Fashion's Merry-Go-Round

Fashion can be a very tough industry and in today's increasingly challenging retail markets, fashion houses can live and die by good and bad editorial reviews - or so we are led to believe. However, as a consequence of this nervy senior management have fallen into a habit of 'all-change' with it's senior creative teams in the past 18 months. Many designers have found themselves going up and some going out altogether. Just to recap on what has been happening in the world of fashion;

Christopher Lemaire formerly of Lacoste was appointed Creative Director of HERMES in May 2010 replacing fellow Frenchman Jean Paul Gaultier.

Sarah Burton was named Creative Director of the House of Alexander McQueen in May 2010 following the tragic and untimely death of it's founder Lee McQueen.

Raf Simons is believed to be very close to signing a contract to take up the Creative Director slot at Christian DIOR after months of speculation following the demise and removal of John Galliano from the role. Simon's is currently Creative Director of Jil Sander [owned by PRADA group] and designs his own label.

Stefano Pilati worked under Tom Ford at YSL until Ford's departure in 2004 and was then made Creative Director. However there have been countless rumours and specualtion that Pilati is difficult to work with and that his days may be numbered at YSL, all denied by the senior management of the company.

New boy on the block Olivier Rousteing a mere 25 yrs old was catapulted into the post of Creative Director at Balmain [April 2011] following the removal due to health problems with his predecessor Christophe Decarnin.

Phoebe Philo who in 2001 replaced Stella McCartney as Creative Director of Chloe has subsequently made her mark at the House of CELINE where she is currently Creative Director.

Joanna Sykes was appointed Design Director of British heritage brand Aquascutum in May 2010 replacing design duo Michael herz and Graeme Fidler who have now moved to head up design at BALLY.

Claire Waight Keller having been Creative Director at Pringle of Scotland since May 2010 resigned for personal reasons and was then appointed Creative Director of Chloe in May 2011 replacing Hannah MacGibbon who had also been ex Chloe.

Any Colour as long as it's Blue- Menswear Spring11-12

Images courtesy of Tommy Ton -GQ.com

Strolling around Florence, Milan, Paris and London this Summer there was definitely a myriad of Blues in menswear! The colour ran from light, chambray, sea, mid, royal and navy with the entire spectrum of blue in between. The nautical inspiration was prevalent but relaxed tailoring in cotton, lightweight twills, denim, and linen all featured heavily. jackets worked in a relaxed formality worn with denim jeans and with tailored shorts, as well as splashes of colour with bright cotton twill jeans. Multi patterned and tone on tone elbow patches also worked well as did under-collar linings and trims.

.

MARNI for H&M Collaboration - Spring 2012

Fashion Editors and dedicated followers of fashion sat bolt upright today on the news of the next H&M collaboration- MARNI. In fact the Twitterverse was aglow today with retweets at the first glimpses of the video and new pieces. Created by Consuelo Castiglioni the MARNI label has always been considered as a sort of the anti-fashion, fashion label, that set itself apart from the mainstream designers brands. Its focus on collage style, print on print, colour-blocked aesthetic, often in rather complex or boxy shapes has been its trademark! 'Under the radar', 'elusive', 'hard to find' are some of the terms used to describe this brand by those in the 'fashion-know'. It is quite a surprise then to read that founder and creative director Castiglioni has taken the golden shilling and thrown her lot in with H&M- mega-fast fashion chain, to collaborate on a S/S12 capsule collection due to launch worldwide in March 2012.

It also begs the question who the ultimate winner will be in yet another High Street/Designer collaboration? The consumer, H&M, MARNI? My money has to be on H&M who have positioned their brand alongside some of the most enterprising fashion brands in recent years- Lanvin, Jimmy Choo, Matthew Williamson and more recently Versace.

With the ink hardly dry on the Versace contract or even proper Press images of the entire collection released yet, it does beg the question why MARNI and why so soon after the Versace collab?

Fast Fashion is not having a good time and retail is having a rather challenging time in the current economic climate, so H&M are rather cleverly keeping their brand in the spotlight as much as they can and why wouldn't they. For a relatively small [by H&M standards] investment, these collaborations do two things, they create unprecedented online activity - think Twitter, Facebook et al about the brands in question and more importantly it drives both new and existing H&M customers into the stores - more footfall results in more impulse purchases even if the customer will not buy the MARNI print [as it may be too edgy] they will more than likely buy something else in the store, so a win-win for H&M! Add to this the global exposure for the H&M brand when fashion editors, business journalists, fashion bloggers all write about the news of yet another collab. This must be worth hundreds of millions of pounds worth of marketing and brand exposure for H&M- not bad eh?

