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Malaysian Reserve
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Malaysian Reserve
Eden Gallery bucks the contemporary art biz model
New York City's Eden Gallery is making money selling works by artists who have yet to discover a resale market by JAMES TARMY ON A recent weekday afternoon in New York, a cleaning woman in all black stood in the Fifth Avenue window of Eden Gallery dusting a very large bronze purse. Created by the artist Roman Feral and priced at US$400,000 (RM1.73 billion), the larger-than-life replica of a crocodile Hermes Birkin bag featured a cluster of monochrome butterflies emerging from its depths. Inside the gallery, other artworks had similar brand affiliations. There was a digital print by the artist Gal Yosef depicting Winnie the Pooh wearing a Louis Vuitton T-shirt and holding a honey pot filled with US$100 bills; a painting by the artist Angelo Accardi that features, among other figures, Disney's Aladdin standing next to a red Ferrari; and a Swarovski crystal- covered sculpture of a very large Balmain perfume bottle by the artist Metis Atash. The gallery features works that tend to incorporate symbols of pop culture (Star Wars, luxury brands, Disney) as well as very bright colours. Eden Gallery CEO Guy Martinovsky said the gallery is actually shifting focus away from brand-oriented imagery. 'I can show you artworks where there's no brands at all,' he said. 'Too often people just use brands for opportunism, and we're trying to move away from that more and more.' Regardless, much of the art on the wall seemed to be marching to the beat of a different drum than, say, mega gallery Hauser & Wirth. 'I always listen to collectors and not to what other galleries are doing, what museums are expecting, what the art world is expect- ing,' said Eden Gallery founder and sole owner Cathia Klimovsky. Unsurprisingly then, Eden Gallery is not a gallery in the same mould as many of its traditional counterparts, which typically mount single, month-long exhibitions that fill their entire space. Should a person want to buy a work, they have to wait until a show is over; historically, the only places where so-called 'cash and carry' occurs is at an art fair. Eden Gallery, in contrast, showcases a cacophony of work by a variety of artists. Pride of place at the Fifth Avenue location seemed to go to the star street artist Alec Monopoly, whose paintings, sculptures and prints — nearly all of which include the cartoon Monopoly man — have earned him a massive following. It's easy enough for people in the broader art world to sneer at this aesthetic, but it's harder to argue with its success, particularly as the art market continues to suffer. In 2024, the market slumped 12% by value to US$57.5 billion, an Art Basel and UBS Group AG market report found. Art deal- ers collectively sold 6% less by value year over year; and sales the year before that fell by 3%, accord- ing to the report. By contrast, the leaders of Eden Gallery said that it's thriving. Along with the Fifth Avenue gallery, which covers 20,000 sq ft across three floors, it has a four-storey, 25,000 sq ft gallery in SoHo and a 10,000 sq ft gallery on Madison Avenue. It also has outposts in Aspen, Miami, London, Dubai, Las Vegas and the Maldives, where a showroom sits inside of a Waldorf Astoria on Ithaafushi Island. Annual revenue has 'eight zeroes', said Martinovsky. 'In the last 10 years we grew by 25% a year on average,' he said, attributing the success to the company's business model. That model, simply put, is retail — the same as nearby luxury boutiques on Fifth Avenue. '[This] could be Christian Dior SE or Louis Vuitton, but it's Eden Gallery,' Martinovsky said. That sounds like bluster, but Martinovsky said that 50% of the gallery's revenue comes from people simply walking in off the street, something absolutely unheard of in the contemporary art world. 'Call it a store,' said Klimovsky. 'But the art market is following us.' Prices in the gallery generally range from US$2,000 for a print to about US$800,000 for a major sculpture. Most of Eden Gallery's revenue is derived from work priced between US$25,000 and US$250,000, Martinovsky said. A quarter of a million dollars is not much in the broader contemporary art market, where paintings regularly sell for millions of dollars at auction. But Eden Gallery's comparatively low price point explains and underscores how different it is from a standard gallery. That's because those Chelsea institutions do their best to cultivate their artists' reputations (and prices) through a standard playbook of commissioning books and scholarship, supporting museum shows, and, perhaps most important, propping up an artist's resale market. This is particularly true when it comes to very expensive artworks: If you buy a painting for US$1 million, you want some kind of assurance it will still be worth US$1 million when you decide to sell. With the exception of Alec Monopoly, Eden Gallery's artists, in contrast, don't have visible resale markets to speak of. Roman Feral, of the bronze Birkin, has never had a work sold at auction, for instance, according to the Artnet database. Neither has Atash, of the bejewelled Balmain bottle. Accardi, whose painting depicted Aladdin and the Ferrari, has seen his work come to auction three times; two of the three lots failed to sell. Once Eden Gallery sells a work, there is a very good chance its value has gone to zero, at least in the short term. Martinovsky brushed this aside, saying that Andy Warhol's secondary market didn't take off until he was in his 50s, and that many of Eden Gallery's artists are much younger. 