Fragment Design Stieff Plush Teddy Bear Rug.

Fragment design has collaborated with venerable teddy bear company "Stieff" to produce a "Teddy Bear Rug".  Expectations are as subverted as you might expect, this is a skinned alive teddy bear.  On the one hand, it's a clever piece.  Fur is a polarising issue, and a bearskin rug made from a teddy bear is the only sort of skin many could allow themselves near.

On the other hand, Fragment's bolt, and Stieff's button may legitimise this piece, but they dont make it less sad.  The eyes look really unhappy, and the idea of skinning a teddy bear is pretty horrible.

The special piece is available from Stieff and Dover Street Market.

Prada S/S 2018 Black Canvas Tote's.

As style and fashion begins to become angled towards peoples instagram accounts, the most popular pieces need to combine visual impact and convenience.  Tote's have rapidly become the go to bag for everyone, they combine these, and also have the opportunity to be sustainable, making them acceptable for all.  Also, being unisex, if you like a design, they can still be rocked regardless of gender.

The consequence of course is that tote's are becoming pricier and pricier.  Luxury labels are adding little touches to warrant sky-high prices, or just charging mark-up prices for nothing.  These Black canvas tote's from Prada give a few features, bold print, saffiano leather handles, contrast lining, inner pockets, but nothing to mean they are worth the £980 price tag.

Still, if you disagree, they are all available now at Prada.com and in stores.

COMME des GARCONS SHIRT Tote's.

Ikea style canvas shoppers are old news now.  Balenciaga attracted some controversy for its release of them last drop, but now overpriced canvas tote's are no big deal.  So now we celebrate them, and write about three not-so-bad ones from COMME.

Available now at Dover Street, we have two colourful stripy ones, and one glossy minecraft influenced one, with the common minecraft enemy, the creeper one it.  

Burberry Follow Hermes By Destroying Unsold Stock.

In an article by The Times dated 19th of July 2018, a great deal was made of a move by Burberry to destroy old stock.  According to the article, announced at Burberry's AGM, the group has destroyed $37 Million worth of clothing.  The article pointed out this was equivalent to 20,000 trench coats.  The move raises several concerns, ethical ones being most significant.

As the headline of this article points out, this is not new.  Hermes have done this since the year dot.  If they produce a collection, and it doesn't sell, they put it to the on-sale room, and then destroy it if it also doesn't go at a discount.  Likewise, Louis Vuitton, if a piece is damaged, immediately send it to be destroyed, never considering for a moment the possibility of discounting.  The standout here, is they announced it, making the general public aware of a long time industry insider piece of knowledge.

The business rationale behind this is pretty simple, it combines the realities of luxury goods, and basic sales techniques.  First a luxury brand is very much like fiat currency.  While it's products are certainly better made than mass produced ones, with higher quality materials, the mark-up is entirely due to the willingness of consumers to pay it.  Therefore making sure the brand in questions goods remain perceived as worth paying for is essential.  Destroying it's goods achieves this by tapping into the underlying sense that "no-one else can have this".

Second a fundamental rule of sales is "create an urgency".  Consumers should be made to feel that if they miss out now, they miss out for ever.  Buy now, don't delay, is a common 1950's ad tag-line.  By destroying the goods unsold then announcing it, consumers see first hand that the piece that they like and passed on, is gone forever. Don't make that mistake next time!  These tactics create a throng beating down the door of luxury goods companies willing to pay whatever is asked.

Burberry are still shaking off the "chav" associations of the 1990's, and so by announcing this fairly common move, they are setting themselves for entry into the "desirable" club.

However, what of ethics?  Burberry explains they destroy the goods in a sustainable manner, thereby avoiding the environmental concerns.  The ethical question then is "why not give these clothes to the homeless domestically, and the impoverished in third world countries?"  There is no ethical answer.  If a luxury consumer sees a £1,200 trench on a homeless person, or on an aid video for third world peoples, and these persons received them for free, what motivates them to pay the price tag?

Hender Scheme Chuck Taylor Style Sneaker's.

Hender Scheme's latest "inspired" sneaker has, as is clearly evident, taken the Converse Chuck Taylor's for it's inspiration.  As per usual, natural vachetta leather, natural leather laces, leather sole, and all handmade in Japan.

Available now, for £790 per pair.

Anti Social Social Club Riot Shield.

