Latest news with #Giglio
Fibre2Fashion
9 hours ago
- Business
- Fibre2Fashion
France's Kering H1 revenue down 16%, Gucci weighs on group performance
French luxury group Kering has reported a revenue of €7.6 billion (~$8.82 billion) in the first half (H1) of 2025 ended June 30, a decline of 16 per cent as reported and 15 per cent on a comparable basis. The group's recurring operating income dropped 39 per cent year-over-year (YoY) to €969 million (~$1.12 billion), with a recurring operating margin of 12.8 per cent, down 470 basis points (bps). The net income attributable to the group was €474 million (~$549.84 million). Free cash flow stood at €2.4 billion. The retail sales across the group's directly operated network fell by 16 per cent on a comparable basis. Wholesale and other revenue declined by 12 per cent on a comparable basis. Kering has reported H1 2025 revenue of €7.6 billion (~$8.82 billion), down 16 per cent, with recurring operating income falling 39 per cent to €969 million (~$1.12 billion). Net income was €474 million (~$549.84 million). Gucci led the decline, while Bottega Veneta grew slightly. Q2 revenue dropped 18 per cent. Kering remains committed to operational efficiency, and long-term profitable growth. The regional trends were mixed, with North America down 10 per cent and Asia-Pacific down 19 per cent, both showing sequential improvement. In contrast, Western Europe declined 17 per cent and Japan fell 29 per cent, primarily due to lower tourist activity, Kering said in a press release. Brand-wise, Gucci saw a fall in revenue of 26 per cent to €3 billion, with retail down 24 per cent and wholesale down 42 per cent. Operating income halved to €486 million. Yves Saint Laurent's revenue declined 11 per cent to €1.3 billion. Retail and wholesale fell 10 per cent and 17 per cent respectively. The operating income was €262 million. Bottega Veneta's revenue rose 1 per cent to €846 million, driven by a 3 per cent retail rise. Operating income was up 5 per cent to €127 million. Meanwhile, Other Houses saw a revenue drop of 15 per cent to €1.5 billion, with an operating loss of €29 million, mostly due to McQueen. In the second quarter (Q2) of 2025, revenue totalled €3.7 billion, down 18 per cent as reported and 15 per cent on a comparable basis, including a negative 3 per cent currency impact. Direct retail network sales mirrored H1 trends, declining 16 per cent on a comparable basis. Brand-wise, Q2 saw Gucci sales down by 25 per cent on a comparable basis. Retail fell 23 per cent, while wholesale plunged 50 per cent. Sales of new leather goods, such as the Giglio bag, performed strongly. Yves Saint Laurent's revenue declined 10 per cent on a comparable basis. Retail fell 12 per cent, while wholesale dropped 5 per cent. Ready-to-wear and shoes performed well, added the release. Bottega Veneta saw an increase in revenue of 1 per cent. Retail was stable, with strong North American growth. Wholesale grew 4 per cent. Other Houses's revenue fell 16 per cent. Retail declined 12 per cent; wholesale dropped 28 per cent. While Balenciaga performed steadily in North America and Asia-Pacific, McQueen's store rationalisation and sluggish sales in Europe and Japan affected the segment. Despite persistent macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, Kering remains focused on enhancing the desirability and exclusivity of its Houses. The group said that it will continue to invest selectively while improving operational efficiency and maintaining tight cost and capital discipline to achieve long-term profitable growth. 'The first half of 2025 has been a period of momentous decisions for Kering. On the governance front, I recommended to the Board of Directors, which has agreed, that we entrust the role of Kering CEO to Luca de Meo, while I will retain the chairmanship. On the creative front, reinforced teams, headed by new designers at three of our largest houses, are hard at work, with passion and determination, intensifying the desirability and drawing on the heritage of all our brands,' said Francois-Henri Pinault, chairman and CEO at Kering. 'On the operational and financial fronts, in a particularly tough market environment, we continued to streamline our distribution and cost base, and, executing on our roadmap, we took decisive steps to strengthen our financial structure,' added Pinault. 'Though the numbers we are reporting remain well below our potential, we are certain that our comprehensive efforts of the past two years have set healthy foundations for the next stages in Kering's development.' Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SG)
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
US lawmakers balance security and openness as threats of political violence rise
'Tell Eric Swalwell that we are coming and that we are going to handle everyone. We are going to hurt everyone. We are coming to hurt them.' The staff at representative Swalwell's California district office had heard the man's voice before. He had called twice in previous weeks to leave revolting, racist threats against the Democratic congressman and his wife in voicemails, according to an FBI criminal complaint released on Monday. 'So, I'm fine with anything at this point. I'm tired of it. I'll just set up behind my .308 and I'll do my job,' he said in one voice recording. The .308 is a reference to a rifle, according to the criminal complaint. 'You want a war? Get your war started.' Swalwell's staff reported the latest threat. This time, the FBI charged the caller with a crime. As threats of political violence escalate – and the impact of the political assassination in Minnesota reverberates across the country – lawmakers like Swalwell are re-evaluating how to manage the balance between openness and security. The instinct of security professionals may be to increase physical security and limit the availability of elected officials to the public. But that approach runs headlong into a conflict with the imperative for politicians to connect with their constituents. 