In a first part, the author describes the crisis undergone by the press magazines and pinpoints the advantages of the digital fashion media. In a second part, he reveals the strategies and experiences carried out by the increasing number of social media network. And in a last part, he analyses the functioning of the most innovative online media: fashion films.
The Changing Shape of The Fashion Media Industry.
This article shows that the industry of fashion magazines is fading away due to two main factors. The first one is the economic recession. Most fashion titles during the year 2009 had experienced a decline in the number of copy sold. Such as Vogue, the most read commercial magazines, which passed from 416,000 to 353,167 single sold on newsstand between 2008 and 2009. Besides, while this newsstand figures shows that magazines sales decreased the number of e-readers increased due to more affordable and available online information to consumers. However, fashion magazines are still subject to cost-cutting because “the sale of online ad space simply doesn't generate enough income to cover cost”.
Indeed, the recession put the online fashion media in a stronger position thanks to Internet which deliver a large amount of information, instantly and usually free. The author give a critical point of view, on the fact that fashion magazines have been overtaken by events because they didn’t take advantage of the situation from the beginning: as “the demand is there. Indeed, people are consuming more content than ever”. Since many years, there is free contents available online and the author suggests that it should have been payable since the beginning.
The increasing use of Internet have disrupts the whole business, used to influenced people on what they think and what they will wear the next season, used to be the earlier publications on fashion shows. The way consumers consume the information and the way it is created has changed and fashion magazines have to adapt to this new landscape.
The Online Fashion Media Strategies
During 2009, more and more brands and designers are using social media network, which the main known are Facebook, Twitter and their websites to update fashion followers on their shows, their collections and what is going on in the industry. They have taken gradually, the role of print magazines “who will will never be the first to break any news” anymore. As the internet give the ability to have instantaneous information, many website such as and have specialized themselves on “realtime reports from fashion shows in Paris, London, New York and Milan”. These strategies have significant lower cost than print magazines, it keeps readers focused on fashion and allow them to be part of the industry. Indeed, press magazines, professionals, and fashion readers are updated nearly at the same time of the current fashion weeks and shows. Furthermore, the Internet allows them to know what is “behind the scenes of the fashion industry” because there is no control over the information given online. And other strategy developed by brands is to make fashion online media consumers to participate in project such as movies or advertising. The author reveals that brand who set up those initiatives with online social media such as SHOWstudio, boost increase the brand recognition such as “Alexander McQueen, Gareth Pugh and Kate Moss”.
For their part fashion magazines, the author emphasized the fact that they are reduced to a secondary role, which consist in released what is already done and be more focused on sharing view about fashion, that is to say how the show went, what the music was, what was happening, what is hip, who are the celebrities, who is wearing that.
A Growing Trend: Online Fashion Films
The last article of the series deals with the ongoing and predominant medium in the online fashion development: the fashion films. Launched by SHOWstudio, online fashion films are live streaming movies available by consumers and worked as Youtube and Vimeo. In addition to be cost-effective and impressive, it allows publisher to know viewers point of view, which is the most movie watched by viewers. In this way, professionals know what fashion consumers are up to wear or not and can better determine the next trend in a quicker time than with fashion magazine
To conclude, fashion magazines are about to disappear as the economic recession reveals cheaper way to get information for fashion followers. The development of digital strategies such as social media network, blogging and online project, impact on the way consumer perceive the brand. However it makes luxury brand and the fashion industry transparent to consumer and the exclusive nature which was usually defended disappear.
With the growth of Internet, fashion films make emanate an emotion at a particular moment. To my point of view today fashion is more about communication than a style or new trends because fashion consumers are more observers and judges than with prints magazines, on which information on where to buy and at which prices was released. It shows that consumers are not followers anymore but more the one who influence fashion and all the industry.
American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity
“American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity” is the title of the exhibition held in New York, from May 5th, 2010 to August 15th, 2010, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art had been organized by the clothing brand GAP.
"For the American woman, physical and fashionable appearance became a primary vehicle through which she expressed social, political, economic, and even sexual emancipation and emerged as a spirited symbol of progress, modernity, and ultimately, Americanism,". The exhibition started with this citation as it aimed at demonstrating how fashion has been a key for the emancipation of women in America. The exhibition showed collections from the 1890s to the 1940s in several rooms compound of costume collections, documentary films and photographs.
Behind, Charles Frederic Worth dresses, the heiress, the Gibson girl, the Bohemian, the suffragist, the patriot, the flapper and the screen siren of Hollywood, presented in six different rooms, the exhibition which provided a source of information, occurred in a time that cultural diversity of a new generation of designers has widened American styles.
A source of information
“American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity” is one of the numerous events held in New York, in strategic venue such as the Brooklyn Museum, the Fashion Institute of technology and the Parson’s School. Exhibitions, seminars, trade shows, lectures and panel discussions brighten up the American fashion industry during all the year. Besides, fashion associations such as Fashion Footwear Association of New York, the American Apparel & Footwear association and the District garment, and specialized American fashion magazine such as WWD (Women’s Wear Daily), and WGSD provide a great source of information for fashion businesses and students. In my point of view, as the domestic fashion industry is declining because of growing competition from foreign countries, the United States specialized itself in commercial expertise and gathered professional around panel and seminars to evaluate opportunities in the domestic market and outside. As a piece of evidence, the number of trade shows inviting European and Asian manufacturers had grown in number over the past two years.
Famous People and Fashion
The exhibition presented attractive asset to appeal visitors as celebrities have participated to the event. Sarah Jessica Parker, the Sex and the City movie star, narrated the audio tour. Furthermore, the opening of the exhibition has been celebrated with actors, celebrities and designers like Oscar de la Renta, a well known designer in New York and Oprah Winfrey, an actress. The presence of famous people in fashion seems very important. Even in the business area, singers and actors established partnerships with well-known brands/ designers such as Madonna with Dolce & Gabanna or Lindsay Lohan at Ungaro or co-brand a collection like Catherine Malandrino and the singer Mary J. Blige. According to fashion companies, it enable them to reach more people and have instant brand recognition because celebrities provide them potential shoppers that identifies themselves to the star. There are also a number of celebrities who launched their collection such as Victoria Beckham, the twins Olsen, Gwen Stefani. For them it is easier to reach people ad they have already fan who follow them.
New York: An opportunity for young designers.
In the last part of the exhibition, modern American woman of the 20th century was shown in a 3D movie with pieces from contemporary designers. It is a way to show that the United States present opportunities for young designers to launch their collection with a wide array of cultural inspiration. Indeed designers are coming from all over the world to New York, to launch their first collection. For example, Wes Gordon, a British designer has made his collection entirely in New York City through a network of factories, patternmakers and others specialist he has assembled through industry friends and contacts. These freelancers take advantage of the New York industry that faces a competition from Asian and African countries and for small designers, like W. Gordon, it is cheaper to produce a small collection than overseas and easier to make sure that everything is done right.
Furthermore, specialty stores like PaylessShoes, Macy’s, Saks, Wal-mart are ready to sell those young designers’ collection, as it present a bilateral advantage. Stores attracted middle class consumer that want to wear designer brand and young designer acquire the prestige they seek and reach a large size of the American market.
By the “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity”, supported by famous people, institutions wanted to show that New York is a well established as fashion capital and despite of the crisis they still have an international presence. It reveals the US manufacturers and retailers’ concern on overseas competition. Actually, there is a constant competition in fashion among designers, countries because today, fashion styles, influenced from the past, are melted and people no longer follow what they see, but select and buy what they like.
