My trend nose has been twitching.  A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the arrival of Shake Shack and the gentrification of the Fulton Mall in Downtown Brooklyn.  I arrived at work last week and noticed that the new signage over the construction near Bridge Street calls this renovation a “renaissance,” introducing not only H&M, but also a TJ Maxx.  Paying attention to new trends around you can offer real insight into the work you might do for clients, or for yourself, so it's good to stay alert.

Who would have thunk it? Last week, I became a member of the Board of Directors of Cuisine Frozen Foods, based in Kent, England. This is a brand that had millions of pounds in sales as creators of ready-made frozen meals, a category that is wildly popular in Great Britain and Europe.  Originally wholesale only, selling to pub chains and providing private label to supermarkets, the brand will be resurrected with a new nam and new products over the course of the next year. We are going to be working with Cuisine on every phase of their introduction into the consumer marketplace. This is a project I’m looking forward to sinking my teeth into. Ahem.

This morning when I was walking to work I saw, to my surprise, that H & M is opening a store on the Fulton Mall here in Brooklyn, right down the block from my studio. Hmmm, I thought, this is getting interesting. The Fulton Mall is turning into another version of East 86th Street, that outdoor uptown shopping “mall” on the Upper East Side. In a real harbinger of what’s to come, Danny Meyer’s Shake Shack also opened about a month ago, which is also the best and upscale fast food option anchoring the shopping area on 86th Street.

For many years now the Fulton Mall has been perceived as an inner city shopping non-destination. Even the presence of Macy’s, situated in the landmarked Abraham & Strauss building, had no effect on the mix of low-end retailers, fried fish joints and MacDonald-like food options that line the street. Meanwhile, Atlantic Avenue in Cobble Hill has gentrified fairly extensively in the past five years, and is a mere three block walk from the Mall. Now the neighborhood seems to be experiencing a seismic shift. The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC), Fulton Street Mall Improvement Association (FMIA) and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP) have recently completed the $15 million Fulton Streetscape Project as well, so that the street looks cleaner, more contemporary, and altogether more pleasant. It turns out that the Mall attracts 100,000 shoppers per day, meaning that people are dropping quite a bit of coin. Future tenants include Sephora and Aeropostale just opened, completing the sense of having shopped the same brands, in the same order, but on another street.

I have to admit that I’m not unhappy with the impending homogenization of my working neighborhood. It seemed inevitable, with the Mall situated between Fort Greene (which has shown a higher increase in residential property value than any other neighborhood in Brooklyn), Cobble Hill, and Brooklyn Heights, long considered to be Brooklyn’s Gold Coast. Some may see it as the continued march of big brands wiping out the nighborhood individuality, but I have to admit that I do love those Shake Shack burgers.

                                                                                                                    Joseph Altuzarra. Spring 2012     

One thing that really interests me is how effective magazine publicity can be in building brand notoriety, and I mean this in a truly positive way. Take the case of this year’s CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner, Joseph Altuzarra. Championed by Vogue editor Lauren Santo-Domingo (who we worked with on a big branding project for her full-price, couture flash sale site, Moda Operandi), Altuzarra has received serious coverage, support and love notes in the pages of the magazine.

No doubt, his forward-thinking, comfortable design sensibility is in tune with today’s busy gal. But there are also plenty of other worthy young designers (for example, the struggling ones on the FashionStake site) who are not getting the same level of free publicity, celebrity attention, income or awards.

Altuzarra walked away from the evening with $300,000 to put towards his business, as well as CFDA brand and business mentoring. So think about this when you are thinking about how you are building your career. Historically, shooting editorial was a surefire way to garner free publicity and buzz about your pictures. Today, maybe less so, as editorial jobs are not always so adventurous. But many of my agency clients are firmly committed to using strong editorial as a way of moving their photographers towards lucrative ad jobs.

Ponder that, young-uns.

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The other night at the gym I happened to catch “Inside The Actor’s Studio,” with James Lipton.  He was interviewing Jennifer Aniston, who I have to admit I’ve never been the biggest fan of.  I’m more in the ‘Jennifer’s OK’ group.  What I found interesting, though, was her admission that she had been a dreamy child who didn’t pay attention in class.   As she began to go into detail about her parents’ divorce, she had already identified one of her attributes: dreamy.

