What to Watch: Small Players Jockey for Space Amid Luxury’s Giants

LONDON — Know thyself. Socrates and his fellow thinkers lived by those words and Stella McCartney took them to heart when she forged a surprise partnership with LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton earlier this summer. Less than 18 months before, McCartney had split from Kering, her partner of 17 years, wanting to go it alone and run the brand herself as she looked for potential minority investors. But the indie life wasn’t for her. Her eponymous company had been born into the Kering stable, she’d never run a brand on her own and her ambitions in terms of size, scale, sustainable sourcing and animal rights are big. So she decided to partner with soft luxury’s other giant, LVMH. She handed them a minority stake that valued the company at around 500 million euros, and took on the role of special adviser to founder-owner Bernard Arnault on sustainability. McCartney’s move spoke to the challenges of managing an independent brand in a stormy moment for purveyors of luxury fashion. There is increased competition from lower-priced brands and retailers, uneven demand, and consumers who are more than happy to rent or recycle their wardrobes, or spend their disposable income on a new tattoo, a weekend jaunt to another

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