Discussions about the fashion industry thread

[jah786]

big thanks to @dieworkwear for showing me this thread. I'm fascinated by what's going on in retail these days, there is something majorly wrong, the tectonic plates have shifted and it has been particularly hard on bigger American retailer/brands that i think of as "big dumb american fashion". they seem totally inept at figuring out how to survive the new landscape. there seem to be many small reasons why it's all going to **** for some and not others but there's no elegant summary out there, at least not one i have read. These brands lack something big...compelling design? relative value? lack of provenance or uniqueness? too many stores that have nothing substantive to offer that you can't get on the web? all of it?

to bring it closer to my own experience, I've been pondering what a physical store for my own brand would look like and it would not be a mirror of our website. To be successful we need to curate an experience that can interrupt someone's life for at least 2 hrs, that you would plan to make a weekend trip for. it would be ~30% AT goods and 70% others, including other fashion brands and lifestyle goods. it would also contain some food component and maybe hair cutting or something else. There need to be at least 3 things - e.g. clothing, lifestyle goods, and coffee/food. the best example for this is ABC Home in Manhatten. you can go there for hours. it is a self contained world that also now has (2) food concepts, ABC kitchen and the new one they just opened. Tanner goods just opened a bar in their Portland, OR flagship. the future of retail is not about retail, it's about providing entertainment and escape. the biggest issue for a small brand like mine is that this vision is not cheap - it would require a large investment to build it out and staff it up. It would be a risk for sure. It's the opposite of renting a cheap store front in philly (our home) and sticking our stuff in it.

 

[gdl203]

^ look at a store like Merci in Paris. It's nothing special, the brands they sell are easy to find elsewhere, but (a) they took a page from the H&M book by regularly changing the floor plan and creating special thematic or brand-focused corners, (b) they sell all sorts of curiosities, knick-knacks and unrelated stuff, and (c) you can eat there and there's a little bit of a cool factor to be seen at the communal tables eating your kale salad.

The result is that people keep going back. I know people who stop by Merci pretty much once a week. That's unheard of. It reminds me of when there used to be record stores - I (and everyone else) would keep coming back. I would just drop by Tower Records or Virgin to see what's new, listen to some new albums, and often leave with something. None of what's there was exclusive to that store, but there was a bit of a ritual to go see what's new.

 

[jah786]

^ look at a store like Merci in Paris.

I've never been to Paris (sadly) but if i do, i will be sure to stop at Merci.

 

[Slin]

Interesting thread !!

 

[jah786]

Here are two articles about J.Crew from both WSJ and NYT. Given what i know now about PR now, i find it very unlikely that the times and the journal were both thinking about J.Crew at the same time. much more likely that J.Crew put out a press release about its missteps and what it plans to do. The NYT article was focused on clothing, and pulled no punches. the WSJ article was more about the macro issues involving J.Crew and seemed to hold out a glimmer of hope that the merchant prince would turn it around.

NYT - what happened to J.Crew

this was on front page of WSJ, Thursday 5/25
"J.Crew’s Mickey Drexler Confesses: I Underestimated How Tech Would Upend Retail
https://www.wsj.com/articles/j-crews-big-miss-how-technology-transformed-retail-1495636817

the thing that is most swept under the rug to me is the issue debt. Mickey Drexler took the company private in a massive leveraged buyout which if everything had gone right would have led to plans to go public again or sell it self to a bigger entity like Fast Retailing (Uniqlo). these machinations had nothing to do with making clothing and were solely about wringing money out of the investment banking system. That assumed everything would go right. but J.Crew's overall strategy was on the cusp on failing spectacularly. the amount of debt that Mickey Drexler put on the company makes it very difficult for them to pivot away from the old vision. the debt is what brought on the death spiral and that was entirely self inflicted.

 

[NGOStudio]

Here are two articles about J.Crew from both WSJ and NYT. Given what i know now about PR now, i find it very unlikely that the times and the journal were both thinking about J.Crew at the same time. much more likely that J.Crew put out a press release about its missteps and what it plans to do. The NYT article was focused on clothing, and pulled no punches. the WSJ article was more about the macro issues involving J.Crew and seemed to hold out a glimmer of hope that the merchant prince would turn it around.

NYT - what happened to J.Crew

this was on front page of WSJ, Thursday 5/25
"J.Crew’s Mickey Drexler Confesses: I Underestimated How Tech Would Upend Retail
https://www.wsj.com/articles/j-crews-big-miss-how-technology-transformed-retail-1495636817

the thing that is most swept under the rug to me is the issue debt. Mickey Drexler took the company private in a massive leveraged buyout which if everything had gone right would have led to plans to go public again or sell it self to a bigger entity like Fast Retailing (Uniqlo). these machinations had nothing to do with making clothing and were solely about wringing money out of the investment banking system. That assumed everything would go right. but J.Crew's overall strategy was on the cusp on failing spectacularly. the amount of debt that Mickey Drexler put on the company makes it very difficult for them to pivot away from the old vision. the debt is what brought on the death spiral and that was entirely self inflicted.

