Brands

This Friday saw the launch of a new empire for 15 year old Russian fashion Czarina Kira Plastinina as she opens her first US store in New Yorks trendy Soho area. Plastinina, who currently owns 40 stores in Russia, the Ukraine and Kazakhstan, was on hand with her Millionaire Wimm-Bill-Dan co-founder father to inaugurate the store and greet the press. Decked out in her own designs, Plastinina looked every bit the part of a Princess, with her white track suited father (cell phone in hand) as the dutiful king.

Though originally made possible through funding by her father, the Kira Plastinina line is now a multimillion-dollar franchise with more US stores opening on the west coast later this month. The stores interiors are reminiscent of the inside of a young girls room, with the second floor of the New York flagship actually housing a Queen size bed adorned with zebra fur and hot pink pillows. The walls, which are decorated with unfortunate images of Plastinina’s muse Paris Hilton, are also painted with tradition Russian textiles- in hot pink and silver. The clothing itself could be described as young and flashy looking, with nylon jumpsuits and lycra dresses priced reasonable enough to afford with a weekly allowance and perfect for a night out on the town in Moscow or LA.

In addition to clothing and accessories, the store also contains a series of Kira Plastinina chocolate bars as part of a collaboration with confectionary titan Dylan’s Candy bar. On hand to document your shopping experience, the store has even installed a photobooth and video recorder where you can take pictures, make a short film, or give your congrats to Kira.

While many have doubted how successful a line of uber-girlie clothing targeting tweens will be in a market already saturated with competitors such as Forever 21, Delia’s, and H&M, if the line of people crowding the register within hours of the stores opening are any indicator the American fashion market may be in for a new cold war.

Address: 594 Broadway, NYC

Contributed by Laura Feinstein

With an estimated 350,000+ millionaires in China, the country now ranks #2 in Asia behind Japan in this measure of wealth. Advertisements for jewelry, watches and other luxury goods line the streets in major Chinese cities as companies look to cash in on the boom in East Asia riches.

Telegraph reports that Switzerland-based luxury goods retailer Richemont, whose companies include Cartier, Montblanc and Piaget, posted a 16% growth in sales in the year to the end of March. Richemont’s sales were driven by the Asia-Pacific region which grew by 21% compared with 12% in the Europe and 3% in the Americas.

Telegraph: Asia Sparkles for Richemont

While many of the most prominent energy efficiency projects have taken off in Western countries, efforts to reduce energy in Asia may be even more crucial as it has solidified itself as the factory of the world. We have previously covered Nike’s eco-projects and now we find Nike driving an energy efficiency effort in Asia. The first phase of an Nike project to identify the biggest energy saving opportunities has now been completed for their footware suppliers.

According to “Nike’s Energy Efficiency Update 2008,” there were three key findings:

• Energy-efficiency opportunities were dramatically different between the two contract factories. This finding ruled out the opportunity to take a “cut and paste” approach, requiring Nike to conduct energy assessments for each footwear contract manufacturing factory, prolonging this phase of the work.
• The complexity of footwear manufacturing infrastructure is staggering, containing more than 15,500 motors, 10,000 light bulbs, 6,000 sewing machines, four separate compressor farms, six separate chillers and many large boilers.
• Additional work by an energy-efficiency expert is necessary to develop a “blueprint” for implementing energy efficiency within individual footwear contract manufacturing factories. which can be easily applied to implementing energy efficiency within footwear contract manufacturing.

Nike is planning to layout their energy-reducing goals for pilot suppliers May 31, 2008.

Nike: Energy Efficiency Update 2008

[via Sustainable Life Media]

As a publisher we know there will always be articles you agree or disagree with but we hope the subjects we choose to write about are picked as a considered decision. We have mentioned before that the ‘cool’ and ‘design’ blogs aren’t making as many considered decisions about their editorial as they ought to and we want to revisit the discussion on the role of these sites and whether they have any responsibility to reflect in their content current sentiment towards not only environmental issues but also socio-political concerns.

Last Wednesday (April 9), the team at PSFK flew to San Francisco on Virgin America and as we took off we watched on the satellite TVs the debacle of the Olympic flame procession in the city we were about to visit. While protesters didn’t cause the mayhem that took place in London and Paris, they certainly won the day in San Francisco by causing one of the most embarrassing Olympic events we could remember.

Only a few days later on Sunday April 13 during our trawl of the RSSes, we found a post about Nike’s new Olympic range on the rather popular and influential NotCot blog. Now we know many of you love NotCot and we will say that Jean Aw does a great job in finding amazing new items to feature on her site - but the posting and celebration of Nike’s Olympic products so close to the Olympic flame protests made us think about the role cool and design blogs have as voices in our global community.

There is already a concern about cool and trends blogs and their celebration of consumption in a time of environmental debate (although sometimes you may not notice it). Now, the emerging question is whether alongside mainstream green-concern, the cool and design blogs need to also consider popular socio-political attitudes in their publishing? What seems to have happened is that in a rush to post content from an ‘exclusive’ Nike press event, NotCot failed to consider any current global sentiment against China, the Olympics and the brands associated with both.

We’re not saying that NotCot and any others shouldn’t write about Olympic associated products but if they’re going to fawn over a shiny pair of riding boots, then do so with a considered decision that you’re going against shared attitudes of many of your readers.

Thoughts and comments?

