Swim Dream
Model, entrepreneur, mother and designer Nicole Williams English is debuting an exclusive Nia Lynn by Nicole Williams English swimwear collection in collaboration with Sports Illustrated Swimsuit on Wednesday.
“My biggest dream and career goal was to be a Sports Illustrated rookie — my whole entire career I waited for this moment. Over 20 years — being a swimwear model and living in New York, that was my ultimate dream; it's a huge accomplishment,” Williams English, one of this year's rookies, told WWD. Since 2017, she has been running her exclusive swimwear label and has launched four collections in small, exclusive drops.
Upon receiving the 2023 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit
Issue rookie news, Williams English ( who was pregnant at the time) proposed the idea of designing her own swimwear to wear on the Miami Swim Week runway last July, which Sports Illustrated accepted.
“I got to work on a suit and I only had four days to make it. I sketched the whole suit, designed it and actually took an old pattern from my first collection and tweaked it and added the rookie logo to it. It was the most popular suit of my first collection that everybody was just so obsessed with, so I brought it back in gold metallic and mesh with black letters with ' rookie' across the front. That's where it all started,” Williams English said, adding she also revealed her pregnancy on the runway ( and was later photographed for the 2023 editorial while seven months pregnant).
Following the event, where the Sports Illustrated team loved her rookie suit, Williams English designed a collaborative Nia Lynn x Sports Illustrated Swimsuit collection, which launches the same day as the 2023 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
“It's been a real pinch-me moment because this is absolutely a dream come true to be able to combine my dream career path with my love for design,” she said.
“For this capsule, I wanted to just have totally new designs. I knew that I wanted to have a lot of sexy suits, because when you open the Sports Illustrated magazines — the suits that the girls have on always have a ' wow' factor about
them,” Williams English said of her inspiration for the collection's one- pieces, cutout and gold hardware details, and custom prints. The 12- piece collaborative collection includes a range of string bikinis, a G- string and strapless bandeaus in traditional swimwear and new seersucker fabrications, as well as three vintage Body Gloveinspired, metallic maillots boasting the Sports Illustrated logo.
The collection, priced $72 to $152, is available to shop exclusively on the swimwear brand's e-commerce, as well as on Instagram.
— EMILY MERCER
Diving In
Popular luxury K- beauty brand Laneige is about to launch its first immersive virtual store, thanks to its partnership with experiential commerce firm Obsess, company representatives told WWD.
The hydration skin care company is set to announce the launch sometime on Tuesday.
One draft of the release seen by WWD highlights features such as exclusive behind- the- scenes content with actress Sydney Sweeney, as well as the new Water Bank Blue Hyaluronic collection.
In terms of the environment, shoppers can expect to see a five- room layout decked out with animations, 360- degree video, gamified features and integrated checkout. The store's themed multiroom setup allows the brand to focus on specific skin care collections.
“The virtual store is a powerful customer engagement tool that will allow shoppers to dive into Laneige's unique scientific expertise and entertaining digital content, while also helping them select the right product for their skin needs, including our bestselling Water Sleeping Mask and Lip Sleeping Mask,” Julien Bouzitat, chief marketing officer of Laneige parent company AmorePacific US, is quoted as saying.
One room designed as an underwater world was designed to showcase its Water Bank Blue Hyaluronic Collection, while another, titled “Dreamland,” is cast as a floating cloud to spotlight the sleeping mask category. “Carousel Candyland” is themed for its number- one lip treatments. The Laneige
Lab informs guests about ingredients, and the “On Set with Sydney” room features actress Sydney Sweeney, with exclusive behind-thescenes video from the Laneige spokesperson's photo shoots for the brand.
Visitors can wander the rooms and view content, take a skin care quiz for custom product recommendations or go on a scavenger hunt to score free products with purchase.
The trend of virtual storefronts — visually oriented, immersive online shops built on augmented, virtual or mixed- reality platforms — preceded the once- hot, but now waning metaverse trend, though it benefited from the metaverse hype.
The last two years saw an accelerated push for 360- degree shopping experiences, and Obsess has been among the retail tech firms at the heart of development, working with brand partners such as Charlotte Tilbury, Fendi, Christian Dior, Vacheron + Constantine, Mytheresa and more.
“Virtual stores are scaling rapidly in both brand and consumer
adoption, and data from the 85 million+ user interactions that have happened on the Obsess platform proves that these interactive stores increase customer engagement and purchase behavior,” explained Neha Singh, founder and chief executive officer at Obsess.
"We are thrilled to partner with Laneige on this immersive e- commerce store, which brings 3D shopping to a new generation of consumers who have grown up with gaming."