The Fashion Event Who,What & Why?

-Zainab Shah-Jehan charts

On arrival of their final year of study at Sheffield Hallam, students studying Fashion Management and Communication were given a special brief, arranged by their tutor in collaboration with John Lewis and Partners. The task was to create a one-off event that had the potential to be the most career boosting moment of their three academic years of study. John Lewis and Partners have recently rebranded themselves to cater to an all-inclusive audience, with their new design philosophy of classical silhouettes and colours to appeal to every age, gender and shape. Although their aesthetics are all inclusive, the demographic the brand attracts is still limited to the older generation which is something John Lewis are eager to change. This is an important realisation on their behalf because in order to be relevant in today’s concentrated retail environment, the brand must appeal to the consumers who do the most spending and they are a hard one to please; the millennials and Generation Z’ers. But with the right formula, John Lewis can set themselves on the path to success. It all lies in a mix of the right marketing, key trend analysis and knowing what makes that age group tick and what better way to do that than to make them in charge of things for a one-off event. The start of this journey was to map out where exactly the brand lies in the mind of this age group. Everyone was told to write down three things that came to mind about John Lewis & Partners and the results were… rather honest. The popular consensus was that it was ‘boring’, ‘old-fashioned’ and lacked any sort of ‘pizazz’ that high-street counterparts Zara, Topshop or H&M had. On a positive note a lot of the year group thought it represented British ‘heritage’ and denotes ‘high-quality’ and ‘luxuriousness’. So the key here was to play on the good and add some sparkles to bring it back to life.

The concept for the event was a subject of some minor disagreement as you would expect if you asked fortyeight students to think of a concept for a single event.

‘But not everyone’s ideas are relevant for the concept’ says one student from the back of the room, quickly shot down with ‘well what if we all just have a vote to pick the best ideas for the event and then have a separate vote to decide on the concept’. Alas the vote that was supposed to choose a clear winner had ended in a tie-breaker between ‘LIVE’, an interactive, experiential concept, vs ‘Spice up your Life’, a fun festival inspired idea with a strong message of celebrating diversity. But fear not, you can always combine the two and create a super concept. In the end the capital letters of LIVE, in multi coloured letters, in homage to the vibrant festival idea, was decided and it stuck. Next, the event check list, what was happening on the night? After whittling down a grand list of ideas, the group shortlisted five; a live window display, a catwalk utilising the first floor (originally supposed to take place on the central escalators, inspired by the Louis Vuitton Spring Summer 2013 show in Paris, but unfortunately declined by management due to store protocol, which is understandable given the cranky condition of them and we dread to imagine a fluttering skirt being swallowed up into an escalator abyss, terrifying and equally embarrassing), a shoe customising workshop, a gin-tasting stall and a seminar session discussing current issues in fashion. Now you are probably wondering why it takes a whole year group to plan a three-hour event but there is more to it. The jobs that entailed included project management, editorial, photography, film, hospitality, finance, model casting, makeup, visual merchandising, to name a few and it is all these roles together that constitutes to a successful outcome. Now it is the case of bringing everything together to pull off a successful night.