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The Fréd Balloon

As Frédéric Arnault tries to figure out a new story for Loro Piana in a post-‘Succession’ world, Giorgia Meloni’s crackdown on factory working conditions threatens to shed light on what that $3,000 “quiet luxury” cashmere sweater actually costs to make. Is this gig now one of the Herculean labors required to one day win the big job?

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Frederic Arnault
Loro Piana, for its part, was growing in a market where very few brands were succeeding, and it seemed as though Frédéric had been set up for success by his predecessor. Photo: Zack Whitford/BFA.com, Owen Kolasinski/BFA.com, Linnea Stephan/BFA.com
Lauren Sherman
August 7, 2025

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Earlier this week, as out-of-office emails were being composed across Europe, about 1,000 of Gucci’s retail and logistics employees declared something of a protest against their employer. The workers, represented by three Italian trade unions, claimed that they had not received the welfare payments promised to them. Will they actually go on strike? (A rep for Kering, the owner of Gucci, didn’t respond to a request for comment on this one.) 

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