shein

Shein And Forever 21 To Go Into Business Together 

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Fast fashion retailers Shein and Forever 21 are going into business together in a new partnership agreement that was announced last Thursday. 

Under the agreement, Shein will acquire around one-third of the interest in Sparc Group, Forever 21’s operator. Sparc will also become a minority shareholder in Shein. 

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In a joint release statement, the companies stated that the deal is expected to expand Forever 21’s distribution on Shein’s global e-commerce platform, which has around 150 million online users. The partnership will also “offer the opportunity to test” Shein product sales and returns in physical Forever 21 stores across the US. 

Forever 21 currently has over 540 locations worldwide and online, and the specific financial details have not been disclosed in the statement. 

Sparc is a joint venture company that also includes mall operator Simon Property Group and brand development company Authentic Brands Group. Sparc also distributes apparel for brands like Eddie Bauer, Reebok, and Aéropostale. 

Shein has had a major rise in popularity in the US due to their low-cost apparel and items. 

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, according to AP, says that “the new partnership makes sense for both parties — Forever 21, which still struggles some in the fast-fashion world, could see fast growth on Shein’s sizeable online platform and that Shein will also hope that the addition of a well-known American name will help to lessen focus on its manufacturing practices, which have come under scrutiny.”

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Both Shein and Forever 21 are also no stranger to controversy over the way they run their businesses. Between the environmental impact of the way the clothes are produced and distributed and the allegations of unethical labor practices, fast fashion companies have been consistently called out. 

There’s been many ongoing conversations and concerns from lawmakers and advocacy groups over the unethical practices that occur within these facilities. 

According to the Associated Press: “In May, a bipartisan group of two dozen lawmakers asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to put the brakes on an initial public offering by Shein until it verified that it does not use forced labor from the country’s predominantly Muslim Uyghur population. A June Congressional report also unloaded a blistering critique of Shein and another Chinese fashion retailer, Temu — which sued Shein last month, accusing its rival of violating U.S. antitrust law by preventing garment makers from working with it.”

Back in June Shein said that “the company’s policy is to comply with the customs and import laws of the countries in which we operate. [We have} zero tolerance for forced labor and have implemented a robust system to ensure compliance with U.S. law.”

When speaking of the partnership, Saunders said, “while both Shein and Forever 21 are expected to benefit from the newly-announced partnership, Shein still has an advantage as it is operating from a position of strength and is already taking share away from Forever 21, and others. This is something of an admission by Forever 21 that it is not able to engineer growth in its own business in the way that it would like. There is an element of ‘if you can’t beat them, join them.’”

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Study States 8 Lifestyle Habits Can Add Up Over Two Decades To Your Life 

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According to a new unpublished study that analyzed data from US veterans, adding eight healthy lifestyle habits to your life between the ages of 40 and 60 could extend your life by up to 24 years, depending on what age you begin implementing the habits. 

Even on the older end, the study states that if you start implementing the habits at age 60, you could still potentially gain 18 years to your life. 

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“There’s a 20-year period in which you can make these changes, whether you do it gradually or all at once. We also did an analysis to see if we eliminated people with type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, stroke, cancer and the like, does it change the outcome? And it really didn’t, so, if you start off with chronic diseases, making changes does still help,” said lead study author Xuan-Mai Nguyen, a health science specialist for the Million Veteran Program at the VA Boston Healthcare System. 

The habits are relatively well-known: eat a healthy diet, exercise, maintain low stress levels, keep positive social relationships, get a full night’s sleep, don’t smoke, don’t drink in excess, and avoid hard drugs/opioids. While these habits may seem rather obvious, it’s important to understand just how much of a difference they can make in your life, and it’s encouraging to know that it’s never too late in life to make the changes. 

“The earlier the better, but even if you only make a small change in your 40s, 50s or 60s, it still is beneficial. This is not out of reach — this is actually something attainable for the general population,” Nguyen said. 

The study was presented on Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, Nutrition 2023, and it showed how the study looked at the lifestyle behaviors of around 720,000 military veterans between the ages of 40 and 99. 