The exposure for MARNI to a more mainstream audience might have an impact on MARNI sales for this season or in the short term, but can it really impact significantly on the sales given the rather high price points the MARNI mainline collection commands- I suspect not. Then consider the brand ethos and careful positioning that the MARNI label has striven to achieve since its creation and whether or not it will lose some of its shine when the brand becomes associated with a fast-fashion high street chain such as H&M. I guess only time will tell!

.

Coach - Bond Street, London Flagship Store.

Images Copyright David Watts

I attended an event this week at the Coach Inc Bond Street Flagship store in London and experienced first hand the latest ranges for men and women. I have always been a fan of Coach buying it when on trips to the USA, but it is a brand that had never really crossed the Atlantic until recent years. They did have a small retail site on Upper Sloane Street about 7 years ago but it was a very limited and tiny offering that really did not promote the range of the brand. In 1999 Fashion Designer Reed Krakoff joined the company as President and Executive Creative Director to oversee all product design. Under his creative leadership Coach has transformed both it's product offering and brand strategy which has resulted in phenomenal sales growth in recent years. This has certainly been addressed in the Bond Street store design which is a temple to clean lines and neutral palette of putty, taupe, sand with flashes of red accent walls that perfectly complements the luxe leather goods. The address of the Bond Street store is Number 41 which coincidentally is the year that the business was founded [1941] - lucky happenstance perhaps? There is also an exclusive product range of a Tote and Weekend Bag called '41' which is only available at the London Bond St store.

I do feel that some of the product lines are very American market focussed and I feel that Coach are missing a trick by not developing product specifically for the EU market. European customers have a different taste level to that of our U.S cousins and some of the womenswear is a tad too 'girly' and 'fussy', with way too much hardware. Simpler, more minimal lines would be better received by both Fashion Editors and consumers alike! Product highlights for me are the butter-soft putty coloured leather tote, and the suede 'converse' style footwear in acid-green and taupe colourways. I suspect I will be sporting a soft leather Tote any day now and Coach are making an interesting addition to the luxury leather goods market in London.

.

Any Colour as long as it's not BLACK- S/S12 Menswear

Images courtesy of GQ.com

The fascination for 'colour' was started last year by the irrepressible Raf Simons for Jil Sander Menswear who presented a rainbow-hued colour palette for the collection at Pitti. Well of course where Mr. Simons leads many others follow namely [Nautica, Marlon Gobel, Richard Chai, Carlos Campos and Michael Bastian] and is reflected in the burst of colour across fashion and accessories for S/S12. Bring it on.......

.

Fashion Imitating Art Imitating Life- Alexander McQueen A/W11 Ceramic Dress

It's not every day that you literally get stopped in your tracks passing a store front and seeing a piece of fashion that transcends anything you have seen before! But it happened to day as I passed the Alexander McQueen Boutique on Bond Street, London.

The dress in question is a piece from the A/W11 collection that comprises of hundreds if not thousands of tiny pieces of painted ceramic that have each been drilled with tiny holes on all sides and then threaded together to create the bodice of this dress- which then goes over a mille-feuille [thousand layers] of engineered pleating and concertinaed organza/chiffon that creates the skirt- totally amazing and worth going to see the store windows for that alone.

Sarah Burton has proven beyond any doubt that she can lead the vanguard of the aesthetic and genius that was Lee McQueen for the next generation of fashion followers!

.

The Rise of Chinese Luxury Brands.

At the end of the Financial year 2011, China accounted for one quarter of the World's Luxury Goods consumption equating to more than $10 billion in sales. China's Luxury market is clearly dominated by international brands but there exists huge opportunities for home-grown Chinese Luxury brands, who have easier access to second, third and fourth tier cities in mainland China which in time will move up in profile and size. This video discusses how some of the Chinese Luxury brands are developing strategies for new products that appeal to the Chinese consumer as well as International markets and some of the challenges they face in the market place today.

.