Aniston went on to describe the trauma of coming home one day at the age of 9 to find that her father had gone. Lipton pointed out that every successful actor he has interviewed has come from either a divorced or broken home.  In other words, your creativity can be directly related to trauma in either your nuclear family or extended family of origin. I’ve seen this as a pattern in my own clients, and I am attentively listening for some kind of family trauma to come up during our initial discovery and brand attribute sessions.

It’s important to understand that a complicated background is frequently the fuel for creativity, not simply something to be “overcome.”  To embrace and use trauma consciously can lead to fulfillment and actualization, and it’s good to know that the throughline of trauma and creativity is the hallmark of many highly expressive and successful people.

Our trend-watching nose was twitching when we last wrote about Miss Moss. She is just so darned influential — you want to be her, dress like her, hang out like her, be a muse like her!

Then, yesterday brought a press release from James Danziger, at Danziger Projects, a man who always has his finger on the pop culture photo zeitgeist:

The Kate Moss Portfolio & Other Stories
Opening May 12, 6-8pm
The portfolio (produced by Danziger Projects in collaboration with Kate Moss) contains eleven 30 x 24 inch prints by eleven of the world's leading photographers (including Bruce Weber, Chuck Close, Juergen Teller, and Annie Leibowitz) all of who have played a key role in picturing Ms. Moss.

Unlike any model in the history of fashion photography, Kate Moss has proved to be a unique subject blurring the boundaries between fashion photography and contemporary art. In a career that has lasted 23 years to date, it can be said that Moss's particular beauty and singular figure have made her more of a muse than a supermodel. No matter what she is wearing (or not wearing) Moss invariably becomes the subject of the photograph, supercharging the image and inspiring photographers to create some of their most imaginative work. Unselfconscious and unapologetic, Moss's persona and sensuality have not only changed our notions of beauty but also influenced the culture at large.

Courtesy of Blavish

Lately I’ve been thinking about Kate Moss. Her boyfriend, Jamie Hince, part of the indie duo The Kills, has just released a new album and is getting lots of press coverage.  Miss Moss is always mentioned in these articles, particuarly as the press is inevitably more interested in Kate than they are in Jamie, despite his cult-like status. What particularly interests me about her is that her own brand supercedes everything else that she touches, and that her brand, despite the trouble she’s seen, always remains super cool and kind of unshakeable. Think back to the time after she was busted for cocaine use, and lost a number of her lucrative and most visible brand relationships. Twelve months later, she was bigger than ever, winning contracts for major advertisers like Rimmel, Agent Provocateur, Virgin Mobile, Calvin Klein Jeans, Longchamp, and Burberry. According to Forbes, Moss has earned more money since her cocaine scandal than ever before: her 2004–2005 earnings were $5 million, 2005–2006 earnings were $8 million, and in 2007, with  earnings of $9 million, she was the second highest paid model in the world.

Courtesy of London Evening Standard

Kate is also legendary as an influential fashion individualist, someone whose personal style and ability to mix fashion trends with vintage and personal pieces is constantly reported on in the fashion press. So here is where another part of the brand piece comes in. She designs the Kate Moss collection for TopShop, the major British high street retailer. It’s not upmarket, folks, but smack in the middle so that it is accessible and aspirational at the same time. Her next fashion designs were for Longchamp, where she designed a line of bags with prices that were a bit higher on the food chain, but not stratospherically priced like other couture bags.

So it’s once again the perfect brand of high/low that we saw in the Olson’s work as well. Women want to dress like Kate so they can be cool, too! They want to buy into HER brand — not something perceived as being fabricated by a designer, but emanating from Kate herself.

This prayer request is from Dr. Emoto, the Japanese scientist who researched the effects of blessings and prayers on water.

Please say the following phrase:

“The water of Fukushima Nuclear Plant,
we are sorry to make you suffer.
Please forgive us. We thank you, and we love you.”

Please say it aloud or in your mind. Repeat it three times as you put your hands together in a prayer position. Please offer your sincere prayer.

Thank you very much from my heart.

With love and gratitude,
Dr. Masaru Emoto
Messenger of Water

Today's Affirmation
I am renewed by Living Waters
Today's Meditation
Dear God,

We bless the waters that cool the reactors and that fill our oceans, rivers and lakes..
We make amends for the toxins and trash that have been dumped into the waters.
It seems that we do not realize the effects of our actions on the waters, our planet or ourselves.
Many are awakening at this time and we are seeking Your guidance and direction.
Teach us to be better stewards of this world.
Thank you for sharing the waters of life will all of Life
Amen