pplpod

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Gianni Versace grew up in Reggio Calabria, part of ancient Magna Graecia, learning in his mother's tailor shop, and chose the Medusa as his logo to stop people in their tracks. He moved to Milan on February 5, 1972, designing for labels such as Florentine Flowers. His brother Santo, an economics graduate, joined in 1976, and with Claudio Luti they showed the first Versace collection at La Permanente in March 1978. Fragrance, accessories and home lines followed, and Versace dressed Elton John, Michael Jackson and Princess Diana while promoting supermodels like Naomi Campbell. Elizabeth Hurley's safety pin dress at the 1994 premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral became known simply as that dress.

Gianni was murdered in 1997. Donatella became creative director, Santo CEO, and Gianni left 50% of the company to Donatella's daughter Allegra. Profits fell in the early 2000s amid CEO departures, and the brand turned to licensing: Palazzo Versace on Australia's Gold Coast in 2000, Lamborghini cars and helicopter interiors. Blackstone bought 20% in 2014, Michael Kors (later Capri Holdings) paid $2.12 billion in 2018, and Prada completed a $1.375 billion purchase in December 2025.

• Jennifer Lopez's green jungle dress at the 2000 Grammys was the reason Google Image Search was created.
• Palazzo Versace was the world's first fashion-branded hotel, followed by Dubai in 2015.
• Versace put its name on 10 Lamborghini Murciélago cars with white satin interiors in 2006.
• Dario Vitale, named chief creative officer in March 2025, left after a single collection once Prada closed its purchase.
• Prada named Pieter Mulier creative chief, is ending Versace Jeans Couture in 2026 and plans to return Atelier Versace to Paris in 2027.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Van Cleef & Arpels began in Paris in 1896 when Dutch diamond cutter Alfred van Cleef joined his father-in-law Salomon Arpels. After Salomon's death in 1906, brothers-in-law Charles and Julien Arpels joined, Louis followed in 1913, and the family opened at 22 Place Vendôme, opposite the Hôtel Ritz, then followed wealthy clients to Deauville, Vichy, Nice and Monte Carlo. A bracelet of ruby and diamond roses won the grand prize at the 1925 Paris exposition that launched Art Deco. From 1926 Renée Puissant, Alfred's daughter, directed design for about 20 years with draftsman René Sim Lacaze, favoring flowers, fairies and animals.

The house patented its Mystery Setting in 1933: gems are grooved underneath and slid onto hidden gold rails so no metal shows. In 1966 it was commissioned to make the coronation crown of Empress Farah Pahlavi of Iran, and because the stones could not leave the country, its artisans worked for 11 months inside Tehran's central bank. The firm opened at 744 Fifth Avenue in New York in 1940, was bought by Richemont in 1999, and its leader since 2013, Nicolas Bos, became Richemont CEO in 2024.

• The finished crown carried 1,469 diamonds, 105 pearls, 36 rubies and 36 emeralds.
• In the 1930s the firm also made a crown for Queen Nazli of Egypt.
• A 1936 Mystery Set piece sold at Christie's in 2009 for $326,500.
• Clients have included Grace Kelly, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Diana, Princess of Wales, and Elizabeth Taylor.
• The house counted about 155 boutiques worldwide in 2022.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Donald Trump had long fixed on the corner of 56th Street and Fifth Avenue, home of the Bonwit Teller flagship beside Tiffany & Co. After years of calling owner Genesco, he bought the site for about $10 million in 1979 when a new chairman needed to sell assets. He bought the air rights over Tiffany's, traded a 50% stake in the tower to the Equitable Life Assurance Society, which owned the land, and won extra height by providing a five-story public atrium. A favorable review by New York Times critic Ada Louise Huxtable helped him past opposition. Architect Der Scutt designed a 28-sided tower in bronze and gold-tinted glass.

