The Beautiful Business. Fashion and beauty? A perfect

DISCOURSE THE BEAUTIFUL BUSINESS

The idea of combining fashion and beauty isn’t new. Department stores still make an excellent living from their beauty sections. Independent fashion retailers have, however, picked up on the scent too. Niche brands, especially from the clean beauty and wellness segment, are replacing interchangeable mass products. The advantages are obvious. Is it a win-win situation? style in progress went in search of answers. Text: Martina Müllner-Seybold, Nicoletta Schaper. Photos: Interviewees

THIS IS THE CHANCE

Janine Knizia, Owner of Muse & Heroine

Muse & Heroine has opened its showrooms in Milan and Paris in cooperation with Brama. Cus- tomers can experience the entire range, catering by Wild & The Moon, and a Be Vivid water bar.

The idea of generating traffic with carefully selected beauty items and refreshing one’s product range isn’t really new. The best European department stores and online shops understood this principle a long time ago. The fact that owner-managed retailers are now also cottoning on to this trend is, in my opinion, easy enough to explain. For many end customers, fashion is no longer as meaningful as it used to be. We are all staring into packed wardrobes and the enthusiasm for new things has dropped. On the other hand, looking after oneself is experiencing a real boom: healthy nutrition, dietary supplements, beauty products, and treatments. The classic cosmetics trade is, however, not the place to go. Customers are eager to discover exciting brands in a new environment. As a full-service sales agency, we can offer competence in this area. The success is overwhelming. Visualising the Muse & Heroine range in the Paris showroom, as well as presenting it in a harmonious setting featuring a beVivid Waterbar and Wild & The Moon Organic Catering, impressed many customers. People were complimenting us by saying things like ‘This is like a zen oasis!’ and ‘Finally something new!’. The best thing is that the concept is so incredibly easy to implement. With minimal risk and full support from Muse & Heroine, retailers can add this competence field to their respective stores: beautiful and meaningful products without discounts, with minimal capital investment, and permanent re-order option. This allows retailers to offer their customers a completely new angle. The benefit is obvious: beauty customers return at shorter intervals then normal fashion customers. Naturally, it’s imperative that all employees become involved. Especially niche and clean beauty products have such great background stories. The stories are the more successful the more enthusiastically they are told.”

FROM BEAUTY TO LIFESTYLE PRODUCT

Petra Schröckeneder, Owner of Be soap my friend

We all use soap and various care products to protect our skin from environmental influences and care for it. For our Be soap my friend products, we rely on ancient medicinal plants such as wild mallow, which restores natural moisture to the skin, or the lime bud, which has a soothing effect on dry and sensitive skin. The primary objective, of course, is to protect the skin, but I think it must be possible to do that without harming the environment. Cosmetics containing microplastic, for example, pollute our wastewater and subsequently rivers, lakes, and oceans. Avoiding plastic, even in packaging, is still not taken seriously enough! That’s why we decided to use glass bottles right from the start. Retailers wouldn’t have tolerated that five years ago, but glass bottles have become a real selling point. A beautifully packaged beauty product is a lifestyle item that takes up very little space in a store and moves quickly. In contrast to fashion, which requires the retailer to commit half a year in advance, beauty products are readily available ex stock and require little space. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that only fashion retailers who pay special attention to the beauty segment can sell such products successfully. Beauty is not a self-serving segment. You can’t just put up a few vials and expect them to fly off the shelf. That doesn’t work! A customer who is interested in sustainable cosmetics expects professional advice.”

Be soap my friend stands for vegan skin care from Austria, based on natural herbs and oils. Petra Schröckeneder distributes her brand in lifestyle shops, as well as in fashion stores.

Cosmetics from selected eco-brands, as well as rooms for cosmetic and body treatments: MDC Berlin’s whole Berlin branch is devoted to clean beauty. In Munich, a Melanie dal Canton store is dedicated exclusively to the Santa Maria Novella brand.

