversight, but enforcement lagged behind SHEIN’s explosive growth.

• (Re)Create a Sustainable Economy: Macromarketing Issues, Waste, and With regard more specifically to waste management” by Valérie Guillard and Dominique Roux — published in the Journal of Macromarketing.

• The Guardian

• Ipsos survey, cited multiple times

• Le Monde

• Fashion Network

• French fast fashion regulations

News

India’s Digital Gold Rush: E-Commerce Races Toward $200 Billion

India’s e-commerce sector is on track to surpass $200 billion in 2025, propelled by digital-first consumers, rapid infrastructure advances, and regulatory momentum. For comparison, China’s e-commerce market is expected to reach $3 trillion by 2025, while Southeast Asia’s market is projected to grow to $230 billion.

These figures highlight the potential for growth in India and why there is still an opportunity for an early-mover advantage.
Signal in the market:
Aggressive scaling, digital adoption, and foreign direct investment are redefining retail competition and consumer experience.
Strategic Insights:

• Technology integration and omnichannel strategies will separate winners from laggards.

• Early-mover advantage is still up for grabs for brands that localise authentically and move fast.

Upcycling Revolution: How Africa’s Designers Reframe the Textile Trade

African creatives are changing the continent’s role in the global textile industry by upcycling Western clothing waste into bold new stories and creating economic opportunities.

Signal in the market:
The conversation on waste is not mainstream only. We are seeing a better understanding of the waste in the global south. This transition marks a shift within global south economies from passive recipients of waste to active agents in global design and sustainability discourse.

Strategic Insights:

• Opportunities exist for brands that co-create and platform local ingenuity, rather than just extracting trends.

The True Cost of Circularity: Lessons from Panipat’s Textile Mills

If you’ve been here before you know that we’ve spotlight the recycling center in Panipat, India before. India’s recycling center supports circular fashion for Western markets, but it also reveals serious social and environmental problems, including unfair labour practices and health issues.

Signal in the market:
People are taking a closer look at sustainability claims, focusing on the real conditions and hidden costs in global supply chains. To make these assessments more tangible, brands could focus on traceability metrics, such as worker health audits and chemical discharge data, which serve as consumer-facing proof points.

Strategic Insights:

• Brands need to make sure their ESG practices match their marketing by investing openly in fair labor and health standards.

• Because trade and tariffs can change quickly, it is important for companies to manage supply risks and make their operations more resilient.

Tariffs and Tumult: The Collateral Damage to India’s Garment Workforce

US tariffs introduced during the Trump administration have affected global value chains, causing layoffs and job insecurity for Indian garment workers.

Signal in the market:
Trade wars often shift the burden to the most vulnerable people, turning political decisions into social problems for workers and suppliers. With no serious labour protection in jobs like these in the emerging markets, the worst brunt of the situation is faced by the most powerless populace.

Strategic Insights:

• Stakeholders should employ structured risk assessment frameworks, such as scenario analysis or supply chain risk mapping, to systematically anticipate and mitigate the potential escalation of risks and costs associated with protectionist policies, particularly for downstream suppliers and vulnerable workforce segments.

• What we would love to see is how governments India rise up to the ocassion to support garment workers during this time.

Anita Dongre Makes History with Beverly Hills Store

Anita Dongre becomes the first Indian designer to open a flagship store in Beverly Hills, marking a milestone for Indian fashion’s international presence.

Signal in the Market

Indian luxury fashion’s expansion into top-tier Western retail signals rising global appetite for South Asian aesthetics and talent.

Strategic Insights

South Asian brands should leverage heritage storytelling and celebrity endorsements to compete in premium markets, while aligning with local preferences.

Editorial

The Power & Peril of Designer–Artisan Partnerships

When designers work with traditional textile artisans, it can lead to creative results or, sometimes, to quiet exploitation. The outcome often depends on issues like credit, pay, and working conditions.

Signal in the market:
Brands are increasingly expected to go beyond simply borrowing ideas and instead build fair partnerships that both sides value.

Strategic Insights:

• Real inclusion and giving proper credit will become more important for building brand value, earning consumer trust, and encouraging innovation.

• Narratives that document equitable, mutually beneficial collaborations, rather than merely highlighting geographical provenance, offer brands a distinctive competitive advantage in the global marketplace.

• For instance, when a fashion label transparently showcases the co-design process and shared authorship with artisan communities, as opposed to unidirectional sourcing, it not only enhances brand authenticity but also signals ethical commitment, thereby fostering deeper consumer trust and differentiating the brand amid increasing scrutiny of supply chain practices.

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Edition: October 20 – 26, 2025

Welcome to another Curatorium - a strategic attempt in capturing the news that’s making fashion-tech, culture and artisanship in the Global South. Let’s go!

(Average reading time ≈ 9 minutes total)

I. FASHION TECHNOLOGY : DIGITAL CIRCULARITY TAKES CENTER STAGE | Read more

Tallinn-based Yaga secures €4 million to expand its secondhand fashion platform, with backing from H&M Group Ventures.

Signal in the Market
Operating across South Africa and Estonia, Yaga has built a catalog of 3 million items and over 1 million users. Its expansion into MENA markets and integration of secure payments show the next phase of fashion tech’s focus: building supply-side trust.

Strategic Insight
Resale platforms are becoming critical infrastructure for circular economies. Venture-backed marketplaces in emerging regions may soon replace traditional retail franchises as scalable distribution models.

II. FASHION AI: INFRASTRCUTRE OF INTELLIGENCE | Read more

Ralph Lauren introduces “Ask Ralph,” an AI-powered advisor built on Microsoft Azure OpenAI, blending creative vision with executive analytics.

Signal in the Market
Generative AI is shifting from being a post-production tool to an enterprise collaboration layer, powering decision-making in design, merchandising, and CX. Korea’s KAIST AI research into fabric motion modeling and TechBullion’s generative photo retouching coverage illustrate this systemic adoption.

Strategic Insight
AI is becoming the operational backbone of luxury production pipelines. Brands investing early in cross-functional AI ecosystems will capture greater creative throughput and lower supply-chain friction.

III. CONSUMER MARKETING :AGE OF EXPERIENCES AND PURPOSE | Read More

Consumers are pivoting to purposeful, frugal consumption. Gen Z’s demand for authenticity is changing the way value is defined in retail.

Signal in the Market
McKinsey’s consumption data and Placer.ai’s in-store metrics show declining foot traffic but rising engagement in “experience-driven” promotions, such as Best Buy’s Techtober campaign. Consumers are deliberating but not disengaging.

Strategic Implication
Brand growth depends on experience innovation, not discounting. Integrating values-based storytelling with hybrid physical-digital touchpoints is key to maintaining relevance during economic compression.

IV. THE GLOBAL SOUTH: NEW GROWTH GEOGRAPHIES | Read More

Africa Finance Corporation partners with Lagos Fashion Week to build creative-industrial infrastructure across West Africa.

Signal in the Market
Parallel to this, Thailand’s Fashion Hero program boosts SME-led exports to 220 billion baht. Regional investment is tying creative identity directly to economic development, moving “fashion” out of soft culture into hard infrastructure.

Strategic Implication
The Global South is no longer a sourcing ground but a strategic growth engine. Investors and policymakers should look for cross-sector opportunities where creative economies align with renewable manufacturing and logistics ecosystems.