Trump hired Barbara Res, the first woman to run a major New York skyscraper site, imported 240 tons of Breccia Pernice marble, and took a handsaw to atrium trees he disliked. Crews jackhammered Art Deco sculptures the Metropolitan Museum of Art wanted, and a class action covered undocumented Polish workers paid $4 an hour, which Trump said he did not know about. Opened in 1983, the $200 million tower brought $300 million in condo sales and later housed The Apprentice and his 2015 campaign launch.

• The 58-story building numbers its top floor 68 because the lowest residential floor was labeled the 30th.
• Demolition workers reportedly worked 12-hour shifts without hard hats on a site containing asbestos.
• Trump and an executive sometimes posed as a spokesman called John Barron, which Trump later compared to Hemingway's pen name.
• Johnny Carson and Steven Spielberg were among early residents.
• Campaign funds and political committees later paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent to the Trump Organization for space in the tower.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

S. Truett Cathy, born in 1921 and raised Southern Baptist, opened the Dwarf Grill in Hapeville, Georgia, in 1946 with four tables and ten counter stools, serving workers from the nearby Ford Motor Company assembly plant. After 15 years running the diner, he found a commercial pressure fryer in 1961 that cooked a boneless chicken breast as fast as a burger. From 1964 to 1967 he licensed the sandwich to more than 50 outlets, including Waffle House and the Houston Astrodome, then pulled the licenses and opened the first Chick-fil-A in Atlanta's Greenbriar Mall in 1967.

Cathy closed every store on Sundays, Thanksgiving and Christmas and refused to take the company public. Operators pay $10,000, while the company owns the real estate and equipment and takes about 15% of sales plus half of pre-tax profit. In 2012 son Dan Cathy's statements against same-sex marriage, along with WinShape Foundation donations, drew boycotts and a record Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day organized by Mike Huckabee. In 2019 the company redirected its giving to education, homelessness and hunger.

• Southern cooks put fried chicken on bread long before 1961; Cathy's real advance was cooking it fast enough for a lunch rush.
• Dan Cathy later said his father was simply exhausted by the end of the week, part of why Sunday closing began.
• Mayors of Boston, Chicago and San Francisco spoke out against the chain's expansion during the 2012 controversy.
• At 92, after a trip to Hawaii, Cathy opened Truett's Luau in Fayetteville, Georgia, in 2013.
• Cathy died in 2014, and in 2022 the average Chick-fil-A grossed $6.71 million, the top per-store figure in U.S. fast food.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

In 1941 Norwegian businessman Thomas Olsen bought the Waterbury Clock Company and named its watches Timex, a blend of Time magazine and Kleenex. Kleenex then stood for everyday convenience found in nearly every home, and Olsen wanted a watch to be just as common, not a jewel kept in a box. Today the business is Timex Group BV, an American Dutch holding company based in Middlebury, Connecticut and Hoofddorp in the Netherlands, with subsidiaries that keep each brand legally and commercially separate.

Timex Group USA runs Timex and Nautica, Sequel AG handles Guess and GC, Vertime SA makes Versace and Versus watches, and Timex Group Luxury Watches covers Salvatore Ferragamo and Philipp Plein. Movements and technology come from hubs in Germany, Japan and the United States, while manufacturing spreads across China, France, Hong Kong, India, the Philippines and Switzerland. In 2020 the Boston investment firm Baupost Group acquired the company, with Fred Olsen and Company keeping a minority stake.

• The Timex name was meant to signal mass adoption, not disposability.
• Brands share purchasing power, shipping rates and supply chains but not parts bins or finishes.
• Timex bought the Milan studio of industrial designer Giorgio Galli in 2007.
• The Giorgio Galli Design Lab sets the look for both basic Timex lines and Versace and Ferragamo pieces.
• Fred Olsen and Company also runs cruise lines and tankers and invests in wind farms.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

In 1837 Charles Lewis Tiffany and partner John B. Young opened a fancy goods and stationery emporium in lower Manhattan with $1,000 from a cotton mill. Tiffany set fixed prices with no haggling and took cash only, and in 1845 launched the Blue Book, the first U.S. direct mail luxury catalog. He renamed the firm Tiffany & Co. in 1853 and moved into jewelry and silver. During the Civil War it made the Model 1840 cavalry saber, flags and surgical instruments for the Union, later redesigned the Great Seal of the United States and created the Tiffany Cross version of the Medal of Honor. A $500,000 "Palace of Jewels" opened in 1870.

