PREVIOUS DSM COLLABORATIONS

HOW WILL IT BE SUCCESSFUL?

Despite Chanel having never collaborated before, perhaps to maintain their luxury status, identity and high price points a collaboration with DSM would allow them to protect their legacy further whilst renewing their relevancy, visibility and perception into a brand for the youth. Both brands share similarities that would allow this collaboration to be successful. Both create simple and minimalistic products that encompass their heritage in an instantly recognisable manner, they both have traditional views of fashion believing in experience as highly important to consumers and brand image and finally they are both looking to future proof themselves by connecting with younger consumers. A fashion collaboration is about a dialogue between the brands, their legacies and the core values that define them. The intersection, ‘as the point where established concepts meet, connect, clash and combine, where remarkable innovations are created and new, groundbreaking ideas emerge.’ (La Garza, 2022) This campaign’s intention is to use this research and ideology to produce a unique collaboration allowing the brands involved to receive the recognition and relationship they need with new generations.

Having understood the purpose of this campaign and the reasonings behind this decision, my next steps were to understand what Chanel would have to look like to be accepted and invited into Dover Street Market. I researche into previous collaborations within Dover Street as well as the current brands within the store in depth as well as conducted a visit to the store itself. Within Dover Street there are a range of luxury brands from Gucci to Molly Goddard to Margiela, however alongside these traditionally luxury brands are many streetwear brands such as Supreme, Palace and Stussy. It may seem odd that a concept store holds an increasing number of streetwear brands, however, streetwear stems from its exclusivity and a community feeling, something DSM is also known for. These similar values suggest why the collaboration is well matched. Furthermore, the increased number of streetwear brands most likely represents a move to increase the stores appeal to a younger consumer base. The hype surrounding these brands is well established with younger Gen Z consumers drawn towards purpose and the community feeling attached with streetwear (Hope, 2017).

DSM COLLABORATIONS

A number of Dover Street Collaborations have also been with streetwear brands such as Nike, Palace and Stussy. Dover Street is extremely successful at curating a selection of noteworthy brands to collaborate with always infusing their own brand into each collection no matter who the collaborator. (Babcock, 2014) One of these successful collaborations was ‘Monochromarket’ celebrating DSM’s 15th anniversary approx. 60 brands from Gucci and Burberry to Craig Green, Stussy, and Bape reimagined icons past, present and future in monochrome creating exclusive items for the collection sold at Dover Street Market. This was a successful campaign as it allowed DSM to be the collaboration leader, allowing brands to put their creative visions to the DSM brand whilst maintaining Dover Streets core image and celebration of this. Furthermore, one of the largest collaborations within Dover Street was that with Nike. There have now been a few versions of this collaboration however, each time the collaboration revived Nike classics with subtleties taking centre stage and bringing something unique to consumers, in this collab DSM was a facilitator to the collaboration with Nike’s image leading, however, the exclusivity of the drops boosted DSM’s notability and visibility hugely showing its success for both parties.

The blend of intellectual luxury brands and streetwear brands within the Dover Street brand is something I want to take forward as inspiration for this collaboration. To ensure that Chanel will not only blend successfully into the Dover Street space but also appeal to the broad consumer base within the store and wider community I will look to use this influence in my campaign.