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Here it is!

When High Fashion Meets High Street

So as previously mentioned a major way fashion is becoming more accessible is through collaborations between luxury designers and fast fashion brands.  The fusion of these two polar fashion worlds has been successful in economic terms, publicity and consumer reach surely increases, however from a communication perspective, the fusion is completely incoherent.

H&M has successfully collaborated with prominent fashion labels that range from Karl Lagerfeld to Stella McCartney to bring high fashion to the masses. Their most recent collaboration - Lanvin for H&M was another worldwide success.  Now, what happens when you combine the two brands together? What you get is the allegiance of two powerhouses – from the opposite spectrum of the fashion bubble.

But what are the implications behind this strategic alliance? For H&M, the collaboration was a no-brainer. For a fast fashion brand that offers affordable trendy clothing that reminds of the catwalk, bringing a renowned luxury designer to design a capsule collection is guaranteed immediate success. Lanvin’s creative mastermind Alber Elbaz’s designs for H&M sold out worldwide in a matter of hours. Fast fashion is all about ownership and consumption – lots and lots of it, because each single item is so cheap. There’s no admiration component at all. For the luxury brand, communicating prestige and status, as well as creating a sense of admiration is everything. When collaborating with fast fashion, an entirely new message is communicated – suddenly a brand that was meant to create luxury and exclusivity is downgraded to “massclusivity”. But what is the consumer really getting? Designer fast fashion collaborations end up costing more to many people because even though they would never buy the original designer, they buy the collaboration pieces. They are a crafty way of luring people to become consumers instead of admirers, of making them spend money on the brand they would never consider buying before because it is out of their range. So we spend more and more and get Made in China that carry a designer tag – a legal knock off.

And what does it mean for a fashion luxury brand like Lanvin? What does it communicate to their current loyal consumers that rely on the brand to offer and image of exclusivity and luxury?  Wearing a Lanvin dress should communicate a lifestyle of stature and elevated taste, but suddenly it is available through mass market channel like H&M with mass market prices and quality. This move from Lanvin communicates the equivalent of a slap in the face to a brand’s highly skilled and specialized tailors, not to mention offending the existing clientele.

Regarding the collaboration with H&M, Elbaz had a few interesting points to make. “I have said in the past that I would never do a mass-market collection, but what intrigued me was the idea of H&M going luxury rather than Lanvin going public.” Regardless of his intentions, by designing a capsule collection for H&M under the Lanvin name, he is in fact making Lanvin seem more accessible to the public. Why is Lanvin wasting its time communicating to the general public when the clientele they are meant to be catering to is very far from the general public - they are the fashion elite. So now we want to know your opinion. Does this collaboration in any way, diminish your perception of Lanvin as a prestigious brand?   

Democracy is the new black

Democracy : from the Greek: δημοκρατία – (dēmokratía) "rule of the people", which was coined from δῆμος (dêmos) "people" and κράτος (Kratos) "power".

People have the power in Fashion, which is not just for the few anymore. It is accessible to everyone to wear, purchase, criticize and celebrate! And this is what we call Fashionalism!

Take a look at your closet. Surely you own at least one designer item (even if their name shares the tag with the H&M logo). Leave it to Fast Fashion to bring you all the latest runway trends in affordable prices. High Fashion designers can only deal with it the way Lanvin or V&R have done with H&M; by giving people some cake.

The good thing about democracy, is that it works both ways. Not only can the mass access luxury, but the elite can dare to go casual too. Celebrities have been spotted mixing high end fashion brands with Gap shirts and Zara shoes, contributing in Fashion's discrimination and supporting the trend of cross-dressing.

 

Events like Fashion Night Out also allow everyday people to get involved and be part of the fashion world. 

And of course there is fashion blogging, which can be considered as the ultimate form of fashion democracy. Anyone can be a model, stylist, photographer and -why not- a fashion icon nowadays, thanks to the internet.

But this is not what we will be doing. This is not yet another regular fashion blog.

We are interested in the various forms of fashion democracy and how they develop. 

And we are just wondering, does this phenomenon have a dark side, besides the obvious bright one? 

Your thoughts will be much appreciated.

Welcome on board!

*** The Marangonians