For that purpose, The Town Hall want to make sure that New York remains the nation’s and the world’s center for the rapidly changing sector. They launched initiatives named “Fashion NYC 2020”, in January 2010, on the area of technology, tourism, the organization of a fashion show for the general public, on how catch prospective trends better and schedule a day with no-sales-tax for September 2010.
The Future of Denim
WGSN, a company specializes in style and trend forecasting and Parsons The New School for Design hosted an industry panel event focused on the American and global denim market on June 17th, 2010 which took place at The New School’s Tishman Auditorium, in New York . The event was introduced by Claire Hamilton, editor and journalist for WGSN , who interviewed during an hour panelists including Emily Current and Meritt Elliott, fashion stylists, brands consultants, Meisha Jones, a denim buyer for Barneys (department stores) and Johnny Diamandis, a faculty member at the School of Fashion at Parsons.
The necessity of this event is justified by the fact that even during the time of recession, the denim industry is showing a significant growth. Actually the denim is viewed as a wardrobe staple due to its durability by women, which lead manufacturers to develop product of higher quality to respond to the luxury market.
The issues tackled during the discussion included the upcoming denim trends, the strategies adopted for capturing consumers in an already saturated denim market, the affect of global competition on price and marketing and the emerging technology innovations.
The upcoming denim trends
According to Meisha Jones, buyers are gathering inspiration from vintage, they are also being inspired by the trends of the 70’s such as the patterns that were used in that century as well as the military trends . Besides on women’s Johnny Diamandis pinpointed the success of the denim legging (or jegging) which has been the most sold over the last year, and the will for the industry to invest in R&D in stretch fibers, used for this kind of denim because according to consumers, “it is comfortable, fashionable and above all cheaper”. On menswear, consumers are more driven by quality than the trend. The main conclusion is that there are no key trends because there are so many different of them and new styles are created every year.
The price point for a jean during the recession was between $100 and $200, and retailers such as Barneys forecast a pre-recession price fixed at $250 and up.
The strategies adopted for capturing consumers
The main strategy adopt by the industry is the branding strategy which consists in building a strong brand identity with a famous designer behind the brand. But in a reality, it is a “ghost designer” which helps to create mystery and make up a story.
In order to attract consumers, the opening of jeans specialized store increase for men. The menswear segment is a very lucrative market has customers need a specific look for a specific time. For example, a denim jean for special occasion, a baggy jean for leisure time and a traditional one for work. Besides, more and more customization events are organized in stores, which allow customers to add their personal contribution. The events are promoted online via social media network such as Facebook and Twitter. It enables designers to catch up customer’s point of view and develop new jeans patterns and designs.
The affect of global competition on price and marketing
During the economy many designers priced downward their products. According to Claire Hamilton, in her introduction, she mentioned the fact that U.S. sales of jeans rose 4.6% between March 2009 and March 2010 and that the average price fell 1.3 percent (to $23.18 from 23.49$). However, the future economy will affect the price point average. Actually, the price for a high quality at Barneys of men jeans is fixed between $130 and 140$ and the retailers forecast that it will goes until 240$ and up.
In tern of global competition, the US industry has to move their production toward Asian countries to lower cost and meet margins. The country, today with the lowest cost for denim production is Bangladesh. However, there is a domestic industry which has an emotional value because the jean was born in USA and professionals are looking for strategy to face the global competition.
The emerging technology and innovations
The denim industry defends more and more sustainable values. However how can they support sustainability meanwhile they trying to incorporate new technology? The development of technology involved the creation of software to improve the “right now industry”. That is to say the fast fashion system consists in creating, producing and supplying stores as faster as possible.
Besides, the denim is going more organic because companies are looking suppliers of organic cotton to product their jeans. But it raises a problem, that jeans cannot be 100% organic because the more the fabric is washed, the more it is damaged meanwhile a jeans is supposed to be durable.
Eco-Fashion: Going Green
Eco-Fashion: Going Green is an exhibition held in New York from May26 to November, 2010, at “The Fashion and Textile History Gallery”, the museum of the “Fashion Institute of Technology”. The exhibition was organized by Jennifer Farley and Colleen Hill, both designers.
Eco-Fashion: Going Green defines the term “eco-fashion” as the work of designers, aware of the increasing human impact on the environment, use, produce and promote sustainable and ethical products. It also shows how fashion (synonymous of short-term trends and obsolescence) can be associated to sustainable development. It intends to examine the fashion relationship with the environment in the past, present and future. Besides, the exhibition shows how “eco-fashion” is nowadays considered as a part of the environmentalist movement.
Designers and manufacturers who seek to implement environmentally friendly practices, faces obstacles. For there are a few number of suppliers who offers “eco-friendly” materials, although the cotton industry start to see some opportunities to produced more organic fiber. Besides, the fashion industry is a fast-turnaround environment constantly looking for efficiency to make profit which generally implies the quick availability of materials, the search of the lowest costs. Fashion is guided by seasonal cycle change, in which the old is replaced rapidly by the new. For the latest trend always appeal the customer, the desire of the designer to ignore the real conditions under which a garment is produced must be stronger.
In this context, it is hard to introduce the notion of sustainability as a fashion opportunity. Although eco-fashion has become an integral part of the industry, the concept remains paradoxical. The growth of “Fast fashion” has become adopted for a great deal of international brands, which would be difficult to change the way of consumption. These challenges will not be easily to happen. Today, designers encounter similar problems of technological development that date from the nineteenth century. Indeed, the Industrial Revolution at this time, which triggered the mechanization of textile manufacturing process, implemented a mass production of clothing and resulted to inexpensive products. This practice of manufacturing cheap and also disposable garment has now become a habit for the industry. Problems related to fashion production increases during the 20th century with the development of synthetic fibers and the increasing use of animal furs in the high fashion. The need for change in fashion production has been recognized with the emergence of fair trade.
Fair trade is a commercial partnership which aims at achieving greater fairness in international commerce. In the United States, it starts with garment workers’ unions formed in the 1950s, to promote fair wages and healthy work environments. Nowadays it drives companies to outsourcing production to third-world countries, where they provide decent pay to craftspeople and cooperatives and help for their growth. Besides, as environmental problems evolved, nowadays, investment in organic fabrics for high-quality and long-lasting goods seems obvious and presents a challenge for designers to provide “sustainable fashions” at affordable price.
To conclude, no matter how difficult it seems, that eco-fashion provide opportunities to the industry, this exhibition is optimistic about its future. To my point of view, it could be a solution for the survival of the high-end sector because it provides high quality and among consumers there is an increasing concern of environmental issue. Furthermore, the way the exhibition was presented “eco-fashion” seems to be opposed to “fast fashion” and would be called in the future “slow fashion”.
Besides, the striking aspect of this exhibition is the fact that it was held by a fashion school, the FIT (Fashion Institute of technology). It reveals the importance of promoting fashion in New York and of the marketing area, in order to be reliable by companies that will recruit prospective graduated students.
Part 2: RESULTS
- The cause of the changing shape of the fashion industry
Fashion is one of the most globalized sectors and the most apt for changes. Indeed, the textile industry possesses a long and complex chain in manufacturing industry. It is a heterogeneous industry, grouping several sub-sectors: raw material production, semi-finished products (threads, fabrics, knits) and finished products (clothing, furnishings, professional articles…) which businesses are gathered all over the world.
Consequently, the fashion industry represents an economic issue for the advantage (source of income) it provides to either rich or poor countries. In order to understand how the industry has evolved today, it would be interesting to pinpoint the economic background that affected the United States.
According to the analysis of fashion newspapers, it has been emphasized that two main economic events triggered a blow in the industry during these last two years and contributed to the drastic change of shape of fashion industry: the end of system of quotas and the economic crisis of 2008/2009.