Subject Matter’s Reflection

Fashion’s value chain is rapidly changing - AI tools, resale platforms, and regional industrial investment are building new scaffolding for fashion’s global value chain. The emphasis is heavily on operational resilience.

The future of fashion will belong to those controlling the physical and digital infrastructure of creation: the servers, supply chains, and sustenance systems powering cultural production.

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Over the last few years, fast fashion brands have been uplifting their fast-fashion image by creating “sustainable” lines, whiles slowly incresaing their prices and creating masstige/premium collections, leveraging the growing demand for sustainability amidst the consumers.

These premium lines are created by segmenting fabric types and clever marketing strategies, slowly altering the perception and value proposition for shoppers.

For retailers like Zara and H&M, the default lines consist of synthetic blends as their go-to option, the really good stuff - pure linen or organic cotton - get saved for their fancy “special collections” or premium “sustainable” sub-brands that come with a hefty price tag.

The bottom line is that real natural fibre clothes, such as 100% cotton, linen, wool or silk, have become a pricey add-on within the same shops.

In this deep dive, we aim to investigate the correlation between fabrics, price and perception of value within the fast-fashion landscape.

#1 The Pricing Game has changed

A couple of trends on pricing that are rapidly changing fast fashion landscape:

• Coming in of Shein as a big player in the fast-fashion landscape means that these brands cannot really increase pricing and have to stay competitive (infact might have to lower pricing to match the Shein price points).

• The creation of these premium lines with ever-growing price tag is relying on the growing demand for sustainability. Eco-friendly and high fashion credentials are extremely important for premium positioning.

• A shift towards “timeless” collections and longer product cycles is emerging as a counterweight to hyper-fast micro-trends, potentially supporting higher, more stable price points on certain SKUs.​

• Data-driven dynamic pricing: Fashion retailers will start to leverage AI-powered systems soon. That means, automatic adjustment of prices based on demand, competitor moves, and inventory, enabling more responsive margins and improved sell-through rates.​

#2 Material Innovation as Marketing Strategy

While Zara and H&M are still monetising immediacy; Arket and &Other Stories commercialise timelessness, appealing to values-based consumers willing to pay more for emotional and ethical reassurance.

Three tiers emerge in this landscape:

• Timeless pieces in high-quality facbrics: Leader in this space Arket consists of collectections in 55% cotton, 15% wool, emphasis on natural fibers.

• New Material Innovation: &Other stories has launched collections in MIRUM® (bio-based leather alternative), CIRCULOSE® (recycled textiles) and recycled sterling silver from urban mining.

• Zero Waste collection: Zara’s ZW boasts of stylish pieces at an average price that is 2.5x premium from their main collection.

  Growing acceptance of higher prices for sustainable materials has led to fast fashion brands leveraging sustainability to feed into positioning (see #3 below) and pricing (see #1 above)

#3 The Masstige Marketing Playbook

All fast fashion brands have deployed Premium lines like Studio (H&M), ZW (Zara), and Selection (Mango) are photographed like the pages of a high-fashion editorial, precise styling, dramatic contrasts, and minimalist settings that let high-fashion styling and lifestyle aspiration take center stage.

Zara’s attempt to create editorial reflections is also an interesting way to bring the culture element into the spotlight.

By contrast, the core ranges, think Main H&M, Zara Basic, Mango Basic, speak a more straightforward visual language. Here, photography is product-first, built for volume and clarity rather than artistry, favoring simple backgrounds and clean, functional composition.

Meanwhile, sustainability-led labels such as ARKET and & Other Stories bring their own distinct visual signatures: Nordic restraint meets poetic storytelling. ARKET leans into the purity of natural light and serene minimalism, while & Other Stories lets creativity run freer - textures, materials, and emotion blending to express values of the brand.

At Subject Matter Labs, we unpack what makes campaigns click — stories of creativity, craft, and connection shaping brand culture today. From exploring the art behind marketing to sharing the makers’ journeys on our podcast, we dig into the heartbeat of how ideas move the world.

Through our advisory, we partner with small and medium brands to turn purpose into presence and campaigns into communities.

If the story spoke to you, pass it on — the best ideas grow when shared.

Today, we’re exploring how our writing reaches you in the era of AI. Openness guides everything we create. I don’t want to produce just another thought piece - our writing should sound and feel uniquely ours.

To begin, here’s a look at who’s tapping into AI for their written work

Out of about 2,000 surveyed Substack publishers, here’s what they found:

• 45.4% said they’re using AI

• 52.6% said they’re not

• 2% were unsure

• Publishers 45 years and over were more likely to use AI than those under 45 years.

• Men reported higher adoption than women (55% vs. 38%).

• Women were more likely to express concerns about using AI than men (67% vs. 47%).

You can read the details of Substack AI Report, here.

Surveyed publishers said they’re primarily using AI tools for knowledge work (research, writing assistance, ideation) rather than for content generation. Of generative use cases, image generation was the most common, at 41%.

These publishers don’t always see LLMs as distinct from their innate creativity, sometimes describing them as a kind of mirror. One creator said that the tool “remembers my way of articulating ideas.” Another wrote, “It reflects back to me my voice and streamlines my creative vision.”

Why we want to talk about this

The share of articles written by AI on the internet is continously on the rise.

The graph is from a study conducted by Graphite, using an AI detector to analyse a random sample of URLs from Common Crawl, which is an open source database of over 300 billion web pages.

The database spans 18 years and adds 3–5 billion new pages monthly, so it was a vast quantity of data that was analysed and the articles were deemed AI-generated if 50% or less of the content was found by Surfer to have been written by a human.

Instead of adding to the pile of AI-slop, here’s a glimpse into how we actually write around here.

Subject Matter’s Writing Manifesto

Everything starts with the belief that : “Our writing is a gateway to critical-thinking.”

Subject Matter started as an anthropological exploration of fashion and crafts- Our compass remains fixed on elevating human creativity and rigorous analytical thought in everything we publish.

1. Our writing is investigative, research-oriented and painstakingly thorough. We thrive on our deduction - committing to uncovering the realities behind cultural phenomena.

2. We use AI-tools minimally. AI tools are used for deep research to support lived-in professional experience and replenish other sources. Additionally AI tools are used for editing the length of content, such as, summarising, improving sentence structures and editing the word count - never replacing human judgement or intuition

3. Co-creation with AI is not our current path. We acknowledge AI’s transformative potential but root our practice largely in human ability.

4. We never enter sensitive or proprietary data into AI systems. Our authorship and our sources are protected by design.

5. Subject Matter is a place for contestation and dialogue. We welcome intellectual challenge, especially on issues intersecting diverse cultural frameworks. Our perspective is open-ended, inviting debate in an effort to foster a deeper discovery of the world.

"Harnessing machine learning can be transformational, but for it to be successful, enterprises need leadership from the top. This means understanding that when machine learning changes one part of the business , the product mix, for example, then other parts must also change."

- Erik Brynjolfsson, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI

Welcome to one of the the most pressing topic in Tech these days, and the steam engine equivalent of our times: Artifical Intelligence. If you think brands are getting better at reading your mind know that there is some level of AI-deployment at stake.

With AI adoption in consumer and apparel companies rising from 20% to 44% in the first half of 2025, the competitive landscape continues to evolve rapidly.

What does AI-adoption even mean and where are we seeing more impact?

