Would you wear a bomber jacket with tote bags attached? Or dress your
baby in BMW Drive baby boots? Are you excited about Samsung’s range of
intelligent trousers? Happy April Fools’ Day – it seems that all the top
brands were showing their humorous side this year – were you fooled by any?
Here’s a selection of the best ones FashionUnited has spotted.
Have you ever hit the shops and ended up buying a bit more than you
planned for? Now that there’s a 5 pence charge for carrier bags, it all
adds up, and River Island has come up with a solution to the shopping
dilemma – a Tote in a Coat. Yes, its new bomber jackets are not just
stylish, they are also practical, armed with a tote bag in each arm to
carry all your shopping needs with ease.
“With the introduction of the 5 pence charge, we decided to make a
jacket with in-built totes to suit everyone from the savvy shopper to the
fashion-forward female,” said Naomi Dominique, River Island womenswear
design director. “The jacket allows you to take your totes wherever you go
and with the pocket sleeves, the bags are hidden discreetly so the pocket
looks like part of the design rather than a place to store your bags for
life.”
River Island head of menswear design, Adrian Arbuthnot, added: “After
receiving positive feedback from customers in our flagship stores, where
the idea was originally put forward. We thought the bomber was the perfect
product to launch with for our #ToteInACoat as its timeless and stylish
qualities make it suitable for everyday use.”
According to shopping data from Lyst, searches for pom poms have
increased by 680 percent in the last three months, apparently fashionistas
are buying up pom pom bag charms, keyrings, and fuzzy bobble hat toppers
like they’re going out of style. To combat this pom pom boom, Lyst is
embarking on a new agricultural breeding project rearing multi-coloured
silkie chickens, which lay perfect pom poms as eggs.
In what the brand is calling a “game-changing move” for the fashion
technology sector, its innovative solution combines the very latest
techniques in genetics, agricultural science and poultry husbandry to breed
the new multicoloured species of pom pom-laying silkies, with each fabulous
fashion fowl laying 3 pom poms a day, in 8 different colours.
To ensure the pom poms are extra soft and fluffy, the brood is kept in
luxurious conditions, roaming free across hundreds of acres of British
farmland, hand-reared by fashion interns, who massage the hens hourly to
promote pom-povulation.
“We’ve hit peak pom pom. Shoppers are desperate to get their hands on
these hairy balls, and retailers are struggling to keep up with demand.
What the fashion industry really needs right now is some colorful cocks and
balls,” said Katy Lubin, Lyst chief chicken officer.
Technology giant Samsung is entering the fashion market with its
Internet of Trousers, a new line-up of IoT-enabled smarter fashion
products. The intelligent trousers combine the latest in high-tech with
high fashion, designed to address the pain points of everyday life, the
trousers are embedded with ARTIK Smarter Fashion chip modules, which
communicates with the Smarter Fabric Care app.
Key functions of the Internet of Trousers includes ‘Wi-Fly’, which will
notify you if your fly remains open for more than three minutes to save you
from embarrassment, and the ‘Get up! Alert’ that uses pressure sensors to
detect prolonged periods of inactivity and sends the wearer notifications
to ‘get up off of that thing’ at least once an hour. If the wearer remains
seated for more than three hours the trousers will send mild electrical
shocks to provide extra motivation.
The highlight though has to be the ‘Fridge Lock’ mode, if the tension
around your waist gets too high, the embedded ARTIK chip module will send
signals to your refrigerator to prevent you from overeating. The fridge
door lock can then only be deactivated with consent from a designated
person such as your mother or significant other.
The trousers are the first in a range, Samsung is hoping the ARTIK
Smarter Fashion portfolio will also soon include ARTIK Sx for socks, to
help solve the problem of lost and/or divorced socks.
According to car manufacturer BMW you’ll never have to watch your
toddler fall over again thanks to its latest invention, the xDrive Baby
Boots designed to help children under the age of three hold their balance.
The shoes, which come in blue and pink, uses BMW’s unique traction controls
sole features adaptive rubber which can react in a tenth of a second to the
slightest wobble and change of terrain.
Whether your child is exploring the carpet, ceramic tiles or varnished
wood, the BMW xDrive Baby Boots with its intelligent, dynamic control, will
help your child enable perfect weight distribution, fully harnessing the
power of each leg for maximum safety.
Commenting on the new baby launch, BMW head of product fabrication, Joss
Fülin, said: “BMW entered the all-wheel-drive segment more than three
decades ago, and although this specific technology is still in its infancy,
we see potential in the baby footwear category as a growing segment.
“The BMW xDrive Baby Boots provide the perfect combination of
practicality and maximum walking pleasure.”
Other brands getting in on the act included Google, launching a same-day
delivery service to rival Amazon Prime, Google Express, which sends its
deliveries via parachute, while Mini is launching a new car, the Mini
Hipster Hatch that features an upcycled stonewash denim interior and has
Instagram filtered windows.
Also ever felt like you wanted a skirt that could be manually raised or
extended? Well, English Blinds is launching its first ever piece of
clothing the Roman Blind Skirt, a made-to-measure tailored skirt that will
give the wearer manual control on its hemline, meaning no more folding
skirts at the waistband or being unable to participate in outdoor
activities during the summer.
Taking inspiration from its range of Roman Blinds, the skirt will also
come in a wide range of colours as well as a 5-year guarantee and a child
safety device on in the inner hem. The custom order even allows the
customer to select right hand or left hand controls to raise the hemline.
Happy April Fools’ Day!
Images: River Island, Lyst, Samsung, BMW, English Blinds