In Review 2023: Top 10 fashion features
As 2024 looms ahead, TheIndustry.fashion has curated a list of the top ten feature articles from 2023. The list reflects cultural fashion movements, from Barbiecore to quiet luxury, as well as retail shifts, such as trends in luxury resale and the evolution of department stores.
In My View by Eric Musgrave: Vivienne Westwood’s best creation was herself
In midsummer 1988 in a textile mill in the Scottish Borders I watched Vivienne Westwood flick through a large pile of tweed, check and tartan cloth swatches. It was the time when her collections favoured bold Scottish tweeds, as might have been worn by a slightly tipsy Miss Marple.
After poking about among the considerable selection in front of her, she said to the group of journos with her, in her distinctive Derbyshire accent, “Oh, this is confusing. Why don’t you lot pick something out for me?”
Read more here.
A timeline of Victoria Beckham's path to profit
In March, it was revealed that Victoria Beckham’s eponymous label has finally turned a profit.
From launching at New York Fashion Week to moving to London, Victoria Beckham has struggled to turn a profit since the company's inception. The brand finally made its way into the black, in conjunction with its first presentation at Paris Fashion Week. Third time proved to be the charm. But, was the boost in sales thanks to the clothes on the runway or the simultaneous beauty campaign?
TheIndustry.fashion examined the peaks and troughs of Victoria Beckham's namesake label, revealing why it took 13 years to turn a profit.
Fashion brands say "Hi Barbie" with new collaborative collections
In the run-up to the release of Warner Bros’ long-awaited Barbie movie - starring Margo Robbie as the protagonist and Ryan Gosling as Ken – global retailers jumped on the Barbie bandwagon with all pink, logo-clad collaborative collections.
Shoppers stepped into Barbie's world with apparel, accessories, jewellery and shoes. Whether they have been lifelong fans of the iconic doll, or they're fans of anything pink, customers tapped into their 'Kenergy' with the ongoing slew of fashion collaborations.
TheIndustry.fashion put together a round-up of the recent Barbie-themed launches from fashion brands in the UK. Those fueling the 'Barbiecore' trend include Gap, Primark, Zara, Kipling and more.
Luxury fashion's top 50 social winners and what we can learn from them
Gucci may have decided it needed a change of guard as creative chief at the start of this year (the Kering flagship brand replaced star designer Alessandro Michele with the little-known Sabato De Sarno of Valentino signalling a new, perhaps less exuberant, direction) but it still easily topped the charts when it came to the luxury fashion social media winners over the past 12 months.
Influencer marketing platform CreatorIQ measures social success for brands, using its unique EMV (Earned Media Value) metric and, on behalf of TheIndustry.fashion, it has compiled the below list of the Top 50 most successful luxury fashion brands on social media. Gucci achieved a whopping $392.3 million worth of social media value, comfortably ahead of LVMH's Dior which came in second with $351.1 million.
Suppliers and staff left out of pocket following the collapse of Julien Macdonald
Suppliers and workers, from seamstresses to stylists, have been left out of pocket after Julien Macdonald’s debt-ridden label was forced into liquidation. The fashion label reportedly owes several hundred thousand pounds to creditors. Even Barclays Bank have been left in the lurch after supplying a £33,000 Bounce Back Loan after the pandemic.
In late July, the news broke that Julien Macdonald's fashion label was the next fashion victim forced into liquidation during unstable economic times. Alan Coleman and Marco Piacquadio were appointed joint liquidators to the fashion brand. At the time, on 23 July, Liquidators FTS Recovery confirmed that they were selling Julien Macdonald stock and other assets to seek repayment from creditors.
Are high heels finally dead? Or have we hit peak 'ugly flat'?
Joke or not, Victoria Beckham posing in her comic-sized Crocs x MSCHF boots has caused a social sensation. The former pop star turned fashion designer is famous for her stilettos, once famously running on a treadmill in her trademark high heels. From her Gucci-obsessed Spice Girl days to her more demure present, she has been one of the biggest advocates for keeping the skyscraper heel high.
Head up, leg out and wearing a black dress, Beckham somehow pulls it off in her bright yellow Crocs collab with the American art collective based in Brooklyn, MSCHF. The boots dropped on 9 August via a quickfire 24-hour draw. They are currently on StockX for nearly £1,500.
What does this signify for the wider footwear market? Well, if Beckham has caved into wearing an ugly flat - she once said she'd "rather die" than wear Crocs - then anything goes.
Does ‘Quiet Luxury’ mark the end of logomania and the lazy luxury collaboration?
When Naomi Klein wrote her late ‘90s seminal book, No Logo, it opened the world’s eyes to brands and their bullying tactics. The book looked at the globalisation of brands, their growth and the power they were wielding.
Fast-forward over 20 years and we learnt nothing, brands are even bigger and monopolise the market even more so, particularly in fashion. Giant conglomerates like LVMH, Kering and Richemont control everything from retail to online to marketing, making their brands bigger and bigger.
But then ‘Quiet Luxury’ came along. Describing the logo-free, Succession-like power dressing of baby cashmere and vicuña with 4 figure price tags, according to Google Trends data, searches for 'Quiet Luxury' exploded in the past year by 614%.
What happened to the branded men’s market?
The men’s branded market is bracing itself for a flurry of closures. It was recently confirmed that Woodhouse Clothing would be shutting after nearly 50 years, alongside its discount designer site, Brown Bag. Both owned by the parent Clothingsites Group, Woodhouse was a stalwart of 1980s and 1990s men’s designer fashion.
Times are getting tougher for the men’s branded market. While the men’s branded stores have continued to service its original customers, many of whom are now in their 40s and 50s, they haven’t kept pace with younger generations. The branded offer isn’t directional or niche enough for the new wave of younger, savvy menswear consumers. This has played out in the popularity and expansion of larger chains like Flannels and USC, taking higher fashion to Britain’s high streets and offering larger ranges with more labels to suit a broader range of tastes. Fashion for Instagram rather than the pub.
The Department Store Re-imagined: A new lease of life for one of the oldest retail formats
Department stores changed the way we shopped forever. Instead of products being hidden away on shelves or in drawers behind a counter that served as a barrier between the customer and the merchandise, department stores encouraged people to touch products, browse and dwell in-store. This turned shopping from a chore into a pastime.
The arrival of out-of-town shopping in the 60s and 70s led to many disappearing and large chains such as Debenhams and House of Fraser took over many former independent stores. But some big names prevailed, in particular the luxury players such as Selfridges, Liberty, Harrods and Harvey Nichols. But they too were challenged in the early 2000s when online shopping arrived and players such as Matchesfashion and Net-A-Porter made a direct play for the luxury department store shopper.
Luxury resale: will the gold rush last?
A recent visit to a suburb just outside Southampton, Hampshire, in an aged, 1990s-looking shopping centre, revealed an independent family jewellers full of gold bangles and diamond rings glittering under the intense lighting. Further along the large shop window is an extensive collection of bags; an unusual addition to a traditional jewellers’ display.
By placing these bags together with gold and diamonds the store is cementing the idea that luxury resale is an asset class of its own in consumers’ minds and just as constant and stable. Luxury resale or preowned has got to a peak where it is being promoted as safe an investment as gold. Is this sustainable or could we witness a market crash?
