Ikea ties up with Kanye West’s fashion partner
Ikea has unveiled a tie up with menswear designer Katie Eary, the long-time fashion partner of rapper Kanye West.
The Swedish retailer’s new Giltig homeware range features Eary’s renowned psychedelic digital prints that consist of fiery eyeballs and blue cats.
The collaboration appears to explain a tweet sent by Kanye West in March about Ikea, which left observers baffled by the significance.
Super inspired by my visit to Ikea today , really amazing company… my mind is racing with the possibilities…
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) March 9, 2016
The new Ikea range is already available online.
It represents the first of three ‘fashion-forward’ interiors collections to arrive at Ikea this year.
Source: GQ
Amazon releases API to add more smart home capabilities to Alexa
Amazon products that run on the Alexa software, which already powers personal assistance device Echo, will soon get new home automation skills following the release of an API.
Smart lighting development tools for Echo originally appeared last year and have been fleshed out to make the new Smart Home API.
It is believed Amazon is expanding Alexa’s capabilities in order to make Alexa a major part of home automation.
Source: ZDNet
High street sales fall in March
Mother's Day and Easter falling early in March failed to save a high street sales decline last month.
Sales were down 1% year-on-year in March after a month of peaks and troughs.
Fashion sales were down 2.5 per cent on March 2015, while lifestyle goods sales were up 2.4 per cent.
BDO head of retail and wholesale Sophie Michael said: "Heavy downpours over Easter did not encourage spending".
She added: "With a disappointing start to 2016, retailers were banking on the early Mother's Day and Easter delivering positive year-on-year sales in March.
"It is now more important than ever for retailers to truly understand their customers and offer the right product mix and shopping experience combined with strategic promotions to entice shoppers into stores.
"With a weak pound and as the National Living Wage starts to take effect, retailers will have to think hard on which actions will best deliver consumer spending, while keeping an eye on the impact on margins and their operating costs."
Source: City AM
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Motherhood, interrupted: brands must be sensitive to the stresses of digital parenting
At a time when parenting is endlessly interrupted by digital communication and social media, brands must beware of exacerbating the pressure on women, writes Nicola Kemp.
If you watch one video today...
...hear what the public think of the Conservative government spending £5m to promote the new National Living Wage.
