This
is what I should have heard at my graduation. This is kind of graduation speaker I should have gotten, instead of a lousy religion professor.

Please read what Steve Jobs told the graduating class of Stanford. It doesn’t matter if you are a graduate or if you are a forty year old home-maker. This speech is for everyone, all of us who aspire to do something and be something in life.

The Hydropolis Hotel of Dubai has been making rounds of several newsletters and trend-sites.
Thanks to my slow internet connection, I will not be able to post a picture here, but you can see the top view of the hotel here.
The entire resort is underwater and uses underwater aquarium-like techonology. It should be a fun place to honeymoon at! (not that I’m thinking of marriage..!)
There are more images here.

Reminds me of another hotel of a similar theme I came across a few months back. Check out Ice Hotel Its so fascinating– the hotel is built with snow and ice and because it melts in hotter months, it is rebuilt ENTIRELY every winter. It’s in Sweden, and from the looks of the ice scupltors they have and the ice beds, it looks pretty cool, literally.

I am quite begining to like the idea of these themed hotels. These experiences are packaged like an adventure- I’m sure they are also expensive, but there are crazy people out there who will want this experience if they can afford it. I know I want to visit it when I can afford it.

Talking about themed hotels, did anyone hear about a Toilet themed restaurant in Taiwan? The seats are shaped like commodes and the tables are balanced on little tubs! I’ll post pictures soon..

Packaging: Tetra Paks, IndiaButter Milk is very central to Indian culture. It is a staple at every Indian home, in all Indian cities. The introduction of Buttermilk in flavors and tetra packs is a most ingenious idea, Jinal Shah suggests.

Before the site become password protected, check out the rest of my short article here.

Matcha (made from Japanese green tea leaves) Acai (a berry harvested in the Brazilian Amazon) and Guarana (a seed native to Venezuela and northern Brazil) are slowly entering the vocabulary of the health-conscious. These natural stimulants are supposedly healthier than universally popular caffiene. So much so that Jamba Juice has started using them in their smoothies.

Jamba Juice has started this trend- it won’t be too long before the benfits (or disadvantages?)of these natural stimulants spread.

This article talks more …

Where: London
Why Chav: Chav, according to Wall Street Journal, is a term "widely" used in Britain, refers to young people who mix "flashy brands and accessories from big names like Burberry with track suits." The article goes on to relate that their style icons are the likes of David and Victoria Beckham.

Attributes: According to ChavScum, Chavs only listen to three kinds of music: rap, R&B and hip-hop. The site calls the Chavs the new ruling class of Britain. Apprently, Oxford is going to include the word "chav" in its dictionary. Also check out ChavTowns for more information on this growing sub-culture.
There’s also Chav Gear available on Ebay!
According to an article in the International Herabld Tribune, "Books with tongue-in-cheek titles like "Chav! A User’s Guide to Britain’s New Ruling Class" have popped up on store shelves, and Web sites devoted to the subject are proliferating."

What’s more interesting is that big consumer giants haven’t wasted time on picking up on this trend. The WSJ article enlists how Unilever’s Pot Noodles and Danone’s HP Sauce have already campaigned ads targetting the chavs. Talk about quick consumerism!

Conde Nast’s Editorial Director, James Truman, was the brainchild behind the idea of shopping magazines. Founded in 2002, Lucky magazine was the first trend-setting magazien in this genre. A magazine geared primarily towards women, Lucky’s editorial mission states,"the best to buy in fashion, beauty and living- the voice of a friend you love to take shopping." Lucky magazine has absolutely no features, no celebrity endorsements, no name-dropping. And American women accepted it well. So well that Conde Nast introduced Cargo-- a Lucky for men. With slick photography, sharp insight and an editorial voice that speaks to the readers- Cargo too, like Lucky is slowly taking over the market.

Conde Nast, probably very proud of their sucess with the shopzines, introduced yet another shopping magazine this year, Domino. With a focus on home, Domino, has probably covered every other possibility for a shopping magazine. Or has it?

Apparentyly not. Imitating the style, Hearst Media Group, quickly launched Shop Etc- a magazine about shopping for women. I actually "externed" there for ONE day last winter before I made up mind that I could NEVER work at a shopping magazine. I was relegated to the fashion closet and spent most of my time folding expensive clothes and packing them in bags. I got some free stuff, but it wasn’t worth my time. I just never returned.

New York Post says that another magazine, Red, recently joined the bandwagon. Although I can’t find the name of the Publisher, I won’t be surprised to learn that its by a competing media group.

Lucky started a trend and it worked. It doesn’t mean it is going to work in the case of SHop Etc or for that matter Red. Consumers will obviously compare the two and so far, the stakes are higher for Lucky. Shop Etc., is just another cheap imitation. Lately, shopping magazines have received a lot of trash. It’s true that these magazines walk on the very thin line of editorial privilege. I have yet to come across or hear an instance of an editor accepting money to put a product in the magazine, but simply by being in the business- I do know that it happens.

