INTRODUCTION

(Author, 2021)

As wellness becomes a priority for affluent consumers, there are numerous opportunities for luxury brands to meet this growing interest. Brands could create personalised and meaningful experiences with their target audience by understanding their emotional desire. After a year of quarantine, people increasingly seek to connect with nature and art and want an escape from the stressful workplace.

For future innovation, brands could design a new retail experience incorporating nature elements by vital reality and invite consumers to interact with the installations. Recently, many luxury houses have set up fashion exhibitions. However, the majority of them did not invite the audience to participate in the artworks. The audiences’ emotional journey could be improved if the event provides experience through the four senses (touch, sight, hearing and smell).

Millennials & Older Gen Z High earners not rich yet Acorn: Executive Wealth, City Sophisticates, Career Climbers and Successful Suburbs

P Psychographic: - Fashion conscious and have a high aesthetic standards - Aware of the latest fashion trends but also have personal styles and preference - Environmental consciousness - Enjoy private events and social networking B Behaviour: - Paying attention to the texture of the fabrics while choosing garments - They priorities their health and wellbeing by participating in physical exercises regularly. Also consuming supplements alongside a balanced diet.

TREND TIMELINE

Wellness Getaways

Establishment of rejuvenating and healing places with elements from natural, local and genuine traditions. VACATION SPAS HEALTH RESORTS

The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education was established to bring meditation to the public (Zientek, 2020).

See Me – The Power of Okay

Scotland’s national programme, See Me, launched a campaign in 2015 aiming to end mental health stigmatisation and discrimination at the workplace. In the campaign video, both employers and employees are encouraged to ask each other, “Are you okay?” It was played at cinema and online, with increased website traffic by 42.8%, and attracted 73% new visitors (Keane, 2020).

Art as Therapy

The Healing Power of ART & ARTISTS was formed by a global community of artists and advocates. They believed that art has the power to heal, inspire, challenge, and provide aspiration for positive changes in the world (HPAA, n.d.).

Become a priority

Wellness and self-care products became popular among shoppers on Farfetch. Consumers spent more than $100 per month on average for nutritional supplements and skincare.

1900s 2005

Planned Communities

Conscious development of community around shared values. Creating a holistic lifestyle and engaging in specific interests. (History of Wellness, n.d.) URBAN PLANNING GARDEN CITIES CULTURAL COMMUNITIES CO-LIVING

2014

Rising Awareness

In Responsible Business Week 2014, many big British companies took part in the Workwell Mental Health Champions Group. Patrick Watt, the group’s chairperson, highlights that businesses should take mental health issues seriously across all industries. While, companies had ignored mental wellbeing previously (Roberts, 2014).

2015 2016 2018

The Art of Healing by La Mer

The brand held the “The Power of Small” Exhibition with Lorraine Loots, an artist who uses miniature painting techniques. The intricate artworks embodied the belief of “small is powerful” (LaMer HK, 2016).

Physical Retail

Situ Live is a new retail experience inspired by the domestic environment, including the kitchen, gym, and living room. The brand uses storytelling techniques in everyday life, and the visual arrangements are renewed regularly to bring continuous excitement to consumers (Bishop, 2021).

2020 2021

Healing Luxury

Soft Mountains, a Chinese luxury brand that embodied calmness and restorative materials The patterns on knitted jewellery and aviator jackets refer to the acupuncture points of traditional Chinese medicine, a symbolic recognition of the human system and the Taoist connection to Earth, heaven and nature (Bibi, 2021).

Manolo Blahnik launched the Smile Initiative program with the Mental Health Foundation. The brand invited employees to share their values and believes in personal wellbeing to raise mental health awareness.

Evidence of trend drivers

Retail

Products supporting individuals’ health had expended beyond nutrition and supplements. Organisations have investigated the therapeutic function of plants to improve individuals’ life satisfaction levels. For example, Osk Studios presented a new approach to communicating moods through Algenerated flowers. In this health application, the shape and colour of the flowers will vary depending on the customer’s psychology. When assessment shows the result, it encourages users to keep pictures of flowers in their homes. This project seeks to bring care for mental health into daily practices (Houghton, 2021).

Fashion and beauty brands are bringing up attention to mental health in the retail space. For example, the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship featured a mindfulness installation called “The Happiness Challenge”. The store collaborated with Happy Not Perfect, an app that offers metal exercises including “positive psychology, neuroscience and meditation.” Selfridges created the SS21 window displays with inspirations found in the optimistic and enjoyable element of nature. Madhappy is promoting happiness in the form of streetwear. The brand had received an investment from LVMH after the first year in business (Mau, 2019b). The mission to stigmatise topics around mental health brought the company an involved community of Gen Z consumers.

Retail

Opportunities More brands have offered products involving a wellness function to build an emotional connection with the consumers. The key to success for modern brands targeting millennials and Gen Zners is to create extra value beyond just offering fashion items. As Mau (2019a) points out, they need to develop inclusive and community-driven strategies based on a proper understanding of consumers’ purchasing motivation.

Culture

In addition to sustainability, the broad discussion of mental health became one of the most significant cultural phenomena in 2020. Social media and major publications have witnessed this value shift. The phenomenon is trending everywhere, from group discussions to popular talk shows. Social media accounts that share positive manifestos and inspirations are in favour of today’s audience. TALA, an activewear brand offering sustainably manufactured garments, uses Instagram to share aspirations on health and wellness. @lawofattactionlive has over 3.2 million followers on Instagram and has 4000k comments per post on average. Individuals are seeking to nurture their mental health by receiving more honey conversations around self-empowerment and self-esteem.

Opportunities On the other hand, “Millennials and Gen Zs prefer to patronise and support companies that align with their values,” as stated by Deloitte (2021) ’s consumer survey. Morden consumers are more willing to support brands that are making positive influences on society and the environment. Fashion and beauty brands in the future need to focus on offering consumers moments of unflustered, sensory experiences along with products supporting their overall wellbeing.