🗑️ Balenciaga sold a trash bag for $1,790. It's calfskin leather, styled like a bin liner. Shock value sells in luxury fashion. Sources: Hypebeast, CNN #omgfacts# #Balenciaga# #LuxuryFashion#

Luxury fashion isn’t exactly making an unexpectedly sharp pivot into fine art, but as taste quickly becomes its own form of currency, designers are eager to show off their cultural investments.

Even in the best of times, luxury fashion is a tricky business. And with prices sky high, buyers are running toward second-hand sellers for those indulgent purchases. Amanda Mull explains

Inside Blackstone podcast guest and this year’s TIME100 Next list member @therealreal CEO Rati Sahi Levesque shares how her company is creating a huge business opportunity from the luxury fashion sitting in closets. 🛍️ Watch the full episode:

been watching the discourse around FaZe Banks, Kimchi, Bottega Veneta and the broader question of what actually moves crypto markets. think there’s a much bigger conversation here than people are acknowledging i’ve always believed vibes matter in crypto. culture has historically been one of this industry’s most effective distribution mechanisms. memes create attention, attention attracts liquidity, and liquidity can accelerate entire ecosystems. we’ve seen this play out repeatedly but somewhere along the way, we’ve started conflating cultural relevance with economic substance. the suggestion that markets appreciate primarily because of swag and aura, independent of monetary conditions, technological progress or risk appetite, feels like a fundamental misunderstanding of how capital gets allocated vibes can influence where speculative liquidity concentrates. they have considerably less control over how much liquidity exists in the first place a celebrity endorsement or luxury fashion collaboration might introduce a new audience to crypto. fair enough. but what happens after the initial attention dissipates? how much of that audience becomes economically active? how much capital stays? what meaningful utility or recurring demand emerges? these are the questions that determine whether cultural distribution translates into something durable and frankly, i think crypto has developed an unhealthy tendency to celebrate visibility before interrogating what that visibility actually produces. we’re operating in an industry where users still face considerable security risks, fragmented liquidity, poor interfaces, questionable incentive structures and infrastructure that remains inaccessible to most people meanwhile, some of the most consequential work is happening in areas that rarely command the same attention: derivatives infrastructure, capital efficiency, privacy, payments, better execution and the gradual abstraction of complexity none of these developments require crypto to abandon its culture. if anything, culture becomes infinitely more valuable when there’s something substantive behind it solana’s rise, for instance, was accompanied by an extraordinary cultural movement. but that movement also had infrastructure, applications, liquidity and sustained user activity to organize around. the cultural momentum and the underlying ecosystem reinforced each other i’m all for crypto becoming culturally relevant beyond our little corner of the internet. fashion, entertainment and mainstream collaborations can absolutely play a role in that expansion but we should be careful about mistaking attention for adoption, or a moment of virality for evidence of lasting product-market fit. the industry has spent years proving it can manufacture attention the next phase should be about proving how much of that attention it can convert into enduring economic activity. vibes matter. what survives after the vibes fade matters considerably more

Fashion changes. Her presence doesn’t. Five eras, one timeless icon. 👗 Created using @BytePlusGlobal Seedance 2.5 model on @openart_ai #OpenArtAdAwards# Prompt : Create a 30-second, 1080p ultra-realistic cinematic fashion film titled “A Dress Through Time.” The film should feel like a high-end luxury fashion campaign rather than a conventional advertisement. Use the uploaded image as the exact character reference if provided. Maintain the same woman’s facial identity, skin tone, hairstyle, body proportions and overall appearance throughout. Her face must remain perfectly consistent across every era. The main character is a confident young woman wearing an elegant luxury couture dress. The dress remains recognizable as the same signature design while subtly evolving in silhouette, fabric, details and styling for each era. Scene 1 — 1920s Open inside a magnificent Art Deco ballroom with golden chandeliers, marble floors, geometric architecture and elegantly dressed guests. She walks toward the camera wearing a 1920s-inspired version of the dress with intricate beadwork, fringe and glamorous detailing. The camera smoothly tracks backward. As she crosses a large golden doorway, time changes. Scene 2 — 1950s Without cutting, the ballroom transforms into an elegant 1950s fashion salon as she continues the same walking movement. Her dress evolves into a refined 1950s couture silhouette with structured tailoring and classic detailing. She passes vintage mannequins and fashion designers before reaching another doorway. Scene 3 — 1980s Crossing the doorway transforms the environment into a dramatic 1980s luxury runway with glossy floors, deep shadows and bright runway lights. Her dress evolves into powerful 1980s couture with sculptural shoulders and dramatic fabric movement. Photographers capture her as she confidently walks down the runway and turns at the end. Scene 4 — Present Day As she turns, the runway seamlessly becomes a minimalist luxury fashion studio with enormous windows, soft natural light, polished concrete and elegant architecture. Her outfit evolves into a contemporary high-fashion version of the same signature dress. She walks toward the camera, stops, looks directly into the lens and slowly turns around. Scene 5 — The Future Her turn transforms the studio into a futuristic fashion runway with reflective surfaces, atmospheric haze and sophisticated lighting. The dress becomes an avant-garde couture gown combining traditional craftsmanship with innovative sculptural materials. She walks toward the camera surrounded by complementary futuristic couture looks. Final Shot The camera rises and pulls backward into a wide cinematic shot as the five worlds subtly overlap—1920s ballroom, 1950s salon, 1980s runway, modern studio and futuristic runway. She remains centered in the final futuristic dress. End on a clean cinematic frame. Optional voiceover: “Fashion changes. Style remains.” Visual direction: Ultra-realistic luxury fashion cinematography, photorealistic fabrics, detailed embroidery, realistic skin texture, natural hair movement, physically accurate cloth simulation, elegant camera choreography, seamless transitions, sophisticated lighting, realistic reflections, cinematic depth of field, subtle film grain, natural motion blur and premium fashion-house commercial quality. Transitions must feel physically connected rather than separate clips. Her walking speed, body position, facial expression and camera direction remain continuous throughout. Negative: No identity drift, face changes, hairstyle glitches, duplicated characters, extra limbs, distorted hands, warped clothing, random outfit changes, broken anatomy, floating objects, cartoon/CGI appearance, subtitles, captions, visible text, logos or watermark.

Is the dream robot girlfriend every man has been waiting for finally becoming a reality? She stays 18 forever, never aging a day. But amidst all this perfection, one essential question remains: can she ever truly understand what love is? Looking ahead, the market for companion AI will likely mirror the world of luxury fashion. Will high-end robots be categorized like fine designer brands—an "Hermès tier" crafted with bespoke realism, or a "Chanel edition" built for timeless elegance? Perhaps the ultimate trend will be custom celebrity editions—allowing users to order a synthetic counterpart modeled after Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, or Gal Gadot.