It’s easy to get speculative and lose the real essence of these shopping magazines. Twenty-First century world is shrinking. Getting smaller. Getting busier. There were times when bosses could demand their secretaries to save relevant clippings in a folder so that it would save them time browsing through the magazines, newspapers etc. to keep themselves up to date about their respective fields. The trend has extended towards consumers– the consumer is the king. Consumers like to have things delivered right to their door-step. Right inside their mail-box. And I don’t see anything wrong with having information distilled and bought to me every month in a magazine. In fact, I rather like the idea of having stores-at-my-doorstep. Saves me time. Saves me energy.

HOWEVER–I will make a point that since Lucky’s inception- it has changed from its initial issues. The products featured tend to be more expensive now. This has been because of the 1) increasing popularity of the magazine and 2) High-end lines get the press they need and reach out to their targetted consumers: the shoppers.

Even though these mags, save me time- update me on what’s cool, another reason I so closely follow Lucky is because now– Lucky has become the trend-setter. From predicting trends, it has gone on to create trends. Kim France, Lucky’s founding editor and current editor-in-cheif, has been named 2004’s one of the most powerful women in New York and is one of Crain’s 40 under 40.

For a designer, getting their product featured in Lucky, is like hitting a jackpot. Lucky lists the store name, price of the product and also provides website information if any. Lucky’s circulation is 1,050,000 unique readers. Now add the pass along rate-that averages to 4 per issue and the numbers increase fourtimes. The designer gets SO much business out of one mention in the magazine! In one of her editorials, France said that people can’t stop talking about clothes infront of her. Also, she mentioned Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point, was a big supporter of the idea of Lucky.

Concluding, shopping magazines are here to stay. Unless some smart media guru spots an easier/better way of saving consumers time and bringing the stores-to-their-doorstep in a different manner than these monthly shop-a-logs!

Have you noticed how H&M stocked up on brown and blues for their spring collection? Or did you happen to see the window displays at Zara where the mannequins are wearing gorgeous flare skirts with Moroccan and Indian motifs? Have you wondered why, on the onslaught of spring, colors like brown, blue, green and pastels are making a comeback?

At the February Fashion Week in New York, Wall Street Journal reported that brown and blue were going to be the "it" colors. Pantone, the color institute,is a premier color forecaster in all areas from fashion to furnishings. For their color reports, they interview designers/interior decorators/journalists/futuristic and analyze economical and cultural trends. The data is then compiled together to make their expensive fashion forecasts. It was, infact, predicted by Pantone, that glazed ginger and Moroccan blue were going to be very popular this season.

In a recent article by Cathy Horyn, the New York Times Fashion Critic, she reported on how designers determine colors for their collection. While inspiration is the number one source where designers derive their colors from, reports from color forecasting agencies like Pantone and The Color Association are relied upon heavily by the designers. It can prove fatal for a designer to strike a wrong chord with the colors. So don’t trust them too much when you see them rant off exotic locales and historic periods as their sources of inspiration for the colors! It’s a very fine balance of subscribing to these expensive forecast reports and trusting their instinct.

In a Chicago Sun interview Lisa Herbert ,executive VP of Pantone’s fashion and home division, says "When we’re talking about color, we’re picking these colors about two years in advance."

The process how certain colors gain popularity is rather interesting. When Pantone predicted purple as the color for fall 2004, it based its predictions on the popularity of the Lord of The Rings trilogy. "There was a fascination with traveling back in time to noble knights and dragons, and looking back at glorious tapestries and jewel tones," Herbert says. "This is how it all happens, believe it or not." (Chicago Sun Interview, Oct 14, 2004)

Brown climbed the charts this year in part because of Starbuck’s interior UPS’s trendy makeover for Brown. As for blue, the WSJ article said that Estee Lauder’s Beyond Paradise perfume print advertisement was one of the factors that raised blue’s profile.

Any guesses on what cultural phenomenas might help raise fall 2007’s color profiles? Its quite evident creativity and science converge at a point to create the latest trends.

Snippets:
QuikSilver, a surf clothing compay, has a ship that travels the international waters 365 days a year. The ship boards graphic artists, wordsmiths and designers. Their team observes the surfs, the island people, the flora and fauna of the waters and translate it through their designs on Quiksilver T-Shirts.

Diesel, on the other hand, sends out hundreds of scavengers throughout the world twice a year, to hunt for weird, strange and creative items of clothing. They adapt their finds into new designs. More on Diesel’s innovative approach later!

