 |
|
|
|||||
Chanel’s new showman, Matthieu Blazy, took his designs on the road Tuesday or rather, underground, with a buzzy New York runway show staged on an actual subway platform.The designer, just weeks after his splashy Paris debut for Chanel in October, took over a decommissioned part of Manhattan’s Bowery station for his first Métiers d’Art collection. The annual show, which takes place in a different city each year, celebrates the craftsmanship of the artisans that partner with Chanel.In this case, it was two showsone in the afternoon and one in the evening. And befitting the first Chanel shows in New York since 2018, there were VIPs aplenty: A$AP Rocky, Tilda Swinton, Ayo Edebiri, Rose Byrne, Kristen Stewart, Sofia Coppola, Lupita Nyong’o, Jessie Buckley, Margaret Qualley, Bowen Yang, Jon Bon Jovi, and many others.The location had been a closely held secret. Guests entered via a doorway at 168 Bowery, and at first, it seemed like Chanel had perhaps decorated an event space to resemble a subway station, complete with tiled walls, turnstiles and a newsstand (with its own bespoke newspapers).But down a flight of stairs was the real platform. Guests settled into bleacher seats resembling subway benches. “Stand clear of the closing doors!” came the announcement on the soundtrack, familiar to New Yorkers. Then a train came rolling in, and out of the cars came the models.The show was a marked contrast in vibe with the last Métiers d’Art collection in New York in 2018, when the late designer Karl Lagerfeld took over the Egyptian Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for what felt like a mini-Met Gala, with clothes channeling the luxury of Egyptian royalty.Blazy was inspired not by royalty but by ordinary urban commuters, of different ages and types, coming together in a mashup of styles from different eras, from the 1920s onward.“The New York subway belongs to all,” the designer said in his show notes. “Everyone uses it. There are students and game-changers, statesmen and teenagers. It is a place full of wonderful encounters, a clash of pop archetypes.”His models strolled the platform, some checking for arriving trainsfeigning annoyance at their latenessor leaning against a post as they waited. Their numbers increased until, by the end, there was a virtual rush hour of fashion, with the eclectic soundtrack playing the Happy Days theme song as a finale.Some of these commuters wore classic Chanel suitsperhaps with an “I (Heart) NY” T-shirtand others, tweed coats, flowing black capes or brightly patterned skirts. All were intended to show off the craftsmanship involved.“This felt like breaking the system,” said Stewart, speaking after the afternoon show. “I genuinely had an emotional response to the show. I felt like I just saw so many different versions of a person walking. It wasn’t one woman.”Stewart, like others, had no idea going in what the show’s theme would be, and thought the subway environment felt like “a flurry of fleeting caught moments.”“Like, ‘Where is she going?’ I wanted to go with them,” Stewart said. “I believed in it. All of this is artifice, but when you do a really good impression of the truth, you find your own. This felt real to me.”It was real enough that Chanel had printed its own “newspaper”called La Gazetteto accompany the show, with articles and interviews. An interview with Blazy quoted the designer as saying the collection was inspired partly by the 1931 visit to New York of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel.And he sang the praises of the subway.“It’s almost like it’s the vortex of the city,” Blazy said. “It connects everything.” Jocelyn Noveck, AP National Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
Many major platforms provide personalized year in review features that highlight how users have spent their time over the past year. Spotify Wrapped is the most popular of these summaries, but Apple Music, Snapchat, Deezer, and others also offer them. And now, internet users have a new year-in-review feature to check out this year: YouTube Recap. Heres what you need to know about the video sites year-in-review and how to access itespecially if you’re looking to kill some time while waiting for Spotify Wrapped 2025 to come out. What is YouTube Recap? YouTube Recap is Googles just-announced year-in-review feature for its YouTube platform. The personalized recap displays various metrics about your YouTube viewing habits over the past year. The Recap feature takes the form of a Story, or YouTube Short. As YouTube explained in a blog post, Youll get a set of up to 12 different cards that spotlight your top channels, interests, and even the evolution of your viewing habits, or which personality type you fall into based on the videos you loved to watch! Cards include your top interests, your top channels, and your interests based on video views. If you listen to a lot of music on YouTube, your YouTube Recap will also display your top artists and top songs from YouTube Music. One interesting bit of information comes from a disclaimer that the YouTube Recap displays when you view it. That disclaimer reads AI can make mistakes. This suggests that Google is relying on artificial intelligence to curate and assemble YouTube Recap videos. Discover your YouTube personality Your YouTube Recap video may also feature a personality card that YouTube says reveals what type of personality you have based on your YouTube watch history. The full list of possible personalities includes: The Adventurer: Youre drawn to content that takes you on an