“The luxury industry needs freedom of speech and freedom of press.”Astrid Wendlandt

In June 2020, Astrid Wendlandt launched Miss Tweed, a Paris-based, independent online publication specialized in the fashion and luxury goods sector. WatchTime sat down with her to talk about her mission, the state of the industry, skiing, and her ?way of getting back at former French president François Hollande.?

In 2020, Paris-based Astrid Wendlandt launched misstweed.com with a major scoop about Richemont.

WT: What made you launch the online publication"
AW: The luxury goods industry has become one of the main pillars of the global economy. I felt there was no genuine independent media ? aside from wire news services such as AP, Bloomberg and Reuters which are generalist ? who could provide reliable information on what was going on in this powerful industry. There are not that many professional providers of fair, balanced and accurate news specialized in the fashion and luxury industry.
Most media depend on the advertising budgets of big luxury brands. Therefore, they cannot bite the hand who is feeding them. And the industry’s No. 1 player, LVMH, controls some of France?s most influential publications such as Les Echos, Le Parisien, and recently it acquired 40 percent of the French weekly Challenges, which is one of France?s most respected business weekly. LVMH also owns a minority stake in Business of Fashion.

I launched Miss Tweed in June 2020, be...