I spent time digging through annual reports from major consumer companies – Nike, LVMH, L'Oréal, Inditex, you name it – looking for how they plan to actually deploy AI. I’ve also have anecdotal insights from conversations spanning months with smaller business and how they envision the usage of AI and how it has been impacting hiring and talent selection.

What I’ve been finding is that we're watching a complete reshaping of entire industries. So what does it mean for an industry as labour intensive as fashion?

In this series, we touch upon all those things. Let’s go.

Broadly Speaking, here’s what you should expect

Can AI in fashion supply chain reduce greenhouse gases?

Brands are moving along - there are several use cases for the use of AI within fashion’s value chain that can potentially show a drop in GHGs.

• One report published in ScienceDirect and Earth.org establishes that AI-driven production optimisation directly correlates with a reduction in the 10% of global greenhouse gases attributed to fashion’s carbon footprint - a bold claim.

  However we are seeing some of this already in action. Notes below:

• Refiberd’s textile recycling robots, now used by Stella McCartney, scan fibers with machine vision, sorting with 98% accuracy to boost circularity.

• Refashion, Chile’s first sustainable fashion startup, partnered with Theodora AI to build Octavia, an AI system for sustainable & ethical fashion.

• Octavia’s main capabilities:

  • Predict demand more accurately to avoid overproduction.

  • Optimise production workflows to reduce fabric waste.

  • Detect and mitigate biases in design and marketing (related to race, body size, gender).

  • Tailor more inclusive designs and campaigns

Indian Artisan Village x AI

• While Gen Z seems to be clued into the value of artisanship to a large extent, there is always a stress of some of these crafts going outdated due to depleting income for artisans. To address this, the authors of this research, propose AI-based methods that generate fresh, contemporary designs inspired by traditional motifs, making handicrafts more appealing without losing their cultural essence.

• Their approach combines generative models and rule-based techniques to create new motifs, apply modern colour schemes, and filter out weak designs. For Ikat, they use deep learning (pix2pix GANs) and colour transfer methods to modernise motif colorisation, while for Block Printing they employ geometric rule systems and pruning models to ensure quality.

• Evaluations with young consumers show that AI-generated designs are significantly more liked than traditional ones, suggesting real potential for boosting artisans’ economic opportunities.

  

• Similarly, Refabric’s AI-powered digitisation engine records endangered motifs, linking handicraft heritage from Guatemala to Vietnam on new digital platforms.

  [Full disclosure, I’m fundamentally opposed to the idea of the Prompt to Design and features like this. In this AI landscape there is nothing stopping a brand from ripping off design from another, without credit or compensation. Secondly, we need to explore the guardrails for cultural appropriation and misuse of heritage designs. More on this soon in the series.]

  

Can we expect fair wages and more accountability?

The readymade garments industry of Bangladesh contributes about 80% of the export earnings and is currently positioned second worldwide in exporting clothes and fabric industry. Besides these accolades, it is probably also the most exploited when it comes to labour rights and protection. With the deployment of AI called “Aamra Vision”, a system that inspects garment quality via computer vision, Bangladesh aims to flag defects and improve factory efficiency. However, research from the Global Fashion Summit notes that collective wage bargaining (ACT) is essential: AI alone cannot guarantee fair pay.

Empirical studies published at IEOM confer that AI safety monitoring reduces workplace accidents, yet also push policy-makers to enact wage protection before algorithmic decision-making dominates factories.

What happens to fast fashion cycles and consumption in the age of AI?

In my opinion, this one is tricky.

AI WILL ACCELERATE FAST FASHION CONSUMPTION. There is just no doubt about it.

Some uses cases:

1. Hyper-personalised marketing: Fashion brands are sitting on DATA! This whole thing makes it very easy for them leverage hyper-personalise message designed just for you, knowing exactly what you would want next. (Oh we’re going to do a whole deep dive into this one). As per University of Michigan, Inditex, the manufacturer of Zara, has seen a 41% increase in e-commerce sales (Bloomberg, 2018). AI has been implemented to provide tailored recommendations based on browsing history, past purchases and wishlist items. These individually curated product recommendations are then displayed for customers as they browse through websites.

2. Faster production cycles: AI is transforming supply chains with rapid design-to-production cycles. Think Zara’s Just-In-Time on steroids!

3. Enhanced Virtual Experiences: AI-driven photorealism becoming dominant in 2025, with applications in AR and VR enabling immersive shopping experiences.

However a counterargument can be made: AI MAY REDUCE WASTE FROM FAST FASHION

Sustainability Potential:

• Better demand prediction could reduce overproduction, giving brand enough insight to plan ahead.

• AI trend analysis could optimise inventory management at every level.

Critical Reality Check (just because)

Current fast fashion produces 80 billion clothes and 1.2 billion tons of carbon annually

In a rapidly changing Tech landscape, it would be amiss to not talk about the most important component of the industry that is rapidly impacting how all other industries operate: Artificial Intelligence.

I look forward to breaking this element down to you - with you. Before we part ways, do share it with a friend who might enjoy reading it.

Share Subject Matter

It’s been a whole minute and I’ve missed this everyday - a fresh substack window and a mountain of whats-been-up in the world from the lens of Marketing.

Despite the fact that I’ve been reading a little bit of everything, this Curatorium is a bit bizarre, to be fully frank, perhaps a sign of the times but promise to keep you entertained throughout.

Here goes:

First things first, our latest podcast was out sometime ago. We sit down with Alia Mahmoud and Lamia Hatira, co-founders of Fouta Harissa, a modern textile studio rooted in Tunisia, born out of friendship, memory, and a shared reverence for the fouta, the everyday Tunisian textile that dries quickly, folds softly, and carries generations of craft. Fouta Harissa is their love letter to heritage and a step towards reviving the Tunisian textile industry. I really enjoyed this conversation - don’t miss it! Its on Spotify & Youtube.

Lanzante x Ganesha

Alright so everyone is talking about the new Lanzante logo. Its an (angry) Ganesha, the Hindu elephant god, known for prosperity and new beginnings.

My question is: why?

There is some logic to it, apparently, the choice of Ganesha as an emblem traces back to George Harrison of The Beatles, who was deeply drawn to Indian spirituality and happened to be a great friend of the founder of the company. Since Ganesha is a source of good luck and a remover of obstacles - values that Lanzante says mirror its philosophy of tackling complex engineering challenges while preserving elegance, it made sense to them. So it makes for a great story and has definitely put the brand on the radar and as a culture conversation on the socials.

As Marketer, though, I wonder if the logo really resonates with Lanzante’s clientele. Not to mention the logo itself is rather surprising, I initially thought this was a joke, given there are better versions of Ganesha speaking design-wise.

Like Seth Godin says: A “Deer Xing” sign isn’t there to tell the deer where to cross the road. It’s there to let drivers know that this is the spot where deer often choose to cross the road. The intention of this metaphorical deer sign is unclear to me.

Here are ten "Yes"/"No" questions you can ask yourself to know if your logo needs improvements ("Somewhat" doesn't cut it, though):

1. Does my logo accurately reflect my company’s positioning and personality?

2. Is my logo simple, memorable, and easily recognizable?

3. Is my logo appropriate for my industry and target audience?

4. Are my colors appropriate and consistent with my brand’s personality, and do they make the correct positioning statement?

