–Condé Nast Traveller profiles a high-tech smart suitcase that “does everything except book your flight.”
–A new ad campaign encourages brands to “break the walls” that currently divide “ethnic” products from the beauty aisle. Via Fast Company.
–WhatsApp has introduced encryption, boosting the security of its one billion users and making it impossible for the company to turn information over to government authorities, writes Wired.
–Meanwhile brands have only just begun to “tiptoe” into engaging with consumers via messaging apps, writes the New York Times.
–TV advertising is moving away from broad demographic targeting toward a more web-like approach, writes Bloomberg.
–With the men’s grooming market predicted to reach $55.5 billion by 2020, Business of Fashion asks how beauty brands can get men to spend.
–A new study by Euclid Analytics and Harris Poll shows that “millennials expect online experience inside the store.” Via WWD.
–A Pritzker Prize–winning architect has put basic residential designs online for free in an effort to increase affordable housing, writes Dezeen.
–Wired notices that Silicon Valley and venture capitalists are finally taking women’s health startups seriously.
–In one of the more radical gestures toward gender fluidity by the fashion industry, Gucci has announced it is merging its men’s and women’s shows, writes Dazed.
–A futuristic empathy suit gives the young and able-bodied a glimpse into old age. “It is not very pleasant,” writes the New York Times.
–Forget wine tours in Napa—the New Yorker does the mezcal tour of Oaxaca in search of the “ultimate artisanal distillate.”
–Does the subscription box model make sense for workout gear? Well + Good sneaks a peek inside Avenue A, a new service by Adidas.
