What The Luxe

Hosted by Matter Of Form

Business Marketing Arts DesignInterviews guests

Website RSS feed LinkedIn YouTube

Episodes

100

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-GB

About the show

What makes something worth more than the sum of its parts? Why do certain brands command belief whilst others struggle for attention? What does 'luxury' even mean? What qualifies? Investigating the minds, mechanics and mythologies of modern luxury, What The Luxe is a series of conversations with the founders, directors and creatives behind modern marques. Together, we unpack the psychology of value, the business of brand, and the spirit that drives today's best-in-class. Expect founding stories, bold positioning calls, and the messy truths behind polished brands. Because whether it's craft, commerce, psychology or lore—all roads lead to value. A bi-weekly podcast from Matter Of Form. Hosted by Anant Sharma & Fred Moore.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

November 11, 2026Episode 10142 min

101. AI Swarms, Trust, and the Future of Human Hospitality with Gilad Berenstein, Founder of Brook Bay Capital

In this episode of What the Luxe , Anant is joined by Gilad Berenstein—founder of Brook Bay Capital, travel tech investor, board member at Virtuoso, and host of Travel Tech Insider —to explore how executive leadership must approach artificial intelligence to enhance human connection in luxury hospitality. They examine the modern traveler's burden of choice, discussing how digital tools often lead to decision fatigue, and argue that tech should shift from generative AI to autonomous "AI swarms"—constellations of specialised agents representing individuals and brands that work together seamlessly while keeping guest data private. Rather than replacing people, AI should automate back-of-house operational "clerk work," freeing employees to deliver genuine, high-touch front-of-house service and memorable, personalised moments at scale. The conversation delves into why strong brand equity, distinct AI personalities, and authentic, local experiences become even more critical as automated systems grow. Gilad and the host reflect on the future of a hybrid workforce, where precision tasks are delegated to machines so humans can focus on empathy, craftsmanship, and meaningful interaction. Finally, they tackle the industry's need to overcome risk aversion and financialisation, urging leaders to adopt mental models for safe experimentation that empower frontline workers to innovate while safeguarding the core values of hospitality.

October 26, 202632 min

100 Episodes of What The Luxe, with hosts Anant Sharma and Fred Moore

What The Luxe started life with an episode titled Why We Hate Luxury, an unlikely opener for two people who run a luxury consultancy. A hundred episodes on, they seem to have warmed to the subject. To mark the milestone, Fred puts a round of questions from listeners and clients to Anant. Some call for a considered view on behavioural design or what AI means for creativity. Others are less high-minded and somewhat off-the-cuff. Equal parts charming, amusing and insightful, tune in as they revisit favourite conversations from the show, from authors Stephen Bayley and Aja Raden to Kerzner CEO Philippe Zuber and SIRO's Mattheos Georgiou , and tease a few episodes still to come. Expect plenty of mutual ribbing, strong opinions and the odd tangent.

October 12, 202633 min

99. Rebuilding Orient Express: Trains, Palazzi and the World's Largest Sailing Yacht with Gilda Perez-Alvarado, Group Chief Strategy Officer of Accor

Gilda Perez-Alvarado spent nearly two decades at JLL, ultimately as Global CEO of its Hotels & Hospitality group, advising the sovereign wealth funds and private equity firms behind some of the world's most significant hotels. She then crossed to the operator's side at Accor, where she went on to lead Orient Express. In this episode, Fred Moore sits down with Gilda to trace how a brand born in 1883 is being rebuilt as an ecosystem of trains, hotels and yachts. They get into why every property celebrates its own era while carrying Orient Express as its surname, and why the newest chapter is a sailing yacht with 54 suites built to be chartered whole. They also discuss what LVMH brings to the partnership and a service culture where the crew have no backstage to retreat to. Gilda also tells the story of the original 1929 carriages, spotted on Google satellite imagery near the border between Poland and Belarus and brought back to France in convoy.

September 28, 202640 min

98. Space and Choice: Selling Ultra-Luxury at Sea with Caroline Smith, Group CMO of Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Caroline Smith cut her teeth on brands from Glenfiddich and Sailor Jerry to Hendrick's and Balvenie, followed by a stint in brand licensing for character brands, before finding herself in the cruise category. A coffee her husband talked her into with Regent Seven Seas Cruises turned into more than a decade at the company, where she rose from EMEA lead to Chief Marketing Officer and has just taken on group responsibility for Oceania as well. In this episode, Anant sits down with Caroline to unpack the business of selling luxury at sea. They discuss what it means to market a perishable product, where every unsold sailing is gone for good, and how that shapes a role split between building brand demand ten years out and spinning up campaigns in a matter of days. Caroline explains why discounting is a trap for an ultra-luxury brand, and why Regent spent years avoiding the word "all-inclusive" before leaning into it. They also get into the Seven Seas Prestige, a ship 40% larger than its predecessors carrying only 10% more guests, its 9,000-square-foot Skyview Regent Suite, and the moment former Formula One driver Pedro de la Rosa looked out from his balcony at the old Valencia circuit and was visibly moved.

