The Business of Fashion

London Fashion Week | Tough times ahead

Everyone's talking about London's young designer set -- and the news is not good.

The media has been buzzing about the wave of  familiar faces who will be missing from the front rows this season. Julie Gilhart, Ron Frasch, and Ken Downing won't be making it to London Fashion Week this season to represent major American department stores Barneys, Saks and Neiman Marcus, respectively. For Julie, a fervent supporter of London's emerging brands, it is the first time in 20 years that she won't be here.

These buyers have told the press that unless London's designers produce something very special or have strong existing relationships with US retailers, they will have a hard time making up for the spiralling effect that the strong pound has had on their prices once converted to American dollars.

Links: Russia, Boombox and Mash-up

Rubles are a Girl's Best Friend (New York Times)
We came across this multilingual sign on the new Dolce & Gabbana store on London's Bond Street the other day. It's a sign of the times that many of the customers are from the Middle East and Russia. This article  describes the celebrity angle of Russia's fashion scene.

The Real Story Behind Boombox (A Shaded View on Fashion)
Mandi Lennard, London's uber PR for the hip and happening in the fashion business sent out an email last week confirming a report on the Business of Fashion that Boombox is to shut down by the end of the year. Diane Pernet interviews Richard Mortimer in this piece to get the back story.

Heart to Heart (Style.com)
Check out our first piece for Style.com which covers a cool mash-up of Comme des Garçons and Chrome Hearts.

Boombox: Party's over?

When London's only mega-luxury brand (Burberry) throws a launch party, invites the city's model-du-jour (Agyness Deyn), and recruits East-End club kids from the city's hippest club night (Boombox) to add to its street cred and sell its new fragance (Burberry Beat), it is definitely a formula for fashion marketing success.  Analysts and journalists have been commenting on the brand's new found hipness and pictures have appeared in all the right places, despite the extra-Zone 1 location and late start.

For Boombox, however, it's likely to be a sign that the party's over. That's not to say that Boombox hasn't had a great run. From the start, it was an ultra-cool hangout for the East End fashion and music scenesters (and a great excuse to dress up in wacky clothes). Then, almost as quickly as it emerged on the scene, websites appeared with party photos, pop-up Boombox parties were held in Paris and Milan, a book by the club's promoter Richad Mortimer was published, and most recently the "rent-a-Boombox-crowd" party was held for Burberry.

Anedoti and Ikken: Inspiring creativity

My friends Anne de Kerckhove and Ed van de Logt make a fine case study for how London's cosmopolitan business community can help to harness the city's unparalleled creative energy while having positive social impact in the developing world.

Anne is a part Dutch, part French-Canadian entrepreneur who has made her mark in the world of digital gaming while also spearheading Irregular Art Beat, a ground-breaking initiative to identify and support high potential design talent. For his part, Ed has spent the better part of a decade scouring the globe for beautiful things made by craftspeople in some of the world's most far-flung places.

Now, Anne and Ed are taking their trained eyes and setting their sights on the fashion industry. Anedoti is an online retail business which provides a platform for emerging and international designers to reach new consumers using the Internet.

Over the past year, their quest for unique, hand-crafted products has taken them on a veritable world tour.  To share the treasures from their search, Anne and Ed recently hosted a launch event for Anedoti in their stunning London home, and we got a sneak peek at some of the brands they believe in.

Fashion Rocks: An opportunity to seize

Fashion Rocks bills itself as the most glamorous event on the planet. If there is a night on the London fashion calendar that can compare to the see-and-be-seen status of New York's Costume Institute Gala, this is it. It was originally started by the Prince's Trust, a UK-based charity which endeavours to bring new hope to the lives of underprivileged youth. Proceeds from the event are directed to this worthy cause.

The first Fashion Rocks was held at Royal Albert Hall in London in 2003 and teamed famous musicians and fashion designers together, strutting their stuff (quite literally) in a series of fabulous performances, complete with pyrotechnics, choreographed dance ensembles, and of course, some no-bones-about-it fashion glamour. The event was reprised two years later in Monaco, taking on Swarovski as its lead sponsor.

Gap: American slump, European bounce?

Earlier this year, the Business of Fashion visited a Central London outpost of the Gap, one of America's most well-known high street retail chains. We left sorely disappointed with the product, the slow pace of change of collections (the opposite of 'fast fashion'), and the deep discounting that created detrimental expectations in the minds of Gap's core consumer base. Then, a few weeks later Paul Pressler was booted out of the CEO suite, a swift reaction to the  financial results achieved under his tenure.  To say the least, things have been looking pretty dismal indeed.

