Fashion Consort News Bytes

Fashion by definition, is the style or styles worn by the majority of a population at any given time. In other words, whatever most people are wearing right now—a particular, color, pattern, cut or silhouette—is “in fashion,” “in style,” “a la mode.” 

Contrary to popular parlance then, fashion is more about fitting in than standing out. It emphasizes group identity, highlighting those groups who wield the most power, or social significance, in the moment. Fashion underscores and externalizes the cultural zeitgeist. And by recognizing what is “in fashion” companies are able to best engage their audience and make a profit.

It seems then that fashion companies should simply be keen observers of the present in order to ensure their ongoing viability. And yet, it’s not quite so simple in an industry where determining what to produce often begins two years before a product arrives. This requires companies then to be constantly ahead of the curve in terms of potential societal trends, in order to deliver appropriate styles. Experts in trend analysis help to facilitate this process—and have become highly sophisticated at mining data to do so--albeit still victim to global health pandemics and Mother Nature. But there is another interesting tool at play—and that is the role of marketing in selling a particular trend. It starts in the business-to-business space—mills selling brands what fabrics they determine will be “in style,” brands then selling retail buyers on the clothes made from these fabrics at trade shows or on the runway, and then retailers selling customers on these same looks. In short, it’s the fashion industry, at large, that sells society on what will be “in fashion.”

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Joshua Williams: Luxury brands are increasingly under stress to expand their market beyond their typical customer base. And in some cases, many brands have been effective, but in other cases, it's alienated the core customer. So, my question for you, Schanel, is can luxury brands retain their exclusivity, notwithstanding the consistency required around digital content distribution.

Schanel Bakkouche: Thank you for having me again. Social platforms characterized by their mass appeal, accessibility, and availability, contradict the very concept of luxury. Obviously, if we think exclusivity of brand, we can think of iconic items from renowned luxury brands; and not everyone owns them. This exclusivity helps luxury brands to maintain their stature: known by all, but paradoxically consumed by a few. 

I would mention a few points that are very important. First would be apply the personal touch and stay more authentic. Too often luxury brands will use one generic message. 

Then another point that it's very important is use consumer data. I think that customer data needs to be used to gain insight into what customer browse and add to their shopping cart, the offers that resonate with them and they respond to. By using signals such as purchasing behavior, interest, context, and location, luxury brands can make consumer feel that the communication are explicitly tailored to them, to receive personal attention, not to be addressed as a member of a broader audience. You know, this mindset can help luxury brands approach content and service in more meaningful ways. 

The other point would be experience. Obviously social media platforms are taking steps to embed the entire shopping journey from discovery to checkout. So, incorporating live streaming sales, integrated product catalog, and now even AR. So, the experience is very crucial point here again, to keep the exclusivity of luxury brands. 

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Welcome back Schanel. It's so nice to have you. What is content snacking? 

Schanel Bakkouche: Yes, of course. So, we all love snacks, right? So they can never compare to a lavish spread, but the instant gratification that snacks give is undeniable. It's the same with the way we consume content.

If we take today Twitter and I think Twitter is very good example, who would have thought, a few years ago, that this just 140 character medium of expression will change the way we communicate with each other. I feel like, the discipline of word limits imposed on Twitter user has saved us from rambling often found on the internet. And which actually made it even a better tool today and even a more relevant tool.

Joshua Williams: And you're absolutely right about Twitter in the sense that in many ways it's easier to consume. It comes in much more curated means. What does that mean for a luxury brand? How do they create strategies around content snacking, when usually their focus is on telling a much more lavish, as you said, story or narrative about their brand? 

Schanel Bakkouche: I mean, I would say that due to the fact that we are living in a time where visibility matters most, the flip side is that competition and growth within the luxury industry here is forcing brands to find new ways of developing creative brand awareness. I think this is where, like, you know, content snacking means a lot for brands, to develop their marketing strategy because they just need to communicate differently.

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On the surface, fashion collaborations might seem like an exciting way to generate new business and overall sales performance. Whether the collaboration is relatively obvious, such as Gucci and Adidas, or more surprising, such as Crocs and Balenciaga or Alexander McQueen and Target, they certainly create interest and engagement, typically in terms of generating new customers. And it’s relatively clear that in terms of luxury brands collaborating with more mass brands, the goal is to connect with the aspirational customer.

Dig below the surface, and the efficacy of these collaborations, and their ability to truly capture new customers and increase sales, is dubious at best, especially for the luxury brand. It’s not like the typical Target customer all of the sudden shopped at the McQueen boutique, paying $1000s more for an item that was under $100 at Target. In fact, for many brands, these high-profile collaborations often raise a bar that cannot be easily or consistently recreated—forcing luxury brands to chase after their business, which is hardly the modus operandi of luxury brands and their quest for exclusivity. In fact, often these collaborations are a signal that all is not well with a brand—and that without relying on the affinity or success of another more accessible brand—they are not meeting their numbers. 

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Hello, Schanel. It's so wonderful to have you. 

We're talking about content marketing and how it shifted over the past few years, specifically in the luxury space. Content marketing is a buzz word in the marketing world, but what does it actually mean? 

Schanel Bakkouche: First, thank you for having me.

Content marketing or brand related content, is which consumers in all case or luxury consumers, actually choose to engage. So it has a value for the audience first, whether entertainment, information, or other value; and the brands second. Content can live in marketing and media channels; [00:01:00]it's not a channel itself, I would say. Content can be a spoke or a hub. It can be distributed through media or part of a destination. Importantly content is a means of engagement with current and prospective customer and give the luxury brands it's own voice. 

