Hedi Slimane | Source: Limite

The Future Of Fashion, Part Three: Hedi Slimane (Style.com)
“[Slimane] has been both an insider (as, among other things, the highly influential designer of Dior Homme from 2000 to 2007) and an outsider… Here, he discusses today’s ‘costly and overwhelming fashion avalanche’.”

House of Fraser eyes Middle East expansion (FT)
“House of Fraser is set to announce plans to expand into the Middle East, as the department store chain aims to expand its customer base by taking advantage of demand for designer brands in the region.”

Designers embrace power of fashion’s blogging crowd (Reuters)
“Designers are embracing a growing crowd of internet-savvy fashion followers taking catwalk glamour beyond the coveted front row, with many young creators welcoming a trend they say brings them closer to consumers.”

Carolina Herrera opens new store in London (Telegraph)
“‘This is our fourth CH boutique,’ explains Herrera of the brand’s first London shop, ‘and we have another 18 opening around the world this year. We’re going global.’”

Gucci to launch heritage ad campaign (Drapers)
“The advertisements play on the brand’s heritage with images of workers in Gucci’s Florentine factory in the 1950s. The pictures, taken from Gucci’s archive, emphasise the history of the brand.”

Alexander McQueen for Puma | Source: Puma

PPR to sell lower-margin retail units (FT)
“PPR, the French retail conglomerate headed by billionaire François-Henri Pinault, plans to dispose of retail businesses that generate 70 per cent of group sales to focus on clothing and accessories brands within its luxury Gucci Group and Puma, the sports wear company.”

Online Luxury Retail Remains Elusive (Business Week)
“There are still some brands that sell absolutely nothing online, save for beauty products. Consider Chanel. While the legendary Parisian fashion house sells cosmetics both on its own site as well as on a few other high-end e-tailers, its current fashion and accessories collections are not for sale online.”

FIPB defers Gucci’s stake buy proposal (Times of India)
“Italian designer goods maker Gucci’s proposal to pick up a majority stake in its Indian franchisee has been deferred by the government after Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion sought further examination.”

Ralph Lauren’s Grand Entrance (WWD)
“After an absence of more than a decade, Ralph Lauren is returning to Greenwich — and making quite an entrance… opening a nearly 19,000-square-foot store with all the ingredients increasingly emblematic of the designer’s retail network.”

What the wealthy give each other for Christmas (Times)
“One area, though, where things are truly booming is personalisation. ‘The term ‘luxury’ is so overused,’ says the bag designer Anya Hindmarch. ‘But I think you can definitely say that something is luxury when it’s completely personalised.’”

Gucci Eyeweb versus Burberry Art of the Trench | Source: InFashionMedia

LONDON, United Kingdom — In recent weeks, two major luxury fashion brands have taken the plunge and launched social networks built around their brands and products. It’s not a new idea by any means, and indeed I wrote a piece on this very idea for the Financial Times almost two years ago. But, that doesn’t make it any less notable because, as far as I can tell, it is the first time top fashion brands have used social media in this way. Indeed, both Gucci and Burberry went to great efforts to highlight these initiatives at last week’s IHT Techno Luxury conference in Berlin.

So, have their experiments been successful? Of course we at the BoF have our own opinions, but in the spirit of democracy we thought it was the perfect opportunity to turn to the BoF community to see what you think. In our first ever BoF Twitter Poll, we asked:

BoF Twitter Poll: What do you think of Gucci Eye Web versus Burberry’s Art of the Trench?

The responses came in fast and furious from BoF’s followers around the world, including James Gardner, CEO of the industry’s leading creative agency CreateThe Group, and influential bloggers such as Bryanboy and DisneyRollerGirl. In the end, it was a no-contest knockout for Burberry which was unanimously selected as the winner.

So why did our followers feel this way? Here’s a quick summary of their thoughts:

1. Burberry shows a deep understanding of how to use social media, while Gucci just jumped on the “bandwagon” without thinking first, which feels “insincere.”

