High street retailers fight back against online rivals
In 2000, a young marketing executive changed the face of British fashion retailing, founding Asos to sell cheap imitations of celebrities’ outfits. Last week Nick Robertson, the great-grandson of retailer Austin Reed, resigned as chief executive of the business, just as another shake-up of the industry is under way. The UK’s online retail market is large and growing. But the growth of pure-play digital retailers is under threat as their marketplace becomes increasingly crowded. “The high street has fought back,” says retail analyst John Stevenson, of City stockbroker Peel Hunt. Large retail chains — such as John Lewis and Dixons Carphone — claim that using “bricks and clicks” together creates a better experience for customers. John Lewis makes 33 per cent of sales online, according to figures provided by the department store group. Digital retailers’ stock market valuations remain at a premium to high street groups’, but they are falling. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015.
How Machine Vision Is About to Change the Fashion World
In the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada, the notorious fashion editor Miranda Priestly sizes up people at a glance by analyzing their clothes, who designed them, and what year they date from. Priestly’s character is famously inspired by Anna Wintour, the long standing editor-in-chief of Vogue, herself a style icon. But if a human can recognize and date fashion styles with little more than a glance, why not a machine? Chen and co begin by training their machine vision algorithm to identify an individual’s body pose in an image and then to divide the body into nine regions—the upper and lower arms and legs, and the torso. Comparing fashion styles then boils down to the relatively simple mathematical process of comparing these 72-dimension vectors. Next, they assemble two databases of photographs. Fashion week is a significant event in New York. To find out, Chen co use their machine vision algorithm to identify these trends and see how they influence street chic.
Shop Jeen: teen site conquers social media but faces customer backlash | US news
In a world where Tumblr stars, Snapchat phenoms, and aspiring Instagram models rack up the kind of online following that rivals traditional celebrities, Erin Yogasundram holds center court. Like other young people, Yogasundram has an Instagram feed peppered with selfies, memes, and close-up snaps of nail art. But unlike many 23-year-olds, her photos elicit responses like “My queen! Yogasundram, a New York native, is the founder and CEO of the online boutique Shop Jeen. The site’s homepage feels like a dizzying combination of Tumblr gifs, 1990s nostalgia, and the incessant strobe lights in a dark karaoke room. Shop Jeen clearly isn’t for everyone (including all members of the population older than 20). Yogasundram created Shop Jeen in 2012 while she was a student at George Washington University. As a teenager, Yogasundram earned supplemental income by selling everything from celebrity autographs to Celine bags on eBay.
Louboutinize This: We Try The New Christian Louboutin Photo Filter App
Do you hear that? That's the sound of Christian Louboutin's entire marketing team quietly weeping at the brand's ill-advised attempt to join the ranks of iPhone photo editing software. On paper it sounds great: A new free app from the developer of shoes that cost more than our rent, to make users seem cooler to people they don't even know. Well, here's why not: Firstly, because the market is already highly saturated with the VSCO Cams and Facetunes of the world. Here's what happened when HuffPost UK Style tried to "Louboutinize" our lives... First up was Rouge. I painted my desk red and it felt like I was in hell. Next, Crystallize. Crystallize a memory. Finally, Legs. We reckon Louboutin should just stick to the shoes (and the lipsticks, dear god the amazing lipsticks). SEE ALSO:Can 'Squinching' Make You Look Better In Photos? Close
Apple Watch Gets First Major Updates, Including Partnership With Hermès
Apple hosted Wednesday's product release event one year to the day after it first announced Apple Watch, and the watch got its first round of updates on its first anniversary. There are a few new accessories, two new metal colors, and a partnership with luxury brand Hermès. Apple began its watch announcements with the splashiest. There are also now rose gold and gold-colored anodized aluminum Apple Watch Sport models, which let customers get a look similar to the $10,000-plus Apple Watch Edition starting at a friendlier $349 price point. Apple also announced that watchOS 2, the first major update to the Apple Watch's operating system, will be available Sept. 16. Developers will also be able to integrate their apps into watch faces as complications, or the little widgets that accompany the time. Since the Apple Watch first burst onto the scene in April, smartwatch competition has heated up.