- Consequences on the US market of the international trade in textile and clothing: the Agreement on Textile and Clothing (ATC) of 1/1/2005.
The international trade in textiles and clothing has undergone various forms of trade restrictions over the last 40 years, under the WTO or its predecessor, the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT). Those restrictions ended on January 1st, 2005, with the end of the Agreement on Textile and Clothing (ATC) that lifted the quantity restrictions for WTO members and lead to more global trade in clothing and textiles.
In 1974, about 40 nations became part of the Multi-fiber Arrangement, or MFA, which replaced the Long Term Agreement Regarding International Trade in Cotton Textiles (LTA) signed under GATT in 1962. Designed as a short term arrangement to quota-free trade for clothing and textiles, the MFA represented an extension to the LTA which was limited to wool and man-made fibers trade. However, concerns about the economic well-being of domestic clothing and textile manufacturers in both more industrialized countries (which includes the United States) and less industrialized countries made it difficult to negotiate an end to the MFA. As a result, the agreement was renegotiated four times over the next 20 years, continuing the history of trade restrictions on clothing and textiles. In 1995, the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) replaced the MFA, starting a 10-year process of eliminating quotas for international trade in clothing and textiles. The ATC gradually eliminated quantitative restrictions on clothing and textile trade. This gradual period would allow clothing and textile manufacturers to gear up for a more competitive global market after the total elimination for ATC.
Indeed, the end of the ATC emphasizes a new era because those 40 years agreement was originally designed to favor the United States and Western Europe in relation with the emerging competition from other countries such as China and India which have become leaders in the textile production thanks to the availability of low cost labor. For example, in 2003 the European Commission and the United Stated were accused to abuse of the use of anti-dumping measures by third world exporters of textiles and clothing of 18 countries. These developing countries who were already subject to quota restrictions, wanted to protect their industry, as the used protective policies has as effect, to discourage the north American and western European industry groups from using their services.
January 1st, 2005 marked the beginning of an increasing globalization of many industries and an international free trade which created a formidable competitiveness among countries and companies. In the fashion industry, the end of the ATC quota restrictions started to show its impact on the textile production, employment and the level of imports/exports.
- The Main Consequences on the US Market of Free Trade and Globalization (2005 - 2008).
To my point of view, the impact of the termination of the ATC has created a negative snow ball effect on the American economy which started with the quick growth of the global trade in clothing and textile: before the removal of the ATC, the sourcing of clothing was limited by the quota restrictions and now any industry are free to trade with any countries, depending only on the availability of raw materials and a country’s production capacity.
In this field the developing countries such as China, India, Bangladesh and Mexico are favored because of low-cost skilled workers which lead to a specialization in the production process and to the growth of the textile and clothing industries. As a consequence, the US retailers are more likely to deal with them as the production cost would be cheaper than a domestic one. That is the reason why the US had grown their imports while their exports started to decline. The US clothing and textile manufacturers had reduced their operations, closed down factories and dismissed workers due to an increased competition from China, which has become their first suppliers, India and others suppliers.
If the US manufacturing industry has been deeply affected by the post ATC-era, it continued to expand to the whole fashion industry, at the level of retailers and high fashion during the great economic downturn.
- The Consequences of the Economic Downturn of 2007-2009
From 2007 until 2009, the world faces an economic recession caused by the deregulation of financial markets. The economy is slow and therefore the fashion industry has not been spared by the crisis: retail sales dropped drastically as the consumer purchasing power decreased (caused by rising unemployment), many companies saw their turnover downward, suffered financial problems until they filed for bankruptcy for some of them.
Many of Haute Couture houses declared their negative condition and are looking for partnership with investors in order to help their finances; such as Christian Lacroix who was hoping for a takeover and finally was shrunk to laying off its employees and to licensing operations in order to pay back its debts, in May 2009.
Many big names such as Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, have been asked by retailers to reduce their prices, as the drop in sales was important. Fashion events and shows have been cancelled such as the Chicago fall 2009 fashion week and many designers had been reduced to show their collections in smaller venue, like their showroom because they could not afford the cost of a fashion week shows ($100,000 to $250,000 or more). Even on runways, the recession shows up with minimalist style and the use of cheap materials. What happen to the fashion industry?
The consumer behavior disrupts the fashion industry. As consumers wealth dropped during the crisis, the increased choice they face due to free trade and globalization, drive them to be price-oriented. Consumers are less loyal; they shop for the best deal, based on price, quality and brand awareness. Actually, the economic downturn put an end to the time that High Fashion dictated to consumers what to wear each season. As the purchasing power fall significantly, the clothing industry was constrained to lower their selling price, from retailers, to manufacturers or designers. Besides, the removal of quotas restrictions has opened the American market to a competition from Asian countries and eastern European countries were the low-cost manufacturing industry is well developed.
Whether at the street fashion level the situation is such, for high fashion houses, that have to offer high quality to their customers at a substantial price, the situation must be critical. Their survival seems to depend on their adaptation to the new economic landscape and the “new consumer”.
According to a WWD forum of professionals held on March 2010, the solution would be in global sourcing and the supply chain: “The Recession forced executives’ brands to reexamine their supply chains and find new efficiencies”. Indeed, brands and retailers are not about to negotiate prices with customers but have to comply with their purchasing power for fear to lose them, because they can shop around and find better deals. Consequently, during recession brands and retailers went back up to the supply chain to survive the downturn, negotiating prices with suppliers or starting to move their production toward countries with lower costs. Brands realized that the sourcing and supply chains present a challenge to growth.
- The reorganization of the industry: Challenges and Opportunities for 2010
Once the causes of the changing shape have been identified, it should be interesting to see what are the challenges and opportunities for the U.S. fashion industry. In the previous part, it has been enlightened that the economic events before 2010, leads professionals, companies, associations to focus on the best way to adapt consumers’ purchasing power and to the 2010 new economic landscape. In this part, we will focus on how and where professionals, companies and associations encounter new efficiencies for the U.S. fashion business.
- Global Sourcing and supply chain: Solution in Asian Countries
In the US marketplace, over the past ten years, the textile and apparel sourcing was concentrated in China because of low cost production. Cost has always been a primordial factor for brands’ and retails’ sourcing decisions to keep production expenses low and sell the production at the highest price possible in order to guarantee a large profit margin. However, as an increasing number of consumer are used to less and less expensive clothing, American companies faced low margins due to the pressure of the global competition. The main competition comes from China, which is today the first American supplier in the apparel industry.
Besides, in China, the well-developed industry in textile and apparel, added to a low-cost skilled manpower, has raised costs in Chinese production, labor, raw material and energy. It pushes US companies toward cheaper countries and regions that develop apparel and textile manufacturing like Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam and Pakistan which are the main suppliers for 2010. Besides, since August 2010, China has become the foremost power in the world. They get very competitive and by the same time Chinese wages increase: an advantage that can benefit to US High-end brands.
Actually, by one side, the Chinese manufacturing industry will specialized in quality and more sophisticated products as they have already started with the promotion of local designers, which will benefit to American high-end brands for their production and on the other side, as the growth in its gross domestic product (GDP) will drive US companies to expand their commercial activities toward Chinese consumers.
This analysis shows that economic factors affect decisions on sourcing, production and international growth. Because most apparel is produced outside the U.S., it is necessary to set up trade agreements with supplier’s Asian countries in order to have more control on the supply chain for clothing, increase margin and make profit. The new economic landscape would lead countries to bilateral agreements and therefore, need the state intervention.