“Adding just one healthy behavior to a man’s life at age 40 provided an additional 4.5 years of life. Adding a second led to seven more years, while adopting three habits prolonged life for men by 8.6 years. As the number of additional lifestyle changes climbed, so did the benefits for men, adding up to nearly a quarter century of extra life,” Nguyen said, according to CNN. 

Nguyen went on to explain how women saw major changes in life span as well. “Adopting just one healthy behavior added 3.5 years to a woman’s life, while two added eight years, three 12.6 years and embracing all the healthy habits extended a woman’s life by 22.6 years.”

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“Doing all eight had a synergistic effect, sort of an added boost to extend your life, but any small change made a difference,” Nguyen said.

“An important strength of this analysis was that the population was highly diverse by race, ethnicity, and SES (socioeconomic status),” said senior study author and leading nutrition researcher Dr. Walter Willett.

The study also ranked all eight habits in order from which could give the largest increase in longevity, the following percentages were all taken from the study itself: 

  1. Exercise: “We looked at whether they did light, moderate or vigorous activity compared to not doing anything and just sitting on the couch. People who lived longer did 7.5 metabolic equivalent hours of exercise a week. Just to give you a baseline — if you can walk up a flight of stairs without losing your breath, that’s four minutes of the 7.5,” Nguyen said.
  2. Staying away from/not becoming addicted to opioids can reduce the risk of an earlier death by 38%.
  3. Never using tobacco can reduce the risk of death by 29%.
  4. Managing stress and reducing your daily stress levels can reduce early death by 22%.
  5. Eating a plant based diet could increase your chances of living a longer life by 21%.
  6. Avoiding excessive drinking and binge drinking, having more than four alcoholic drinks per day, could reduce your risk of death by 19%.
  7. Getting enough sleep every night, at least seven to nine hours a night with no insomnia, can reduce early death from other causes by 18%.

Having and maintaining positive social relationships can help life longevity by 5%. “Five percent may seem small, but that’s still a decrease in terms of all-cause mortality. Every little bit helps, whether you pick physical activity or make sure you’re surrounded by positive social support,” Nguyen said.

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Hard Water: What Is It, What Does It Do To Your Hair, And How Can You Fix It?

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In many parts of the world, hard water is what’s released through showers and sinks. Hard water refers to water that contains higher levels of minerals, metals, and other mainly harmless contaminants, which in turn can impact the hair and skin when one showers. 

Hard water could increase symptoms of pre-existing conditions like eczema, dandruff, and dermatitis, as hard water can make the hair and skin dryer, coarser, and duller. It’s also known for being especially harsh on textured hair, leading many individuals to use more shampoo, conditioner, and bodywash to reach the results they would have in a shower without hard water. 

Luckily, there are methods and products that exist that can filter out the extra minerals and metals, and help one’s hair and skin remain smooth, moisturized, and healthy. 

Many individuals have utilized plumbing technology such as domestic water softeners, however, these tend to be expensive, and sometimes aren’t usable with older plumbing systems. 

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One solution that many individuals have begun to implement are purifying shower heads, which are available online for less than $100. The shower head attachment screws onto most standard shower heads, making it so the water is filtered before it hits your skin and hair. Like water filters, these utilize replaceable filter cartridges, to ensure the head works continuously. 

It’s also recommended that for individuals with thicker, coarser, and/or textured hair, to utilize a clarifying shampoo every 7-14 days as opposed to their regular shampoo. Clarifying shampoo is formulated to remove excess buildup and residue from your hair and scalp, offering a much deeper clean than regular shampoo. 

It’s important to note that clarifying shampoo is not meant to be used on a regular basis due to how deeply it cleans the hair/scalp. If you were to use it every day, it would lead to much drier hair and skin. 

Finding a proper moisturizer and skin routine that works for your specific skin type, on your face and body, is important in general, but especially if you notice that your shower water is impacting your hair and skin. 

vogue

British Vogue Releases First Braille Edition In Publication’s 107-Year History 

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British Vogue has released a braille edition of its magazine for the first time in the publication’s 107-year history. 

The issue, which is released this month, is also being made available in audio format as a means of increasing accessibility to people who are blind or partially sighted. 

