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dippedanddripped · 6 years ago

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NOBODY KNOWS WHAT LUXURY IS ANYMOREBy

Marc Bain

June 16, 2018

Luxury ain’t what it used to be. Blame the internet, the rise of on-demand services, and the shift in consumer values as younger generations become more important buyers of high-end goods—all are challenging traditional notions of what luxury is.

The classic symbols—the Hermès Birkin bag, a couture dress by Dior, a watch by Rolex—aren’t in any danger of losing status. But around its edges, the concept of luxury is getting blurry, making it less clear where it begins and ends.

What, for example, should you make of a Louis Vuitton hoodie created in collaboration with a skate brand? Is a $2,500 dress still a luxury item when you’re renting it for a fraction of that price? Does the shine of luxury fade if you get a bargain on used coat and then resell it a few months later? Does a New Yorker tote bag rival pricey handbags by signaling an exalted sensibility?

These questions aren’t just hypotheticals. Luxury labels are turning to sweatpants and sneakers for sales growth. The designer clothing rental company Rent the Runway is spreading across the US. Online resale sites such as The RealReal and Vestiaire Collective keep growing. And social and environmental awareness has become a potent marker of affluence and status.

The changes are forcing the traditional luxury makers to adapt, particularly as a new normal of slower global growth takes hold. They’re also offering opportunities for success to the designers and businesses ready to capitalize on the transformations taking place.

Here’s what we know about the new luxury, gleaned in part from insights shared by luxury insiders at a June 7 conference organized by the French-American Chamber of Commerce (FACC) in New York.

LUXURY IS A GRAPHIC T-SHIRT

“The idea of what is luxurious is changing; I think it’s about brand rather than luxury,” said Lazaro Hernandez, cofounder of American fashion brand Proenza Schouler, at the conference.

One of the clearest themes to emerge from the event, which brought together executives from several French and American businesses to talk about the shifts taking place in the industry, was that even for them it’s becoming harder to define what counts as luxury.

Hernandez and Jack McCollough, Proenza Schouler’s other cofounder, argued that an exquisitely crafted product—one of the pillars of traditional, aspirational luxury—matters less to young shoppers than it did to previous generations. More often today it’s the brand—the image, and the storytelling—that attract, which means luxury brands can often sell non-luxurious products without any damage to their prestige.

“I think a true luxury brand today can work in so many different price points,” Hernandez continued. “You can sell a t-shirt for $300, $200 and still be considered a luxury brand these days. Those parameters of what is considered luxury and what is not, I think, are sort of disappearing.”

While fashion and luxury aren’t one in the same, as menswear critic Charlie Porter has astutely noted, many leading luxury brands have followed consumers toward less formal dress, which these days means a lot of athletic wear, especially sneakers, and casual, logo-heavy streetwear. Louis Vuitton hired fashion designer Virgil Abloh, known for his streetwear leanings, to design its menswear. Balenciaga’s creative director, Demna Gvasalia, has found success with items such as sneakers and hoodies.

No matter how expensive and well-crafted they are, a Balenciaga t-shirt or a pair of its sneakers would not have generally been called luxurious a few decades ago—especially as they can be deliberately ugly, reflecting the desire of designers and shoppers alike to break from old standards of taste and stand out on Instagram (paywall). But as Gvasalia told the Financial Times (paywall) earlier this year, young shoppers are now prioritizing uniqueness over the traditional markers of high-end craftsmanship.

Not everyone agrees that what we define as luxury is fundamentally any different today. Another speaker at the conference, Alain Bernard, president and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels Americas, said his definition is unchanged from 20 years ago; quality and elevated design are still necessities.

But these diverging viewpoints underscore that there is no settled criteria for what defines luxury at this point. Steve Shiffman, CEO of Calvin Klein Inc., talked about how a $25,000 dress designed by artistic director Raf Simons and a $5 pair of Calvin Klein underwear work as part of the same brand. Luxury can be both inclusive and exclusive, aspirational and attainable, he said. What matters most is that the products are objects of desire.

LUXURY IS FOR RENT

“Millennials have been reluctant to buy items such as cars, music and luxury goods,” states investment firm Goldman Sachs. “Instead, they’re turning to a new set of services that provide access to products without the burdens of ownership, giving rise to what’s being called a ‘sharing economy.'”

Millennials and Gen Z already account for 30% of global luxury sales, and they’re on pace to hit 45% by 2025, according to consulting firm Bain & Company. For a lot of these consumers, ownership is overrated. Why purchase movies when you can stream them on Netflix? Who needs a car when there’s Uber?

Similar services are popping up in luxury too. Now, you can rent a Narciso Rodriguez dress for an evening, or a Marni jacket for a month, with Rent the Runway. If you want to show off your discerning taste with a Rolex or a Patek Philippe watch, but don’t have several thousand dollars to spend, there’s Eleven James.

But rental dilutes luxury’s emotional power, Gary Wassner, CEO of Hilldun Corporation and chairman of Interluxe Holdings, which invests in emerging luxury and fashion brands, argued at the conference. Ownership is an essential part of the experience.

“There are words that we’ve always associated with luxury, and they’re not necessarily good ones, but ‘covet,’ ‘possess—'” he said.

Olivier Reza, CEO of Eleven James, interjected, calling those words marketing terms used by brands.

“I’m not even thinking marketing,” Wassner countered. “I’m thinking historically, the emotional aspect of owning a luxurious product that used to give the consumer a sense of accomplishment, of success.”

Exclusivity has been an integral part of luxury’s draw for the few who can afford it. But these services are making the category accessible to a much broader range of customers.

LUXURY IS A NEW YORKER TOTE BAG

The power of luxury has always resided in its ability to convey status. That’s the basis of Thorstein Veblen’s well-known 1899 polemic, The Theory of the Leisure Class, which held that the rich use their wealth to flaunt their class status with consumer goods: “Conspicuous consumption,” he called it. Impractical fashions such as high heels and top hats demonstrated that the person wearing them didn’t actually have to work, and marked them as part of the leisure class.

But conspicuous consumption is on the decline, argues sociologist Elizabeth Currid-Halkett in her book, The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class. That’s because many consumer products have become much more widely available to all classes, thanks to globalization and advances in technology.

The result is that conspicuous consumption has been supplanted by a less conspicuous variety that makes “social, environmental, and cultural awareness” the new social capital. Quartz’s Dan Kopf explained:

So instead of spending money on consumer products, Currid-Halkett finds that the rich increasingly focus their spending on “nonvisible, highly expensive goods and services” that allow them to have time to gain that social capital and foster it in their children. Such goods and services include child care, gardeners, and, most importantly, education.

Far from ignoring this shift, the luxury industry is adjusting where it can. Luxury brands are becoming more vocal about their commitments to sustainability, and making a point of showing off that consciousness by dressing celebrities in sustainably produced gowns. Luxury executives are mingling with A-listers at events that promote environmental and social awareness. Luxury retailers such as Net-a-Porter, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Neiman Marcus are now selling wellness products along with their high-end handbags.

None of this is to say that a Louis Vuitton Petite Malle or the mythically unobtainable Hermès Birkin no longer conveys status. But it does mean that carrying an NPR tote, munching an organic avocado toast, with a yoga mat dangling from your shoulder conveys a palpable status—especially on Instagram. The course isn’t likely to reverse either, as education and the other goods and services that nurture this form of signaling continue to get more expensive.

LUXURY LIVES ON INSTAGRAM

If you needed any indication of the power that social-media influencers wield in fashion today, consider that the Council of Fashion Designers of America—the governing body of the US fashion industry—just gave out its first-ever influencer award. Its inevitable recipient: Kim Kardashian West.

The explosion of social media flips the old paradigm, where brands mostly created their own public image from the top down, through advertisements and by building relationships with fashion magazines and editors such as Vogue’s Anna Wintour.

But now anyone with a smartphone can become an “influencer,” crafting their own share of a brand’s image through the pictures they post and what they say. It has shifted the balance of power, and while brands still retain much of it, influencers are increasing in clout.

Brands now ignore influencers at their peril. Tribe Dynamics, a company that identifies influencers and estimates the “earned media value” of their activity around brands, has been hired by luxury giant LVMH (paywall) and others as they move more of their ad spending online. At the FACC conference, Conor Begley, the cofounder and president, recounted an example of the way influencers are shaping the images of luxury brands. Begley said he was invited to speak to a room of executives at one of the five largest luxury brands in the world (he declined to name which):

I’m showing them a bunch of data on Chanel. The number one influencer for Chanel is a guy named Jeffree Star. For those of you that don’t know Jeffree Star, he has pink hair, he’s tattooed from like head to toe—and his neck too—he will routinely smoke weed in his videos […] We show them this data, and somebody from this luxury brand says, ‘Hey, we know this is really important, but we wouldn’t want Jeffree to be our number-one influencer.’ I talk about inclusivity versus exclusivity and not really controlling the conversation, etc. We go home, we look at the data; he was the number-one influencer for that brand as well, they just didn’t know it.

Star is a makeup artist and social-media personality with a large following. Shortly after that meeting, Begley said, Star caused a stir by posting a YouTube video in which he cut up a $5,000 Chanel bag with a glowing-hot knife. Chanel doesn’t need to make Star the face of its brand, Begley pointed out, but it would probably be good for the label to create a relationship with him, since he’s having an impact on how his many fans perceive Chanel. Gucci, in fact, has done just that, and made custom products just for him.

One consequence of influencers’ growing clout is that magazines are losing their grip as the exclusive gatekeepers in fashion. They used to be a brands’ best way to broadcast its message to an audience of potential customers. Now the internet and social media have changed that, and brands have to target small communities online in ways that speak to them.

(Interestingly enough, though, magazine editors are now often influencers themselves (paywall), with their own personal followings separate from the companies they work for.)

