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YSL champions anti-aspirational skincare

Nu by YSL Beauty

Paris – With its new range of makeup-meet-skincare products, the luxury beauty brand is moving away from the more-is-more approach to beauty that has long dominated the industry. Paradoxically, its new line, Nu, is built on a foundation of enhancing, rather than covering up, skin imperfections.

YSL has created the line to highlight people’s skin signature – or attributes such as freckles, dark circles and uneven textures. The products include a Bare Look Tint, which offers light facial coverage, and a fine Dewy Mist to hydrate skin. The collection is explicitly aimed at Generation Z, who are known for their celebration of natural beauty flaws. According to Laetitia Raoust, general manager of YSL Beauty, ‘this new generation of products are focused on enhancing, rather than hiding, our consumers’ unique beauty signatures.’

With its less-is-more mindset, YSL is recognising the importance of Enhanced Natural Beauty while also using flaw-positive marketing to reach Anti-aspirational Gen Z beauty buyers.

Strategic opportunity

Gen Z are leaving idealised beauty standards in the past, and brands are playing catch-up. Eradicate marketing language that drives perfection, while also allowing your products to highlight people’s natural idiosyncrasies

Ganni films tout the longevity of pre-loved fashion

Old + New = Now by Ganni and Vestiaire

Paris – As fashion resale accelerates globally, there is a growing opportunity to encourage shoppers to mix old and new in order to create unique outfit combinations – something cult Danish fashion brand Ganni is endorsing through a new partnership with premium resale platform Vestiare Collective.

Embracing retailtainment, Ganni and Vestiare are using their respective social media and YouTube platforms to showcase a video series called OLD + NEW = NOW, featuring fashion influencers showing how they integrate pre-loved Ganni items from past seasons into their current wardrobes. In this way, Ganni is seeking to revive and promote older Ganni styles available on the Vestiare platform, while also touting the longevity of the brand’s designs.

For Vestiare, the collaboration marks the first time it has used video as a medium to promote its stock and highlights the power of video as a promising tool for sellers – something we recently explored in our interview with Gen Z-facing resale platform Galaxy. Furthermore, video is allowing resale sites to better showcase the finer details of garments – as well as promote circular peer-to-peer fashion behaviours.

Strategic opportunity

People are looking for relatable personalities to talk them through products or services, with video becoming a natural format to share informative, inspiring and creative content for retail brands

Sweden is building a resident-powered one-minute city

Sweden – Going above and beyond the 15-minute city, the Scandinavian country is planning to redesign each one of its streets in an initiative called Street Moves. Through workshops and consultations, local residents will become co-architects, determining how future street space is used.

The scheme is being piloted by Vinnova, a Swedish national innovation body, alongside think tank ArkDes. The partnership will transform individual streets into ‘one-minute cities’, focusing on ‘the space outside your front door – and that of your neighbours adjacent and opposite’, says Dan Hill, director of strategic design at Vinnova. Having already rolled out at four sites in Stockholm, the ultimate goal is to upgrade every street in the country to ensure they are healthy, sustainable and vibrant by 2030.

As a country renowned for its progressive and wellbeing-first approach to living, we can expect Sweden to become a leader in building Equilibrium Cities. Explore the recent macrotrend to discover how Salubrious Streets will give urbanites everything they need on their doorstep, and what this means for brands.

Street Moves by ArkDes

Strategic opportunity

Residents will hold the keys to the urban centres of tomorrow. When entering a new city or neighbourhood, offer locals the chance to determine how your business exists and gives back to the community

Stat: England’s homes produce more carbon than its cars

Home Smart by IKEA Festival Let’s Make Room for Life, Milan

For the first time, the UK's National Housing Federation (NHF) has calculated that the carbon emissions produced by homes in England – about 58.5m tonnes of CO2 every year – is the equivalent of the average annual use of 28m cars. According to the NHF, there are 27m cars in use in England, emitting 56m tonnes of CO2 annually.

This high rate of emissions is blamed on poor building insulation and the use of gas central heating, meaning heat is easily leaking from homes, requiring more gas energy to keep them warm. As a result, the NHF says the average family or household in England is currently producing more CO2 every year just by living in their home than they are by driving.

While Kate Henderson, CEO of the NHF, says serious progress must be made to decarbonise and retrofit England’s homes, there is a clear opportunity for new house-builders to make smarter, more responsive homes that are able to track and communicate resource usage – something we examine further in our recent interview with MyGlobalHome, exploring the future of smart living.

Strategic opportunity

Consider how apps or smart devices could help to track atmospheric changes in the home, allowing residents to quickly identify and remedy any energy-exhausting issues – while reporting data back to landlords or energy firms