Innovate Your Fashion!

For centuries individuals or societies have used clothes and other body adornment as a form of nonverbal communication to indicate occupation, rank, gender, sexual availability, locality, class, wealth and group affiliation. Fashion is a form of free speech. It not only embraces clothing, but also accessories. What we wear and how and when we wear it, provides others with a shorthand to subtly read the surface of a social situation.

How we perceive the beauty or ugliness of our bodies is dependant on cultural attitudes to physiognomy. In many cultures, those defining fashion are the cultural icons. This is why newspapers and magazines report on what celebrities and even politicians are wearing.

Examining who is wearing what through print media dates as far back as to even the 1700s. People pored over fashion magazines to see the latest styles. Women and dressmakers outside the French court relied on sketches to see what was going on. The famous French King Louis XIV said that fashion is a mirror. Louis himself was renowned for his style, which tended towards extravagant laces and velvets.

We are constantly being bombarded with new fashion ideas from music, videos, books, and television. Movies also have a big impact on what people wear.

Sociologists believe group affiliation is our prime concern with regard to fashion. As long as some group similarity is identified within the group, our personal fashion whether current or dated can belong to any tribe. It is the sense of belonging marked by how we fashion ourselves that gives us the tribal connection.

At the same time, we as human beings desire differentiation. People are often socially and economically labeled by their clothing or fashion. In history, the Edwardians were socially stratified into those who wore tailor made clothing down to those who wore other people’s cast offs. The poor simply looked poor, because their raiment betrayed them. The rich and nouveau riche displayed their wealth through an iconography of signs and symbols that enhanced their body image in the eyes of those that saw themselves as socially inferior.

Today, the purchase of fashionable clothes, fabrics, or accessories becomes a visual currency and can speak to one’s status. People are so aware of the fact that others make judgments about them through their clothes and accessories that many run up huge debts to appear to belong to a particular lifestyle. Only individuals with a strong sense of self-identity stick their necks out and admit to wearing items that others might consider dubious or passé.

In reality, there are many reasons we wear what we wear.

* Protection from cold, rain and snow: mountain climbers wear high-tech outerwear to avoid frostbite and over-exposure.

* Physical attraction: many styles are worn to inspire “chemistry.”

* Emotions: we dress “up” when we’re happy and “down” when we’re upset.

* Religious expression: Orthodox Jewish men wear long black suits and Islamic women cover every part of their body except their eyes.

* Identification and tradition: judges wear robes, people in the military wear uniforms, brides wear long white dresses.

The fact is, fashion is big business. More people are involved in the buying, selling and production of clothing than any other business in the world. Everyday, millions of workers design, sew, glue, dye, and transport clothing to stores. Ads on buses, billboards and magazines give us ideas about what to wear, consciously, or subconsciously. Choosing what we wear may be more complex in nature to ourselves than we imagined, ask yourself – why determines your fashion?

There are basically 2 ways of approaching the current economic downturn for a Luxury brand:

The Bad way is to compare the current situation vs the development of the category for the past 8 years. The feeling is close to be in front of big cliff with no arm and no leg to climb…Uncomfortable! As everything is relative, 2009 may be a bad year if compared to 2007, but still outstanding whether 2005 would be the reference.

The Good way is most probably to take a Blue Ocean Strategy approach and consider this situation as a great opportunity to innovate. As the market is shrinking, it is critical to find new (or different) sources of growth.

The marketing of Luxury goods is driven mainly by a Pull strategy based on recipes which are considered as “Must Be” but without necessarily a pragmatic performance monitoring. The Ultra-luxury brands will keep their clientele but many others do not have anymore references in a situation where attitudes and behaviors of clients are changing. Innovating in selling high-end goods means challenging the status-quo in some areas such as: making the brand more accessible and enhancing the experience at retail.

Once the quality of products, integrity of brand DNA and rationalization of the portfolio are secured. It remains…the Client.  The most important is to keep the contact with the consumer as the desire to own a Jaeger-Lecoultre watch or a Bulgari accessory has not disappeared!

What could be new ways of interacting with consumers with a positive and friendly attitude?

• Targeted and smart Limited Editions

Beyond the marketing trick to issue 888 units of a specific accessory to appeal Chinese consumers, there are ways of using limited editions as a strategic pillar of a brand. The core proposition of a brand A brand could decide to reverse the paradigm and to use restricted offers as the standard for its portfolio. The brand 20 Limited (designers from different categories commercializing a defined quantity of a product) is a good illustration.

