Welcome Digest [12.2.25]
AI Spotify wrapped logos, Boiler Room controversy, photos from a 'technoparade,' and more
Welcome To December 2nd
Today’s important headlines
👠 Prada officially closes Versace acquisition
In what will surely be an interesting and uncertain journey, the Prada Group has acquired Versace for $1.44 billion. While Prada and Miu Miu are known for their intellectual minimalism and playful subversions of basics, Versace sits on the opposite end of the spectrum with its bold, high-gloss maximalism, leaving us to wonder what direction the house will take in the coming years particularly given Versace’s recent financial woes.
🤔 Spotify Wrapped 2025 teases new artist logos and nobody can tell which artists they belong to
Despite many users complaining about the impersonal feeling of last year’s heavily AI powered Spotify wrapped, Spotify doubles down this year teasing 2025 wrapped with a mess of “artist inspired” logos. Many users were unhappy, with top comments saying “I couldn’t tell you what any of these are btw” and “artist inspired = AI”.
🇬🇧 Cato’s post-internet surreal paintings are still showing until January 5th at Saatchi Yates in London
In blending South-London warm clutter with intimate domestic scenes, Cato’s dream-like paintings borrow from surreaslist strategies as a means to deepen Black domestic life and intimacy. In exploring materiality through juxtaposing jute and linen on acrylic cut canvases, the paintings memorably create a warm surrealist feel that still is grounded in tenderness and honesty rather than pure unconscious fantasy.
💰 Black Friday and luxury sales up in US despite economic uncertainty and record low sentiment
Despite an uncertain job market and shaky wallets, US Black Friday sales are up this year. With Chinese luxury spending dropping 6%, and US spending rising 2%, it’s clear why Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Gucci have all prioritized big destination fashion shows in New York and Miami for 2026.
🍎 A$AP Rocky and Chanel team up for ad
Following a standout Paris Fashion Week collections this year, Chanel enlists Margart Qualley and newly appointed brand ambassador A$AP Rocky for a special short teasing the Dec 2nd NYC Chanel show. Blurring reality and surrealism, the Michael Gondry directed ad features A$AP Rocky zooming around NYC trying to propose to Marguet Qualley outside her subway stop. Anything but dropping the album.
🎧 Boiler Room faces more controversy and challenges following acquisition
From a storied history of underpaying artists, questionable government grants, and its role in turning club culture into finance bro galore, the Boiler Room is a sinking ship. Despite only being bought by Dice in 2021, Superstruct linked to private equity giant KKR, has now acquired the platform, leading us to wonder: who will be left to support their infinite slop machine?
Headline curation and words by Mikail Haroon
Moodboard 001
Today’s inspiration supplement. Click through to view.
From The Archive
An extra piece of content from the Welcome Archive for Magazine subscribers only.
Photos Love Parade, the Berlin electronic dance music ‘technoparade.’
In 1989, the Love Parade began in Berlin with roughly 150 participants. It was conceived of as a peace demonstration. It grew into one of the largest electronic music gatherings in the world.
Over the next two decades the streets around the Brandenburg Gate and Tiergarten filled with hundreds of thousands of ravers, turning the city into an open air club built around unity, freedom, and nonstop techno.