exciting journey. The Challenger: Youre drawn to content that shows competition and rising to the challenge. The Changemaker: Youre drawn to content that inspires positive change in the world. The Connector: Youre drawn to content that sparks conversation and builds community. The Creative Spirit: Youre drawn to content that inspires self-expression. The Curious Mind: Youre drawn to educational content that helps you understand the world. The Dreamer: Youre drawn to content that fuels your imagination. The Philosopher: Youre drawn to content that explores the deeper meaning of things. The Self-Improver: Youre drawn to content that helps you grow and reach your potential. The Serenity Seeker: Youre drawn to content that helps you relax and find your inner peace. The Skill Builder: Youre drawn to content that helps you develop skills. The Sunshiner: Youre drawn to content that spreads positivity and good vibes. The Trailblazer: Youre drawn to content thats original and challenges the norm. The Wonder Seeker: Youre drawn to awe-inspiring content that shows extraordinary skills. In its blog post, YouTube says the most common personalities are the Connector, the Sunshiner, and the Wonder Seeker. The least common personalities are the Dreamer and the Philosopher, which YouTube says are more elusive and rare personas. How to access your YouTube Recap 2025 on the web YouTube provides two ways users can access their YouTube Recap. The first is by using any web browser. To access your YouTube 2025 Recap on the web: Go to www.youtube.com/recap and make sure you are signed in. Youll find a Your 2025 Recap is here! banner at the top of the page. Click it. Your YouTube Recap video will open on the same webpage. How to access your YouTube Recap 2025 in the YouTube app You can also access your YouTube Recap directly in the YouTube app on iPhone and Android. Heres how: Open the YouTube app. Tap the You tab. Youll find a Your 2025 Recap is here! banner at the top of the page. Tap it. Your YouTube Recap video will now open in the YouTube app on your smartphone. How to share your YouTube Recap video While people love viewing their year-in-review roundups, many also enjoy sharing them with friends and family. And YouTube makes it easy to share your YouTube Recap video. The caveat here, however, is that you need to share it from the YouTube app. Sharing of your YouTube Recap video from a web browser does not seem to be supported at this time. To share your YouTube Recap video: Open the YouTube app. Tap the You tab. Youll find a Your 2025 Recap is here! banner at the top of the page. Tap it. As the video plays, youll see a Share button at the bottom of the video. Tap it. From the pop-up menu, select the person or app you want to share a link to your personalized YouTube Recap video with. YouTube Recap is available now to users in North America. It will roll out to users worldwide this week.
Category:
E-Commerce
Generic store brand groceries can increasingly be found in the pantries, fridges, and freezers of Americans across all income groups. Once designed to communicate value and affordability, a new generation of private labels designed for high earners is driving sales. Among households earning more than $100,000 a year, 82% say they’ve increased the frequency of buying store-brand groceries “often” or “very often,” according to a report from Alvarez & Marsal Global, a consulting firm. That’s compared to 74% of households earnings less than $100,000 a year who also say they’ve increased their store-brand grocery purchases. Grocers have rebranded and grown their portfolio of private label brands over the past several years to cater to consumers pressed by inflation, and it’s paid off as the highest-earning shoppers make up an increasingly large share of the economy. The report attributed the steep increase among the highest-earning Americans to “improvements made in private label products.” [Photo: Walmart] Nowhere is this more true than Walmart, the leading grocer since 2019, which launched a new private label called Bettergoods in 2024 that includes products that are plant-based, organic, or gluten-free. These products intentionally cater to the Whole Foods shopper with bright, well-designed packaging. The company reported quarterly revenue of $179.5 billion, up 5.8%, and said high-income households were part of the reason why. “We continue to benefit from higher-income families choosing to shop with us more often,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said on the company’s earnings call late last month. Upgraded, design-ified generic brands aren’t just boosting high-income shopping, though. The report found 68% of shoppers across all income groups believe store brands offer quality that is as good or better than national brands, and switching to store brands was the No. 1 way shoppers said they cut their grocery bill. [Photo: Aldi] Those trends are shaping the industry. Albertson’s says it’s aiming for private labels to eventually account for 30% of its business, Aldi put its name on all its products for the first time, and Amazon debuted a new branded online grocery store with packaging that makes good use of its new font, bright colors, and white space. With high-income households driving so much spending, industries from airlines to produce are especially catering to the shoppers with high-end products and premium experiences. At the grocery store, though, the success of private labels proves that when it comes to cooking dinner, even the highest-earning among us are looking for a good deal.
