How Premium Fashion Brands Are Maximizing Their Social Media ROI. Macala Wright Lee is the publisher of FashionablyMarketing.Me. Wright Lee is a retail consultant who specializes in marketing consulting for fashion, luxury and beauty brands. You can follower her on Twitter at @FashMarketing. Social media and digital technology have forever changed the retail industry. In 2011, brands and retailers have reached a tipping point, digital innovations have decentralized commerce, and real-time consumer demand for designer merchandise has forever changed retail production cycles. Many fashion brands, mocked for their inability to move with the web because of a fear of accessibility, are no longer fighting the flow. Through their embrace of social media and social commerce, fashion brands are now innovating and profiting from their online marketing strategies.
Luxury and premium brands are starting to lead the way for all retailers looking to connect with their customers and build online revenue channels. Fashion Brands and Social Commerce Macala Wright. The Brit Parade: Boden launches 'Icons' collection | News | Lifestyle | The Independent. Mail order clothing doesn’t enjoy the best reputation when it comes to competing in an increasingly sophisticated retail market, with sleek storefronts and even glossier websites all vying for our cash. Boden, however, is one retailer that has succeeded in keeping the catalogue cool, and its consistently loyal client base is sure to grow this season, thanks to a stylish new limited-edition collection.
Founded in 1991 by ex-Etonian Johnnie Boden, the brand is more commonly known for being the outfitter of choice for the middle classes: think Sloane Rangers and First Ladies (Michelle Obama and Samantha Cameron are both fans). But the success of the company is not something to be sniffed at, especially since its £280m in sales earned Mr Boden a place on The Sunday Times’ Rich List. With a retail offering that caters for all the family, the newest launch by the brand is Icons – a 17-piece womenswear collection inspired by British style. “We are in the process of reinvigorating our brand. Louis-vuittons-series-3-exhibition-unpacking-the-process-of-creative-director-nicolas-ghesquieres-autumnwinter-2015-collection-10500731.
Louis Vuitton doesn't do things by halves. This is the house, after all, that once built a replica steam-train for a 10-minute fashion show, at a purported cost of £5m. Other sets have included carousel horses and a shopping mall-worth of escalators by the contemporary artist Daniel Buren, he of the humbug-striped pillars in Paris's Palais Royal. How to justify the cost? Publicity, chérie: that train show was in 2012, and we're still talking about it. Louis Vuitton's latest extravagance, however, will last longer than 10 minutes. On Monday an exhibition opens in London (until 18 October). Vuitton has titled the exhibition "Series 3"; but rather more evocative is the suffix: "Past, Present, Future". It's interesting, but not unique. La Galerie showcases pieces from the Vuitton archives from the past two decades on mannequins. As the name suggests, it's the third such show – earlier ones debuted in Los Angeles and Tokyo before touring to other cities.
Can big brands catch up on sustainable fashion? | Guardian Sustainable Business. Imagine a pair of trousers you could throw on the compost. After years of use, they could decompose among the eggshells and tea bags to leave behind nothing but some fertile soil to help grow new raw materials. It takes the circular economy to a whole new level. This is the idea behind F-ABRIC, a range of materials developed by Swiss company Freitag.
Until recently, Freitag’s only line of business was making bags out of old truck tarpaulins. While natural fibres like cotton will compost over time, synthetic fibres like polyester won’t, and natural fibres are often blended with synthetic. Looking for sustainable workwear for its 150-strong workforce, Freitag’s owners were disappointed by the fabrics on offer, so they developed their own. The company now has a range of sustainably produced and compostable material made in Europe, from broken twill to make trousers, to a jersey fabric for t-shirts. Freitag is not the only company looking to microorganisms for inspiration. Is Luxury Branding Bad for Society? Surprise! Research shows exposure to luxury brands make us more selfish.New research, reported in The New York Times this week (and elsewhere earlier), corroborates what all of us driving Hondas have always told ourselves: that guy in the BMW actually is a jerk.
Well, at least he (and males were significantly worse than females) and other drivers of Porsche, Mercedes, etcetera are more like to blow through a pedestrian-prioritized crosswalk than non-luxury car drivers, according to this survey, which is summarized in the video below. We May Be Inherently Selfish, but Luxury Brands Make Us More SoSo, is this just a facet of my-wallet-is-bigger-than-your-wallet male psychology, or do luxury brands exacerbate our less socially positive and more self-aggrandizing tendencies? Harvard Study Says The Devil May Actually Wear PradaA 2009 study out of Harvard Business School offers these bracing insights So What’s A Luxury Brand to Do? Luxury brands can be their own worst enemy. Another beneficiary of consumers' lust for name-brand goods at a discount are traditional retailers, who are opening outlet shops to reach a broader swath of customers. Widely recognized as a leader in this area is Nordstrom, which operates 183 Rack outlet locations and counting.
The department store has repeatedly said that these stores serve as an entry point for people who don't yet shop at its full-price locations. On its August earnings call, Nordstrom said that last year, 1 million Rack customers started shopping at its full-line stores or website for the first time. Additionally, co-president Blake Nordstrom said the Rack business represents the retailer's biggest source of new customers, attracting around 4 million of them in 2014.