LUXURY ISN’T EXCLUSIVE

One theme that runs through many of these changes is that they’re breaking down barriers which once made luxury a walled garden, or at least lowering them several feet. Rental and resale make luxury items more affordable and accessible. T-shirts and slide sandals that proclaim a high-end brand put those brands within reach of more shoppers, both culturally and economically, than expensive evening gowns. Luxury labels now have to consider all their customers because of social media.

The industry is also paying more attention to the non-white and non-wealthy. It has no choice: Younger luxury consumers are more diverse, and the financial and cultural power of hip-hop and streetwear keeps growing. Luxury businesses are also responding to the demands of consumers today who want the brands they buy to reflect their own values. “For them the term [“luxury”] has connotations of elitism and exclusivity,” Alexander Gilkes, cofounder of auction house Paddle8, told the New York Times (paywall). “Instead, they want a luxury that is inclusive, honest and democratic.”

The word “inclusive” came up repeatedly at the FACC talk. As a mindset, it’s a tricky one for luxury labels to maintain, when part of what makes a product desirable, whether it’s a Chanel bag or a rare pair of Jordans, is that not everyone can get it. But the world is changing, and luxury will have to change with it. It’s a challenge, but also a great opportunity for the companies that meet it.

#fashion blog #luxury brands #luxury #mensfashion #womensfashion #Streetwear #streetwear blog

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fmm85 · 4 years ago

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Img source: unsplash.com

Bitcoin is considered to be mostly used by investors to trade on various exchanges. The fact is, there are many products and services that you can buy with Bitcoin but we urge you to think long and hard before you do.

In 2010 Laszlo Hanyecz made the historic, first purchase with Bitcoin. He ordered two pizzas from a local Jacksonville, FL “Papa Jones” restaurant and paid 10,000BTC. Back then 1 Bitcoin was worth $0.008; today 1 Bitcoin is $9,500, which means he paid for pizzas $95 million in today’s’ money. This is exactly the reason why you should think twice before your purchase with Bitcoin.

More and more retailers accept BTC as a form of payment every day. Some have been around for a long time, while others shied away from it up until recently. The reason behind it is that they were not sure where and how to use the digital currency. Here’s the list of some that will gladly take Bitcoin instead of the traditional payment.

Real Estate

Img source: freepik.com

Cryptocurrency can now be used to buy a house or commercial land, or any kind of property for that matter. It has become common to put down payments in Bitcoin, and take the loan for the remaining amount. Banks and real estate developers have started accepting cryptocurrencies in recent years and they couldn’t be happier.

Gift cards

Img source: pexels.com

The most common way of giving presents to someone is to buy them gift cards. So, online, as well as traditional retailers started selling them for Bitcoin. Since then, many people began using their satoshis for purchases.

Food

Img source: diabetes.org

Fast food restaurants started accepting Bitcoin, from KFC, Subway, Burger King, etc. Delivery guys can take cryptocurrencies as well, but most people still like to order and pay online for their food. Some are still on the fence regarding this form of payment, but more and more food joints and major franchising are willing to take their chance.

Cars

img source: freepik.com

Dealers across the United States began accepting digital coins instead of credit cards. However, the vast majority of people are still attached to the good old ways of payment, and use the traditional bank transfers for such purchases. However, super-expensive cars are usually purchased by Bitcoins since their owners are often times investors that got rich trading on the open market of cryptocurrencies.

Airplane tickets

Img source: roadaffair.com

The practice of using cryptocurrency to book flights have been around for quite a while. Many spent their Bitcoins on first-class tickets. In the beginning, it was available for one-way trips, but today airliners began accepting coins for roundtrips as well as all the airport services and purchases.

Cab

img source: freepik.com

You can pay your taxi ride with Bitcoin if you like. It’s probably going to be just a couple of satoshis, but still, is you choose so, you can. Is it a smart way to spend your coins? Probably not, since there are better ways to invest and trade.

Medicine

Img source: pexels.com

Pharmaceutical companies decided to keep up with the latest technologies, so they started accepting cryptocurrencies as a way of payment. Since some medicines are very expensive, you can use it to partially pay for it, and purchase the rest in real money. Pharma’s have become very flexible, and since the value of the Bitcoin is likely to go up, they will be happy to make even more profits in time.

Home goods

Img source: homedepot.com

Many retailers, big and small, started accepting Bitcoin. Customers can now use their coins to buy everything from furniture, appliances, vacuum cleaners, toasters, and so on. Literally, everything can be bought with cryptos.

Luxury items

Img source: etftrends.com

As with the pricey cars, luxury goods are often purchased by the people who trade with cryptocurrencies. When we say luxury, we don’t mean couture bags and shoes. Traders who have experience in investing, so these goods that they purchase are also going to gain value over time. For example, buying gold with Bitcoin is a smart investment, since both are going to be worth more over time. On more investing tips go to bitcoin-pro.live.

Online gambling

Img source: freepik.com

It’s not exactly the purchase but many people consider it to be an investment. A high-risk investment, but the one all the same. So, online casinos began taking Bitcoin, happily rubbing their hands. If you lose $100 today, let’s say, in a year you’ll realize that you actually lost $150. If you win, you’ll be a big-time winner, since your awarded coins are going to rise in value over time. So, in case you’re winning, leave the casino right away.

Clothes

Img source: jilldbell.com

The fashion industry saw the opportunity to invest in Bitcoin by letting its customers pay for high-end clothes. Online platforms that offer you to pay in coins for the latest fashion gimmicks started popping up all over the Internet. Everyone was pleased with this, retailers, fashion designers, and customers.

Jewelry

Img source: avenuecalgary.com

Luxurious watches like Rolex aa well as the super expensive jewelry can be bought using cryptocurrencies. It became a form of the prestige for people who got rich investing in crypto markets years ago, to validate their smart decisions and show the world how digital coins are the future of trading. World-famous jewelers started accepting Bitcoin and other cryptos since there were so many people willing to pay using them. Win-win.

Cryptocurrencies

Img source: pexels.com

This would be a smart purchase. Buy, or we should say rather invest in other digital coins. If you do proper research you can profit enormously in a few years down the road. Maybe it’s not a traditional purchase or something that you had in mind, but you should at least consider it. The value of the coins, legitimate ones, are only going to rise, and there is no way that it’s going to depreciate even with all the fluctuations on the market. Experienced investors save their coins, and don’t splurge their cryptocurrencies on expensive cars and clothes. You can spend a bit, just for fun mostly, however, try to play smart and save the majority in your e-wallet. No one knows how much the value is going to go up, it might be that it has reaches its top, but if not, you can only collect more real money by saving the digital one.

Using crypto makes the purchase of products an easy and hassle-free process. Even services can be purchased via crypto currency. Did you know that the company of a charming escort can be paid with and for via Bitcoin? This makes the whole booking extremely easy and anonymous. Should you be interested in booking a charming lady to keep you company, please feel free to check out this site here.

#CryptoBlog #Bitcoin #Crypto #Cryptocurrencies #Markets #money

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kadobeclothing · 5 years ago

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‘Making the Cut’ Winner Jonny Cota – WWD

Amazon “Making the Cut” winner Jonny Cota may be the luckiest fashion designer in America, if not the world, right now. Not only does he have a $1 million prize, he’s got a global platform to launch his brand with one of the few retailers that’s come out ahead during the coronavirus, and arrives with a built-in fan base — all at a time when the future of showing and shopping fashion is very much up in the air. “How weird we’re all in this global pandemic and every designer is struggling and I would be in that same situation except right now I’m having the opportunity of the lifetime?” said Cota, a 15-year veteran of the Los Angeles fashion scene whose niche Goth leather brand Skingraft has been worn by Rihanna, Justin Bieber and Beyoncé.

Cota took top honors in the streamer’s first fashion competition show, starring Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn, after a runway showdown against Berlin-based Esther Perbandt, who has a similarly dark, but more elevated and conceptual aesthetic. (For finale judges Klum, Naomi Campbell, Joseph Altuzarra, Chiara Ferragni and Nicole Richie, it came down to which designer had the versatility to become the next global brand; for the record, Klum and Campbell voted for Perbandt.) Since the show wrapped shooting in September, Cota has been mentored by Christine Beauchamp, president of Amazon Fashion, who appears in the last two episodes of the series, during which designers had to prove their commercial chops by creating their own pop-up shops and presenting her with a business plan.

With guidance from her team on creating assets for the Amazon customer, including clean photography, clear size charts and product bullet points, Cota created the 20-look Jonny Cota Studio collection now available on the U.S. site, and rolling out internationally soon, with prices from $40 to $350. (Perbandt’s brand has been picked up by Amazon’s sister site, Shopbop.com.) Cota’s clothes are certainly cooler than anything you’d expect to see while shopping for Tide pods and toilet paper. Mostly genderless and in a black-and-white palette, they include a blanket poncho reminiscent of his past work, motocross-inspired denim, and a butterfly-print caftan. Like Christian Siriano, another designer born of TV, Cota is quick with a quip and he has a story to tell, which should serve him well (as should his preshow celebrity following). But there are plenty of winners of fashion competition shows, including of “Making the Cut’s” older sibling “Project Runway,” who have not become global brands. However, they were not backed by Amazon.

Jonny Cota Studio Courtesy

The retail behemoth has been slow to the prestige fashion world, even though it sponsored the 2012 Met Gala, and Anna Wintour is friendly with Jeff Bezos, whom she cozied up to at the Tom Ford runway show in L.A. in February. In a deep dive into Amazon Fashion’s apparel offerings, a January report from Coresight and DataWeave found the bulk of what’s listed are non-branded, or “generic” products, and activewear is the top-selling category. But the online giant’s fashion currency has risen dramatically since the pandemic has left much of the rest of the retail landscape in shambles, with Sears, J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus and other major chains struggling and some nearing bankruptcy. (By contrast, shares of Amazon are at a record high.)