Category:
E-Commerce
Route 66. The name alone evokes nostalgia for a simpler, freer time in American history, when roadies stopped for a hot dog with ketchup, then drove into ocher sunsets suspended over the Mojave desert. Ever since it was built in 1926, the Mother Road has gained mythical status, drawing millions of visitors from around the world yearning for a taste of old Americathe one before the interstate highway system favored speed over experience. For Rhys Martin, who has spent years on the road with his camera, this isn’t what Route 66 is about. Yes, you can travel back in time and get a glimpse of Americana, but the route isn’t fossilized in the past. It’s very much still breathing. “Route 66 is more than just this 1950s sanitized version of American history,” he says. “It’s diverse, it’s evolving, and I like to say that no matter who you are or where you’re from, somewhere on Route 66, you’ll find your reflection.” Martin, who manages the Preserve Route 66 program at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is part of a group of advocates and preservationists who want to change the narrative around Route 66 from one that paints the road as a mirror into the past to one that reflects the present, where many communities still live and people still work. [Screenshot: courtesy of the author] His team’s mission has now culminated in Route 66 Rewind: a browser-based experience that lets users drive across 33 landmarks along the route from their own (virtual) vintage car or motorcycle. You can steer the wheel, pick a radio station, and see how the Midpoint Cafe or the U-Drop Inn looked in previous decades. [Photo: Kansas Historic Route 66 Association] The experience was codeveloped by Google Arts & Culture with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and is part of a larger storytelling hub that lives on the Google Arts & Culture platform. The team turned archival photographs into videos using Googles AI video generator Veo, composed the radio music using music generation model Lyria, and wrote the radio commentary using Gemini. The result is a sim road trip that uses AI in the best possible way: to direct the narrative back to people, and highlight the human experience that continues to shape the route today. [Screenshot: courtesy of the author] Route 66: A corridor of stories Martin first saw the road through the lens of a camera. Growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he’d heard of Route 66, but he knew only the broad strokes. Then one day in 2013, he hopped into his late father’s Mustang and drove to Miami, Oklahoma, to photograph the Coleman Theatrea 1929 vaudeville theater with a facade “so ornate it had no business being in the town of Miami,” he recalls. The surprising discovery had him wondering: What else was on the highway? Martins curiosity led him on a two-year road trip across Route 66 that grew into a decade-long love affair with the people he met along the way. “Eventually I realized it’s a corridor of stories,” he says. One of the biggest misconceptions about Route 66 is that the destinations along its route have faded into ghost towns. The construction of the interstate highway system in the 50s and 60s, followed by the decommissioning of the route in 1985, no doubt stripped many of these towns of their purpose. As travel evolved and car speeds got faster, the need for frequent gas stations and motels diminished. The government divested. People left towns. But not everyone left. In Tulsa, entrepreneurs like Mary Beth Babcock have spent years revitalizing stretches of the road. In 2019, she transformed the historic Pemco gas station into a souvenir shop called Buck Atoms Cosmic Curios, complete with two very on-brand, 20-foot-tall mascots that double as roadside attractions. That same year, Dutch entrepreneur Sebastiaan de Boorder and his wife, Anna Marie Gonzalez, renovated the 1919 Aztec Motel in Seligman, Arizona, which reopened as the Aztec Motel & Creative Space in 2021. “There is so much development still coming to Route 66, and most of it is mom and pops who’ve always dreamed of having a business on Route 66, Martin says. [Photo: Arizona Preservation Foundation] Today, the American dream that once defined Route 66 looks different. Some might say it doesn’t exist at all. But for Martin, it lives on along the Mother Road. “I agree that the American dream doesn’t quite hit like it used to,” he tells me, “but on Route 66, you still find people who have bought into the cliché that Route 66 means freedom, and they are adding their story to this highway that’s now entering its second century.” [Screenshot: courtesy of the author] AI fills the gaps of archival memory Route 66 is now approaching its centennial. Next year, various destinations along the route will burst into caravans and car parades to celebrate the route’s legacy. But for the team behind Route 66 Rewind, the goal isn’t just to celebrate the past but to galvanize the next generation. “Preservation creates,” says Martin, noting that anytime a