How Premium Fashion Brands Are Maximizing Their Social Media ROI 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. Fashion Brands and Social Commerce In order to understand just how far fashion has come in the past few years, I spoke with James Gardner , CEO of CreateTheGroup , a New York-based digital firm that has established itself as a leader and pioneer in the fashion and luxury retail segments. Online shopping is becoming a socially connected event. Fashion Brands Seek New Technologies Luxury Retailers Adopt Private Sale Site Models
'Nude' isn't the same for all women Photo: Handout Crayola changed the name of its 'flesh' crayon to 'peach' back in 1962 - but Google "lingerie" in 2014 and you'll find the name "nude" still overwhelmingly refers to light-peachy-beige. So a simple thing like wearing a white shirt to work isn't simple for a woman whose nude isn't "nude." Do you wear white, and know it'll show? Or a close-as-you-can-get beige or brown - and know it will still show? Nubian Skin, a new London-based lingerie/hosiery business that has just opened online, is creating quite the splash with its answer: four shades of lingerie and hosiery that range from a golden caramel to a deep brown with just a hint of rose. Maybe even cooler? Advertisement Other shades are Berry, the darkest, and Cafe au Lait, the lightest. Hassan told British website Black Ballad she had worked in investment banking and finance before launching this company, at age 30: "When wearing clothes, especially in a professional environment, a large proportion of women's tops are sheer.
British luxury goods market set to double The British luxury market is in rude health. In fact, it is predicted to practically double in size from 2013 – making it worth £51 to £57 billion by 2019. This intelligence comes as the result of a report conducted by Frontier Economics for British luxury trade group Walpole which has the UK's high-end and cultural industries growing at around 7.8%. The figures comprise those taken from a range of luxury brands across fashion, accessories, jewellery, timepieces, premium beauty, automobiles, wines and spirits – not least British luxury behemoths Burberry and Rolls-Royce. The last set of data recorded in 2013 had sales within these areas totalling £32.3 billion. This forecast is extremely positive news for the industry, especially in view of decreased demand for luxury goods in the Chinese market due to its economic slowdown, and comes notwithstanding the release of weak sales figures from Burberry.
Topshop Gets Called Out For Unrealistic Mannequin Body Standards By now, it seems as if most retailers have been involved in some sort of controversy. And while some have been because of tasteless graphics, or hypersexualized advertisements, one thing we continue to see over and over again—and frankly, we're tired of it—is the ridiculous body standards reinforced by the mannequins that model the clothing. Topshop, the popular British brand that boasts collaborations with stars like Gigi Hadid and Cara Delevingne, has come under fire after a shopper noticed that the store's mannequin had extremely thin legs. The mannequin was wearing the retailer's popular "Jamie" jeans, and the shopper, Laura Berry, voiced her concerns that the figure was not an accurate representation of the average female form. "Perhaps it's about time you became responsible for the impression you have on women and young girls and helped them feel good about themselves rather than impose these ridiculous standards," Berry wrote in a post on Topshop's Facebook page.
Luxe Strategy: Luxury Brands Using Social Media | WHY THIS WAY Louis Vuitton - Ad Campaign How Should Luxury Brands Engage in Social Media? This past week, Women’s Wear Daily released an extensive recap of the WWD Luxury Forum. The consensus among luxury professionals is that luxury brands and retailers need to build solid marketing foundations online and those foundations (based off of social media) should focus on building communities and keeping audiences engaged. Ogilvy Digital 360’s Rohit Bhargava and Forrester Research Analyst Jeremiah Owyang recently compiled better practice recommendations for luxury brands venturing into the social media arena. Can luxury retailers venture into social marketing without losing their prestige, aspirational values and sophistication? In order for luxury brands to distinguish themselves diluting their brand, Owyang suggests that luxury brands: 1. 2. My Thoughts: This is usually our first recommendation to clients: add social sharing buttons. 3. Fashism.com 4. 5.
Are Unpaid Internships Acceptable in Fashion? — The Fashion Law NEW YORK, United States — Forget fringe. Accepting an unpaid internship and then suing after its completion for unpaid wages and overtime compensation is the newest movement in fashion and, as it turns out, Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen’s award-winning brand, The Row, is right on trend. The 29-year-old twins, who took home their second Council of Fashion Designers of America Award this year, are the most recent designers to be sued in connection with an unpaid internship. According to plaintiff Shahista Lalani’s complaint, which was filed this month in New York state court, she worked for The Row for four months in 2012. Lalani claims that as the “head intern” she performed the same work as “some full-time employees,” such as photocopying, sewing, cleaning, and running personal errands, including carrying “like 50 pounds worth of trench coats” in 100-degree weather, without receiving compensation or college credit. Read more on Business of Fashion.
From Givenchy and Alexander Wang, Competing Visions of New York Photo On Sept. 11, as the sun set over the Hudson and bathed in silver and rose, Givenchy held a fashion show on Pier 26, on the far western edges of TriBeCa, in the shadows of the skyline. The decision, when first announced, seemed tone deaf. After all, fashion, especially very expensive fashion, with its implied frivolity and self-indulgence (and self-aggrandizement) is generally seen as occupying the opposite extreme from tragedy and sacrifice. To juxtapose the two was to invite public opprobrium. And yet, after an hour’s wait, and assorted celebrity entrances (Julia Roberts, Nicki Minaj, Kim and Kanye, Ciara, etc.), what ensued demonstrated, as gracefully as anything I have ever witnessed, the power of fashion to reflect history and shared experience; to weave it, literally, into the garments we all wear; and to find beauty in its future — six months hence, and beyond. Continue reading the main story Slide Show Continue reading the main story Ms. Mr. It wasn’t refined. Photo Ms. Mr.
Dress codes: can there be a productive relationship between politics and fashion? Is Margaret Atwood a feminist? That’s what I’m trying to work out during our lamentably brief time together squished around a table in the back of a promotional booth at a comics convention in California. Obviously, you might roll your eyes, Have you read The Handmaid’s Tale? Certainly among fourth wave feminists, many of whom, in the UK at least, studied the book as part of the National Curriculum at A-level, Atwood is lionised, especially on Twitter, where she enthusiastically interacts with her 1.27 million followers on a regular basis. But what many of them forget is that Atwood, who is now 76, grew up on the cusp between first and second wave feminism, a time when women were fighting for tangible goals such control over their reproductive rights rather than the right to publish nude selfies without criticism. “I, as a female person, don’t have any trouble reading Moby Dick. “Wonder Woman was read by everybody,” she continues. Angel Catbird is out in the UK on 8 September.