The beginning of fall is signaled by a few constants — the weather cools, the leaves change colors and retailers roll out their holiday merchandise. But every year, Halloween always brings along a slew of controversial costumes.
In this week's Retail Therapy, we’ve got retailers in hot water for costumes that sparked outrage, Beyonce getting in on the athleisure trend and the lowdown on why skateboarding brand Supreme is selling out of $30 bricks. (Yes, real actual bricks.)
Supreme is selling $30 bricks. And shoppers can't get enough.
$4,704,000. That’s how much one user on Reddit predicted it would cost to build a house made out of bricks by skateboarding apparel brand Supreme. I mean, what else would you do with a Supreme-branded brick?
Last week, Supreme added actual bricks to its “Fall accessories” lineup — and they sold out within minutes, according to The Guardian. The standard rectangular clay brick comes engraved with the brand’s logo and originally retailed for $30. But once it sold out, die-hard fans turned to eBay to shell out anywhere between $225 and $1,000 to get their hands on the prized merchandise.
Fans and critics alike took to Twitter to offer their takes on the bizarre product craze.
Supreme put up a brick for $30 and it sold out in minutes... pic.twitter.com/068VZDG8dD
— Griffin ⛵️ (@ACEGRIFF) September 29, 2016
hate your ex? but still respect him? throw a supreme brick at his window bc he can jus sell the brick to replace his window
— SHREYA (@_yungshrey) September 29, 2016
I’m way to old to understand the Supreme brick thing. Like are they paper weights or just decretive artifacts? V confused. pic.twitter.com/7PjKRQgB6j
— Anthony Bartoloni (@YoAnty1) September 29, 2016
Brick sold out... Now I know why pic.twitter.com/iOW0JXuMc2
— Dan Cunningham (@Cunn1Dan) September 29, 2016
Beyonce's in on the athleisure trend
Tis’ the season for new athleisure lines: Rihanna recently debuted a highly-unathletic sportswear line with Puma, J. Crew just announced its first-ever athletic wear line in collaboration with Reebok, and perhaps most notably, Beyonce has now unveiled the first ad for Ivy Park — her clothing line that blends activewear with athleisure.
The fashion and music icon collaborated with Philip Green of apparel retailer Topshop to create the minimalist look, which features mostly solid-colored leggings and hooded sweatshirts, The Los Angeles Times reports. Some pieces have already hit the racks of Topshop stores and are available online, while others are set to roll out soon across the brand's other retail partners Zalando, Hudson's Bay, Net-A-Porter, JD Sports and Selfridges.
Beyonce is promoting the new brand with an ad that closely mirrors the narrated style of her album-length hit music video Lemonade. Her message is clear: Get in formation (preferably in head-to-toe Ivy Park gear) — and get to the gym.
Controversial Halloween costumes
The leaves are starting to fall, and so are controversial Halloween products from retailers' shelves.
This week, several major retailers found themselves hot water for selling controversial Halloween costumes and products: Amazon was forced to pull several "sexy" children's Halloween costumes it has been selling since 2014, according to Yahoo. Among the costumes sold by third-party lingerie vendor Silvia's Wand, listed for 4-5 year olds, were “Sexy … SchoolGirl," "Sexy Snow White Cinderella” and “Sexy Queen Princess.” Amazon was alerted by child advocacy groups and removed the products but shrugged off responsibility.
Amazon isn't the only retailer in hot water. Along with Wal-Mart and Target, all three companies were chastised online for selling a "tranny granny" costume, as reported by Refinery 29. LGBTQ activists blasted the retailers on Twitter for mocking transgendered people. All three ultimately pulled the product from their websites and stores, saying the costume belonged to a third party vendor and violated its policy. The costume is still for sale on Spirit Halloween under the name "Adult granny costume."
