Master Fashion Strategy Application assigment
Janneke Dekker
Fashion equals fame of fame equals fashion Admission assignment for the master fashion strategy An essay by Janneke Dekker about my aspiration and ambition for a career in the fashion industry. And a personal view on changes in the fashion industry regarding the trend of celebrities fashion labels as a reference to the article of Suzy Menkens : RED CARPET BAGGERS.
You can no longer assume that a collection you see on the catwalk is the creation of a fashion designers. More and more celebrities are launching their own label. And not a label for printed tops, shirt and other merchandise. But a real fashion label. Are their labels a success because their founders are famous or do they actually are worthy to be labeled as fashion designers. So is this the road to success in the fashion industry and what’s the future for the fashion student willing and motivated to work in the fashion industry? Should you drop out of school so you can focus on becoming famous? Suzy Menkens, Fashion reporter and editor of the International Herald Tribune since 1988 published an article about the new trend of celebrities becoming a fashion designer started from celebrity endorsement. As a well know name in the fashion business she is wondering if she should set up her own “Suzy” clothing line. After all it seems she has all the tools. Sense of style, well establish name and in the know of how the business works. This is however where she can differentiate herself from other celebrities as they probably have hired people for the “know how” in business. But is this trend what Suzy speak of a new phenomenon? Fashion became to take shape as we know it when Isaac Singer invented his sewing machine and people where finally set free from their national costume. Around the same time Charles Worth, the man who invented
?
FASHION BRANDING
haute couture in Paris in the nineteenth century, understood the importance of linking celebrities to brands, even before this was recognized as an important marketing communications tool. To promote his fashion house La Maison Worth, he used a high society lady of the court fashions, Princess Von Metternich, wife of the then Austria’s ambassador of France and close friend of Napoleon’s wife Empress Eugenie. This celebrity’s patronage and connection with La Maison Worth contributed immensely to the success and status of this couture house as the most influential in the world at its time. So it seems that celebrity endorsement and fashion goes hand in hand with each other. Fashion has always been used to express ones identity and status. And the way we measure status in society has shifted from royals to other members in society. People who we see as the new royals. They are wealthy, gifted(sometimes) and we hear and talk about them all the time. And in some cases like U2 singer Bono( thanks to Facebook) they are even wealthier then some royals. The game of fame and the pursuit of popularity is something that is constantly changing but the concept is always been the same. Fashion designers, branders and managers will always try to tap in the current “zeitgeist” and celebrities play a huge role in contemporary culture. After all it is called popular music for a reason. So in three years I hope to find myself working in a fashion company which is like me, looking at contemporary culture to find inspiration for their marketing campaigns and overall branding strategy. Which customer they communicate to makes no difference. Each person is in my opinion just as interesting. I would love to set up a label for woman and man between the age 60 and 80 years old. Analyzing their needs in fashion, new trends in their environment and their personal aspirations are for me just as interesting as young, rich fashion oriented people in their 20. Creating a concept, marketing campaign or brand strategy that might add esthetical value to the clothes they will wear and o create something that will add value into somebody’s daily lives is what makes working in this business exited. For example a woman who
feels at her best when she wears her slim cut blazer when she goes to work. Or a boy who wears his brand new sneakers to school. And if this is caused by the sneakers from N.E.R.D Pharrell Williams latest collection or the new blazer from Beyoncé’s fashion label, it still is the power of what fashion can do for people. Rather than try to beat them on the runway, I would recommend to analyse them from the front row. What do they embody with their own personal brand. And who do they represent? A singer like Kany West embodies the generation of hip hop music lovers that moves towards a slightly more upper class status. His lyrics and music style is still hip hop as we know it, but he has an artistic vibe around him. He does not represent the streets anymore and is trying to move away from this image. And lots of his fans as well. So he is representing a whole new target group if you look at it from this point of view. But of course fashion designers don’t have the ambition to create a collection for the new target group the Kanye represent. But it does show that fashion is more than creativity and talent with clothes, patterns and collections. Fashion is a reflexion of society, our identity and where we stand in life. Because every day we make the conscious decision of what to wear. Sometimes we are not sure of what we want to present with our clothes. But we always know what we don’t want to represent and therefor it is relative for who we are. By analyzing society and the esthetical role of fashion for people you can surprise them with your own view of what you think should be the esthetical value of the clothes you so much love to buy. After all the actual clothes are just a small element of what fashion represents. Designers play with these new personal insights of how we will feel or want to feel next year. According to Dior the crisis will be over and we will long back to sober colours, classical style and their own “new look” as we did after the second world war. This is something only true fashion designers can do an is goes beyond the talent and reach of celebrity labels. Who I personally admire for his business model and exquisite sense how to keep renewing the brand without ever chancing a single brand value is Paul Smith. Not because of his style or fashion sense. But his ability to stay close to his own personality and his style. But at the same time he can also look at his brand from a business perspective. By combining both elements and without too much compromises. And to be able to still connect to his audience ranging in all ages. He never had the ambition to become a famous fashion designer or rich for that matter. He was just doing what he loved the most: making beautiful clothes. And was not bothered by the question about if he would make it in the industry or not. He was just busy with
“MAKING EVERY DAY A HAPPY DAY”. And this state of mind is what made him famous.