“What will limit Amazon’s potential is the fact it’s becoming clear to brands that it is a predatory partner,” cautions retail futurist Doug Stephens. “The next thing you know, they are private-labeling what you just did, and using your data to do it, and selling to the customers you just acquired.” Still, sources say Amazon is preparing to expand its prestige fashion footprint further, has been working with the Council of Fashion Designers of America to help designers sell excess inventory, and could even step in with a new framework for a future New York Fashion Week. WWD broke the news in January that Amazon is readying its own digital storefront for luxury fashion, which could also open up a host of opportunities for content and commerce. Beauchamp would not comment on future initiatives.

A look from Esther Perbandt’s finale collection for “Making the Cut.” Janice Yim/Amazon Studios

What those initiatives look like could depend in part on the success of “Making the Cut” and sales of Cota’s collection (the designer won two challenges during the series, and both looks sold out, though it’s not clear how many were produced). Amazon declined to share viewership numbers, or how much it has invested in launching Cota’s brand versus what he will get to invest in himself from the $1 million pot. But the marriage of content and commerce is a step forward for the platform, which has gradually been improving on its early QVC-like shopping segments with more slickly produced fashion entertainment programming and brand-building around personalities. In July 2019, Amazon exclusively launched Lady Gaga’s Haus Laboratories beauty line with Amazon Live previews and tutorials, and in September, it produced Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty runway show, bringing her lingerie collection to Prime Video members to watch and shop. Amazon has not revealed plans for a second season of “Making the Cut,” but is still casting as if it will have one. “I dreamt about what it could look like before the pandemic and I dream about what it could look like in the pandemic and after the pandemic,” said Klum of the show’s prospects, adding that the challenges could explore remote designing, for example. “The more constraints we have, the more creative we become. There are few things less inspiring than a blank canvas,” said Gunn, along with a pitch for the resiliency of fashion: “We all need clothes.” COVID-19 has put Amazon in the spotlight more than ever before — for better and for worse, as the retail giant, like its essential retail peers, has had difficulty keeping up with consumer demand and also has faced pushback from workers who have walked out demanding better safety protections in the warehouses where they continue to ship essential and not-so-essential merchandise to the quarantined millions. “Amazon in one way or another has become a hero to a lot of people who are depending on essential goods to be delivered to them,” said Cota, who got a call from the show’s casting director the same day in March 2019 that he closed his Skingraft store in downtown L.A. after the landlord doubled the rent. “I wouldn’t have jumped at the opportunity if it had happened a year, two years, or five years before. It was this moment where I had no idea what tomorrow looked like, no idea where the brand was going. There was no better time to say ‘yes’ to this opportunity.” A California native, Cota started out making costumes for a San Francisco vaudeville circus troupe (he himself was a stilt walker) before launching his fashion business in 2005 with a collection of leather jackets made from vintage remnants (hence the name, Skingraft). Earning a following for motocross jackets, drop-crotch pants and leather holster bags, he showed his collections, which have a high-end price point from $100 to more than $1,000, at both L.A. and New York fashion weeks. A retail pioneer, in 2009, he became one of the first to sell high-end clothing in downtown L.A. at the first of two storefronts he had before moving to his current space at Row DTLA. He also had a store in New York’s NoLIta in 2013. “I had a friend who cast ‘Project Runway’ for years, and I always said, nope, not for me,” said Cota, 37. “Specifically, a lot of other shows are heavily reliant on sewing. Even though we had to sew a lot on ‘Making the Cut,’ the fact it was a show about entrepreneurship and being a creative director, that spoke to me and my skill set.” Like many fashion brands, his has gone through several lives — initially wholesaling to speciality stores such as H. Lorenzo and Opening Ceremony; then taking on investment from venture capital group Innov8 (the partnership ended in 2016); then shifting to a direct-to-consumer model with see-now-buy-now collections of more accessible items, such as hoodies and T-shirts. When he got the casting call, he was at an inflection point. “I went [on the show] to get exposure for Skingraft, I went in there to help discover the next chapter of our company,” said Cota. “We were switching to an online model as a brand and we needed to reach a global audience. So I thought, get me through three, maybe four episodes. That will be enough exposure to give us a new opportunity.”

Skingraft’s fall 2016 collection. WWD

Cota earned points on the show for his willingness to listen to judges’ critiques, to soften his aesthetic, incorporate color and print and more accessible shapes, including feminine dresses. He even agreed to change the name of his brand to Jonny Cota. To underscore his journey, he titled his final collection “Metamorphosis.” “I’m so proud of what I’ve accomplished with Skingraft, but even when I have spoken on social media, it has a tone, the tone is cool and unapproachable. That worked for what it was, but it was definitely an armor to hide behind. When first going on ‘Making the Cut,’ I started giving them Skingraft silhouette after Skingraft silhouette. And the judges could see right through it, that there was more there. Naomi Campbell dragging me through the coals after the couture challenge, and being like, this is derivative, this is boring, show me more. I thought it was the worst day and it turned out to be the best day. I had to do a lot of soul-searching, let go of a part of myself and my aesthetic.” Funnily enough, since the show started airing in March, Skingraft has seen a halo effect, to the tune of a 500 percent increase in sales from March to April: “Since the judges critiqued the name Skingraft, it’s made our fans come out in full force and it’s our best month in sales of our career.” While Cota initially planned on folding the Skingraft collection into the new Jonny Cota Studio collection, now he plans to keep them both going — and available, as soon as retail reopens, at his L.A. store. “Niche followings are so unique. Skingraft customers, they really cherish the all-black Goth-y side of Skingraft and they don’t want to let that go. At the same time, you can tell they are so proud of me and of themselves feeling like they were onto something before the rest of the world. We get a lot of messages like, ‘I’ve been going to your store for 10 years in DTLA and finally the world gets to see what I saw.’” Since the show wrapped, Cota has spent most of his time in Bali overseeing production of the collection (he’s long produced his clothing there). “Skingraft will always be the little Goth-y stepchild doing its thing, but the focus for the rest of the year will be on Jonny Cota and the Jonny Cota for Amazon collection.” (Whether his relationship with Amazon lasts beyond that is uncertain.) Even with the gloom and doom the pandemic has wrought on the fashion industry, Cota said he never really considered taking the $1 million and cashing out (and chances are, Amazon would have nixed that idea). “I know it will be a well-funded year and I’m going into this without caution and full steam ahead. I’m excited to invest the majority of the prize into the company. But also, Jonny Cota has been underpaid for the last three years. He always pays his team first. It’s time to have an adult salary for a change.” Someway, somehow, he’s feeling good about the next chapter. “The show launched from this moment of entertaining people at home while they are trying to stay safe…and we’re launching a brand that has never been more accessibly priced for me. The timing is perfect — let us entertain you, let us make you feel optimistic, offer you a piece of us at the most reasonable price we can, let’s get through this together and move forward together.”

Jonny Cota Studio Courtesy

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juju-journeys · 5 years ago

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Ju Ju

The people’s names in brackets are my friends you gave me suggestions for my trips.

DECIDING WHAT TO TAKE

This depends on how many days you are away and what type of trip you are taking - a bus trip, a cruise, hotels or staying with friends.

Does the Hotel have laundry facilities or if you are staying for a while - is there a Laundry Mat nearby.

Most Hotels have an iron. If there is not an iron in the room, ring the Front Desk

Always check what is included with the amenities on their website.

Take a peg less clothesline with the hooks and not the suction caps ( Aussie Disposal about $7) and some pegs. I bought some at Daiso’s (Japanese store) which was just $2.80 and have hooks. These are good as some coat hangers in your Hotel rooms cannot be removed.

Take a wash bag for delicates as if you are sharing a load then you can separate yours easily. Most laundry mats in USA have vending machines to change your notes into coins and buy soap powder. Most washes cost about $2 and they use quarters and takes about 35 minutes to wash. Then the dryers cost about the same for about 45 minutes. Don’t make the temperature too hot.

WHAT TO PACK

Golden rule – make a list what you want to take, then lay it out and then cut it by a third. There is always one or more piece that you will not wear.

For a summer holiday

One pair jeans

2 pair of ¾ pants,

2 shorts,

1 pair of good black pants. If black is not your colour then the colour that will match your evening tops

5 nice tops for day time that mix and match with your shorts and pants

4 nice tops for evening

1 cardigan for night and/or jacket,

1 rolled up rain jacket

1 long sleeved top.

Shoes - Pair of thongs if you can walk all day in them. I cannot.

Runners or sneakers for walking

Good walking sandals or skechers

Nice pair of sandals or ballet shoes to wear at night

5-7 Bras as they can be easily washed

Underpants – well I take all my old ones and throw them out after wearing. ( Mary told me this one.) My last trip I took 14 pairs and must admit I did wash a few pairs and then started throwing them out in the waste basket. Good way to have more room in your suit case for all the items you will buy on your trip.

Socks- this is up to you.

PACKING

To pack, I roll all my tops together. Shoes I put in plastic bags. Toilet bag at the bottom of the suitcase and at the end, so when the suit case stands up, it is on the bottom. I bought the packing cells from Kathmandu and placed my bras in one, undies in another and socks in the third. These are great as on one side of the cell is mesh and when you put them in your suitcase and squash then down all the air comes out. You can also buy these at Daiso (everything is $2.80 shop). These are located in Box Hill and 2 in Melbourne CBD.

Toiletries

When I have booked my trip then I start buying items for the Toiletry bag especially when they are on special. If you are going on a small trip then and are getting low in what you are using now - shampoo etc and if you think there is enough left for the days you are away then put that away in your toilet bag. Same with toothpaste, deodorant, moisturiser, eye makeup remover, conditioner, cleanser, sun tan cream etc. The packet of cleanser wipes are also good to take. Once your trip is finished you can just throw them all away and you have more space and less weight in your suitcase.

Always keep the small sample bottles after use as they are very handy to take small amounts of your conditioner etc away with you.

Put all liquids in Zip lock bags as for sure something will leak. I take a few extra as some always will break and they are also good for carrying food in on day trips.

