The Indicator | January 31st, 2025

By Sonal Gandhi
Chief Content Officer at The Lead

Fashion and Football mix again at this year’s Super Bowl starting with Abercrombie House retail experience in New Orleans. Kendrick Lamar and fashion designer, Willy Chavarria, are also releasing a limited-edition capsule collection with the NFL. Meanwhile, global beauty brands are celebrating the Lunar New Year with special edition products and pop-up events in Asia.

'INNOVATION MOVES'

  • Levi’s partnered with Google Cloud to gather data points from purchases, web-browsing, retail partner sales, and its loyalty program from 110 countries and 50,000 points of distribution into a Google database, and running daily machine-learning algorithms designed to identify and predict purchase trends. The new data system helped the company understand that baggy and loose silhouettes weren’t just for the younger generation—they were for everyone. The insight informed marketing and ordering decisions as well as influenced future design choices. (WSJ

  • Abercrombie & Fitch will host a one-day retail experience in New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX, building on the success of its licensed collection of apparel and accessories with the NFL. The Abercrombie House retail experience will feature merchandise for Super Bowl LIX, apparel for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, the New Orleans Saints, as well as pieces from the Abercrombie spring collection, including denim and outerwear. There will be a custom embroidery station where shoppers can personalize items and there will be meet-and-greet opportunities with NFL players. (WWD

  • Rap superstar Kendrick Lamar and award-winning fashion designer Willy Chavarria are teaming up on a limited-edition capsule collection with the NFL, inspired by Lamar’s upcoming performance at the Super Bowl halftime show. (USA Today

  • Hugo Boss shared the launch of the brand’s AI-generated content for e-commerce sites on his LinkedIn page, along with an AI-generated video of a model sporting a denim Hugo Boss set. The brand’s use of generative AI to render realistic video content with a lifelike AI model who moves sets it apart from other fashion companies who have so far used AI for image generation in still images. (Glossy

  • JCPenney rolled out its latest petite collection — a partnership with actress-singer Ally Brooke — under its private label Bold Elements. Petite is responsible for nearly 10% of all women’s apparel sales and demand for petite sizes is growing as customers look for more tailored clothing and the opportunity to mix and match pieces. Growth in petite apparel signals that the fashion industry is responding to more individualized consumer needs. (Modern Retail

  • Global beauty brands are taking part in the celebrations of the Lunar New Year. Swedish perfume brand Byredo released a campaign on the theme of homecoming in collaboration with Chinese artist Wei Yijuan. Dyson, released a limited-edition red version of its famed Airwrap, while French beauty house Guerlain launched limited-edition red and gold packaging for perfumes and lipsticks. (Glossy)

'Financial Moves'

  • Stella McCartney (designer) bought back her eponymous brand from LVMH.

  • PANGAIA (apparel brand) sold a majority stake to Royal Group LLC.

  • Golden Goose (Italian luxury sneakers) sold a 12% stake to Blue Pool (Hong-Kong based family office of Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai).

  • ShopMy (creator marketing) raised a $77.5M Series B from Bessemer Venture Partners and Bain Capital Ventures.

  • 111SKIN (skincare) raised a significant minority investment from SKKY Partners.

  • DAMDAM Tokyo (Japanese skincare) raised a $3M seed round from Silas Capital.

  • Zyloware Eyewear (eyewear) raised an investment from CenterGate Capital.

Financial Moves Powered by MMG Advisors

'Career Moves'

Career Moves Powered by JBC 

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