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Grace Ehlers

About Grace Ehlers

Grace Ehlers is a trend forecaster, Gen Y consumer expert and freelance consultant in digital media strategy. She lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where she often finds that everyone in the grocery store is under 30.

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The New Normal: NORMCORE

By Grace Ehlers   |   May 26, 2015

First it was Nikes replacing ballet flats. Then it was Birkenstocks replacing Nikes. Then Patagonia and Tevas became a thing. Then George Clooney’s fiancé was wearing mom jeans. Baseball caps, sports jerseys, mall chic, Jerry Seinfeld. What can we make of the anti-fashion trend that has bypassed hipsters and has translated into real market value (as we saw with this winter’s L.L. Bean boot selling out nationwide)? More than any style trend, “Normcore” is a pervasive movement among Millennials to appear as bland — and as normal — as possible. …

The New Normal: NORMCORERead More

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Who Will Buy?

By Grace Ehlers   |   August 13, 2014

Millennials Opt In To a Rent-a-World Who will buy this beautiful morning? What about renting it? What about renting it on Airbnb? What if you could rent this beautiful morning with clean sheets for $150 and be done with it? It’s a Renter’s Market Millennials have bypassed their small net worths through membership programs that rent them early access to nearly everything they could need. Never mind buying a second home when you can rent a chateau in France on Airbnb for $200. Why hire a chauffeur when they don’t come with an app that tracks …

Who Will Buy?Read More

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A Whole New Kind of Club

By Grace Ehlers   |   December 17, 2013

Had Groucho Marx been a Millennial, his famous adage “I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member" would read a little more like “I don’t want to be admitted to any club that will accept me the way I’m dressed.” Millennials everywhere are turning up their noses this fall to the informally dressed, seeking out venues like exclusive private clubs and retailers that help them fake it until they make it. …

A Whole New Kind of ClubRead More

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Brands Looking Forward, Look Back (Way Back)

By Grace Ehlers   |   November 4, 2013

Many of the most successful rebranding efforts of the last year, the most forward-facing of them all, have all used the same weapon of choice: their archives. Brands as highbrow as Dior, to as proudly lowbrow as Levi’s, have looked to the creative history of their designers to add a layer of narrative and credibility to the contemporary context of their brands. And while this type of endurance-branding may be partially a result of The Great Recession, Millennials. Are Eating. It. Up. This is because Millennials are natural researchers; many …

Brands Looking Forward, Look Back (Way Back)Read More

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Bay Closes the Talent Gap

By Grace Ehlers   |   May 22, 2013

REWith the launch of the Spring 2014 lookbook in April, Gap Creative Director Rebekka Bay sets the tone of her six-month-old stewardship as Creative Director of Gap, Inc. For those of you who aren’t yet familiar with Bay, who joined Gap in October 2012, she is known for her conceptualization, development and launch of H&M brand COS (a higher end fast fashion brand). The Logo Rioters Get Their Way Bay’s Spring 2014 lookbook does two things: it tells us that Bay is defining who Gap is through her own COS lens (which is great), but also …

Bay Closes the Talent GapRead More

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Millennials in the Workplace – True or False

By Grace Ehlers   |   April 24, 2013

We Millennials can be a little difficult to decode at work; our incessant attachment to our phones; our buddying up with senior executives; our loose understanding of office hours. Many of our coworkers ultimately begin to believe that we are haphazard workers and that everything you need to know about Millennials at work can be had from any Girls episode. I am here to tell you otherwise: Millennials are incredibly dedicated workers—many of us placing work before our relationships and lives outside of work. Here are a few myths about …

Millennials in the Workplace – True or FalseRead More

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Hey JCP: We Millennials Will Demand Fair and Square

By Grace Ehlers   |   April 11, 2013

Ron Johnson’s highly publicized tenure at JC Penney has ended, and perhaps with it, the potential of JC Penney to compete for the middle class Millennial. Sure, they may regain the customers they lost by reinstating the deals-centric retailing of Myron Ullman, but the customer base that JC Penney took losses to acquire, short of their $1 billion loss in 2012, is the lost customer base of JC Penney -- the middle class Millennial, from the young family segment all the way to the senior in high school. Older Millennials will tell you they …

Hey JCP: We Millennials Will Demand Fair and SquareRead More

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What Your Intern is Really Thinking

By Grace Ehlers   |   March 18, 2013

I’m here to set the record straight about the Millennial work ethic, by giving you a little insight into the world of internships. They have become the popular alternative to entry-level positions, and businesses have convinced my generation that this is an acceptable way to start a career. If you don’t continue on to graduate school (hoping that the job market will open up when you get that Masters), many of us find ourselves in a job black hole where we can’t practice what we’ve learned, and at the very least, pay back our student loans on …

What Your Intern is Really ThinkingRead More

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