Each year, mainstream retailers are offering wider collections of Hanukkah merchandise, focused mostly on gifts, entertaining, and traditional items used during the holiday (and some other Jewish celebrations). Over the years, licensed or collaborative products have occasionally been found within these assortments, but the examples have been few and far between and the number of […]
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In and Out of the Kitchen
Several celebrity chefs have recently forged agreements with retailers to extend their names into home goods. Some are entering the category for the first time. Others are expanding existing deals focused on cookware and dinnerware by adding lifestyle categories such as bedding and furniture that take them well beyond the kitchen: Chef and TikTok influencer […]
A Budding Celebrity Sector
Celebrity floral designers are frequent collaborators with floral delivery services, local florists, subscription floral boxes, and the like. Recently, a few have started to expand their scope of collaboration slightly by pairing with non-floral-specialist brands or retailers, sometimes even extending into categories beyond flowers, albeit mostly still with a close connection to their core area […]
Worth Their Weight
Licensed merchandise and content designed to reduce stress and anxiety have been on the upswing, from mindfulness content (e.g., Headspace’s Sesame Street video shorts) to role-play costumes designed to explore emotions (e.g., Fun World’s new Ninja Life Hacks range). While the pandemic certainly heightened the desire for goods such as these, the trend was ongoing […]
Home Sweet Home
Some of the most established names in fashion have recently forged licensing or collaboration deals in the home furnishings category. A few are entering the sector for the first time, others are re-entering the arena after a pause, and still others are expanding their programs. While home goods represent a common category for fashion labels, […]
The Rise of Anti-COVID Soft Goods
Since April, when it started to become evident that the coronavirus would likely stay around for a while, technology companies, fabric suppliers, and research institutions, as well as soft goods brands, began introducing anti-viral fabrics to repel SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—for use in apparel and home textiles. Anti-viral, anti-microbial, and anti-fungal fabrics have been […]