The bad news continued when the Gap reported yet another decrease in overall same-store sales today across its three brands, dropping 7% versus last year and failing to meet analyst expectations. This is the equivalent of a death knell for a public company. But, it seems there may be hope for the Gap yet.

A visit to the same Central London Gap store on the weekend was like visiting a very different store. The place was rammed with shoppers and the product was much improved. The sophistication and simplicity of the designs stood out and the positioning of these new designs as redefined classics was very much in tune with Gap's core market and what consumers expect of this venerable chain. The deep discounting was still there, but apparently not on the European-designed collection.

London Fashion Week: The creativity and commerce conundrum

As I looked out on the waiting crowd for Giles Deacon's show last evening, there was something special in the air. Where else could you see wunderkind Gareth Pugh nestled next to Italian eccentric Anna Piaggi and Vogue's Hamish Bowles and a raft of other notable fashion names, all crammed into a tiny space in a small schoolhouse waiting for a fashion show to start? No New York designer of similar repute would even think of forcing the fashion A-list into this cramped setting. But then again, the fashion A-list probably wouldn't even bother turning up to a show in a similarly  uncomfortable setting for a New York designer.

London fashion is officially hot again.  And, this time it's not just hype. Many of the New York collections were well-executed and wearable, but they were limited in terms of new ideas and came off feeling a bit flat. London has thrown this flatness into sharp relief. There has been a renewed sense of confidence about fashion in London this week, yet there could be a lot more reflection on why things haven't worked out for London in the past after other short-lived periods of creative renaissance -- and a great deal of this has to do with the business of fashion, not the creative side.

New York Fashion Week: Innovative brand building

Emerging brands usually don't have the marketing budget and editorial muscle to build big brands and it can therefore be extremely difficult to get above all the noise and stand out from the crowd. Yesterday, I was thrilled to see two young brands partner with major retailers in innovative ways to build brand awareness.

My favourite guerilla marketers from Rodnik launched their "We are not a rock brand" tour at Barney's New York. They played to an appreciative crowd of lucky customers and industry insiders, with their sidekick Peaches Geldof supporting Phil on vocals. The guys were understandably excited about the tour which rocks up at one retailer after another, from Colette in Paris to Comme des Garcons in Tokyo to Corso Como in Milan, over the next couple of months. 

For people who had never heard of Rodnik, it's not likely a performance they will soon forget, what with that 80's throwback and all that energy. Here's a sneak preview video of their opening tour song, the surprisingly catchy "How to be Lovely":

Everyone's talking about: Limited edition luxury

Walk down Madison Avenue in New York, the Bund in Shanghai, and avenues Montaigne and Georges V in Paris, and you will see the same luxury stores teeming with the same luxury products. No matter where you go, there are Balenciaga bags, Jimmy Choo shoes and Dior Homme suits on offer.  It's no wonder then that everyone's talking about limited edition products from established companies like Neiman Marcus and Martin Margiela to start-ups like 20ltd and couturelab. Customers, it seems, are looking for something a little bit special.

The phenomenon has the fashion business media chattering too. The Financial Times covered the phenomenon over the weekend with a particular focus on men's luxury products and this week, WWD gave us a laundry list of limited edition collaborations to show the degree to which scarcity is proliferating as a perceived selling point for luxury brands. The Business of Fashion has been in the fray as well, exploring the renaissance of haute couture and the unappealing ubiquity of Tory Burch and Goyard in Upper East side styletribes.

So, is there a viable business model here?

Men's luxury: Time for an (arm)revolution?

That oft-ignored market for men's luxury has been popping up on my radar screen a lot more often in the last few months. Up until now, men's luxury spending has been dominated by expensive watches. But, as a generation of high net-worth men with a taste for modern design is growing up, more players are reaching out to meet their sophisticated needs in innovative ways.

It brings to mind a casual gathering of friends that took place in my kitchen on a recent Saturday evening. Over wine and cheese, I watched in awe as hedge fund managers, private equity investors and investment bankers from London's burgeoning financial community were comparing, discussing and examining each other's (expensive) watches in excruciating detail. Some were taking pride in the beautiful pearl dialfaces, others in the high-tech mechanics, and still others in having a Swiss watch brand that nobody else had heard of. Digits were exchanged. Prices were quoted. Statistics were cited. Still, it wasn't so different from the groups of professional women I have seen cooing over their friend's new Chloe bag. Could the same passion for those watches and handbags be transferred to cufflinks, tailor-made suits and high-tech men's cosmetics?