Today, Salehe Bembury is one of the most in-demand designers in sneakers, who has collaborated with brands including New Balance, Crocs, Versace, Moncler, and Vans. With an aesthetic rooted in a combination of an outdoor lifestyle and funky, organic shapes, Bembury has reimagined streetwear as something as biological as it is mechanical.
But its almost impossible to centrifuge Bemburys fashion aesthetic from his own brand, and thats in part by design and what it means to be a creative in the era of social media.
We’re all kind of like cartoon characters in this space . . . we’re all just like kids in high school in the hallway, comparing outfits and competing and all that shit, Bembury says ahead of the release of his first career retrospective. It’s like, fucking Bart Simpson or Doug Funnie opening up their closet and seeing all blue shorts and orange T-shirts. So I would say that that’s what exists with my current selection of clothing, is that it just all fits within this cartoon character consistency.
Bembury says his fashion sense was originally born from mimicryNike ads and other influences that informed his style. But as he grew older, he learned, as we all do, what works on his bodyand he began considering his own signature look. Roughly a decade ago, he started carrying a wooden briefcase everywhere he went. That was me shouting Im an individual! he laughs. Beanies, too, were almost always in the mix.
But a move to L.A. led him to ditch the beanie, and an evolving aesthetic led him to retire the briefcase. His personal style became grounded in comfort, wearing high cinched Satoshi Nakamoto pants most days, any matter of tee, and maybe a Boro stitch (Japanese repaired denim) jacket up top. Handkerchiefs, a cycling cap, and wraparound shades often complete the look.
Grounding it all is an anchor in comfort. Take it back to childhood, I just remember what it felt like to go to church, and I hated that feeling, and I also thought that that feeling was representative of what it meant to have a job, says Bembury. Entering the professional space . . . when I first got a job at Cole Haan, and like, what I was wearing back then. It was in an effort to try to hold on to some level of individuality, but then also be a working professional. Id wear a plaid button down and Dickies. Is that professional? I’m not really sure, but like, that was my attempt at it.
Now, Bembury has evolved from wearing Uniqlo, to tailored off-the-shelf garments, to more bespoke pieces. That comes down to a combination of education and resources, he says. And while he knows thats a privilege, he does wish to remind the public that they dont need to settle for the fit off-the-rack.
[Photo: Chaymin Jay Barut (portrait)]
Actually, I get a lot of messages where people are simply curious how I get my pants like that. I think that’s also displaying maybe just a lack of understanding of simple tailoring, he says. I don’t even think a lot of people see that even as an option. But if you just taper these pants or crop them, they become a different pant!
Describe your style in a sentence.
Comfortable, utilitarian, with a dash of Japan.
Whats the one piece in your closet youll never get rid of?
Proleta re Art made me a boro fabric North Face Supreme jacket. A$AP Rocky has a quote, “we don’t rock clothes, we rock pieces.” And that is a piece.
How long does it take you to get dressed in the morning?
Not long (a few minutes). The longest investments may be around Paris Fashion Week.
What do you wear to a big meeting?
It doesnt change.
What’s the best piece of fashion advice you’ve ever gotten?
It’s probably the most said one, but it’s just like, “the best version of yourself you can be is yourself.” With the uniform that I’ve achieved, and with what I wear, it is myself to the fullest.
As a forward on the Chicago Sky, Angel Reese is one of the most dominant players in the WNBA, and when she joined us to speak about being named to our Best Dressed in Business, shed just broken league records by closing her fourth consecutive game with 15+ rebounds. (When critics panned her for “mebounding,” she trademarked it.)
It all embodies how Reese’s draft class did more than add fresh competition to the league when it arrived with a splash in 2024. It awakened the spectacle of the sport, celebrating the uniqueness of players who broke free from their uniforms with expressive, pregame tunnel walksa critical piece in increasing sponsors 19% that year and viewership by 170%.
A lot of the women already had the fashion, and I think the platform really helped them, says Reese. I think coming to the league with all the eyes that we had, it really shined a light on them and gave them the flowers that they deserve.
[Photo: Reebok]
Long before she joined the Met Gala host committee or had partnerships with Good American and Reebok (her signature Reese 1, inspired by diamonds, was announced this month), Reese earned the nickname Bayou Barbie for her glam perspective, even on the court, which was part of her game as long as she remembers. I always had my hair done, and my nails were painted, she recalls. My grandma used to put mascara on my lashes, and she brushed my hair up nicely. It was always dress to impress.