September 1, 202622 min

97. Building Hoper: The World's Helicopter Platform with CEO, Dimitris Memos and CCO, Dimitris Kossyfas

Dimitris Memos built MarineTraffic into the world's leading maritime intelligence platform before turning to the sky. Dimitris Kossyfas brought deep knowledge of the Greek islands and a storyteller's instinct for the brand. Together they co-founded Hoper after Memos nearly missed a friend's wedding on Patmos and realised Greece needed a faster way to connect its islands. In this episode, Fred Moore speaks to the duo about building Greece's first helicopter airline: scheduled routes, bookable seats, 40+ connections across Athens and 14 islands. They discuss why the idea took 50 years to work, what it takes to run a fleet of helicopters day to day, how they think about luxury versus accessibility, and where vertical mobility goes next as flying taxis move from demonstration flights to reality.

August 17, 202635 min

96. Sonic Branding: The Neuroscience of Sound with Aifric Lennon, Managing Director at father

Aifric Lennon began her career in neuroscience, researching how music affects the brain at Goldsmiths before becoming managing director at Father, a music and sound design studio. In this episode, Fred Moore sits down with Aifric to unpack why sound is still "grossly undervalued" by brands, and how a landmark IPA study she led found that music perceived as surprising or distinctive drove measurable uplift in brand fame and sales. They also discuss what separates luxury sound from mainstream branding, and why AI-generated music still fails to move listeners emotionally even when they can't tell it's AI-made. A conversation about memory, distinctiveness, and what it takes for a brand to actually be heard.

August 3, 202644 min

95. Aja Raden on Diamonds, Luxury and Lies

Aja Raden began her career designing engagement rings before turning to writing, using books like Stoned and The Truth About Lies to trace how objects come to be considered valuable, and what happens when that agreement breaks down. In this episode, Anant Sharma sits down with Aja to unpack the myth-making behind the modern diamond industry, how De Beers and N.W. Ayer engineered scarcity where none existed and tied it so tightly to love that "diamonds are forever" became gospel. They also discuss the panic now gripping the Natural Diamond Council as lab-grown diamonds undercut the very story the industry built itself on and the origin story of the beads that bought Manhattan. A conversation about scarcity, storytelling, and what happens when an industry gets trapped by the mythology it invented.

July 20, 202639 min

94. Ritual and the Rise of 0% Wine with Luke Hemsley, Founder of Wednesday's Domaine

In this episode, Luke Hemsley, Founder of Wednesday's Domaine, joins Fred Moore to unpack the behavioural tension driving the alcohol-free wine movement, the desire to participate in the ritual of drinking without overdoing it, and why that shift has as much to do with psychology as it does with taste. From sourcing high-quality base wines to using vacuum distillation to strip out alcohol without stripping out flavour, Luke breaks down what it takes to make a 0% wine that tastes like wine. The conversation covers the wine industry's resistance to the category, the awkward social codes around not drinking, and how design and premium cues shape the ritual of pouring a glass, whether or not there's alcohol in it. This is a look at what happens when a category built on heritage is forced to adapt to modern life, and why choice, not abstinence, might be the thing that reshapes wine for a generation drinking differently.

July 6, 202639 min

93. Operational Complexity in Luxury Hospitality with Barbara Muckermann, Group CEO of Kempinski Hotels

Barbara Muckermann has led at nearly every altitude of the travel industry, from PR and trade through Silversea Cruises, MSC, and Loro Piana, to her current role as CEO of Kempinski Hotels, one of the oldest independent hotel groups in Europe. In this episode, Anant sits down with Barbara to unpack the operational complexity behind luxury hospitality, comparing the economics of running a cruise ship against running a hotel, the wildly different booking cycles for each, and how metrics like ADR and TREVPAR actually shape the business. They also discuss the shift toward brand-led leadership in hospitality, why so few luxury hotel CEOs still come up through pure hotel operations, and the origin story of Kempinski itself, a brand built on the idea that life is simply better lived well. A conversation about scale, judgment, and what it takes to run luxury at every size.

June 15, 202639 min

92. Wellness for the C‑Suite with Mattheos Georgiou, Head of Global Operations, One&Only, SIRO and Rare Finds

Mattheos Georgiou has spent three decades in luxury hospitality, working across Tokyo, Moscow, Dubai and beyond, shaped by crises as much as by calm. As Head of Global Operations for One&Only, SIRO and Rare Finds, he now oversees brands with very different ambitions, but a shared conviction that hospitality should help you perform at your best. In this episode, Anant and Mattheos get into what it means to build a wellness brand with genuine substance, why the guests turning up to SIRO aren't who anyone expected, and what the hospitality industry still hasn't fixed since 1985. They also talk leadership through crisis, lobbying for ideas in Tokyo, and the Ottoman mansion in rural Greece that started a second obsession.