@alexanderlewis in London: “Gucci heard about something called social networking Burberry AOTT remixed and embraced it”

@subversiveglam: (aka, James Gardner, CEO of CreateThe Group) in New York: “Burberry AOT shows luxury brands how to effectively embrace social media. Gucci jumped on a band wagon and then fell off.”

@randalltodd also from New York: “Trench: engaging. Eyeweb: limited, insincere.”

@InFashionMedia in Australia: “Gucci literally places customers behind their products. Burberry features people & their products on same level.”

2. Burberry creates a “visual feast” that inspires users to explore further, while Gucci quickly loses users’ “interest.”

@bryanboy in Manila: “I prefer Art of the Trench. It’s a visual feast. Gucci on the other hand, well, I lost interest when I had to pick a city.”

@DisneyRollrGirl in London: “I prefer Art of the Trench, I didn’t even get beyond the Gucci homepage.”

@pascalgrob in Zurich: “Definitely AOT! Burberry’s approach is an art project and so pleasing to the eye…Gucci just doesn’t convince”

@lolaswij in Sydney: “Art of the Trench, based on aesthetics alone! It’s appropriate to judge a fashion www by it’s looks, non?”

3. Burberry’s offering is “fun,” functionally superior, “user-friendly” and easy-to-navigate while Gucci frustrates users.

@FearlessBG in the Netherlands: “Art of the Trench! The Gucci Eyeweb is annoying to navigate and doesn’t offer that much.”

@djuwearit in Dubai: “www.artofthetrench.com – it’s user friendly and fun.”

@xanod in London: “Definetely (sic) Art of the Trench, interactive, fun and more user friendly which is exactly what people want”

In addition, we would add two more points to Burberry’s successful social media outing:

4. Art of the Trench relies on editing by Christopher Bailey to ensure the integrity of the brand is maintained while Eyeweb’s images often have no clear connection to the brand.

Take a gander at Art of the Trench and you will find an almost uniformly style-savvy and well-dressed crowd of international fans in their Burberry trench coats. These photos have been carefully selected and screened by Burberry to ensure a good fit with the brand. On the other hand, Gucci’s site which also allows users to upload photos of themselves, is populated with a mish-mash of sometimes tacky, random images that seem to have nothing to do with the Gucci brand at all.

5. Art of the Trench is linked to a specific business objective whereas the purpose of Eyeweb is unclear.

In the same way that Ferragamo has built an identity around its shoes and Louis Vuitton has built a business around its leather goods, the trench coat has been identified by Burberry as the brand’s key item. By launching this site, Burberry further cemented ownership of the luxury trench coat category. On the other hand, Gucci’s site is highlighting sunglasses, which may be an important category, but isn’t really a core part of the brand’s DNA.

Having done such a good job, it’s no wonder that within the first week the Burberry site had more than two hundred thousand visitors and registered more than 3 million page views. The challenge for Burberry now will be to create reasons for its fans to return, without the support of the wall-to-wall press coverage that supported the launch of the site. Apparently, this will be achieved by bringing in new curators and creatives to populate the site with interesting content. But, even with all of the things that Burberry have done right, methinks that it will take a significantly more than that to draw people back again and again.

As for Gucci, it’s back to the drawing board. Kudos for experimenting and trying new things out, but perhaps next time Gucci may want to consider why it is jumping on the social media bandwagon and what it is aiming to achieve before punching its ticket.

Imran Amed is Editor of The Business of Fashion

Gucci Dark Brown Crocodile Purse | Source: Gucci

For the Downturn, Gucci Downplays the Logos (Business Week)
“The fashion house is going both upscale and down, but its signature Gs are relegated to the back room.”

New F.T.C. Rules Have Bloggers and Twitterers Mulling (NY Times)
“Beginning Dec. 1, bloggers, Twitterers and many others who write online product reviews must disclose the receipt of free merchandise or payment for the items they write about.”

Pinning Down the New American Shopper (Business Week)
“It’s about information, value, and being green: Today’s discriminating consumers are careful about how they spend, and they’re concerned about the planet.”

Gap to Open China Store In Growth Bid (WSJ)
“Gap Inc. plans to open its first store in China next year and expand its overseas e-commerce operations, as part of a broader turnaround effort.”

