Trends

Three’s a trend – Burberry opens experiential ‘Beauty Box’ store in Covent Garden



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The fashionisation of beauty is rolling along at a jolly pace isn’t it? Following both Chanel and Dior with their standalone luxury beauty stores comes Burberry and its all-singing-all-dancing Beauty Box. The store opened yesterday in Covent Garden’s King Street selling make-up, perfume and accessories.

From the entry-level nail polishes and perfumes plus associated sunnies, scarves and bags, it’s but a short jump to the coveted trench or coat. And thus (the mega-brands hope) a loyal customer for life.

Naturally, a Burberry store isn’t a Burberry store without some digital wizardry at play. So if you haven’t time for a mini mani, try the Digital Runway Nail Bar instead. This ‘playful virtual experience’ lets you try the latest Burberry runway shades by placing the polish onto a radio-frequency identification-enabled platform to match your skin tone to the required colour.

OK, I’m not actually sure what a radio-frequency identification-enabled platform is but it sounds sufficiently snazzy enough for me to seek it out next time I’m in WC2…



Nike Fuelband for the luxury millenial



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Vanessa Friedman wrote about wearables in the FT yesterday, suggesting that tech companies need to get fashion people on board if they want their wearables to look halfway decent. I’d say Nike is ahead of the curve in this sense, it’s just released its Nike FuelBand SE in a very luxe-looking black version accented with rose gold. (more…)



Feelgood fashion? Oh MyGoodness!



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Here’s something a little different for Cyber Monday. If you want to join in the excitement, boost the economy, and give back, then why not do your shopping at MyGoodness.com? It’s the latest in social enterpriseĀ and means you can scratch the shopping itch while giving something back.

How it works is that for everything you buy, either the brand or the MyGoodness team will donate a percentage of the price to a cause or charity that they currently support. ‘Philanthropic retail’ (think TOMS and Gandys Flipflops) is becoming more common, but it helps that what MyGoodness stocks on the site is an edit of really well chosen products (including fashion, beauty, home, tech and books).

To add another twist, MyGoodness also sells ‘Money can’t buy experiences’ which translates as things like meeting a favourite artist backstage or having dinner with a superstar chef.

On the site right now, you can buy this Clarisonic Plus, this 3.1 Phillip Lim ’31 Minute’ clutch and this Uniform Wares 200 Series Calendar watch (above), all with 10% of the price going to Chickenshed, the children’s threatre charity. Interested? Click here more feelgood fashion from MyGoodness.

 



Contrasts and contradictions at the London Edition hotel



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Does London really need another luxury hotel? Probably not, but the new London Edition in Berners Street hopes to offer something different. Berners Street is an odd one. At one end is the Sanderson Hotel and Alison Jacques Gallery while the other boasts the not-so-posh end of Oxford Street and the Topshop HQ. (more…)