The way L\u2019Or\u00e9al\u2019s Silvia Galfo sees it, luxury and culture are inextricably linked \u2014 today, more than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a real shift in the meaning of luxury: aspiration is important, but people seek for real meaning,\u201d said Galfo, president of L\u2019Or\u00e9al\u2019s Luxe USA division, at the WWD Los Angeles Beauty Forum.<\/p>\n
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L\u2019Or\u00e9al Luxe<\/a> includes beauty licenses for buzzy designer brands from Valentino to YSL to Prada, and now, with its just-finalized agreement to acquire Kering Beaut\u00e9<\/a>, heavyweight fragrance lines from Creed, Bottega Veneta and more.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are much more deliberate today on how they want to spend their money \u2014 at the end of the day, with prices hiking up so much, the question is, is it really worth it?,\u201d Galfo said.<\/p>\n Taking all this into consideration, providing value for luxury shoppers has become a much more expansive task.<\/p>\n \u201cValue you create through experiences, through emotional connections and community, is very important,\u201d continued the executive. \u201cYou cannot please everyone all the time, so you have to be deliberate about who you want to go after.\u201d<\/p>\n At L\u2019Or\u00e9al, this mission has meant being tuned into what\u2019s happening; reacting quickly, and, around once a year for each portfolio brand, hosting immersive events that bring their respective identities to life.<\/p>\n For instance, hosting Valentino\u2019s viral Studio 54 revival<\/a> \u2014 Cher cameo included \u2014 one night last fall, or the Lanc\u00f4me Id\u00f4le House pop-up in New York celebrating the brand\u2019s 90th anniversary.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has to make sense for the brand; Lanc\u00f4me couldn\u2019t have done a nightclub, for example. You have to make sure it\u2019s authentic, otherwise it will feel like it\u2019s trying too hard,\u201d said Galfo, adding that the Studio 54 party took cues from Valentino creative director Alessandro Michele\u2019s affinity for \u201cnewstalgia.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s all about taking whatever in the past made the brand strong or relevant, and translating it to the new generation\u2026Mr. Valentino Garavani was part of that \u201970s crowd of artists and designers, throwing parties with his friends. So [we thought], how do you connect the values of self-expression and radical inclusivity of the brand today, with what it was before.\u201d<\/p>\n As for the strategic benefit of these events?<\/p>\n \u201cIt obviously has an impact on sales, but it\u2019s not about sales. It\u2019s about bringing the brand to the center of cultural conversations,\u201d said Galfo, adding, for example, that with the Studio 54 party, \u201cnot everybody could be there, but people felt they could have been, through social channels even if not physically. People were buzzing about it for six months afterward.\u201d<\/p>\n Aside from in-person activations, consistently activating online is key.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re always \u2018on,\u2019 even if just on social continuing the conversation. You can\u2019t just do one-off [experiences] \u2014 it feels too random,\u201d she said, adding, \u201cconstantly being curious is the biggest thing, and there are so many avenues today to get insights. With AI and all these new tools, there are going to be even more interesting ways to get these signals.\u201d<\/p>\n While L\u2019Or\u00e9al has a roster of ultra-famous global ambassadors \u2014 Bella Hadid for Prada; Dua Lipa for YSL and so on \u2014 partnering with localized ambassadors has also been key to increasing resonance in certain regions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have Tom Holland for Prada Paradigme, but we also want to be locally relevant, so we have Rauw Alejandro, a Puerto Rican singer, as a spokesperson as well,\u201d said Galfo. \u201cWe signed for Viktor & Rolf Gavin Casalegno, who is the darling of \u2018The Summer I Turned Pretty.\u2019 It was the right moment in culture, for what this type of consumer wants, to bring them together.\u201d<\/p>\n Next up, brands within the L\u2019Or\u00e9al Luxe division will be activating at the Coachella music festival, while Lanc\u00f4me has signed on as a skin care partner of the widely anticipated \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada 2\u201d film releasing in May.<\/p>\n \u201c[The partnership] coincides with a very big skin care launch coming a month from now,\u201d teased Galfo.<\/p>\n \u201cBeauty is very emotional. It\u2019s not just a transaction \u2014 yes, you want to have better skin and look better overall \u2014 but there\u2019s an emotional part beauty plays in a consumer\u2019s mind, where self-expression is important. And that\u2019s where you can create additional value for the consumer, versus just a good product.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of WWD<\/p>\n Sign up for WWD’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The way L\u2019Or\u00e9al\u2019s Silvia Galfo sees it, luxury and culture are inextricably linked \u2014 today, more than ever.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12905],"tags":[1580,19127,13566,14165,6478],"class_list":["post-25964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-loreal","tag-loreal","tag-silvia-galfo","tag-valentino","tag-valentino-garavani","tag-wwd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}