Updated: Five Things Friday (UK): Fashion Week activations, Tala at Westfield, DYLON’s repair pop-up, Apple × Dua Lipa, brand TV

London Fashion Week’s smartest activations, Tala’s next store move, circularity brought to life, Apple’s youth brief, and why brands are making TV.

Episode Summary
It’s Five Things Friday, UK Edition. Alex and co-host Simone Oloman break down five stories shaping retail and culture this week:

1. British Vogue’s concept café during London Fashion Week and why mindfulness-led micro-experiences restore relevance;

2. Tala doubling down on stores with Westfield London, and how IRL activations fuel discovery and social reach;

3. DYLON’s LFW pop-up turning care, repair, and personalisation into circular habit-building;

4. Apple’s youth brief: nostalgia aesthetics, wired headphones, one-purpose devices—and why a Dua Lipa campaign signals the tone;

5. The rise of brand-made TV: scripted, story-first series that beat ad fatigue and build long-form loyalty.

Episode Notes / Show Notes (with references)

• Tala coming soon to Westfield London: https://www.westfield.com/en/united-kingdom/london/retailers/tala-coming-soon/83612

• LFW-style cultural reference (Instagram Post): https://www.instagram.com/p/DGxpxazuIwT/

• DYLON UK & Ireland (activation/circular care): https://www.instagram.com/dylon_uki?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

• Vera Bradley (brand reference): https://verabradley.com/

• Brand TV / longer-form trend (example reel): https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOjGDS9EXTx/?__d=1%2F

Episode Type: Full
Season/Ep: (set as needed)
Author: The Retail Podcast
Copyright: © The Retail Podcast / Alex Rezvan
Content Advisory: Clean

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to Five Things Friday, UK edition.
Simone, Good morning. I got, I keep telling you this.
I've got to stop clapping every.I just keep clapping.

(00:21):
Hello. How are you?
Welcome. Maybe it's I'm a pastor in an
old in a previous slide where I do a lot of prank.
Anyway, it's Friday. We've got five stories.
We've got short short on time. We'll just get cracking straight
away. I'm Alex.
For those who don't know, I helpbusinesses that sell to

(00:41):
retailers maintain their retail thought leadership.
I travel the world, go to over 15 conferences a air and take
those insights and bring them tomy clients and your good selves
and my wonderful Co host Simone.Hi everyone, I'm Simone, the Co
founder and CEO of Need it for Tonight, also known as NIFT.

(01:02):
I always say the easiest way to describe us is kind of like
delivery but for quality fashion, so rapid and localised
delivery. Fantastic.
So I'm going to start. We're coming up to London
Fashion Week and we've got a couple of stories.
The first one is British Vogue, everyone's favourite fashion
magazine with their new editor in the US, by the way, creating

(01:25):
a concept Cafe with night. And so during the London Fashion
Week, you can go in there, obviously get coffee, but
they're doing mindful sessions. When I asked chat tippity, it's
like, you know, they're doing free get air sessions.
So go along and get some free air with them.
But they'll be taking the the CAF in in some different
concepts. Well, they'll have activations

(01:46):
from Nike and, you know, for those who've listened to my
commentary and night, night has lost its relevance because
they've gone for these old, you know, 90s campaign of big stars.
And what they need is to create more relevance and more cultural
relevance and be being part of people's lives.
And I think this is a nice way to sort of tip the toe back into
coming into people's lives through things like meditation,

(02:09):
yoga and engagement. Yeah.
I think if you can get down to it, I will put the in the show
notes where it is. It's open to everyone.
Saturday starts on the 20th to the 21st.
Yeah, I'll put the the I know it's that 7 Arndale St, which is
near Temple for those who are near Temple.
Moving on to you. Yes, so Tarla is opening a new

(02:32):
store in the Westfield. It was announced this week,
announced with a very cool videoactually on Instagram if it
looked like kidnapping. It's very fun.
But this has come just months after they opened their first
ever physical space in Carnaby. I think it's a very smart move
and it shows that they're not just testing bricks and mortars.
You know, they're really investing in it.

