LSN : News : Foresight Friday: Olivia Houghton, deputy creative foresight editor

Boucheron unveils More is More high jewellery collection

Carte Blanch Collection by Boucheron, France

Paris – Kering-owned luxury jewellery brand Boucheron has unveiled an optimistic new luxury jewellery collection, which also incorporates a range of unusual materials.

Boucheron’s Place Vendôme salons in Paris set the stage in July for the unveiling of the collection, named More is More, from creative director Claire Choisne, who drew inspiration from the vibrant and playful aesthetic of the 1980s with the aim of counteracting post-Covid anxiety and lifting spirits. The collection is designed to offer joy as a remedy, using extravagant volume, vibrant colours and straightforward shapes.

The brand’s latest offering challenges traditional notions of preciousness by incorporating unusual materials like bio-acetate and magnesium, showcasing rock crystal spheres, diamond-encrusted cubes and re-interpreting its heritage designs such as the 1910 Wave tiara.

More is More represents a departure from convention, offering an unexpected and exuberant high jewellery experience. In Haute Couture Market we looked at how new directions in the industry reveal how a traditional sector can remain at the forefront of innovation and craftsmanship, a value being similarly championed by Boucheron’s new collection.

Strategic opportunity

Traditional brands will fail to capture the attention of fresh audiences if they do not adapt their products to embody playfulness and curiosity – values that are important to younger generations

Foresight Friday: Olivia Houghton, deputy creative foresight editor

Victoria Ling for The Future Laboratory, UK

Every Friday, The Future Laboratory team offer an end-of-week wrap-up of the topics, issues, ideas and virals we’re all talking about. Here, deputy creative foresight editor Olivia Houghton digs into this week’s noise.

: It seems appropriate to kick off Foresight Friday with some thoughts on Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie – one of the most hyped releases in cinematic memory – following the US and UK premieres earlier this week.

While the film isn’t set to be released until 21 July, Barbie has already owned so many fashion moments since its first-look reveal in April 2022. Related aesthetic searches peaked in June 2022 and were further amplified by the unveiling of Valentino’s autumn/winter 2023 collection, which ramped up over 80m views on TikTok. This level of engagement is something Robbie Brenner, head of Mattel Films, describes as pre-existing intellectual property (IP).

Pre-existing IP, defined by Brenner as ‘being familiar with, and engaged in, something before the main event’ is key to attracting and retaining interest in cinema, particularly at a time when viewing preferences lean towards streaming. Netflix might win on convenience, but cultural arousal and contagion are difficult to manufacture from a singular, isolated digisphere.

The aesthetic interpretations, however, are just one element of pre-existing IP; the social commentary around this feminist (Margot Robbie’s words not mine!) fantasy deserves an entire opinion piece.

: And if Barbie didn’t create enough noise, pickleball certainly did. The US’s fastest-growing sport has recently prompted police reports and lawsuits over its racket.

According to an article from The New York Times, community members of Arlington in Virginia are being tortured by the sport’s sharp popping noise, which has been likened to popcorn cooking in a microwave: ‘sporadic bursts that quickened, gradually, to an arrhythmic clatter’.

And it isn’t just locals that have escalated discussions about pickleball’s sonic identity, Noise-Con 2023, the annual conference of North American noise control professionals, hosted talks about the topic earlier this year, further highlighting the need for Silent Homes and Quiet Mode tools that help reclaim domestic serenity.

Quote of the Week

‘I said to my mum this morning: ‘Look, I’ve already won £80k this week, so you can chill out a bit’.’

– Liam Broady laughs as he entertains the crowd with his post-match interview at Wimbledon 2023. Perhaps this is what soft living looks like in the realm of professional sport.

Stat: Online harassment is soaring like never before in the US

All Saints, Global

US – Published annually, the latest edition (June 2023) of the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) Online Hate and Harassment: The American Experience report has revealed new levels of digital abuse. For the first time, 52% of Americans said they had experienced online harassment in 2023 – an increase of 12 percentage points from 2022.

Among the teens surveyed, 51% reported being harassed online in the past year, with 47% also saying that online abuse led to in-person harassment. The ADL defines harassment as ‘unwanted or hostile contact on digital platforms – including social media, chat and email – such as verbal abuse, hate speech, trolling, spamming, impersonation and defamation’.

The findings are based on an exclusive YouGov survey of more than 2,000 adults and 500 teenage respondents based in the US. Facebook remains the highest-reported platform where hate and harassment occur, but increases were also noted on Twitter, Reddit, TikTok and WhatsApp. Marginalised groups are notable victims of online harassment according to the ADL: ‘Together, transgender and LGBQ+ people were the most harassed demographic group every year we have conducted this survey.’

In Anti-provocation Platforms, we previously analysed how users were turning to new platforms and moving away from big tech to feel safer and avoid all kinds of online abuse and hate. In our upcoming Innovation Debrief report (RSVP now to attend our exclusive webinar on Tuesday 18 July 2023) we will also look at how innovators from all sectors are tackling online safety as a priority.

Strategic opportunity

Should consumers move away from mainstream social media platforms to avoid hate, consider how your marketing and content strategy must adapt to new platforms such as Discord, Spill or Threads