| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a fashionista-focused fascicle of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Will the New Gilded Age Also be a Guilted One? | Among the billionaires attending the inauguration of Donald Trump was the richest man in Europe: Bernard Arnault, the founder and chief executive officer of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, the enormous luxury goods holding company. For a while, Arnault — together with his family — was the richest person in the world. Elon Musk has since reclaimed that title besides hogging the plutocrat limelight at the big party in Washington. Still, Arnault — nicknamed "the wolf in cashmere" for his acquisitiveness — has been cozying up to the US president since the first time Trump occupied the Oval Office. The two men may actually like each other, but as Andrea Felsted says, there are strategic corporate reasons for LVMH to be so closely associated with a Trump presidency in rebound. "Courting Trump this time around cements LVMH's position as the leading luxury goods company in America and could protect against tariffs. It might just reenergize fashion too," Andrea writes. The US may also be the bulwark against the slump in luxury stemming from weakness in Chinese consumer spending. "US luxury sales are typically correlated with stock markets, and with the S&P 500 close to record highs and Bitcoin continuing its upward ascent, there's a good chance that Americans will keep spending on fancy bags and watches. If they do, LVMH stands to benefit the most." Indeed, since 2019, LVMH has opened manufacturing operations in Texas and California. "Made in America," says Andrea, could well be Arnault's marketing tool in the White House once more. (Melania Trump's outfits at the inauguration and the ball were made and designed in the US, as dictated by tradition for First Ladies.) The inauguration was evidence of an emerging gilded age of White House glamor reminiscent of the Kennedy, Reagan and Obama years. But it could also be a provocation for a cultural opposition still smarting from the results of Nov. 5. "Some customers might be upset and vote with their wallets," says Andrea. The billionaires vying for Trump's attention have already come under an onslaught of criticism for their blingy looks (case in point: Mark Zuckerberg with a $895,000 Greubel Forsey Swiss watch on his wrist.) Playing on the assonance in "fashion" and "fascism," social media style personality Blakely Thornton — caution, strong language — let loose on Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia, the creative directors of Oscar de la Renta, for dressing Ivanka Trump and second lady Usha Vance. In any case, a lot of fashion categories could do with a boost. For example, formal wear for all those guilt… er, gilt-edged balls of the new age of excess. Says Andrea: "The footwear industry could certainly do with a lift from Melania's towering heels: The stiletto is one category that is yet to bounce back since the pandemic." As long as those heels are American. All in the AI of the Beholder? | Earlier in the week, the prolific Catherine Thorbecke cautioned that TikTok isn't the Chinese tech threat Americans should worry about: It's China-based hackers and their increasing capacity to disrupt US utilities and make life difficult for ordinary citizens. "These keyboard warriors are gearing up their ability to bring crucial aspects of American life to a screeching halt," she writes. In another piece this week, Catherine says Chinese companies continue to advance in consumer AI technology in the looming global contest with the US — specifically Beijing-based Shengshu Technology's Vidu versus San Francisco-headquartered OpenAI's Sora. All this is in spite of US attempts to deny Chinese companies the chips and know-how they need to be on the cutting edge. That is enough to give Silicon Valley the shivers. But Americans — already exposed to certain advantages of life in China via RedNote (aka Xiaohongshu) — may be envious of another aspect of Beijing's AI innovations. Community standards seem to be strictly enforced. That's good at a time when everyone is afraid of the creation of nonconsensual pornography — or simply being overly exposed because someone out there asked their AI assistant to disrobe you. "There are myriad guardrails in place on Vidu to prevent abuse, and they seem to be improving," says Catherine. "Vidu 2.0 refused to remove anyone's clothing when I tested this." That doesn't mean you can't create Vidu deepfakes — just that they keep within the prudish protocols of the People's Republic. Ah, one more thing — as American RedNoters have discovered — don't try anything funny with