Reeses passion for fashion was spurred on through her mothers closet, from which shed steal bags and heels, the latter of which felt tricky for her 6 3 frame. I think it took me a while to feel confident in heels, going out, because I was already so tall, she says. But once I got older and seeing how much I stood out, it made me feel, like, super confident and bold.
[Photo: Chicago Sky]
That boldness is a throughline of her ‘fitsand perhaps the only one she cares much about. When I mention her silhouettes tend to embrace high waists and crop tops, she shrugs off any trends you might see, and insists she wants to have the opposite of any signature look.
Sometimes I’ll go streetwear. Sometimes I’ll go super girly, she says. I don’t really identify myself as dressing one type of way. [Though] I am into high fashion for sure. So you probably see me with a nice bag, nice pair of glasses.
Describe your style in a sentence.
I am versatile.
Whats the one piece in your closet youll never get rid of?
I think my bags. Ive created a collection of bags, when I see it, I need it, I have it. Im in collector mode, in my vintage era. I just got this double flap Chanel bag, its orange, and I love it.
How long does it take you to get dressed in the morning?
If I’m only going to practice, it doesn’t take me long. But when I’m getting ready for a game? An hour, for sure.
What do you wear to a big meeting?
I dont really have meetings [laughs]. Most of these things are on Zoom these days. I dont want to meet people or go to their office.
What’s the best piece of fashion advice you’ve ever gotten?
Be confident in your skin. Law Roach kind of told me before, don’t care what anybody else has to say. Like, as long as you’re confident in it and you feel good in it.
Its aura. You have to have aura.
Dara Treseder, Autodesks chief marketing officer, stands out in a crowd. Shes the one wearing a tailored, monochromatic outfit in a bold, bright color: a coral suit, a cobalt shift dress, a lime green gown, often with statement jewelry or shoes that provide a pop of contrast.
At her first job, she followed the standard advice of wearing an unremarkable black suit, so people would focus on her words rather than her attire. She showed up early to a big meeting, and when one of the other participants showed up, he mistook her for the janitor. It clicked that in this mans world, the only reason a person who looked like me would be in this room is because she was the cleaner, Treseder says.
[Photo: courtesy Autodesk]
Treseder vowed she would stop trying to blend in with her corporate attire, but rather show up as her authentic self. I had a beautiful structured red dress I would have loved to wear to that meeting, she recalls. I was worried that showing up as a Black woman in a red dress would be too much, too loud, too out there. But I quickly learned that when I wore what made me feel good, I had a more commanding presence.
Today, Treseder is something of a style icon. Shes found that the conventional wisdom is wrong: People tend to pay more attention to what shes saying when shes in an eye-catching mint suit at a Capitol Hill meeting or a mustard colored dress while on a panel.
She realizes that how she shows up at the office doesnt just shape how she is treated, but also how others are perceived. Today, shes among only 1.4% of C-suite executives who are Black women. I started thinking about my clothes as a way to not just express my power, but our power as Black women, she says. I want to show that we are capable, competent, and confident. We deserve to be here.
Describe your style in a sentence
Intentional. Every piece I wear is a choice that speaks before I ever say a word.
Whats the one piece in your closet youll never get rid of?
My black Louboutin six-inch block heels. Theyre power in motion: equal parts presence, polish, and endurance. From customer meetings in Tokyo to main stage moments in Vegas, they remind me that showing up with purpose starts from the ground up.
How long does it take you to get dressed in the morning?
Getting dressed is quick. Just a few minutes. But getting ready is sacred. Its my daily ritual, my runway to the day. I use that time to pour into myself through music, prayer, affirmations, meditation, and reflection, so I can pour into everything else with presence and power.
What do you wear to a big meeting?
A structured dress or a sharp monochrome suit. I keep it clean and intentional so there is no noise, only presence. Monochrome is timeless and powerful, and it gives me space to make the look my own through fit, texture, and accessories.
What’s the best piece of fashion advice you’ve ever gotten?
My mother told me, dress for you. That simple truth shaped everything. Fashion is comfort, not just physical but emotional. When you feel at ease in what you wear, you move differently. You lead differently. Confidence is the most powerful thing you can put on.