Tiffany bought a 128.54 carat yellow diamond, later worn by Audrey Hepburn and Beyoncé, acquired much of the French crown jewels in 1887, and introduced the six-prong Tiffany setting in 1886. After his 1902 death, son Louis Comfort Tiffany led design toward Art Nouveau. Avon bought the company in 1978 for about $104 million in stock, and quality complaints followed. In 1998 the firm trademarked its 1837 Blue with Pantone. LVMH completed a nearly $16 billion takeover between 2019 and 2021 after a legal fight during the pandemic.

• Fixed prices were adapted from a model used on London Bridge in the 1750s.
• The firm moved to its Fifth Avenue building in 1940 and produced holiday cards with Andy Warhol in the 1950s and 1960s.
• One publication compared the Avon-era flagship to a Macy's white sale, and engagement rings were advertised from $850 in the early 1990s.
• The company makes the Vince Lombardi Trophy, the Larry O'Brien Trophy and League of Legends championship trophies.
• LVMH sued over dividends paid during COVID-19 losses before settling on a reduced price and delisting the stock.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Target traces back to George Dayton's company in Minnesota, founded in 1902, and the first Target store opened in Roseville in 1962 under John Geisse and Douglas Dayton, who cut internal costs to sell good merchandise at low margins. Wide aisles, dropped ceilings, softer lighting and sharp signage printed on cheap foam board built the "Tarjay" image, a nickname in use since 1962. The 1999 Michael Graves housewares line proved designer collaborations could work in discount retail. The median shopper is 40 with a household income near $64,000, and SuperTarget groceries, added in 1995, were treated as a traffic driver rather than a core business.

In 2012 a father complained that Target was mailing baby coupons to his high school daughter, then learned she was pregnant; the Guest ID system had spotted purchases like unscented lotion and supplements. A 2013 data breach hit up to 110 million customers. Target entered Canada in 2013 through old Zellers leases and untested supply chain software, then closed in 2015 with a $2.1 billion loss. Its 2016 bathroom policy, 2023 Pride merchandise and 2025 DEI rollback each set off boycotts.

• After the pregnancy story, Target mixed random coupons such as lawnmowers and wine glasses in with baby offers to seem less omniscient.
• Target sold its pharmacy and clinic business to CVS Health in 2015 for $1.9 billion.
• Breach settlements included $10 million to consumers and $39 million to banks and credit unions.
• A 40-day boycott in early 2025 over the DEI rollback coincided with a $12.4 billion loss in market value.
• Target dropped an egg supplier after a 2011 undercover video and pledged 100% cage-free eggs by 2025, a deadline it missed.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Takeshi Takata founded his company in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, in 1933 making parachute textiles, moved into seat belts in the 1950s and built Japan's first crash test plant. In May 1995 a recall of 8.3 million vehicles followed findings that ABS plastic release buttons on its 52X and A7X belts turned brittle under UV light and jammed. Regulators fined Honda and Takata $50,000 over evidence they knew of the hazard for about five years, and two years in only 18% of cars were fixed. Takata bought Germany's Petri AG in 2000 and held 20% of the global airbag market by 2014.

In the late 1990s Takata switched its inflators to cheaper ammonium nitrate, which absorbs moisture and crumbles over heat cycles, so the propellant burns too fast and ruptures the metal housing, firing shrapnel at occupants. Its Monclova, Mexico plant mishandled the chemicals. Regulators fined it $200 million in November 2015, three executives were charged in January 2017, and Takata pleaded guilty in a $1 billion settlement before filing for bankruptcy in June 2017. Joyson Safety Systems, which bought its assets for $1.6 billion, found over 1,000 cases of falsified test data in 2021.