I’ve been searching endlessly for a cute laptop bag for my IBook and I came across these designer laptops. Dutch company, Tulip E-go is designing laptops with interchangeable covers! I cannot find the price for this laptop but it comes with 100GB, wireless, bluetooth, 1024 mb, a video card and so much more. This definitely will be priced higher than the Apple i-books. Atleast I think so.

A friend mentioned Cereality - the Cereal Bar and Cafe that opened in Philadelphia this December. It’s in University City, on the UPenn and Drexel campus, the perfect place to attract students straight from their beds!
I am so fascinated by the idea of having an entire restaurant dedicated to the quintessential breakfast food, cereals. I wasn’t sure how well the concept would do, but turns out, its pretty popular among the college students.
apparently, they’ve got all kinds of cereals, cereal smoothies, bars and whatnots. Their servers are actually called "cerealogists"! I’m not a big fan of cereal but I think this concept is just so cool.
Say within the next couple of years, Fruitality and Yogurt Cafe’s pop up throughout the country, the current fast-food giants like Mc D’s, Burger King and Wendy’s will have to change their strategy. I devored on fast food this entire semester because it was so incredibly cheap and thats the bottomline right there.
College kids are poor. The one dollar meals at these fast-food places fit perfectly in their budget. And thats the sole reason why fast-food is so popular in among college-kids.

I like it that stores like Cereality are taking initiatives, albeit, at a very slow pace to change this fast-food notion in the minds of American college kids. For every one move little initiatives like these make, the giants will take a leap. Wendys and Mc D’s are supposedly venturing into healthy foods. Haven’t been to Mc D’s in over 2 years, but Wendy’s has added fresh salads, yogurt bowls and fruit bowls to their menu.

This reminds me, yet again, of the new trend that is slowly creeping over in every field: specialization. We now have specialized cereal bars, what comes next?

When I was a kid, we toasted our bread on pans. We’d spread butter on the bread first and then flip it over the pan until it turned golden-brown. When my American uncle bought a toaster for my Mom, she was ecstatic and so were we. Our bread was actually toasty – woohoo.

I don’t remember my exact reaction about these "pop art" toasters when I first saw them on my friend’s computer. She had them in her Wish List, to buy for her niece. Imagine eating toasted bread with actual art on it?! It makes the simple process of eating toasted bread so ….engaging, and fun. It has interchangable plates that come with designs on them. The day kids will be allowed to create their own designs for their toasts is not too far off.

After spending close to 24 hours in a Kuwait Airways air-plane and two airports, this entry is inevitable. I was pleased when KU served dainty little mint chocolates with our dinner when we boarded our first flight from JFK. Although I didn’t eat my candy, I saved it for later -UNTIL- I saw the stewardess collecting the uneaten, unopened candies in a small tray and dumping the rest of the dinner in the trash. It was….disappointing. Even though the candies were unopened, the fact that they were served to someone else before and then collected back, grossed me out. I threw my candies away. I can understand KU’s dilemna in not wanting to throw away unused candies, but atleast not infront of the passengers!! Consumer is the king– remember?
Candies was fine. But uneaten bread ? Ugh. Obviously, I’m never flying Kuwait Airways again.

When we landed at Bbay’s international airport, I noticed a plethora of new airplanes. A splash of color actually. Blue and yellow for Jet airways, red and so many more for Kingfisher– wow! I thought, airplanes are getting a makeover. And I came across this article at business-standard.com. Apparently, Spice Airways are using traditional Indian colors red and saffron and Air India express is using the rangoli, camel and kite motifs on their planes!

I remember reading somewhere that once Fedex (was it?) or some other company’s planes decided to go all purple but the color increased the weight of their plane and they had to get rid of the color. I only hope that the Indian airplanes don’t make this mistake.

And yes ofcourse, I hope they are more aware of their service than simply looking good.

Bombay has become a city brimming with aspirations and ambitions. Relationships and love has taken a back-seat in the lives of the Bombay youth. A recent Commerce graduate told me his priorities 1) Career 2) Money 3) Sex.
I grew up in an era when young adults aspired to start their own business. With the advent of so many multinationals in India and the virtual shrinking of world, this generation of young adults are happy to work for a multi-national or one of the big Indian companies.

Career:
With so much disposable income at their hands (thanks to the BPO’s) the youth in Bombay are no longer satisfied with the lowly paying jobs offered to fresh graduates. Starting anywhere from 6,000 rupees, entry-level jobs may fetch a maximum of 20-25 thousand rupees a month. (roughly $400) The B-Schools in India have one unified vision, to make Bombay the next Shanghai. A friend who runs his own event-managment company said, "Every presentation I’ve seen at these big company sales meetings starts off with a picture of Shanghai and then Bombay."
The youth are looking beyond the available options. Just a quick overview of Education Times and its evident that career options such as color therapy and investigation have become viable, doable choices.