Though these figures alone could tempt other retailers to develop a similar strategy, Pam Danziger, founder of Unity Marketing, warned that luxury brands need to first think through the potential harm it could do to their brand equity. PETA Sends Victoria Beckham a Vegan "V"irkin Bag in Wake of Hermés Exposé. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants Victoria Beckham to reconsider her love of exotic skins. Fresh off its indictment of the appalling conditions maintained by some of Hermés’s crocodile- and alligator-skin suppliers, the animal-rights group has sent the British fashion designer/erstwhile Spice Girl/noted Birkin bag enthusiast a cruelty-free version of the coveted carryall to call her own. Crafted in the United States by Freedom of Animals, a sustainable label that has been referred to as the “Céline of vegan fashion,” the one-of-a-kind “V”irkin (the “V” stands for “vegan,” natch) features “mock croc” faux leather in a rich burgundy hue.
Gossip has it that Beckham owns at least 100 Birkins, the most basic of which starts at $10,500. The former Posh Spice, of course, is anything but basic. She’s said to own far spendier versions decked in pink ostrich and diamond-studded crocodile leathers. RELATED | PETA Sent the Duchess of Cambridge an Eco-Chic Birthday Gift. 5 Technology Trends Transforming the Fashion Industry - Fashion GPSFashion GPS. By Anish Singh, CTO, Fashion GPS The innovations taking place at the intersection of fashion and technology are profoundly amazing and transformative. In many respects, the fashion industry today bears little resemblance to that of a decade ago—and will change even more in the decade ahead. Legendary businessman Peter Drucker famously said, ”Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.” He’s right, which is why I’m not going to try to predict the future here.
I am, however, going to energize your imagination with five trends that will help create that unpredictable future—trends that are taking shape right now, that Fashion GPS is tracking closely, and with which all of us in the fashion industry will need to grapple in the years ahead. 1. Or, for another example, imagine fashions that seamlessly and invisibly incorporate biofeedback to support an individual’s health and wellness. 2. 4. 5. Fashion’s big brands follow the money to join the wearable tech revolution | Technology. We’ve all been there. You rush out of the house to catch the train to work, elbow your way into a seat and immediately reach for your smartphone. But it isn’t there.
Cue sense of panic as you contemplate a day (an hour!) Without being connected. But, in the future, as you look down in despair, you may suddenly realise that at the last minute you threw on your two-in-one ready-to-wear “smart” jacket with built-in phone and Twitter feed. It might sound like the stuff of sci-fi, but clothes that double up as smartphones aren’t as far away as you might think. From its studio in Shoreditch in east London, Rosella and her team have been fusing technology with clothing for a decade and have a reputation for coming up with some of the most innovative stuff. Britain – and London especially – has long been seen as a trendsetter in smart clothing. One big brand name that’s keen to talk about wearables is Ralph Lauren.
But why now? This London Fashion Week, We're Uniting the Realms of Fashion and Technology | Henry Holland. I cannot believe it is almost that time of the year again - London Fashion Week. With just four days to go until the big night - Saturday 19 September, when friends, family and the media will gather to support my spring summer collection - the office is beyond crazy. Everything kind of builds to a grand crescendo as we frantically get every item of clothing finished to perfection, keeping everything and everyone involved in check.
Little sleep, early starts, and lots of caffeine. So much more goes into a fashion show than just the amazing clothes and to call it "full-on" would be an understatement. There are the shoes, the jewellery, the hair, the make-up, the venue, the lighting, the music... it's like putting on a big production all at the same time as well as actually developing the collection! And as all of this preparation takes place, I obviously need to continue running my business. The fashion industry is high pressure and fast moving but nothing can be put on hold. 10 Influential Fashion Designers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of. It’s curious to wonder why some designer’s legacies are preserved and others fall to the wayside. Is it the lack of PR, no heir to the design house or were they just bad designers? While certain designers of the past are remembered today for their ingenuity or are attributed with the "invention" of a particular garment, such as Mary Quant and the miniskirt, scores of designers--like Redfern, Lucile or Mainbocher--who were widely influential in their time have seemingly been forgotten.
The task of resurrecting these legacies thus falls upon the fashion historian, so sit back for a mini fashion history lesson of 10 fashion designers you've probably never heard of but should definitely know. For more fashion history by Part Nouveau, click here. John Redfern - The Tailor Designer English designer John Redfern, operating predominately under the name John Redfern and Sons, was a widely influential designer in the late 19th century. Jacques Doucet - The Art Collector Designer.
Forbes Welcome. London Fashion Week 2015: From catwalk to High Street. 24 February 2015Last updated at 19:03 ET By Harriet Hall BBC News Inside London Fashion Week Twice a year, London's grand neoclassical Somerset House, welcomes a tumult of fashion designers and their models dressed in their finest gladrags. The courtyard becomes the centre of London Fashion Week - a far cry from the building's sober past as home to the Inland Revenue. This year sees the event's 61st year, during which more than 250 designers will showcase their collections for autumn and winter to a global audience.
For those outside the fashion industry, it can be difficult to appreciate why this week is so important. Indeed, watching the crowds teetering on vertiginous heels, heads topped with designer sunglasses, arms toting handbags and hands clutching smartphones, it is easy to understand why. Yet while it may look like a big party to outsiders, the week is a crucial one for the industry. Some catwalk fashions may seem outlandish or frivolous.... Trickle-down trends “Start Quote.