What’s Happening: With executive shuffles at LVMH and Prada Group, fashion’s recent changing of the guard may be seen as a survival mechanism while a recession looms.

The Download: Raf Simons shocked the industry when he announced, in late November, plans to shutter his namesake label after 27 years. The Belgian designer, who launched his brand in 1995 before enjoying stints at Jil Sander, Dior, and Calvin Klein, proved to be a vitalizing force in menswear, consistently crafting youth-oriented collections by distilling underground influences into minimalist silhouettes that achieved cult status. Some speculated Simons made the move in anticipation of taking creative control of Italian stalwart Prada, which appointed him co-creative director alongside Miuccia Prada in early 2020. But despite stepping down as CEO of Prada Group in December, the longtime designer insists she’s not retiring anytime soon.

The surprise move capped a dynamic year of musical chairs for the industry, which continues to weather a maelstrom of departures and appointments. Alessandro Michele exited Gucci after eight years. Riccardo Tisci left Burberry after less than one year and was replaced by Daniel Lee, whose most recent tenure at Bottega Veneta involved deleting social media and launching an online magazine. Marco Gobbetti, CEO of Salvatore Ferragamo, announced a sweeping rebrand and appointed Maximilian Davis as creative director. (The 27-year-old dropped out of the LVMH Prize young designer contest to take the job.) On the acquisitions front, Tom Ford sold his brand to Estée Lauder for $2.8 billion, the luxury industry’s biggest deal of the year. Executive transitions at Chanel, McQueen, and Versace also made waves.

The shakeup with the most potential to impact the industry, however, comes from none other than LVMH. The French luxury conglomerate recently named new CEOs at its two biggest houses in one of the group’s biggest executive reshuffles in recent memory.

Pietro Beccari, the CEO of Christian Dior Couture, will succeed Michael Burke as CEO of Louis Vuitton. Taking Baccari’s reins at Dior is Delphine Arnault—the eldest child of LVMH’s CEO, Bernard—who is currently Louis Vuitton’s EVP for product, and manages the closely watched LVMH Prize. With the appointment of Bernard’s son, Antoine, as CEO of the financial holding company through which the family owns a controlling stake in LVMH, each of his children holds a major role in the group.

Nepo baby accusations aside, why now? A recession is looming, and brands that rode the pandemic’s e-commerce boom are making sure the right person is in charge. (This isn’t restricted to fashion—nearly 700 U.S. CEOs left their posts in the first half of 2022.) The executives who steered brands through pandemic upheaval may not be as well-equipped to tackle today’s tricky climate of snarled supply chains and record inflation, though both are on a downward slope.

Entrepreneurs face murky waters as investors have shifted priorities to prospects with better margins, which is becoming difficult to attain as the digital landscape evolves. To prevent brands from suffering a similar fate as Sies Marjan and Zac Posen, which shuttered their labels amid turbulent financial markets, perhaps fresh blood is needed.

According to a recent study, half of the creative directors at roughly 40 houses have held their positions for five years or less. “Compared to other product-based industries like cars or furniture, there’s almost this fashionability of change in fashion. And when you change an artistic director, you change an entire team, most of the time,” Marco Pecorari, assistant professor of fashion studies at Parsons Paris, told WWD, likening the cyclical shifts to “brief interventions” rather than in-depth change. Applying a new creative director’s sensibilities to ready-to-wear, leather goods, accessories, and perfumes is nearly impossible in a short tenure, but brands also face pressure to run at an accelerated speed thanks to social media.

In Their Own Words: Benjamin Simmenauer, a professor at the Institut Français de la Mode in Paris, says money talks. “After a first contract, if the objectives are not met and above all, if there is no significant growth, generally the creative team is replaced,” he told WWD, noting how brands view long-term collaborations more favorably. “[Brands] look for consistency and seem to be more and more risk-averse as they strive to reach a larger audience.”

Surface Says: Cue the dancing Kermit Succession meme.

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From the whitewashed villages of the Algarve to creative energy–filled Lisbon to the increasingly stylish beach town of Melides, Portugal’s hotel scene continues to evolve in spectacular ways. This week, we’re surveying the landscape.

A close shot from the seaside village of Zambujeira do Mar where the Portuguese landscape transforms into bucolic Alentejo countryside, the Craveiral Farmhouse is an eco-forward quinta with a cultural heart. From its inception, former Lisbon lawyer Pedro Franca Pinto has championed artisanship with a dedication to rustic minimalism and programming that supports the arts through the lens of sustainability. For instance, the property partners with the nomadic organization BLANK100 to host an artist residency.