Neek Lurk has shown his wry ironic sense of humour once again.  In the "Positive-Negative" capsule he repeated his poke at haters, with tops emblazoned with "People Love Reading Negative Reviews".  ASSC gets a lot of stick for it's products, customer services, unoriginality. But people, people, buy through paypal, get a refund if you have a problem, and don't buy it if you don't like it. 

Announced today, is a novelty item, a Riot Shield.  Joked about on blogs as a drop-day essential for dealing with crowds, we think its another nod to the haters.  

"I'm ready for you come at me, I got a branded riot shield to deflect all those negative comments".

The average price of a riot shield is £100, so expect this to go for £300.  But honestly, thats not the point.

Rimowa Complete Re-Branding And Possibly E-Tag Luggage Discontinued.

Many people may not be aware, but LVMH bought an 80 percent stake in Rimowa in 2016.  This means that if they wanted to they could just auction it off for parts.  It's theirs, full-stop.  Apparently, the acquisition was encouraged by Alexandre Arnault, long-time Rimowa enthusiast, and grandson of the LVMH chairman, and billionaire, Bernard.  Rimowa was bought not only for Alexandre, but actually for Alexandre.  The 25 year old engineering graduate is CEO.

No doubt Alexandre was keen to make his mark, and decided what the brand needed was a big old shake up.  So he re-branded, redesigned the product, centralised the shopping experience online, created new corporate stores, and discontinued many lines.  In essence, a total and complete overhaul.

At first, we bemoaned the rich-kid-making-his-mark adage.  Oh woe is us, our beloved Rimowa ruined!  But the thing is, it's actually better.  There's no subtlety to what Alexandre has done,  he has not "tweaked and prodded", he took a sledgehammer to the Rimowa cases.  But when a Rimowa case gets damaged, a sledgehammer is exactly whats needed to get it back in shape.

First the re-design.  A sharp redefining of the full length stripes so they stop short of the end, quite simply, looks better.  Now the updated text.  Frankly it was so 80's it hurt.  The new Sans Serif is elegant and timeless.  The new packaging, considering they charge £1,000 for a case, the old cardboard box wasn't swinging it, the new packaging feels like the price point.  Online shopping, finally! It was so frustrating jumping between Rimowa and other sites checking serial numbers to make sure you are buying the case you want.  The corporate stores,  again, a necessity at the price point.

Now onto the big changes.  The most often seen logo will now be the "M" in a diamond.  This logo is inspired by both the cathedral spires of Cologne, and Rimowa's own original logo from the 19th century.  Does it look like Moncler?  Yes.  Is it nice?  Yes.  They could have gone crazy, but this is a look back and forward.  That's what makes it so nice.  Alexandres goes on and on about wanting to make something that lasts.  It's easy to be cynical about this when he rebrands, but by making a logo that is actually a re-creation of the original logo, it shows he really cares about the brands history.

Re-naming also brings some big changes: Topas - Original, Salsa - Essential, Salsa Air - Essential Lite, Limbo - Hybrid, Salsa Deluxe - Essential Sleeve, Classic - Still Classic.  All other ranges - Discontinued.  Frankly, this is welcomed, the old names were confusing, and redundant. 

And anyone worried about the five year warranty offered previously, fret not, still in place under Arnault junior.

Finally, onto the negative.  While the new M logo on the wheels is great, unfortunately, the new Sans Serif logo on the add a bag holder sees on all ranges the same solid block of metal that the Classic range has.  The new design has done away with the add a bag holder completely.  You will need to buy a separate one if you liked this feature.

And last but not least, the new website has no mention, nor images, in relation to the E-Tag Electronic luggage that Rimowa released just two years ago.  This revolutionary addition was supposed to be the future of luggage tags.  It was meant to provide consumers with convenience, and also with a form of location tracking, as you can bluetooth connect to the bag on the plane to know it's boarded.  Currently the old Rimowa site still functions, and there are 4 airlines supporting it, but no dice on rimowa's shiny new corporate e-commerce site. 

All in all the new look Rimowa is amazing.  It looks and feels as premium as it always has been.  It now deserves the price just a little more.  Is it worth rushing out and upgrading?  No, especially not if you like the add a bag holder!  Is there bad?  Yes, the E-Tag luggage was always exciting, loosing it feels odd.  But is it a big thumbs up?  absolutely.