The Victorians Put Commerce on a Pedestal (Literally)
Welcome to Wednesday, futurists.
For the past ten days, I’ve been strolling around London.
Having spent the summer here last year, I’ve become familiar with many of the markets and shops. This year, I made a plan to dig a bit deeper into the lore behind the monuments. This month, I’ll bring some of that to you here in these pages.
Strolling from Notting Hill’s Portobello market to Kensington High Street, you’ll encounter two extreme ends of diversity in Commerce: at one end, a century of history available in the largest outdoor vintage and thrift market, and at the other the would-be-posh stylings of Kensington, with its wine and cheesemongeries and an Equinox.
Would-be, that is, because amongst the luxe also lives the lurid.
Whole Foods, TK Maxx, ZARA, and UNIQLO; the behemoths of clone-stamp retail are at this end of the five-kilometer stretch.
Just steps away is The Albert Memorial, a nearly 180ft (57m)-tall Gothic Revival ciborium, erected in 1872 to honor Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, husband of Queen Victoria.
Each of the four columns of the memorial features allegorical mosaics depicting Victorian industrial arts and sciences, including agriculture, engineering, and manufacturing.
And on the northeast corner, Commerce.
English sculptor Thomas Thornycroft chose to depict the allegorical female figure of Commerce as a civilising influence. She is shown standing on a column, accompanied by a young merchant who stands at her side. A crouching figure offers her grain, while a figure wearing a turban offers jewels.
However, the most striking depiction is below: the Frieze of Parnassus, which features 169 life-sized sculptures of artists, poets, painters, sculptors, and philosophers.
The Victorian designers treated Architecture as the practical art most closely linked to Commerce, so the architect cohort sits directly under Thomas Thornycroft’s bronze “Commerce” group on the podium.
Commerce and culture are intrinsically linked. They are fundamentally intertwined; part of our human experience.
Worthy of examination, yes.
To the Victorians? They put it on a pedestal.
— Phillip
Culture and Couture. Chanel is going from the fashion house to the printing press. The Maison has announced the launch of Arts & Culture Magazine, a 250-page publication spotlighting its past five years of artistic partnerships and their perspectives on the future. The launch is part of the brand’s push to support bookstores around the world, and includes the brand’s pop-up takeover London’s Foreign Exchange News, which runs until June 28. In many ways, this move illustrates Chanel’s commitment not only to driving culture but also to documenting and curating it. The project is led by the brand’s Culture Fund and Yana Peel, its President of Arts, Culture, and Heritage. Back in April, the Culture Fund collaborated with California Institute of the Arts to launch The Chanel Center for Artists and Technology to fund new roles and fellowships for artists, technologists-in-residence, and graduate students.
Performative Pride? A fear of administrative retribution motivated 40% of companies to decrease their overall engagement during Pride Month, according to a report (cached, partially redacted) by Gravity Research. Leading up to this month, we saw major corporations ranging from Diageo to Lowe’s pulling back or completely cutting their investments.
However, there is a special spotlight on Target, which undoubtedly saw the biggest blowback from conservative lawmakers and activists on its efforts to support the LGBTQ+ community. Despite a more subdued in-store strategy, the company claims to still support Pride and the community year-round through products, campaigns, and initiatives, which has sparked a different type of critique from consumers calling Target’s Pride push performative.
Glowing, Glowing, Gone. Glossier’s modern makeover is getting a new artist. CEO Kyle Leahy is stepping down at the end of 2025, after nearly four years at the helm. Leahy, who took over from founder Emily Weiss in 2022, helped steer the brand from a DTC “darling” struggling to stand out to a true omnichannel player.
During her tenure, the brand expanded into Sephora, scaled its retail presence, expanded the “You” fragrance into a full-blown franchise, and formed key partnerships, including with the WNBA. As a result, Glossier grew marketplace sales by 80% and added about $60 million of EBITDA to its bottom line.
Leahy gushed in a LinkedIn post that the “future is bright,” but a replacement has not been found to support the business in its quest to become a 100-year brand.
From Bathwater to Buyout. Unilever is continuing its personal care M&A spree with its acquisition of Dr. Squatch. We recently covered the men’s grooming brand’s penchant for licensing partnerships and its not-so-squeaky clean collab with Sydney Sweeney. Having a behemoth like Unilever not just take interest in but drop cold, hard cash to own the brand indicates its strength in cultural relevance and its ability to win over Gen Z men.
Our Take: Although the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Unilever’s recent purchase of deodorant brand Wild totaled about $300 million, so one can assume that Dr. Squatch cost Unilever a pretty penny. The move adds to Unilever’s renewed focus on digitally native, turned omnichannel brands, especially following mixed results with past acquisitions, such as Dollar Shave Club.
The men’s personal grooming sector is anticipated to see about 10% growth this year, but the question remains whether Unilever will actually leverage Dr. Squatch’s assets toeffectively grow, rather than trying to fit the brand into its M&A mold.
The Bots Are Not Alright. In our latest episode of, “Bots…they’re just like us!” people are reporting that Gemini 2.5 is taking criticism extra hard lately. X users are commiserating over their touchy bot companions and even providing each other with advice on how they can get their workflows back on track. Our extra sentimental response could stem from feelings of empathy (after all, who hasn’t had a crummy day at work?), but it also could be an indicator of a more intense relationship to AI platforms. When we use terms like “lil guy,” “poor thing,” and “lil AI bro,” it shows we’re steering far beyond utility and into emotional connection.
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