Why Craft is the Soul of True Luxury
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It's been a complicated year for luxury. The sector was already grappling with slowing growth but now American tariffs have disrupted global supply chains, driven prices upwards and dented consumer confidence.
But there's another, deeper long-term challenge that the industry needs to contend with: the perceived trivialisation of high-end fashion. Some brands have been able to overcome this value erosion by placing craftsmanship at their core, therefore connecting with customers in a deeper way.
Mexican designer Carla Fernández has long been at the forefront of ethical, craft-based fashion. Her eponymous brand collaborates closely with Indigenous artisans across Mexico, promoting traditional craftsmanship and advocating for policies like collective intellectual property rights.
'The future is handmade because the objects that are handmade get inspiration from your community, from your environment,' says Fernández. 'It goes through your eyes, then it goes to your heart and comes out from your hands. And those are objects that have a soul.'
After experiencing first-hand how the fashion industry overlooks contributions from the Global South, Tunisian entrepreneur Kenza Fourati co-founded OSAY The Label, a brand focused on elevating artisan footwear crafted in Tunisia and using sustainable materials and traditional techniques.
This week on The BoF Podcast, in a riveting conversation from BoF CROSSROADS 2025, Carla and Kenza Fourati discuss the power of craft-based fashion, how to collaborate ethically with artisans and indigenous communities while redefining what true luxury means. The author has shared a YouTube video. You will need to accept and consent to the use of cookies and similar technologies by our third-party partners (including: YouTube, Instagram or Twitter), in order to view embedded content in this article and others you may visit in future. Key Insights: Fashion is an essential vehicle for storytelling. 'Textile and text are very connected. If you walk in someone else's shoes, you connect with that person, and you see the unseen and the irrelevant,' explains Fourati. Through this perspective, fashion becomes a powerful medium to foster understanding and build connections between diverse cultures and experiences.
Fernández shares that growing up in Mexico, she realised early on that the fashion industry often ignored the contributions indigenous people make to craftsmanship. 'At the age of 12, I realised that the haute couture of my country, claimed not to be fashion, was made by artisans in the mountains, deserts and jungles,' she says.
The disconnect between where fashion is designed and where it is made reflects broader inequities in the system. Fernández says, 'In the global north, they keep focusing on the individual as the big name. In Indigenous communities, creation comes from all of us. Collaboration is the most important part.'
True luxury is ethical, inclusive and deeply connected to origins and values. Fernández concludes that authenticity is inseparable from ethics. 'In true luxury, there is no oppression. To be original, you have to go back to the origins.' Fourati adds, 'True luxury is being able to wear your values and wear your story.' Additional Resources:
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Atlantic
10 minutes ago
- Atlantic
When Pete Hegseth's Pentagon Tenure Started Going Sideways
Things were going fine for Pete Hegseth, right up until a chance encounter with the world's richest man. His pursuit of Donald Trump's agenda at the Pentagon had made him a star among the president's advisers. The former Fox News host had moved swiftly to roll back diversity initiatives in the military and to expand U.S. troops' role in halting immigration at the southern border. His willingness to challenge Republican orthodoxy on foreign policy and punch back at critics was seen as an asset as Trump began his second term. But then, in mid-March, Hegseth bumped into Elon Musk in a White House hallway, and extended an ill-fated invitation to the tech titan for an exclusive military briefing. 'Up until then, DOD had been the golden child,' one person familiar with Hegseth's office told us. When Trump learned about the proposed briefing the night before it was scheduled to take place, he was displeased. Although Hegseth denied a New York Time s report that the March 21 meeting would focus on plans for potential war with Beijing, Trump told others that any presentation on China would be inappropriate for Musk, who has extensive business interests there, according to people familiar with the president's reaction. The very idea that top officers would brief the businessman in the Tank—the secure Pentagon conference room where the military brass assembles for visits by the commander in chief—added to an unwelcome perception that Musk wielded outsize government power. In a call hours after the Times story appeared, Trump made clear to Hegseth that the briefing was 'a bad look' for the administration, according to individuals with knowledge of the call. When Hegseth visited the White House the next day to debut the Air Force's newest fighter jet, Trump again conveyed his displeasure. 'This is crazy and stupid,' Trump said of the briefing, one of these people told us. 'Why would we even do this?' Jonathan Lemire: Why Trump is standing by Hegseth, for now Trump reserved most of his ire for Musk and did not express anger toward Hegseth personally, White House officials told us. Yet the Musk episode, and Trump's response to Hegseth, details of which have not been previously reported, represented a turning point for the new Pentagon chief, according to people familiar with his tenure who spoke with us on the condition of anonymity. Since then, a series of embarrassing revelations, including Hegseth's disclosure of military attack plans on the messaging app Signal, have fueled turmoil and suspicion at the Pentagon's highest levels. They have also intensified public scrutiny of Hegseth's judgment and deepened questions about his ability to deliver on the president's military priorities, including pushing back against China and demonstrating American strength, which the president believes was eroded by his predecessor. 'Things were heading in the right direction,' the person familiar with Hegseth's office added. 