- The Economy and government initiatives
With the end of the ATC quotas restrictions, the American foreign trade policy is going through more and more trade liberalization. During his 2008 electoral campaign, the president Obama evoked the goal of doubling U.S. exports through trade agreements, which would raise the number of jobs in the US.
- Free Trade Agreements
Indeed, the involvement in free trade agreements would help the U.S economy to grow and create opportunities for American companies. The year 2010 has seen foreign trade policy negotiations increase as the new economy landscape does not go in favor of the U.S. economy.
The United States had already established free trade agreements with 17 countries. Currently (2009 – 2010), the U.S. government is in negotiation for the TPP, a top priority for the government , and agreements related to Colombia, South Korean and Panama are in process to be approved by the Congress.
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The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership: also known as TPP, the United States are looking forward to join this regional trade between Singapore, Chile, New Zealand and Brunei Darussalam, which went into effect among those countries in 2006. The agreement would provide a support to US importers and help brands for international growth. Besides, Australia, Peru, Chile, Singapore, who have already separate trade with the U.S, and Vietnam, have shown their interest in joining the TPP.
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The pending trade pacts: the negotiations of the South Korean, Colombian and Panamas free trade agreements have been suspended because of disagreement concerning the refusal of South Korea to lift restrictions on U.S. auto and beef exports, tax policies in Panama and the repressive regime of Alvaro Uribe in Colombia.
These free trade agreements are the main priorities for the American government for the year 2010. Besides, as the U.S. are member of the WTO, they are, thus, engaged into the Doha Round negotiations since 2001. Contrary to free trade agreements that involved only the signatory countries, it remains the most effective agreement for the worldwide fashion industry because it is a multilateral agreement between all the WTO members. The Doha round aims at reducing trade barriers and prevent from antidumping measures in order “to expand global economic growth, development, and opportunity in goods and services”.
For the US fashion industry, the actual negotiations on foreign policy trade have a positive effect on financial problems that faces brands as there is an increasing collaboration with Asian countries and many luxury brands opt for an eastern expansion.
- The shrinking number of lobbyist
Facing this foreign trade policy, the desire to defend the domestic economy of the fashion lobbyist is contradictory. The president Obama has a liberal politic whereas the main associations and companies wants to protect their interest and promote the U.S. industry. Actually, in favor of U.S. manufacturers, the less agreements are signed the more retailers and apparel brands are dissuaded from moving their production toward competitors countries.
In the United States, the role of lobbyists is important as they try to influence legislation, usually for public interest. To reduce their influence, the government banned fashion lobbyists in September 2010, from serving on advisory boards and commissions as they shape policy that affect the whole country. Indeed, in order to carry out the foreign trade policy successfully, the government needs to get rid of the lobbyists that “stop the tide of free trade deals and can erode the competitiveness”.
- The complexity of fashion structure
The economic and political background, over the past ten years, has brought in 2010 new challenges and opportunities for the fashion US industry and have gradually “messed up” the structure of the fashion market. In my point of view, all the levels of fashion markets are in the same boat today, either Haute-Couture, ready to wear or street fashions as they had the same concern (recover from the past period of recession); still have the same opportunities and challenges for 2010 (establish sourcing operations in Asian countries) as many consumers nowadays, do not stick to any one level when buying their clothes.
As mentioned in the introduction, fashion is an area of constant change, because it reflects the time in which we live. “A reflection of the time and the lifestyle of the society from which and for which it is created”: a style or trend within a specific season approved by famous and common people (known as mass adoption). Indeed, fashion is not only about clothing but it involved also a wide array of products, ranging from apparel, accessories and cosmetics. It becomes increasingly diverse over the years with the addition of jewelers, watches, perfumes and mobile phones, which are mainly represented in the luxury sector. However, the complexity do not resides in those new categories but in the segments of fashion market differentiated by price and quality.
Fashion is sold across a range of price and quality levels. They go from the functional clothing that is unbranded and sold through markets, then the generic form of fashion clothing sold through supermarkets and retailers brands (known as the mass fashion market), to the high-end products sold through luxury and “Haute Couture” brands.
The difficulty to differentiate the levels of fashion resides also in the growth of the fast fashion phenomenon, born in Spain with the retailer brands “Zara” in 2000 and followed by other retailers such as Gap in the US market, Benetton in Italy and H&M in Germany (Jennyfer in France and New Look in England). By 2010, the fast fashion phenomenon has been adopted by most retailers’ brands as the demand of cheap products increased.
The complexity is such that between 2009 and 2010, it has made necessary for fashion businesses, especially luxury brands to develop strategies and to make evolve the concept of “Haute Couture”, in order to remain at the very top end of the scale and not being caught up by mass fashion market.
To sum up, nowadays there is no specific term for “high/luxury/designer end” because it is not easy to create well defined segments. The main distinction which could be done is that the luxury goods sector differs from the mass fashion market. Besides the label “Haute Couture” could be considered as the highest segments in the luxury brands.
- The Fashion System: Luxury brands versus Retailer’s brands (mass fashion market).
Due to the economic events that triggered the new economic landscape, solutions had been found in overseas sourcing to recover from the crisis by a global expansion for fashion businesses. The US retail sector and luxury brands have set up new strategies in 2010. This part aims at describing what is happening in 2010, in the US fashion market by analyzing the market dynamics and how luxury brands distance themselves from the mass fashion market.
- The need of market research for both luxury brands and fast fashion
To be successful in today’s global economy, companies must accurately assess consumers preferences, based on style testing and analyses of trends in retail stores. For that purpose, in the United States companies often subscribe to fashion forecasting services. Over the past two years, the U.S. industry focused on fashion research and marketing services, as there has been an increasing number of fair trade, apparel associations, and magazines exclusively dedicated to businesses. Fashion forecasting research has become strength and made the US industry distinguishable from its competitors of the European and Asian countries, more specialized in creativity and manufacturing respectively.
- US and International fashion fair trades
Fashion fair trades are essential for the business, as it help retailers and designers to analyze and develop upcoming trends. They also attend those events to select fabrics, threads and colors palette for their designs. Usually during this fashion fair trade, seminars and workshops are presented by professionals. They are fashion fair trades for textile, apparel and manufacturing. The most known in the United States and worldwide are the Première Vision trade shows. They were launched by a French company to promote internationally the European clothing and fabric industry. Now, the same company organized those events its shows all over the year, in Paris, New York, Moscow and Shangaï and has more as a purpose to build relationship between foreign and local professionals.
During the year 2010, more and more foreign suppliers (from Pakistan, Turkey, Bangladesh) came into these shows which show their willingness to build relationships with the US industry.
- Online fashion-style information companies
Online resources centers have been specialized in fashion business education, and offer its members technical training, sourcing, networking, marketing and consulting services. They transmit information to a network of clients instantly via their website. The most known is WGSN which provides “accurate trend forecasting, trend analysis, global fashion expertise, design and fashion guidance and constant information”. WGSN is a leading company in research data to the fashion industry.
- Trade publications: WWD and BOF
As the fashion marketplace has become more complex and more competitive, the need of information has increased. Newspapers have been created to fulfill professionals’ demand for national and international daily news. Like the online resources centers, the readership includes retailers, designers, manufacturer, marketers, financial analysts, executives, trend forecasters…. Those newspapers are Women’s Wear Daily, available in an online and paper format, and more focused on US fashion business than the Business of Fashion which is exclusively available online.
- Other initiatives for professionals
- Current high fashion couture and RTW collections live streaming runway shows available online, on luxury brands website or on www.style.com: are source of information for many moderated and mass-priced manufacturers, rather than forecasting future trends, it gives direction to them.