'The classic journey was auction houses, museums, major private collections, top renowned art fairs,' he wrote in a follow-up email. 'Today, an artist can establish himself, become very successful, and have his retail price raised organically and consistently, just because of the balance between the offer and the demand.' Plus, he added, people sell art when they don't like it anymore — and Eden Gallery's clients really love what they buy. 'Many of our clients simply don't sell the art. They want to live with it.' — Bloomberg This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition
IOL News
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Mihlali Ndamase enjoys luxury shopping in Dubai, acquiring two Hermès Birkin bags
Award winning digital creator Mihlali Ndamase recently got a dose of retail theraphy in Dubai. Picture: kpaparazzi_ Mihlali Ndamase, one of South Africa's top beauty influencers is living large in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates shopping high-end luxury brands. Ndamase has been sharing moments from her travels with her followers on Instagram and TikTok from her first-class flight to poolside chilling, Ndamase is having a good time abroad. During her trip, Ndamase fitted some retail therapy into her schedule and visited the Hermes store where she got two Birkin bags. The Hermes Birkin bag is highly sought after by celebrities and collectors due to its exclusivity and craftsmanship. A Birkin has become a cultural phenomenon and symbol of wealth. 'It's a cultural phenomenon,' captioned Ndamase her video of her little shopping trip.
Straits Times
02-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Jakarta's Bargain Blahniks, Birkins and Bling Spark US Trade Backlash
'Hermes Birkin' handbags cost from just 600,000 rupiah for the PVC version, while cow leather replicas went for up to 2.5 million rupiah. ST PHOTO: ARLINA ARSHAD – A stroll through ITC Mangga Dua, one of Jakarta's largest wholesale markets, felt less like a shopping trip and more like a masterclass in counterfeit couture. Rows of 'Manolo Blahnik' and 'Jimmy Choo' heels glinted behind glass counters. Above them, gleaming 'Rolex' watches sat beside belts stamped with the 'Ferragamo' logo. Floor-to-ceiling shelves brimmed with designer handbags – inspired by brand names such as Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Dior and Balenciaga. Standing in stark contrast, the scruffy walls, cracked tiles and creaky escalators were a clear reminder that this was no luxury mall. A recent check by The Straits Times found a ' Ferragamo ' belt selling for 1.5 million rupiah (S$118), a 'Cartier' watch for 6.5 million, and a pair of faux Chanel stud earrings priced the same as the belt. ' Hermes Birkin ' handbags cost from just 600,000 rupiah for the PVC version, while cow leather replicas went for up to 2.5 million rupiah . Birkin bag prices vary significantly, from about US$10,000 (S$13,000) for an entry-level model to as much as US$2 million for exotic leathers and unusual colours, with a wait time of as long as six years as the bags are handmade and must be ordered in advance. Mangga Dua – which means two mangoes, a nod to the area's once-abundant mango trees – is a sprawling cluster of shopping centres, including ITC Mangga Dua, in North Jakarta. It has openly sold fake luxury goods for decades. Some shops labelled the merchandise as 'original branded imports', but most made little attempt to disguise the truth. From low-grade knock-offs to so-called 'super' fakes that closely resembled genuine items, everything was on offer – at a fraction of the price of the real deal. At one stall, a vendor thrust two 'Goyard' totes into this reporter's hands. 'This one is KW1 – first grade. The canvas is softer and the straps are made of leather, like the real one, 2.5 million rupiah. The other, KW2, is 750,000 rupiah,' she explained, pointing to a version that felt stiffer and less pliant . KW, short for kwalitas or quality, refers to imitation goods that are graded by tiers based on how closely they resemble the originals. 