Luxury retailers lambast EU plans to reduce brands’ control (Retail Week)
“Retailers could gain the right to sell any brand in stores or online, after the European Commission launched a review of selective distribution laws.”

Rugby by Ralph Lauren

Polo Ralph Lauren sales and profits fall (Drapers)
“Polo Ralph Lauren has notched up first quarter sales of $1bn (£588.6m), an 8 percent fall on the same period last year.”

Luxury Brands Gain Momentum in China Despite the Slowdown (Seeking Alpha)
“Even as luxury goods consumption has fallen worldwide, China’s appetite for high-end retail has shown a strong momentum.”

Shoppers see a value in unique items, sometimes regardless of price (Canadian Press)
“The clone wars have ended: It is no longer cool to carry around the must-have handbag that all your friends have, too. Nor do you need to have matching designer outfits or easily identified mass-market kitsch.”

Fashion Membership (Vogue)
“The British Fashion Council is the latest organisation to become a member of the UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT). The UKFT is a trade organisation which represents the fashion and textile sector – including some of the country’s top brands – and the BFC will take up two seats on its board.”

Relatives barred from using Gucci brand name in US (Reuters)
“A judge barred a Gucci heir’s ex-wife and her daughter from using their names commercially in the United States without trademark approval on Wednesday, saying they could confuse consumers and damage the brand.”

Rodarte’s Target (Vogue)
“Rodarte will join the ranks of Erin Fetherston, Jovovich-Hawk, Rogan and Jonathan Saunders (among others), as the latest designers to collaborate with American retailer Target as part of its Go International series.”

Clessidra Pulls Out Of Deal With Cavalli (WSJ)
“Italian private equity fund Clessidra SGR SpA has pulled out of a deal with fashion house Roberto Cavalli after disagreement over the value of the company, a person familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires on Wednesday. The talks collapsed just two months after Cavalli and Clessidra signed a letter of intent for the fund to buy 30% of the fashion house.”

Mark Ronson designs trainers for Gucci’s Pop-Up Store (Elle UK)
“Gucci launches ‘Gucci Icon-Temporary’, a pop-up trainer store that will travel the world. The shop will stock 18 trainer designs in all, 16 for men and two for women. And for that extra limited edition-ness Gucci has collaborated with DJ and trainer addict Mark Ronson to design one exclusive, unisex trainer for each city.”

Adidas profits plunge 93% (Drapers)
“Adidas suffered a 93 percent plunge in profits in its second quarter as the downturn continues to take its toll on consumer spending.”

Naomi Sims, the First Black Supermodel (Time)
“A tall, striking, confident, chiseled, brown-skinned beauty, she has forever changed how America defines beautiful.”

Prada flagship store in Omotesando, Tokyo

LONDON, United Kingdom — The scariest news I have recently read about luxury was in Tuesday’s Financial Times. The Japanese, it seems, have stopped buying luxury goods. Luxury imports in Japan were down 10 percent and sales of LVMH in the country were down 18 percent in the first quarter.

And no, it’s not just the recession. “This is not a blip. This is a long-term shift in the market,” Brian Salsberg, the author of a McKinsey report on the Japanese luxury goods market, the world’s second largest, told the Financial Times. This is concrete evidence of a trend first reported on BoF one year ago.

The Japanese were once the industry’s most-favoured fashion consumers because of the speed with which they would adopt new trends. The evolution of a luxury market is a tricky thing you see. First new consumers will gravitate to the brands they’ve heard of, like Armani. Then they’ll begin to explore ones that are more niche, say Balenciaga. Then, if the Western world is anything to judge by, they’ll get disillusioned with the whole thing and just start buying their clothes at Zara, H&M and Topshop.

Here in the West, we’ve been working our way through the cycle since the Second World War. But those clever Japanese have moved through the whole evolution in just thirty years.

This is seriously bad news for the luxury brands that depend on Asian shoppers, which is most of them. And, it does not bode well for the post-future landscape either. The Chinese are most likely to mimic the Japanese in shopping habits. All those new stores brands are throwing up in second- and third-tier Chinese cities may never pay off.