- New York and Los Angeles (the two US fashion centers) have also a well developed agenda of fashion exhibitions, seminars and workshops events in museums, fashion schools, city hall and other venues.
As an observation, all professionals, either designers, retailers, or manufacturers, without distinction have access to the same sources of information thanks to the increasing use of Internet. The increasing need of information, to remain efficient and successful, has created a new category of business with the development of the online fashion-style information companies. Besides, brands retailer have launched initiatives to be at the center of market research by getting involved in fashion events, seminars, and panel discussion like GAP who sponsored the Metropolitan museum exhibition, in May 2010, untitled “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity”. Those initiatives allow professionals to build relationships and be promoted through their network, participation on events, or subscription to online training and services but narrowed the distinction between the mass fashion market and the luxury brands.
- New dynamics for luxury brands
It has become difficult to luxury brands to differentiate themselves from brands retailers, as they no longer watch what is done on runways but tends to forecast the prospective trends, as high-end designers do, thanks to easier access to information and the growth of Internet. In addition, climatic issues and the system of fast fashion among retailer brands have given new dynamics to the fashion industry.
- New seasonal cycles: Fashion weeks and Fashion shows
Fashion had traditionally two main seasons: spring/summer and fall/winter. Each season designers and fashion houses show their collections during a fashion week at a major design centers or at local fashion shows. Their products are offered at high prices and in low quantity.
However, over the past two years the number of fashion weeks increased, with pre-collections (fall and spring), due to unpredictable weather. The addition of the pre-collections has eroded the traditional pattern of spring/summer and autumn/winter collections. As a result, today there are more and more fashion fairs and shows, all over the year which help designers to meet buyers more often and sell their collections and define better the next trends.
- Fast Fashion and Internet: Drawbacks
The erosion of traditional season has been subject to debate within the high-end designers, after the 2010 spring pre-collection because many brands retailers have taken advantage of the unpredictable weather as it enable them to better respond to the customer’s seasonal demand with micro seasonal collections which change monthly in many businesses (ZARA, Mango, Century 21…). Most of brands retailers have developed catalogues for each of their collections and sell online.
For their part, many fashion houses have decided to make their collections available in live streaming online which put retailers, customers, and the press at the same levels. Those live streaming deliver information earlier than competitive publications or get it earlier than what is happening on the Internet. On one hand, fashion houses are closer to its customers and they attract new market segments. But on the other hand, the availability of collections online has upset the entire high end system. Actually, collections are presented earlier (before the season), and they are directly promoted to consumers whereas they are not even available to buy. The time between shows and the delivery dates to store is too short and leads to the problem: how to deliver high-end clothing within a turnaround time whereas quality and craftsmanship is intrinsic to luxury goods?
- A challenge for the Fashion Press
Live streaming shows have complicated fashion magazines who are supposed to influence its readers on the following season trends. Generally, magazines used to show a spring/summer ready-to-wear collection in their February issues and a winter/fall collection in August and now those months matches the time when consumers buy their clothes. The addition of new seasonal cycle complicated the task and because they don’t work solely with luxury brands, they have to adapt themselves to the fast fashion system, which rule is to respond to consumer’s demand very quickly. It has made necessary for them to look for more collaboration with brands and revise their calendar.
- New off Schedule initiatives: Trunk Show, Runaway Show, and Showroom Invitation
Events organized by proper fashion houses and especially freelancers designers and bridal designers proliferated during the recession and have become essential and usual to maximize profits. These events include:
- Trunk shows: designers present and sell to their consistent customers some limited items edition items or products before it is made available to the public. It allows the connection between the designer, the products and the customer. Especially, younger customers who want to know where the product comes from and who designed them.
- Runaway shows invitations: it consists in delivering invitations to attend fashion weeks via mobile application to consumers. This new type of invitations has been launched by Marc Jacobs for the 2010 spring New York Fashion Week. It confirmed the trends that luxury brands are more and more available to public. Notion of transparency (cf WWD 01/26/2010)
- Private Showroom invitations: High end houses set up appointments with their customers and press to view their collections at the local showroom. The exclusive nature of this initiative allows high end houses to remain at the top end of the scale and reduce cost significantly instead of featuring on fashion shows. It was the idea of Givenchy who set up the trend with the first invitations during summer 2010.
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New strategies for Fashion Retailing: Distinction of both segments in 2010
The most significant changes in the industry have taken place in the fashion retailing, between the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010. Actually, after the crisis, which shrinks drastically budgets and reduced consumers’ purchasing power, the retail sector is developing new strategies as the sales started to rise again. Those strategies intervene in the reorganization of the industry and make clearer the distinction between the market segments. Generally the main goals for all retailers for the year 2010 remain the improvement in sales, the opening of stores abroad or at a national level and the growth of online activities.
- Department Stores and Celebrities or people of influence
Department stores, which are characterized by the selling of a wide variety of goods including clothes, furniture and general households good in dedicated space areas, have offered lowest-priced products in 2010. Indeed, as they have a large selling space over several floors, it allows them to widen their range of products and in addition helps expand companies target market, its especially appealing to the consumer who enjoys shopping around in a stored filled with an array of brands. It’s the strategy adopted by Macy’s, who decided to display a merchandize priced below the premium sector and above the junior one, in order to attract younger customers aged between 18 and 25 years old. Besides, Macy’s which is the largest department store, Macy’s has also tapped into licensing agreements with exclusive celebrities such as the forthcoming Material Girl junior line from Madonna and Sean John, the P. Diddy brand to attract more the target customers. Its main competitors Coach, Khol’s Corporation and others have used similar strategies. It allows them to meet margins and recover their corporate debt from the crisis.
- Asian Expansion for High end brands: Luxury retailing by wholesaling and licensing
For High end labels and luxury brands part, they have found opportunities through operations of wholesaling and licensing over Asian countries especially in China and Japan. Actually, customers of these countries are more fashion conscious: they consider brand heritage and know-how as a guarantee of quality and authenticity. Those brands have an Asian presence on main urban areas, which include capitals (Tokyo, Shangai, and Kuala Lumpur) and are hosted by local department stores, which look like more luxury complex with for example the installation of spa and wedding dress. Otherwise, another strategy which has been successful is the penetration of the US retailer Barneys by a joint-venture with Sumitomo Corporation. In return, this Japanese retailer has a licensing agreement with Barneys in the US to use Barneys New York name for its store.
In China, the market is all the more attractive for high end labels such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci Group, Chanel, Lanvin and Christian Dior and others, thanks to a huge population and rising wealth. Furthermore, as an emerging middle class of young consumers aged between 18 and 28 years old look for lower price and may not be able to afford high-end brands, the group Levi Strauss has created a new brand. The denim brand has decided to respond to young customers need with the development of wholesale departments within the Hermès International Chinese headquarters, which is creating, manufacturing and will sell a collection of clothing, accessories using Chinese raw materials and craftsmanship.
- Mass market fashion: off-price and value retailers
In 2010, the role of value and off-price retailers has evolved significantly. Off-price retailers used to offer merchandise of five years behind at a minimal service and at low prices or products from unknown designers in order to launch them. At the beginning of the year, initiatives has been taken to have more current merchandise for men and women and more popular branded merchandise including the withdrawal of private label and non-branded goods. In reality, off-price retailers, which includes K&G, TJ Maxx and Marshalls, Ross Stores have build their reputations on selling brands names (such as Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein) at discount prices. It helped unknown private labels to be sold at the same price as the big brands.