(02:53):
Obviously, Westfield is really about reach.
It's scale, it's high footfall, broad demographics that I always
find with the Westfield shopperswho are really already in, I
guess discovery mode. But what I loved about that
Carnaby school, they've done lots of things, you know,
they've done run clubs from there.

(03:13):
There's always stuff going on there, you know, and it's it's
that what we've popped in about so many times is that the in
store experience really kind of gets shared and it really
becomes part of how the brand shows up online.
And obviously when people are sharing the space, that then
turns into new traffic both in store and online.

(03:35):
So yeah, I'm excited about that.And I won't be surprised if they
have another couple opening nextyear as well as that smashing
it. Yeah, you, you, you like this
brand? Yeah, I do so gross.
Badly. Because I remember when we did
this, their diving range, yes. It was the scuba.

(03:57):
Scuba. Scuba range.
That's it, right? I like, you know, they're super
community driven. I love the marketing.
Yeah. I just, I like what they stand
for. I think they've done very well
at it. They always seem to really
create a lot of buzz, which I love.
OK, cool, fantastic. Moving on, I'm going to talk
about detergent and what an interesting thing to talk about.

(04:19):
But I think this is the power ofsorry, this is where we are in
the world right now. How do I sell my detergent to a
new generation of shopper or consumer that doesn't
particularly engage like the oldworld or like their parents used
to? And it's everything that my, my
fantastic Co host and I are saying in terms of make it

(04:41):
relevant. And Dylan, the producers of
fabric softener and detergent and dyes, has created an
activation during London FashionWeek where they want you to come
in with your pre love, you know,your most favourite item that
maybe needs repair, maybe it needs a wash, maybe it needs to
be bought back to live. And they've created this store

(05:04):
where there's different types ofactivations in, in that store
where you can just walk in and, you know, take part.
But they've also got sections, which I think I thought I had a
picture of where you can actually repair stuff.
So they've got a repair station.Is that here?
No, that's there. So you can go in, have the
different experiences, have the Instagram moment, but they do

(05:26):
have a sort of rejuvenation station where you can stitch
things together and they'll haveexperts there in embroidery and
personalization station. So I think a fantastic example
of we all love circular, we all love sustainability.
There is that one garment that maybe has a hole somewhere that
can be fixed, but maybe we don'thave the confidence in fixing

(05:49):
it. And so get yourself down to the
deal. On Activation again I'll put in
the show notes, the address and where you can find it.
Sticking with me, my favourite, your favourite Geo Lipa.
Apple is having a bit of a toughtime in selling iPhones to this
new younger generation who doesn't just want to buy a

(06:10):
slightly upgraded phone and who also lives in this sort of
nostalgic world where they prefer wired headphones.
They like devices that are one use devices such as the iPod.
And so for this new generation, Apple has engaged with Dua Lipa.
I think you know, it's who doesn't like Dua Lipa, right?

(06:32):
And here they're showing how they shot the the whole advert
on the iPhone 17. And during the Tim Cook when he
was talking in the background, Addison Ray had a sort of hit in
the summer where she was actually the song was about the
nostalgic headphones that were wired and they used it during
the the launch. So again, an interesting way of

(06:56):
how one of the world's largest brands is trying to interact
with this new generation, which is cool and we will end with.
You. Yeah.
So we've really whizzed through today.
I was reading an article in the business of fashion the other
day, which I thought, oh, this would be great to speak about on
the podcast. And it really made me think as

(07:18):
well. And it was all about how brands
are now making their own TV shows now, not like ads or like
influencer UGC, but it's proper scripted, story driven shows and
not just for entertainment, but more in a, in a long form way of
connecting with customers. They used Vera Bradley as the

(07:42):
example in the article. I think the campaign must call
it the most perfect couple, and that really kind of tapped into
this early 2000s nostalgia whichthey were known for.
But I think just what I found is.
Coronation Street. No, it's the it's.
Vera Bradley, I don't know who she.
Is it's a brand? I like this Vera Bradley.