So what will they do?

Patrizio di Marco, one of my favourite luxury executives, has recently moved from Bottega Veneta to Gucci. It was a brave career step. Gucci, with its reliance on logo-driven product, is a brand in transition. Di Marco told Bloomberg that to adapt to these trying times he’s refocusing the logo-driven merchandise and putting more attention on the mid-price range by doing things like adding exotic trims to fabric bags, and moving away from lower price points to retain luxury allure.

But will consumers want the bags with logos, crocodile trim or no crocodile trim? Personally, I’d rather carry a bag with no logo. And it seems increasing numbers of crucial Asian consumers are with me on this one. But, for Gucci’s sake, let’s hope I’m wrong. Next week they’re opening a store in Shanghai—it’s their 28th outlet in China.

Lauren Goldstein Crowe is co-author of the critically-aclaimed book, The Towering World of Jimmy Choo.

New Gucci store concept, courtesy of Gucci

Gucci Renews GG-Logo Purses Priced Below $3,000 Under New Chief (Bloomberg)
As reported late last year on BoF, “Gucci’s new chief executive officer, Patrizio di Marco, said he’s fighting the recession by cutting production, making fewer styles to reduce costs, and bulking up the luxury label’s mid-priced range.”

Lengthy Search for New CEO Dogs Barneys (WSJ)
“Barneys has spent more than a year without filling its top slot, an unusually long time for a CEO hire and one of the longest-running hunts for a new chief executive now going on anywhere.”

Tough Times for Small Luxury Goods Makers (Business Week)
“Bankruptcies are hitting small and midsize European companies that supply luxury houses with everything from hand-tooled leather to perfume bottles.”

Samsonite joins list of debt-for-equity groups (FT)
“Samsonite, the world’s biggest maker of suitcases, backpacks and carry-bags, is the latest to join the fast-growing list of private equity-owned companies that have run into trouble and needed to be saved by swapping debt for equity.”

The Future of Luxury in a Recession (Atelier)
As companies like Coach, Gucci Group and LVMH report their results this week, this video from Atelier, a division of Leo Burnett, highlights some of the cataclysmic changes in consumer behaviour that will drive the luxury of the future. What do you think of their assertions?

PPR Says Luxury Sales Remain ‘Sluggish’ (WSJ)
“Mass retail and fashion group PPR SA posted a 2.6 percent drop in first-quarter sales and said revenue in its luxury unit remained “sluggish” in March, signaling that demand for high-end products is still suffering amid the downturn.”

Business focus on eco-fashion: Greener clothing sized up (Telegraph)
“Allanna McAspurn, UK general manager of Made-By, is attempting to kick start an initiative funded by the European Union and the Dutch government to promote sustainable practices in the retail clothing industry.”

Mizrahi’s star back on the rise (Variety)
“While many of his fellow fashionistas are struggling to survive in an economy where aspirational shopping is as out of date as last season’s handbag, Mizrahi’s stock is clearly on the rise.”

Coach Profits Fall (WWD)
“Coach Inc. on Tuesday posted a 29.3 percent decline in third-quarter profits, hurt by the pullback in consumer discretionary spending, but said that it was confident in its business outlook.” (Subscription required)

Gucci S/S 09 advertising campaign

Gucci CEO sees satisfactory Q1-report (Reuters)
“Fashion house Gucci has had a satisfactory trend in the first quarter.”

‘Project Runway’ Will Move to Lifetime (WSJ)
“Nearly a year of litigation between General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal and Weinstein Co. over “Project Runway” ended Wednesday with an agreement that allows Weinstein to move its popular reality-TV show to Lifetime Networks.”

Macy’s CEO got 2008 compensation of $14.82 million (AP)
“Macy’s Inc.’s Chief Executive and Chairman Terry Lundgren received compensation valued at $14.82 million in 2008, much of it in stock compensation, according to an Associated Press calculation of figures disclosed in a regulatory filing.”

Hermès to Open in the Hamptons (WWD)
The French luxury brand will take up temporary residence in a 2,000-square-foot space specialising in beach attire. (Subscription required)