Staying in touch with consumers
The fashion designer Marc Jacobs has launched in Paris in October 2008 his boutique Marc by Marc where limited editions of various accessories can be found in an exclusive environment at very accessible price (starting at 1.- Euro). It can be a clever way to generate proximity if the originality of the offer is still consistent with the brand DNA and the affordable price is not the unique benefit perceived by consumers. It helps to generate traffic in the retail stores and positive buzz for the brand.

• Second hand products

A brand could initiate the commercialization of its second hand products in order to facilitate the access to its world and generate additional sources of revenues: It represents a risk in terms of brand image dilution but it is a business already well established for many brands which are not benefiting from it…whilst being a criteria of success for the category. As an example, the Swedish fashion brand Filippa K has opened a second hand shop in Stockholm in summer 2008.

• Renting is not a shame…anymore

It is becoming trendy to rent as it gives the opportunity to transform the absence of ownership into a positive feeling to renew stuff regularly. It is not perceived anymore as a lack of purchasing power.

Fashion victims addicted to hanbags from Prada, Gucci & Co can now make their life a heaven by renting these precious and prestigious items with Sac de Luxe (French company).

Afficionados of Ferrari and Aston Martin have as well their passion fulfilled with Ecurie 25 which is based on a similar principle.

• A new retail experience

It plays a major role in the perception of the brand and the decision making process to acquire a luxury product. However, the current depressing economic climate is not encouraging consumers to push doors of Place Vendôme’s boutiques. Thus, it is even more critical to transform the contact with the consumer into a unique moment (on and off line).

The service level needs to exceed by far expectations through oustanding “Moments of Thruth” and/or the role given to the experience is to be encompassed into the overall brand proposition.

A fashion retail store in Los Angeles, Fashionlogy LA (already mentioned in a recent post), is transforming the purchase at the boutique into a master piece of the product itself.

The Watch Avenue website provides the potential client of some luxury watchmaking brands with the unique opportunity to experience brands and products on-line.

In a different environment, a wine retailer in Denmark, Gerbola Vin, is using Story Telling in an unconventional location as part of its core offer. This approach could support naturally luxury brands having a rich heritage.

Pop-up stores are a good platform to create a unique retail experience while being able to support other initiatives mentionned above. Vogue Magazine opened a Teen Vogue Holliday Haute Spot at the end of 2008 in a mall in the US. It illustrates unconventional routes of using temporary presence in order to built proximity with a specific target and generate buzz.

If the client is not coming naturally to the brand, it is up to the brand to find sensitive strings to pull in order to feed the desire while staying accessible. It is difficult today to pre-empt what would be the sucessfull recipe for tomorrow. However, one critical factor will be the capability of brands to keep the consumer in the centre of the radar screen while innovating in interacting with him or her.

Women like to wear unique pieces of jewelry. As much as possible they do not want to be seen wearing the same precise piece other ladies are wearing on the street. For them, wearing unique jewelry makes them feel they are special. To avoid purchasing common jewelries, a woman normally searches for the help of a master artisan.

Handmade beaded jewelry is timeless. It is always in style because you can have it customised to reflect the newest trend in fashion. You don’t have to try doing it personally. You can turn to custom hand made jewelry designer or master artisan for your unique jewelry pieces.

Handcrafted jewelry workmen are pros when it comes to creating unique jewelry artworks. You can rely on their expertise to produce a completely unique piece of dazzling jewelry your friends will drool over. These artists decide to showcase their talent and abilities to supply a masterwork for each customer they have. A masterpiece that is much nearer to ladies who truly appreciate beauty and art.

These artists dedicate a great amount of time when it comes to selecting quality gemstones with the right shape, size, color, and luster. Their creative talents are challenged whenever they’re mixing quality gemstones and beads with different metals including gold, silver, copper and bronze. Another challenge they are always facing when making a piece of custom jewelry is mixing the right gemstones and accents which will give the finished piece uniqueness with balance and harmony. Also, do not forget that they consider your budget when coming up with and making you jewelry.

Don’t they deserve so much praise for each work of creativity they made for us to enjoy wearing and made us feel so special among others? Regardless of what your taste is when it comes to owning and wearing custom hand made jewelry, you’ll need to seek out designers who could create unique beaded jewelry. So if you’d like to hear those ooohs and aaahs each time you wear your own personal designer jewelry, don’t be shy to seek aid from a handcrafted jewelry artisan near your place.