(08:04):
But I think you're thinking of, I know who Vera is from
Coronation Street, that you're. Thinking, I don't know, who is
Vera Bradley? Sorry.
I was like, someone's talking about Coronation Street.
It's like. Not Coronation Street, but yeah,
I know it's it's a brand and others have done it as well.

(08:24):
You know, Glossy have done it with this YouTube series.
Skims have done it as well with they're doing this more kind of
campaign films. But what I liked is that brands
are no longer just paying creators to make content about
them. You know, they're becoming the
creatives themselves, and they are because AD fatigue is real.
Like people are really tuning out of this kind of hard sell.

(08:46):
You know, they're skipping ads, even these UGC ads.
You know, everybody kind of pivoted to UGC and that kind of
three second talking. I've become sick of it.
I've become sick of seeing it. But I think Gen Z, there it is.
Gen Z grew up on obviously storydriven content, you know, the
TikTok point of views, YouTube series creators.

(09:10):
And that's how they consume. You know, they don't want a
product, you know, they want to connect with humour or a voice.
And I think if if you're not able to do that, then they're
not as interested. So yeah, I really like it.
It also just one last thing before I, I'm really rambling
now, but we've got time is it's kind of been, you know, I've

(09:33):
always thought of content and it's kind of been installed in
drilled into a lot of people that, you know, that thumb
stopping content, you know, the quick hits, you know, that 3
seconds. But actually, I think it's
interesting looking at longer engagement because I think
there's a lot of power in this slow burn because storytelling

(09:55):
or ongoing series, whatever you want to call it, that creates
consistency and it creates something that people will come
back to, which ads don't do. If I get hit with a 30 second
ad, I'm not going to go back to that, but an episode I would go
back to. So yeah, I think it's really
interesting and I think we're going to see a really big shift
in it. I'm I'm very, very intrigued by

(10:16):
it. Yeah.
Yeah, I think, I think it's exactly what what everything
that you're saying is, is as always pretty spot on because
people don't want and I rememberUnilever CEO talking about this
disruption based advertising that breaks the flow of how
you're feeling. So if there is, you know, an
emotion that you can tap into, such as comedy, such as, and a

(10:39):
lot of them tend to be on the onthe happy side, but there are I
I have seen ones that are, you know, emotional, but you want
that deeper connection. And I think that's what the new
generation is probably more tapped into how they feel.
And so therefore, I I completelyagree with you that So go on.
I was. Going to say it'll be
interesting to see if like retailer magazines and e-mail

(11:04):
newsletters will start then reading more in the future, like
episode recap. So rather than like product
roundups, I don't know, I'm taking it too far, but it'll be
interesting to see if like we see that shift.
I'm going to be, I mean, I'm going to be brutally honest
here. I've had a lot of advertisers or
sponsors say to me, do you have an e-mail list?

(11:25):
And I say, I don't believe in e-mail list.
I don't believe people want, youknow, emails that come in and
you know, or sub stacks that arejust more text.
They want things brought to lifeto them, right.
And so I agree with you. I think people are tired of of
the way that they've been given content and it's the we talk

(11:48):
about the attention economy. And you're right, it's so funny
when you said the three second hook because that's what you
know, TikTok has driven people to think about what's my 3
second hook as opposed to what'smy story?
And I love that. As always, great food for
thought. Thank you for that.
Well, you got any plans for the weekend?

(12:08):
Are you going anywhere? You travelling the world.
I wish I was travelling the world.
I've actually got my dad here this weekend, which is nice.
He's coming down to the last minute.
He's going to watch Arsenal on Sunday.
Sorry for any. Of the presume is an Arsenal
fan. Yes, yeah.
Does that make you an Arsenal fan by proxy?
I'm not bothered. As you can see, my finger on the

(12:33):
pulse with fat fashion brands like Vera Bradley isn't the same
as my football, The press. I know absolutely nothing about
football. But anyway, on that bombshell,
Simone, thank you so much and until next week.
See you later, Alex. Until next week.