NEW YORK, United States — Fashion brands are finally getting serious about digital media. But so far, their strategies have mostly focused on marketing and communications initiatives like interactive advertising campaigns, fashion films and live-streamed runway shows. Integrating digital technology into the core product offering remains a largely unexploited area of opportunity. Here, fashion companies [...]
NEW YORK, United States — Over the past ten years, the eco-fashion movement has been gathering steam. Following the lead of pioneering brands like Stella McCartney and NOIR, which were founded on the basis of ethical principles near the turn of the millennium, there are now entire fashion exhibitions, forums and blogs all focused on [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — Fashion editorial has long been a powerful generator of purchasing intent for brands. But ‘intent generators’ like magazines often lose their fair share of sales revenue to ‘intent harvesters’ like retailers further down the purchasing path. Squeezed by shrinking ad sales, major publishers like Condé Nast have become increasingly aware of [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — On recent trips home to Canada, much to my dismay, I have struggled to find local fashion stories to share on BoF. Yes, Canada has a history of superstar models, and occasionally there is a retailer like Brian Hill of Aritzia or a young designer like Rad Hourani who captures my [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — Each year, more than 4,000 design students graduate from fashion colleges across the UK. But there are only about 500 new jobs available for them, leaving thousands of young designers to move abroad or start their own labels. The vast majority of these have absolutely no business training whatsoever.
For Thomas [...]
NEW YORK, United States — As we emerge from the ruins of a deep recession, where are wealthy consumers shopping most? An analysis of online traffic statistics for February 2009 to February 2010, gathered from Google Ad Planner, reveals some interesting traffic trends, although these are only based on estimates.
The Numbers
Macys.com attracts more visitors with [...]
With smartphone adoption rates higher than ever, there has recently been a flurry of activity from fashion brands focused on developing and deploying mobile applications. Today, luxury brands like Hermès, Chanel and Gucci have mobile apps for Apple’s popular iPhone. But far less attention has been paid to developing Mobile Web sites. In this [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — It’s official and finally confirmed. Net-a-Porter, the world’s pioneering and leading luxury ecommerce retailer has been acquired by Richemont, which was already the largest shareholder in Net-a-Porter prior to the announcement of the transaction this morning, valuing the business at a whopping £350m.
Natalie Massenet, Net-a-Porter’s Founder and Executive Chairman has long [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — The passing of Alexander McQueen and the future of his namesake brand provided the defining background narrative of the Autumn/Winter 2010 collections. Everywhere a fashionista went, in every conversation, at every show, party and presentation, the ghost of Alexander McQueen seemed to linger as the industry struggled to come to terms [...]
PARIS, France — Last week, Thierry Mugler and Clarins Fragrance Group launched a major campaign under the banner “Womanity.” They have also registered the “Womanity” trademark in a number of product categories. There’s just one thing missing: there’s no product. At least, not yet.
At the center of the initiative is womanity.com, a content site “powered [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — It was billed as the world’s first truly global fashion show, taking place on the penultimate day of London Fashion Week, beamed live in 3D to five global cities, and streamed to the rest of the world via 73 websites, including Vogue, Grazia and CNN, which all picked up the video [...]
NEW YORK , United States — In recent quarters, online sales were the only bright patch in a grim luxury retail landscape. But interestingly, in January of 2009, LVMH-owned eLuxury announced that it would cease e-commerce operations entirely and relaunch as a luxury destination focused completely on content.
Fast-forward one year and the luxury industry still [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — As the fashion industry continues its march into the digital age, London — always known for its raw creativity and emerging talent — can now add digital innovation to that list.
This is no overnight story. To the contrary, it’s taken ten years for fashion players here to plant seeds which are only beginning to [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — One of the first fashion shows I ever attended was the Alexander McQueen show for Spring/Summer 2007, staged in the round at the Cirque D’Hiver in Paris. Jonathan Akeroyd, the affable CEO of McQueen, was kind enough to grant my cheeky request for an invitation, and he even let me bring [...]
TOKYO, Japan — After several years of “will they or won’t they” speculation, American casual fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch finally opened its first retail store in Japan this past December. The 11-story shop in Tokyo’s upscale Ginza neighbourhood is just steps away from Uniqlo’s flagship store and Swedish fast fashion brand H&M.
As with every [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — A veritable firestorm erupted across fashion blogs and twitter streams this week in response to an article that appeared in London’s Independent newspaper over the weekend, highlighting Tavi Gevinson’s front row presence at the Haute Couture shows in Paris.
In a piece entitled “Fluff flies as fashion writers pick a cat fight [...]
FLORENCE, Italy — In the world of menswear, January is a full-on month of trade fairs and fashion shows. The super-charged schedule of activities begins with Pitti Uomo, continues on to Milan where mega Italian brands like Gucci, Prada and Armani unveil their collections, and concludes with a bang in Paris, where established Parisian fashion [...]
MUMBAI, India — According to Forbes, India has the fastest-growing population of millionaires in the world. But for Western luxury brands operating in the country, grabbing a piece of the market has proven more difficult than anticipated and many are in the process of re-conceiving their India strategies.
Part of the problem is that Western luxury [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — It’s that time of year again. With over one million pageviews on BoF in 2009, it’s time to take stock of the year that was in a retrospective of the most popular articles from The Business of Fashion.
Needless to say, 2009 was the year of social media in fashion and our [...]
VANCOUVER, Canada — In what has become an annual tradition here on BoF, we wish you the best for the holiday season (and in line with our veritable obsession with internet technologies) by sharing the most colourful and creative e-greetings we have received from readers all over the world.
As the fashion industry takes a break [...]
JAIPUR, India — As we head into the festive season, we thought we’d bring a bit of sparkle into your holiday, courtesy of Fanny Boucher of India-based Honorine Jewels.
After spending a few years in the jewelry industry in Jaipur, the Pink city and capital of princely Rajasthan, India’s most colourful state, Boucher began [...]
As 032c prepares to mark its tenth anniversary and moves into a new office designed by Arno Brandlhuber/ b&k+, BoF sat down with the magazine’s founder, editor and creative director Joerg Koch to discuss the inner workings and future plans of his title. While there’s no formula for the unique circumstances and hard work that [...]
NEW YORK, United States — First video killed the radio star, now digital video appears poised to kill off the still photographer.
Armed with HD digital video that’s ever-higher in quality, photographers can now shoot moving images with the crispness and clarity of still photos. This raises an interesting dilemma for image-makers across art, fashion and [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — The majority of luxury brands have spent the past fifteen years investing in retail networks in both established and emerging luxury markets. Flagship stores, one more extravagant than the last, were built in Tokyo, New York, Paris, and Beijing. The design directive for these spaces was singular and focused, [...]
LONDON, United Kingdom — Last night on X-Factor, one of the most popular shows in British television history, Lady Gaga laid down the digital pop star gauntlet again, dressed in Gareth Pugh’s fantastical creations from Spring/Summer 2007 while performing Bad Romance, the first release from her second album The Fame Monster. The song originally debuted [...]