5. Does my logo leave a positive impression, and is it easily associated with my company?

6. Is the font used in my logo legible and easy to read, consistent with the company’s branding and messaging?

7. Is the size and spacing of the letters appropriate and balanced?

8. Is the icon in my logo meaningful, recognizable, and versatile?

9. Does my logo look professional and original?

10. Is my logo consistent in different contexts and mediums

(written by Manelik Sfez, founder of the Swiss brand consultancy Ultrabrand.)

The Viral Moment

Speaking as a Marketer, here’s a hill I’d die on too - this almost-viral post and the comments have been resonating with Marketers. One of my favourites: “If a job description uses the words "rockstar", "guru", or "unicorn"...run. You missed 'Ninja'. No one should be doing martial arts while marketing a SaaS product.”

The Rise of the Etsy Witch

This TIME story looks at the rise of “Etsy witches” : people selling spells for everything from love to perfect wedding weather. What was once fringe has slipped into the mainstream via TikTok and Etsy, repackaged as a mix of spirituality, wellness, and entertainment.

Why I think people are buying spells

On the surface, it’s fun and a little mystical. But underneath, the trend speaks to real economic pressures. In uncertain times : high rents, precarious jobs, cost-of-living spikes, people crave a sense of control.

Behavioural economists call this a coping mechanism for uncertainty: when the future feels unpredictable, we gravitate toward rituals, even small symbolic ones, to restore a feeling of agency. Psychologists would add that it’s a placebo effect of hope, the act of buying a spell isn’t about guaranteed results, but about lowering anxiety and reinforcing the belief that you’re “doing something” in the face of instability. In other words, Etsy spells are less about magic, more about managing the stress of modern economic life.

What do you think?

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1. Introduction and Guest Welcome

   • Introduction to Alia and Lamia, founders of Fouta Harissa.

   • Shoutout to Sarah from Kaia Olive Oil for the connection.

2. Personal Backgrounds and Professional Journeys

   • Alia's journey from social impact work in Miami to Microsoft in the Middle East.

   • Lamia's experience managing festivals and community spaces in Brazil and research in Tunisia and Nigeria.

3. Connection to Tunisian Textiles

   • Alia and Lamia share their personal connections to Tunisian culture and textiles.

   • The inception of Fouta Harissa and its mission.

     

4. Cultural and Historical Context

   • Discussion on Tunisia's diaspora and cultural identity.

   • Impact of the Arab Spring on Tunisia's political and cultural landscape.

5. Entrepreneurial Challenges and Opportunities

   • The entrepreneurial spirit post-revolution in Tunisia.

   • Challenges faced by young entrepreneurs and the creative scene.

6. Fouta Harissa's Business Model and Impact

   • The journey from idea to business launch in 2018.

   • The importance of social impact and sustainability in their business model.

7. Textile History and Cultural Significance

   • The evolution of the Futa and its cultural relevance.

   • Comparison with other African textiles.

8. Language and Cultural Preservation

   • The importance of preserving traditional language and names in their products.

   • How they communicate the cultural significance of their products globally.

9. Business Success and Philosophies

   • How they measure success beyond traditional business metrics.

   • Philosophies guiding them through challenges.

10. Future Aspirations and Collaborations

    • Dream collaborations and future goals for Futa Harisa.

    • The role of creativity and cultural exchange in their work.

11. Rapid-Fire Questions

    • Personal insights and preferences from Alia and Lamia

This episode is brought to you by , a platform, a voice, a movement & soon to be published book.

On a mission to amplify bold, nuanced stories from the South Asian diaspora and beyond. To honour those before us and to inspire the generations after us.A space for those who challenge norms, reclaim sacred histories, and speak truth with integrity.To celebrate the rebels the poets, healers, ancestors, and everyday disruptors.

A community where being “too much” is exactly enough. If you’ve ever felt like you didn’t fit in - you belong at Book of Rebel Asians.

We’re back from another inspiring week in Copenhagen ✨ meeting with entrepreneurs, designers, scientists and innovators solving some of the most pertinent problems in fashion from across the world.

In this newsletter, we’re sharing some lessons for fellow marketers, founders and storytellers on how to craft a sustainability campaign, three mini case studies that got our attention at the Global Fashion Summit: Less Noise, More Action.

Case Study I : Relevance Across Generations

Lessons for Marketers from Andri Snær Magnason, Icelandic writer & documentarian

In a conversation about communicating climate change, Icelandic author and filmmaker Andri Snær Magnason offered a powerful reframing: “To understand 2100, I have to visit my grandmother.”

His metaphor reveals a critical lesson: when it comes to climate, data alone isn’t enough. Numbers like sea level rise or “pH 8.1” are abstract and distant; they fail to emotionally connect. Instead, Magnason suggests we shift focus from technical terms to human context, what he calls “looking at the periphery, not the black hole.”

To illustrate how data can be transformed into meaningful storytelling, he spoke about the importance of creating relevance across generations. He shared a personal example: taking his daughter to visit her grandmother, he calculated the potential influence of the stories he tells today. If his daughter becomes a grandmother in 2104, her influence would extend to someone born between 2080 and 2170. This exercise framed the core of his storytelling mission, not just to speak to today’s audience, but to ensure his words resonate with someone living nearly 150 years from now.

Magnason’s Key Takeaways for Marketers

1. Shrink the psychological distance
   Don’t position climate impact in abstract future terms. Bring it here and now through generational storytelling, emotional anchoring, and personal relevance.

2. Replace data with meaningful metaphors
   Numbers don’t move people, stories do. Instead of stats like “30% circularity,” tell a story about a jacket that’s meant to be worn in 2170 by someone not yet born.

3. Make climate emotional, not just urgent
   Emotional urgency beats abstract fear. Create campaigns that tether environmental facts to love, family, memory, and cultural rituals.

4. Memorialise loss to give it meaning
   Magnason’s 2019 glacier memorial in Iceland commemorated the country’s first glacier lost to climate change. However, this fleeting news item became a lasting cultural marker.

   In his reflections on climate storytelling, Magnason shares how he tried to communicate the loss of this glacier “Okjökull” to climate change.

   The challenge: what words could be etched into a copper plaque that might outlast even stone? Copper, he notes, can last 6,000 years. His ambition wasn’t just to memorialise the past but to write for the future, for beings not yet born.

   The glacier, awkwardly named “Ok” (or “Ök”), became a deep metaphor. In ancient Icelandic, "ök" referred to a yoke, a beam used to carry water. Now, the water is gone. The yoke remains, not to carry water, but to carry the burden of the future. In Proto-Indo-European roots, the same sound “ök” connects across languages: in Sanskrit, “yoga”, a spiritual and physical yoke; in some dialects, "ök" also signifies zygote, the first cell that carries all genetic information of a future being.

So Ok became a symbol:

• A place where water once flowed.

• A burden passed to future generations.

• A beginning and an end.

But as beautiful and complex as this symbolism was, Andri ultimately chose simplicity. The plaque at the site reads:

"Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier.
In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path.
This monument is to acknowledge that we know
what is happening and what needs to be done.
Only you know if we did it."
August 2019

Case Study II: BBC Storywork’s Fashion Redressed Series – Creative Strategy Highlights through 12 stories

Global Fashion Agenda’s collaboration with BBC Studios for Fashion Redressed series brings a lot of interesting videos to light. Fashion Redressed is a digital film series spotlighting the people and innovations reshaping fashion as we know it. From pioneering materials and regenerative design to cultural heritage and circular business models, the series reveals how creativity and collaboration are shaping a more sustainable future for fashion.