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The publication’s editor-in-chief, Edward Enninful, wrote on Instagram: “The Vogue team and I are delighted by the response to the May issue, but what the process of making it taught us is that what’s most important are tangible and lasting changes.

“Vogue and the fashion and publishing industries have a great deal to do still, but it makes me very happy to see the arrival of these first braille issues today.”

The title of the issue is “Reframing Fashion,” and as a whole it will focus on disability justice, accessibility, and pride. 

Tilting the Lens is an accessibility and inclusion consultancy company that worked with British Vogue on the issue. The company is well known for working as an advisor for brands like Netflix and Starbucks on how to make their businesses more disability-friendly. The edition features 19 disabled individuals from fashion, sport, activism, and the arts. 

There will be five covers available for the special issue, each of which will highlight an influential disabled activist or prominent public figure, such as actor Selma Blair and consultant editor Sinéad Burke. 

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Enninful recently spoke to the media about his own experiences with having an invisible disability. 

“I’ve had five retinal detachments, I’m partially blind and my hearing is less than 50% – I’m wearing hearing aids now. It’s never stopped me, but there are so many people with invisible disabilities who never talk about it, because it might hinder them. I’ve never had that fear,” he explained. 

“When I’m reading, it’s still difficult: when I’m doing interviews, I have to ask people to talk at a certain level. But these are things that are me; these are things that I’ve embraced. We always talk about diversity and inclusivity, but that also has to extend to our disabled brothers and sisters.”

Individuals will have the opportunity to receive an audio file and the ability to print a braille file of the issue from their own home for free, as well as register to be sent a physical braille copy of the issue. 

Enningful was initially made editor-in-chief in 2017, and from the beginning has promoted his message and goals of increasing inclusivity and diverse representation in fashion. He’s turned down advertising from major fashion brands during his time with British Vogue due to their vision’s not aligning with his desire to increase inclusivity. 

Enninful was also awarded an OBE for his services and work to implement more diversity in the fashion industry.

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Luxury Designer Brands Are Investing In Sustainable Bags Made From Leather Scraps And Unconventional Materials 

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Luxury designer bags are often made from exotic animal skins, which in recent years has been called out for its harm towards the environment. Now, some brands are shifting their focus to create bags made from recycled materials as a form of up-cycling, and reducing the carbon footprint/environmental impact that comes from traditional designer bag production. 

Coach, for example, just launched Coachtopia, a sub-brand that will be focusing on creating a variety of bags made from leather and other materials that would otherwise have been thrown away and ended up in landfills. 

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Telfar’s vegan bags are also nicknamed the “Bushwick Birkin ” after they grew in popularity in New York. While the bags are still on the more expensive side, the prices are more reasonable for the average consumer looking for a nice sturdy designer bag. 

“Every time you eat an apple, you’re basically eating a handbag,” said Stella McCartney after showcasing her latest collection of bags made from waste such as orange and cacti byproducts. 

The animal leather industry is actually one of the first examples of up-cycling, as the leather is brought from cows who are used for their meat/food, however, the industry is still very wasteful. According to ELeather, an engineered leather supplier, up to 75% of all leather hides are disposed of. 

The Leather and Hide Council of America also released a report in 2019 that stated 5 millions hides went to landfill in America that year. 

The younger generation has also been a driving force in this shift in fashion. In general, Gen Z has been a major player in the fight against climate change and the industries that drive it, especially fashion. 

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According to research, 90% of Gen Z consumers believe companies have an obligation to address environmental and social issues. 54% of the group also stated they’re willing to spend more if it means they’re getting a sustainable product; only 23% of baby boomers had the same ideals. 

Joon Silverstein, senior vice president for global marketing, creative and sustainability at Coach and head of Coachtopia, says that “according to [the company’s] research older generations and more established luxury consumers tend to consider pieces made from recycled leather as low quality. Gen Z has a different mindset – they consider it a moral and ethical [issue].”

There are two major aspects to the leather industry that lead to its waste. When the leather is being tanned at the tannery, the hides are treated and processed into leather using chemicals that make the leather, and its waste, non-biodegradable. The production also takes place in large factories where pollution is consistently emitted. 

