What The Luxe

Hosted by Matter Of Form

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Latest episode

Jun 2026

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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 weekly podcast from Matter Of Form. Hosted by Anant Sharma & Fred Moore.

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60 recent

June 15, 202639 min

92. Wellness for the C‑Suite with Mattheos Georgiou, Head of 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 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.

June 8, 202640 min

91. The Gold Standard, with Bob Donofrio, Former CEO of Roberto Cavalli

Bob Donofrio has spent more than three decades at the summit of luxury, leading some of the world's most storied maisons, including Bulgari, Roberto Cavalli, and Asprey. But it was a question he'd never thought to ask that changed everything. Where does gold actually come from? In this episode, Anant sits down with Bob to trace that question to its source. From small-scale miners using mercury in Papua New Guinea, to the UN's Minamata Convention, to Futura, the jewellery house Bob founded to prove that ethical sourcing and exceptional design aren't mutually exclusive. They discuss why the luxury industry has been slow to act, what recycled gold gets wrong, the leadership rotation problem inside heritage houses, and why provenance is becoming the defining measure of value in fine jewellery. A conversation about responsibility, craft, and what it really means to build something that lasts.

June 1, 202638 min

90. Interface as Craft: How Polestar Rethinks the In-Car Experience with Pär Heyden, Head of Brand and Executive Creative Director

Pär Heyden has spent his career at the intersection of precision design and brand building, from the tactile engineering of Hasselblad cameras to the industrial heritage of Volvo, and now as Head of Brand and Executive Creative Director at Polestar. In this conversation, Anant sits down with Pär to explore what it really means to build a considered brand from the ground up. They discuss why restraint is a competitive strategy in a sector defined by feature escalation, how Polestar approached the redesign of the in-car interface with the same craft typically reserved for physical materials, and why the automotive industry has consistently underestimated the intelligence of its customers. Pär also reflects on the role of retail space in shaping perception, the thinking behind some of Polestar's most distinctive brand moments, and where enduring value sits as mobility becomes increasingly software-defined.

May 26, 202635 min

89. The Oldest Bottle in the Room with Claudia Stebbings, Director of Marketing & Experiences at Berry Bros. & Rudd

Berry Bros. & Rudd has been trading from the same address on St James's Street since 1698. It was founded by a woman, holds two Royal Warrants, and today offers more than 5,000 wines selected by five Masters of Wine. Claudia Stebbings, Director of Marketing & Experiences, joined in 2019 bringing a background in media and television to one of Britain's most storied businesses. In this conversation, host Fred Moore and Claudia explore what it means to be a merchant, the link between producer and drinker, and why trust is at the centre of everything Berry Bros does. They talk about wine as a passion asset, the collector's mindset, and how a bottle can outlast the person who bought it. They also get into how new generations are discovering wine, why the category is less intimidating than it once was, and what a 328-year-old business still has to learn.

May 18, 202648 min

88. 165 Years of Frette with CEO, Filippo Arnaboldi

Filippo Arnaboldi joined Frette in 1999 as one of six employees in the US. Twenty-five years later, he leads the brand globally, having grown it from a small European heritage business into one of the world's most recognised names in luxury home textiles. Founded in 1860, Frette has supplied royal households, grand hotels, and private residences for over a century and a half, and under Filippo's stewardship it has expanded well beyond the bedroom into a broader expression of how people live at home. In this episode, Anant talks to Filippo about what long-term stewardship of a heritage brand actually looks like, why service is the real product, and how the convergence of retail and hospitality is reshaping the way Frette reaches its customers. They also get into the discipline behind expanding a brand without overstretching it, what it means to frame quality beyond thread count, and why in a world of endless distraction, the hours you spend at home might matter more than ever.

May 12, 202639 min

87. Routine Luxuries with Daniel Bense, Founder of To My Ships

Daniel Bense spent nearly 12 years inside Aesop, helping build its commercial engine and cultural presence across Europe and the US, before leading British heritage brand Sunspel as Managing Director. In 2022 he stepped away to build something of his own. To My Ships launched in 2024 after two years of unusually rigorous product development, and what emerged is a personal care brand that treats a category most people never think twice about with the seriousness typically reserved for fine fragrance. In this episode, Fred Moore talks to Daniel about what he saw missing in the deodorant category, why formulating without cost restraint produces a fundamentally different product, and how the Iliad became the unlikely foundation for a brand built on depth and substance. They also get into the tension between natural efficacy and performance claims, what 12 years at Aesop actually taught him, and why the most intimate products on your shelf might be the ones most worth reconsidering.

May 5, 202637 min

86. How Coach Became a $5 Billion Brand, with Lew Frankfort, Chairman Emeritus and Former CEO

Lew Frankfort joined Coach in 1979 when it was a $6 million leather goods company with a factory, a handful of offices, and a cult following. Over the next three decades, he led its transformation into a $5 billion global brand, coining the term accessible luxury along the way and building one of the most consumer-centric businesses in the history of fashion. In conversation with Anant Sharma, Lew traces the full arc of that journey, from opening the first Coach store on Madison Avenue to taking the brand public, breaking into Japan ahead of every European luxury house, and what it actually means to keep a brand emotionally relevant across generations. A conversation about long-termism, consumer insight, and what it takes to build something that truly lasts.

April 27, 202634 min

85. Emotion and Logic: Creating Spaces That Age Beautifully, with James Cavagnari, Founder, PRIMA DESIGN.

James Cavagnari has built a thirty-year practice on a simple but hard-won idea: that the best spaces get better with time. The founder of PRIMA DESIGN, a Florence-based studio working across luxury retail, hospitality and residential, joins Fred Moore to talk about craft, context and the discipline of designing without trends. They cover his early years rolling out stores for Ferragamo and Bulgari, the conversion of his childhood home into a Florence hotel, and why the future of luxury is moving toward the personal and the particular. A conversation about what it means to create something that truly lasts.

April 20, 202641 min

84. Rethinking Wellness Hospitality, with Loui Blake, Co-Founder of Long Lane

Long Lane is not a spa, a hotel or a members' club. It's a rethink of how hospitality can operate when health is the starting point. Co-founder Loui Blake joins Fred Moore to unpack the model behind it. From designing environments that support both social and physical wellbeing, to building an audience in public before the doors have even opened. They discuss the changing expectations of younger consumers, the limits of traditional wellness, and why the next wave of hospitality may look very different from what came before.

April 13, 202640 min

83. Jelly Science and Polysensory Experience, with Sam Bompas, Co-Founder of Bompas & Parr

Sam Bompas is the co-founder of Bompas & Parr, a studio known for creating experiences that sit somewhere between food, architecture and theatre, from inhalable cocktails to large-scale edible installations. In this episode, he joins Anant Sharma to explore what it means to design for the senses. They discuss how taste can be shaped by sound, environment and expectation, why brands still default to the visual, and how experiences that disappear can often be the ones that last longest. This is a conversation about perception, memory, and what food and drink can do when treated as a serious design medium.