Need to Know
16 : 02 : 18

New York – Diesel’s founder, Renzo Rosso, hopes to reinvigorate interest in the brand with a new pop-up that will stock branded ‘fakes’. ‘Diesel is back,’ said Rosso. ‘Diesel is modern. Diesel is a unique brand. Diesel is still alive with the real irony and with the real DNA that it used to have before.’

Known as Deisel, the purposefully misspelt branding will convey the idea that imperfection should be celebrated. Situated on Canal Street, a hotspot for fake designer outlets, the inconspicuous pop-up camouflages into its surroundings giving no exterior signal that the products within are in fact limited edition from Diesel itself.

As explored in our opinion piece, consumers are increasingly interested in the idea of a product beyond the product itself, leading to an acceptance of fakes as prized items in their own right.

China – Alibaba’s e-commerce platform, Tmall, collaborated with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) at this year’s New York Fashion Week to launch Tmall China Day as a celebration of Chinese fashion designers.

While the idea of presenting Chinese talent to a largely Western audience at fashion week is not a novel one – Alibaba’s biggest rival JD.com brought three designers to Milan Fashion Week in 2015 – the launch of China Day will help to introduce Chinese designers in a more systematic way, explains Jessica Liu, president of Tmall Fashion.

Alongside the introduction of China Day, Tmall also announced its Designer DT Innovative Plan, in which the brand will use its resources to nurture at least five private Chinese labels with revenues that exceed a Rmb100m this year.

In our Chinese Domestic Luxury Market, we look at how the tide is turning as Chinese consumers lose their obsession with Western brands, and at the same time Chinese brands look to highlight domestic products and talent on an international platform.

Chile – In a bid to tackle nationwide obesity levels, the Chilean government is banning all advertising of junk food on television before 10:00pm. The restrictions, which come into effect next year, follow laws introduced two years ago forcing brands to eradicate iconic cartoon characters, such as Tony the Tiger, from sugary cereal boxes.

The government has also banned the sale of ice cream, chocolate and potato crisps in Chilean schools and has banned the sale of chocolate such as Kinder Surprise, which use toys to capture children’s attention. The move, which has provoked outrage from the food and drink sector, has been heralded by nutritionists as the most ambitious move by a government to tackle junk food culture.

Every year the global obesity epidemic contributes to four million premature deaths a year, according to researchers. In our forthcoming macrotrend Morality Recoded, we will examine how brands from across morally dubious sectors are being forced to adapt their business model to ensure longevity. Book here for our annual Trend Briefing, where this and other long-term macrotrends will be unveiled.

Compared to other countries, the US is ‘dramatically overstored’. This over-saturation of retail environments calls for fundamental changes to the way that way in which future stores are designed. The authors of the report envisage four approaches to such spaces – destination centres, innovation centres that test new retail concepts, community-led value centres and what AT Kearney dubs Retaildential spaces, which target a specific demographic such as Millennials.