Xi Jinping. "Donald Trump's inauguration speech was remarkable for many reasons, but what stood out watching from afar was the dissonance as he described a United States that was in existential decline and in need of rescue. … Across the pond, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen set out a vision on Tuesday that was equally hard to square with reality. … She described a continent of innovative strength, committed to immutable principles, ready for change and finding strength from unity in the face of adversity. Europe's actual circumstances are closer to Trump's dystopia than Von der Leyen's idyll." — Marc Champion in "Trump Inherited a Strong America. That's a Weak Europe's Problem."  "There's a growing backlash [in Japan over the huge numbers of tourists] that threatens to lose touch with the benefits they're bringing. And for all the hassle, I'm still fully in favor of the government's goal to boost visitors to 60 million by the end of the decade. Now more than ever, we have evidence that the country's tourism strategy is working. The number of arrivals in 2024 rose 16% from the pre-pandemic peak in 2019. But boosted by the weak yen, spending was up a whopping 69% to 8.1 trillion yen, or more than $50 billion. By the end of the decade, the target is for 60 million vacationers dropping almost $100 billion." — Gearoid Reidy in "Japan Has 100 Billion Reasons to Welcome More Visitors." Mr. President, you need Canada to be Canada. — Liam Denning Making new enemies in Mexico. — Juan Pablo Spinetto Long odds on Trump the Peacemaker. — Andreas Kluth Bigger airports, badder air. — Lara Williams That flat tire'll cost you... and the planet. — David Fickling Why is Elon Musk quiet on AI? — Parmy Olson Why Americans are weak on China. — Hal Brands The UK's drippy millionaire exodus. — Matthew Brooker Walk of the Town: When You Go Home to Brutalism | Oscar season has begun. As most of you probably know by now, Emilia Pérez (a musical about a trans drug trafficker) had the most nominations with 13. That was followed by Wicked and The Brutalist with 10 apiece. I was quite enthusiastic about Wicked before it opened, what with all the social media hype and clips and every-which-iteration of Cynthia Erivo singing "Defying Gravity." But I haven't seen it. Actually, I feel like I've seen it three times now via all Instagram posts that I don't have to sit through 2 hours and 40 minutes in a theater to watch it. And there's still part 2 (Wicked: For Good) to come in November. If I'm still into it, I'll binge-watch then. But The Brutalist intrigues me, not because I'm an Adrien Brody fan (especially since his dialogue in Hungarian was tweaked by AI). I'm not even a fan of Brutalism, the nickname for the branch of modernist architecture his character is trained in. But I do wake up to a Brutalist perspective every day — and go home to it too. That's because I live in the Barbican, the housing development on the northern edge of the City of London (the financial center, not the metropolis) that is the British capital's premier example of the style.  Reflecting on the Barbican. Photograph by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg Being a transplant to Britain, I've often opted to live in buildings that evoked older schools of design: Victorian, Edwardian, Georgian. Still, the Barbican — which takes its name from barbecana the fortress-like structure that the Romans built — was so situated that it provided the most efficient shortcuts, either to work in the Bloomberg building or to some of my favorite restaurants. So, I got used to its hulking concrete pillars and unwavering perpendicular lines. I also enjoyed its huge central ponds with resident ducks and coots — and the occasional fox straying (or staying) in its secret gardens. I moved in last August after an apartment became available. It helped that the Victorian-Edwardian-Georgian buildings I'd been staying in proved to be Potemkin real estate: all curlicues and neoclassicism on the outside and new but bad construction and bad plumbing and heating inside.  Feeling ducky. Photograph by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg So far, Brutalism has been warm and comforting and homey for me. Maybe I'll watch the movie. Wishing you a happy and non-poisonous year of the snake!  "What's eating you?! It's just me in my new skin." Illustration by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg Notes: Please send anecdotal antidotes and feedback to Howard Chua-Eoan at hchuaeoan@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and find us on Bluesky, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn and Threads. | 
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