Mike Litman

The Pattern

News EN ↓ 243 episodes

Before it's obvious. A daily briefing scanning 150+ sources across fashion, design, tech, brands, and music. Finding the patterns others miss, every morning at 8:30am UK time.

Be sure to visit the podcast's website and support the creator: thepattern.media

Author

Mike Litman

Episodes

No. 243: Kering reportedly taps London designer Martine Rose to lead Balenciaga 06.11.2026 4:01

Labels selling on vague mood rather than a real artefact will look thin beside rivals with something to point to. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-11-06.html Liked this one? A quick rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps others find The Pattern. Thank you. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-pattern/id1880181529 Spotify: https://open....

No. 242: Palace opens its London flagship with a shop-only Burberry capsule 05.11.2026 3:46

Labels that only trade online lose the thrill of the hunt, and distant fans end up paying resellers. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-11-05.html

No. 241: HBO's name has room to carry far more drama 04.11.2026 3:48

Shops that stock one item type now compete with labels that hand over the full look. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-11-04.html

No. 240: Game publishers just gained an AI ally 03.11.2026 4:08

Shops and screens that offer nothing but product stand to lose visitors to places built for a night out. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-11-03.html

No. 239: Aramco just bought a seat at the AI table 02.11.2026 4:58

Brands built on US tools may find the rules now set by oil money. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-11-02.html

No. 238: Three institutions just rewrote the rules on who owns global art 30.10.2026 4:32

Museums depending on single loan deals lose leverage as big institutions share collections through standing networks. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-30.html

No. 237: Heritage is where brands go when the future feels uncertain 29.10.2026 4:50

Brands that trade mass visibility for a small, chosen audience gain credibility with buyers. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-29.html

No. 236: Taste is eating creativity, and brands are quietly funding the confusion 28.10.2026 4:50

Brands built on curation rather than invention are running out of runway as audiences learn to tell the difference. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-28.html

No. 235: Sticky beats smart: enterprise AI is becoming a retention business, not a capability race 27.10.2026 4:42

Rivals selling a single product struggle to win clients locked into bigger platforms. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-27.html

No. 234: History is the hook: AI finds its emotional register in China 26.10.2026 4:29

Brands with no cultural archive to draw on must compete with labels selling centuries-old styles fans already love. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-26.html

No. 233: Riot insurance is now a line item in luxury's Paris budget. 23.10.2026 4:33

In-house design teams may lose ground when fans, artists and football clubs supply the concepts. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-23.html

No. 232: Chinese designers are maturing fast, and Western luxury has no answer yet. 22.10.2026 4:30

Artists and designers whose work fills a brand's stage may find their names shrink beside the logo. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-22.html

No. 231: Culture venues are becoming the brand's best distribution channel. 21.10.2026 4:56

Advertising and shop windows may lose budget when a live gig or gallery room does the selling. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-21.html

No. 230: Retrospectives are the new R&D. Heritage is doing creative work now. 20.10.2026 4:37

Brands without a deep or borrowed history lose an easy draw, leaving new launches to do the work alone. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-20.html

No. 229: AI agents are already buying things. Brands missed the memo. 19.10.2026 4:39

Fans who cannot travel miss out on the most wanted releases. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-19.html

No. 228: Fashion's creative director carousel is spinning faster than ever before. 16.10.2026 4:49

Developers chasing acclaim with showpiece towers now face councils with a winning model. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-16.html

No. 227: AI music gets a label. Streaming just drew a line in the feed. 15.10.2026 4:38

Once a platform marks what is real, rights holders and rivals must act fast. Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-15.html

No. 226: LVMH's 5% sales drop signals the end of post-pandemic luxury auto-pilot 14.10.2026 4:56

Culture Pulse: 74. LVMH down 5%. Kim Jones goes independent. Kering heads to India. The conglomerate model is losing its pull on both sales and talent. @ThePattern Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-14.html

No. 225: Luxury found its new home east, and Kim Jones made it official 13.10.2026 4:21

Culture Pulse: 72. Kim Jones debuts in Hong Kong, not Paris. Hollywood turns on the tech founder. Nvidia loses China. The geography of cultural authority is being redrawn. #ThePattern Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-13.html

No. 224: Vertical video graduates from format experiment to its own genre 12.10.2026 4:35

Culture Pulse: 72. Vertical video just became a genre. Pandemic sheds just became design history. When something gets a name, it gets a budget. Today's Pattern: @ThePattern Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-12.html

No. 223: Gen Z bought the art. Now the market has to take them seriously. 09.10.2026 4:29

Culture Pulse: 74. Gen Z is now the biggest-spending generation of art collectors. The institutions that treated them as an 'emerging audience' are behind. | The Pattern, 9 Oct 2026 Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-09.html

No. 222: Tokyo is where brand marriages go to prove themselves real. 08.10.2026 4:35

Culture Pulse: 72. NikeSKIMS opens a cafe in Tokyo. Disney moves creators into development. Apparatus returns after 5 years with Persian mythology. The brands winning right now make the founder's world the product. /ThePattern Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-08.html

No. 221: Mass-market brands borrowed luxury's grammar. Now they need the vocabulary. 07.10.2026 4:21

Culture Pulse: 72. Mass brands borrowed luxury's grammar. The attention spikes. The credibility doesn't stick. Today's Pattern on why retention is now the harder problem. #ThePattern Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-07.html

No. 220: Hollywood just turned the AI boardroom into prestige cinema 06.10.2026 4:52

Culture Pulse: 74. When a boardroom coup becomes Guadagnino's best film in a decade, the AI industry stops being a tech story. It becomes a myth. And myths don't answer to comms teams. #ThePattern Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-06.html

No. 219: Artist as collaborator rewrites the fashion house power structure 05.10.2026 4:35

Culture Pulse: 74. The muse model is over. Björk wore Mugler mid-performance as it hit the runway. Two equals, moving simultaneously. Fashion's next power structure just showed itself. @ThePattern Read the full edition: https://thepattern.media/editions/2026-10-05.html