It’s been another weird week in retail.
Y/Project is back with yet more terrible detachable jeans, Stefano Gabbana trolled Melania Trump haters with a new T-shirt and Amazon constructed a 79-foot Echo in Times Square.
This, and more, in this week’s Retail Therapy.
Detachable jeans are back
Remember $425 detachable jeans — the denim duds that can easily be unclipped at the hip to reveal a denim diaper? Well, designer brand Y/Project is going all in on them.
This week a new, pricier $570 rendition appeared on e-commerce website Forward: “Detachable Button Down Pants”
The look is essentially a denim belt connected to an adjustable jean garter that hooks to a pair of pant legs that button all the way down to the heels — notably with no fabric covering the derriere. So the product isn’t really pants, a skirt or a romper. What is it? We’re not quite sure.
Unlike other detachable jeans, these “pants” are entirely crotchless. But, before you tear apart the look, don’t think shoppers are encouraged to walk around baring all. The product page suggests wearing a collared shirt dress underneath. Unbelievably the outfit has already sold out in three of the five sizes in which it’s offered.
The quirky designer brand is apparently getting cocky after celebrity model Gigi Hadid was spotted wearing the original detachable jeans in white earlier this week. Like some who took to Twitter to express their confusion and distaste, we have to agree, pants were doing OK before the detachable phase.
???? Pants were doing okay as they were. We didn't need to do this to pants. pic.twitter.com/XhKPoRXMWG
— kate sullivan (@teadrunkkate) June 12, 2017
Dolce & Gabanna’s trolling T-shirt
While there is no official "dresser-in-chief" for first lady Melania Trump, she has been wearing an awful lot of Dolce & Gabanna. Several weeks ago, she notably wore a $51,500 floral D&G coat to the G-7 summit in Italy, and she's been spotted wearing the Italian fashion house's collections repeatedly elsewhere. And that's quite alright with designer Stefano Gabbana, who instead of refusing to dress the first family (like designers Tom Ford and Sophie Theallet) has fully embraced the first lady's style choices.
Not all shoppers are so happy with Gabbana, many criticizing him for supporting the administration. His response? A blend of humor and fashion, of course.
This week, Gabbana took to Instagram to promote a new $245 T-shirt inscribed with the words "#BOYCOTT Dolce&Gabbana" with a large red heart. The post was accompanied by the hashtags "#fakenews," "realtshirt" and Gabbana clarified that the shirt would be for sale on its website. The message has quickly spread from one T-shirt to an entire campaign with its own page on the designer's website, which includes a video of a staged protest in which beautiful millennials jump around in the T-shirts and wave Italian flags.
There's one for all the Melania haters out there.
Starbucks hopes customers will go Gaga over these new drinks
The ombre Pink Drink may not have inspired the kind of social media craze the coffee chain received from its Unicorn Frappucino, but it’s hoping a celebrity endorsement and a charity might be just what it needs to win over Instagrammers.
This week, as part of its “Cups of Kindness” campaign, Starbucks added two new colorful drinks to its current assortment of summer drinks, the Pink Drink and the Ombre Pink Drink: The blackberry and hibiscus-infused Violet Drink and the neon green Matcha Lemonade.
For each of the limited-time drinks purchased between June 13 and June 19, Starbucks will donate $0.25 to Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation and the Channel Kindness project. The singer's tweet about the pink drink promotion has already garnered over 5,000 retweets, boding well for the Instagrammable drinks.
Baby there ain't no other way, these drinks were born this way.
Have a Pink Drink this week at @Starbucks and support @BTWFoundation @starbucksprtnrs #CupsOfKindness https://t.co/zYNFWNyiFp pic.twitter.com/8PTZKYSwS2
— xoxo, Gaga (@ladygaga) June 12, 2017
Amazon’s 79-foot Echo
A new week, a new Echo device — or so it seems.
This week, the e-commerce giant constructed the largest Echo ever, one that reaches seven stories, or 79 feet, in Times Square. The "device," which is attached to a massive billboard promoting Amazon Music with the words "Alexa, play the song that goes... 'Love is all you need'," is not interactive but does have LED lights that make it appear realistic, Adweek reported. The structure is apparently the largest ever to be built in Times Square, beating out Pepsi's record set in the 1940s.
Take a look:
