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France – For summer 2023 Parisian department store Samaritaine is paying tribute to its brand history by transforming into a lively and contemporary amusement park. From 17 May until 30 August, Samaritaine’s Paris Magic City pop-up will recreate the spirit of the original Magic City amusement park established by the store’s founder in 1900.

Food, family-friendly activities and an abundance of whimsy will be on offer across the store’s numerous floors. Visitors can enjoy a ball pool, arcade games, distorting mirrors, hoop tonic (hula hoop) lessons, and exhibitions in collaboration with renowned museums including the Musée des Arts Forains and the Musée du Jeu de Paume. A special claw machine will give customers the opportunity to win a range of gifts from the store.

Samaritaine’s amusement park pop-up transforms the legacy shopping space into a Hyperphysical Store, allowing it to connect with consumers by offering them an unexpected yet immersive experience.

Tel Aviv – Bambox, a company specialising in sustainable packaging for the tissue paper industry, has developed a revolutionary toilet paper pack that is more sustainable without sacrificing convenience. Moving away from the 130-year-old toilet roll design, Bambox came up with paper folded like an accordion and stored in a box rather than on a roll. ‘It’s stored in a square, and the paper is square and compressed to the maximum,’ the company’s founder Roy Shihor told Fast Company.

The final product contains the equivalent of four or five toilet rolls, while the solid square design facilitates transport, with shipments able to carry twice as many boxes as conventional rolls. Users can still expect optimum comfort and softness as the compressed paper will fluff up with air when the box is opened.

Made with bamboo, this alternative loo roll could help cut the high costs of wood and fuel necessary to produce toilet paper and transport it worldwide. Bambox claims its innovation can reduce logistics and shipment costs by up to 50%. Retailers could also benefit from a 150% increase in profitability thanks to fewer storage issues, better shipping rates and high quality.

While attending Milan Design Week 2023, we uncovered similar innovators attempting to merge sustainability with tangible solutions to benefit consumers, businesses and the planet.

Global ­– How much does it take to become part of the wealthiest 1% of the population? The answer varies sharply depending on the country, according to UK-based real estate company Knight Frank's latest report examining ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) demographics.

The Knight Frank wealth report reveals how much the wealthiest 1% are worth in selected countries and territories in 2023. The findings reveal steep contrasts, suggesting that countries with developing affluent groups and luxury markets still have a long way to go to match long-established wealth hotspots. According to the data, it only takes £141,000 ($175,000, €164,000) to join India’s richest 1%, compared to a whopping £10m ($12.4m, €11.6m) in Monaco, which tops the rankings.

So while the 1% might be associated with guilded lifestyles, the actual levels of wealth needed to access the club don’t follow a one-size-fits-all definition of UHNW individuals. This contrast should be top of mind for luxury brands entering markets like India or Thailand, where affluents have different notions of value and status with regard to wealth.