OCTOBER, 2025

Gary Bott
(Gentle Monster)

At our #NEXTisNOW 30th Anniversary celebrations, we invited Gary Bott, Managing Director UK at @gentlemonster, to pull back the curtain on a brand that refuses to fit in a box and shows how disruption, imagination, and immersive storytelling can create a cultural universe. Since its beginnings in 2011, Gentle Monster has been redefining what a brand can be: pushing boundaries not only with bold eyewear design, but also through surreal retail spaces and unforgettable brand experiences. We’ve been fans from day one and have collaborated with Gary on several own LIGANOVA brand formats, sharing the same vision and always asking: What’s #next? In his keynote, Gary shared the Gentle Monster Playbook for building a cultural universe with us. It’s about transforming stores into immersive stages, treating every detail as cultural storytelling, and practicing the art of calculated disruption. Successful brand-building today is about crafting worlds, not just products, spaces where people don’t simply purchase, but connect and belong. An approach, we wholeheartedly embrace. Swipe through our key takeaways and discover how, from the absurd to the impossible, ideas become cultural experiences.