Put in small nail scissors, nail file and I use the nail polish remover pads (and do not take a bottle ) or otherwise buy the remover when you get there. I buy a 6 pack of the flat Kleenex tissues as they fit very easily in your hand bag which does not take up too much room.

MAKEUP BAG

Same goes for the makeup. If you are getting low with your foundation, eye shadow or eyeliner etc. put them in your make up bag. I buy an inexpensive mascara or take the small travel size. Less is better. Or in US buy up as Revlon, Estee Lauder etc are very cheap.

SHOPPING IN USA

Clothes and cosmetics are so much cheaper in USA. When the Department stores have the Free gift sometimes you only need to spend $30 so then only buy one item and get a free gift. So go back the next day and buy the next item and so on. End of season sales are just brilliant with extra 25% to 50% off. I love Labour Day sales which starts around 2nd Monday of September. Revlon nail polish is about US$5 plus tax, same with Maybelline, Covergirl, Prestige.

Sizing I usually go down one size only for USA and go up one size for UK and Europe. Some say go down 2 sizes for US.

List of Department stores in USA.

Bloomingdales and Neiman & Marcus very expensive and have High end brands

Nordstrom – up market and similar to David Jones

Macy’s – they have sales all the time and sometimes as good as or better than the Outlet malls. Visit the information desk show your passport and you 10% off voucher for 30 days. Read the fine print as discount not on perfume or makeup.

Dillard’s and Belk’s - similar as Myers.

Wal-Mart - huge variety cheap cosmetics, plus they have food and alcohol.

Sears – cheap like K Mart

Target - huge variety of cheap cosmetics, plus they have food and alcohol

VARIETY STORES

Wahlgrens – sells souvenirs and a variety of food etc Phone cards, cheap cosmetics

ABC Stores - sells souvenirs and a variety of food etc, Phone cards, cheap cosmetics

Duane Reade – pharmacy sells food, cosmetics etc.

Discount Stores – Look online if any of these are near where you are staying

Nordstrom Rack ( discontinued lines) - lot of racks

Burlington Coats ( not just coats but discontinued lines) - lot of racks

Ross dress for less. My favourite store, just ask Lisa. You must go through a lot of racks but it’s worth it. The racks are in sizes and in categories, tops, dresses, knits etc. My suit l bought last year in Denver was $70. So I bought 2. I believe Irene found one great store in Oregon and Hawaii.

Marshalls, TJ Maxx and Kohls - all very similar to Ross’s

Century 21 in New York and it was Leanne who showed me the way to shopping bliss. My first Calvin Klein suit I bought for $100, plus it has bags, cosmetics, so many different brands but you need to get there first thing in the morning as it gets so busy and close very late.

FACTORY OUTLETS IN USA

http://www.premiumoutlets.com/centers/

http://www.tangeroutlet.com/

LAS VEGAS

Best place to shop especially Labour Day sales is Vegas. 2 Factory Outlets – North and South. Join up online and you can get coupons. The South is near the airport and North is past Fremont Street. North has more high end shops. Just take the Express bus to both Outlets. Look up the website and plan your day. Shops open at 10 am and close quite late either 9 or 10pm. I usually plan my day and have a list of shops I want to visit.

The South Outlet is all under one roof and has great bargains. I shop here first as both have different discounts. The South had Tommy Hilfiger Polo shirts for $25 then the North had the same items for $35. Ralph Lauren in the North I got a cotton cable knit for $20. So I always go to both especially if you love shopping. The South has Elizabeth Arden and the North has Estee Lauder and Lancome. Ann Taylor is a great store for ladies. I got my sister a t-shirt for under $5 in the summer sales and good quality. Skechers sales are great, buy one get second for half price. Levi jeans you can get around $40.

There is also the Fashion Show Mall very similar to Chadstone with lots of eating places it is just past Treasure Island and also the Miracle Mile Shops which part of Planet Hollywood complex. It has H & M, ABC shop, Wahlgrens and lots of places to eat as well. There are 2 Ross Dress for Less in Vegas. One is near the M & M shop and the other down past Wynne’s Casino.

HALF PRICE TIX IN VEGAS- Check the website for locations and shows.

There are many places along the strip you can get tickets for shows that night for half the price. They open around 10am and you can get reasonable priced tickets for Shows that night or the next plus food vouchers and tours. It might cost you $2 and get a voucher that gets you a Buffet for less than $20, just an example. If you come back the next day you get the VIP treatment and line up in the express line.

HOTELS in Vegas

Most Hotels are Casinos and you do not have Tea/Coffee facilities in your room. Some have Mini bars or occasionally you get a Refridgerator but you can request one. Sharon bought me an Infuser, it is a big element that you put in a cup of water and it boils. Some Hotels include breakfast in your deal so that is great. If not, then take your own bag of tea bags or coffee from home or from the previous Hotel you stayed at, buy the infuser, take a cup bought from a $2 shop together with your plastic bowl and then buy some cereal and milk from Wahlgrens/ABC/Whalers or whatever store is closest and you are set for breakfast. Always take every packet of Tea/coffee in every Hotel and save it for the rest of your trip. If you run out just ring the Front Desk and ask for more when the cleaner comes around.

Sharon always told me to leave a dollar on the pillow case for the cleaner each day and they leave extra tea/coffee for you.

FOOD

The size of the meals are so big and quite cheap but remember to calculate your tip which is roughly 15-20% of the bill before the tax. The wages are very low for a waitress. They get only around $6 to $8 an hour plus the tips. We asked one girl and her tips also cover the person who clears away the dirty dishes, the cook and the barman. Some places have a suggested tip percentage on the bill so they will list 10 %, 15% and 20% so you can choose. If you pay by card you can add the tip on. I usually leave my tip in cash. If you are at a bar then it is $1 per drink. Sharon told me to keep my dollar bills so I can leave the tips separately. Sharon is my guru for tipping and much more.

If you eat in the restaurants that are part of your Hotel in Vegas, and nearby Hotels you can use your room key and will put your food bill onto your Hotel bill so when you check out you can pay by either credit card or cash.

Good places to eat.

PF Changs – Asian food but modern

Roys in Hawaii in Lewers Street – has the best Lava cake for dessert. There are a few around the US

Californian Pizza Kitchen – not just Pizza, I love the Cobb salad. Yum.

New York Cheesecake Factory – not just cheesecake

Wolf Gang Puck

Hard Rock cafe

Buffets are in every Hotel in Vegas.

0 notes

newstfionline · 6 years ago

Text

Why fashion brands destroy billions’ worth of their own merchandise every year

By Chavie Lieber, Vox, Sep 17, 2018

The British luxury brand Burberry brought in $3.6 billion in revenue last year--and destroyed $36.8 million worth of its own merchandise.

In July 2018, the brand admitted in its annual report that demolishing goods was just part of its strategy to preserve its reputation of exclusivity.

Shoppers did not react well to this news. People vowed to boycott Burberry over its wastefulness, while members of Parliament demanded the British government crack down on the practice. The outrage worked: Burberry announced two weeks ago it would no longer destroy its excess product, effective immediately.

Yet Burberry is hardly the only company to use this practice; it runs high to low, from Louis Vuitton to Nike. Brands destroy product as a way to maintain exclusivity through scarcity, but the precise details of who is doing it and why are not commonly publicized. Every now and then, though, bits of information will trickle out. Last year, for example, a Danish TV station revealed that the fast-fashion retailer H&M had burned 60 tons of new and unsold clothes since 2013.

In May 2018, Richemont, the owner of the jewelry and watch brands Cartier, Piaget, and Baume & Mercier, admitted that in an effort to keep its products out of the hands of unauthorized sellers, it had destroyed about $563 million worth of watches over the past two years. Whistleblowing sales associates and eagle-eyed shoppers have pointed out how this practice happens at Urban Outfitters, Walmart, Eddie Bauer, Michael Kors, Victoria’s Secret, and J.C. Penny.

The fashion industry is often cited as one of the world’s worst polluters--but destroying perfectly usable merchandise in an effort to maintain prestige is perhaps the dirtiest secret of them all. To find out why this practice is so widespread and what conservation-minded shoppers can do to fight back, I spoke with Timo Rissanen, an associate dean at Parsons School of Design and a professor of fashion design and sustainability at the school’s Tishman Environment and Design Center. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Chavie Lieber: Why do brands have to destroy perfectly good merchandise?

Timo Rissanen: The simplest answer across the board is that today, quantitatively, there’s more stuff than there ever has been before. Fashion cycles have also gotten shorter because of the internet and fast fashion, so there’s a push to constantly put new merchandise out on the market. So when you combine these two, we are now literally at a place where we no longer have anywhere for this stuff to go other than up a chimney.

Chavie Lieber: Is it just clothing that gets destroyed?

Timo Rissanen: No, this is not limited to apparel. I saw a few months ago that Amazon was being called out in Germany for destroying tons of returned items, like mattresses, washing machines, dishwashers, and cellphones.

Chavie Lieber: Where does the actual destroying happen?

Timo Rissanen: A lot of it is done in India. There’s one town in India, Panipat, that specializes in shredding, and there’s a horrendous short film that documents women shredding clothes that are brand new. The film shows the women speculating that water in the West must be so expensive, and that people can’t afford to do their laundry, and so that’s why it’s cheaper for them to throw stuff out. Hearing that is really uncomfortable. Incineration happens everywhere, from America to Sweden.

Chavie Lieber: Wouldn’t they rather earn a profit than nothing at all? Wouldn’t Chanel prefer to mark down its $3,500 bag by $300 and still make $3,000?

Timo Rissanen: This is where we get to the thing that nobody wants to talk about: The retail price of a luxury product has nothing to do with its actual value. When you buy something from Chanel or Gucci and you pay full retail, that money is actually paying for the massive advertising campaigns. If Chanel destroys a dress it tried to sell for $1,200, it hasn’t really lost $1,200. I don’t think Chanel even paid $100 [to make] that dress.

