We use cookies to give you the best personal experience on our website. If you continue to use our site without changing your cookie settings, you agree we may place these cookies on your device. You can change your cookie settings at any time but if you do , you may lose some functionality on our website . More information can be found in our privacy policy.
Please provide more information.
Stylus no longer supports Internet Explorer 7, 8 or 9. Please upgrade to IE 11, Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Edge. This will ensure you have the best possible experience on the site.
stylus
trends		 consumer
lifestyle		 consumer
product		 consumer
engagement		 topics events
calendar		 blog
view all
reports
 		about
stylus		 login
stylus trends
Consumer Lifestyle
Food, Beverage & Hospitality
Fashion
Beauty
Product Design
Colour & Materials
Retail
Media & Marketing
topics
view all reports
events calendar
blog
about stylus
T&C
careers
contact us
login
Retail

Haute Humour: Visual Influence

Luxury fashion brands are embracing wit as a tool to humanise a sector often perceived as impenetrable – recognising the power of humour to gain traction online and entice a new generation of high-spending millennials. We track the best store concepts, ads and e-campaigns already attuned to playful thinking.

Share:
Published:
14 Nov 2014
BY: Estella Shardlow & Katie Baron
DOWNLOAD PDF
RELATED REPORTS
Retail’s Infomercial Micro Trend
Retail’s Infomercial Micro Trend Retail’s Infomercial Micro Trend The recent fashion-focused, retail-marketing trend for tongue-in-cheek infomercials reveals an appetite for humour and a degree of simplicity and humanisation often lacking in convoluted, app-based initiatives. Both brands and tech start-ups are getting in on the action. 
Retail
Advertising & Branding
15 Aug 2017
Ted Baker: 360° Interactive Campaign
Ted Baker: 360° Interactive Campaign Ted Baker 360° Interactive Campaign Charming consumers from all angles, British fashion retailer Ted Baker is promoting its S/S 17 collection with a wryly-titled suite of interactive initiatives – Keeping Up With The Bakers. The campaign encompasses shoppable content, social media and interactive windows.
Retail
Digital Commerce
05 Apr 2017
Fendi’s Soft-Sell Youth E-Platform
Fendi’s Soft-Sell Youth E-Platform Fendi’s Soft-Sell Youth E-Platform Bidding to strengthen its relationship with social-media-savvy younger fans, Fendi has launched an online content platform and app called 'F is For...'.
Retail
Digital Commerce
17 Feb 2017
Athleisure: New Store Design Aesthetics
Athleisure: New Store Design Aesthetics Athleisure: New Store Aesthetics With projected global sales of $350bn by 2020, the continued expansion of the athleisure industry is unleashing a new wave of aesthetically diverse stores catering to spin-off consumer groups. We highlight the key design trends emerging in tandem. 
Retail
Store Concepts
19 Dec 2016
Ted Baker’s Geo-Smart Interactive Window Displays
Ted Baker’s Geo-Smart Interactive Window Displays Geo-Smart Interactive Shop Windows As part of a new physical-digital campaign promoting its Autumn/Winter 16/17 collection, British fashion brand Ted Baker has partnered with Google on a gamified, content-prompted interactive window experience at selected stores, including London and NYC.
Retail
Digital Commerce
19 Sep 2016
VIEW ALL Reports
Shiseido’s Digital Kiss Mobile Promo Targets Gen Z
Shiseido’s Digital Kiss Mobile Promo Targets Gen Z Shiseido’s Digi-Kisses Target Gen Z Shiseido has launched an interactive, kiss-sharing mobile campaign to promote its new lipstick collection to digital natives Gen Z – a group that now constitutes 40% of global consumers (Pew, 2015).
Retail
Digital Commerce
14 Jul 2016
Retail City Guide: NYC, May 2016
Retail City Guide: NYC, May 2016 Retail City Guide: NYC, May 2016 New York's creative landscape in May places a special emphasis on hyper-local-centricity and commuter commerce. Branded fragrance concepts, a subway shopping hub and an NYC-dedicated athleisure store are among this month's highlights, while art inspiration takes a rich sonic turn. We chart the must-see creative hotspots.