'We shipped one bag to Singapore just last week. No problem with customs. Just buy – nobody can tell it's fake,' she said. Mangga Dua, Jakarta's famous shopping area, wasnamed a global hotspot for fake goods in the US 2024 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy, released in January. ST PHOTO: ARLINA ARSHAD Other sellers offered tips on sourcing. South Korean-made 'Lady Dior' bags fetched several million rupiah, while cheaper Chinese-made versions sold for a third of the price. According to the Global Organised Crime Index website, Indonesia has served as both a transit hub and a local market for fake goods , owing to its proximity to China and strong domestic demand. The rise of e-commerce has worsened the issue, with fake listings often slow to be taken down. A joint report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union Intellectual Property Office ranked Indonesia among the world's top sources of counterfeit handbags, clothing, cosmetics, footwear, toys and jewellery between 2017 and 2019. While the counterfeit trade has long flourished, it recently came under renewed international scrutiny. In its 2024 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy, released on Jan 8, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) named Mangga Dua among 71 global markets – 38 online and 33 physical – that facilitated large-scale trade in fake goods. Other South-east Asian markets flagged were Phnom Penh's Central Market, Kuala Lumpur's Petaling Street, Manila's Greenhills, Bangkok's MBK Centre, and Ho Chi Minh City's Saigon Square. While online platforms were a growing concern, the USTR said physical markets remained key conduits, particularly in places with weak enforcement. Mangga Dua, it noted, was notorious for counterfeit handbags, toys, clothing and leather goods, but saw 'little to no enforcement'. Warning letters had proved ineffective, and stakeholders continued to raise concerns about the lack of criminal prosecutions. Rows of 'Manolo Blahnik' and 'Jimmy Choo' heels glint behind glass counters. ST PHOTO: ARLINA ARSHAD The report came as Washington escalated trade pressure, recently imposing a 32 per cent tariff on Indonesian exports. On April 29, the USTR placed Indonesia on its Priority Watch List for 'serious concerns over weak intellectual property protection or enforcement', noting that counterfeit production had shifted locally and sales were increasingly moving online. Trade Minister Budi Santoso pledged to investigate the USTR's claims. Mr Moga Simatupang, director of consumer protection at the Trade Ministry, reportedly said enforcement efforts were often hampered by the requirement for formal complaints from trademark holders – many of whom are based overseas. Still, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said on April 23 that trademark violations at Mangga Dua had not been raised during his recent negotiations in Washington DC. Despite the illegality of selling counterfeit goods, demand for affordable luxury, coupled with lax regulation and a public often unaware or indifferent to the legal risks, has allowed the trade to endure. Vendors at Mangga Dua appeared unfazed. Most, however, declined to give their names. 'Crackdowns do happen, but they don't last. This time, it's because of (US President) Donald Trump,' said one shopkeeper. 'If the US is so unhappy, they should go after China – they make the goods, we just sell them.' 'We don't pretend our goods are real,' said another vendor who gave her name as Ita. 'People know they're fakes – the difference is like the sky and the earth. Who can afford the real ones? They cost too much.' Sellers say their customers included tourists from Europe, the Middle East and South-east Asia, some of whom bought in bulk or asked for items to be shipped overseas. German tourist Jen Meier, 53, said she was curious to visit Mangga Dua after watching YouTube videos by other travellers and following recent debates on TikTok, where Chinese manufacturers claimed many goods sold abroad were of similar quality to those made in China. 'I didn't come with the intention to shop, but I ended up buying a small purse as a souvenir. I want to bring one back to show my friends,' she told The Straits Times. Indonesian marketing executive Sari Fitri, 35, who bought a 'Prada' handbag, said that dressing well was important in her line of work, but her salary made it impossible to afford genuine designer goods. 'I'm a bargain hunter. It's easy to find fakes here and there's no penalty for buying them,' she told ST. 'My friends also buy counterfeit items – some of the designs are really cool. It's a guilty pleasure, finding something that looks premium for cheap.' Arlina Arshad is The Straits Times' Indonesia bureau chief. She is a Singaporean who has been living and working in Indonesia as a journalist for more than 15 years. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Daily Mail
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Kesha forgets her pants as she puts on leggy display out in LA after Katy Perry jab
Kesha seemingly forgot her pants as she turned heads on an outing in LA. The 38-year-old pop star - who made a jab at Katy Perry via fast food chain Wendy's - was seen putting on a leggy display while out and about on Thursday. Kesha wore a deep burgundy leather jacket as she sashayed in a pair of matching kitten heels. The stunner - born Kesha Rose Sebert - accessorized with a small green crocodile leather Hermes Birkin and tiny sunglasses with reflective lenses Her signature blonde locks were worn down in a middle-part as she accentuated her natural looks with complementary make-up topped off with pink lip. Kesha definitely had all eyes on her as she grabbed a matcha on the Southern California outing. Earlier this month, Kesha found herself embroiled in a bit of controversy. The all-women Blue Origin space mission was intended to be the pinnacle of female empowerment, as the star-studded fleet – which