#fashion brands #high fashion #destroying merchandise

0 notes

theconservativebrief · 6 years ago

Link

The British luxury brand Burberry brought in $3.6 billion in revenue last year — and destroyed $36.8 million worth of its own merchandise.

In July 2018, the brand admitted in its annual report that demolishing goods was just part of its strategy to preserve its reputation of exclusivity.

The fashion industry is often cited as one of the world’s worst polluters — but destroying perfectly usable merchandise in an effort to maintain prestige is perhaps the dirtiest secret of them all. To find out why this practice is so widespread and what conservation-minded shoppers can do to fight back, I spoke with Timo Rissanen, an associate dean at Parsons School of Design and a professor of fashion design and sustainability at the school’s Tishman Environment and Design Center. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Chavie Lieber

Why do brands have to destroy perfectly good merchandise?

Timo Rissanen

The simplest answer across the board is that today, quantitatively, there’s more stuff than there ever has been before. Fashion cycles have also gotten shorter because of the internet and fast fashion, so there’s a push to constantly put new merchandise out on the market. So when you combine these two, we are now literally at a place where we no longer have anywhere for this stuff to go other than up a chimney.

The underlying business model now includes immense pressure to constantly replenish merchandise. When I was a fashion student 20 years ago, we had four seasons, as well as [specialty ones like] Resort and Cruise. Now the turnover is faster than ever. Global population has gone up too, and so has the number of garments that a person buys per year. A couple years ago, we were at 20 garments per person each year. Today, in the United States, an average person buys about 68 garments per year.

Chavie Lieber

Is it just clothing that gets destroyed?

Timo Rissanen

No, this is not limited to apparel. I saw a few months ago that Amazon was being called out in Germany for destroying tons of returned items, like mattresses, washing machines, dishwashers, and cellphones.

Chavie Lieber

What are the methods of destroying merch?

Timo Rissanen

Burning and shredding are the main ones. The third option is simply landfilling, but most companies do incineration so that they can claim the incinerators capture the energy. Burberry has insisted it’s recycling the clothing into energy, except the energy that is recouped from burning clothing doesn’t come anywhere near the energy that was used to create the garments.

Chavie Lieber

Where does the actual destroying happen?

Timo Rissanen

A lot of it is done in India. There’s one town in India, Panipat, that specializes in shredding, and there’s a horrendous short film that documents women shredding clothes that are brand new. The film shows the women speculating that water in the West must be so expensive, and that people can’t afford to do their laundry, and so that’s why it’s cheaper for them to throw stuff out. Hearing that is really uncomfortable. Incineration happens everywhere, from America to Sweden.

Chavie Lieber

What are some of the environmental impacts of destroying excess inventory?

Timo Rissanen

The most obvious one is the carbon emission from burning. We should be moving away from all forms of burning. Polyester now accounts for about 60 percent of the total fiber market, and it comes from oil. So you could make the case that when we burn polyester, we are burning oil. There is a contribution to CO2 that is happening there, and there’s also a ton of chemicals and finishings embedded in clothing and textiles through the dyeing. When this stuff is burned, it filters into the air.

But really, where it gets insane is thinking about clothes that were never worn in the first place. The fabric was made, the garments were made, the labor was put in, and then the stuff gets burned. It represents all kinds of different waste across the system.

Chavie Lieber

Do fashion brands have to disclose that they are doing this?

Timo Rissanen

No, although I know that the UK has been having quite active discussions about it right now. But on the whole, there is no requirement to report this. For Burberry, I think it was a number of shareholders who started making noise about it, and that’s how it got into a more broad discussion. I have no doubt that the brand would rather it not be out in the open.

Chavie Lieber

Why can’t excess inventory be recycled or reused?

Timo Rissanen

Some of it can be. Different kinds of garments are easier than others. One way to recycle clothing is to shred it and to turn it into insulation, and there are fabrics that are quite good at being turning into new fiber, spun into yarn, and then woven into clothes. But the minute you start mixing fibers, like polyester with cotton, the options for recycling become more limited. Then there’s the obstacles of buttons and zippers. Before a garment can be put through a shredder, all the buttons and zippers must be removed, and that takes manual labor. With any kind of waste management like this, there’s a cost attached to it, and it’s often cheaper just to destroy it.

Chavie Lieber

Why can’t the clothing be donated?

Timo Rissanen

Historically, a lot of the donations have gone to Africa, Latin America, South America, and to some countries in Asia. But in the last couple of years, a number of African countries, like Kenya and Uganda, have actually banned the importation of secondhand clothing from the West. It suppresses their own textile and apparel industry, since they can’t compete with the volume and the very low price of the secondhand goods.

Chavie Lieber

Why don’t brands sell off their extra merchandise at sample sales?

Timo Rissanen

Some brands do sample sales, but companies like Louis Vuitton and Chanel just incinerate their samples. I remember when Parsons was doing a student project in 2009, and Louis Vuitton supplied samples that were going to be incinerated. I watched students cut up perfect Louis Vuitton garments, which they used to make blankets that were auctioned off for charity, and I had a visceral reaction because they really should have remained as garments. It’s not a slight on the students, but there’s a huge investment that has gone into those garments, and all of that was lost.

Chavie Lieber

What is the theory for luxury brands destroying their extra merch?

Timo Rissanen

They see discounts and donating as a way to devalue their brand. They want to control how and where and at what price their goods are sold. You can go to a place like Century 21 in New York and you’ll find certain brands have their stock there that’s two or three seasons old and heavily discounted. Some brands are clearly fine with that, and others are not.

Chavie Lieber

Wouldn’t they rather earn a profit than nothing at all? Wouldn’t Chanel prefer to mark down its $3,500 bag by $300 and still make $3,000?

Timo Rissanen

This is where we get to the thing that nobody wants to talk about: The retail price of a luxury product has nothing to do with its actual value. When you buy something from Chanel or Gucci and you pay full retail, that money is actually paying for the massive advertising campaigns. If Chanel destroys a dress it tried to sell for $1,200, it hasn’t really lost $1,200. I don’t think Chanel even paid $100 [to make] that dress. And the money they’d lose would probably just be recouped through fragrances.

Chavie Lieber

As someone who is a part of the fashion world, can you understand the argument for destroying things in order to save a company’s prestige factor?

Timo Rissanen

No. I cannot. We have arrived at a point where I think we need to have some very honest conversations about what type of values this industry has.

Chavie Lieber

Do you think companies will follow in Burberry’s footsteps and stop destroying their merch?

Timo Rissanen

I think so. I do think it will take some time because we are talking about a whole system, and it will not come to a halt because of a little bit of bad publicity. But I do think that being called out forces brands to take a look at what’s happening and start to have conversations about what they can do about it.

Chavie Lieber

What can shoppers do?

Timo Rissanen

On a very simple level, figure out which things bring you the most satisfaction and then buy those things. We are all prone to impulse-buying, which is what I’d encourage to limit. I also recommend buying secondhand if you are interested in environmental impact.

Original Source -> Why fashion brands destroy billions worth of their own merchandise every year

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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fashiontrendin-blog · 7 years ago

Text

The New York Times Came For Yoga Pants, And Women Aren't Having It

http://fashion-trendin.com/the-new-york-times-came-for-yoga-pants-and-women-arent-having-it/

The New York Times Came For Yoga Pants, And Women Aren't Having It

An op-ed in the New York Times has many people seeing red over its claims that yoga pants are “bad for women.”

The column, credited to senior staff editor Honor Jones — though some have speculated that this is a generic pseudonym used by multiple people at the Gray Lady — calls out yoga pants for being too constricting, sexy, and unforgiving. According to the Times, they “threaten to show every dimple and roll in every woman over 30” and offer less comfort and modesty than the baggy sweatpants of yore.

The opinion piece also argues that women wear tight workout leggings to “look hot at the gym,” choosing fashion over functionality.

“We aren’t wearing these workout clothes because they’re cooler or more comfortable,” “Jones” writes. “(You think the selling point of Lululemon’s Reveal Tight Precision pants is really the way their moth-eaten design provides a ‘much-needed dose of airflow’?) We’re wearing them because they’re sexy.”

The op-ed goes on to lambaste the booming fitness industry for pressuring women to splurge on pricey gym classes and the latest athleisure looks. But while there’s no doubt that a SoulCycle membership and a gym bag stuffed with Lululemon leggings have a certain prestige, the yoga pants tirade has rubbed many readers the wrong way.

Much of the backlash stems from the implication that yoga pants are too tight and “sexy” to be comfortable, and that anyone with a less-than-perfect body should opt for something slouchier. It’s also worth noting that women who wear workout leggings are often criticized for being overly casual. They’re either too seductive or too sloppy, with women getting shamed either way.

As someone who has practiced yoga for years, it’s unbelievable that you think we wear yoga pants because they’re “sexy?!” We wear them because they allow us to maneuver in ways other clothing doesn’t. Alternatively, seeing if you aren’t in the proper position is just as important https://t.co/cy70QBWnrF

— kimmie caruba (@kimmiecaruba) February 18, 2018

I see someone has posted yet another op-ed on the perils of wearing yoga pants after 30.

Lemme clear this up for everyone:

Wear yoga pants if you want to. If somebody doesn’t like your over-30 dimpled rolls… tell them not to look. Dress for you, not for anyone else

— Kodi Kat (@puma_legal) February 18, 2018

Has anyone written about the fact that leggings and yoga pants are important because they don’t *hurt* to wear? Like, congrats if your jeans don’t leave red marks on you by the end of the day, but I’ve never known that life.