'I'm not going be intimidated. I know the aim of this threat is to have me shrink or hide under the bed and not speak out,' Swalwell told the Guardian. 'This guy's terrorizing the members of Congress, law enforcement and staff, and it just has no place in our civil discourse.' Swalwell has had to spend nearly $1m on security over the last two years, he said. That money comes out of his campaign accounts. 'When they threaten you and you protect yourself, your family and your staff, you're dipping into your campaign resources,' Swalwell said. 'You have this decision calculus where you can protect your family or you can protect your re-election, but it's been costly to do both.' The caller, Geoffrey Chad Giglio, was no stranger to the FBI or to the public. Reuters interviewed him in October while looking at violent political rhetoric after the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump's life, presenting him as a provocateur and an example of the new viciousness. 'I push the envelope,' Giglio told Reuters, adding that he would never hurt anyone. 'If I have to go to jail because somebody thinks I'm really a threat, oh well, so be it.' Giglio's made his last call to Swalwell's office on 13 June according to the complaint, apparently undaunted after being interviewed by the FBI about previous threats only a few days earlier. Researchers have been tracking an increase in threats made against lawmakers for years, with the January 6 attack on the Capitol a way station on a dark road. 'We see an increase starting around 2017, 2018,' said Pete Simi, a professor of sociology at Chapman University, who in 2024 published a review of a decade of federal data on intimidation charges against federal elected officials. From 2013 to 2016, Capitol police charged an average of 38 people a year for making threats to lawmakers. By 2017 to 2022, the average had grown to 62 charges a year. 'It's hard to know whether there's an increase in threats to public officials or there's an increase in the level of enforcement that's producing more criminal investigations and ultimately more charges filed in prosecution,' Simi said. But surveys of public officials at both the state and federal level also indicate an increase in threats. In a survey of local lawmakers published last year by the Brennan Center for Justice, 'substantial numbers' said they thought the severity of the threats was increasing, said Gowri Ramachandran, director of elections and security at the Brennan Center's elections and government program. 'Lawmakers are reporting that it's kind of getting worse, the severity of what's being said in these voicemails, these emails, whatever messages people are getting,' Ramachandran said. Best security practices have begun to emerge, but the implementation is inconsistent across states, she said. One recommendation is for a specific law enforcement agency to take charge of monitoring and tracking threats against lawmakers, Ramachandran said. The US Capitol police are tasked with responding to threats to federal lawmakers, who may then refer cases to the FBI and the Department of Justice for prosecution. The responding agency at the state level is often less obvious to elected officials. 'A lot of lawmakers we spoke with didn't even know who they're supposed to report these things to,' she said. Many elected officials said they wanted to balance security with accessibility, Ramachandran said, citing interviews with dozens of local lawmakers in 2023 about security and threats. 'The vast majority of the lawmakers we talked to were really concerned about their constituents not feeling welcome, in terms of coming to visit their offices or going to the state capitol to be heard,' she said. 'There was a repeated concern, of course, for safety of their staff and their families and all of that, and the constituents themselves, but also with not wanting things to be on lockdown and wanting to be accessible to constituents.' But the assassination of state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their Minneapolis-area home last month, has provoked a reassessment of that balance. At the federal level, the committee on House administration doubled spending on personal security measures for House members last week, allowing congressional representatives to spend $20,000 to increase home security, up from $10,000, and up to $5,000 a month on personal security, up from $150 a month. The committee's chair, Bryan Steil, a Republican from Wisconsin, and ranking member Joseph Morelle, a Democrat from New York, also asked the Department of Justice to give the US Capitol police additional federal prosecutors to help investigate and prosecute threats against legislators. Federal campaign finance law, as revised in January, provides a mechanism for federal officeholders to spend campaign money for locks, alarm systems, motion detectors and security camera systems, as well as some structural security devices, such as wiring, lighting, gates, doors and fencing, 'so long as such devices are intended solely to provide security and not to improve the property or increase its value'. It also provides for campaign funds to pay for cybersecurity measures and for professional security personnel. Both Democratic and Republican legislators in Oklahoma sent a letter earlier this month to the Oklahoma ethics commission, asking if state law could be similarly interpreted, citing the assassinations in Minnesota. Lawmakers in California are also looking for ways to loosen campaign finance restrictions for candidate spending on security. California has a $10,000 lifetime cap for candidates on personal security spending from election funds – a cap that legislation doubled last year. A proposal by assemblymember Mia Bonta would suspend the cap through 2028, with a $10,000 