Artists such as German sculptor, painter, and performer Jan Zöller and Banji Chona, a multidisciplinary Zambian storyteller based in Rome, live side-by-side with four other talents in low-slung lofts appointed with locally crafted design objects. Guests immerse in workshops, open studios, and communal dinners at the locavore restaurant to cultivate creative exchange. Produced with eco-friendly materials, the final works will join the hotel’s growing contemporary art collection.

Also on site: four swimming pools, a restaurant serving seasonal cuisine and wood-fired pizzas, 38 modern-rustic cottages with freestanding Nuspa cork tubs, and a self-sustaining farm populated by Pygmy goats, Vietnamese cross-breed pigs, and donkeys.

“It all starts with the king crab,” says Phil Campbell, executive chef at Klaw. It’s an understandable place to start given that Campbell and the team fly crabs in from Norway and keep them alive in an on-site facility right up to the point where it lands on your plate. “It’s the freshest product you’re ever gonna try.”

Occupying the landmark Women’s Club building in Miami, the temple to sea and land is the brainchild of Misha Zelman, the London restaurateur behind Burger and Lobster, Beast London, and Zelman Meats. Hospitality maestro Martin Brudnizki (Surf Club Restaurant, Mother Wolf, Saint Theo’s) spearheaded interiors, which are outfitted with rich woods, colonial-arched windows, and minimalist chandeliers attached to the soaring ceiling. The main dining room is a throwback to the building’s former grandeur. “It reminds me of a cruise ship from the 1920s,” Campbell says.

Along with the crab program, beef is a central pillar of the menu. Campbell has long championed heritage beef in the U.K. and, though it’s much more difficult to source in the U.S., he’s managed to cultivate relationships that give him access to Florida Cracker Cattle—one of the oldest and rarest breeds in the United States that traces back to 1521. The cuts, which also include USDA Black Angus from Nebraska, are dry-aged and shown artfully in a case near the entrance.

Lauren Rottet envisions the expressive yet understated furniture, lighting, and accessories in her home collection as an array of functional art objects “designed to endure and be passed down from generation to generation,” she says. That’s because the award-winning architect, who launched her influential interiors firm in 2008, is a rigorous student of the arts, particularly the Light and Space movement.

Each piece is imbued with movement and character, from the energetic Walking Bench’s askew legs to the Aurora Table’s luminous bronze and cast amber glass panes. They take pride of place in Rottet Collection’s newly opened Manhattan showroom, a light-filled Nomad loft that presents an array of pieces within welcoming vignettes, all unified under Rottet’s deft hand.

When: Jan. 19–22

Where: Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture, San Francisco

What: Designers, artists, collectors, dealers, and no small number of enthusiasts will descend on San Francisco for FOG Design+Art, which returns to the Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture for its ninth edition. The fair has become a high point on the West Coast cultural calendar and San Francisco Art Week, sporting an impressive roster of global art and design galleries such as Demisch Danant, Jessica Silverman, Nilufar, R & Company, and Salon 94 Design. In addition to booths, the fair will also feature FOG Talks, a series of free discussions exploring ideas and issues within art, design, and technology, and opens with a Preview Gala on the 18th that benefits SFMOMA’s education and exhibitions program.

In 1956, mail carrier Jeff McKissak began constructing a massive architectural tribute to his favorite fruit. Working entirely on his own and entirely by hand, McKissak spent the next quarter century assembling farm implements, bricks, mannequins, and more into a 3,000-square-foot, multi-level mosaic labyrinth of wishing wells and arenas. The idea was to inspire health and longevity in visitors by encouraging them to eat oranges. The result was one of the world’s most accomplished folk art environments.

McKissak died in 1980. To preserve his achievement, Marilyn Oshman formed the nonprofit Orange Show Center for Visionary Art (OSCVA). She assembled a wild bevy of donors, including both Dominique de Menil and members of ZZ Top, and bought and reopened the Orange Show to the public in 1982. If time has been kind to the installation’s reputation, it’s been hard on the work itself. Fortunately, the National Parks Service’s Save America’s Treasures program has awarded a grant for a two-year renovation that will stabilize the structure and establish an artist-led corps of community preservationists.

Sommsation is an innovative wine tasting experience platform bringing together independent wineries, sommeliers, wine experts, and those looking to discover new wines and expand their knowledge. Uniquely crafted virtual tastings feature hidden gems of the wine industry and the insights of an engaging wine professional. Sommsation handles all the details, so it’s easy to share the experience with friends, family, and colleagues.

Surface Says: Sommelier-guided wine tastings aren’t inhibited by geography thanks to this upstart platform ushering the interactive vineyard experience into today.

Elvis Presley’s long-dilapidated private jet sells for $260,000 at auction.

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Pour one out for Ronzoni, which is discontinuing its star-shaped pasta.

New York’s humble MetroCard has also served as a blank artistic canvas.