— ✨⛸ Jaime Green 🥌✨ (@jaimealyse) February 18, 2018

Why do people gotta hate on good things to be edGY? What’s the point? Starbucks is good, yoga pants are comfortable, greys anatomy gets addicting, and target is full of cheap things that are adorable. You just sound like an uncomfortable, uncaffinated, bitter person

— savannah (@trauma_mama_) February 18, 2018

serenely reading the NYT yoga pants take, completely unbothered bc my ass looks bad in all sorts of pants

— Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) February 18, 2018

Okay @nytimes. 1) I am sure you had your pick of thoughtful opinion pieces for this Sunday’s edition…and this was your choice? 2) Women writing op-eds about other women’s sartorial choices is bad for women 3) You can have my yoga pants when you pry them from my cold dead booty https://t.co/8RU9l8iVde

— Candice Adams (@TheCandiceAdams) February 18, 2018

I think we should march on the Times in our yoga pants. https://t.co/I2hP2Tfq2e

— ana marie cox (@anamariecox) February 19, 2018

yoga pants are fine sweat pants are fine pants in general are fine, even cargos and even … EVEN … capris slacks is a funny word and we should use it more but let’s just chill out about pants shall we get your pants judgment out of my face

— Jen Doll (@thisisjendoll) February 18, 2018

Sweat pants, yoga pants, heels or flats. Long skirts, mini skirts, blonde hair or blue. How about the joy of being able to make the choice you want as a full grownass woman? https://t.co/I9BqXokFLp

— Kirstine Stewart🙋🏼 (@kirstinestewart) February 18, 2018

The op-ed does raise one valid point: Sweatpants are comfy too. Still, they’re not for everyone, and nobody should feel pressured to wear one thing over another. A pregnant woman might prefer the stretch of a yoga legging; someone else might want a garment that wicks away sweat, or something tapered that won’t catch on their jump rope or Reformer machine.

Bottom line: Wear what suits you, don’t judge others who do the same, ignore the haters, and brace yourself for the eventual takedown on sports bras. You know it’s coming.

Read more from Yahoo Style + Beauty:

This post was originally published on Yahoo Lifestyle.

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bt2018bt2018 · 7 years ago

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Retail Insights February 17, 2018 http://ift.tt/2ExhQr7

Click on an image below to zoom in & open photo gallery >>

Would u buy a see-thru luggage

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If only label tag at ankle level incline upwards to eye level where customers are standing upright

I wish you well. Please see enclosed photos and my feedback below:

Learning from Woolworths and COLES, I hope that label or price tags at ankle or thigh level would incline upwards facing customers standing upright at most populous vantage point; in order to allow easy view and maximise message outreach to as many customers as possible.

Please kindly investigate this matter and share this feedback with your circle of influence.

Thank you for your time in reading this letter.

Explicitly communicate gift idea with tag max profits

Communicate actual savings on tag make clothing profits

Side view of heels to populous vantage point make store profits

Mannequin in array of freedom poses max profits

Model snuggling in comfy clothing max shopping craze

Price tag on expensive product at store's entrance vantage point turn customers away

Panties with ribbon adds spice to foreplay

Curvy waistline of mannequin max profits

Purple feathered backdrop max profits

Conspicuous round tag organise clothing by sizes

My newly designed Kathmandu bag with flap that guards against rain

Brochures stand at store entrance attract shoppers to buy out of their budget

Happy phone mascot

3-dimensional design of lighting alert user standing further away

Position discount sign beside brand name max profits

Y do u not need ID to buy a knife in your country

Reduce customer hassle by buying container n cookies separately with this design

Men in colourful jumpsuits capture your attention on pen's brand

Giant product category signage installed around the electronic store

How to nurture kids with a gracious heart to raise adoption rates

Mannequin with power pose max profits

Mirror integrated with clothing shelves allowing customers to quickly match with skin colour max profits

Clothing shelf with NEW sign

Chic mannequin checking out some tunes

Design of marker tip caters to wider range of lines thickness

Petrol station hopes that u will keep quiet as u exit the premise

Petrol mart communicate all services at entrance with sign to max profits

Hi,

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you have enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, my son Ethan is born small, unwell and I need your help, please :(

If my insights have benefited you & your circle of influence, I am begging for your help by:

clicking on the advertising banner below to earn a few cents for my baby's medical bills.

I will appreciate if you could share this site with everyone in your sphere of influence.

It costs you nothing; you don't need to buy anything after clicking the advertisement; it only takes a few seconds of your time (No scam promise)

Thank you for your kind help, and God Bless you and your family.

Our Ideas, Our Ideas - Retail February 17, 2018 at 11:15AM

#IFTTT #Blogger

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vdbstore-blog · 7 years ago

Text

New Post has been published on Vintage Designer Handbags Online | Vintage Preowned Chanel Luxury Designer Brands Bags & Accessories

New Post has been published on http://vintagedesignerhandbagsonline.com/does-the-fashion-industry-still-need-vogue-in-the-age-of-social-media-fashion/

Does the fashion industry still need Vogue in the age of social media? | Fashion

For a new boss to dismiss the “old guard” who were the legacy of their predecessor and bring in new faces is not unusual. Indeed, when Alexandra Shulman vacated the editor’s chair at British Vogue, having occupied it for a quarter of the magazine’s 100-year history, it was wholly expected that her replacement, Edward Enninful, would bring in a team to put his own stamp on the industry glossy.

Last week Emily Sheffield, Shulman’s deputy and predicted by many as a shoo-in for her job, handed out invites to her leaving party, while Enninful – who officially takes the helm on 1 August – announced film-maker Steve McQueen and long-time friend Naomi Campbell as contributing editors. Kate Moss, already a contributing editor and regular cover girl, will continue working for the title.

That his shake-up would cause ripples beyond London’s Vogue House, or the front row at last week’s haute couture shows in Paris, was unthinkable. That is, until Lucinda Chambers, the long-serving fashion director ousted in favour of Enninful appointee Venetia Scott, vented her frustrations in a little-known industry publication – and it went viral.

It was the sometimes scathing and often cynical comments Chambers made about the fragrant world of glossy magazines that caused a public furore, and it spread faster on social media than a Kardashian wardrobe malfunction.

“The June cover with Alexa Chung in a stupid Michael Kors T-shirt is crap,” Chambers remarked of a Vogue shoot she’d done under commercial constraints. “He’s a big advertiser so I knew why I had to do it. Truth be told, I haven’t read Vogue in years … The clothes are just irrelevant for most people – so ridiculously expensive.”

While many in the industry are terrified to speak out, fearful of biting the bejewelled hand that feeds, she spoke candidly to Anja Aronowsky Cronberg, the founder and editor of Vestoj, a niche magazine that aims to “bring together academia and industry in a bid to combine academic theory, critical thinking and a bit of good old-fashioned glamour”.

Chambers’s recent comments have reopened the debate about the challenges facing the world of fashion publishing in the digital age. Catwalk shows used to be held twice a year for a closed shop of editors and buyers, who would reveal their carefully considered vision of trends to readers and customers a few months down the line. Now runway shows are live-streamed and consumers can order the clothes as soon as they have appeared.

Thus, the glossy magazine doesn’t have the power it once did. While Vogue transports the reader to a fantasy world of high fashion – in much the same way watching a film offers an escape from the everyday – and is still seen by many as the bastion of high-end style, the magazine’s influence has nevertheless been diluted.

“The evolution of technology and social media has allowed all consumers to have a voice,” says Professor Frances Corner, head of the London College of Fashion and an adviser to Vestoj. “The fashion world has been shaped in the same way as politics – where Trump, Corbyn and Macron have captured the imagination of sections of society who previously went unheard. Fashion is now far more democratic. There is no one bible and there is a marked shift in the way we consume fashion: the sources of our inspiration are increasingly fragmented and tailored to more specific audiences.

“I follow numerous Instagrammers and bloggers who appeal to my personal aesthetic, and there are many niche, magazines challenging the status quo of traditional fashion publishing and setting a different agenda for diverse audiences.”

Former fashion director at British Vogue Lucinda Chambers at Paris fashion week last year. Photograph: Dvora/Rex/Shutterstock

So how does the slow-moving monthly magazine keep pace with the frenetic speed of social media and the almost instantaneous coverage from bloggers and online media? Does a publication such as Vogue still have a place in modern society? “Magazines aren’t going to disappear,” says Bronwyn Cosgrave, former features editor at British Vogue. “People still like to have something tangible to browse – the book industry was predicted to collapse in the wake of the Kindle, but it has rebounded. I think magazine publishers simply have to work harder for attention in a competitive market. They need to diversify and become omni-platform businesses – Alex Shulman successfully launched the Vogue festival, which is a massive revenue stream for them now.”

Condé Nast recently attempted to expand into the retail sector, aiming to create an online shopping portal that would sell products featured in the editorial pages of its portfolio of magazines.

The evolution of technology and social media has allowed all consumers to have a voice

After all, Net-a-Porter had created a beautiful print magazine, Porter, to sell its collections. Launching with fashion brands, but failing to attract the hoped-for sales figures, the beleaguered venture collapsed a fortnight ago with losses of £78m. So, diversification isn’t always the way to go, and there’s still the dilemma of the future of the print publication and how it meets the needs of modern readers. “I don’t think news reporting is the way to go for print publications, that’s why I’ve shaped Vestoj to be more about reflection and analysis than the latest anything,” Anja Aronowsky Cronberg explains. “Reading longform writing on paper is still my preferred method. Photographs also tend to look much more enticing on a page than on a screen. One of my big bugbears when it comes to fashion publishing is how homogenous most magazines are. I’d love to see more diversity in how fashion is dealt with.”

The August issue of Glamour, one of Vogue’s Condé Nast stablemates, has just hit the newsstands, with the coverline “The Instagram issue”. Shunning professional models in favour of an array of social media influencers – including a plus-size model, a baker, a beauty vlogger and more – the magazine is turning to the digital space to provide print content.

“There is a certain prestige that comes from appearing in the print media that takes those people from the online world into a different sphere,” says editor Jo Elvin. “Speaking to powerful, high-earning social media stars such as Estée Lalonde and Tanya Burr, they tell me that being in or on the cover of a magazine is the final word in validation for them. And Glamour sells more copies now than many magazines I worked on in the 90s, pre-internet/smartphone, because we’re part of a fluid mix of media they consume and part of the conversations they want to be involved in.”