Hybridity has always been central to who I am, says Namrata Tripathi, the founder and publisher of Kokila, an imprint at Penguin Random House for children and young adults that highlights voices historically marginalized by publishing.
Being Odia and Punjabi Sikh, Ms. Tripathi grew up in an Indian home that blended two distinct aesthetics, cultures, religions, and languages. Because her parents were both diplomats for India, her family also moved frequently. She was born in Moscow, but she then lived in Afghanistan, India, Canada, Pakistan, Germany, and Poland before moving to New York to attend university.
I think of myself very much as a professional alien, she says. And I think the power in that is in adapting to my environment, but never erasing myself.
When she first entered the American corporate world, she observed what clothing was deemed appropriate, but she always questioned what power and leadership look like. For her, the answer involves the sari, which she saw her mother wear to work every day when she was growing up. I thought: One day I’m going to do that. And then I thought: Well, what day am I waiting for?
[Photo: Christopher Myers (portrait)]
Around 10 years ago, she felt confident enough to start wearing power saris, as her colleagues now refer to them, to the office for big meetings, and then more regularly. Previously, shed only worn saris to formal work events, such as the National Book Awards and galas, because they are beautiful, and I was excited to wear them.
Sometimes, shed wear saris her mother passed down to her, and she was often the only person in the room wearing non-Western clothing. One time, when she wore a churidar kurta, which consists of a tunic and trousers that bunch at the bottom, a well-intentioned colleague pulled her aside to tell her that her pants were too long.
At first, I did it to connect with my mother and her mother, whose saris I also sometimes wear, but over time, I saw how it influenced other people, too, she says. I had young people from various cultural backgrounds in the company comment on the pieces I’d worn, and I realized how impactful it had been to them, and how it reinforced the idea that the body is political. I’m interested in a different kind of leadership, and this is a way to show it. I like that it sends a message to people who aren’t often in the room that I’m trying to bring them into it.
Describe your style in a sentence.
Mera joota hai Japani, yeh patloon Englistani, sar pe lal topi Russi, phir bhi dil hai Hindustani.
Whats the one piece in your closet youll never get rid of?
An oversized white button-down because Ive always loved menswear.
How long does it take you to get dressed in the morning?
Tying a sari takes me about two minutes. Managing my hair can be . . . a process.
What do you wear to a big meeting?
Always a sari. (A power sari if you ask my team.)
What’s the best piece of fashion advice you’ve ever gotten?
Dont ever try to hide yourself.
When Julie Schott first launched Starface, a skincare brand known for its fun, star-shaped pimple patches, in 2019, she and her cofounder, Brian Bordainick, needed to take some headshots. I remember there was this idea that I should put on a blazer to seem professional, but I put on this blazer, and I felt like an idiot wearing a costume, says Schott, who splits her time between Los Angeles and Ojai, California. There’s nothing that I do at my job that requires a suit. I work from home most of the time. I think it looks ridiculous on me, and its just not my personality.
Schott ditched the blazer, and put on a Martine Rose track jacket, vintage sweats, and Gucci flats. Now, she feels that her headshot more accurately reflects her style, which she describes as sporty and nostalgic, consisting primarily of secondhand or vintage pieces.
[Photo: courtesy Julie Schott]
A former beauty editor at Elle magazine, Schott channels much of her personality through her nailswhich she gets done every two weeksher makeup, and her hair, which is currently cherry red.
I do feel most like myself with it, and it seems to make other people happy, she says of her hair color. It makes them smile, and makes them feel comfortable, like a cartoon. Its definitely an icebreaker.
Since launching Starface, Schott has built a constellation of Gen Z focused brands, including the contraception company Juile. She says her work allows for a level of personal expression, and that her style often reflects the free-spirited nature of her companies. Would she wear a Starface pimple patch in a meeting, though?
If I have a pimple, 100 percent.
Describe your style in a sentence.Both David and Victoria Beckham, 2005.
Whats the one piece in your closet youll never get rid of?An old Mickey Mouse shirt. Its fitted, soft, and perfectly worn in.
How long does it take you to get dressed in the morning?Minutes. Four if theres a mirror. Im an outfit repeater and uniform wearer, so getting dressed is the quickest part of getting ready.
What do you wear to a big meeting?Never something new that could cause an unexpected wardrobe malfunction.