building is preserved, it activates the connection people had with it while helping young people engage with the conversation. “That’s how you inspire the next generation to add their story to this long history.” [Screenshot: courtesy of the author] With its AI-powered features and fun UX, Route 66 Rewind presented itself as a way to make history exciting for younger people. But when the team sat down to convey said history, they realized they didn’t know how many of these places looked in their heyday, beyond a few archival photographs. AI became a way to fill in what Amit Sood, the founder and director of Google Arts & Culture, calls “the gaps of archival memory.” The Google team worked with the National Trust team to collect black-and-white photos and written accounts they could use to prompt AI, cross-referencing each output with experts at the Trust. [Screenshot: courtesy of the author] The resulting videos act as miniature time capsules of a bygone era. In Collinsville, Illinois, you can follow ketchup bottles stream past on a conveyor belt inside the now-defunct Brooks Foods ketchup factory. In Lebanon, Missouri, you can peek inside the now-closed Munger Moss Motel, its iconic neon sign flickering under a 1960s sun. [Screenshot: courtesy of the author] But as Sood points out, these dreamy snapshots inspire you to preserve, too. The hope is that the AI-powered vision of, say, the Threatt Filling Stationthe only Black-owned-and-operated gas station during the Jim Crow erawill pique your interest enough for you to visit the storytelling hub and learn about the craftsmen who are now working to restore the building’s “giraffe-stone” exterior. [Screenshot: courtesy of the author] Next year, Route 66 is likely to be designated a National Historic Trail. The designation, which is being championed by members of both the U.S. House and Senate, could help preserve the historic route, boost tourism, and support local economies ahead of the highway’s centennial celebration. In the meantime, perhaps the AI-powered platform will galvanize tourists both domestically and from abroad to get on the road and see how the myth lives on. “The goal is to keep the car rolling down the street and get more people engaged,” Martin says. “It’s going to be a big party [next year], but that’s definitely not the end. Its the start of the next 100 years.”
Category:
E-Commerce
Mark Mansons 2016 book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck delivered some hard truths and prescient advice to millions of readers seeking answers. Now hes building an AI-based application to do the same. At that time, Manson says the self-help field was unrealistic, not very evidence basedjust designed to make you feel good, inspiring him to write a book that offered a more skeptical, realistic, and zero bull shit approach to personal growth and self-help. Nearly a decade later, Manson says hes seeing the same pattern in the digital world, with millions turning to generic AI platforms for guidance, only to receive unrealistic, potentially harmful advice. Thats what inspired him to team up with serial tech entrepreneur Raj Singhwho most recently sold his AI hotel concierge service GoMomentto create on-demand life coaching app Purpose, which launches this week. The AI tool offers users life guidance and actionable steps to solve problems, from career to relationships and beyond. It also seeks to challenge, rather than validate users (something many experts have argued many AI platforms do), albeit in a polite, supportive tone. It pairs existing research into cognitive behavioral therapy with data gathered from users upon sign up, and retains conversation history to track patterns over time. According to an internal survey, 41% of early users said the app has been life-changing. We’ve actually had a number of people tell us that they’ve cried while using it, Manson says. We really tried to build this AI to go deep quickly, to not beat around the bush or do any fake pleasantries. Fast Company caught up with the author-turned-tech-founder from Los Angeles to talk about the legacy of The Subtle Art, whether were ready to share our deepest thoughts with an app, and why AI is the perfect tool to deliver personalized coaching at scale. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Were you surprised by the success of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck? The scope of the success caught me off guard. My pie-in-the-sky dream at the time was a million copies, so the fact that its exceeded that so drastically has been a pleasant surprise. Why do you think it was such a hit? When I got started in this industry in the early 2010s, self-help was very touchy-feely, very woo-woo. It was, in my opinion, unrealistic, not very evidence basedjust designed to make you feel good. It felt like there was a deep hunger, especially among millennials, for a skeptical, realistic, zero-bullshit approach to personal growth and self-help. That was the inspiration. Coincidentally a lot of the cultural observations at the