included pop star Katy Perry, news anchor Gayle King, and award-winning journalist Lauren Sanchez – catapulted into space for an 11-minute flight. However, the historic expedition has received backlash ever since the New Shepard capsule touched back down to Earth... and inadvertently reignited a years-long feud between pop rivals Perry and Kesha. As numerous celebrities criticized the Jeff Bezos-founded Blue Origin for its space exploration endeavors, an unlikely foe to emerge in the debate was fast food chain Wendy's. The burger joint left a shady comment under a photo of Perry in her Blue Origin space suit. Taking to X/ Twitter, Wendy's replied to a post shared by Pop Crave, which included the caption: 'Katy Perry has returned from space.' Wendy's responded: 'Can we send her back.' Then, Kesha appeared to pile on the Perry hate train by posting a snap of herself enjoying a Wendy's shake and smiling. Fans immediately speculated the TiK ToK singer's selfie was subtle shade towards Perry, who collaborated with controversial music producer Dr. Luke on her flop comeback album, titled 143, last year. After the official X account for Wendy's questioned if we 'can send her [Perry] back' to space, Kesha piled onto the drama, posting a snap of herself enjoying a Wendy's shake and smiling Famously, Kesha accused Dr. Luke of sexual assault and abuse in 2014, which he denied. A New York judge dismissed all of Kesha's claims in April 2016, and the singer subsequently dropped her sexual abuse case in Los Angeles that August. Dr. Luke – real name Łukasz Sebastian Gottwald – fired back with a defamation lawsuit against Kesha, which was finally settled out of court in 2023 after a decade-long legal battle. Now, it seems that the fan speculation was indeed correct, as an exclusive source tells that Kesha's post was 'exactly' intended to 'throw shade' at Perry. 'For a trip to space that was meant to be all about powerful women making an impact, Kesha doesn't think that Katy should have been one of the women on board that ship, especially since Kesha thinks Katy put women back in time by working with Dr. Luke again,' the insider said. Not only did the Die Young singer criticize Perry for working with Dr. Luke, but Perry's collaboration with the producer also sparked major controversy across her entire fanbase. In June 2024, Kesha simply tweeted 'lol' in the wake of news Perry and Dr. Luke would be collaborating. While Perry aimed to show critics she was a supporter of women's empowerment with the lead single off her album, titled Woman's World, the messaging fell short considering the song's close ties to the disgraced songwriter. 'Kesha's vision of a woman's world is a lot different than what she sees Katy trying to explore and bring into the world,' the source continued. Upon arriving back on Earth, Perry – who shares daughter Daisy Dove with fiancé Orlando Bloom – stopped and held a daisy up to the sky and kissed the flower, before descending from the capsule, dropping to her knees, and kissing the ground. The Roar singer then waxed poetic to reporters about feeling 'super connected to love' and declared how their all-female journey 'has always been about love and belonging.' Perry was brutally slammed online over her 'try-hard' antics and her emotional speech was branded 'tone deaf' and 'embarrassing.' According to the source, Kesha believes the internet backlash towards Perry is entirely justified. In fact, the insider maintained that Kesha's shady photo was the least she could do after the grueling 10-year legal battle she underwent with Dr. Luke. 'This brief moment of shade made Kesha feel better about the situation, and she hopes that Katy is upset about it,' they said. 'Kesha doesn't think it is petty at all. She thinks Katy deserves any shade she can get.' has contacted representatives for Perry and Kesha for comment. Kesha wasn't the only famous figure to criticize Blue Origin's 11-minute space mission, which also carried civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, former rocket scientist Aisha Bowe and filmmaker Kerianne Flynn. Supermodel Emily Ratajkowski said she was 'disgusted' by the expedition and described the flight as 'beyond parody' in a TikTok rant. 'That you care about Mother Earth and it's about Mother Earth, and you're going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that's single handedly destroying the planet?' Ratajkowski continued. 'Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space. For what? What was the marketing there?' Olivia Wilde shared a photo of Perry kissing the ground to her Instagram Stories, writing over the snap: 'Billion dollars bought some good memes I guess.' Meanwhile, Olivia Munn slammed the space mission ahead of its launch while appearing on Today With Jenna And Friends earlier this month. 'What are they doing? Like why? You know what I mean?' she said. 'I know that this is probably not the cool thing to say, but there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now.' Munn then added: 'What are you going to do up in space? What are you doing up there?' 'I know that this is probably obnoxious - but like, it's so much money to go to space. You know, there's a lot of people that can't even afford eggs.'