Having gathered performance data through these videos, the team from BBC had the following insights:

• Test boldly: Run A/B testing across video formats to see what resonates= style, tone, and structure all matter.

• Dial-up emotion: Focus on storytelling that taps into emotional intensity to drive memory and long-term impact.

• Take it outside: Ditch the studio. Ground the story in real-world settings - urban streets, landfills, wardrobes, markets.

• Cast with purpose: Choose a singular, compelling protagonist. One voice. One journey. Authenticity over celebrity.

• Rally the crowd: End with a call to the collective - a clear, inspiring invitation to act, share, rethink.

• Pick up the pace: Edit with rhythm and urgency. Today’s viewer scrolls fast -so meet them there.

• Show the fix: Don’t just expose the problem. Spotlight real solutions- circular models, innovative materials, everyday actions that scale.

Case Study III: eBay x Love Island: Secondhand Meets Mainstream

On eBay, the word “vintage” is searched 1,200 times per minute, a clear signal of how today’s consumers feel about sustainability. 👀

eBay is working directly with brands to sell for resale, enabling them to:

• Protect brand identity in the secondhand space

• Extend product life cycles by keeping items in circulation

• Engage with conscious consumers where they already are

For that reason, we find the eBay’s return as the official sponsor of Love Island series quite a quirky and bold collaboration.

This collaboration truly exemplifies this shift : secondhand meets mainstream.

By embedding pre-loved style into the villa and then watching contestants champion it alongside major fashion players, eBay is catalysing a more nuanced shift: not replacing fast fashion overnight, but infusing it with nudges both consumers and brands toward more conscious choices.

Watch the campaign here:

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There is a word I love - Sankofa (SAHN-koh-fah), Twi word from the Akan Tribe of Ghana that loosely translates to, “go back and get it.” meaning to go forward, you need to understand the past.

The brouhaha around this month’s Met Gala, particularly the backlash over Cartier declining Diljit Dosanjh's request to wear the original Patiala Necklace - a 1000-carat diamond piece created by Cartier in 1928 for the Maharaja of Patiala, alongside TikTok’s never-ending reels rebranding a humble Indian dupatta as “Scandinavian,” speaks volumes.

These conversations point to something simple but deeply felt: Indians want to be seen, and seen right, on the global stage. With respect and authenticity.

Every time I go back home to New Delhi, I feel like I’m standing in the nucleus of the world. You can sense the pulse of the city - the spirit of commerce in the air, the friction of a society evolving at high speed, and an underlying rhythm of jugaad woven into everyday life.

Alongside this, there is a sense of deep self-affirmation. The modern Indian consumer is not passive aspirer waiting to be told what’s cool. They know their history and they expect brands to keep up - not catch up.

Yet, despite this massive appetite for growth, dynamism and stories worth telling, international brands have historically approached India with a mix of exotification, definitely curiosity, but a lot of caution - often stopping short of real inclusion.

Some exceptions exist: real moments in pop culture like the haldi ceremony scene in Bridgerton, a nod that felt nuanced and celebratory, not performative. Just yesterday, Alia Bhatt’s red-carpet appearance at Cannes in a Gucci saree-lehenga hybrid, embellished with the brand’s signature monogram, received a moderately positive response from Indian influencers and media - a huge feat in itself.

I’ll take a hard line on design first: if you're an international brand designing for India, Indians should be leading that vision. Ideally, someone who’s grown up in the country, who understands the culture not as an aesthetic but as a lived experience. And if that’s not possible, at the very least, work in close consultation with those who do. If you're a foreigner designing for India, the bare minimum is this: go to India.

This essay aims to begin that exploration - through history of current consumers, through stories of their parents, through data, and through the lens of a country that is shaping the future of global fashion and luxury in seismic ways.

This is the time to really understand it.

Part I: The Post-Colonial Consumerism and the Many Indias Around the World

I remember growing up in the '90s India as being a special time. The economy had just liberalised, opening its doors to foreign brands, and the first generation born after independence was now in its 30s and 40s, the Gen X steering the rise of a vast, ambitious middle class. It meant possibility - a collective national shift from scarcity to aspiration.

Despite this growth, partition memories, the collective wound of displacement lingered in homes across the country.

This was also the era of peak brain drain - when the brightest minds left for opportunities abroad. Yet, even as many physically left, their connection to India remained deeply emotional. Spice boxes were sent across oceans - culture travelled in suitcases and a new generation of the Indian diaspora was born. With the diaspora also came the deep desire to hold on to identity, sometimes in the most stereotypical ways.

There are many Indias around the world today.1

In Vogue Business, Yash Dongre, the Head of Business for Anita Dongre, who has opened brand stores in New York and Dubai said: “We would have brides and grooms fly into the Mumbai and Delhi stores from abroad and even return with family members and friends for their weddings. It is this strong overseas demand that prompted us to open a store in New York. The store did much better than our initial expectations. The Indian diaspora globally has grown over decades and across shifting geographies, but what remains true across generations is the idea of culture and purpose.”. When it comes to occasions such as weddings, or celebrations like Diwali, Indians, whether they live in India or abroad, still turn to homegrown fashion. 2

With the tapestry of the indian diaspora’s connection to home evolving with the times, it’s crucial to get what the times are.

Let’s look at the complexities of these Indias.

India’s Consumption Story | A journey through the post-independence decades

1950s: Suspicion, Nationalism, and Self-Reliance

• Key drivers of consumption | Fresh in to the decade post-independence, the core feeling amongst Indians is pride in self-sufficiency, Gandhi’s Swadeshi (meaning: of one’s own country) movement was very relevant to a free India’s desire towards consumption.

• What people were buying | Hand-spun khadi symbolised nationalism. Masses of handwoven fabric were woven for simplicity, self-reliance and equality in the backdrop of Nehruvian Socialism. Masses wore handwoven due to affordability

• Perception of foreign goods | Elitist, Immoral

• What consumer class consisted of :

  • Elite Anglicised, exposed to imported luxuries (albeit scarce).

  • Middle class: Small but emerging, state-employed.

Masses: Agrarian and subsistence consumers.

1960s: Scarcity, Aspiration, and Quiet Admiration

• Key drivers of consumption | India fought two wars in this decade, so it was marred by scarcity and recovery. Industrial production was still catching up and while state planning dictated essentialy, some level of quiet fascination with foreign good began to grow.

• What people were buying | The majority of fashion was handmade, however, urban consumers started moving towards mill-made for convenience.

• Perception of foreign goods | Unattainable aspiration. Items like foreign soap, perfumes, pens, or cameras seen as status symbols. Existing elite and diplomats had limited access and therefore, heightened mystique.

• What consumer class consisted of :

  • Urban middle class slowly started rising through public sector jobs.

  • Rural market, not yet consumer-driven.

1970s : Contradiction: Socialist Outwardly, Covetous Inwardly

• Key driving of consumption | Emergency, inflation and tightened import restrictions are the core drivers of this decade. Consumption was driven by Black markets and smuggling of goods within the country.