Among value retailers, the opportunities showed up in men’s wear. The reason is a growing demand from consumer, especially younger men, who are looking for low-price made-to-measure clothing. That demand generated new businesses: between January and June 2010 My.Suit and Sartoriani have opened stores in New York. The made-to-measure suits now are offered by a growing number of retailers and vendors at moderate prices (between $300 and 900$) and in a fast turnaround time, usually within two weeks. Contrary to luxury brands and departments stores, they offer custom services at affordable prices. And although their products are manufactured in South America or Asia, they are guaranteed of high quality. Besides, online mass market custom suit stores have been initiated by Indochine.com, in 2007.
Part 3: Analysis
Throughout the investigation and the results gathered during these five month in the United States, I have been able to gain more knowledge on the fashion industry, from the initial stage of designing, to manufacturing and retailing, in addition I will also identify the political, economic, social and technological factors that affect the market. This third part aims at giving my point of view on what is going on with the high end brands in the United States, by pinpointing the new key factors for their success and finally giving a description of the new shape of the luxury sector.
- The power of internet.
Internet has fueled opportunities for high end brands to extend their sales and the emergence of new business to get closer to fashion consumers. Even though, the high end brands need of a digital presence (with an official website and online retailing), the development of digital marketing strategies has reduced the role of the designer, supposed to be the conductor of its creation.
- E-Commerce
Whether E-commerce is compatible with high-end customers with the organization of online private sales, they represent a small part of the online percentage sales. Those private sales lured more lower-scales customers which include the “fashionista” and the one motivated to find the best deals and anxious to wear luxury brands.
Besides, selling luxury goods online, do not provide the same pleasure of shopping around. It deprives people to enjoy beautiful stores, because fashion is not only about clothing. It is also the feeling of luxury, where you shop, the way goods are packaged for example if they are beautifully wrapped and the original have to be seen and touched in its official stores.
With online retailing, the high-end sector loses some of its authenticity, because internet is swarming with counterfeiters’ sellers and websites. Most often, the origin of the goods and how the suppliers get it is unknown. The off schedule initiatives launched by designers such as trunk shows establish a trust confidence relationship between the designer and the consumer which set up the trend in the industry for more transparency.
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Democratization of Fashion: Social Media Network
Indeed, the use of social media-network has made fashion houses loose the level of confidentiality they used to have. They are lea to interact with fashion followers, who evaluated, give their point of view, or vote for the best style or trends. Consumers’ ratings are analyzed by brands and will influence the next trends. The role of the designer today is to create something from fan’s point of view. Fashion has become a lucrative business, where competition drive top tier brands to be always on the lookout for innovation and newness and has put aside or moved instead the artistic dimension from runway shows to the production of fashion films.
- Asian expansion: the creation of brands dedicated to Asian customers
It is getting tougher for top-tier brands to combat lower-priced retailers, because they are offering a similar services. Besides, the growing global competition which triggered a decreasing pricing power, has limited gains in the fashion business. That is the reason why it has been made necessary for European luxury brands to move towards Asia where the economy is growing and consumers’ wealth rising. US high-end brands seem to gear up another strategy by the creation of a lower-scale brand in Asian markets which will expand from Asia and tackle the European countries (such as Levi Strauss) or seek innovative deals to gain market share. However, the US high end sector is more focused to promote the “made in USA” and develop innovations and new technologies.
- A new shape for the luxury goods sector
With the success of social media network, mostly used by young followers aged between 18 and 28years old, the potential customers of high fashion brands have changed. Nowadays, luxury goods appeal younger customers who use internet as a way to communicate with brands.
Besides the menswear market has find itself growing rapidly over the years due to men being more fashion conscious. Designer’s who were only specializing in women’s wear are looking forward to develop line for men. These opportunity show a change in the way fashion is seen. Actually, during a long time fashion was considered as an instrument for the emancipation of women because it has generated professions and contributed to the increasing number of business women today.
Today history, heritage and craftsmanship are the main key success for high end brands. With the advent of the era of fashion movies and social media network, added to the climatic change which triggered the erosion of season within the fashion industry, fashion is already described as “timeless” by professionals. According to me, fashion will be more about communicating values to younger generation and deliver a message to get followers environmentally-conscious.
- A new direction for High fashion labels: Fashion ethical versus Fast Fashion
The growing environmental concern gathered by political, industrials and consumers has impacted on the worldwide fashion industry. Fashion and ethics have long been considered as incompatible. In reality, over the years the fashion has been gradually associated to the sustainable development and fair trade.
Constrained to more transparency, due to heavy criticism within the industry concerning labor conditions and environmental destructive practice on the clothing production, high-end brands, more than the mass fashion market, will have the role of achieving greatest fairness in the international trade. However, the struggle is far from being over. During the beginning of the year 2010, fashion companies were more concerned about recovering from the recession and making a profit by an expansion through China, Japan and Malaysia mainly, putting aside trades with African and South American countries. However the existing problems in these countries which include political instability, corruption and a lack of infrastructure drive back the willing industrialized countries to invest.
High fashion might move forward more fashion ethical trade to support craftsmanship all over the world and defend the environmental respect through the use of organic products. Because collections have become timeless, a new trend might appear “slow fashion” for high-end brands opposed to the “fast fashion” industry.
APPENDIX
September 11, 2009
High Fashion Faces a Redefining Moment
By
The fabric in the hands of , one of ’s favorite designers, is exquisite. An Italian jacquard, woven from yarns of eight different colors, it costs $100 a yard. A dress that Mr. Panichgul plans to make from the cloth for his runway show next week will cost $2,000.
He lets it fall away. It troubles Mr. Panichgul that as much as people love beautiful clothes, they do not understand why they cost so much. “It’s becoming a losing battle,” he said.
Designer fashion — the creative wellspring of the American apparel industry, the engine of style magazines, the stuff of plain old dreams — is experiencing a serious case of the blues. As another show season rolls out across the city, against the chilliest retail climate in years, many believe this is not merely a difficult moment for high-end fashion but a defining one as well.
Here is the reality: More and more people shop at H & M and other purveyors of cheap chic. Factories offering fine craftsmanship in Italy and New York are closing as business moves to China. Consumers do not see longevity in the clothes they buy. “I think the true designer business is in trouble, no question about it,” said a senior buying executive at Macy’s, declining to speak on the record because of the company’s policies.
With shoppers afraid to spend, department stores cut orders for fall goods by 30 percent. For next spring — the collections being shown during through Sept. 17 — little improvement is seen.
“In my 40 years in fashion, I’ve never seen women scared to shop — at all price levels,” said Vera Wang, who sells $1,000 dresses at stores like Bergdorf Goodman and also has a low-priced line at Kohl’s.
Retailers have pressured designers like Ms. Wang to lower their prices. Anyone walking through an empty store in recent months could see why this was necessary. On Tuesday, Neiman Marcus reported a $668 million loss for the year. The luxury chain said the latest quarterly sales at stores open at least a year fell 23 percent from the period a year ago. Saks posted a 16 percent drop. On Thursday, the industry tried to excite people with after-hours shopping at stores around the city, called Fashion’s Night Out.
Makers of high-end fashion wonder how far they can drop prices without diminishing their prestige, or cutting corners that might compromise their creativity.
Ms. Wang said she cut prices for her resort collection this year by 40 percent, but was told by some stores that those $600 to $800 dresses were maybe too low for a designer brand.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Ms. Wang said, referring to the future of prestigious labels. “It’s going to be a world of crepe de Chine.”
Although designer fashion accounts for only a small portion of the $191 billion apparel industry in the United States, and many consumers would not mourn the disappearance of $2,000 dresses from the racks, the creativity of runway collections inspires looks in the mass market and sets trends that entice shoppers back into stores season after season, fueling a vast segment of the economy.
