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Countless hours, daysperhaps even weeksof my life have been spent creating Sims characters, building them houses, marrying them off, and making babies. Now, theres a new life-simulation game on the block hoping to expand beyond the American market. inZOI debuted on March 28 at $40 and quickly climbed to the top of Steams most wishlisted and bestseller charts. The game’s appeal lies in its hyper-detailed character customization, free expansions, and immersive, realism-focused world. Unlike The Sims, which embraces cartoonish characters and lightheartedness, inZOI opts for lifelike graphics and a slower-paced gameplay experience centered on everyday interactions. Designed with a broader audience in mind, inZOI stands out through subtle cultural details. For example, players digital humans are prompted to remove their shoes upon entering a home, and the games cities draw inspiration from Seoul and Santa Monica. The fridge is stocked with tteokbokki, a beloved Korean rice cake snack, and characters often wear trendy Korean streetwear. I felt a lot of cultural barriers playing The Sims, Hyungjun Kjun Kim, chief executive officer of game publisher Kraftons inZOI Studio, told Bloomberg in a recent interview. Kim spent years developing online role-playing games, only to come home and play The Sims with his son. One day, his son asked why there aren’t other games like The Sims. That question stuck with Kim and eventually led to the creation of inZOI. Once the prototype was ready, Krafton sought input from The Sims large and dedicated fanbase. They sent PCs to Sims YouTubers, encouraging them to livestream the game, while fans joined a Discord channel to request features they felt The Sims was lackingsuch as more inclusive hairstyles. The Sims franchise has been a cash cow for Electronic Arts, generating over $5 billion in revenue and attracting more than 15 million new players in 2024, despite being more than a decade old. But with no Sims 5 in sight, EA has relied on expansion packs to keep players engaged, opening up a gap in the market that inZOI is eager to fill. Still, if inZOI was banking on its competitor fading into obscurity, it may be disappointed. The Sims 4 recently hit its highest-ever average player count on Steam in February 2025, according to The Gamer. The anticipation surrounding inZOI perhaps sparked a wave of players to revisit their old favorite. Either way, The Sims franchise has shown it still has plenty of life in it.
Category:
E-Commerce
Over the last year, Gap has been popping up in an unexpected place for a heritage casual wear brand: the red carpet. Last July, Anne Hathaway wore a white shirt dress with matching bralette and Bulgari jewelry. In December, Demi Moore appeared in a black knit jersey dress and moto jacket. And just this past February, Timothée Chalamet showed up in a black satin workwear set. Zac Posen, Gap Inc.s executive vice president and creative director, had designed all of them under the new label, GapStudio. And now, Gap is bringing GapStudio to the masses as it officially launches the new, higher-end Gap sub-brand, designed to elevate Gap’s perception, extend its reach to younger consumers, and help regain its cultural caché. Zac Posen [Photo: Mario Sorrenti/GapStudio] GapStudio will launch four seasonal collections a year, along with select standalone drops starting with this Spring capsule, called GapStudioCollection 01. The collection includes a range of elevated basics that play into classic styles Gap is known for, but with contemporary and trend-driven silhouettes, and elevated fabrications and construction. Prices range from $78-$248, and will be available online and in select stores starting this Thursday. Posens role is far-reaching across Gap Inc, but GapStudio seems to be the most direct expression of his crossover from the red carpet gowns of his former high-end designer label to Gap Incs accessible everyday denim. Posen led the collections design processes, creative directed its launch campaign with zeitgeisty photographers, models, and stylists from his network, and onboarded a team hes worked with for decades to bring it to life. [Photo: Mario Sorrenti/GapStudio] The move to revive a brand’s Americana cool factor GapStudio is launching close to a year after Posen joined Gap Inc, where he oversees the creative direction of its brands, including Gap, Banana Republic, Athleta, and Old Navy, for which he is also chief creative officer. He and his team work out of the GapStudio atelier (thats fashion for workshop), a new space in Gap Incs New York City headquarters thats the epicenter of a new design vision for Gap. After shuttering his namesake brand in 2019 and spending seven years at Brooks Brothers, Gap Inc hired Posen to revive the defunct heritage brand known more for its deep sales than for its fit. According to the companys fourth quarter earnings report, net sales were down 3% in its last quarter compared to the previous year. But the full 2024 fiscal year shows that online sales were up 4% and net sales were up 1%. In-store sales remained flat. Posens first collection for GapStudio offers up a tangible sense of where he wants to take the brand. The collection includes a mix of polished but contemporary everyday pieces, including denim sailor pants, cropped white button downs, and dresses (the Anne Hathaway will be available in a new color), ribbed tanks and dresses, slinky slip dresses, a denim moto and a trench coat with a pleated back. You have to have that range within a very tight collection to be able to do that, says Posen of the mix between casual and elevated styles. He notes that the slip dress could be worn with shoes or heels. Daystomper, night stalker. [Photo: Mario Sorrenti/GapStudio] Brand elevation through construction, silhouette, and association Posen applied a studied eye to the construction of the pieces. He showed me the collection in the Gap Inc showroom in NYC’s Tribeca neighborhood. I noted the curved seaming of the knit dress worn by Demi Moore, which gave the dress a slight bell shape. Those were Posens construction lines, he said, so the piece didnt have side seams. The