• What people were buying | Regional crafts like Chanderi, Kanjeevaram gained spotlight through Bollywood movies and state emporiums were set up. Some describe this era as “socialist chic”, since khadi was primarily worn by the leftist factions of the society. Gifting foreign products (e.g., perfumes, chocolates, Walkmans) was a sign of elite generosity or NRI connection.

• Perception of foreign goods| Public disdain but private desire. Politicians and bureaucrats discouraged foreign goods - yet many used them discreetly. Some foreign goods had cult status, specially Japanese electronics, Swiss watches, or Scotch whisky.

• What consumer class consisted of | Only the upper class had access to foreign goods via diplomatic or business channels, even though the desire proliferated all class, especially as Bollywood glamorised imported items: watches, perfumes, gadgets.

1980s Aspirational Globalism Under Wraps

• Key drivers of consumption | This decade marked the rise of the Indian consumer brands and the middle class. Expansion of public-sector and white collar jobs through liberalisation of technology imports was visible.

• What people were buying | Homegrown brands, like, Bajaj scooters, Hero cycles, Onida TVs, Goldspot/Thums Up soft drinks. There was an increased curiousity for western brands from young consumers who began idolising western fashion and music like Michael Jackson or Madonna, to name a few. “Imported” became a keyword in ads, even for fake or local goods.

• Perception of foreign goods | Cool, Desirable, Out of Reach.

  Brands like Sony, Panasonic, Levi’s, and Bata (often mistaken for foreign) had cult status and several Indian knock-offs of foreign brand proliferated the market.

• What consumer class consisted of | The key highlight of this decade was women emerging as consumer, leading with cosmetics and kitchen appliances as key categories. Middle class expanded given the better access to education and salaried jobs.

1990s Open Embrace of the Global Consumer Dream

• Key driving of consumption | In 1991, the government of India introduced a series of reforms to encourage private-sector paticipation in the economy, attracting foreign investment, increasing ease of doing business and stimulating various sectors of the economy. Cable TV was one conusmer product that brought in global advertising and imagery.

• What people were buying |Brands became markers of upward mobility. Khadi was viewed as outdated or rural by youth, yet handloom retained prestige in elite and ceremonial circles. FabIndia gained traction among expats and urban liberals, ethnic day in offices became common. India’s early luxury interest in handloom began, visibly through Ritu Kumar, Sabyasachi’s early work, for example.

  • Coca-Cola, Levi’s, Maggi noodles, Maruti cars, mobile phones (late 1990s).

  • Shift from durable goods to lifestyle: cosmetics, packaged foods, branded clothing.

• Perception of foreign goods | Modern, Aspirational, Normal.

  Global brands brought in Western packaging, aesthetics, advertising, altering taste and brand expectations, hence owning a foreign brand became a middle-class dream.

• What consumer class consisted of | Indian youth especially led the charge in adopting foreign brand culture. The urban middle class exploded in size and influence, led by Tier-1 cities which were consumption hubs.

2000s Global is Good, But Local Can Compete

• Key driving of consumption | The IT boom created global exposure and increased spending power. The presence of malls, retail chains, and multinational brands saw globalisation of culture. Credit cards and EMI culture on the rise.

• What people were buying | Branded apparel (Nike, Adidas), cars (Hyundai, Honda), mobile phones (Nokia) grew as categories. Fast food chains (McDonald's, Domino’s), multiplexes grew rapidly across urban and sub-urban. Bollywood films would showcase Indians abroad with many plot lines based on diaspora living across US or Europe.

• Perception of foreign goods | Trusted and Desirable, but increasingly normalised. The elite began differentiating via niche foreign brands. Emergence of local Indian brands competing on style and quality.

• What consumer class consisted of |

  • No stigma or guilt in consuming foreign products.

  • Mass affluent and new middle class emerged.

  • Tier-2 and 3 towns start consuming aspirational goods.

2010s Hybrid Tastes, Digital Globalisation

• Key drivers of consumption | The rise of e-commerce and influencer culture - consumption is driven through Amazon, Instagram and Youtube influence.

  • Smartphone + mobile internet revolution (Jio launch in 2016).

  • E-commerce boom: Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra.

  • Demonetisation (2016), GST rollout (2017).

• What people were buying | The era of fast-fashion (Zara, H&M), online shopping and smartphone-led brand discovery. Experience economy thrives through travel, dining, streaming, fitness.

• Perception of foreign goods | Foreign = Lifestyle alignment, not just aspiration. Foreign products are judged on value, innovation, and aesthetic, not origin, for eg. Korean skincare.

• What consumer class consisted of |

  • Digital-native Gen Z and millennials drove trends.

  • Rural consumption picked up via mobile connectivity and subsidies.

  • Rise of influencers and social commerce.

2020s (so far) Cultural Sovereignty Meets Global Taste

• Key drivers of consumption | The pandemic shifted focus to local resilience, craft revival and increased the tempo on climate consciousness and sustainability awareness. “Vocal for Local” renewed the focus on craftspeople. While Gen Z and millennials more conscious of ethical sourcing, the infrastructure has also change with rapid fintech adoption (UPI, BNPL).

• What people are buying | D2C brands (Mamaearth, Boat, Raw Mango, Forest Essentials, WOW), Tech-enabled services (OTT, edtech, grocery), EVs, organic foods, athleisure wear.

• Perception of foreign goods | Optional. Foreign doesn’t mean better - cultural storytelling and brand values matter. Luxury brands perception comes from product quality, not just foreignness.

• What consumer class consists of |

  • Digital-first, mobile wallet user with a blend of aspiration and awareness.

  • Bharat v/s India divide is narrowing in terms of consumption: Tier-2/3 cities are emerging hotspots of growth.

  • Women and Gen Z are powerful consumption drivers.

Part 2: Handmade to Haute: The Convergence of Craft and Luxury in India

In India, handmade and luxury once sat on opposite ends of the cultural spectrum. Handmade textiles, especially khadi, were born of freedom struggle, still reminiscent of it. [So when Viviene Westwood in 2025 decided to do a capsule collection in Khadi, was a reminder of self-reliance and nationalist pride. To do justice to this collection was primordial]. Luxury, in contrast, was tainted by colonial excess, a symbol of zamindari wealth and western clubs. But over the decades, as India evolved, so too did the meaning of both.

Handloom continued to be a form of political expression. Meanwhile luxury became performance - reflected in weddings, film stars, and imported rituals.

By the 1990s, as liberalisation cracked the market wide open and global brands arrived. Handmade struggled for relevance but found new life through niche revivalists. State emporiums and street markets in cities, such as Dilli Haat in New Delhi, were purveyors of handmade, giving direct market access to artisans.

Then came the 2000s. FabIndia, Good Earth, and boutique brands redefined handmade as chic, conscious, and curated. Craft became urban.

As for luxury, the wedding industry exploded into a theater of soft luxury - rituals dressed in designer threads. The trend of big Bollywood wedding theatre seeped into the culture with luxury being defined as designer trousseau, destinations and curated sets and professional programming.

Now, in the 2020s, Gen Z is merging the worlds of craft and capital. This shift is still emerging, especially given the price sensitivity of a large portion of Indian consumers. However, the cultural conversation is evolving fast. Handmade is no longer seen as old-fashioned, it's a form of activism.

The knowledge of weaves, prints and Geographical Indicators is considered relevant and important, moving away from virtue signaling to actual interest and nuanced knowledge. This cultural movement is driven by metropolitans cities, to be honest.