Faux leather, like “pleather,” also comes with its faults, as it’s often produced from plastic or petroleum-based materials that have their own environmental issues. 

While this issue is going to take a lot more than a couple brands releasing small collections of sustainable bag lines, it’s hopeful to see sustainability and recycling/up-cycling trends enter the mainstream.

runway

Denni Francisco Is The First Indigenous Designer To Host A Solo Show At Australia Fashion Week 

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Australia fashion week will host its first solo show for an Indigenous designer in its 23-year history this May. Denni Francisco of the Indigenous clothing label Ngali is gearing up to hold her first solo show in an honor she’s calling “exciting, exhilarating, and a little bit terrifying.”

“When you’re the first at doing something it comes with a degree of responsibility. There are cultural elements that come with everything we do, so it’s not just the creativity, it’s about ensuring it all comes together in a culturally appropriate way.”

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Francisco is a proud Wiradjuri woman, and has won designer of the year at the National Indigenous Fashion Awards twice. 

This will mark the third time Francisco has had a showing at Australian Fashion Week, but will be the first time she’s had her own standalone show; previously she was featured as one of six designers on the Indigenous Fashion Projects runway show. 

Francisco previously was able to show between 6-8 designs during her featured showings in 2021 and 2022, this year, however, she’s planning a show of 30 looks in what she’s referred to as a “collective effort” between her and her team. 

“We’re already talking to the First Nations accessory designers and looking at what we can do with them. Everything that Ngali does, we’re looking at how we can bring in more of our mob, so it won’t just be Ngali. It will be more of our creatives coming together,” she explained. 

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Australia’s Fashion Week this year will present 45 designers over a five-year program, a slightly more scaled down plan when compared to previous fashion weeks. 

Natalie Xenita of global entertainment conglomerate IMG, which has staged Australian fashion week since 2005, said “this schedule was based on feedback from the industry. We’ve been careful to curate the schedule this year so that it’s … manageable, and that each designer that’s showing can get their cut through.”

For the past two years of Australian Fashion Week, IMG didn’t charge designers to participate in the program, a rule that will continue into this year’s showing. 

“It’s a really important long-term strategy for us, because the industry is still recovering from the massive impact of the pandemic,” Xenita explained. 

meta

Meta To Launch Paid Subscription Services For Facebook And Instagram 

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Mark Zuckerberg announced on Instagram this weekend that Meta is currently testing a subscription service in which users of Instagram and Facebook can pay to get verified; similar to Twitter’s recent launch of its paid Twitter Blue services where users can pay for verification. 

Meta will be releasing “Meta Verified” in Australia and New Zealand this week, in which users will have the option to pay either $11.99 a month for web service or $14.99 a month on iOS devices. 

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The service will also include extra protection from impersonation accounts and direct access to customer support services. 

To avoid an increase in fake accounts, users who want the paid service will need to provide proof through a government ID which matches their profile name and picture; users must also be 18 to be eligible for the service. 

“This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services.”

A Meta spokesperson also stated that there will be “no changes to accounts that are already verified,” as verification was previously given to users who are “authentic and notable.”

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“We are evolving the meaning of the blue badge to focus on authenticity so we can expand verification access to more people. We will display the follower count in more places so people can distinguish which accounts are notable public figures among accounts that share the same name.”

Twitter recently launched its own version of this paid verification subscription service with Twitter Blue; launched in December. 

This move came from Twitter after an influx in fake “verified” accounts began to take over the platform. 

For Twitter, each checkmark is a different color to differentiate what type of account is verified: gold check marks for companies, gray for government entities and other government organizations, and blue for the average individual.

Twitter Blue currently costs $11 a month for iOS and Android users.

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How Fragrance And Scents In The Home Can Impact Your Overall Air Quality 

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We all can relate to the desire of making our space smell good. There’s a multitude of fragrance options currently on the market that can make any home smell good and fresh. However, it’s important to understand the potential dramatic impact on our home’s air quality that these scent options can have.

According to Svetlana Stevanovic’s recent research and reporting for The Conversation, people spend, on average, 85-90% of their time indoors, and inhale around 20,000 liters of air daily. Air pollutants that exist within our homes can arguably become much more harmful than the ones existing outdoors due to how much more time we spend in our houses. 

