Welcome in, today is Friday, October twenty-third, and we begin with Kering, where FashionNetwork reports a flat third quarter. Kering reported third quarter revenue of three point three four five billion euros, flat on a reported basis and down one percent like for like, according to FashionNetwork. Gucci, still in transition, came in at one point two nine one billion euros, down six percent like for like, dragged by mainland China while North America held. Strip Gucci out and like for like retail rose two percent, that account says, on Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and Brioni. Jewellery jumped eleven percent, eyewear four percent. Management cited weaker store traffic but better conversion and basket size, and confirmed its target of an improved recurring operating margin for twenty twenty-six. A Finimize analysis puts the strain in sharper relief. Chief financial officer Armelle Poulou said Kering will raise marketing and client experience spending while shrinking its footprint, with one hundred twenty-five net closures targeted by year end. That piece cites Reuters on Kering dropping its return-to-growth target for twenty twenty-six, and notes the group says Gucci contributes roughly half of group profit, which puts Luca de Meo's margin ambitions on a tighter clock. The US-listed shares fell eleven percent. Industry reaction leans toward reading the decline as traffic-led, with committed buyers holding and the aspirational visitor thinning out. Also today, Paris. Following our earlier report on the CAC Forty's LVMH-driven dip, BBN Times says the index closed Thursday at seven thousand eight hundred eleven point two six, down one point three nine percent. Hermès was the biggest single drag, off four point nine four percent after third quarter revenue growth slowed and missed expectations. That account puts France's ten-year yield at five point zero seven percent, the highest since two thousand two, with the spread over Bunds beyond one hundred seventy basis points. The sector's home market is now repricing the cost of capital at the same time as demand. Market commentary leans toward sector-wide repricing rather than a single soft quarter, with some reading flat Greater China demand as the more telling signal. Separately, Alexander McQueen is without a creative director. Luxury Daily reports Seán McGirr is leaving the Kering-owned house three years after his appointment, with new leadership to be named soon. The Star, carrying AFP, reports McGirr was ousted, ties the exit to a sales collapse over his tenure and to de Meo's restructuring of Kering's smaller labels, and quotes de Meo saying the ambition is a bold new direction. That report cites Bernstein estimates putting annual brand sales below two hundred million euros, from a peak of eight hundred million, and places the exit days after Anthony Vaccarello left Saint Laurent. A second design reset in three years leaves the house unsettled while Kering reworks leadership across its stable. Some observers read it as commercial as much as creative, with a higher sales bar on fewer doors. Now, to the politics of the shop window. Following our earlier report on looting across French retail, a New York Times analysis argues the targeting of Dior, Celine, Hermès and Saint Laurent stores has exposed a crack in luxury's facade. The argument runs that brands used social media, celebrity and spectacle to make themselves ubiquitous, then priced themselves beyond almost everyone, and that the gap now reads as exclusion. That piece quotes Serge Carreira of the Fédération de la Haute Couture saying younger consumers feel shut out. It counts more than three thousand shops affected overall, calls this the third round of physical attacks on luxury in Paris in eight years, and reports Dior, Celine and Hermès did not comment on protective measures. Security and closure days stay on the register for anyone running French doors. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. Prada Group's third quarter organic revenue rose one percent, nss magazine reports, carried by Prada while Miu Miu retail sales fell three percent, its first decline in four years. WWD reports Deckers Brands shares fell after a second quarter sales miss, and says the Hoka and Ugg owner also cut its full-year sales guidance. Drapers reports that Manchester-based Castore is exploring a sale to buyers in the United States and China. No deal is confirmed. Primark has opened its first Qatar store at Doha Festival City, per Drapers, its twenty-first international market and fourth Middle East country. And finally, WWD reports Gap is piloting Bridgette, an AI-enabled virtual career guide the company says will make hiring faster and simpler.