Plus-size apparel collaborations started to take off in earnest more than a decade ago, around 2014, with designers and celebrities like Isabel Toledo, Lela Rose, Ashley Graham, and Gabi Gregg leading the charge. The trend evolved quickly, moving from addressing a gap in the marketplace with the creation of specialized plus-size collections to including plus-size […]
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Country Roads Lead To Home
Country music, always a strong genre in the recording and concert industry and in consumer products, has been having a moment in pop culture. Collaborations between country musicians and artists from other genres are topping the charts, as are country songs from soloists known for other styles of music. Meanwhile, country singers are increasingly breaking […]
Clothing Confections
By Karen Raugust on October 31, 2024 in Accessories, Corporate brands, Fashion, Food/Beverage, Licensing
Candy brands have long been participants in fashion collaborations, but they seem to be experiencing a particularly active period in this space these days. Designs tend to go all-in on prominently featuring the shapes, colors, mascots, and packaging associated with the IP, and the focus is largely—but not entirely—on accessories categories, in part because consumers […]
A Focus on Hearth and Home
Licensing has its cyclical ups and downs in every category, and it has been on a definite upswing over the past few years in the home goods sector. Recently, three high-profile celebrities have added their names to the list, each with extensive home goods programs or plans, with a focus on the kitchen. None has […]
Making the Grade with Expanded Dorm Décor
In social media communities frequented by college-bound teens and young adults, dorm room décor is experiencing something of a golden age. Influencers and designers have been highlighting ideas for small spaces like dorm rooms and first apartments, students themselves have been gaining social media fame for sharing their creative college living spaces—sometimes put together at […]
Black Beauty
By Karen Raugust on April 21, 2022 in Demographic groups, Diversity/Inclusion, Health/beauty, Licensing, Retail
Retailers’ beauty departments represent one area where progress has been made on the road toward more diversity, equity, and inclusion over the past two years, and change continues. While each effort is unique, in general retailers have diversified their product mix to make more offerings available for women of all colors and skin and hair […]
New Ways to Feather the Nest
Retailers of all types have been expanding their home assortments since shortly after the start of the pandemic. This is a logical move, as consumers have been doing more DIY projects; redecorating their nests to create comfortable sanctuaries; reconfiguring to accommodate home offices, schooling, and outdoor entertaining; and sometimes filling the blank slate of a […]
Full Circle
The apparel and retail industries’ embrace of circular fashion—the reduction of waste by using materials for as long as possible, such as through reuse, recycling, and/or upcycling—has been a hot topic in the last couple of years. As time goes on, it seems more and more certain that these techniques are here to stay, one […]
Retailers Rethink Beauty
Four of the major U.S. mid-tier and mass retailers are launching new beauty concepts, three this month and one in the fall. All have in common a focus on younger shoppers, synergies between in-store and online executions, and an emphasis on products for consumers of all ethnicities. The goal is to capture new consumers at […]
A Little Help From Your Friends
A number of retailers have set up programs in which they assist their customers in supporting healthcare workers, their neighbors, or their broader communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. These initiatives are primarily charitable, but they bring marketing and sometimes sales benefits as well: Walmart teamed with NextDoor, a social networking app for neighborhoods, for a […]