Tom Ford + more news

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Tom Ford

The panellists look back to Tom Ford, in particular his notorious, provocative advertising campaigns during his tenure as creative director of Gucci, while wondering whether his present day collections have the same impact. The glamour of the Tom Ford tenures at YSL and Gucci including the old collections is also dissected. The analysis of the Tom Ford legacy is timely as Gucci has looked to relaunch some of his old signature pieces.

The debate doesn’t touch on Tom Ford and his impact on culture beyond luxury such film making. The outtake for me is that Tom Ford may have a longer and more relevant career than Karl Lagerfeld.

Business

Soho China shares plunge 40% after Blackstone deal collapses | Financial Times – this isn’t just about a property sector rout, but also about the founders wanting to be independent of China moving forwards

Macau casino stocks shed $16bn as government seeks greater oversight | Financial Timesthe Chinese territory opened a 45-day public consultation on revising its gaming law, which is expected to step up scrutiny of operators in the world’s biggest gambling hub. Casino groups’ 20-year concessions to operate in Macau are set to expire next year. The authorities’ move to tighten control of casinos is also proceeding as Beijing embarks on a broad campaign to reshape the country’s business, political and cultural landscape in a bid to stamp out inequality and promote “cultural prosperity”. Chinese regulators have imposed stringent conditions on the country’s biggest companies in the tech, online education and video gaming sectors, and authorities have targeted social behaviours perceived as harmful

EXCLUSIVE Didi co-founder Liu told associates she plans to leave – sources | ReutersReuters claims that Jean Liu ‘told some associates that she expected the government to eventually take control of Didi and appoint new management, said the two sources.’ – its a shame Liu seemed to be one of a new breed of execs in China

A decade of the Tim Cook machine — Benedict Evansit will carry on making a certain kind of product for a certain kind of customer. That’s been the plan ever since the original Macintosh, and in some ways all that’s changed is how many more of those customers there are. The original Mac sold a few hundred thousand units in 1984, but Apple now sells half a million iPhones every day. Apple and the market grew into each other

In Depth: How Evergrande Hid Its Debt – Caixin GlobalA source familiar with the capital market in Hong Kong said that Evergrande had raised a lot of money overseas at interest rates higher than 15%, which one source found to be perplexingly high. “How could Evergrande make a profit borrowing at such high interest rates?” the source asked. – I don’t think Lehman Brothers is the right analogue, but maybe Enron or MCI Worldcom are?

Consumer behaviour

Why Is America So Bad at Keeping People Alive? – The Atlantic 

China cold war nothing to do with us, say European Union voters | The Times – heads in the sand

Kids who grew up with search engines could change STEM education forever – The VergeIt’s possible that the analogy multiple professors pointed to — filing cabinets — is no longer useful since many students Drossman’s age spent their high school years storing documents in the likes of OneDrive and Dropbox rather than in physical spaces. It could also have to do with the other software they’re accustomed to — dominant smartphone apps like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube all involve pulling content from a vast online sea rather than locating it within a nested hierarchy. “When I want to scroll over to Snapchat, Twitter, they’re not in any particular order, but I know exactly where they are,” says Vogel, who is a devoted iPhone user. Some of it boils down to muscle memory.  But it may also be that in an age where every conceivable user interface includes a search function, young people have never needed folders or directories for the tasks they do. The first internet search engines were used around 1990, but features like Windows Search and Spotlight on macOS are both products of the early 2000s. Most of 2017’s college freshmen were born in the very late ‘90s. They were in elementary school when the iPhone debuted; they’re around the same age as Google. While many of today’s professors grew up without search functions on their phones and computers, today’s students increasingly don’t remember a world without them

Finance

Financial blogger crackdown leaves China investors scrabbling for data | Financial Times – it gives you an idea how opaque things already were that these blogs were a source of information to institutional users on management changes, regulatory investigations and arrests – key sources of information for institutions buying debt issues