(Jean Aw of NotCot declined to answer our questions about this subject)

The idea of a natural terrain snow resort might seem a bit of a cliche when it’s already sat in a natural habitat but Jake Burtons doesn’t think so. His new un-bulldozed concept has now launched in Avoriaz. Labeled as Europe’s first eco-fun Park, it is a haven of soft snow and wood for the more concerned boarder. The project has also a park in Tahoe US.

The Stash

Contributed by Pete Serjeant

High-street clothing brand Ted Baker have opened a new concept store in the heart of London’s financial district to appeal to local time-poor, bonus-rich trader boys. The store aims to be a one-stop-shop for the modern man, offering an array of services alongside their clothing ranges including an in-store barber courtesy of King of Shaves Pro, a tailor for any immediate alterations, a pay-as-you-go concierge service from Cushion The Impact available through the phone boxes dotted around the store, and a shoe shine service from social enterprise Street Shine which gives people who have experienced homelessness a chance to earn a regular income. A partnership with Carphone Warehouse also sees the inclusion of ‘The Laboratory’ technology lounge displaying Ted Baker branded phones in antique luggage cases.

With the signature quirky take on Old-English design, the store holds an interesting combination of additional extras: although services to aid consumer beautification are nothing new, an immediate and affordable concierge is a genius addition, as is involving a social mission that sits so comfortably alongside the brand identity.

via GQ Style Spy

As the outdoor advertising backlash rages and cities look to ban billboards, Diesel are stepping up their outdoor art campaign with the launch this year of Diesel Wall in four new destinations: Manchester, Barcelona, Zurich and NY. An art competition on a monumental scale, the company offers budding artists and designers from all over the world the chance to exhibit their work on the side of buildings and giant walls in the city centers. Their manifesto states:

In any given moment in our daily lives we are bombarded by messages we didn’t ask to see. A never ending stream of mass produced cerebral pollution offering at absolute best nothing more than needless want. Diesel Wall was born out of a need to salvage what precious public space is left and to fill it with something worth saying. We will take your powers of disuasion; your ability to disrupt; incite; excite; inspire and intrigue; to make comment; to make beautiful; to make real; to make people think again.

The ultimate goal of Diesel Wall is to create a fusion between the private space of galleries/institutions and the open space of the city…to drive new direction in urban landscapes and recharge them with creativity.

Unlike other art competitions, this one focuses on creating site-specific art specifically for the chosen walls, all of which can be seen in their naked state on the website alongside background information, technical specifications and a location map. Designs can be submitted from 31st March and if you’re in Manchester or Manhattan watch out for the winning creations arriving in mid May.

Diesel Wall

With the upcoming summer Olympics in Beijing and a growing consumer market, sportswear brands are fiercely battling it out in China to find the right mix of Western and Chinese elements in their designs. The Wall Street Journal profiles the efforts of Nike and Adidas, two of the biggest players who are experimenting with new design elements such as Chinese characters, images, colors and athletes to find that uniquely “Chinese” style.

Nike has recently introduced a new line called 1984, which commemorates the first year China participated in the Olympics under the Communist government. Nike is also playing on nationalistic sentiment with its slogan of 起来前进 (”rise and advance”), a phrase frequently used to describe China’s development over the past 50 years. In terms of spokesmen, Nike’s face for the Olympics is Liu Xiang, the gold medal hurdler and one of the most familiar faces on the streets of Shanghai. Other sponsored athletes are the Milwaukee Bucks’ Yi Jianlian, tennis player Li An and swimmer Wu Peng.

Adidas, who has spent more than $80 million to become an official partner of the Olympics is the official outfitter for China’s medal winners and ran a competition to design the athletes’ attire. The director of Adidas Creation Center in Shanghai says that having a design center in Shanghai “enables us to be closer to the Chinese consumer, to understand emerging trends within sports and to design and develop concepts on shorter timelines.”

Balancing Chinese cultural elements with Western design is a delicate act that has resulted in embarrassment and nationalist backlash before in China. However, for sportswear brands in China, the risk is worth the potential reward. Terry Rhoads, managing director of Zou Marketing, a Shanghai-based sports-marketing firm, explains that the companies “will do whatever they can to tell the story, ‘we were the partner in China’s greatest sporting moment…It’s a huge battle.”

WSJ: Stylish Sportswear With Designs on China

[via Next Great Thing]

The United Colors of Benetton has teamed up with Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour for a global campaign in support of Birima, a micro-credit program in Senegal that was founded by the singer. Similar to other micro-finance organizations like Kiva, Birima offers zero interest loans to Senegalese entrepreneurs to get their projects off ground. Additionally, borrowers also receive assistance from Birima advisors on their project and collectively develop a business plan with them.

The campaign features some stunning portraits of Senegalese workers who have used their loans to start up their own businesses. Photographer James Mollison portrayed them with the tools of their trade against a white background in an attempt to represent the “tangible symbols of an Africa that uses the dignity of work to fight poverty, promote equitable development, maximize its resources and take back responsibility for creating its future.”

According to the press release:

…Compared to normal micro-crediting, Birima grants higher loans for a longer period of time provided the submitted project has a positive effect on the community and can guarantee profits and development. Senegal was chosen for the pilot project because it is one of the most stable African countries, albeit with significant differences in income among the population. From Senegal, Birima’s style of advanced credit will be gradually exported to other African nations.

Core concepts of Benetton’s advertising are reiterated in this new campaign. By supporting and promoting a fund to finance work in Senegal, Benetton underlines the importance of co-operating with organizations dedicated to solidarity. At the same time, the campaign emphasizes how the commitment of a single person can put the wheels in motion to generate change in society as a whole.

Africa Works