• A pregnant 42-year-old woman in Malaysia died in July 2014 after her 2003 Honda City airbag ruptured in a collision under 30 km/h.
• The $1 billion settlement split into a $25 million fine, $125 million for victims and $850 million for automakers.
• By early 2024 more than 100 million inflators had been recalled across over 20 automakers.
• By late 2024 the inflators were tied to 28 deaths in the U.S. and 35 worldwide.
• Of 3.5 million affected cars in Brazil, an estimated 2.5 million owners ignored inspection notices.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Taipei 101 rose in a city on the Pacific Ring of Fire, about 200 meters from a major fault line and in the path of typhoons, and held the title of world's tallest building from its 2004 completion until the Burj Khalifa passed it in 2009. Its foundation uses 380 piles driven 80 meters into soft soil, some sunk 30 meters into bedrock, each about 1.5 meters wide and able to carry over 1,000 metric tons. On March 31, 2002, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake threw two cranes from the 56th floor onto Xinyi Road, killing five people, yet inspectors found no structural damage to the unfinished tower.

Against wind, a 660 metric ton steel sphere hangs between the 88th and 92nd floors as a tuned mass damper, cutting sway by up to 40%, and during Typhoon Soudelor in August 2015 it moved a full meter. Painted gold and put on display, it spawned the Damper Baby mascot. Architect C.Y. Lee wrapped the engineering in symbolism: eight tiers of eight floors, bamboo and pagoda forms, and ruyi ornaments. A 2011 retrofit costing $1.8 million earned LEED Platinum certification.

• Double stair-step corners, tested in a wind tunnel in Ontario, Canada, break up the wind before vortex shedding can rock the tower.
• Pressurized Toshiba elevators travel at 60.6 km/h, rising from the fifth floor to the 89th floor observatory in 37 seconds.
• Low-emissivity double-pane glass blocks 50% of outside heat, helping save 14.4 million kilowatt hours a year.
• Captured rainwater supplies up to 30% of the building's water needs.
• A granite fountain with a spinning ball sits at a T-intersection by the east entrance to redirect qi under feng shui.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

By the late 1970s, cheap and accurate quartz watches from Seiko and Citizen, whose crystals vibrate 32,768 times a second, were crushing Switzerland's mechanical watchmakers. In the early 1980s Ernst Thomke, CEO of ETA, set engineers Elmar Mock and Jacques Müller to build a plastic watch, and marketing consultant Franz Sprecher pushed it toward fashion. The name meant "second watch," not Swiss watch. Swatch launched in Zurich on March 1, 1983, with 12 models at 50 Swiss francs and a target of one million sales in year one. In 1985 Nicolas G. Hayek and Swiss investors formed SMH, later the Swatch Group, and ultrasonic welding cut parts from over 90 to 51, generating the cash that sustained Omega, Blancpain and Breguet.

Swatch kept experimenting: the 3.9 mm Skin set a Guinness record in 1997, NFC payment models arrived in 2017, and the Bioreloaded line of 2020 used castor seed materials. The System51, introduced in 2013, is a fully mechanical movement of 51 parts assembled by robots and sealed shut. The bioceramic MoonSwatch with Omega in March 2022 caused global sellouts and a one-per-customer limit. In 2023 Malaysian authorities seized 172 Pride watches, and in November 2024 the High Court ruled the warrantless raids illegal.

• Swatch was launched by Jacques Irniger, a marketer who came from Colgate and Nestlé rather than luxury goods.
• The System51 runs on a single central screw, has a 90-hour power reserve and has its rate set by lasers at the factory.
• The Pay model was built for the Chinese market with a cloud service linked to several major Chinese banks.
• MoonSwatch came in 11 colorways themed on the sun, moon and planets and was sold only in physical stores.
• Malaysia's ban on the Pride watches was gazetted in August 2023, months after the May seizures, so the court ordered them returned.