J.Crew might just become another BeBe. I don't see my friends talk about buying there as much. I went in there and could not pick anything since the fabric of most items does not uphold the pricetag.

 

[dieworkwear]

Haven't listened, but here's a podcast about the fashion industry (seemingly). Looks interesting.

https://loosethreads.com/

Found via Leanluxe, which is a great fashion-industry focused newsletter, if you're not already subscribed.

http://leanluxe.com/

 

[cadmonkey]

Thanks for sharing that pod^^. Just bookmarked that one and the Steven Alan episode for my next train ride.

Not sure if the blamo! pod has been mentioned, but I'd recommend that one as well.

 

[dieworkwear]

Thanks for sharing that pod^^. Just bookmarked that one and the Steven Alan episode for my next train ride.

Not sure if the blamo! pod has been mentioned, but I'd recommend that one as well.

Blamo is great. Highsnobiety has a really good pod nowadays as well, but like Blamo, is more orientated towards enthusiasts.

http://www.highsnobiety.com/podcasts/

They don't update very often anymore though.

 

[jah786]

just read an interesting essay in the may issue of Monocle magazine on global menswear. the author quotes a source saying that 85% of global fashion sales still come from physical stores. Given the relentless growth of online shopping, i find that number to be surprisingly low. in one of the J.Crew articles (see two posts ago), M.Drexler said that 50% of J.Crew revenue was now online. The author uses this 85% number to justify the investment in b&m but with the caveat that the in-person experience must be "good enough to justify putting away the laptop and getting off the couch; the mere act of purchasing is not enough. Online has taken over the role of transactional shopping."

I think that last bit, that online has taken over the role of transactional shopping, is very true if the in person experience is basically a mirror image of the same brand's website.

 

[clee1982]

Thought retailer initially tried to control the experience by showing what's online vs. B&M (and different sale), but looks like the current trend is putting everything online and homogenize sales between B&M and online.

 

[jah786]

Haven't listened, but here's a podcast about the fashion industry (seemingly). Looks interesting.

https://loosethreads.com/

Found via Leanluxe, which is a great fashion-industry focused newsletter, if you're not already subscribed.

http://leanluxe.com/

both of these are fantastic, thanks for sharing. the loosethreads interview with Steven Alan is great. leanluxe is a great t alternative to BoF, which is itself great, but i like that leanluxe seems to have a different focus.

 

[jah786]

from BoF (business of fashion):
Luxury's Generation Gap
"Millennials will account for 45 percent of the luxury market by 2025, but their values and spending habits are at odds with the business models of many traditional brands...[]...This presents a challenge for many brands, however, as traditional business models do not accommodate millennials' values and expectations.

In the past, a luxury brand’s goal was to create a superior product that encapsulated ideals of exclusivity and aspiration. Now, brands must consider the values of the millennial generation, for whom community, authenticity, and transparency play an important part in how they purchase luxury goods."
---
I find this very interesting because intuitively I have felt for some time (based on my own experience) that there is a massive generational divide from what these two groups expect from their brands. I see it from my own customers which are mostly millenials. I also see it on the wholesale side where traditional menswear retailers and bigger luxury department stores have a locked relationship with brands of old that hold no interest or meaning to me or my customers.

---

 

[cadmonkey]

Re: aspirations/exclusivity

Came across this today and thought it was ironic in regards to the 'placeless aesthetic' thing.
The part in question: "Aspiration for me wasn't about money, it was about being somebody, standing for something, being an individual."

On topic, I fall into this peer group but it's hard to generalize. In your 20s you have a vague plan and just kind of take whatever comes at you. In 2025, most of this group will be in their 30s or approaching there. I think the values will shift.

Another thing too, is I don't see a clear line in the sand where any particular individual stands. Meaning there are people on both sides of the extremes and then a large portion in the middle that are kind of undecided. I see this in terms of career prospects, clothing, food, you name it. Reading up on trend reports earlier this year there were a number of people saying the future of Menswear won't see another big "heritage " or "athleisure" movement, rather they would sort of coexist in smaller groups. So again, a wide variety of interests that don't really all work together.

 

[LA Guy]

just read an interesting essay in the may issue of Monocle magazine on global menswear. the author quotes a source saying that 85% of global fashion sales still come from physical stores. Given the relentless growth of online shopping, i find that number to be surprisingly low. in one of the J.Crew articles (see two posts ago), M.Drexler said that 50% of J.Crew revenue was now online. The author uses this 85% number to justify the investment in b&m but with the caveat that the in-person experience must be "good enough to justify putting away the laptop and getting off the couch; the mere act of purchasing is not enough. Online has taken over the role of transactional shopping."

I think that last bit, that online has taken over the role of transactional shopping, is very true if the in person experience is basically a mirror image of the same brand's website.

The 15% number, globally, does not surprise me that much. It wasn't that long ago that fashion being sold online, even in North America, would be been considered very risky, and much of the world does not have the same degree of infrastructure as the USA. That said, in 2011, only 10% of our traffic was mobile, and now a good 45-50%, on any given day, is. The world changes quite rapidly. Our traffic is going to be a trend leader, because of our demographic, but others will certainly follow.