Vicki von Holzhausen has created a vegan, biodegradable leather for her luxury handbags. At first blush, Vicki von Holzhausen’s latest handbag collection looks like the leather bags she made when she launched her eponymous brand in 2017. The exterior has a delicate grain and is buttery to the touch; the interior feels like it’s made of soft suede. But these new bags aren’t leather at all: They’re made from recycled water bottles and will biodegrade at the end of their life cycle. Read Full Story

Artificial intelligence is changing the design production process, one stitch at a time. You’d probably associate antique quilts with the back of your grandmother’s sofa before artificial intelligence. But opposites do attract on occasion, as exemplified by the partnership of luxury menswear brand Bode and Microsoft. Read Full Story

More than 35 million American workers have filed for unemployment since March, and millions are still waiting to receive benefits. Their stories expose a truth that can no longer be ignored: The system is built to fail. Following eight years working in luxury retail and more than 20 years in finance before that, Francis Rennie is considering retiring in September. Read Full Story

Want to create better visuals for your marketing? Looking for tools and tips to help you easily create visual content? To explore visual design for non-designers, I interview Donna Moritz on the Social Media Marketing Podcast. Donna is a visual content strategist and founder of Socially Sorted. Her course is Visual Content Made Easy. Donna […] The post Visual Design for Non-Designers appeared first on Social Media Examiner | Social Media Marketing .

The office is an unnecessary, costly luxury and the move to work-from-home was smart policy long before COVID-19, says the former CEO of Optiva. One of the most important tasks for a turnaround CEO is cutting costs quickly. The first place I look to sharpen my shears is all the spend associated with office space. Across 16 companies, I’ve shut down close to 50 offices around the world. Ten years ago, people thought I was crazy; even in 2019, it was still considered unusual—until COVID-19. Read Full Story

These luxury mockups are being turned into garden sheds and greenhouses in New York City. Before large and complicated buildings are built, they get tested. Small sections of complicated facades and unconventional design approaches are often built at full scale to test their visual or structural integrity. Known as architectural mockups, these 10 or 20 foot sample walls and corners are built to make sure that, once constructed at full height, the facades won’t fail and the buildings won’t crumble. Read Full Story

If you have to fly, you’ll want to fly in this. When Lucia Scarampi booked a flight home to New York City from Rome for April 30, she was nervous about flying. But as Italy began to open up again, she made the tough decision to fly to the United States to reunite with her husband whom she hadn’t seen in three months. As she anxiously prepped to leave, her sister and business partner Marta Scarampi came up with a travel solution she hoped might ease some of her sister’s anxiety: a breathable, coverall jumpsuit Lucia could slip on over her clothes and wear for the duration of her travel, then slip out of as soon as she got home. Read Full Story

The designer explains how she’s running her $100 million fashion brand from home—as well as a Sunday spent outdoors that felt almost “pre-corona.” Rebecca Minkoff, the doyenne of crossbody bags, has been sheltering in place for weeks, running her $100 million fashion brand from Long Island. Like many working parents, Minkoff now finds herself wrangling three children—including a toddler—while trying to juggle podcast recordings and virtual meetings. So Minkoff has gotten creative with her schedule, carving out time for her kids and exercise. Read Full Story

Anifa Mvuemba is using technology to turn the fashion industry on its head. Anifa Mvuemba, founder of fashion label Hanifa, was looking forward to holding her first runway show at New York Fashion Week this year. But when the coronavirus torpedoed those plans, she came up with a new way to unveil her latest designs to the world. Read Full Story

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become a leader for progressives—and they’re taking a page from her branding as well. When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won her race in 2018, she didn’t just usher in a new wave of progressive politics—she introduced a design trend that has become increasingly ubiquitous. Read Full Story