Designer Goods
Elevated packaging design is transforming some ordinary necessities into extraordinary little luxuries. The Australia-based Moxie has packaged pantiliners and tampons in pretty, candy-striped tins inspired by Thirties boudoir boxes. The handbag-friendly, $7 tampons, which were handed out in ladies’ rooms during London Fashion Week, will make their debut Stateside at Duane Reade later this month. Help Remedies’ assortment of medical necessities, such as ibuprofen and bandages, are housed in sleek white containers color-coded according to grievances—“Help I have allergies,” “Help I have a headache.” To further simplify things, founders Richard Fine and Nathan Frank made sure that each pill contains just one active ingredient and uses the fewest possible fillers, coatings and dyes. The Canada-based brand SoU is looking to muscle in on Red Bull territory with its five ingestible liquid nutrients, called Quick Fix, that, in addition to helping boost energy and relieve stress, come in sleek vials. Travel versions are only slightly larger than a BlackBerry. “Consumers have not only learned to appreciate good design, but expect it,” says Wendy Liebmann, chief executive officer of WSL Strategic Retail. “The design process has trickled down from other categories and informed the broader population that functional health and personal care items should have some flair. There’s now a little bit of humor and whimsy.”
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FROM BIJOUX TO BOTTLES
Jewelry brands might be losing their luster saleswise (branded bijoux’s worldwide revenues are expected to drop an estimated 12 percent to about $10 billion, according to Bain & Co.), but they sure are getting juiced up about high-end fragrances. Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Chaumet are among the luxe labels introducing exclusive scents inspired by their baubles. “The high-end fragrance market has suffered in the recession as much as the rest of the luxury market, but fragrance operations linked to jewelry names have fared better than some,” says Sandra Halliday, WGSN Global Managing Editor. “[Such] brands have partly benefited from maintaining an exclusive image and avoiding the overexposure to which some designer brands are prone,” she adds. Launching in the U.S. this fall are the first five scents in Cartier’s Les Heures du Parfum collection, which will be introduced in fewer than 30 doors worldwide over the next year. Van Cleef, in the meantime, is launching Collection Extraordinaire, six “couture” scents that are more upscale and exclusive than the brand’s past fragrances. This summer, Chopard introduced Cascade, a scent that gives a nod to the Swiss jeweler’s Haute Joaillerie line, while come September, Bulgari will launch Blu Eau de Parfum II.