timelike about social media and distraction and chronically comparing ourselves to othershave aged really well. I think I identified early on the world we were heading toward. How has your life changed since? Financial security is probably the single biggest change, and thats great, but being a very successful author is weird in that the book is the celebrity, not me. Im not getting recognized on the street or anything. Its just a bunch of numbers on emails that youre like wow, thats a large number. Then you go back to your same apartment and hang out with your same friends. Why transition from author to tech cofounder? When my career started to blow up, there were opportunities to do seminars and start a coaching business, but I didnt really want to charge somebody $5,000 to spend a weekend in a hotel ballroom with me. Ive been obsessed with this question of, how can we help more people? Like, what does a better version of this industry look like? One of the problems I identified well before ChatGPT came out is that the stuff that actually works doesnt scale, and the stuff that scales doesnt work. My book was read by millions of people, but a book has to talk in broad principles, and the reader needs to connect the dots for themselves. It might move the needle for some people, but not much. What really works is working with an excellent coach or therapist, which is extremely personalized and requires a major investment of time and energy, so it doesnt scale. Then ChatGPT came out, and I heard people were asking it big life questions. I tried it myself, and it does okay in terms of some questions, but not others. It felt like there was an opportunity for a properly trained AI to scale that personalization. How did you meet your cofounder? At a poker game. After ChatGPT came out, I was meeting with AI companies, but they didnt really get it. And then I sat down next to Raj Singh at a poker game just as he was finishing a sabbatical in 2023, and was independently thinking about doing something with AI and mental health. We started chatting, and it turns out we were thinking about the same question. What is Purpose all about? What makes it different from generic AI platforms? Purpose is a personalized AI mentor designed to help you find clarity and direction in your life as soon as possible. One of the biggest issues I see with using ChatGPT for life questions is that its default approach is to validate you. If you complain about your ex-girlfriends, ChatGPT will tell you theyre terrible, and youre a great guy, so just pick yourself up and itll be okay when what you might actually need to hear is like, hey dude, you might be the problem. The goal with Purpose is to build an AI that will challenge your assumptions, poke holes in some of your beliefs, point out blind spots, and help you reconsider how you see your own approach. The app does take a positive tone, though. Theres a fine line between flattery and positivity, and its something were trying to calibrate all the time. It changes based on the user, the context, the issue. Part of our onboarding experience is designed to get an early read of the users personality traits. The AI speaks to people differently based on how agreeable they are. Some people want very direct advice, others want it to be a bit more encouraging and positive, and its something were working on fine tuning all the time. The entire field of psychology is already in all these LLMs. The value is finding that calibration. ChatGPT is poorly calibrated for it, partly because of the sycophancy, partly because of the lack of personalization, partly because of the poor memory. Were trying to fix those things. Are people open to receiving that advice from a bot? When you’re talking to a humaneven a trusted person, like a therapistit’s almost impossible to not worry what that person thinks about you. With AI, I dont care. I dont feel shame: I just say what I feel. And what Ive also found is that when it gives me harsh feedback, I dont feel that social anxiety thats attached to criticism or negative feedback from a person. What about privacy and security concerns? Trust is by far the most important thing in this space. We are building Purpose with all the highest security and privacy regulations, like HIAA and GDPR. Conversations are anonymized on each device, so even if somebody puts a gun to my head or Rajs, we cant share your conversations, because we dont have any way to identify individual users. Its also entirely self-fundedwhich is something Raj and I feel very strongly aboutto keep the proper incentives in place and not jeopardize the goal and mission of the product. Whats next for you personally? I am going to be strongly involved in Purposes product design, but I do feel like its probably time to write another book. Its been about five years, and I need to get back on that horse. Did Purpose suggest that? Not specifically. But it probably would have if I asked.
Category:
E-Commerce
Sites : [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] next »