In the 40 years since modern ready-to-wear came into existence in Europe and America, and made household names of Ralph, Calvin and Donna, designers have enjoyed enormous respect and prosperity. However, in the past few years, they have lost some face with consumers. Their clothes became exotically pricey as they courted celebrities and did quick-and-dirty deals with makers of fast fashion.
This week the situation reached a nadir of sorts when the Paris house Emanuel Ungaro — once the pride and joy of the Upper East Side — announced that it had hired as its artistic adviser.
Another impact of -driven designing is a retreat to more predictable styles, a repetition of the safe looks that sold well in previous seasons. The designer , whose labels generate about $500 million in sales, is focusing on dresses, animal prints and leggings and slim pants worn with tunics.
“Fashion has to be new and wearable and there has to be a need to it,” he said. Mr. Tahari has cut prices by 30 percent and closed a handbag factory he had in Italy to move that production to China.
Even , the very emblem of high-end New York design, known for $4,000 and $5,000 dresses and suits, plans to offer a $1,500 dress in his spring line to meet retailers’ demands.
And although he recently bought a local garment factory that had planned to close, to help maintain his label’s craft standards, he has also sought out less expensive suppliers in Asia and Eastern Europe.
In his Seventh Avenue studio, Mr. de la Renta pointed to a sleeveless black dress with two knitted, frilly panels. The panels, done in Romania and combined with an Italian wool, will help keep the price of the dress down to $2,500. And Mr. de la Renta likes a silk faille that he gets from a mill in South Korea. Aside from the price — it costs a third of what Italian faille does — he likes the look.
European houses, with their savoir-faire and deep pockets — thanks to leather goods and perfume sales — may hold a creative edge over American counterparts that will matter in the marketplace. Stores insist that women, while choosier now and prone to mixing styles, can’t part with quality altogether.
“There are still customers who want that workmanship,” Ann Stordahl, the general merchandise manager at Neiman’s, said. “There are just fewer of them than there were.”
But there’s a paradox in all this, a slight slub in the fabric. Ultimately, what distinguishes high-end fashion is an appreciation for the small differences: in the fit, the fabric. This is a designer’s creative toolbox. Remove a tool, and he has less with which to do his job.
, a young designer in New York, specializes in ruched georgette dresses, priced around $2,000, which are made in France. Recently, he asked his factory there if it might simplify the ruching process to lower costs. The factory refused.
“They said they would be ashamed to produce a garment that way,” Mr. Altuzarra recalled.
Then he took a sample to a New York City factory to see if it might produce garments for him. “They looked at the sample and passed it around the factory and 15 minutes later said, ‘We can’t do it,’ ” Mr. Altuzarra said. “It was technically impossible for them to do it.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: September 21, 2009
An article on Sept. 11 about cost-cutting methods used by clothing designers included an incorrect statement by Oscar de la Renta about the source of silk faille used by Prada. While Mr. de la Renta said he uses faille from South Korea, Prada says it buys silk only from Italian mills and has not been using the South Korean fabric.
High-Fashion Designers Ripped By Recession
September 11, 2009
By Frank James
I'll say right off the bat, I'm not one of those people who lives for Fashion Week in New York. If anything, I'm fashion weak.
But that doesn't mean I couldn't appreciate a about the impact the recession is having on high-end fashion designers.
The decision by consumers to forgo many purchases, especially of goods not considered necessities, is hurting the fashion business as women opt for low-end dresses, when they purchase clothing at all.
An excerpt:
Here is the reality: More and more people shop at H & M and other purveyors of cheap chic. Factories offering fine craftsmanship in Italy and New York are closing as business moves to China. Consumers do not see longevity in the clothes they buy. "I think the true designer business is in trouble, no question about it," said a senior buying executive at Macy's, declining to speak on the record because of the company's policies.
With shoppers afraid to spend, department stores cut orders for fall goods by 30 percent. For next spring -- the collections being shown during New York Fashion Week through Sept. 17 -- little improvement is seen.
"In my 40 years in fashion, I've never seen women scared to shop -- at all price levels," said Vera Wang, who sells $1,000 dresses at stores like Bergdorf Goodman and also has a low-priced line at Kohl's
For me, the most intriguing quote was this:
"I don't know what's going to happen," Ms. Wang said, referring to the future of prestigious labels. "It's going to be a world of crepe de Chine."
I had no idea what that meant although, given the context, I inferred a world of crepe de Chine probably wasn't a good thing. It sounds like she thinks the world is going to hell in a crepe de Chine-lined handbasket.
Anyway, I had to look up crepe de Chine since the New York Times didn't bother to explain it and learned, according to the , that it is:
(French: "crepe of China"), light and fine plainwoven dress fabric produced either with all-silk warp and weft or else with a silk warp and hard-spun worsted weft. A crepe de Chine texture has a slightly crepe character, a feature produced by the use of weft, or filling, yarns spun with the twist running in reverse directions and known as right-hand and left-hand twist, respectively. During weaving, the picks of filling are inserted in the order of "two-and-two" (i.e., with two picks of weft with a right-hand twist and two picks with a left-hand twist).
I don't know my warp from my weft, but this stuff doesn't actually sound that bad to me. But, again, I already admitted to having virtually no fashion credentials
SPECIAL REPORT
From Couture -- to Conversation
By JESSICA MICHAULT
Published: November 16, 2009
The biggest buzz during the last round of fashion shows wasn’t about the trends for next summer, the amazing sets or even the celebrities. It was about the ways that social media — blogging, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the like — have, almost overnight, become an integral part of how fashion brands get their message to the public.
The shows during September and October were a first glimpse of what the elitist fashion world could soon become: a business where designers take their collections directly to customers, no longer filtered through fashion editors at glossy magazines and buyers at top stores.
Clients could view a collection live on the Internet and decide what they want to buy while giving instant feedback on blogs, Facebook and Twitter.
One company that harnessed the power of social media during the recent collections was the Italian brand Dolce & Gabbana. The designers, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, even moved some buyers out of their usual front row seats to give the spots to four fashion bloggers — Tommy Ton, Garance Doré, Scott Schuman and Bryan Yambao — and installed laptops so the writers could blog and tweet during the show.
“Blogs are very important for us,” Mr. Gabbana said. “We always keep them informed with our news and we always look them up because they represent a quick and spontaneous way to get fresh information.” The designers also posted video diaries on YouTube during the weeks before their signature show, partly to inform fans about the collection and partly to get pre-show feedback.
The show itself was shown live on the Dolce & Gabbana Web site and on Fashion TV, with cameras on the catwalk, backstage and the audience arrivals. When it was posted later on Dolce & Gabbana’s YouTube channel, it helped the channel rank as YouTube’s most viewed worldwide for the following 24 hours.
“The Web, for luxury brands, is not the future, but the present,” Mr. Dolce said.
Other fashion brands chose different ways to use social media: Yves Saint Laurent and Stella McCartney used their Twitter feeds. Louis Vuitton streamed its fashion show live. And the British designer Roland Mouret used 28 cameras to film his show and backstage activities so future online viewers could choose their own way to watch.
And, in a real example of the power of social media, a tweet from Lady Gaga caused so many people to click on the live streaming of Alexander McQueen’s show that the site’s servers crashed.
In the aftermath of the collections, brands like Gucci and Burberry have come up with some new ideas.
Gucci introduced its latest line of eyewear, Gucci Eyeweb, with a viral ad campaign. Its site, guccieyeweb.com, lets visitors upload their own photographs and then see the pictures displayed as if they were reflections in the various eyewear styles.