annual cap after that. Enhanced home security for Minnesota legislators will be covered by a state budget appropriation for any member asking for it, lawmakers decided last week. This is in addition to state rules enacted in 2021 allowing $3,000 in campaign spending toward personal security. Minnesota and several other states – including Colorado, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico and North Dakota – almost immediately removed home address data from state government websites after the Minnesota assassinations. New Mexico had already largely restricted this data after a series of drive-by shootings at lawmakers' homes by a failed Republican candidate in 2022 and 2023. Restricting public information about lawmaker's residency can be a political headache in some states. Generally, an elected official must live in the district he or she represents. Residency challenges are a common campaign issue, but a challenge cannot be raised if the address of a lawmaker is unknown to the public. 'It is something that I think we as a society are going to have to grapple with,' said Ramachandran. 'It may not be the best idea to enforce those rules about residency requirements by just having the whole general public know where people live and to be able to go up to their house and see if they really live there, right?' Some states like Nevada are exploring long-term solutions. Nevada's secretary of state, Francisco Aguilar, is forming a taskforce to look at ways to restrict access to lawmakers' residential information without interfering in election challenges. 'Political violence has no place in our country,' he said in a statement. 'People, including elected officials, should be able to have differing opinions and go to work without fear of violence or threats.' The challenge for lawmakers and investigators is crafting a policy to deal with people who because of their behavior are unusual outliers. As angry as people can be about politics, only a tiny few will make a phone call to a legislator to make a threat, and even fewer will carry out that threat. 'The vast, vast majority of Americans are reporting on these surveys that they don't support political violence,' Simi said. 'So those that do are an outlier. But there's some question about whether that outlier is increasing over time. We don't have great data over time, so that's a hard question to answer.'
CBS News
21-07-2025
- General
- CBS News
Brooklyn's Our Lady of Mount Carmel Feast celebrates towering Giglio tradition
Under the blazing July sun on Sunday, more than 100 men hoisted an 80-foot wooden tower into the air, swaying to the rhythm of a live brass band. Known as the Giglio, the towering structure is the centerpiece of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Feast, a tradition brought to Brooklyn by Italian immigrants more than a century ago, and one that traces its origins back over 1,000 years to Nola, Italy. Head Capo Danny Vecchiano led the procession like a general commanding a small army. The capo's role is to coordinate the massive lift and guide the men carrying the several-ton structure through the streets of Williamsburg. "This is the epitome of being an Italian American in Brooklyn," Vecchiano said. "This is the greatest show of faith. This is the greatest show of family, of tradition, of our heritage." Supporting Vecchiano was a team of lieutenants, responsible for executing his commands and maintaining the Giglio's balance as it moved down the street. "The lieutenant's job is to take the directions from the capo, relay them to the men, and then help the capo direct the Giglio down the street, keep it straight and let the men know what's going on," said Mark Mascioli, one of the lieutenants. Vecchiano is a local high school principal. He said his students contributed to the towering structure that looks like a work of art. "I had students involved in painting the Saints on the Giglio and doing some work here in the church. They came here on Saturdays to help. So it was very cool," he said. Each capo serves a two-year term and is responsible for the design and operations of the Giglio. Many participants wait decades for the honor. This year marks the end of Vecchiano's tenure. Despite the oppressive summer heat, the lifters worked together to carry the structure. "My dad did when he was a kid, now me and my brothers, we do it in my family," said lifter Andrew Conce, explaining the intergenerational nature of the tradition. Hundreds of spectators lined the streets to watch the spectacle, which commemorates Saint Paulinus of Nola, a fifth-century bishop who, according to legend, offered himself into slavery to save a widow's son during a pirate invasion. "So many memories with our family and I'm so proud to keep this tradition going," said lifter Craig Addeo Jr. For Addeo and others, the event is more than a religious ritual, it's a celebration of identity and community. "My dad lifted the Giglio from 1940 to 1970," said Craig Addeo Sr. Attendees said the spectacle blends the sacred and the joyful. "There's something comical and also very beautiful about the whole thing," said attendee Matthew Falcone. "My parents got married right in this church, and we got married there as well. So it's just tradition and good food," said Susan Millan. "Every year is different. Every year you get the chills every time they sing the songs, so it's just amazing," added volunteer Angelina DiGioia. This year's final day of the feast also paid tribute to past capos, referred to as "old timers," and marked the ceremonial hand-off to a new leader. "This tradition will carry on long past us," Vecchiano said. Thousands of people with ties to Brooklyn, many of them returning from across the country, reunited in Williamsburg for what has become one of New York City's most iconic ethnic and religious festivals. Have a story idea or tip in Brooklyn? Email Hannah by CLICKING HERE.