That said, many Indian consumers still associate luxury with global fashion houses rather than indigenous craft and therefore, Indianisation is no longer optional, it’s essential.

Part 3: The Future: Gen Z, demanding not perfection, but acknowledgement

With over 400 million GenZ consumers in India, this demographic holds significant sway over the country’s consumer landscape. According to Nielson3, “High sense of collective identity” is one of the key markers of this section’s consumption patterns. “GenZ takes pride in the growth story of India and wants to participate in it, which has led them to embrace values of diversity, agility, rootedness and authenticity.”

• Gen Z accounts for 46% of global consumption, with spending power projected to reach $12 trillion by 2030.

• Gen Z shopping preferences are heavily driven by culturally immersive experiences - storytelling, symbolism, and sourcing of the products. 4

Gen Z in India doesn’t want you to be perfect, it wants acknowledgement of culturally rooted influences.

Not everything’s perfect: Indian Luxury Market has Miles to Go

India’s growth story is, of course, not perfect. India is not going to be the next China in luxury consumption, by miles.

The target customer segments in India are smaller in comparison and have lower incomes compared to their global counterparts. This can be attributed mainly to the country’s wealth distribution profile. Around 75 percent of Indians have a total wealth of less than $10,000, with only 2 percent exceeding $100,000.

India’s inconsistent infrastructure and fragmented regulatory environment, split between state and central laws, make market entry complex for foreign brands. Luxury labels often face hurdles around logistics and compliance. Many are required to form joint ventures with local partners, adding another layer of complexity.

Having said that, Indian luxury market is fastest growing in Asia and second fastest in the workd - it is the perfect time to enter and operate in India. For luxury companies, it might take awhile to understand and adapt to this market, due to its complexities and pluralities of many Indias.

The government has launched a variety of initiatives to increase India’s attractiveness to foreign investors and increase internet coverage. If these pay off, they could lead to an increased luxury presence in India.5

In the landscape of India’s already thriving handmade market, the need of the hour is to modernise without altering, and represent without appropriating, keeping artisanship and its diverse craft cultures at the core.

India’s past stands as a testament to the nation’s deep-rooted nationalism and enduring appetite for craft. While the growing allure of global fashion is undeniable, the market remains anchored in a rich cultural and political heritage, layered with pride and resilience, even as it looks outward to internationalise on its own terms.

The real key to navigating this market lies in understanding where it coming from.

The Entertainment + Culture Pavilion stands at the intersection of culture and climate action, dedicated to utilizing the transformative power of arts, entertainment, and cultural engagement to address global climate challenges.

As the Co-Founder of the Entertainment + Culture Pavilion and Dubai Climate Collective, Gunjan has led high-impact cultural programming at international climate summits, like that of COP28 in Dubai and COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and has expanded E+C’s reach across multiple countries. She has successfully managed cross-sector partnerships with organizations, policymakers, and creatives to integrate cultural narratives into climate action solutions.

Welcome to The Curatorium #3.

Discover the hidden gems that sparked our curiousity and expanded our thinking this month. Each selection has earned its place through the quiet power to shift perspective or introduce unexpected delight.

As curator of the remarkable amid the ordinary and with a focus on the culture-tech in the Global South and sustainability, we share these profound and playful treasures with you.

Ihram, a glance on Saudi circularity

During Hajj and Umrah journies, male pilgrims wear two pieces of white, unstitched cloth: one worn around the waist and the other around the chest. These pieces of cloth are known as Ihrams, and these serve an important purpose: to have all who undertake the Hajj and Umrah appear equal. In addition to equality, by being plain in appearance and white in colour, Ihrams symbolise humility and peace.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture’s Fashion Commission recently introduced its Sustainable Ihram initiative, which focuses on recycling and repurposing used ihrams. Read details of the fantastic initiative in this report by the Commission.

We love to see sustainability in action, outside of our decks and into the real world, being adopted en masse and this was such an impactful example of it.

As part of making Vision 2030 a reality, Saudi Arabia’s Fashion Commission, realises that the future of the rapidly emerging textiles value chain in Saudi Arabia needs to be built on deep sustainability foundations, covering all three elements of the sustainability challenge. These range from using renewable and/or recyclable materials; to ensuring all stakeholders through the value chain benefit from a range of value adding activities; and finally, securing sustainable economic returns for firms involved in the chain.

Consumer IQ with Estée Lauder

The Estée Lauder Companies has 80 years of consumer data and now they are putting it to work through Consumer IQ.

With nearly 25 brands operating across 150 countries, ELC generates an immense amount of consumer, market, and industry information to support product innovation, marketing, and sales. This vast amount of data, spread across the company in different formats, including PDFs, PowerPoints, and spreadsheets, is dense with meaningful insights that employees can use to create products and campaigns that meet consumer needs.

They’ve now partnered with Microsoft to create an AI agent that will help their employees get rid of 100s of PDF and slide decks. Read the entire case study here.

As per Consumer Goods, the effort reduces manual research and eliminates duplicative efforts, instead allowing employees to use natural language prompts to query ConsumerIQ and find the information they need.

Example use cases:

• Jumping on social trends: TikTok influencers chat about organic lip gloss and Estée Lauder marketers can search for global consumer behavior trends in the lip gloss category. They can then develop their own campaign using an ELC brand.

• Summarising data: Employees can ask ConsumerIQ, “What are the latest trends for mascara use among Gen Z?” and receive an answer in seconds — compared to the hours it would take to review and summarize PDFs, per Microsoft.

• New product development: A marketer can submit a prompt to ConsumerIQ asking about beauty routines around products of interest: “What are popular moisturizing routines among customers in Washington state, Oregon, and Idaho?” ConsumerIQ would retrieve PDFs with graphs, pictures, and other graphics, and summarise the information to be used within R&D processes.

The Changing Face of China

If you read on piece on modern China, make sure its this one. In this piece by Natalia Cote-Munoz who returns to the country after nearly a decade, she paints a personal and societal narrative of a country that has rapidly changed, is developed and is not pausing for anyone.

She also draws out top consumer trends that are driving the country and tells us with vivid clarity on the layers of underlying societal shifts that are driving these trends.

We gobbled this piece up- check ‘em out:

Musings from the Time of Monsters

The China That Replaced Mine

Hutong lanterns reflected against a Beijing window, October 2012 – one month after I first arrived…

Read more

a year ago · 213 likes · 58 comments · Natalia Cote-Munoz

Vinted has tripled its profit between 2023 and 2024 and currently the #1 fashion site in France.

Vinted's success in new territories indicates growing consumer acceptance of second-hand shopping, particularly in markets where sustainability concerns are increasingly influencing purchasing decisions.

"We're well on our way making second-hand first choice across Europe," says Sebastiaan Lemmens, Strategy Director, Vinted.

Vinted’s success is quite telling of the consumption patterns that are growing across Western Europe, especially : inflation and environmental concerns have driven shoppers toward second-hand options. Vinted notably meets this demand with easy logistics and quality control: "We act as swiftly as we can against anything that violates our terms and conditions," highlighting the balance between rapid expansion and maintaining marketplace integrity - a secret sauce of their success.

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Welcome to The Curatorium #2.

Discover the hidden gems that sparked our curiousity and expanded our thinking this month. Each selection has earned its place through the quiet power to shift perspective or introduce unexpected delight.