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These stagnant indoor air pollutants from seemingly harmless fragrance options can have a major impact on our health and wellbeing, and can lead to issues such as eye irritation, respiratory issues, headaches, and more. 

The US Environmental Protection Agency has also reported that levels of indoor air pollutants can get up to three times higher than outdoor pollutants. 

Home scents are made to fill a space with a particular smell that will make our air smell nice, but it also can mean that we’re intentionally releasing a mixture of chemicals in a closed indoor environment, which can lower the overall air quality in a given space. 

According to Stevanovic, air fresheners alon emit more than 100 different chemicals, some of the most harmful being classified as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). 

“These VOCs will react with ozone and other indoor oxidants to generate a range of oxidation products, which are potentially toxic molecules. The level of exposure and concentration determines the potential toxicity,” Stevanovic wrote. 

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The type of product and its composition determines the type and amount of pollutants being emitted into the air in your home. All air fresheners produce a high level of VOCs, and legally speaking, air freshener companies don’t have to disclose the chemical composition of their products.

There can be tens or hundreds of chemicals in your air freshener that you wouldn’t even know about because they’re not listed on the product itself. 

“In a study across the United States, Australia, Sweden and the United Kingdom, 32.2% of people were reported to have a sensitivity to fragrance. In those who are sensitive, fragrances are a risk factor for asthma and headaches.”

The best advice when it comes to avoiding an increased level of pollutants in the home is to use fragrances in moderation. When it comes to candles, using soy, beeswax, and any candle that’s labeled as “non-paraffin” and maintaining proper ventilation in the home throughout the day is generally considered to be safe. 

Removing chemical air fragrances, fresheners, and scented candles will have a lasting overall impact on the quality of air in your home. Overall, maintain a level of moderation when it comes to adding fragrance to your home, and consider using air purifiers in combination with ventilation to keep airflow consistent in your home. 

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‘Health In Her Hue’ Platform Helps Black Women Find Supportive Healthcare 

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A new platform from co-founders Ashlee Wisdom (CEO) and Eddwina Bright (CPO), Health In Her Hue, helps Black women find culturally sensitive healthcare options tailored to their specific wants and needs from medical professionals. 

Wisdom and Bright created the platform as a means of combating issues in the healthcare system that leave many Black women in America feeling helpless and without answers. Initially launched in 2018, the New York City-based co-founders were able to secure $1 million in pre-seed funding last summer, according to The Guardian, who recently interviewed the two entrepreneurs.

“Fundraising is never a walk in the park, especially as Black women. No matter how credentialed you are, it’s hard for everyone. But then you add on the layer of the fact that there aren’t many Black women who are building venture-backed companies or get funding. We’ve experienced some challenges throughout that journey,” Wisdom explained. 

Wisdom and Bright explained that they intend to use their new funding to develop a new web platform with membership experiences to offer a multitude of care and support for each individual’s specific needs. 

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“Ultimately, our vision for Health In Her Hue is to be the first touchpoint for women of color managing their healthcare.”

Wisdom and Bright then explained to Guardian writer Kelli Maria Korducki what led them to launching Health In Her Hue and why they found it so necessary to fill a void that existed within America’s healthcare system and its treatment of Black women: 

“I was working in a toxic work environment, and I was breaking out in chronic hives. So I was going to see an allergist, who happened to be a white woman. She was a great doctor, but because we didn’t have that shared identity, it never occurred to me to tell her that I was dealing with racism and discrimination at work,” Wisdom stated.

“So long story short, she was running all these tests on me and I wasn’t allergic to anything. We couldn’t figure out what was triggering the hives. After I left the job, I realized that they were related to that stressful, toxic work environment. That got my wheels turning, and made me realize that I shared much more with my Black gynecologist. If I was more transparent and felt more comfortable sharing the full picture of what was going on in my life, that allergist would’ve been able to get to the root cause of what was triggering my hives.

At the same time, I was getting my master’s in public health, and got really tired of reading research papers about the disparate healthcare outcomes for Black women. And so I decided I wanted to do something to support Black women and women of color to better manage their health and also better navigate the US healthcare system,” Wisdom expressed. 