Ultimately, the fashion industry is a commercial behemoth with the remit of selling clothes – and lucrative, profit-heavy accessories, fragrance and cosmetics with the attached kudos of each coveted brand. Prior to the digital revolution, designers and fashion businesses were heavily dependent on the magazine industry to help them reach customers and endorse their collections.

“The one thing that has changed dramatically in recent years is the direct relationship brands now have with their consumers,” says Imran Amed, founder and editor in chief of the Business of Fashion, an independent publication that has become to industry insiders what the Financial Times is to the City.

“In this new hierarchy, the consumer has the ability to amplify or negatively impact on business, through sharing positive or negative responses. Once brands and magazines dictated what we should buy, now consumers are telling us what they like and want, and the power structure has been turned on its head.

“We are at a time of disruption in the wider world, and all businesses, in fashion and beyond, are testing new models to see what works and keeps them relevant to their audience.”

THE CHALLENGERS

The Gentlewoman Writer and academic Penny Martin launched her twice-yearly magazine in 2010 to “celebrate modern women of style and purpose with a fresh perspective … on the way women actually dress”.

The Business of Fashion A blog started by Imran Amed in 2007 to challenge Women’s Wear Daily now runs on subscriptions, and has a roll-call of respected writers, spin-off print editions and an events arm.

Vestoj Founded by another academic, Anya Aronowsky Cronberg, this annual journal aims to look at “fashion as a cultural phenomenon”, and “encourage and champion a critical and independent voice”.

10 magazine Founded by Sophia Neophitou, who began her career with a placement at British Vogue, 10 is a cult quarterly that sells around the world. “I chose the title because, at school, 10 out of 10 symbolised excellence.”

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repwincoml4a0a5 · 8 years ago

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Ivanka Trump Cleared Hurdle For Chinese Trademarks Same Day She Dined With Xi Jinping

SHANGHAI (AP) — On April 6, Ivanka Trump’s company won provisional approval from the Chinese government for three new trademarks, giving it monopoly rights to sell Ivanka brand jewelry, bags and spa services in the world’s second-largest economy. That night, the first daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner, sat next to the president of China and his wife for a steak and Dover sole dinner at Mar-a-Lago.

The scenario underscores how difficult it is for Trump, who has tried to distance herself from the brand that bears her name, to separate business from politics in her new position at the White House.

As the first daughter crafts a political career from her West Wing office, her brand is flourishing, despite boycotts and several stores limiting her merchandise. U.S. imports, almost all of them from China, shot up an estimated 166 percent last year, while sales hit record levels in 2017. The brand, which Trump still owns, says distribution is growing. It has launched new activewear and affordable jewelry lines and is working to expand its global intellectual property footprint. In addition to winning the approvals from China, Ivanka Trump Marks LLC applied for at least nine new trademarks in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Canada and the U.S. after the election.

The commercial currents of the Trump White House are unprecedented in modern American politics, ethics lawyers say. They have created an unfamiliar landscape riven with ethical pitfalls, and forced consumers and retailers to wrestle with the unlikely passions now inspired by Ivanka Trump’s mid-market collection of ruffled blouses, shifts and wedges.

Using the prestige of government service to build a brand is not illegal. But criminal conflict of interest law prohibits federal officials, like Trump and her husband, from participating in government matters that could impact their own financial interest or that of their spouse. Some argue that the more her business broadens its scope, the more it threatens to encroach on the ability of two trusted advisers to deliver credible counsel to the president on core issues like trade, intellectual property, and the value of the Chinese currency.

“Put the business on hold and stop trying to get trademarks while you’re in government,” advised Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush.

To address ethical concerns, Trump has shifted the brand’s assets to a family-run trust valued at more than $50 million and pledged to recuse herself from issues that present conflicts.

“Ivanka will not weigh in on business strategy, marketing issues, or the commercial terms of agreements,” her attorney, Jamie Gorelick, said in a statement. “She has retained authority to direct the trustees to terminate agreements that she determines create a conflict of interest or the appearance of one.”

In a recent interview with CBS News, Trump argued that her business would be doing even better if she hadn’t moved to Washington and placed restrictions on her team to ensure that “any growth is done with extreme caution.”

China, however, remains a nagging concern. “Ivanka has so many China ties and conflicts, yet she and Jared appear deeply involved in China contacts and policy. I would never have allowed it,” said Norman Eisen, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under Barack Obama. “For their own sake, and the country’s, Ivanka and Jared should consider stepping away from China matters.”

Instead, the first daughter and her husband have emerged as prominent interlocutors with China, where they have both had significant business ties. Last year, Kushner pursued hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate investments from Anbang Insurance Group, a financial conglomerate with close ties to the Chinese state. After media reports about the deal, talks were called off.

Publicly, Ivanka has taken a gracious, charming approach toward Beijing. During the Mar-a-Lago meetings, her daughter, 5-year-old Arabella stood in a gilded room and sang a traditional Chinese song, in Mandarin, for China’s president, Xi Jinping. The video, which was lavishly praised by Chinese state media, played over 2.2 million times on China’s popular news portal qq.com.

The week of the summit, 3.4 tons of Ivanka Trump handbags, wallets and blouses arrived in the U.S. from Hong Kong and Shanghai. U.S. imports of her merchandise grew an estimated 40 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to Panjiva Inc., which maintains and analyzes global shipping records.

Painter, the former Bush administration lawyer, recommended full recusal from issues related to trade with China. That is likely to be difficult because trade is so deeply embedded in the US-China relationship and has been linked with other matters, like North Korea.

“The danger is that with any discussion with the Chinese, one party or the other may try to bring up trade,” he said. “That’s a slippery slope that may require her or Jared to step out of the room.”

Gorelick, Ivanka Trump’s attorney, said that Ivanka and her husband would steer clear of specific areas that could impact her business, or be seen as conflicts of interest, but are under no legal obligation to step back from huge swaths of policy, like trade with China.

Under the rules, Trump would recuse herself from conversations about duties on clothing imported from China, Gorelick said, but not broad foreign policy.

“In between, you have to assess it case-by-case,” she said.

Trademarks can be signs of corporate ambition, though many countries — such as China, where trademark squatting is rampant — also allow for defensive filings to prevent copycats from using a brand.

Trademarks pose ethical, and possibly legal, implications for government employees because they are granted by foreign states and confer the monopoly right to sell branded product in a particular country — an entitlement that can be enormously valuable. Intellectual property lawyers say trademarks are also a crucial prerequisite for cutting licensing deals, which form the basis of both Ivanka and Donald Trump’s global business strategy.

Today, Ivanka Trump Marks LLC has 16 registered trademarks in China and 32 pending applications, along with a total of four marks granted preliminary approval since the inauguration, according to China’s Trademark Office. Altogether, they cover a wide range of goods and services, including cosmetics, jewelry, leather handbags, luggage, clothes, shoes, retail, spa and beauty services. There is no sign the recent approvals were particularly swift. China’s Trademark Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Globally, the company has more than 180 pending and registered trademarks in countries including Canada, India, Japan, Israel, Mexico, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, as well as the U.S. and Europe, public records show. In December, the company applied for five trademarks, covering handbags and wallets in Puerto Rico, and lingerie and other clothes in the U.S. After the inauguration, the company filed four more applications, for branded clothing and shoes in the Philippines, and perfume and other items in Canada.

Trump did not sign off on the new trademark applications, her brand said in a statement, adding that they are “not necessarily an indication that the brand is planning to launch a category or a store in a specific territory.”

Whatever the future plans, right now sales are growing — helped, some argue, by the glow of Ivanka Trump’s political rise.

The G-III Apparel Group Ltd., which makes Ivanka Trump clothes, said net sales for the collection increased by $17.9 million during the year that ended Jan. 31.

The brand itself claims revenues rose 21 percent last year, with early February seeing some of the “best performance ever,” according to a statement by Abigail Klem, president of the Ivanka Trump brand. Because it is privately held, the brand does not have to declare its earnings or where revenues come from. The actual corporate structure of Trump’s retail business remains opaque. Kushner’s financial disclosure form lists two dozen corporate entities that appear directly related to his wife’s brand. Trump herself has yet to file a disclosure.

Data from Lyst, a massive fashion e-commerce platform, indicates some of this growth coincided with specific political events.

The number of Ivanka Trump items sold through Lyst was 46 percent higher the month her father was elected president than in November 2015. Sales spiked 771 percent in February over the same month last year, after White House counselor Kellyanne Conway exhorted Fox viewers to “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff.” Conway was later reprimanded. The bounce appears somewhat sustained. March sales on Lyst were up 262 percent over the same period last year.

“You can’t separate Ivanka from her role in life and from her business,” said Allen Adamson, founder of BrandSimpleConsulting. “Her celebrity status is now not only being fueled by her wealth and her family connection, but by her huge role in the White House. All that buzz is hardwired to her products.” That, he added, is a competitive advantage other brands just can’t match — though it does come with risk.

Things could easily cut the other way for the first daughter. Ashley King, 28 of Calabasas, California, bought Ivanka Trump black flats and a cardigan several years ago. But King, who voted for Hillary Clinton, said she believes Trump’s role in the White House represents a conflict of interest.

“This is bothering me more and more,” she said. As for the Ivanka Trump items in her closet, she said, “I will be donating them.”

___

Online:

Daily change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lyst – http://ift.tt/2ptK1zd

Monthly change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lsyt – http://ift.tt/2oHgZJl

The Ivanka Trump Collection Quarterly US Imports – http://ift.tt/2pu1uYi

Associated Press reporter Catherine Lucey in Washington, researcher Fu Ting in Shanghai, and reporters Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Teresa Cerojano in Manila and Elaine Kurtenbach in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Follow Kinetz on Twitter at twitter.com/ekinetz

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oRk37J

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rtscrndr53704 · 8 years ago

Text

Ivanka Trump Cleared Hurdle For Chinese Trademarks Same Day She Dined With Xi Jinping

“Put the business on hold and stop trying to get trademarks while you’re in government,” advised Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush.