“We see this intiative as a tactical Web promotion,” said Patrizio di Marco, Gucci’s president. “It is a component in an integrated marketing plan for the launch of this new youth-oriented sunglass collection. Social networking was at the heart of the concept as today it is such an important activity for the target demographic.
“In terms of investment, the cost of building and maintaining the guccieyeweb site equates to just a handful of pages in a traditional media plan,” he added. “It is therefore an extremely efficient investment, given that it has global reach being Internet based.”
Burberry last week introduced “Art of the Trench,” what it calls an “online celebration” of the brand’s iconic trench coat. In addition to inviting users to upload their own images and to post comments, the site has sent Mr. Schuman, of The Sartorialist blog, around the world to photograph people in trench coats.
The variety of platforms shows just how large this new Web frontier is — and not everyone is taking the time to look before they leap. “There is a real ‘bandwagon effect’ going on,” says Uché Okonkwo, founder and executive director of Luxe Corp., a Paris-based consulting group. “People are getting really excited about social media without really asking themselves if there is any reason to really get excited.”
The rise of social networks echoes the introduction of e-commerce more than a decade ago — when many top brands felt pressured to jump in before they even had a strategy.
Some luxury brands shy away from the whole social media aspect of the Web because they like to control their brands, says Tomas Gonsorcik, strategy director of the social media consultancy agency Interaction London. “And social media works completely against that,” he says.
For this article, Mr. Gonsorcik’s agency polled some of the 760,120 fans registered on the Facebook site created by Louis Vuitton, which recently was named the most tech-savvy luxury brand in a study by New York University’s Stern Business School. It showed the site had real resonance with younger users but it had not changed older users’ view of the brand’s luxury image.
In fact, Mr. Gonsorcik says, the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is the over-40 age bracket and Vuitton’s presence actually could enhance their regard and feeling of familiarity with the brand.
But the safest bet for a luxury brand just starting to tap into social media is the blogosphere, Mr. Gonsorcik says. “Blogging has been around for over 10 years now, and today some of the owners of those domains and channels are highly educated in their field and work on journalistic levels,” he says. For brands, “it is a relationship that is easy to understand and build a partnership from.”
But even blogging has been affected by new applications like TweetDeck and Twitterfox, which can update Twitter feeds and Facebook pages simultaneously, or the Social Oomph application, which can preset the release time for posts or tweets — speeding up the social media cycle to a breakneck pace.
“Twitter might be the death of my blog,” Mr. Yambao says with a laugh, referring to his popular blog bryanboy.com. “The intensity has really shifted now, everything is so instantaneous that people are bored with collections even before they make it to the stores.
“I almost think that it’s time that we need to slow down.”
Bibliography
BOOKS
- AGINS, Teri, The end of fashion: the mass marketing of the clothing business, New York: William Morrow & Co., 1999.
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BURNS, Leslie Davis and BRYANT Nancy O., The business of fashion : designing, manufacturing, and marketing, New York: Fairchild Books, 2002.
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DIAMOND, Jay, Fashion apparel, accessories, & home furnishings, Upper Saddle River,New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.
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EASEY, Mike, Fashion marketing, Oxford ; Ames, Iowa: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
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HINES, Tony and BRUCE, Margaret, Fashion marketing : contemporary issues, Amsterdam ; Boston : Butterworth-Heinemann, 2007.
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JACKSON Tim and SHAW David, Mastering fashion marketing, Basingstoke [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
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CHING, Joséphine, State of global industry under spotlight, South China Morning Post, March 11,2009, p.8-9
- Women’s Wear Daily Publications
FEITELBERG, Rosemary, Celebs in Fashion: Try, Try Again, WWD, March 16,2009, p.8
CORCORAN, Cate T., Social Media: The New Front Row of Fashion, February 15, WWD, 2010, p.28
CASABONA, Lisa, The Next Frontier: Asia’s Rising Tigers, WWD, March 23, 2010, p.14
SECKLER, Valérie, Fashion’s Pricing Power Taking a Hit, WWD, March 3, 2010, p.10
REPORTS
- FREDERICK H. ABERBATHY, VOLPE, Anthony, and WEIL David, The Future of the Apparel and Textile Industries:Prospects and Choices for Public and Private under the direction of the Harvard Center for Textile and Apparel Research, December 2005
- HEURTEBISE, Catherine, Mémento de la mode éthique, Ministère de l’emploi de la Cohésion sociale et du logement, under the direction of Délégation Interministérielle à l'Innovation, à l'Expérimentation Sociale et à l'Economie Sociale (DIIESES) - SICOM., december 2006
- PANKAJ, Ghemawat and NENOJosé Luis, ZARA: Fast Fashion, Harvard Business School, april 1st, 2003
- TERNISIEN, Michel, CHANTOME,Gaële and DIGUET, Anne Françoise, LE COMMERCE ELECTRONIQUE INTERENTREPRISES : Son impact dans Le Secteur Textile – Habillement, under the direction of the Ministère de l'Economie, des Finances et de l'Industrie, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Décembre 2001
ONLINE RESSOURCESS
ONLINE NEWSPAPER
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AMED, Imran, “London Fashion Week :Digital Fashion Capital”, February 21, 2010, (page consulted on February 23, 2010)
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LANE, Bobby, “Model Behaviour: Tips For Fashion Industry”, September 21, 2009 (page consulted on March 7, 2010)
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PASCHAL, Jan, “NY designers get creative to battle recession”, February 11, 2009, (page consulted on March 7, 2010)
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VAKARIDIS, Mary, « Pourquoi H&M s’offre Karl Lagerfeld pour Noël », november 3, 2004, , (page consulted on July 5, 2010)
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“Decisive Times for Christian Lacroix”, July 27, 2009, (page consulted on December 2, 2009)
WEBSITES
Mike Easey, Fashion Marketing, Third Edition (Oxford: Wiley – Blackwell, 2009), p. xi
GARDO, Maria, “Alta costura a precios de ganga”, August, 28th, 2010, , www.lasprovincias.es
MARS, Amanda, “Ropa de lujo “Made in China””, December 27th, 2009, www.elpais.com
MICHAULT, Jessica, “Keeping Fast Fashion Fresh, and Profitable”, December, 15, 2009, www.elpais.com
KANSARA, Vikran Alexei, “The Future of Fashion Magazines”, July 6-8, 2009, www.businessoffashion.com
Estimation provided by an audit bureau of publication.
WWD, Tuesday, March 16, 2010, written by Nina Jones in London
WWD, Monday, January 11, 2010 by David Moin and Rosemary Feitelberg – Mayoral Game Plan for Fashion’s Future.
In October 2009, Women’s Wear Daily reported that consumers are « ready to go eco ».
Evan Clark and Ross Tucker, “Brands, Retailers Play Catch-up With Recovery”, Women’s Wear Daily (March 23rd, 2010), p.8.
http://www.ustr.gov/trade-agreements/wto-multilateral-affairs/wto-doha-negotiations
“Industry Responds to Lobbyist Ban”, Women’s Wear Daily(September 28th,2009), p.4
Leslie Davis Burns, Nancy O. Bryant, The Business of Fashion Designing, Manufacturing and Marketing (Fairchild Books: September 2002), p.201
Tim Jackson, David Shaw , Mastering fashion marketing, Third Edition (Hampshire: Palgrave Master Series, 2009), p.92
Leslie Davis Burns, Nancy O. Bryant, The Business of Fashion Designing, Manufacturing and Marketing (Fairchild Books: September 2002), p.198
HTTP://WWW.NYTIMES.COM/2009/11/17/FASHION/17IHTRSOCIAL.HTML?SCP=9&SQ=BRAND%20STRATEGY%20FASHION&ST=CSE