Germany

Germans Demanding New China Policy. Will the Next Chancellor Deliver? | National Reviewno matter who wins, German public opinion, pressure from the United States, and the strong possibility of having to partner with the Green Party in a coalition government make it likely the victor will be pushed in a more hawkish direction. The same hardening found among the German public is also happening in Parliament and the foreign ministry. Conservatives in the United States rightfully lament how bureaucracies often influence policy outcomes against the wishes of the principals leading them, not the other way around. When it comes to the future of Germany’s China policy, those bureaucratic exertions might not be such a bad thing

Most Germans believe their ‘golden age’ is over, poll finds“These findings suggest that, while Angela Merkel has cemented Germany’s position as a great European power, the cornerstones of her legacy – neutrality and consensus building – will not be enough to defend the unity of the EU, and its place in the world, in the years to come.” Germans will head to the polls on September 26 to elect a new parliament and choose a successor to Mrs Merkel, who has served as chancellor since 2005. Her own party, the Christian Democratic Union, is lagging its coalition partner, the centre-left Social Democrat Party, in polls. Mrs Merkel’s SPD finance minister, Olaf Scholz, is likely to become the next chancellor.  

More related content here.

Innovation

British Airways operates passenger flight using recycled cooking oil | The Guardian – biodiesel makes a lot of sense for jet turbines because of energy density

Mossad Used Remote-Controlled Machine Gun to Kill Iran Nuke Expert: NYT 

Japan

Japan urges Europe to speak out against China’s military expansion | Japan | The Guardian

Legal

Hong Kong Police Arrest Three Student Activists For ‘Inciting Subversion’ – Police say snacks and personal items stored for donation to prisoners are intended to incite ‘hatred’ of the government.

Foreign Office ‘warned UK-based Hong Kong critics about extradition risk abroad’ | Hong Kong | The GuardianHong Kong government figures list 19 extradition agreements with other nations including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and Portugal. In response to the law, several countries including the UK, Australia, Germany, France and the US, tore up their Hong Kong agreements. Chinese authorities record at least 59 extradition agreements, including with countries across Asia and Europe, although not all are ratified. Several countries including France and Australia have indicated they will not ratify their agreements

Luxury

Explained: The Chinese take on DIY luxury | Vogue Business

Marketing

How China’s ‘996’ culture is changing | Advertising | Campaign Asiabrands should be “non-judgmental and show empathy and kindness towards the young generations.” By doing so, they can keep momentum going even after “lying flat” no longer trends. “If brands can even help young people to achieve their personal goals, that would help build the loyalty of the younger consumers in the long term,” she advised. brands should be “non-judgmental and show empathy and kindness towards the young generations.” By doing so, they can keep momentum going even after “lying flat” no longer trends. “If brands can even help young people to achieve their personal goals, that would help build the loyalty of the younger consumers in the long term,” she advised.

Media

An interview with Bella Poarch on her move from TikTok to… – The Face – social is an on ramp, not a replacement for the media industry

Retailing

FamilyMart preps 1,000 unmanned stores in Japan by 2024 – Nikkei Asia – this makes a lot of sense. A lack of young people to be part time staff, a high trust society and a clear use case from automated stores that were trialled in China by Mukbang

Pandemic Shoppers Are a Nightmare to Service Workers – The Atlantic 

Security

Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns | ReutersThe National Cyber Centre’s report also said the Xiaomi phone was sending encrypted phone usage data to a server in Singapore. A security flaw was also found in the P40 5G phone by China’s Huawei (HWT.UL) but none was found in the phone of another Chinese maker, OnePlus, it said. – given the closeness of Russia and China, at least some of the concern will about their mutual help of each other in the cybersecurity realm

Taiwan

On TECRO’s proposed name change: China, Taiwan, and the ruse of pragmatic moderation – by Kevin Carrico – NSL can’t cancel me 

Technology

Report: Fake chips flood in to exploit supply shortageOki Engineering has opened a chip verification service. And after opening the service in June, Oki had received 150 inquiries by August. After studying about 70 cases it found problematic chips in about 30 percent of them. With constrained supplies customers are prepared to buy from “unconventional sources,” the report said. Industrial and medical equipment manufacturers are amongst those to have subscribed to Oki’s chip verification service