Need to Know
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Hangzhou – Chinese cosmetics company Harmay is honouring the more mundane moments in life with its new store in Hangzhou. Opting for an administrative aesthetic, the shop is a playful recreation of a typical office in the 1970s.

Designed by AIM Architecture, the nostalgic shop includes ergonomic desk chairs, fake bookshelves and ‘meeting rooms’ that are all used to display make-up products. Painted in hues of yellow, orange and brown, the colour palette is a nod to popular domestic décor from the era.

Creating a memorable retail experience that can only be enjoyed in person, the design shows how imaginative bricks-and-mortar offerings can compete with e-commerce. ‘Here in China, the reality is that people shop online for everything, anywhere, any time. As physical shopping is just for fun, we wanted to create a colourful version of it,’ explains Wendy Saunders, founder of AIM Architecture.

Combining faux period design with immersive product displays, Harmay is tapping into the Office Nostalgia trend we explored in Reworking the Workplace. As society re-examines long-standing tropes in office design, nostalgia-based environments can create a point of difference from flat digital platforms.

Los Angeles – Launching on the virtual platform Decentraland, beauty brand Valdé has created an immersive digital event to promote its Divine Collection. Complete with live virtual performances and NFTs, the event aims to elevate women creators within the male-dominated crypto field.

With proceeds going to Latinx beauty entrepreneurs, the virtual event is a mission-based project that aims to promote diversity in the emerging metaverse market. Merging digital collectibles with physical products, a range of real objects and NFTs will be on offer during the event. A white quartz case will be available to purchase for £1,861 ($2,500, €2,234) and 250 NFTs will be sold separately for £186 ($250, €223).

With a live performance by Latinx music producer and artist Elis, the event shows how the combination of shopping and entertainment can highlight underserved communities. Embracing alternative online spaces, Valdé is aligning itself with rising Fashion Meta-networks that cater for the demand for live virtual performances and immersive digital events.

Chronic exhaustion is affecting the lives of many Britons, with research by YouGov showing that one in eight people in the country feel tired all the time. Indeed, exhaustion is so endemic in Britain that it’s even earned its own acronym – TATT – which stands for tired all the time.

Although tiredness is common among many age groups, the research shows that different demographics are affected by exhaustion differently. Women, for example, are more likely than men to feel tired when they wake up, even if they’ve had a good night’s rest. Three in five women (61%) report feeling tired when they wake up, regardless of how much sleep they got, compared to 49% of men. Similarly, 50% of women say they struggle to fall asleep at night even if they feel tired, compared to 38% of men.

With research suggesting that tiredness is not necessarily linked to sleep, more holistic solutions for exhaustion are needed from wellness brands. As consumers integrate wearable technologies and supplements into their wellbeing routines, companies must adapt to the tenets of Recuperative Living and focus on the dwindling resource that is energy.