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The Trend: Luxury Listening Rooms

McQueen Reverb by McQueen featuring John Glacier and Femi Adeyemi, UK

As luxury continues to shift from ownership to experience, brands are increasingly turning to sound as a medium for sensorial storytelling – one that resonates with emotional and cultural frequencies.

These sonic activations echo the contemplative listening rooms of 1950s Japan, where music was experienced communally and with intention. Ephemeral by design, listening events carry a powerful temporal quality – they are experienced in real time, often unrecorded and shared with a small group of others as part of a collective and intimate moment. In this sense, sound becomes a vehicle not just for shared emotional resonance, but also for presence itself.

In London, British brand McQueen launched McQueen Reverb in June 2025, transforming its Bond Street flagship store into a space of shared memory and musical expression through a series of live listening sessions.

In May 2025, at its Madison Avenue flagship store in New York, Italian brand Valentino reimagined its retail space as a sanctuary for sound. In partnership with Italian cultural collective Terraforma, the brand launched L’Atelier Sonore – a meditative listening lounge designed to slow time and elevate sensory perception.

Through collaborations with local musicians, spatial audio experiences and immersive sound design, luxury brands are embedding themselves in the auditory DNA of specific regions and subcultures. Sound becomes a form of cultural anchoring which reinforces community, locality and identity.

Learn more about the future of Luxury Listening Rooms here.

The Big Idea: Walpole British Luxury Summit 2025

Chris Sanderson, Kate Woolhouse, Lucy Goff, Dr George Gaitanos and Charlotte Keesing at Walpole British Luxury Summit 2025. Photography by Phillip Ammon, UK

The Walpole British Luxury Summit 2025 gathered leaders from across the sector for a day of expert talks, reports and panel discussions. Amid widespread uncertainty and market volatility, the transformation of the luxury sector was a central theme, and the overarching sentiment was clear – the £1.2 trillion ($1.6 trillion, €1.4 trillion) global luxury industry is entering a period of recalibration.

The Middle East was highlighted as one of the most resilient regions. Patrick Chalhoub, executive chairman of the Chalhoub Group, attributed the potential for growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council to a combination of rising tourism and a younger population ‘eager for newness’.

Elsewhere, fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee said of India: ‘This is a time when there’s lots of money coming into the country, and we are dealing with probably one of the world’s most vibrant, youngest and largest populations.’

With emotion emerging as the new equity, the use of multisensory branding as a vehicle for evoking emotion was explored. Catherine Sykes, vice president of product development at fragrance brand Jo Malone London, said: ‘Whether that story is audible, whether that story is visual, if you have that stimuli at the same time as scent, you will have a much deeper connection to that product or experience.’

As we explored in our New Codes of Value macrotrend, brands that focus on delivering value beyond product and prioritise deeper emotional connections will thrive.

Read the full Big Idea to see how luxury brands are navigating change with purpose.

The Campaign: Olivier Rousteing re-imagines whisky with Johnnie Walker

Johnnie Walker Vault x Olivier Rousteing, Global

Johnnie Walker unveiled its first collaboration under its luxury platform Johnnie Walker Vault, partnering with French couture designer Olivier Rousteing for Couture Expression, a limited-edition whisky collection blending fashion and flavour.

Developed in partnership with master blender Dr Emma Walker, Couture Expression spans four blends – Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter – inspired by Rousteing’s emotional connection to the seasons. Each blend features rare whiskies from the Johnnie Walker Vault, and the range also includes Brora and Port Ellen, described as ‘ghost’ whiskies as they were produced by distilleries that have closed down but still have ageing stocks available.

‘This has been an emotional journey,’ Rousteing says of the 12-month co-creation process. ‘Like a couture collection, each season expresses a different energy.’

Presented in crystal decanters by Baccarat, wrapped in metallic hues and crowned with sculptural wing stoppers, the collection merges whisky craftsmanship with Rousteing’s couture artistry. Only 25 bottles of each season are available globally, priced at £16,000 ($21,278, €18,884).

The collaboration signals a bold new era of creativity in luxury spirits, redefining what a Scotch whisky can look, taste and feel like. Explore our Five Brands Rejuvenating Whisky report to discover how bold whisky-makers are redefining tradition with fresh branding and marketing, capturing younger audiences while preserving timeless craft.

The Viewpoint: Translating Legacy at The Lana

Dorchester Collection joined forces with property developer Omniyat to unveil its first hotel in the Middle East region, The Lana. LS:N Global spoke to creative agency Construct about the development process and the meaning behind the new luxury brand.

As the high-end market in the region evolves to meet the needs and desires of the modern ultra-high-net-worth consumer, The Lana stands at the forefront of this shift, providing a place where tradition and innovation coexist. ‘It’s quite a game-changer for Dubai,’ explains Georgia Fendley, founder and creative director of Construct.

Nestled in the Marasi Bay Marina, this Foster + Partners-designed building has a sense of openness, and appears to float above the harbour, says Fendley. This creates a fluid relationship between inside and outside, a rare feature in a city known for its sprawling, high-rise developments, giving The Lana a unique identity that embodies the warmth of its environment and the grandeur of Dorchester Collection’s legacy.

Dorchester Collection, UAE

Food and drink are central to The Lana’s vision, with eight dining outlets, each delivering an individual experience. At the hotel’s flagship restaurant, 12 Michelin-star Spanish chef Martín Berasategui brings his Basque culinary heritage to Dubai, particularly his distinct way of cooking with fire. ‘This is about seafood and Spanish ingredients, offering an authentic, yet modern, taste of the Basque Country,’ explains Fendley.

In January 2025, LS:N Global spoke to creative agency Construct about The Lana, a new epicentre that blends heritage with modern innovation for a fresh Middle Eastern experience. Access the full interview now.

The Space: Sporty & Rich re-imagines wellness hospitality

Sporty & Rich, US

Popular lifestyle brand Sporty & Rich launched its first hotel residency, in partnership with The Pridwin Hotel & Cottages on New York’s Shelter Island, to create a branded wellness and retail experience.

The exclusive residency ran during the summer in a strategic move that established the brand’s physical presence and blurred the lines between fashion, wellness and hospitality.

The collaboration boasted a range of wellness events including tennis clinics and Forma Pilates sessions. The courts at The Pridwin underwent a visual transformation with branded umbrellas, custom signage and logo-wrapped nets.

This partnership solidified Sporty & Rich’s role in the health-as-luxury movement and also shows how brands can tap into the Sports Tourism Market to create unique, in-person experiences that enhance customer engagement and build a community around wellness and sport.

Our Remixing the Country Club microtrend report previously looked at how brands are reimagining country clubs as inclusive spaces, and are using nostalgia, sports fandom and wellness to meet Gen Z’s desire for connection and authenticity.