seams themselves were made to have more dimension than a typical needle stitch, he pointed out. As he made his way through the collection racks, he pointed out more details: the $148 knit day dress, which is a fully fashioned knit, the dry hand of the rib tank, the sit of the shoulder and pick stitch of the khaki blazer. Posen pulls out a white denim corset cincher. Like, why not? he asks. He paired it with a white tank dress, but it appears in a few different looks throughout the campaign, making the case for its versatility. The collection also has sweatshirts for when youre not in the mood to be so cinched. He thumbs to the slip dress, which has seaming he originally designed for a slip dress featured in a ballet his husband choreographed. Pajama glamour, he declared.Everyday street glamour. Red carpet to the street. That sentiment covers the range of the collection pretty well. Thats so cute as a look, and really young, Posen says referring to the sweatshirt look. There’s an explicit play for Gen Z with GapStudio. It’s been really fun to be building a collection with that in mind, in terms of expanding our customer base. [Photo: Mario Sorrenti/GapStudio] One way he did that, in addition to leaning into nascent Gen Z trends like bloomers, is through the GapStudio campaign itself. He tapped fashion photographer Mario Sorrenti, stylist Alastair McKimm, and supermodels Alex Consani, Imaan Hammam, and Anok Yai. He described the process of building the images as elevating the iconic. He hopes to tap into contemporary equivalents of the brands past partnerships with renowned photographers like Annie Leibowitz and Steven Miesel. GapStudio’s “elevated essentials” Ultimately, Posen wants GapStudio to communicate a sense of elevated essentials, he says. Great items that become staples in a wardrobe. Beloved pieces you always look for. Things that have style and trends without being disposable. To do that, he aims to balance Gaps metrics-driven approach with his own taste. Experimentation at any level is essential, he says. And it does appear that he is deeply involved with the GapStudio design team, including concepting, fitting, and fabrication. As we walked to the atelier down the hall from the showroom, he introduced me to team members hed worked with for 10, 15, and 20 years, who now work in the GapStudio label. Muslin toile draping by Zac Posen for a future piece in the GapStudio atelier. [Photo: Ava Imperio/GapStudio] As we talked and made our way through the atelier, he was distracted by the work of a designer who was draping and pinning a work-in-progress garment on a figure. I keep thinking about lowering the back on it, Posen said to the designer. You have to do a body suitthat’s what I said at like midnight last nightbut then we can go lower in the back and lower on the side. Hes comfortably in his element. I asked him what the piece was for. Thats a special project, he told me as we moved to the next station, without disclosing particulars. Posen plans to invite other guest designers, a strategy that has worked well for bridge and mass market brands like Uniqlo and H&M. He sees the coalescence of longstanding relationships and skillsets into GapStudio as a starting point for innovation; a new chapter with old collaborators. The play is desirability, absolutely elevation, Posen says of GapStudio. The first collection, he says, is just the beginning.
Category:
E-Commerce
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. During the pandemic housing boom, home flipping surged as soaring home prices and ultralow-interest rates attracted more flippers, especially newcomers, to the market. However, as the market shifted due to the rate shock of 2022, home-flipping activity has seen the biggest pullback since 2007, and many of those newcomers pulled back. In the last quarter of 2018, there were 71,358 home flips. In the last quarter of 2021, that shot up to 120,531 flips, before falling to 87,851 flips in the last quarter of 2022. In the last quarter of 2024, there were just 69,929 flips. While some experienced flippers remain active, caution now prevails in the market. Regional challenges (including tight inventory in Connecticut and rising inventory in Florida) along with escalating costs have caused flippers to move forward with greater care. To better understand what’s going on in the home-flipping market, we’ve created the first-ever LendingOne-ResiClub Fix-and-Flip Survey. The flipper survey was fielded from February 1 to February 19, 2025. In total, 244 U.S. home flippers took the survey. To conduct the survey, ResiClub partnered with LendingOne, a private real estate lender. Our findings reveal that the home-flipping market in much of the Northeast remains competitive, as price appreciation, tight inventory, and aging housing stock create investment potential for fix-and-flip projects. However, home flippers in the region face intense competition for properties and elevated purchase prices. Here are some of the highlights: 1. Home flipper sentiment and plans Fix-and-flip activity: 89% of home flippers plan to conduct at least one fix-and-flip in 2025. 64% plan to convert at least one fix-and-flip project into a rental using the fix-to-rent method. Market outlook: 32% of home flippers say demand for fix-and-flip properties in spring 2025 is “very strong.” In the Northeast, 59% of home flippers described demand as very strong. 2. Financial considerations Renovation costs: 56% of U.S. home flippers say kitchen upgrades provide the best return on investment. 3. Flippers’ biggest concerns across the country Northeast: Housing inventory is the biggest challenge (34%). Midwest and Southwest: Competition for properties is reported as the top concern among flippers (31% and 34%). Southeast: Borrowing costs are the biggest concern, with several home flippers specifically noting trouble accessing enough financing for projects. West: Labor and material costs are the top challenge (24%). Below you will find the full results to the LendingOne-ResiClub Fix-and-Flip Survey. (Due to rounding, some total responses might not equal 100%.)
Category:
E-Commerce
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