ISSUE 02: Reflection vs. Reaction and The Pecking Order

Welcome to The Red Thread, a weekly(-ish) branding and culture newsletter exploring what founder-led brands can learn from cult luxury heavyweights in order to build the same kind of timeless, relevant, culturally aware, and irreplaceable positioning in their own categories.

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Welcome to my first real “learning from luxury” newsletter (let’s face it, my first post was just me having a good old ramble about how I got here to begin with).

Why luxury, you ask?

The reason I think every brand can take something away from luxury fashion brands is because, love it or hate it, fashion is a reflection of culture. Socioculturally, psychologically, politically, economically, technologically, environmentally. All of it.

Fashion brands don’t just exist in culture. They move with it, react to it, sometimes even provoke it. Why fashion more than any other category? Because it lives on bodies, in public, where identity, politics, and money collide. When the economy takes a sh*t, hemlines, fabrics, and silhouettes quietly respond, turning restraint into a message in itself. When social values shift, fashion absorbs it fast, translating big conversations into things you put on your body tomorrow.

Reflection vs. reaction

The most timeless of these fashion brands learn to respond to shifts in culture through their own lens and filter the moment through who they already are. Reflection versus reaction. Rigid brands freeze when culture changes, clinging to past codes like safety blankets, while flaky ones chase trends with no spine, mistaking relevance for speed. The best brands flex instead. They stay grounded, responsive, and unmistakably themselves, proving that cultural relevance isn’t about keeping up, but about knowing exactly where you stand while the world moves around you.

Every single business outside of fashion needs to take inspiration from this kind of cultural mirroring and grounded reflection. If you are building a brand and not reading about culture then you are building in the dark. Culture shapes what people care about, what they trust, and what they’re tired of. So ignoring it isn’t neutral, it’s risky.

But the goal isn’t to jump on every trend or suddenly adopt a new tone overnight, is it? It’s to be aware of what’s shifting, decide what actually matters to your audience, and respond in ways that feel natural to your brand’s point of view. If you can do that well, you don’t chase relevance, you earn it.

So what can you do? Read beyond your industry. Pay attention to people, not platforms. follow tastemakers, not trend accounts. Look for writers, creatives, and founders with a clear point of view. If someone helps you understand why something is happening, not just what, you’re in the right place.

I won’t claim to be a trend forecaster. And please ignore the hoard of “2026 trend prediction” content that is suddenly cropping up from every single influencer with a DJI mic mini and an internet connection. Below is a few of my favourite sources of culture and trends to get you started. If there are any others you love, please share in the comments!

WGSN
The Future Laboratory
McKinskey
Pattern Recognition
Good Thinking by In Good Co
The Brief by Original Minds
Concept Bureau

The pecking order

Moving on, I want to unpack what I believe is one of the most overlooked concepts in brand world-building, especially by burnt-out founders. That is the idea of employing hierarchy within your brand.

Now, before you come at me with your equality pitchfork, I don’t mean hierarchy as exclusion. I’m talking hierarchy as clarity.

In the name of inviting their audiences into incredible brand worlds, luxury heavyweights have been pulling this lever since the mid-20th century with the advent of ready-to-wear (maybe even longer, but you’re not here for a history lesson, and I’m not qualified to give you one), and they do so to build demand, cultural presence, and pricing power. While you may be thinking, “okay, but I do B2B consulting…”, don’t hit that close button just yet.

You can put a deliberate structure in place to achieve three key things that work smarter, not harder, for your brand: offering entry, building momentum, and creating status. All while building rather than diluting value, and keeping you as a founder flying high rather than running on fumes.

Let’s dive in.

Creating hierarchy within your brand is about creating a deliberate tiered structure of engagement for your audience. A pecking order, if you will.

Rather than a single offer that produces a single yes or no response (a maybe is just a no in a cute hat), or perhaps a scattered set of offers that feels complex and unnavigable, it’s setting out a structure that draws people in and keeps them obsessed. Sound simple? That’s because it is.

TIER 01 - THE HERO
Objective - Create status
This is your aspirational hero product or service. Your Birkin, your 250 GTO, your Submariner. Your signature, high-ticket offer. Scarcity draws attention - it’s not within everyone’s reach, nor should it be. It should be aspirational and premium-priced with high margins and high impact.

What does this mean for you? If you offer products, it should mean your highest quality with limited production and distribution. If you’re a service-based business, think limited spaces and a premium, 1-to-1, highly personalised offer.

For example, for an interior designer it’s their high-ticket full home transformation design or white-glove renovation oversight. For a food and beverage brand it could be chef’s table, invite-only dining, or bespoke catering experiences.

TIER 02 - THE DROP
Objective - Build momentum
These are your buzz-builders. They are timely and an opportunity to reflect the current culture. Seasonal lines, collaborations, special editions. They work to keep your name circulating and your presence relevant. For Hermes, it’s seasonal drops, limited-edition leathers and finishes. For Ferrari? It’s their Formula 1 presence, their invitation-only ownership programmes and factory experiences. Service-based? Think pop-ups, limited-time programs, masterclasses, and live-series.

Back to those examples. The interior designer? It could be pop-up show spaces or collabs with artists, paint companies, and furniture brands. And for the food and beverage company? Seasonal menus, limited-run ingredients or event-based collabs.

TIER 03 - THE ENTRY POINT
Objective - Offer entry
These are your year-round staple products, or your digital downloads and self-paced programs. They are evergreen, accessible offers that sustain the business while reinforcing its brand identity, and they do some serious heavy lifting. They offer an entry point into your brand for new customers and go a long way in starting a new relationship, sparking interest, earning trust, and building loyalty. It’s the Hermes Awful Avalon throw draped over the back of every Birkin-aspiring woman’s home, and the stallion embossed on a red cap worn to a Ferrari Experience Day.

Most importantly, they can often turn that aforementioned ‘maybe’ (read: no) into an aspirational ‘someday’.

For our interior designer? Room refresh packages, virtual colour consultations, and downloadable style guides. The food and bev company? Pantry staples or sauces, subscription boxes, and recipes or digital cookbooks.

So, why does this system work? Because each level reinforces the one above it while maintaining brand cohesion, not diluting it. Bring people in and then nurture them to the top tier.

‘Dream’ theme collage for Club Cut and Paste’s 31 days of collage challenge

Go analogue

If you’ve managed to move through the last 12 months without hearing about someone’s analogue bag, their dumb phone, or their crochet circle, I salute you.

It’s no secret that we’re all sick of being slave to our devices and are seeking healthy ways to reduce our doomscrolling. May I introduce my new favourite method: collage. Not Photoshop layers and masks, but good old scissors and pritt stick (that’s a glue stick for my North American friends).

My brilliant friend Fiona of Club Cut and Paste is running a 31 days of collage challenge with a new theme each day. Whether you do 31, one, or none, collage is such a therapeutic way to spend a wholesome analogue hour on a weekend.

Here’s my take on the ‘Dream’ theme:

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for your (probably not undivided) attention. If you found this post useful, go on and give it a like or share it.

Until next week, happy culture reading.

Hilary x