The much-maligned Ed Hardy clothing company has simultaneously given the fashion-challenged, uh, idiot population a way to express their “uniqueness” to the world while giving the rest of us something to point at and laugh about (well “white people” at least, but I suspect it’s possible for persons of any race, creed or color to find the Technicolor vomit of Ed Hardy clothing absolutely insufferable). Now there are some new kids on the fashion block and they want to do for trust fund hipsters what Ed Hardy did for Jon Gosselin and the cast of MTV’s “Jersey Shore.”
Yes indeed, the Grammy award-winning Kings of Leon pop group are coming out with a new line of expensive prefab hipster togs which will be for sale in just one store on London’s trendy King’s Road. Starting this month, if you are so inclined, you can spend your parents’ hard-earned dough on a dozen overpriced items of the “S2A x KOL” collection, to be sold exclusively at The Shop at Bluebird. Items of apparel fashioned after the ones worn by the musical Followill family include plaid shirts, stovepipe jeans, belts, jewelery, guitar straps and, of course, black Fedoras. The “S2A x KOL” is a collaboration between the Followills and Paris-based design firm, Surface to Air.
Archive for the ‘News’ category
The new Ed Hardy Boys 2010
January 10th, 2010Ed Hardy uses YCD video, interactive mobile technologies in Australia, U.K. stores
January 9th, 2010Ed Hardy has used YCD Multimedia digital signage technology to enhance retail customer experiences in stores in Australia and the U.K. Working with Mediaplay, YCD’s channel sales partner in Australia, new Ed Hardy has installed YCD solutions in their retail stores in Sydney and London.
Ed Hardy is a wildly successful lifestyle brand launched in 2004, based on the designs of tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy. The brand aims at making Ed Hardy the retail store design true to the brand with the same colorful and edgy imagery as found on everything else carrying the Ed Hardy label.
With music as a major branding tool and customer engagement and interactivity a focus for their in-store customer experience, Ed Hardy used YCD’s SMS Jukebox solution to add to the in-store experience. Using YCD’s SMS Jukebox, customers can choose from a selection of music and music videos, provided by Mediaplay’s music services, to be played back by texting their selection using their mobile phone.
Additionally, each store uses an array of digital signage to display Ed Hardy’s signature graphics (skulls, geisha girls, panthers, eagles, etc.) as well as celebrity images, fashion reels and promotions for new product lines and special offers. Included in the mix are 50-inch LCD screens, 1×3 video walls (using YCD’s MuVi Wall solution) and wall projections. The content is remotely managed, scheduled and updated using YCD|Platform.
At the Rockstar Bowling Bar, additional screens are used to display food and drink specials and a separate music zone to suit the adjacent, more laid back Ed Hardy store.
Ed Hardy says it plans to continue its expansion in Australia and the U.K. in 2010, and is considering adding additional digital media solutions, such as interactive touchscreen technology, to further round out the interactive customer experience.
“We are always trying to push the boundaries on what we can offer our guests in both leading technology and cool interactive experiences,” said Robert Farrell, chief operations officer of Ed Hardy Australia and New Zealand. “YCD Multimedia, with their suite of digital media solutions, was one of the only vendors out there pushing those boundaries.”
The shopper’s wish list for 2010
January 8th, 2010An end to ‘upselling’
Being badgered to buy a more expensive item than you want is irritating. In restaurants waiters, following the management’s script, often suggest a higher-priced dish or bottle of wine than the diner asked for. Even the friendly cashiers in Pret a Manger, the chain of sandwich shops, insist on asking: “Any coffee with that?” after a sandwich is proffered along with the words: “That’s all, thanks”.
No more sniffy sommeliers
It is perfectly acceptable for lunchtime diners not to drink wine. The right response is to accept the statement with grace. The wrong response is to send round a sniffy sommelier to double-check: “Any wine, sir?” and for them to depart with an expression doused in sour lemon.
Loyalty rewards for bank customers
Financial institutions tend to punish loyal customers, particularly when it comes to insurance. Refreshing, then, that from January 12, Santander will offer its mortgage-holders a current account free of overdraft, cashpoint, foreign exchange or debit card fees. Overdrafts will be charged interest at a market-beating 12.9 per cent. Bank loyalty cards, with money off for keeping a current account or taking out a loan, would undo some of the economic damage done by greedy bankers.
Overdraft charges capped at £12
The banks are talking to the Office of Fair Trading about capping their fees. Some level of charging is fair enough, but the fact that institutions paid out around £1bn to customers before the OFT began its test case suggests they knew unauthorised borrowing fees were too high. The banks should lower them to £12, the same level as the OFT’s cap on late credit card payments.