Cristóbal Balenciaga
MASTER
‘s
of
Being popular has always help to increase the actual turnover of a brand. So why not double it with a popular brand a popular designer. I think a lot of people have heard of Marc Jacobs or Karl Lagerfeld but have no idea what their actual style is or even what their fashion background is. True the media designers have become more powerful as brands on their own. In comparison to forty years ago where the fashion designers where most famous for their collections and what they represented in fashion. Now designers are becoming celebrities of their own and are famous for being a famous fashion designer. I believe that the H&M collaborations with big designers is a great example of this. Of course I had to have that Victor & Rolf trench coat. But what striked me that even people who had no particular interest in high fashion al of the sudden loved Victor & Rolf as well. A friend who I have never heard talking about the designers duo, wanted to come with me at this early and exiting shopping trip to H&M when the collection came out. I assumed we had a new favorite subject to talk about but it turn out her love for Victor & Rolf was based on what she saw at H&M and some weird dress with pillows she once saw in a magazine. And still she run just had hard as I did towards the clothing racks when the doors finally opened. And this use of the powerful image of a designer is nothing new in fashion. When you think of the brand Balenciaga you might think of their beautiful fall 20122013 eighties influenced collection. You think of a well-established fashion house with a brand heritage equal to fashion houses like Chanel and DIOR. But Cristóbal Balenciaga closed his fashion house in 1968. Not because lack of customers. But in that time the fashion scene changed. Haute Couture was no longer leading movement in fashion but street style, the individual created styles of how people dress themselves every day was taking on a bigger role in fashion. Balenciaga didn’t care for this movement. He was a true tailor, Every garment for him was a work of art by creating the perfect patterns, fabric and silhouettes, what could never be just assembled on the street. He closed his shop with pride that he had never lowered his standards or denying his profession which where he was so passionate about. So how come that this fashion house is reclaimed even after it has been shut down by
its founder in such a specific ideology, in comparison to other designers like Coco Chanel who was still designing at the age of 87 for her fashion house. In 1986, Jacques Bogart bought the rights of Balenciaga and launched a new line: Le-Dix. And after that the Gucci group bought the right of the brand and still owns them. The name Balenciaga had so much allure and was still so appealing to people that it would instantly sell their clothes better by designing again under his name. Even if it is in contrary to everything Mr Balenciaga presented. So it might look like that celebrities are trying to take over the catwalk and trying to steal the lime light from “real brands”. But after reading this how “real” is the brand Balenciaga for you? Isn’t it a bit hypocrite to dismiss a label like Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M.B or The Row from the Olsen twins for not being authentic enough for the fashion scene? I believe that they are merely new players in the scene that reach out to a different kind of audience and who design from a different perspective. And that they understand that they play a key role in the fashion industry from the early beginning of fashion. And now they take matters into their own hands. And as for the fashion students. It would recommend to look beyond the picture brands, labels and people would like you to see and to draw your own conclusions. Because one thing is certain, nothing has ever happened in the fashion industry without a well worked out plan. So as a fashion student don’t try to become famous, try to understand what fame means to us and how you can use that in your own plan.
Source list Close Up: Paul Smith - Gentleman Designer, online video, published on 29 November 2011, available at http://cultuurgids.avro.nl/front/detailcloseup.html?item=8260804, retrieved on 20-5-2015 Close Up: Close Up: Crist贸bal Balenciaga, online video, published on 29 November 2009, available at http://cultuurgids.avro.nl/front/detailcloseup.html?item=8206359, retrieved on 20-5-2015 CRITICAL SHOPPER:Cheap Chic, if You Can Get It, Alex Kuczynski ,New York Times, online article, published on 16-12-2006, Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/16/ fashion/16CRITIC.html?fta=y, retrieved on 19-5-202 Haute Couture: The History of Fashion, Diana Pemberton-Sikes, Online article,sideroad. com, available at http://www.sideroad.com/Clothing/haute-couture.html, retrieved on 195-2012 Luxury Brands & Celebrities : An Enduring Branding Romance, Uche Okonkwo, Brandchannel.com, available at http://www.brandchannel.com/papers_review.asp?sp_id=1234, retrieved on 20-5-2012 Martin Lindstorm, 2008, Buy-ology, First edition, Bridge Road, Random house business books, ISBN 978 1 847 94011 7 PPR company, General info Wikipedia, available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PinaultPrintemps-Redoute, last updated 6 May 2012 at 15:30, retrieved on 20-5-2012 Suzy Menkes, General info Wikipedia, available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzy_ Menkes, last updated on 21 May 2012 at 23:01, retrieved on 20-5-2012 Tjaco Walvis, 2010, branding with brains, fifth edition, London, Prentice Hall, ISBN 978 0 273 71995 3