Desire moves before the numbers.
Rafael Carlesso is a luxury strategist and analyst. He reads where desire is built or lost, and writes the strategy that builds it. The financial results only prove it.
He works with global houses and rising maisons, with the agencies that serve them, and with luxury real estate, always in writing.
"Discipline is a finite lever. Desire is the renewable one."
As quoted by Reuters, July 2026
KERING
H1 2026 Results
After the Arithmetic, a Pulse at Gucci.
How Gucci narrowed to -2% on fewer doors while the 12.8% margin was rebuilt from cost, and why the €4bn Valentino commitment parked in a footnote quietly spends the deleveraging.
Press
Quoted twice by Reuters, interviewed by Valor Econômico (Brazil). Republished across five continents and six languages. Cited three times by LinkedIn News.
Reuters, July 2026. On LVMH's second-quarter results. "Discipline is a finite lever. Desire is the renewable one." Read on Reuters →
Reuters, May 2026. On LVMH's sale of Marc Jacobs. "LVMH is telling the market it will no longer subsidise the segment that has lost pricing trust with the aspirational consumer." Read on Reuters →
Valor Econômico (Brazil), August 2026. Interviewed on the luxury first half. "Too early to call it recovery. What came back was discipline, not desire." Read on Valor →
Open Briefs
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LVMH: The Margin Held. Desire Did Not.
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Zegna Group: One Brand Carries The Group
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Moncler Group: Funded, Not Yet Measured
About
Rafael's eye was trained twice: as an architect, in beauty and built image, and as managing partner of a premium real estate company, carrying brand, pricing and P&L under commercial risk. He works from Milan, in writing, in English, Italian, French and Portuguese, for a sector that is global by definition.
Work with me
Four engagements, always in writing.
For global houses and groups: an outside reading of where desire is built or lost, and what it says about pricing power.
For rising maisons: the strategy to build it. Positioning, brand architecture and communication that creates desire before the product exists.
For agencies working with luxury brands: diagnosis, research and pitch support, the case for brand investment made from outside the room.
For luxury real estate: developments positioned and sold the way great houses are built, image first.