As curator of the remarkable amid the ordinary and with a focus on the culture-tech in the Global South and sustainability, we share these profound and playful treasures with you.

All Eyes on Africa

• African millionaire numbers are set to increase 65 percent by 2033, making frontier markets in the region increasingly attractive for brands looking to expand. Read more on BOF.

• An ode to African designers on Earth Day. Guzangs celebrates seven trailblazers—Nike Davies-Okundaye, Studio 189, KikoRomeo, Chiip O Neal, Nkwo Onwuka, Sindiso Khumalo, and Lukhanyo Mdingi—whose eco-conscious designs preserve heritage, empower artisans, and protect the planet. An Adire dress steeped in Yoruba indigo, a Kente gown dyed with Ghanaian kola nut, or a recycled denim jacket reborn with plant-based hues. Read more on Guzangs.

  

  

• The anthropology of Africa is a treasure chest of inspiration. Each region boasts unique weaving techniques, dyeing methods, and symbolic patterns that tell stories of centuries past. African fashion is more than just eye-catching prints and colors; it’s about identity, heritage, and craftsmanship that has been cherished through generations. Read more on LinkedIn.

Middleeast & North Africa

• As the rest of the world catches up, Middle Eastern designers are reminding us that true style has always known its roots. Middle-eastern aesthetic is a mindset and a refusal to chase trends. Really enjoyed Vogue Arabia’s homage to designer across the middleast and how they are working towards preserving their heritage - a beautiful discovery read.

• I loved this read- “Archival Revival: Why Vintage Fashion is the New Luxury Status Symbol in the Middle East".

It’s about celebrating the past and creating something valuable beyond trend. Vintage electrifies, subverts and whispers stories that fast fashion never will. Yet, in a label-obsessed world, is storytelling enough? “Luxury has changed,” Moussa sighs. “People just want to show off, without ­interpretation or understanding.” Read on Vogue Arabia

• Frankie Shop Opens in Abu Dhabi. The store is truly a marvel, offering an immersive retail experience that blends the brand's minimalist aesthetic with the cultural richness of the region. Designed by LA-based studio Perron-Roettinger, the space unfolds through curated vignettes representing moments in a day—from home to city life—featuring neutral tones and elevated textures that mirror the collection's essence.

Beyond fashion, the pop-up showcases exclusive collaborations with regional artists and designers, including custom palm tree carpets by Cheb Moha and hand-drawn illustrations by Tulip Hazbar. The experience is further enhanced by the Frankie Coffee Shop, taken over by 48 Collagen Café, offering wellness-infused drinks and LED light therapy masks. Check out the whole store here.

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We’re definitely noticing the surge in ClassPass options here in Paris, but this is actually a global phenomenon. 1

So, what’s all the buzz about?

Not only was Pilates, the most-booked genre on ClassPass in 2024, but users who booked a Pilates class are most likely to book another Pilates class that very week!2

Reformer classes have become a bonafide craze: popular studios often have waitlists, and neighborhoods in cities like London, Paris, New York, Sydney, are seeing multiple studios opening up in weeks to keep-up with the demand.

In London, for example, Pilates has suddenly “flipped” from niche to mainstream - which is quite remakable in a city where yoga has dominated the mind-body fitness space for decades. A 2023 UK survey found that 70% of fitness enthusiasts now prefer Pilates over yoga.

This trend represents the convergence of several factors: a growing interest in slow, low-impact exercise as a valid option, effective viral campaigns on social media, real fitness benefits, especially from the celebrities who vouch for this workout, that continue to attract participants despite the premium price point of these classes.

Speaking of costs, in the Eurozone you can expect to pay approx. €30–€40 per class, whereas London boutique studios average around £30 per session​. North America (US/Canada) charges approx. $30–$40 per class on average. Despite these costs, Pilates & yoga studio market is expected to roughly double from approx. $158 billion in 2023 to over $420 billion by 2032 at current growth rates​. This boom is reflected in the real world with the world’s largest Pilates chain, Club Pilates, expanding from just 30 locations in 2015 to a whopping 1000 studios by early 2024!

What’s driving this Trend?

Post-Pandemic Rebound

The timing of Pilates’ boom (2021–2024) is partly a rebound effect: people craving real human instruction, social interaction, the experience of being in spaces, and the comfort of company in driving their fitness goals after a period of isolation.

Pilates benefited immensely from home-to-studio migration post-lockdown. Smaller classes meant high level of hygience, and “distancing-friendly” workout that made people comfortable to return to this specific group class format.

Early signs were there by 2022.

Peloton’s decline and at-home fitness burnout is something that can be reflected classes like Reformer Pilates. In the UK, only an estimated 8% of Pilates participants had ever tried a reformer class as of a few years ago, compared to around 60% in the United States.3

Additionally, someone who started with mat Pilates at home during lockdown later sought out in-person reformer classes for more challenge, and we can vouch that with the right instructor, these classes can be very addictive.

However, this frenzy has a fuel and its called - social media

The Network Effect :

“Everyone wants to do the same workout as everyone else”

Reformer Pilates exploded on TikTok faster than you could say 'engage your core’! Today, the platform hosts 1M+ videos, where enthusiasts flex their reformer skills. These clips aren't just showing off impressive moves- they're practically evangelising the Pilates lifestyle, promising viewers that a few sessions will transform not just their abs, but their entire existence.

The viral challenges, like the “30-day Pilates transformations”, the “Pink Pilates Princess” aesthetic, very popular on TikTok, has even spawned a consumer trend of much young women investing in cute workout sets and Pilates classes.

The effect is global – a trendy studio in Paris, London or Dubai today likely has clients who discovered Pilates through an influencer or a viral video demonstrating a Pilates FOMO.

Not to mention, countless Hollywood celebrities swear by reformer Pilates – Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Lady Gaga, the Kardashians, and even pro athletes like LeBron James and David Beckham have all publicly lauded Pilates as part of their fitness routine​. Barbie movie’s cast has revealed that they did group reformer Pilates training together to get those wasboard abs, inspiring fans to try the “Barbie workout”. 4

The “Pilates Body”: Is Pilates only for Thin People?

While media outlets celebrate celebrities' Pilates-sculpted physiques without examining the broader implications, a disturbing pattern has emerged where the "Pilates girl" becomes coded language for trad-wife like gender expectations of the physically petite female form, one that is presented as aspirational and not necessarily “healthy”.

Many users who want to try Reformer Pilates classes reflect on how the classes can be intimidating or subtly-branded, with images, as if it is meant for thin women only. It makes one wonder if Pilates is a way of rebranding a new generation's version of body discipline with aesthetics similar to what once was “Soul-Cycle bodies” or “yoga bodies”, just a different language.

The influencer-driven "Pilates body" ideal also represents another iteration of appearance-focused fitness that primarily serves to create insecurity and drive consumption for a consumer attempting to replicate these kinds of bodies.

What's insidious is how this trend also indulges class-signaling as health pursuit, with the prohibitive cost of reformer classes creating another barrier between those who can afford the "right" kind of fitness and those who cannot. 5

Despite all the above, popularity of Pilates is going strong.

Read our Part 2, on how brands are tapping into it- coming soon!

Part 2 coming soon

Thanks for reading, in Part 2, we explore how fitness and fashion brands are leveraging this new trend, tailoring products and marketing for Pilates enthusiasts

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