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Showing posts with label fashion business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fashion business. Show all posts
It's always sad to hear about celebrity couples breaking up. And I know, I should probably expect it, relationships in the public spotlight rarely ever last, but still, I get a little bit broken up whenever I hear about a truly great celebrity couple calling it quits. Take Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick: we all knew that that relationship was about as dysfunctional as a dinner party on The Office, but they were cute! They gave us hope! Without their relationship, we never would have been introduced to the glory that is LORD Disick, and seriously, could you imagine a world without that? I, for one, could not. And it's not like I spend that much time thinking about these couples when they are together, but it's just nice to know that they are there, doing their thing, fighting the odds of Hollywood couple survival rates. It's always sad to hear about a celebrity breakup.
When it comes to designer appointment at fashion houses, it's kind of similar to a celebrity relationship, in a way. You're taking two well-known names and pairing them together in the hopes that together, they will create something beautiful. You don't always know if they're going to work out at first. Some pairings at first seem downright boggling (like Raf Simons when he was given the job at Dior, in my humble opinion) but then you come around to seeing how absolutely magical they are together. Some couplings are simply inevitable—Jeremy Scott finally being given the reigns at Moschino was like waiting for Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis to finally get together. But just as it goes with celebrity relationships, designer appointments don't always go over so well. And it's always sad when that time comes.
Some choose to part on friendly terms, like Marc Jacobs did with Louis Vuitton. It was a devastating breakup but it was understandable. Marc pulled the "it's not you, it's me" trick and actually came away looking like a great guy, so props to him. Others are rather tumultuous (John Galliano's infamous departure from Christian Dior comes to mind). Those breakups can get ugly, but it's probably best for everyone involved that the two part ways.
But sometimes, there's a designer-fashion house breakup that comes out of left field, with little to no warning or explanation, that leaves you asking why. Why did this happen? What went wrong? How could we not see this coming? That breakup is, of course, the one between Alexander Wang and the house of Balenciaga.
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| A look from the Fall 2015 Balenciaga runway show |
And yet, I didn't find myself absolutely hating the collections Wang produced for Balenciaga. In fact, his past two collections were among my collection highlights, with Fall 2015 really showing him coming into his stride at the fashion house. The clothes haven't been as revolutionary as they were when Nicholas Ghesquiere was at the helm, but they have been perfectly delightful nevertheless, and I actually thought things were going quite well for the Balenciaga brand. Sales have increased and the brand has been getting a lot of press thanks to celebrity fans. Wang's hip status has no doubt helped to youth-enize the brand. So it's not like he was a total failure or a business bomb. Financially, Balenciaga is doing fine.
If we must speculate, I'm going to pin it on personal decisions. Perhaps Balenciaga just wasn't the right fit for Wang, or perhaps he felt he should be focusing his efforts on his own namesake brand. As is the case with all publicized breakups, we may never know the truth, but no matter what the reasons for this particular breakup, it is sad. Hopefully Balenciaga can bounce back and find a partner who can treat her right and give her everything she deserves (I don't know why the Balenciaga brand is female, just go with me on this). As for Wang, this is a tough time but I think with some self-discovery and deep thinking he'll be able to bounce back. This breakup is sad, but we must look forward into the future and hope for the best. And if Alexander Wang can't satisfy Balenciaga, dare we ask who will be stepping up to the plate next?
Alexander Wang will show one final collection for Balenciaga at Paris Fashion Week next month. Let's hope it's a good swan song.
What are your thoughts on the Alexander Wang-Balenciaga split? Who should replace Wang?
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| Images via WWD and Kate Spade Saturday |
The other night, my little sister in the sorority posted this article on my Facebook timeline, and when I read it I was upset but not at all shocked. Kate Spade Saturday, the younger, mod sister of Kate Spade New York, just announced that they are closing all stores and reworking their online retail business. This comes only weeks after clothing brands/retailers C. Wonder and Piperlime announced they were shutting down operations, and other companies like Gap and J. Crew are going through major business changes. With a new midpoint clothing retailer shutting down what feels like every other week, the question begs to be asked: what is the fashion business doing wrong?
I'll give you a moment to think about that question, because it's a difficult one to answer. After all, the economy is doing well once again and luxury retailers are finally seeing profits after a few years of a recession. If Prada can make money, why couldn't Juicy Couture?