Retail
Retail City Guides
02 May 2016
Retail City Guide: NYC, April 2016
Retail City Guide: NYC, April 2016 Retail City Guide: NYC, April 2016 New York's retail scene witnesses a fresh influx of fashion, jewellery and homeware stores with a distinctly residential feel this month, plus more customisation-focused boutiques. Art highlights include the long-awaited opening of The Met Breuer Museum. Stylus picks the most inspirational happenings.
Retail
Retail City Guides
01 Apr 2016
Shape-Shifting Spaces: Flexible Store Formats
Shape-Shifting Spaces: Flexible Store Formats Flexible Store Formats In an era of increasingly hybridised, multifaceted retailing, savvy retailers are using flexible store-design concepts to both enhance and future-proof their physical spaces. Shape-shifting fit-outs, portable shop-in-shops and reinvented showrooms are enabling brands to evolve and react quicker than ever before.  
Retail
Store Concepts
25 Feb 2016
Accessories Spaces: VM Trends, 2015
Accessories Spaces: VM Trends, 2015 Accessories Spaces: VM Trends, 2015 Smart brands are exploiting a global boom in luxury accessories sales with store designs and visual merchandising attuned to consumers' growing desire for deeper dialogue, entry-level affluence and new renditions of escapism. We track the details.
Retail
Store Concepts
17 Dec 2015
Luxury Play: Fendi’s Year-Long Mega Pop-Up, Tokyo
Luxury Play: Fendi’s Year-Long Mega Pop-Up, Tokyo Luxe Play: Fendi Mega Pop-Up, Tokyo Italian luxury fashion house Fendi is celebrating its 50th anniversary of trading in Japan with an ultra-playful, supersized, relatively long-term pop-up store located in Tokyo’s luxury shopping district of Ginza.
Retail
Store Concepts
02 Dec 2015
Dior’s Street-Art-Inspired Paradise
Dior’s Street-Art-Inspired Paradise Dior’s Street-Art-Inspired Paradise Boldly coloured and playfully adorned with large flowers, utopian phrases and skateboard-inspired badges, Dior’s new Paradise Collection (launched today as part of Dior Cruise 2016), taps into our current love for all things customised and creative.
Fashion
Womenswear
02 Dec 2015
Macy’s One Below Gen Z/Y Playground
Macy’s One Below Gen Z/Y Playground Macy’s One Below Gen Z/Y Playground US department store chain Macy’s has unveiled One Below – the newly renovated basement floor of its New York flagship. The space is conceived as a destination for tech-savvy and experience-seeking consumers aged 13 to 22.
Retail
Store Concepts
15 Oct 2015
Retail City Guide: NYC, October 2015
Retail City Guide: NYC, October 2015 Retail City Guide: NYC, Oct 2015 Autumn brings a bumper crop of store openings to NYC, including several European luxury brand debuts, a cereal bar/sneaker store and a clutch of quintessentially New York, industrially styled eateries. The pick of visual inspiration comes via cult US artists Shepard Fairey and Mike Kelley.
Retail
Retail City Guides
01 Oct 2015
CDG Pocket Shops: Haute Convenience
CDG Pocket Shops: Haute Convenience Comme des Garcons’ Pocket Shops Cult Japanese fashion brand Comme des Garcons has debuted its first permanent Pocket concept store in the US. The diminutive format is specifically designed to house the brand’s line of affordable ‘pocket-sized’ items, such as casual clothing, wallets and perfumes.
Retail
Store Concepts
21 Sep 2015
A/W 15-16 Campaign & Editorial Directions
A/W 15-16 Campaign & Editorial Directions A/W 15-16 Campaign & Editorial We highlight the key trends driving the Autumn/Winter 2015-16 fashion campaigns and editorial directions, from gender diversity and plus-size, to the plethora of unknown faces fronting high-profile campaigns. 
