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Martha Hunt Named Face of Ramy Brook

RAMY BROOK TAPS MARTHA HUNT: Martha Hunt has been named the face of Ramy Brook, the contemporary women’s sportswear brand. The IMG model will appear in the brand’s first national ad campaign, which will be photographed today by Sebastian Faena.
The shoot takes place at Pier 59 in New York, and the ads are slated to break digitally around Feb. 14.
Best known as a Victoria’s Secret Angel, the 28-year-old Hunt has fronted campaigns for Hugo Boss, Y-3, Max & Co. and Albion Cosmetics. She has also been the spokesmodel for Free People and has walked in more than 180 fashion shows for numerous designers.
“Brand awareness is something we’re working on,” said Cory Cole, head of marketing at Ramy Brook, who said the company is looking to raise its profile. The ads will feature the classic pieces. “It’s the first step to a bigger program for the year,” Cole added.
Hunt is also working on a capsule collection with Ramy Brook Sharp, founder and creative director of Ramy Brook, which will launch exclusively at Bloomingdale’s in March. Hunt will be involved in designing it, and making personal appearances on the capsule’s behalf. “She’ll get behind it in a big way,” Cole said.
Hunt is

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Shedding Cultural Baggage, Hong Kong Takes Shine to Secondhand

HONG KONG — Pre-owned luxury is having a moment here. Long weighed down by negative cultural connotations that secondhand means second-best — or worse, a fake copy — a number of companies in Hong Kong are growing the selection of used high-end shopping options by offering a mix of physical retail, butler services and charitable causes.
The most obvious sign of a shift was the arrival of Vestiaire Collective, the Parisian secondhand designer goods platform in August when cofounder Fanny Moizant relocated to the city to set up the business’ Asian headquarters.
Despite its position as a leading platform in its sector, with 4,000 to 6,000 items on the site on any given day, Moizant said brand awareness was low and the company has had to navigate its way around the preference among Asian consumers for brand new items — common to markets with newly created wealth — and beliefs that a used product can pass on bad energy from a previous owner.
“I think it’s very true for the older generation, my age and above [to think those things here],” she said. “I think the new generation, Millennials and Generation Z, are way more open and they are very savvy regarding price.
“There’s a

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Spring.com Giving Back to Consumers

Luxury shopping site Spring.com is giving consumers 4 percent back in cash rewards via its loyalty program.
The cash-back incentive, called SpringBack, seems to be the first of its kind for multibrand, single-cart e-commerce sites. Spring began operations in 2014 with 150 brands. According to Katie Tobias, head of brand marketing, the company offers more than 2,000 brands. Essentially Spring acts as the host site for the brands. Spring handles the transactions, but the brands handle the fulfillment of orders.
According to Tobias, new offerings that became available in the fourth quarter include Alexander McQueen, Bobbi Brown, What Comes Around Goes Around and COS.
Spring averaged more than one million monthly unique visitors in 2017. Sixty percent of the average daily visitors are repeat customers, while 40 percent of Spring’s domestic customers make another purchase within 90 days of a prior purchase.
Tobias acknowledged that the 4 percent cash back comes out of Spring’s profits from each order. She said the company chose to do the added-value program for its largely Millennial customer base because it provides “everyday transparent value” in lieu of relying on deep promotions to get her to shop.
“The 4 percent cash back is earned on every single purchase [and shows

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