Money:
A very talented school friend aspired to be a fashion designer ever since we were in sixth grade. I was a little surprised to learn that she is now an airhostess with Jet Airways. "The money is good and I’m not doing it for a lifetime. I’ll see what comes up next…" She is just one example of the growing class of young gradutes taking up jobs because they pay well. A few friends have immersed themselves into learning about the stock market. "Fast and easy money," said one. The hunger for a fatter paycheck is the driving force behind the 22 yr olds seeking an MBA. Just the moniker of an MBA,will increase their pay by as much as 10-20K rupees. What can I say, fast careers and easy money is in style in Bombay.

Sex:
Perhaps the most intersting aspect of this new trend is the changing attitude towards sex and relationships. "Nothing is officalized anymore. Everyone’s so chilled..we go out, have a good time and speak nothing about it." Fewer and fewer men and women are using the terms "boyfriend" and "girlfriend." At my amusement upon hearing all this a friend remarked, "you are usa return- why are you so surprised?" Why was I so surprised?

For one, this change which was obviously gradual, wasn’t so gradual for me. The new attitudes and changed scenario has been thrust into my face after being away from the country for 2.5 years. Maybe thats why I feel so antiquated and old with my still firm beliefs about long-term thinking, commitment to a relationship and earning money the smart way.

From my interaction with my same-aged friends, I’ve realized one thing: the advances in Bombay and probably India are awesome. but the youth lack the ability to see longterm. The foresight, is missing. I am the same age as them and yet as I hear them dish out their life-plans, I quelch an intense urge to say, " aren’t you missing something?" or "what about this… you’ve not thought of this in your 10 year plan?"

Who knows? Maybe its me. Maybe my four years away has compeled me to have a foresight to do the long-term thinking. But maybe thats how things work here? There’s more to know….

Freshmen year at Temple, I went with to the Anime club withmy Korean friend. I didn’t understand the passion the "Anime Club" shared for these big-doe eyed cartoon charcters who seemed to have supernatural powers. Even when I saw the increasing piles of japanese comics, it failed to capture my enchantment.
Manga– the japanese comics are slowly becoming popular among the counter-culture enthusiasts. The sterotypical Manga will have lots of sex and violence in it. Its been associated with Japenese business-men reading manga in the sub-ways and trains. Manga- has a sort of "naughty" reputation here. But in my opinion, manga is the new Hello Kitty.

Japan and the new culture:
One of my favorite teachers who runs a culture program in Tokyo every summer said, "Tokyo is three years ahead of America." I agree. Manga is making a slow apperance in mainstream western culture. Imprints of manga on t-shirts, manga posters and mostly, manga comics are gaining popularity.
When I worked at Waldens Book two summers back, I sold Pokemon cards more than books. I’m not sure if the Pokemon card sales are still as high, but I should have recognized the slow percolation of the japanese culture back then. For some reason, I thought that Japan was behind – but boy, was I wrong!

According to morbid outlook, Saying something is in style- or its the "in" fashion, is always fairly exxagerated. But in Japan, the fashions, the fads- are universal and everyone follows them.

Platform shoes, red hair, french-maid look, "gothic lolita" look, black dresses with white lace trim, metallic pointed shoes, clumpy mascara— so typically japanese. To think we associated brocade kimono’s and gesiha outfits with the japanese at one point!

While the Manga and Pokemon are already here, I think the west is ready to welcome the japanese fashion which reminds me of hybrid futurisitc theory-! i don’t think paris or milan is the fashion mecca anymore. its tokyo, one hundren percent tokyo.

A trend spotting website highlighted the snazzy bra straps japanese women are wearing these days. its become fashionable to let your bra straps show. they have cool- beaded straps, neon straps, jeweled straps– even customizable straps!

Popular culture, youth culture and now the fashion culture– Japan’s slowly invading the pysyche of the 21st century futurisitc civilization!

Timex and Core77 hosted a Design-a-watch-150-yrs from now campaign and here are the results

I like the idea of customization/personalization. I read an article in Vogue a few months back about how an editor got a personalized perfume made in Paris for (ofcourse!) a very steep price. Who’s not going to love the idea of a personalized perfume!? BodyShop came up with Blendables last year. I saw in at a BodyShop store in New York sometime last December and absolutely fell in LOVE with them. I was broke so waited until March. And by then – Blendables were out of stock! From every single store in U.S.A and also online. Apparently, the little glass vials did so well that BodyShop had to get into mass production and increase their inventory.

I have the pack now- and the fragrances are good. But I think it is the idea of possessing one’s own unique blend of fragrance that sold the Blendables than the actual quality of the fragrance!

A trend-watching company predicted this month that Customer-made is an up-coming trend– I’m thinking, Customization/Personalization will be even hotter.