Forbes
29-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
REKLAIM, A Pre-Owned Luxury Resource For Retailers, Opens Direct-To-Consumer Channel
REKLAIM deals in hard to fine Birkin bags. REKLAIM is the growing company you may never have heard of, which supplies pre-owned luxury watches and handbags to retailers. Until now. The company is embarking on a direct-to-consumer strategy today that will put it on the radar of Hermes Birkin and Rolex lovers everywhere. The first-to-market luxury house is on a mission to redefine the pre-owned handbags and watches retail experience and pioneer what it terms a Conscious Luxury movement. REKLAIM has developed a cutting edge, proprietary AI procurement platform that sources the world's most coveted handbags and watches – even the Birkin Rock 25, which can sell for over $100,000 for a used model, said Kamran Razavi, who founded the company with James Thomas. REKLAIM was created to give the power back to all the parties involved in the value proposition or value chain of pre-owned luxury goods: customers, the planet, retailers, and ultimately the brands themselves, said Razavi. 'In the first iteration of what we built, we built a very special data technology backbone that enables us to do what we do and then we applied that to selling our products wholesale to very large retailers,' said Razavi. 'From there, we opened over 100 shop-in-shop locations over the last 12 months. Our goal is to create this shift in consciousness through what we trademarked globally as Conscious Luxury, which is the elevated experience.' What started as a first-of-its kind technology platform has grown into a coveted resource for iconic retailers across the globe. The 100 shop-in shops where REKLAIM's pre-owned luxury goods are sold include retailers such as Selfridges, Nordstrom, and Jared. Now, after building the groundwork through strategic wholesale relationships, the company is entering a new chapter of expansion through the direct-to-consumer web site and introducing an ambassador community called the Conscious Collective of which Elsa Hosk is one of the members. Razavi said REKLAIM has access to over $10 billion worth of pre-owned luxury bags and watches from 'all our pre-owned luxury providers globally where we're digesting their inventory and adding it to our platform and then from there we're selecting the inventory that we're purchasing for our retail partners or our direct-to-consumer web site,' he said. 'We're going in and buying inventory in real time because it's a real time commodities market, so those prices fluctuate,' Razavi added. 'We're not trying to sit on the inventory before we sell it, because that's not an efficient business model. We're curating the inventory for our direct-to-consumer customer, and we're collecting the best inventory to deliver higher than average quality and selection than the rest of the market because the rest of the market relies on the inventory being offered to them and then putting out what they have that day or week.' Razavi said the idea behind REKLAIM is to save consumers time and spare them the frustration of going to a luxury brand's store and being told that there's a waiting list for the most popular items. 'There's no room on the list, they'll tell you,' he said. 'You can't even get on the list. They'll say, come back in five years or come back in three years.' REKLAIM has a trademarked tag line, Whatever, Whenever that underscores the idea that there are no lists and there's no waiting for a particular product. In addition, you don't have to buy $100,000 worth of jewelry to get the bag or the watch that you want, Razavi said. He added that REKLAIM benefits brands whose products can be resold 'in a garage sale or on Ebay or Whatsapp Group, or an alley, or do you want them branded in a boutique with REKLAIM providing that service experience that's as close to what you can get from the brand, and in some cases, I would say a lot better because we're not going to make you buy anything else and we're not going to make you wait.' Why would retailers want to use REKLAIM? Product access, especially the breadth and depth of bags and watches; flexibility, including the ability to choose what brands to sell and not to sell, and margins because the company's business model allows it to bring the margins necessary for retailers to be able to run profitable businesses, Razavi said. REKLAIM plans to get even closer to consumers with its own stores. 'We will continue to expand physically with our partners and eventually with our own stores,' said Razavi. 'Our own stores will probably open at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. There won't be many of them just a number of flagship stores. We're really trying to be the world's first pre-owned maison.'
