We asked our reporters, who play so well with others, to choose a favorite story from 2023 by a Retail Brew colleague.
Retail Brew reporter Jeena Sharma writes about luxury and fashion, topics that, at least to someone in this reporter’s tax bracket, can seem random and arbitrary, blown about as they are by the inexplicable winds of trends and commerce.
But Jeena, blessedly, has a well-honed sense of the absurd, as was on display in her long-running weekly feature, Friend or Faux (RIP), in which she challenged readers to distinguish three absurd-but-true retail news items and one absurd-but-false one she had made up.
So who better than Jeena to bring us a story in June in which the manufacturer of a humble rumpus room staple, a beanbag chair, collaborated with a 128-year-old luxury crystal and jewelry brand?
Here’s the lede:
Lovesac, known for its large, foamy beanbag chairs, is elevating its super comfy set of offerings by adding nearly 25,000 crystals to at least some of them for its 25th anniversary. Yep, 25,000!
The furniture company struck up a collaboration with Swarovski, which gets the credit for the shiny crystals that come embedded on a limited-edition set of one Squattoman and one MovieSac. The 25 sacs (we told you they were limited) are currently available both online and in stores for a whopping $10,000.
While a handful of the bedazzled beanbags have already been sold, more are up for grabs (while supplies last) for the remainder of Lovesac’s 25th year.
Update: Perhaps Jeena’s “while supplies last” caveat overstated the demand for this novelty. Although only 25 of the sparkling seats were made, six months later, you can still buy one on the Lovesac website.
Read the original story: Why Lovesac and Swarovski made a $10,000 beanbag chair
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