Fashion
Advertising & Branding
17 Sep 2015
Retail City Guide: NYC, September 2015
Retail City Guide: NYC, September 2015 Retail City Guide: NYC, Sept '15 An Italian luxury brand invasion, a home improvement concept dedicated to urbanites, and a clutch of inspirational exhibitions homing in on some of the 20th century's greatest artists make up New York's key creative hot spots for September 2015.
Retail
Retail City Guides
01 Sep 2015
Play S/S 17
Play S/S 17 Play S/S 17 Play updates our A/W 16-17 Kidult trend and moves it into a more intentionally messy, humorous sphere. Steeped in childhood references, this trend incorporates humour as a means of playful expression, as well as a way of addressing deep human concerns such as death and spirituality. 
Fashion
Overview
20 Aug 2015
Fashion & Beauty: Design Directions S/S 17
Fashion & Beauty: Design Directions S/S 17 Fashion & Beauty: Design Directions Our S/S 17 Design Directions provide visual direction and key insights for beauty, male grooming, womenswear and menswear. This season, we explore concepts of body and gender acceptance, wellbeing and feminism, and explore how they are impacting design. We highlight the need-to-know cultural drivers, key influencers and groundbreaking products that propel our three trends: Play, Stillness and Riot.  
Fashion
Overview
20 Aug 2015
K-Beauty: Packaging
K-Beauty: Packaging K-Beauty: Packaging With the increasing influence of K-beauty globally, we look at the novel and kitsch packaging innovations from South Korea that are spurring Gen Z and millennial beauty packaging trends.
Beauty
Packaging & Graphics
07 Aug 2015
Louis Vuitton’s Immersive Fashion Journey
Louis Vuitton’s Immersive Fashion Journey Louis Vuitton’s Fashion Journey During London Fashion Week in September, Italian luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton will put on an immersive fashion exhibition at Somerset House. The show will celebrate creative director Nicholas Ghesquiere’s artistic process and the creative thinking behind the brand, as well as the technical prowess that shaped its A/W 15-16 collection. 
Fashion
Retail
06 Aug 2015
Elevating Eyewear: Exploiting the Optical Boom
Elevating Eyewear: Exploiting the Optical Boom Elevating Eyewear Shrewd brands are capitalising on a substantial boom in eyewear sales with tactics that talk to a desire for both style and wellness. From in-store optical clinics and interactive windows, to virtual-fit tech tools primed for customisation and m-commerce, we track the key strategies.
Retail
Store Concepts
30 Jul 2015
Decoded Fashion Tokyo Summit, 2015: The Highlights
Decoded Fashion Tokyo Summit, 2015: The Highlights Decoded Fashion Tokyo Summit, 2015 Launching its inaugural Japanese summit in Tokyo, Decoded Fashion – a pioneering forum aligning fashion, retail and technology – explored globalisation, disruptive socialised e-commerce in Asia, and conquering the digital-physical landscape.
Retail
Digital Commerce
17 Jul 2015
Retail City Guide: NYC, July 2015
Retail City Guide: NYC, July 2015 Retail City Guide: NYC, July 2015 Summer 2015 sees New York at its creative best, with retail openings including Apple's new Upper East Side space and a raft of jewellery and accessories venues, and exhibitions ranging from immersive multimedia art to the cult world of sneaker design. We chart the must-sees for the month.
Retail
Retail City Guides
01 Jul 2015
Graduate Fashion 2015: Details
Graduate Fashion 2015: Details Graduate Fashion 2015: Details A strong category from the graduate shows, students demonstrated a return to folk, playing with bright pom-poms, wild fringing and loud ruffles. Chunky rope-style drawcords were also a key takeaway, with strong applications for sportswear. 
