lifestyle

Glam channel targets hybrid-driving yoga moms

One thing's for sure: Glam Media isn't letting that $85 million funding round sit around and ferment.

The latest of many announcements from the don't-call-it-an-ad-network media firm is that it has launched a "Wellness" division, opening up its ad services to sites in the health, fitness, and "green" niches.

With hippie food brand SoyJoy as a sponsor, Glam's Wellness channel has already ushered in about 20 sites that deal with "mind-body-spirit, empowerment, and a healthy planet," according to a release Monday. Among them are BeThree, Conscious Living TV, Ecofabulous, Low Impact Living, … Read more

Highbrow social site Spire hits the scene

The easiest way to describe Spire, a new community site that made its debut Monday, is as a more grown-up, cultured Yelp: the latter offers expert advice on the best dive bars in Brooklyn, whereas the former focuses on four-star restaurants and hotels across the river in Manhattan. Calling itself a "social resource," it's devoted to advice and recommendations on topics like luxury vacations and dining, high-end shopping, and spa getaways.

When you're signing up for Spire, you're asked to fill out a profile. The lowest option for the "age" field is "… Read more

Innovation 1-on-1: Jonah Staw, LittleMissMatched

Jonah Staw, co-founder and CEO of LittleMissMatched, heads-up a lifestyle brand that is based on "innovative and creative mixing and mismatching." LittleMissMatched launched in 2004 with a collection of mismatched socks sold in odd numbers to encourage girls of all ages to express themselves. The "nothing matches but anything goes" philosophy knocked people's socks off, and sales jumped from $5 million to $25 million in just three years. Today, the LittleMissMatched product line includes everything from socks, winterwear, and sleepwear to books, bedding, and furniture for mismatched mavens of all ages. LittleMissMatched products range in … Read more

Are you a GNE?

In a recent article, Wallpaper magazine describes Global Nomadic Expatriates, or GNEs, as a new breed of "career expats" who move from country to country for short-term professional gigs, "with no particular loyalty to a home nation."

The magazine cites a Mercer study covering 232 multi-national corporations, stating that the numbers of GNEs have increased by more than a third in recent years and now outnumber traditional expats (who return home) and long-term expats (who finally settle in their new place).

For GNEs, home is where they're going to, not where they're coming from. … Read more

Democratic exclusivity: micro-dining

After reading and talking so much recently about the concept of "democratic exclusivity" (first coined by Ed Cotton on the Influx Insights blog and then promoted by the relentless Piers Fawkes), I was delighted to finally experience it myself when I was strolling the streets of Paris last week. I spent a day (a micro-vacation!) in the not-so-touristy 6th district around Metro Vavin in Montparnasse (in fact, I rarely left it, which was a much more satisfying experience than zig-zagging from the left to the right bank all the time as I used to) and discovered "Le Timbre,&… Read more

Philippe Starck and "design is dead"

Philippe Starck had an epiphany, after all these years: "Everything I have designed is absolutely unnecessary," the French star designer admitted in a recent interview with the German weekly DIE ZEIT. I had the dubious pleasure of hanging out in the Starck-designed Volar club in Shanghai last weekend, and my initial reaction to his statement was: yeah, right! I've never really liked his pompose celebrity design. But then I read his quote again in the context of the whole interview and realized: he is right, actually. In fact, his thoughts are so poignant and humbling that it … Read more

Hearst Magazines acquires relationship advice site

Publishing giant Hearst Magazines announced on Wednesday plans to acquire Answerology, a New York-based start-up that offers a question-and-answer service for relationship advice. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but PaidContent reported that it was in the seven figures.

Matthew Milner, Answerology's founder, will be brought on board Hearst as vice president of community and social media in the conglomerate's Hearst Magazines Digital Media unit.

Answerology's schtick is that it allows users to ask anonymous questions about family, marriage, dating, and other heated subjects pertaining to relationships, and those questions can be targeted toward select … Read more

Freshaire Choice: the only tinted paint with zero VOCs

My favorite green product of the week: The Freshaire Choice Paint

What is it?

The Freshaire Choice Paint is a zero volatile organic compound (VOC) paint. It comes in 65 colors and three different sheens. It is an interior paint, a ceiling paint, and an interior primer. It is manufactured by ICI Paints and became Greenguard http://www.greenguard.org/ Certified in September 2007. Greenguard Environmental Institute sets strict limitations on environmental toxins including VOCs, formaldehyde, aldehydes, phthalates, and particles.

Why is it better?

First, let's talk about VOCs. VOCs are emitted as gases from some solids and liquids; … Read more

RenGen: a generation of cultural consumers?

Isn't it interesting how trends are made? "One of the things I like about trends is that they seem so easy -- Blue is the color of 2008! GenY likes health food!" observes Stacey Gillar. Coupling the disparate ("Chic Trash"), pushing an already extreme concept to the extreme ("Radical Transparency"), or simply announcing the advent of something "new" ("Nouvelle Vague," "Nouveau Niche," etc.) are some of the flourishing categories. Or you simply repackage an old concept.

"RenGen," short for Renaissance Generation and the title of … Read more