To address ethical concerns, Trump has shifted the brand’s assets to a family-run trust valued at more than $50 million and pledged to recuse herself from issues that present conflicts.

Under the rules, Trump would recuse herself from conversations about duties on clothing imported from China, Gorelick said, but not broad foreign policy.

“In between, you have to assess it case-by-case,” she said.

Whatever the future plans, right now sales are growing — helped, some argue, by the glow of Ivanka Trump’s political rise.

The G-III Apparel Group Ltd., which makes Ivanka Trump clothes, said net sales for the collection increased by $17.9 million during the year that ended Jan. 31.

Data from Lyst, a massive fashion e-commerce platform, indicates some of this growth coincided with specific political events.

“This is bothering me more and more,” she said. As for the Ivanka Trump items in her closet, she said, “I will be donating them.”

___

Online:

Daily change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lyst – http://ift.tt/2ptK1zd

Monthly change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lsyt – http://ift.tt/2oHgZJl

The Ivanka Trump Collection Quarterly US Imports – http://ift.tt/2pu1uYi

Follow Kinetz on Twitter at twitter.com/ekinetz

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oRk37J

#DIYS

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dippedanddripped · 5 years ago

Link

There’s been a lot of hype building ahead of the launch of Stranger Things 3, the third installment of what was in 2016 something of a surprise hit for Netflix. Before the first season landed on the streaming platform, nobody could have predicted the love the show would elicit, turning it into a major brand in itself and hastening Netflix’s transformation into the veritable powerhouse it is today.

Almost immediately after Stranger Thingsappeared, marketplaces such as Etsy started listing product homages to the show and its characters, whose faces adorned tees, hoodies, tote bags, jewelry, and everything in between. Three years on, what began as fan-made fare has morphed into huge collaborations with some of the biggest players in the game. Nike has just unveiled a sneaker and apparel collection dedicated to the show. Coca-Cola is bringing back a failed ’80s beverage in honor of it. Levi’s has revealed an affiliated capsule. And Highsnobiety is readying the launch its own official Stranger Things 3 collection.

When the new season lands on Netflix tomorrow, July 4, the Highsnobiety x Stranger Things 3 collection will land with it. Our store will be selling eight new limited-edition garms that focus on key locations from the third season, such as Scoops Ahoy, the ice cream parlor where Steve now works, Starcourt Mall, where much of season three takes place, and other vital spots in Hawkins, Indiana.

The garments in our collaboration all feature a distinctly streetwear aesthetic, with graphics designed by Highsnobiety’s in-house team adorning the front, reverse, and sleeves on tees, hoodies, crewnecks, and long-sleeves. The pieces are contemporary but also serve as an emblem of nostalgia, as one cannot think of Stranger Things without acknowledging the myriad of ’80s references peppered throughout the show.

Last year, Vogue told us “Nostalgia Is Officially the Biggest Trend of 2018,” and in streetwear, that has been a fact for a while — and it doesn’t show any sign of slowing down.

In terms of TV-based hat-tips (or any other kind of garm-tip, for that matter), the last few years have seen Supreme pay homage to Pink Panther, a franchise that’s been going since the ’60s. Off-White™ was one of many brands to champion The Simpsons. fragment design incorporated Pokémon. Nike created Friends and Entourage kicks. adidas developed silhouettes in collaboration with HBO for Game of Thrones. Streetwear brand Dumbgood boasts an entire business model dedicated to repping TV shows, movies, and books — the more nostalgic, niche, and pop-culturally relevant, the better.

It’s crucial to note that these aren’t brands that will slap any old graphic on a T-shirt and call it a day. They are serious labels with meticulously curated collections. Brands’ decisions to incorporate nods to a particular show in their seasonal selections aren’t made in haste, and that says a lot about how the appreciation for quality TV has grown in recent years.

The increase in coveted merch is, in part, a tangible side-effect of TV’s growth as an auteurist medium, one the brands mentioned above have sought to align themselves with, shifting fandom from the watercooler to the streets. But it hasn’t always been this way.

To fully appreciate the shift, you only have to cast your mind back to the era many of us channel in our daily aesthetic, the ’90s, and to a little show called Friends. To say Friends was successful is, of course, a ridiculous understatement; it changed TV comedy forever. When it premiered in 1994, it flipped the sitcom format upside down. It didn’t revolve around a family or a workplace. It wasn’t wholesome. It gave the audience something that felt real, something they could relate to.

But when Nike made a Friends sneaker in the mid ’90s, it didn’t even make it onto shelves. The silhouette was a sample for cast and crew only. Nobody really knew the shoe existed until Sean Wotherspoon featured it on his Instagram account early last year. The same goes for the super-rare shoes Nike created in celebration of Seinfeld and Home Improvement. These sneakers were simple, branded kicks that paid homage to the biggest TV comedies of the era, yet they never made it into circulation.

However, as Nike’s Friends version of Kyrie Irving’s signature Kyrie 5 basketball sneaker showed when it dropped in May this year, people are now ready to listen. The Kyrie 5 “Friends” debuted 15 years after the show’s finale and landed straight on our round-up of standout TV and movie-inspired kicks. When Wotherspoon put his ’90s Friends sample on Instagram, the post clocked almost 35,000 likes. Clearly the sneaker industry and its customer base have changed a lot between the two releases.

This thought is reinforced by Jeff Peters, HBO’s VP of licensing and retail, who was directly involved in the Game of Thrones x adidas collaboration released ahead of the fantasy show’s final season. “There was a time when television shows couldn’t really get a whole lot of attention in that type of business. As an art form, as a medium, [it] has certainly grown in both prestige and in audience. That really has shifted,” he says.

Peters also highlights how pop culture has embraced genre shows such as Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, and other fantasy, sci-fi, or horror series. “The public out there is really interested in those type of stories,” he says. “Game of Thrones has proven that a fantasy story can be a massive blockbuster, and that is a shift and a change.”

As a consequence, merch in general, including music merch, is changing, becoming more than an item of clothing and instead representing a lifestyle. Warner Music Group senior director Felix Carrasco told Fashionista in December last year that “[merch] has been taken to a new level for the next generation at the moment. Everything is much more on point.”

In a world where media assets, whether albums, TV shows, or movies, are all available digitally, with streaming services eradicating the need to buy a physical product, customers are looking for new ways to connect themselves to culture in a meaningful and authentic way. They’re seeking a way to reflect their interests when the shelves in our homes are becoming increasingly unrepresentative of our cultural tastes.

Naturally, this not only changes the approach to how merch is made but also how it’s marketed. In the Fashionista article linked above, Mat Vlasic, CEO of Universal Music Group’s Bravado merch division, added, “We’re working with our artists to think differently about merchandise. It has evolved from keepsake beginnings to powerful extensions of their personality and brand.”

When asked how the increasing alignment between pop culture and the fashion industry is affecting TV marketing, Peters adds, “I think it really depends on the show and the content of [it. Collaborations] work best when there is something worth celebrating. You have to think about it that way and not just do one for every single show, as it would eventually dilute itself.”

And not only are the contents of a show “something worth celebrating,” but also those involved in making it. Stranger Things is a perfect example, with its gang of teen stars carrying enormous clout.

For example, in 2017, Millie Bobby Brown, who stars as Eleven, signed with IMG Models, fronted a Calvin Klein campaign, and sat beside A$AP Rocky at Raf Simons’ Calvin Klein FW17 show in New York. She also, alongside co-stars Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas) and Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), met with Louis Vuitton womenswear creative director Nicolas Ghesquière at the brand’s Paris HQ in 2016.

Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike, is also making waves. He is currently fronting Anthony Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent FW19 campaign, channeling major ’70s Bob Dylan vibes. He has also designed his own capsule collection for Pull&Bear, complete with tie-dye tops, tube socks, and dark wash denim. A quick scroll through his Instagram feed reveals a bunch of fire fits, too.

Ditto McLaughlin, who regularly posts shots of his personal style, whether that involves being decked out in new Nike silhouettes, Louis Vuitton boots, MSFTSrep hoodies, or his own merch line Be Your Biggest Fan.

These three factors — TV’s increased validity as an art form, the lifestyle-ification of merch, and the clout of affiliated stars — have merged with streetwear’s new position as an influencer of high fashion, uniting to give us merchandise with a new kind of appeal. And that’s something Highsnobiety is excited to be part of.

#stranger things #streetwear #streetwear blog

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fmm85 · 4 years ago

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Home goods

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#CryptoBlog #Bitcoin #Crypto #Cryptocurrencies #Markets #money

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realestate63141 · 8 years ago

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Ivanka Trump Cleared Hurdle For Chinese Trademarks Same Day She Dined With Xi Jinping

“Put the business on hold and stop trying to get trademarks while you’re in government,” advised Richard Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush.

To address ethical concerns, Trump has shifted the brand’s assets to a family-run trust valued at more than $50 million and pledged to recuse herself from issues that present conflicts.

Under the rules, Trump would recuse herself from conversations about duties on clothing imported from China, Gorelick said, but not broad foreign policy.

“In between, you have to assess it case-by-case,” she said.

Whatever the future plans, right now sales are growing — helped, some argue, by the glow of Ivanka Trump’s political rise.

The G-III Apparel Group Ltd., which makes Ivanka Trump clothes, said net sales for the collection increased by $17.9 million during the year that ended Jan. 31.

Data from Lyst, a massive fashion e-commerce platform, indicates some of this growth coincided with specific political events.

“This is bothering me more and more,” she said. As for the Ivanka Trump items in her closet, she said, “I will be donating them.”

___

Online:

Daily change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lyst – http://ift.tt/2ptK1zd

Monthly change in Ivanka Trump’s orders on Lsyt – http://ift.tt/2oHgZJl

The Ivanka Trump Collection Quarterly US Imports – http://ift.tt/2pu1uYi

Follow Kinetz on Twitter at twitter.com/ekinetz

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2oRk37J

#DIYS

0 notes