Fashion
Graduate Fashion 2015
18 Jun 2015
Graduate Fashion 2015: Surface Pattern
Graduate Fashion 2015: Surface Pattern Graduate Fashion 2015: Pattern Fun is the key takeaway for surface pattern from the graduate collections. Cutesy cartoons, bright florals on menswear, and bold check/stripe combinations act as a counterpoint to slick minimalism.   
Fashion
Graduate Fashion 2015
18 Jun 2015
Henry Holland: New Menswear Line
Henry Holland: New Menswear Line Henry Holland: New Menswear Line To coincide with the kick-off of London Menswear Collections, British designer Henry Holland has launched his first full menswear line, working in collaboration with British Magnum photographer and wry documentarian Martin Parr. 
Fashion
Menswear
18 Jun 2015
Christian Dior Resort 2016
Christian Dior Resort 2016 Christian Dior Resort 2016 Inspired by Le Palais Bulles, Pierre Cardin’s extraordinary pink bubble house on the coast of France, Raf Simons presented an extremely youthful Resort 2016 collection, which felt casual and carefree offering plenty of design directions for the millennial market.
Fashion
Catwalks
14 May 2015
Hello Kitty x Yohji Yamamoto Collaboration
Hello Kitty x Yohji Yamamoto Collaboration Hello Kitty x Yohji Yamamoto Japanese conglomerate Sanrio, which owns the Hello Kitty franchise, has announced a collaboration with Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto called Kitty’s. 
Fashion
Designers & Brands
21 Apr 2015
GlobalShop 2015
GlobalShop 2015 GlobalShop 2015 GlobalShop, held in Las Vegas, is the world's largest annual expo and conference dedicated to retail design and marketing. From humanising brand connections and tactics for targeting millennials, to the best interactive smart fixtures, we present the highlights from the seminars and show floor.
Retail
Store Concepts
07 Apr 2015
GlobalShop, 2015: Experiential Branding & Visual Trends
GlobalShop, 2015: Experiential Branding & Visual Trends GlobalShop 15: Experiential Design Held in Las Vegas, GlobalShop is the world's largest annual expo and conference dedicated to retail design and marketing. In our first report, we look at three key, emergent topics: the value of humanising brand connections, investing in experiences and key visual trends.
Retail
Store Concepts
06 Apr 2015
Couture Influences: S/S 15
Couture Influences: S/S 15 Couture Influences: S/S 15 The S/S 15 season was defined by the 60s, an explosion of florals, and dimensional fabrications. Stylus highlights the key trends across fashion, beauty and street styling. 
Fashion
Couture Influences: S/S 15
12 Feb 2015
Fashion: Couture Influences S/S 15
Fashion: Couture Influences S/S 15 Fashion: Couture S/S 15 We highlight the key directions from a couture season steeped in romance. Bridalwear was reimagined, innovative developments in surface texture shone, and a new couture attitude was realised. 
Fashion
Couture Influences: S/S 15
12 Feb 2015
February 2015: New Season Retail Launches, LA
February 2015: New Season Retail Launches, LA February 2015: LA Retail Launches The past three months have asserted Los Angeles' status as a genuine international retail contender, thanks to a wave of brands selecting the city for their key US and, in some instances, global store debuts.
Retail
Store Concepts
05 Feb 2015
Fendi's Fun & Craft-Fuelled NY Flagship
Fendi's Fun & Craft-Fuelled NY Flagship Fendi's Craft-Fuelled Store Italian luxury fashion label Fendi has relocated its New York flagship from Fifth Avenue to Madison Avenue. The reimagined space pays homage to the craftsmanship at the heart of the brand, and also continues its flirtation with a slightly more playful brand positioning.
Retail
Store Concepts
18 Dec 2014
Barbie’s Fashion Moment
Barbie’s Fashion Moment Barbie’s Fashion Moment British designer Jeremy Scott brought the iconic Barbie doll and her bubble-gum pink, plastic lifestyle under the spotlight in his S/S 15 catwalk collection during Milan fashion week, reminding the fashion and beauty industry to lighten up in the face of economic and social struggles. Millennial consumers are enraptured. 