Joshua Williams: Very interesting. So, what is the role then of content marketing for luxury brands specifically?

Schanel Bakkouche: For luxury brands, the chief value of content marketing lies in its ability to reel in, persuade and evangelize the most discerning audience in the language and elevated aesthetic that is particular to luxury. 

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Joshua Williams: Hello, Sass, welcome back. And who are we going to feature this month? 

Sass Brown: The IOU Project. 

Joshua Williams: Ah, the IOU Project. I know they're based in Madrid. Spain. Can you tell us a little bit about them and their founder? 

Sass Brown: Absolutely. The founder is Kevita Parmar. She works predominantly with hand loomed madras cotton out of India. If you're familiar with the madras cotton, it's quite distinct, they're often candy colored checks and they're quite different from weaver to weaver. Each one is quite unique. And so what she does, she works with locally grown cotton from that region that is then hand-woven. So we're talking about a fabric that has literally no carbon footprint to begin with. But moreover, he really honors the makers, whether it's the maker of the garment or the weaver of the fabric as a truly vital component of her value chain of the garment. And as equal in terms of standing as the designer or the customer.

So it's a very flat, democratic program or company, if you like. It's not hierarchical, where the designers at the top and the makers at the bottom. And so the website is fabulous. First of all, it's beautiful. It's very visually presented. And it features each of the garments, the makers of the garment. So you can dig into each garment and see who the weaver was. You can read a little bit about them. You can see who the maker was, the producer of the garment, the garment manufacturer, maybe watch a video. She specializes in small, little workshops in Portugal and Spain. And the fabric, as I said in India.

So it's very much about authorship and provenance and respect for all of the components that go into making the garment and giving a face and a voice to each of those people, who are normally so hidden from the customer. 

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Ask an average consumer what luxury fashion is, and they’ll likely respond with well-known brand names such as Gucci, Yves St. Laurent and Louis Vuitton. But what makes these brands luxury? Well, that question is a bit harder to answer and elicits a wider range of responses: quality, craftsmanship, high price, exclusive, made in France, made in Italy, heritage…and the list goes on. In fact, fashion luxury isn’t any one thing, and often lives more as a fluid concept in the abstract, than something that can be quantified or formalized. 

However, if we shift the context from adjective to noun, we find some additional clarity. A luxury is something that a customer doesn’t need, but chooses to buy nonetheless, to enjoy and find pleasure in. And while that may no longer be purchasing fine silver that requires polishing, or cashmere that necessitates brushing (especially when we don’t have a wait staff to do these things for us anymore), it certainly can be applied to purchasing clothing that we don’t need, but want. This might be purchasing a $20 black tee at Zara to add to an overflowing closet, or buying a $750 black Balenciaga logo tee-shirt simply because we can afford it. The latter is certainly not defined by its quality, craftsmanship, exclusivity, etc.—rather it’s brand name and high price. And thus, it stands out as something a bit different than our traditional understanding of luxury fashion. Perhaps a more apt term for it is mass luxury, or even fast luxury, more connected to its fast fashion counterpart in terms of mass production and marketing, than not. And it’s an approach that is gaining traction, the more digitized and globalized we’ve become, and the more growth traditional luxury brands seek, especially in Asia.

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Chanel’s recent announcement to precipitously inflate prices on their bags, and limit quantities customers can purchase, has hit the headlines, with some questions about how the luxury fashion industry continues to grow despite overall economic inflation. And in this case, considering the level of the price change, Chanel is not raising its prices to combat higher costs, but rather to become more exclusive, to break away from other luxury brands. 

Luxury brands have always had three clear levers in which to build exclusivity.

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Joshua Williams: Hello, Sass. Welcome back. Who are we featuring this month? 

Sass Brown: We're featuring Elvis and Kresse. 

Joshua Williams: Ah, the duo out of the UK who started with a very specific fabrication. Can you tell us a little bit about that? 

Sass Brown: They did indeed. They started with decommissioned fire hoses, so very particular resource that of course, much like military equipment gets decommissioned quite quickly, because you're talking about health and safety here. So you don't want to a fire hose with a hole in it or a worn patch, so they get decommissioned quite quickly and there's very hard-wearing resource material. They make a whole line of accessories; bags, everything from little small wallets, all the way up to a great big weekend bags and totes out of these seamed together, decommissioned fire hoses. 

And they have this fantastic sort of patina and wear on them from use. Of course, the whole story of where they came from and their function prior to being a bag. But they're really slick, beautiful bags and purses and wallets and totes that they make out of this material. They're really lovely. 

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Fashion education is ripe for change. As we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, it will require a much more flexible, multi-disciplinary, omni-channel approach, that is more in line with the shifts happening in the industry, especially in terms of digital tools and access. Institutions will need to rethink educational content and delivery to rebalance a liberal arts approach with more interdisciplinary vocational skills that are moored in a digital economy. And student tuition will need to be recalibrated to be more in line with post graduation expectations and salaries. 

Universities will need to continue to build their faculty base, bridging the gap between industry and the academy and facilitating more crossover between both. This will require higher paying jobs that are more in consort with industry pay in order to attract top talent. 

Businesses will need to incorporate more nuanced learning opportunities into their own employee offerings, rather than relying on external degree programs. This might include offering “bridge curricula” for post-graduates, partnering with universities to build curriculum and programming, rethinking internship programs and even offering paid apprenticeship programs. In turn, these efforts will help provide more opportunities for a company to teach hyper-focused skills as well as innovate. Studies also show that employees that have access to learning through their employers are most likely to stay at a company. 

For the full transcript, visit: FCNewsBytes.com

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