Kyle Chayka: Apolis, Monocle, and the branding of the ‘Placeless Aesthetic’.
Mobility and rootlessness have become aspirational touchpoints––waves that some brands, like Apolis and the experimental LOT-2046, are all too happy to ride. (833 words)
Market briefing: Breaking down the Scandinavian modern luxury economy.
Fleshing out a key modern luxury market. Scandinavia’s minimalist heritage is a core aesthetic tenant of the modern luxury space, and the crop of brands that the region’s producing, while small in number, is of superb quality. (1,091 words)
Tracking Kit and Ace: A timeline of embarrassing failures stretching back to February 2016.
Having just shuttered 36 out of 45 total stores last week, Kit and Ace’s aim of opening 95 global stores by 2019 (and taking out $300M in debt to do so) is over. This is just the latest in a consistent series of embarrassing missteps since early 2016. (837 words)
Tyler Brûlé’s retail projections: Bullish on Walmart, bearish on Farfetch.
On the back of Walmart’s aggressive e-commerce acquisition spree, and Farfetch’s newfangled Store of the Future concept, we spoke with the Monocle man about why US and European retail is failing, how it can be fixed, and why the Japanese still to get it right. (1,267 words)
Airbnb of pop-ups: London’s Appear Here expands to the US, continues its big international push.
Pop-ups are far less of a novelty play today, and Appear Here is a big reason why. We spoke to CEO Ross Bailey who talked about the opportunity in the US market, the promise of LA and New York, and the mechanics of launching Appear Here in new cities. (1,392 words)
The Bonobos-Walmart saga: Marc Lore is quickly proving to be Walmart’s man of 2017.
There’s been plenty of analysis on the pending deal since last week. Yet one thing is becoming abundantly clear in this narrative: In former Jet.com CEO Marc Lore, Walmart has a snarling e-commerce pitbull. (562 words)
Meet the new luxury shopper (according to McKinsey).
McKinsey’s key finding, summed up in a single idea: It’s a consumer centric market now, and with so much choice, shoppers are far less loyal than they used to be. (411 words)
TLDR – A decade into BoF, chief Imran Amed is all the rage.
GQ published a killer profile on the fashion world’s new media darling, the “bird-like” Imran Ahmed. We’ve broken it down to bring you the key TLDR highlights. Remix! (933 words)
Floyd locked up a $875K seed round last year (but didn’t tell anyone). Here’s what you need to know.
In something of a delayed fundraising announcement, we spoke to co-founder Alex O’Dell, who filled us in on the furniture brand’s unpublicized $875K seed round from May 2016 led by LZB Investments and Airbnb’s Joe Gebbia. (886 words)
Farfetch’s Store of the Future: A strategic hedge against the e-commerce plateau.
Farfetch’s Store of the Future concept set off a bevy of mentions, analyses, and reactions. We’ve poured through the Business of Fashion, Quartz, and the New York Times to put the idea into context. (1,156 words)