Fashion
Arts & Pop Culture
01 Dec 2014
Marketing to the New Luxury Consumer
Marketing to the New Luxury Consumer Marketing to New Luxury Consumers The luxury market demonstrated remarkable resilience during the recent global economic crash. But while consumer confidence rebounds, brands will need to evolve as they face continued growth pressures and changing demands from a new generation of luxury millennials.
Media & Marketing
Advertising & Branding
24 Nov 2014
Play It Forward
Play It Forward Play It Forward A fresh approach to play, harnessing the power of new technologies and the latest creative design strategies, is proving a smart way to delight consumers of all ages.
Consumer Lifestyle
Consumer Attitudes
17 Nov 2014
Sticker Fun for Millennials
Sticker Fun for Millennials Sticker Fun for Millennials The explosion of emojis in mainstream digital media (see The Emoji Economy) gives brands a new digital language with which to engage millennial consumers. The fashion and beauty industries are taking note – with fun, poppy stickers and tech add-ons bringing customisation to the fore. 
Fashion
Accessories
12 Nov 2014
Instagram for Retail Brands
Instagram for Retail Brands Instagram for Retail Brands Instagram is now the fastest-growing social network in the world, making it an exceptionally rich platform for brand engagement – especially when dealing with young consumers. We investigate key tactics, brand leaders and new advances in monetising millennials' favourite social media platform.
Retail
Digital Commerce
19 Aug 2014
Anya Hindmarch Mini-Mart Pop-Up
Anya Hindmarch Mini-Mart Pop-Up Anya Hindmarch’s Mini-Mart Pop-Up British luxury accessories designer Anya Hindmarch is celebrating the launch of her ‘Counter Culture’ Autumn/Winter 2014 collection with a supermarket-themed pop-up store at one of London’s most exclusive retail addresses – Mount Street.
Retail
Store Concepts
06 Aug 2014
Show Spaces: Men's Catwalk S/S 15
Show Spaces: Men's Catwalk S/S 15 Show Spaces: Men's Catwalk S/S 15 With luxury menswear labels continuing to outperform their womenswear counterparts in terms of sales growth, it's a market ripe for investment and worth showing off. From stunt shows to giant arcade games, we spotlight the key trends and most inspirational spatial concepts at the Spring/Summer 2015 presentations.
Retail
Advertising & Branding
22 Jul 2014
High Fashion Fun: Fendi’s Arcade Game Pop-Up
High Fashion Fun: Fendi’s Arcade Game Pop-Up Fendi’s Arcade Game Pop-Up Acknowledging the fact that high fashion isn’t always renowned for having a sense of humour, Italian brand Fendi has opened an arcade-themed pop-up in luxury London department store Harrods. 
Retail
Store Concepts
12 Jun 2014
Luxury Online for Millennials
Luxury Online for Millennials Luxury Online for Millennials Digitally savvy millennials will soon outstrip other demographics when it comes to buying luxury goods, making them an audience that premium retailers must embrace. From enabling self-promotion to mobile-friendly formats, we review key digital strategies for enticing young and future luxury consumers.
Retail
Digital Commerce
09 May 2014
Women's Catwalk A/W 14-15: Show Spaces
Women's Catwalk A/W 14-15: Show Spaces Show Spaces A/W 14-15 The biannual catwalk shows deliver an abundance of visual and atmospheric inspiration – now just as important for entertaining brand fans remotely as enthralling those on the front row. From extravagant domesticity, to dark, futuristic odysseys, we spotlight the most stimulating concepts. 
Fashion
Womenswear Catwalk Influences A/W 14-15
27 Mar 2014
About Stylus Terms & Conditions Careers Contact Us
Updated
Related
 ©  PANTONE®TPX
 COATED
 RAL
 RGB
 HEX
 NCS