In 2023, I completed a research-based dissertation titled “Conjugating the Past into the Present”, investigating how legacy is preserved, interpreted, and strategically activated within luxury fashion maisons. Through an in-depth comparative study of Dior, Gucci, and Prada, I explored how heritage can serve not only as a source of identity, but as a living tool for differentiation, desirability, and creative direction. The work analyzes the ways in which brands materialize their past — through archives, symbols, savoir-faire and rituals — and how this inherited capital is rearticulated to speak to contemporary audiences. I approached heritage not as nostalgia, but as a strategic lens for innovation — capable of anchoring a brand in time while projecting it forward. The dissertation blends cultural insight, luxury marketing strategy and semiotic analysis, and includes practical frameworks for maisons seeking to reconcile permanence and reinvention.