Bright explained her own discrepancies with how the healthcare system has failed her in the past, and why it inspired the two of them to launch Health In Her Hue. 

“I’d like us to help the women that we serve to advocate for themselves without having to go through really traumatic healthcare experiences. And the company happens to align with my professional experience in finance and non-profit entrepreneurship. So we definitely have a great balance of health and business expertise,” she said. 

Specifically, Wisdom and Bright wanted to create a directory of Black physicians and doctors of color currently practicing throughout the US so users could easily find individuals in their area who could provide an empathetic sense of care. 

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Wisdom explained how one of the biggest issues they heard from Black women and women of color was how “difficult it is to find a Black doctor, or a doctor of color, on existing platforms. So that was the impetus to build out a curated directory of Black physicians across the country. 

“When we launched that directory in June 2020 – given the pandemic and the racial reckoning – people were ready. Thirty-four thousand people logged in within the first week or two.”

“Separately, we also had articles and videos that people could engage with on our website, as well as a community forum where women could talk to each other. So we brought all of those components together to continue the momentum, and realized we had tens of thousands of women in our community. We only had six doctors at first, and now we have more than 1,000,” Bright added. 

In terms of the future of the platform, Wisdom and Bright intend to continue to expand the community on the platform so more individuals can make their healthcare experiences easy and smooth. 

Wisdom stated: “We really want to continue to grow and expand the community so that Health In Her Hue is the go-to, safe space for women of color for all things healthcare-related. That’s my overarching big vision for what we’re building.”

“I’d love for us to also become a resource for BIPOC women to better navigate not only their individual health, but the health of their families: their kids, their spouse, their parents. Because we know that community health is very important for the collective.” 

“I would also like us to help support the talent pipeline of culturally sensitive health care providers. Maybe that means helping with scholarships and internships, putting students into doctor’s offices and teaching them the business of medicine. That’s a major gap in the market, which I’d love to see us fill,” Bright concluded.

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Movie Theater’s Across The Country Celebrate “National Cinema Day” With Cheap Tickets

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All across the country, movie tickets are only going to cost $3 for National Cinema Day.

The Cinema Foundation noted that this is in efforts to help encourage people to once again return to the movie theaters.

“More than 3,000 theaters with over 30,000 screens will offer tickets for $3, excluding tax, across all formats and show times on Sept. 3,” said The Cinema Foundation. 

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Labor Day weekend has been considered one of the slowest weekends throughout the year for movie theaters. Throughout the summer, movie theaters have seen low attendance even though it has been higher since they first reopened post-pandemic.

“After this summer’s record-breaking return to cinemas, we wanted to do something to celebrate moviegoing,” said Jackie Brenneman, Cinema Foundation president.

National Cinema Day also acts as a gift of thanks due to the high success of recent releases like “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Minions: Rise of Gru,” “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and “Jurassic World: Dominion” which brought in roughly $1.8 billion. 

“We’re doing it by offering a ‘thank you’ to the moviegoers that made this summer happen, and by offering an extra enticement for those who haven’t made it back yet.”

Theater companies like AMC and Cinemark are adding to the mix with concession specials that they are offering on Saturday. 

According to CBS News, AMC is going to offer a fountain drink and popcorn combo for only $5. Cinemark is continuing with the theme for National Cinema Day by offering a medium ICEE, candy or a small popcorn for only $3. 

As a small preview, exclusively on Saturday, theaters will be showing sneak peeks and clips from several major studios with some of the upcoming films that are set to debut in the upcoming fall and winter months.

Movie theaters have taken a notorious hit over the last few years due to COVID and the theatrical releases coming out in “hybrid” form both in theaters and on streaming platforms. 

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Even with the lower than average movie theater attendants, the summer also saw a number of people coming to watch the big blockbusters like “Thor: Love and Thunder” and “Nope.”

According to Comscore, this past summer’s box office was $3.027 billion.

In total, movie theaters have found that the domestic box office has brought more than $5.2 billion and its set to beat 2021.

The organizers of National Cinema Day have noted that the event is set to act as a “trial” to see the response from theatergoers around the country. If the results are successful, it could become an annual event.