Anti Fashion!

What is fashion? A cycle, a succession of trends, colors/shapes/materials/prints “of the moment”… But it is also a generic name for the industry of garment, clothing and accessories, apparel, however, we want to call it.

There are a lot of quotes from fashion designers or fashion editors making the distinction between fashion and style, and although I couldn’t agree more with Mrs. Vivienne Westwood or Diana Vreeland's points of view on this, it is not what I want to talk about today.

As it happens, I have just completed an MBA specializing in Global Fashion Management. And I am having a hard time deciding if it makes sense to produce more, sell more, and throw more clothes away, every day. The Rana Plaza tragedy seems like a symbol of everything that is wrong with this industry.

And yet, the two main reasons why I enrolled in this program are that fashion is one of the most challenging industries, marketing and retail-wise, and also that it is a global industry which according to the FashionUnited website was valued at US$1.7 trillion in 2012 and employed approximately 75 million people at that time. So challenging AND growing: Good for my kind of ambition.

I listened to David Bowie’s song “fashion” two days ago and it reminded me of something that has been on my mind for quite some time now. There’s always been a difference between fashion and function. One is about trends and the other is simply about being dressed (so you don’t get cold or arrested). Since the nineteenth century, and the birth of fashion houses like Worth, Dior, or Poiret, fashion has been heavily ritualized and was not for everyone. People who could afford to spend time and money to get dressed by these great names didn’t have to run around to earn a living.

Then it became for everyone. Thanks to Yves Saint Laurent, Courrèges, Pierre Cardin, and others, fashion was also for younger (and still somehow wealthy) people who wanted prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear).

At some point in the 1970s, it became totally normal to follow this rhythm of fashion. Buying the latest trend became a status signal. Trends changed regularly and radically so you would look completely dated if you dared to pull off your trousers from last year. Now all those clothes are making thrift stores really happy.

Of course, democratization is good. Now Zara, Asos or Topshop have made it very easy for us to be trendy and fashionable. Zara is issuing fashionable pieces faster than it takes us to identify what we really want and especially what we really need. Need? Is there still such a thing? Don’t get me wrong, I am like everyone else, I like shopping for clothes, I like the thrill of finding the right fit, the right color, or whatever it is I convinced myself I needed. But just like most people in developed countries, I have more than enough clothes that I don’t actually “need” anything else.

So I am guilty of encouraging this mad race to “More! New! More! New! More!”. And as I destined myself to take my career to fashion, I have to wonder about my responsibility: surely we can’t keep up the way we are, it is probably not sustainable, in this form at least. So what are the solutions? Manufacture less and sell less? I don’t think anti-growth is a sustainable posture either. Growing is a natural thing to do for anything. (Growing and, at some point, dying but I don’t believe we are there yet.) So what kind of growth?

Most high-end houses are trapped in the fashion cycle. They have to issue new collections at least 6 times a year. But by the time the show is over, Zara and Asos’s buyers are sending iPhone pictures of the key pieces to their teams so that 3 weeks after they can sell pieces inspired by Chanel or Gucci, whose clothes will be everywhere in the press, or the internet but nowhere in their own stores. By the time Chanel or Gucci put their own designs in stores, everyone is already tired of this print or that shape.

Enters Tamara Mellon, who with her management and design experience (yes design! read all about it in her book In My Shoes) thought it would be only logical to create something different. Her eponymous brand is offering “versatile, seasonless fashion as well as monthly capsules that are specific to the time of year” for “women who want to buy now, wear now”. In my own words, she sells a style, not trendy fashion. And this is good because it is new (I love new ideas, especially great ones) and it is relevant to the times we live in. Here is why:

Information: The Internet brought us information. It means that consumers are well aware of what suits them, of what they want, what they don’t need, what is their style… They are educated and not that influenceable anymore, they just know better: you don’t sell by claiming your stuff is better, those times are over.

Immediacy: why would someone wait 3 months to buy something she saw on the Dior show on Style.com, only to see it everywhere from Zara to Target in the meantime?

Personality: consumers like exclusive and one-off products. Just look at all those designer collaborations that fly off the shelves: Kate Moss x Topshop, Target x 3.1 Philip Lim, H&M x Isabel Marant… Exclusivity is desirable. Proof that consumer wants to be seen as savvy, unique, “in the know”, with character… These products are made in limited quantities and meant to appeal to a consumer who really desires them. The capsule collection is the way!

Proven track: this is not new. There are already brands that have been around for quite some time now, offering style vs. fashion, and quietly building a following with their distinctive personality: APC for example, is clearly anti-fashion as it is completely off-trend but still relevant. APC carries iconic pieces such as trench coats, jeans, or sneakers, they quietly do capsules with Vanessa Seward or Nike, they build a lifestyle brand (see the music, candles…).

I think anti-fashion might be the beginning of an answer to the sustainability of fashion. If trends don’t rule the fashion world anymore, brand personality will have to take over. And brands with weak or unclear brand positioning will surely disappear to leave room for strong and differentiating brands that create value while keeping things sustainable.