THERE IS A LIMIT

Melanie dal Canton, Owner of MDC Cosmetics Berlin & Managing Partner of Santa Maria Novella Germany

The deeper my professional interest in natural body and skin care became, the more urgent was my desire to implement this in my own space. Salespeople who provide excellent design and fashion advice simply don’t have the capacity to conduct an in-depth skin analysis. The latter requires expert counselling. We even go a few steps further at MDC Cosmetics in Berlin. We also offer treatments of all kinds, applied by our own trained therapists and partners. This is very important to me, especially as I pursue a holistic approach. I strive to create a place for our clients where they can strengthen themselves in the truest sense of the word. And yes, I observe that cosmetics – or doing something good for yourself – is now filling the gap left by fashion. Customers no longer consume carelessly. We are confronted with news about climate change and other problems constantly. I have found that many are willing to sweep at their own door. They buy organic food, consume more consciously, and are no longer willing to expose their skin to some random cream. However, it is important to put the salvation people seek in natural cosmetics into perspective. Natural cosmetics are incredibly complex. In many cases, it is better for the environment to reproduce an ingredient in a lab than to use rare plants or flowers. Accordingly, it is important to me that my team and I, at both MDC Cosmetics and our new Santa Maria Novella store in Munich, have sufficient time to provide customers with well-founded advice and to address their wishes, needs, and concerns.”

FASHION IS UNDER PRESSURE

Niels Strøyer Christophersen, Founder & Creative Director of Frama Copenhagen

In the western world, consumers started embracing the lifestyle idea in terms of brands and retail roughly ten years ago. Thus, they like brands that are capable of applying their concept in more than one field. This approach has a long tradition in Japan, but is still considered ‘very edgy’ in certain European countries. I wouldn’t necessarily call the integration of fields like beauty a trend, mainly because the likes of Chanel and Prada have been doing it successfully for years. What is really new, however, is the concept of sustainability, which stands in stark contrast to the previous understanding of luxury. Freedom is the new luxury: a free life, to be in nature, and to respect it. Instead of classic status symbols, we strive to possess as much as we need to ensure that we remain unrestricted, as well as mentally and physically healthy. People with this ethos love niche beauty brands that break with the old principles of the cosmetics industry. In the past, the aim was to generate maximum profit with minimum effort. Today, we are transparent and comprehensible. Fashion is under pressure. First-movers are spending less on fashion; buying at fashion chains is particularly frowned upon. Sustainability is becoming an argument. However, retailers still need to earn money, which is why they are so grateful for the gap that beauty products fill. Especially as these small labels usually invest heavily in packaging and presentation, meaning they look great in the store.”

An old pharmacy is the creative laboratory of Copenha- gen-based collective Fra- ma. It creates perfumes and design ob- jects. A blend that reflects the different talents of the people behind Frama.

Gloria Massaro-Conrad prioritises meaningful products in both store and showroom. The soap brand Sana Jardin, for example, is committed to charitable projects and sup- ports pickers in Morocco.

IT’S ALL ABOUT EXPERIENCES!

Gloria Massaro-Conrad, Managing Director Ohhh de Cologne and Premium Beauty Brands

I would like to contradict the quote ‘It’s all about the price, the consumer will stay at home and buy online!’ by saying that the decisive factors are experiences and emotional commitment. The big challenge is to keep stationary retailing competitive in the face of e-commerce. The key to success is personal encounter. Every special experience begins with direct personal contact in the store, with the product range. It creates an emotional moment. This connection with personal exchange creates a relationship. Such a shopping experience results in a lasting memory – hopefully a positive one. It’s about inspiring customers with an unusual range to ensure they return repeatedly. Beauty products are well suited to complement fashion, as are niche products from the lifestyle, jewellery, interior, and food segments. A new awareness for clean beauty has emerged in the beauty sector. It’s similar to the new demands placed in nutrition. The customer wants to know where products come from and what ingredients they contain. They should be sustainable, vegan, natural, and organic. Nobody is prepared to use products on their skin without knowing the exact ingredients. This goes hand in hand with the broader trend towards sustainability, wellness, and personal care. The customer has different demands, a heightened awareness, and a changed consumption behaviour. Those who take the time to visit stationary retailers want to spend their time as efficiently as possible. So it makes sense for retailers to diversify to allow customers to fill their ‘shopping baskets’ with products across different categories. Last but not least, it is important to sharpen one’s profile. Be your own testimonial and run your business with maximum passion across all channels – both online and offline!”

Pitti Immagine Uomo Florenz 07.01. – 10.01.20 Premium Exhibition Berlin 14.01. – 16.01.20 Gallery Düsseldorf 23.01. – 28.01.20 Areal Böhler, Kaltstahlhalle, Hansaallee 321, Standnummer A 40 Showroom Munich 30.01. – 28.02.20