Somali-American activists recently scored a victory against Amazon and against colourism, which is prejudice based on preference for people with lighter skin tones. Members of the non-profit The Beautywell Project teamed up with the Sierra Club to convince the online retail giant to stop selling skin lightening products that contain mercury. After more than a...
Fashion
From Gucci to Supreme: Fashion Brands Are Tapping into Disney’s $60 Billion Merch Machine
Disney is not just for kids. That seemed to be a clear takeaway when Gucci sent a $4,500 plastic purse in the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head down the runway at Le Palace in Paris as part of its Spring/Summer 2019 collection. As it turns out, the appearance of one of Disney’s most well-known characters...
John Galliano’s Newspaper Print is Getting the Fast Fashion Treatment 20 Years Later
Twenty years after John Galliano first turned newspaper printed textiles into garments under the name of his Paris-based eponymous brand, as well as that of Christian Dior, Pretty Little Thing (“PLT”) decided to try its hand at it. The result? The Manchester-based fast fashion retailer – which has built a thriving business thanks to an...
2019 Came to a Close With Developments in the Cases Against Emily Ratajkowski, Kendall Jenner Over Fyre Fest
Months after the dust settled on Fyre Festival, the “luxury” music festival gone awry, and after the failed-festival’s attendees had lodged their individual multi-million dollar lawsuits, citing everything from negligence to fraud, a handful of new lawsuits were filed in conjunction with the bankruptcy filing of Fyre Festival LLC. In a quest to recover the $16 million-plus...
Luxury Consumption Can Fuel ‘Impostor Syndrome’ Among Some Buyers
Purchasing luxury goods can affirm buyers’ sense of status and enjoyment of items like fancy cars or fine jewelry. However, for many consumers, luxury purchases can fail to ring true, sparking feelings of inauthenticity that fuel what researchers have labeled the “impostor syndrome” among luxury consumers. “Luxury can be a double-edged sword,” write Boston College...
More than 60% of Counterfeit Fashion Purchases Were Knowingly Made by Consumers, Per New Study
Fashion – from Louis Vuitton and Hermeś bags to Off-White t-shirts and Chanel shoes – has once again topped the list of some of the most heavily-targeted types of goods by counterfeiters, and some of the most frequently purchased types of products by consumers. That is what the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development...
French Luxury Giants Among the Potential Targets of U.S. Government’s Proposed Tariffs on $2.4 Billion-Worth of Imports
A whopping $2.4 billion-worth of imports from France are set to be taxed by the U.S., putting coveted luxury goods in the crossfire of a bi-national fight over a new French digital services tax. In a statement on Monday, the Trump administration threatened a 100 percent increase in French import taxes in connection with its...
Pantone: How One Company Built a Business Turning Color Into Cash
Headquartered about an hour outside of Manhattan in Carlstadt, New Jersey, a company called Pantone categorizes color and sells it. Founded in the 1950s by brothers Morris and Jesse Levine as a commercial printing company, M&J Levine Advertising evolved into something else entirely by the 60s when employee Lawrence Herbert revamped the business’s ink and printing division, introduced...
Monopolizing and Monetizing a Color: What is the Value of Tiffany & Co.’s Trademark Blue Hue?
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton is vying for Tiffany & Co. The Paris-based luxury goods conglomerate made a $14.5 billion play for the American jewelry stalwart last month, in furtherance of a quest to bolster its offerings in the fast-growing jewelry market. Just as analysts predicted, Tiffany’s board reportedly rejected LVMH’s initial, unsolicited offer to seek a...
Zac Posen’s Former CFO is Suing the Recently-Shuttered Brand For Unpaid Wages, Expenses
The demise of the Zac Posen brand is not coming without at least one lawsuit, which sheds some light into the winding down of the famed fashion brand. It turns out that a few weeks before Zac Posen announced that it would shutter after 20 years in business, the New York-based womenswear brand favored by supermodels,...