'But then the leaks and Signalgate just really fucked up Pete.' Hegseth oversees a workforce of more than 3 million, and a budget of close to $1 trillion, without a chief of staff. His shrunken circle of close aides lacks extensive Pentagon experience. Key military commanders are preparing to retire without replacements in sight. Sidelined aides have aired details of unseemly feuds at the department's senior levels, and a series of unflattering media reports have fueled what numerous officials describe as Hegseth's fixation on stopping leaks. White House officials say that Trump continues to support Hegseth—the defense chief's job is '100 percent safe,' one told us. This official also noted that in addition to having Trump's affection, Hegseth is personally liked by both Vice President J. D. Vance and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told us that the entire administration remains 'fully behind Secretary Hegseth's mission to prioritize our warfighters, eliminate terrorists, and restore common sense at the DOD.' But scores of congressional Democrats have called on Hegseth to resign. One Republican, Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, has suggested that he be fired. Musk's Pentagon visit originated from a conversation in Musk's sparsely furnished office that followed their impromptu meeting in a White House hallway, when Hegseth suggested that Musk come over to the Pentagon to talk with senior military leaders. The defense chief later authorized the meeting to be held in the Tank. Several people told us that Hegseth's invitation came at a moment when the Defense Department, like other agencies across the government, was facing the prospect of cuts by Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. While Hegseth has touted DOGE's steps to reduce the number of federal contractors and other personnel, DOD was not driving the process. The invitation represented a chance for Pentagon leaders to help steer DOGE's direction in cutting one of the world's largest bureaucracies. (A representative for Musk did not respond to multiple requests for comment.) Tom Nichols: Pete Hegseth's patriotic duty is to resign Just three days after Musk's Pentagon visit, Hegseth's judgment again came into question when Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, revealed that he had been added to a high-level Signal chat about plans to bomb Houthi militants in Yemen. Although then–National Security Adviser Michael Waltz had inadvertently invited Goldberg to the thread, it was Hegseth who escalated the exchange by posting details of an imminent attack on Houthi targets, including the precise times when U.S. jets would be flying over their targets in Yemen. Current and former officials have said that such advance attack information would typically be highly classified because of the danger its disclosure could pose to pilots. A cascade of other revelations followed, including stories detailing the unusual role that Hegseth's wife, Jennifer, has played in his work at the Pentagon, where she has attended meetings with foreign officials and issued orders related to her husband's media appearances. News reports also revealed that Hegseth gave his younger brother a senior Pentagon role and authorized the installation of a makeup studio at a cost of thousands of dollars. Current and former officials told us that Hegseth has since threatened to polygraph numerous senior officials, including the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He has also overturned decades of tradition in the military's relationship with the press, ousting media outlets from their long-standing Pentagon workspaces in favor of Trump-friendly voices and ending reporters' access to most of the building. When The Atlantic interviewed Trump in the Oval Office in late April, the president said he'd had 'a talk' with Hegseth about the various embarrassing reports, predicting, 'I think he's gonna get it together.' Yet the Musk and Signal episodes reveal what some individuals familiar with Hegseth's tenure described to us as his tendency to use his position heading the world's most advanced military as a 'flex.' He attempts to impress others with his access to sensitive information and his power to direct American forces, even if it means a little indiscretion along the way, they said. 'He's got this $180,000 Ferrari. That's the Pentagon for him,' another person familiar with Hegseth's office told us. 'And he likes to show it off.' Hegseth created further controversy after he elevated Ricky Buria, a Marine who'd been serving as a military aide when Hegseth took office, to a senior role and sought to name him as chief of staff. Buria often made demands of more senior officers, and his sudden promotion to a senior political position rubbed many in the rank-conscious military the wrong way. Trump personally blocked Buria from the chief-of-staff job because of his ties to Lloyd Austin, Joe Biden's Pentagon chief, White House officials told us. People familiar with Pentagon staffing told us that the White House had explored hiring at least four replacements for Joe Kasper, who had abruptly left the chief-of-staff job in April to take a new role in the department, but that none had worked out. The chief Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said in a statement that personnel changes are a 'natural and necessary feature of any highly effective organization.' 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He gestured at the journalists assembled before him, calling them 'hoaxsters.' 'They try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations. It's not going to work with me.' Jason Dempsey: Hegseth has all the wrong enemies Trump has stood by his Pentagon chief, suggesting that he admires the combative approach Hegseth takes in attacking administration detractors. He is a 'tough cookie' who 'went through a lot,' the president said late last month. Trump also spent significant political capital pushing through Hegseth's nomination—Vance had to cast the tiebreaking vote after the Senate deadlocked on confirmation at 50–50—and is reluctant to abandon him now, especially because it might look like giving the media a scalp. That support will be tested next week, when Hegseth begins a series of hearings on Capitol Hill convened to address the administration's budget requests. Hegseth is sure to face difficult questions from Democrats, including on his handling of sensitive information, the upheaval in the Pentagon's upper ranks, and his firing of senior military officials. Those officers include the second-ever Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the first female Navy chief, both of whom Hegseth previously suggested were promoted because of their race and gender, respectively. Top Republicans, meanwhile, are unhappy with an administration spending proposal that they say doesn't include enough money for defense. Many at the Pentagon question how long the president's backing for their boss will last. During his first term, Trump cycled through four defense secretaries and four national security advisers. He also voiced support for Waltz until the former national security adviser was pushed aside last month and asked to take a less powerful role, at the United Nations. 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Keep a paper trail of any expectations and new assignments you've discussed with your manager, plus any changes to your compensation, benefits or title to build your case. Burnout is described as the silent epidemic, and it's both a people killer and a career killer. Burnout out comes from unmanaged stress, overloading yourself with too many hours of working or assuming too many roles that pull you in too many directions. Once you have burnout, taking time off, slowing down or working fewer hours won't remedy the condition. If you're dealing with the octo-hire issue, your best recourse is to take preemptive action before you hit the wall. If you're a recent graduate or a new hire, put your self-care at the top of the list. Avoid falling into the trap of the octo-hire, and commit to a job that doesn't require you to sacrifice your mental and physical health. 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Android Authority
23 minutes ago
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Mint Mobile's $30/month Galaxy S25 deal is real, with one important caveat
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