To be fair, it's easy to figure out where Saturday and C. Wonder could have gone wrong. Saturday only launched a mere two years ago and in that time span opened 32 brick and mortar stores. That's a lot of expenses to burn on a budding brand where you don't know if it will be successful or not. And Saturday wasn't really meant to be a permanent brand; originally it was going to be a Kate Spade x Target collaboration, then a pop-up store, but editorial praise for the brand encouraged Kate Spade to expand the Saturday brand into a full-fledged sister line (perhaps a little too rapidly, though, in retrospect). C. Wonder, on the other hand, was always pegged as a revenge brand and compared to Tory Burch (Tory's ex-husband J. Christopher Burch was C. Wonder's founder, btw).
With both brands, overexpansion seems to be the culprit, paired with mediocre quality and a lack of strong advertising (when I texted my mom last night to tell her the news about Saturday, she responded, "It never got much play. Not well advertised..." Agreed, Mom. Agreed.) Still, given that these stores didn't even exist five years ago, it feels like these brands never really had much of a chance to prove themselves or rework their brand if they were failing.
Piperlime is a different story, however. With only one flagship store in New York, you cannot blame the high cost of maintaining physical stores for the online retailer's demise. One would think that the cost of maintaining an online clothing store would be minimal, but when a company fails to produce a sizeable profit (of all the Gap-owned brands, Piperlime made the least money) it doesn't matter how minimal the costs of maintaining a website is when it's unsuccessful.
Regardless of how and why these different brands shut down, there's a lot of uncertainty moving forward if you are a midpoint clothing brand. Is it the end of the preppy clothing store? The offshoot brand? Where does fashion go from here? The concept of Saturday or C. Wonder—cute, fun clothes for affordable prices—seems smart, especially with the case of Saturday, since many people find Kate Spade New York clothes cute but too expensive for what they are, but these brands are created to make money, not be all that critically successful. When you create a brand as a diffusion line or a way to piss off your ex-wife, your foundations may not be as solid as a brand with years of planning and gradual growth. If your diffusion line isn't successful after a few years, it's easier to just cut your loses and focus on the main brand. The same goes for Piperlime; Gap isn't going to keep holding on to a product that isn't financially successful. Even though Piperlime is it's own entity, it is essentially a diffusion line of Gap.
From Juicy Couture and Abercrombie & Fitch to Kate Spade Saturday and C. Wonder, midpoint fashion retailers need to sell, and if they aren't churning out a sizeable profit, there's no point of maintaining a failing business. Brands that are still in business are reevaluating their business strategies (J. Crew hopes to lower prices and Gap just got rid of their creative director role) in the wake of all these closures.
High fashion and couture can get away with lower numbers because they are luxury goods for a select market; that's the point. Clothes that are created for the masses, however, aren't here to innovate the fashion industry, they exist only to clothes the masses and make money. I guess, the bottom line is the bottom line. If you're made to be sold to everybody and not everyone is buying, what's the point?
If you're still a bit confused about the latest fashion retailer news, this article does a good job of trying to explain the craziness of the retail fashion industry.
What do you think about the recent wave of brand closures? What is the future of the midpoint fashion retailer?
With both brands, overexpansion seems to be the culprit, paired with mediocre quality and a lack of strong advertising (when I texted my mom last night to tell her the news about Saturday, she responded, "It never got much play. Not well advertised..." Agreed, Mom. Agreed.) Still, given that these stores didn't even exist five years ago, it feels like these brands never really had much of a chance to prove themselves or rework their brand if they were failing.
Piperlime is a different story, however. With only one flagship store in New York, you cannot blame the high cost of maintaining physical stores for the online retailer's demise. One would think that the cost of maintaining an online clothing store would be minimal, but when a company fails to produce a sizeable profit (of all the Gap-owned brands, Piperlime made the least money) it doesn't matter how minimal the costs of maintaining a website is when it's unsuccessful.
 |
| image via WWD |
From Juicy Couture and Abercrombie & Fitch to Kate Spade Saturday and C. Wonder, midpoint fashion retailers need to sell, and if they aren't churning out a sizeable profit, there's no point of maintaining a failing business. Brands that are still in business are reevaluating their business strategies (J. Crew hopes to lower prices and Gap just got rid of their creative director role) in the wake of all these closures.
High fashion and couture can get away with lower numbers because they are luxury goods for a select market; that's the point. Clothes that are created for the masses, however, aren't here to innovate the fashion industry, they exist only to clothes the masses and make money. I guess, the bottom line is the bottom line. If you're made to be sold to everybody and not everyone is buying, what's the point?
If you're still a bit confused about the latest fashion retailer news, this article does a good job of trying to explain the craziness of the retail fashion industry.
What do you think about the recent wave of brand closures? What is the future of the midpoint fashion retailer?
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