What’s the best piece of fashion advice you’ve ever gotten?Dont overthink it.
At Emma Gredes first job as a fashion show producer, she was told to wear black so she wouldnt stand out. But even back then, she refused to fade into the background. I bought whatever I could afford from Balenciaga or Celine, she says. I have always used my clothes as a tool (of self-expression).
Grede is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of our time. Shes the business mastermind behind Skims, Good American and the newly launched sports fashion startup Off Season. But even in the glitzy world of fashion, shes become notable for her style. Grede believes that our clothes should be a way to channel our creativity and personality, particularly in the world of business.
On a recent trip to London, her hometown, her team captured her outfits of the day, which included a white Jacquemus jacket and matching cargo pants set paired with pointed Balenciaga heels, and a blue striped Proenza Schouler top and skirt paired with strappy YSL heels. I dress entirely to please myself, she says. Depending on the day, that could be for comfort, or convenience, or because I want to feel bad ass.
[Photo: Jamie Girdler]
While Grede has always been stylish, shes spent much of her career behind the scenes. In 2008, she launched the talent management firm ITB Worldwide which was acquired a decade later. She then partnered with members of the Kardashian family to co-found Good American, Skims and Safely, letting her more famous co-founders be the face of the brand.
But these days, shes becoming a personality in her own right, as a judge on Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den. Shes recently launched a podcast called Aspire with Emma Grede where shes interviewed everyone from Michelle Obama to Gwyneth Paltrow.
As a mother of four with a demanding schedule, Grede doesnt have a lot of time to strategize about her outfits. And even though her looks vary, she developed a kind of formula to what she wears. She wears a lot of denim, including Vintage Levis and Frame. She has a collection of white and striped Oxford shirts from Celine, YSY, and Comme Des Garcons, and she also loves a good heel.
There is literally nothing in my closet that only gets worn once, she says. Theres something about the simplicity of not really choosing something new every day thats really freeing.
Describe your style in a sentence.
Thats so hard, I dress how I feel and I feel different all the time!
Whats the one piece in your closet youll never get rid of?
I have so many things but probably a pair of Gucci loafers Ive had since I was 15. I bought them for myself, and it was such a big deal at the time.
How long does it take you to get dressed in the morning?
Five minutes. I pull outfits ahead of time.
What do you wear to a big meeting?
Something that has bought me luck in the past Im very superstitious.
What’s the best piece of fashion advice you’ve ever gotten?
To embrace my individuality and do what makes you feel good.
As a senior design director at Apple, Wyatt Mitchell spends a lot of time thinking about the way the technology company’s products and services show up in our everyday lives. This design consciousness doesnt stop with work; it extends to his distinctive personal style.
Over the years, Mitchells taste has evolved in a way that has given his style some serious rangefrom traditional denim workwear to precisely tailored clothing to a bow tie, depending on what hes trying to convey to the world.
Style is a tool you can use for yourself mentally, and externally for other people, he says. I like the ability to use a tool like that to telegraph certain things about me.
[Photo: Ashley Bloom/Apple]
Though Mitchell is hesitant to pigeonhole his personal style, he has become known for his signature look of traditional workwear coveralls and jumpsuits, which he sources from automotive workwear websites or RRL. In 2019, Mitchell went viral when he walked on stage at Apples annual developer conference in a white coverall from RRL and Off-White sneakers.
Mitchells look was celebrated across fashion blogs for its obvious contrast to the typical jeans-and-a-shirt tech world uniform at the time. What you wear is an extension of your visual acuity, he says. I don’t try to take on entirely new styles. I’m not that sort of free, but I do like the evolution.
[Photo: Lilly Red (portrait)]
In a world of sameness, Mitchell is doing the exact thing that all good style leaders do: they unabashedly wear what inspires them, and do it repeatedly. Its a little scarymy closet is predominantly suits, overalls, and coveralls, he says. I should probably pare that down.
Describe your style in a sentence.
I honestly dont think I can put that in to words. And if I could, I would be a writer. Sorry.
Whats the one piece in your closet youll never get rid of?
Nothing is sacred, but Ill probably always have a pair of Chucks.
How long does it take you to get dressed in the morning?Varies. Some days I can get dressed in one motion. Other days can be full of trial and error.
What do you wear to a big meeting?
As a designer, I think its important to look like you understand aesthetics.
