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15 September 2023
Author: The Future Laboratory
Image: Toi Toi Toi Creative Studio for Contentful. Photography by Koy+Winkel, Germany
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Gucci, New Bond Street, UK
UK – Italian luxury giant Gucci opened its new flagship store and exclusive salons on London’s prestigious New Bond Street in September 2023. The 15,000-square-feet megastore, located in a historical Grade II-listed building, marks a significant development in Gucci’s brand strategy.
The store’s layout is designed to prioritise Gucci’s most luxury-focused customers, offering an elevated shopping experience. The ground floor showcases a range of products, including handbags, footwear, fine jewellery and more. But the store’s true innovation lies on its upper levels. The fragrance and timepieces sections are complemented by a mezzanine floor housing the Gucci Valigeria travel collection, while a Tudor Room on this floor will exhibit items from Gucci’s archive in Florence.
The crowning jewel of the store is Europe’s first Gucci Salon on the top floor, which made its debut in Los Angeles earlier this year. This VIP space is designed to resemble an elegant home, and offers made-to-measure and made-to-order pieces, and promotes intimate, personalised interactions with the brand for its top-tier clients. The opening of such a VIP space underlines the growing importance of catering to Guilded Luxury clients in retail, as discussed in Five Luxury Brands Recrafting Heritage In-Store.
US – Designing clothes for plus-size bodies can be a challenging task, requiring specific tailoring and pattern-making skills – and education. With the launch of two dedicated courses in autumn 2023, the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) aims to train the plus-size fashion creatives of tomorrow.
The New York-based college is introducing two courses developed by Mallorie Dunn, a plus-size fashion design expert and founder of the clothing brand SmartGlamour. One focuses on small business production while the second centres on inclusive pattern-making. By making its curriculum more inclusive, the FIT hopes to give future fashion industry leaders the tools necessary to push the industry forward in catering for every body. ‘My inclusive class will cover real-life statistics and sizes. Students will also be able to fit their trial pattern and final garment on a plus-size fit model in line with the average plus-size consumer,’ Dunn told Teen Vogue.
While fashion has been making strides in inclusivity, the sector is still riddled with fatphobia. Education is key to bridging the gap between current unrealistic standards and the real needs of a US market where the average consumer is plus size.
Universal Standard, US
The Face Represents (TFR), UK
UK – The Face magazine (published under Wasted Talent) has launched The Face Represents (TFR), a one-of-a-kind agency offering bespoke talent representation, curation and artist services.
Intended to bridge the gap between talent, brands and fans, TFR uses The Face’s reputation for finding and platforming under-the-radar talent across the creative industries. The initial roster includes musicians Beabadoobee and Annahstasia, and sustainable fashion designer Freya McKee.
‘For the Face’s entire history, we’ve always been about finding the most talented, forward-thinking people – not just the biggest – and letting them tell their story to a wider audience. But increasingly, the people that we work with are operating outside the system and need to find new ways of connecting with our industry’s most innovative brands,’ managing director Dan Flower told WWD.
As explored in our Elastic Brands report, embracing flexibility and diversifying offerings to remain relevant amid rising inflation and budget cuts is crucial for brands. TFR is the second such initiative for Wasted Talent and The Face, following Accelerator, an in-house TikTok talent agency that was launched in March 2021.
As our offices become more social, intimate and personal, our homes are becoming more collaborative, corporate, commercial and hybrid.
But our living spaces are also becoming the real battleground for brands – with consumers demanding new kinds of intimacy, service and regenerative practices, and brands delivering these through transformative experience and superlative service.
Our Home States Futures macrotrend will highlight a new approach to viewing the home as an active and concentrated retail and lifestyle eco-system. It will become a hub that brands must target, woo and win over in precise and interconnected ways. To conquer this home-centric market, brands may appoint chief household officers and businesses will need to coordinate conversations, find synergies and create clear cross-selling strategies.
Join our in-house team, invited experts and global panellists at our Home States Futures online event on 19 October 2023 from 4:30pm to 5:30pm BST as we examine the future home – in terms of how we broker time, maximise wellbeing, re-assess usage, reduce waste, embrace data and develop new ways to side-hustle revenues from our sitting rooms.
Ketut Subiyanto