Time Out
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
A huge Italian street festival is taking over Williamsburg this week
Williamsburg smells like sausage and peppers again, which can only mean one thing: the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Feast is back, and it's bigger, louder and more delicious than ever. Now in full swing through Sunday, July 20, this 12-day celebration is one of the city's most vibrant and historic street festivals—a dazzling mashup of old-world tradition and neighborhood block party. At the heart of it all is the Giglio: a 70-foot wooden tower adorned with angels, flowers and saints, carried through the streets by more than 100 men to the soundtrack of live brass bands. (And yes, there's also a boat. Long story.) The tradition stretches back to 1887, when immigrants from Nola, Italy, settled in Brooklyn and brought their devotion to San Paolino with them. Legend has it that Paolino, a 5th-century bishop, offered himself into slavery to save a widow's son and later returned home to a hero's welcome, greeted with lilies, or 'gigli,' from his grateful townspeople. Over time, those lilies became a soaring tower and the feast became a spectacle of faith, food and community. Today, it's still anchored by the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, where generations of Italian Americans (and now just about everyone else) gather to dance, pray and indulge. The Giglio itself is lifted several times over the course of the festival, with the biggest and most theatrical hoist happening this Sunday. But the party doesn't stop there. There's a smaller Giglio just for kids today, and Wednesday marks the Feast Day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, celebrated with a special afternoon Mass and a procession through the neighborhood. For night owls, Thursday's after-dark Giglio lift is a can't-miss spectacle, lit by streetlights and powered by cheers from the crowd. Each day brings new live performances and endless snacks—from crispy zeppole to overflowing sausage rolls. From morning Masses to late-night performances, the streets are alive with music, lights, and the constant whirr of carnival rides. Kids line up for games, old-timers swap stories over espresso and everyone makes time for a fried zeppole (or three). It's chaotic, joyful and unmistakably New York.
Los Angeles Times
15-07-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Canva's CCO Rob Giglio on Business Growth and the Future of Work
Canva is growing fast in the business world and it's down to two things: new 'doc types' and business features, according to Chief Customer Officer Rob Giglio. Giglio says Canva Sheets and Canva AI are allowing users to create different types of content like whiteboards, documents, presentations and social media posts in one place. This is streamlining workflows for companies. 'Canva has introduced the kind of features that businesses expect and need, like Single Sign-On (SSO), brand kits, user provisioning and approval workflows,' said Giglio. 'These factors are really driving [Canva's] adoption into businesses.' Canva's AI is broad, going beyond text prompts. Giglio said Canva AI uses multiple models for different experiences, citing the popular background remover as an example. Other AI features include text generation, whiteboards to presentations, language translation, image scaling and video creation via Google's V3. Canva Code even allows users to build widgets and interactive experiences via text prompts. Looking forward, Giglio is most excited about product innovation around marketing and sales workflows. He says Canva Sheets is making the entire marketing process from creation to analysis better, with the recent acquisition of Magic Brief for content performance data. Video editing is another area of focus, with increasing adoption for social media and marketing. 'We like to think of it as where creativity and productivity meet,' Giglio said, highlighting Canva's broad but effective features for different business functions. Finally, Giglio said Canva is committed to the future workforce. He noted that AI, cloud platforms and multi-device access are now expected by the next generation entering the workforce and Canva wants to be the platform of choice as businesses adapt to these changing demands.