What’s the best piece of fashion advice you’ve ever gotten?
That shirt is too small for you.
It took me 35 years before I learned how to dress well. And it took about that long to learn who I was. That timing is not a coincidence, as anyone on our inaugural Best Dressed in Business list will tell you.
For the first time in our three-decade history, Fast Company is celebrating fashion across the world of work: eight remarkable individuals ranging from athletes on the court of the WNBA to designers in the C-suite of Seoul to innovators at Apple.
This editorial initiative is not about whether quiet luxury or that cut of jeans is still in. Its not about labels or influencers, either. Its about celebrating those who are comfortable enough in their skin to stunt across the professional world. Because most of all, dressing well requires knowing oneself.
In some ways, the timing of this package couldnt be more fraught. Both high fashion and fast fashion are encountering new challenges in the face of shifting consumer tastes. But never before has culture afforded us the license to dress in so many different ways for any given circumstance.
We live in an era of unbridled self-expression, fueled by social feeds and global retailers moving too fast to keep track of. This is an advantageous moment for individualism: There is no wrong way to dress anymore, and there are countless right ones.
For a lucky few, work offers a path toward self-actualization. And the way we dress for that occasion is something we are here to celebrate.
Mark Wilson
[Photo: Samsung]
Mauro Porcini, chief design officer, Samsung
Mauro Porcini became the worlds first chief design officer at 3M, before taking the role at PepsiCo and, now, at Samsung. But as a designer seated in the boardroom, he admits to being constantly pulled between two worlds. His style captures this duality, and has served as a tool to be taken seriously as a creative in businesswhile helping him find peace within himself.
Read more
[Photo: Jamie Girdler (portrait)]
Emma Grede, fashion entrepreneur
Emma Grede is a mother of four who has spent most of her career building a fashion empire behind the scenesand behind the Kardashians. As the cofounder of Good American, Skims, and Off Season, she’s created a constellation of brands that reach into the closets of people around the world. But shes still managed to become a style icon in her own right by creating a rotation of classic pieces that she mixes and matches.Read more
[Photo: Walik Goshorn (portrait)]
Angel Reese, forward, Chicago Sky
As an all-star forward for the Chicago Sky, Angel Reese is one of the most dominant players in the WNBA. But her draft class did more than add fresh competition to the league when it arrived with a splash in 2024. It awakened the spectacle of the sport, celebrating the uniqueness of players who broke free from their uniforms with expressive pregame tunnel walks.
Read more
[Photo: Chaymin Jay Barut (portrait)]
Salehe Bembury, shoe designer
One of the most in-demand designers in sneakers, Bembury has collaborated with New Balance, Crocs, Versace, Moncler, Vans, and other brands. With an aesthetic rooted in a combination of outdoor lifestyle and funky, organic shapes, Bembury has reimagined streetwear as something as biological as it is mechanical. His personal style is equally interesting.
Read more
[Photo: courtesy Autodesk]
Dara Treseder, CMO, Autodesk
Dara Treseder doesn’t have any interest in blending in. The marketing exec learned early in her career that stifling your perspective only has drawbacks. Now as the CMO of design software maker Autodesk, she embraces tailored, monochromatic outfits, often in bold, bright colors. It’s a way to stand outand to make your voice heard.
Read more
[Photo: Christopher Myers (portrait)]
Namrata Tripathi, founder and publisher, Kokila
With her Penguin Random House imprint Kokila, Namrata Tripathi celebrates marginalized voices in books for young people. But her quest for representation doesnt end on the page. At work, she has become known for her power saris, and for the influential message her style sends to younger colleagues. Read more
[Photo: Apple]
Wyatt Mitchell, senior design director, Apple
As a senior design leader at Apple, Wyatt Mitchell spends a lot of time thinking about how aesthetics and design choices show up in our everyday lives. This obsession doesnt end at work; it extends to his distinctive personal style, which ranges from tailored suits to denim coveralls.
Read more
[Photo: Maggie Shannon (portrait)]
Julie Schott, founder, Starface
Julie Schott is known for selling Gen Z on her star-shaped pimple patches. But as she stepped into entrepreneurship, she ditched blazers and other wardrobe tropes for eye-catching track jackets and cherry red hair as a way to signal that her businesses are doing things differently.Read more
Additional Image Credits
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Nearly everyone in America recognizes the brand name La-Z-Boy, and most will remember it fondly as part of their childhoods. Far fewer see it as a brand they would actually buy today, but La-Z-Boy is on a mission to change that.