Competition Commission inquiry into energy
Independent analysts, consumer groups, the regulator, the Government and all three main parties believe that energy bills are too high. There is too little competition between the “Big Six” suppliers who own both generation and supply and control 99 per cent of the household market for gas and electricity. To settle the question once and for all, Ofgem should refer the industry to the Competition Commission for a thorough investigation into the post-privatisation structure of the industry. Labour is reluctant to do this, but the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are in favour.
Adoption of traffic-light labelling
For the past three years, supermarket chains Tesco and Morrisons have fought a campaign against the most easy-to-understand food-labelling system. Instead of the Food Standards Agency’s traffic lights, they have argued for the percentage-based Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs). Which? and others have shown that the FSA’s colour-coded approach is best understood and this has been provided by independent research (which the industry ordered as part of its delaying tactics). Obesity costs the NHS £8bn and the country £14bn a year. Telling people, instantly, the healthiness of their food would help ease the problem but the Government, with its fears of being seen to nanny, hasn’t acted. The Conservatives, inexplicably, back GDAs.
A supermarket ombudsman
During its two-year probe into Britain’s supermarkets, the Competition Commission found evidence that they had been behaving aggressively towards suppliers. In seized emails, it found evidence of foul language together with demands for retrospective discounts and payment for stock lost or damaged after delivery. The regulator recommended the Government establish a Supermarket Ombudsman to ensure enough small businesses would survive to allow customer choice to flourish including cheap ugg boots,ghd hair stylers. After months of delay, Business Secretary Peter Mandelson should now implement this recommendation.
Quicker action against web fraud
Although it’s not recommended in careers lessons, defrauding shoppers is easy and rarely results in prosecution. The Office of Fair Trading closes down scams, but it often seeks only a court order belatedly stopping a business from trading. The culprits often go free. Acting on tip-offs last month, the Metropolitan Police froze 1,219 websites offering dodgy Ugg Boots and fake Tiffany jewellery. But, again, officers admitted there was little hope of catching the culprits, many of whom appeared to be based in China. The police and OFT need to act more speedily as internet retailing expands.
An end to tipping
Tipping is a feature of everyday life which many people dislike, and which doesn’t make much sense. Why should hairdressers, waiters and cab drivers be tipped but not nurses, refuse collectors or shop assistants? Tipping disguises the actual cost of a service and causes awkwardness, on both sides. Businesses should pay workers a good rate for doing a good job, without encouraging the bowing and scraping of a bygone era.
A ban on billboard advertising
With commerce creeping into every nook and cranny of our lives, it’s time to give shoppers a break from the 625 adverts they see every day. Sao Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city, has banned billboard advertising under its Clean City Law. Its inhabitants say the city is now more attractive.
A less-than-fond farewell to the duds of the decade
January 2nd, 2010Remember when belly-baring pop princesses had us squeezing into clothes that were too tight and too short? Well as we say goodbye to 2009, muffin-tops should be the first of the decade’s dubious fashion fads to go.
Next up is the hot-pink Juicy Couture velour sweatsuit, an outfi t that may or may not have been made worse by Ugg boots, gigantic sunglasses, and a little chihuahua tucked into an oversized purse.
Either way, let’s just pretend Paris Hilton never happened.
Then we’ve got almost anything by Christian Audigier, the man who brought us Von Dutch trucker hats and Ed Hardy T-shirts during a particularly slovenly era mid-decade when people paid extra for ripped jeans, often several sizes too big. See ya later, sagging pants.
Also going to a better place? Flower child boho chic, Avril Lavigne tank tops and ties, clunky Crocs, and prep school headbands that even Gossip Girl’s Blair Waldorf is tiring of.
Finally, we have last year’s gladiator sandals, thick-rimmed glasses, and boyfriend-cut everything. Will they make it through 2010? We’ll have to wait and see.
Until then, take a blast through the past 10 years of fashion in today’s Look.
Jersey Shore Crew Pretends to Act Classy
January 1st, 2010Ed Hardy t-shirts, diamond earrings and too much hair products have become the signature look of Jon Gosselin the hit MTV reality show Jersey Shore.
“My personal style is fresh to death,” says Paul “DJ Pauly D” Delvecchio. “You know the produce section, like where the food is fresh? That’s my style.”
That’s one of the lamest Jersey Shore quotes we’ve ever heard, and it didn’t even take place on the show. Hey, at least the tools are being themselves.
Last week, celebrity gossip magazine Life & Style embared on the difficult task of giving these up-and-coming reality stars a newer, classier image …
The gang was invited to ditch the shore and step onto the red carpet at one of NYC’s most exclusive clubs, Greenhouse, with its dress-your-best policy.
There, they modeled some iconic Hollywood looks of recent years and they pulled it off like the pros – including Kim Kardashian – they were emulating.
“I like to walk into the room and have everyone notice that I’m wearing ugg cardy boots,” says Nicole Polizzi, also known as the overly tanned and ridiculous Snooki.
That’s what always happens, Snooks. But not for the reason you think.
