Alexander Wang Premiers New Furniture Collection

American fashion designer, renowned for his urban, chic, trend-setting styles has jumped on the furniture design bandwagon. Alexander Wang has debuted a three-piece furniture collection for Italian brand Poltrona Frau.

The creative director of French house Balenciaga has unveiled the new collection comprising of a brass-footed beanbag chair in inky black shearling, a second version in leather and a companion bar cabinet, wrapped in squares of jet-black shagreen, that opens to reveal jagged brass shelves. True to his signature style, the 30-year old designer has effortlessly blended luxury with street-style. Giving his creations a Wang-touch, the $8,800 beanbag chair’s base stands on nine sides unlike the usual symmetrical eight. Also the bar is crafted to swivel on luggage-style wheels.

Emphasizing the urge to add oomph to everyday product, the designer elucidates about designing the beanbag chair. Wang spoke about it to Wall Street Journal, “It’s banal, an everyday item. We always had them in the TV room. But I like to recontextualize what is banal, what is luxurious. To make it with Poltrona, that just completely changes it. And yet at the end of the day, it’s still a beanbag chair.” He added “I love that.”

Always keen to try his hand in furniture, Wang has, over a period, developed liking for exotic finishes and the furniture designed by Karl Springer, Milo Baughman and the likes.

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Alessandro Michele Named Gucci Creative Director

Gucci and parent company Kering on Wednesday appointed Alessandro Michele creative director of the Italian luxury brand. He will succeed Frida Giannini, who departed last month from the Italian fashion and leather goods house.

“After a considered and thorough selection process, Alessandro Michele has been chosen to assume the role as Gucci creative director, based upon the contemporary vision he has articulated for the brand that he will now bring to life,” said Marco Bizzarri, president and chief executive officer of Gucci. “Alessandro and I are fully aligned on this new contemporary vision needed by the brand and we will be continuously inspired by that new identity in our respective roles and duties.”

Michele, 42, joined Gucci in 2002, and became Giannini’s deputy in 2011 when he took over the leather goods, shoes, jewelry and home collections. He is also the creative director of Gucci’s porcelain brand, Richard Ginori. He previously worked at Fendi as a senior accessories designer and studied at Rome’s Accademia di Costume e di Moda.

François-Henri Pinault, chairman and ceo of Kering, added “Throughout its history, Gucci has always created attention and excitement through its innovative and distinctive products and collections as it has become Italy’s most renowned fashion house and one of the most iconic, and prominentluxury brands in the world. Alessandro Michele has both the qualities and the vision necessary to bring a new contemporary perspective to Gucci and lead the brand into an exciting new creative chapter of its history.”

Top 5 Social Media Tips For Small Business

Social media is a great way to get the word out about your business. But if it’s not delivering results, take a step back and see if you’re following these best practices.

1. Communicate your uniqueness

Too many businesses are trying to be too many things. Instead, focus on what makes you unique and incorporate that into your social media strategy. That means communicating how your value proposition to customers is different from competitors, of course, but more importantly it means having a personality! If you’re building your business around your personal brand, don’t be afraid to let your real self shine through. And if your whole company is using social media, establish editorial guidelines and an editorial voice that feels real and has a personality that everyone on the team can understand and bring to life.

Victoria’s Secret Angels Superbowl Commercial Video

Wanna talk football, check out this new visual video. “The Super Bowl is the single best opportunity for Victoria’s Secret to remind a global audience that Valentine’s Day is right around the corner,” said Victoria’s Secret CEO Sharen Jester Turney.

Miami's Having A Big Penthouse Boom

Five years ago, the housing market was in such bad shape in Miami that developers stopped building. Today, 94 towers are under construction–three featuring penthouses with price tags of $50 million or higher. Two with similar list prices have already gone into contract.

Apple Buys Musicmetric

Apple has acquired a London music startup. The tech giant has bought the company behind music analytics service Musicmetric, Musically reports. 

Musicmetric owner Semetric changed its registered address to 100 New Bridge Street in London, home of Apple Europe Ltd. On the same day, it also filed documents to detail the appointment of a new director. He’s called Gene Daniel Levoff and up until now has been based at Apple’s global HQ.

Apple told Musically that it “buys smaller technology companies from time to time,” adding that it doesn’t “generally discuss our purpose or plan”. Semetric also declined to comment.

It’s speculated that Apple’s latest purchase could pave the way for the company to expand its music services. Apple wants to better tune its music arms: iTunes will likely be overhauled. But it’s Beats Music that stands to benefit most. Apple is going to relaunch the platform this year and there’s talk it could come pre-installed on iPhones and iPads.

Musicmetric launched in 2008 and allows music industry clients to track social and sales analytics through a dashboard, Musically writes — it also offers data streaming. In Jan. 2013 it received $4.8 million in funding.

Musicmetric says it’s about “turning big data into big opportunities”, and continues: “Whether you’re planning your first album launch or a global tour, on the lookout for new talent or after some killer intelligence to help pick your next brand ambassador, the Musicmetric dashboard will quickly and simply tell you all you need to know.”

How Apple chooses to use and develop Musicmetric remains to be seen, but one certainty is the implications the acquisition has for other streaming companies such as Spotify and Next Big Sound.

Here’s what Musically says:

Spotify has a partnership with Musicmetric to pipe in streaming data for labels to access via the latter’s dashboard.

Just as rival streaming services ended their partnerships with music/tech firm The Echo Nest firm when Spotify bought it last year, so Spotify is unlikely to be too keen on providing a firehose of its data to an Apple subsidiary.

New Pioneer XDJ-RX DJ System

Pioneer DJ unveiled its new all-in-one rekordbox DJ controller on Tuesday morning. The XDJ-RX features two CDJ players, a mixer and a single LCD display. Aside from library management (which is typically handled at home), no laptop is required to operate the unit.