The company is unveiling its first rebrand in 20-plus years to position itself as more than just your grandmas recliner. The brand has traded its minimalist, sans-serif logo for a retro script wordmark. It revamped its color palette and adopted a whole new brand voice that emphasizes coziness and comfort rather than just function. La-Z-Boy requested that Fast Company refer to these changes as a “brand refresh” (a term typically used as a safer, less extreme alternative to “rebrand”), but the sum of these swaps equals a full visual overhaul.
The new look is part of La-Z-Boys Century Vision strategy: a business plan intended to prepare the brand for growth after its 2027 centennial anniversary.
Christina Hoskins, the companys chief marketing officer, says the key to jump-starting that upward trajectory is to make sure that La-Z-Boy is not a brand that exists only in peoples memories. We started to suspect that we are a brand that’s on the verge of fading into history, and we didn’t want that to be the case, Hoskins says.
[Photo: La-Z-Boy]
The new La-Z-Boy
La-Z-Boy is contending with a housing and furniture market battered by consumer concerns around inflation, the rising cost of living, and the economic whiplash of President Trumps tariffs. According to its fiscal year 2025 financial report, La-Z-Boy notched $2.1 billion in salesup 3% from the previous fiscal year but down from its 2022 high of $2.4 billion. As of this writing, the brands stock is also down nearly 10% compared to this time last year.
Hoskins says that to set itself up for the future, La-Z-Boy has been working on expanding its retail network. This year, it built 12 new locations and acquired seven independently owned storesone of the largest annual expansions in company history.
Originally, the goal of the refresh was to widen the companys consumer base alongside its retail presence by attracting a younger audience. However, as Hoskins and her team worked with partners at the branding agency Colle McVoy, they realized they needed to zoom out even further.
After analyzing their existing branding and consumer feedback, they found that La-Z-Boys marketing focus was specific to the functionality of its furniture, whereas target consumers across generations cared more about the feelings the brand could evoke.
There is a [target] consumer out there who wants comfort first, who wants a home they can live in, who wants peace over perfection in life, Hoskins says. The beauty of that is that we’re able to go in through this more emotional angle and tap into people’s values and beliefs, and then reach a broad consumer set. The outcome of that will be that we’re reaching younger consumers, but were not just chasing after the age alone.
Over the past couple of years, La-Z-Boy has already begun quietly rolling out a more consumer-focused, playful voice via new brand activations. In 2023, the company debuted a national advertising campaign called Long Live the Lazy, which called on fans to reclaim so-called laziness and embrace JOMO (the joy of missing out).
It also unveiled “The Decliner,” an AI-powered prototype chair that helped the reclinee draft text messages to cancel their plans. On opening weekend, the Decliner drove a 50% increase in sales and a 200% increase in web traffic.
In 2024, the company followed up with Decline to Recline, an ad campaign poking fun at people who recline their seats on airplanes (and nudging offending passengers to use a La-Z-Boy at home instead). An accompanying petition to end airplane recliners, which La-Z-Boy published on its website, received more than 400,000 signatures.
Through these campaigns, Hoskins says, La-Z-Boy showed up differently in the cultural zeitgeist than it ever had before, which opened peoples eyes to the new La-Z-Boy.
From corporate to cozy
Once the La-Z-Boy team identified this strategy, there was another issue: The new La-Z-Boyintended to encapsulate comfort, warmth, and a stress-free spacewas deeply detached from how the branding actually looked.
We did a fair amount of consumer research that showed it felt sterile, it felt cold, it felt corporate, and it did’t match the experience of sitting in a La-Z-Boy chair, Hoskins says.
La-Z-Boys then-logo, first introduced in 2003, featured a thin sans-serif wordmark with a small pop of icy blue. Diana Quenomoen, design director at Colle McVoy, says the wordmark felt like something you might find in a healthcare or tech field, not a piece of furniture youd want to sink into.
Quenomoens team turned to La-Z-Boys 1927 script logo for inspiration. They drew a new version of the mark, character by character, that takes some cues from the originallike the connective flourishes and the Z appearing to be cradled between the other characterswhile also putting a modern spin on the script concept.
