This week in design, Halloween decor is all fun and games until the 12-foot-tall skeleton decoration remains in your neighbor’s front yard all year round. Stay in the know with our weekly roundup of headlines, launches, events, recommended reading and more.
Business News
Following the property damage wrought by Hurricane Helene—estimated at up to $26 billion—homeowners looking to file insurance claims may be met with less relief than expected, The Wall Street Journal reports. One expert estimated the amount insurance companies will end up paying would be at the lower end of the $5 billion to $15 billion forecasted range, due to an increase in coverage restrictions in recent years, along with the fact that most homeowners do not have flood insurance. In areas vulnerable to hurricanes, insurance agents say policies now feature higher deductibles for wind losses and less coverage for older roofs, along with offering limited protection for interior water damage and excluding payouts for damage caused by wind-driven rain. In communities like Asheville, North Carolina, thought by many to be a “climate haven,” the storm’s unexpected damage means property owners could soon see even higher premiums, posing a particular challenge to small-business owners looking to rebuild.
While people from across the country fled to the Sunshine State in the wake of the pandemic—a movement some referred to as the Great Florida Migration—the state’s housing market is now quickly cooling off. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Florida’s home inventory is now operating at a surplus, as buyer interest has slowed amid extreme weather events, skyrocketing insurance costs, and higher mortgage rates and house prices—which have remained steady since March 2023 after doubling from 2017 to 2023. Home insurance premiums in certain parts of the state have gone up as much as 400 percent over the past five years, and are expected to increase even more following this hurricane season. In cities like Orlando, Tampa and Miami, supply was up more than 40 percent in August compared to the same period last year, while demand decreased by 10 percent or more.
German luxury fashion platform Mytheresa has entered into an agreement to acquire the Yoox Net-a-Porter Group—the owner of multibrand online shopping sites Net-a-Porter, Mr Porter, The Outnet and Yoox—from Switzerland-based luxury goods holding company Richemont in a $609 million deal, Women’s Wear Daily reports. The merger will create a juggernaut representing $3.2 billion in gross merchandise value. Michael Kliger, chief executive officer of Mytheresa, told WWD that there will be “no operational relationship” between the two platforms following the acquisition, and that Yoox Net-a-Porter’s white-label division will be shuttered.
WeWork co-founder and former CEO Adam Neumann has launched Workflow, a competitor to his former coworking company, Bloomberg reports. The new venture—an offshoot of Flow, the real estate company Neumann founded in 2022—will offer coworking spaces and private offices for rent, all housed within residential buildings the company already owns (in contrast to WeWork, which struggled financially in part due to its long-term commercial leases). Similar to Flow’s residential spaces, Workflow will emphasize stylish interiors, with a colorful, beachy design concept (perhaps in connection to Montauk-based surfing magazine Whalebone, which the company acquired in May and renamed The Flow Trip).
California has passed a new law that will require textile brands with more than $1 million in global turnover to help fund and establish a recycling, reuse and repair program for fabric sold in the state, Business of Fashion reports. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the legislation into law last week, marking the U.S.’s first extended producer responsibility program—a policy approach that’s already been rolled out in some European countries. The law could also have an effect on the state’s waste output: Roughly 1.3 million tons of textiles were discarded in California in 2021, and while nearly all were reusable or recyclable, only 15 percent made it back to the market.
Launches and Collaborations
Anthropologie has partnered with The Metropolitan Museum of Art to debut a new homeware collection for the holidays inspired by masterworks of the Gilded Age. The 44 pieces range from dinnerware to textiles and decorative accents, and include ornate touches drawn from design styles that were dominant in America in the late 19th century.
San Francisco– and Brooklyn-based eco-friendly paint and wall finish boutique Color Atelier teamed up with Sarah Sherman Samuel to debut seven new shades. The custom limewash collection features colors like White Sands, Sweet Berry and Summer Sky, curated to provide an array of soft and earthy hues.
Ikea has launched a new furniture range designed specifically to meet the compliance standards of the new STURDY Act, which aims to prevent furniture tip-over accidents. The debut includes two chest of drawer models—the Storklinta and Gullaberg—with new patented features that prevent more than one drawer from opening at once unless the piece is properly attached to the wall.
Recommended Reading
Although the U.S. housing market has been stagnant for months, with high mortgage rates and prices deterring many prospective homeowners, first-time buyers have found a way to make it work: Roughly 55 percent of mortgages in August went to this group—the highest level in data going back to 2014. For The Wall Street Journal, Nicole Friedman checks in with five buyers to see how they managed to seal the deal in an unfriendly market.
Though chef, cookbook author and television personality Julia Child passed away in 2004, her colorful and cozy kitchen remained fixed in the minds of her many fans—who can visit the space any time they choose, thanks to its immortalization in a permanent exhibit in the Smithsonian. For The Washington Post, Rachel Kurzius consulted National Museum of American History curator Paula J. Johnson, author of the new book Julia Child’s Kitchen, on the design elements that made the iconic cook’s space a blueprint for so many other home chefs.
Though they’re less likely to move spaces compared to their younger counterparts, 3 million seniors relocate each year, requiring a different set of housing features than they once did: an easily navigable floor plan, nearby accessible transportation, and a full-service packing and moving company. In The New York Times, Paula Span writes about her experience tapping the services of a new kind of professional—called a “senior move manager”—hired specifically to help secure housing for those in their golden years and facilitate the transition to their new space.