Another core inspiration was the furniture itself, which shows in the plumpness of the letters and the wordmarks italicized setting, meant to mimic a chairs recline.
From the beginning, one of our team members pointed to this logo and said, I want to [lie] on that, Hoskins says. We were like, Oh, we’re hitting on something here.
The new identity also includes a warmer palette of burnt vermilion and soft celadon green, a custom monogram featuring the script letters LZB, and a wave-like color-blocked pattern. All of Colle McVoys work was collected in a new internal style guide thats meant to help La-Z-Boy maintain brand consistency as it works to expand its network of company-owned stores.
The rebrand will begin rolling out digitally and via advertising channels on July 29. Physical storefronts will be updated over the next few years.
It’s really exciting to see how we’ve captured what the brand is through the identity, and how that can inspire new thinking about shopper experiences, Hoskins says.
The heat index in some Southern states topped 113 degrees over the July 26 weekend, but some retailers are already knee-deep in spooky season.
Just as Christmas creep has kicked off the winter holiday shopping (and decorating) season as early as September in recent years, Halloween sales seem to be starting earlier and earlier these days. The Home Depot is looking to capitalize. The chain has unveiled its 2025 collection of animatronics and decorations to make your house the scariest on the block.
Skelly, the company’s iconic 12-foot skeleton, will lead the charge once againand while inflation is on the rise and tariffs are looming, the Home Depot says its maintaining Skelly’s $299 price tag.
Skellys got plenty of friends joining him at retail this year. The 2025 collection of larger-than-life ghouls includes a pair of 15-foot-tall animated scarecrows (Worricrow and Gally-Crow, to be precise), each with a 12.5-foot arm span. (Both are priced at $399.) Skelly will also have a few new pets, including a 5.5-foot sitting skeleton dog with LCD eyes ($249) and a 5-foot-tall skeleton cat.
All the animatronics will go on sale on the Home Depot website (and app) on Monday, August 4. They’ll begin appearing in stores as Halloween draws closer.
If you don’t have room for a 12-foot Skelly, the retailer would like to introduce you to Ultra-Skelly, a version roughly half the size of the original that can interact with passers-by via an app. Itll be priced at $279.
“When trick-or-treaters approach the door, the 6.5-foot-tall skeleton can comment on each guests costume or greet them as they approach,” the company said in a press release.
The animatronic will have five preset recordings and up to 30 seconds of custom recording with voice modulation. You can also interact with trick-or-treaters live by speaking through Ultra-Skelly via the app. Like the 12-foot model, it can be adapted for other holidays, if you’d like to go to war with your homeowners association and keep it up year-round.
The Home Depot has collaborated with Universal Products and Experiences once again to introduce a new 3.5-foot animated Chucky doll, this time with his stitched-up look from Bride of Chucky. There will also be a 3.5-foot Tiffany Valentine (aka, the bride of Chucky from the same film) on offer. Both will cost $229.
Other horror characters arriving in animatronic form are a 7-foot Frankenstein ($279), a 6-foot bride of Frankenstein ($279), a 5.5-foot Evil Queen from Snow White and a 6.5-foot Maleficent ($279 each). Jack Skellington and Sally make a return as well.
All-new offerings include the Deadwater collection (featuring a 9.5-foot animated pirate ship for $399 and a 7-foot Megalodon zombie shark for $349) and the Gruesome Grounds collection, which, in addition to the 15-foot scarecrows, showcases an 8-foot dragon that’s about to take flight. Of course, you can always freak out the neighbors with a 9.5-foot LED spider.
While consumers tend to get grouchy about December holidays arriving earlier and earlier each year, they dont seem to mind getting a head start on All Hallows Eve festivities. A recent study by RetailMeNot found that “Summerween” is something many consumers get excited about; some 27% of people surveyed were already planning for Halloween.
Another harbinger of the seasonSpirit Halloween storeshas yet to appear, but the company said it expects to open more than 1,500 locations this year and is looking for 50,000 seasonal employees. Those stores are likely to open their doors in the coming weeks.
There is, of course, a financial incentive for all this. People spent an estimated $11.6 billion on the holiday last yearand that’s likely to rise in 2025. If you do grab some new lawn decorations when they go on sale, however, you might want to wait until the temperatures fall a bit lower before you put them out in the yard.
