A Growing Religion

From attending the Pure London & Pure Spirit event i picked up a Drapers guide to top inspiring independant retailers for 2011. There was an article to the clothing brand Religion which prompted me to perhaps consider them as a potential brand. I had actually forgotten about Religion as their not exactly a very dominating brand on the high street yet do have fashion forward styles.

Drapers describes how Religion has made a transformation from a niche streetwear brand to a lifestyle brand and should now be considered to be a competitor to Reiss and Paul Smith! I would never of related Religion to these types of brands as i didnt actually realise Religion was of that end of the high street scale, i always related it more towards a House of Fraser type brand like Warehouse or Oasis.

I visited the online site and have seen they've adopted a more All Saints type aesthetic with the black and white monotone colour palette.The site is very minimal and definately needs work on and what was strange is how the homepage directs you straight to ASOS to make the purchases?! It should have that perhaps inside a page or two rather than slapped on the homepage as its directing the customer away from the site before they've even experienced Religion.

http://www.religionclothing.co.uk/

Pure London and Pure Spirit

Today I went to the Pure London & Pure Spirit event at Earl's Court and Olympia. Even though it is aimed for buyers to potentially seek new emerging brands, it was good watching the catwalk shows and seminars that taught me abit more about the current industry.

Pure Spirit Earls Court

I first visited Earls Court which is where Pure Spirit was held. Pure Spirit is aimed for younger trends presenting brand collections from Firetrap and Pepe Jeans and so on. The catwalk presented the next generation of top brit brands. Below are just a couple of photos I took from this catwalk.

 

 

What was quite handy as it the event offered a free shuttle bus service between earls court and olympia was offered to all visitors. It was a shame you couldnt actually buy anything (proberly best you couldnt buy anything, highly dangerous) Obviously this is what diffrentiates Pure London from the likes of Clothes Show London.

Pure London Olympia

Pure London was much more inspirational in terms of the seminars and catwalks presented. Near enough all the catwalks presented were directed by WGSN visionary predictions or by Drapers.

The first catwalk was WGSN trend confirmations which presented inspirational trends for womens wear AW/11 which was presented by WGSN's senior retail editor Lorna Hall. As i am focusing on marketing and obviously not a design student i still found watching catwalks an inspiration with colour and shape trends for ideas i can put towards the style of my FMP website. Colours inparticuarly were of a specific palette which gave me ideas of perhaps a brand colour palette i will later create and develope. Below are just a few from the catwalk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zandra Rhodes

Zandra Rhodes presented a 30 minute catwalk and talk on her latest collection and love affairs with textiles.

It was quite ironic in a way seeing her there as hopefully she will be handing me my scroll at graduation!

Zandra Rhodes explores her ideas and influences from other designers such as Bill Gibbs and believes that this next generation of fashion can be the 2nd golden age as her latest collection features prints and textile patterns from her archives.

 

 

 

Pure London Event

I've registered and recieved my badge entry for the Pure London & Pure Spirit fashion event for Monday 14th February. I've been a subscriber to their mailing list for about a year and have never actually attended the event so this year I registered and aim to attend!

I've been to Clothes Show Birmingham three times so i imagined it will be similar to that however the Pure London is aimed more applicable for buyers and more of a tradeshow for businesses.

The event runs across three days and has actually expanded so now is held within two venues: London Olympia and Earls Court. I'm quite pleased that I will be going on the Monday as looking at the schedule there is a couple talks that will be more interesting.

Earls Court 11:30pm - Trends: How to beat the high street

Olympia 1:30pm - eCommerce: How to look good online - Advice on how to design a site which mirrors your business, learn the day-to-day logistics of running a website, plus gain top tips on marketing.

Olympia 4:00pm - eCommerce: Tomorrow's World: The internet of tomorrow - how we will use the web in five years time, and how will that impact your business? plus, find out what new products are on the horizon and how they will change consumer behaviour.

I will update on my return!

Digital update: Platforms to Watch

Today I found about some interesting sites that link across various aspects of consumer control, social interaction and online retailing. WGSN had a top 10 list of phone apps or websites to 'be in the know' of in 2011. I'm really glad I came across this as it has opened me towards more other unknown sites that are engaging with the same guidelines that i am currently investigating.

More of an FYI post that you may enjoy.

 

1. Blippy

www.blippy.com

Blippy allows users to submit reviews of their recent purchases by syncing with credit card statements or e-commerce accounts such as Amazon and iTunes. In doing so consumers share information about where items were bought, the amount spent, and often the product itself.

Friends can then interact through comment boxes and rating buttons, encouraging discussion around goods and services.

Privacy worries surround the service, especially following a slip-up in early 2010, but uptake has nonetheless been high. Swipely.com is a competitor aiming to capitalise on this by offering a service focused more on where users shop rather than how much they spend.

 

2. Fashism

www.fashism.com

A simple fashion concept – users upload pictures of themselves in their latest outfits, either via mobile or through the website, and ask others for feedback in real time. Those giving the advice can rate the item up or down as well as leave comments about what they think.

In November 2010, the site hit the headlines when it received $1m in funding from Ashton Kutcher’s A-Grade Investments company, as well as from his wife Demi Moore and fashion critic and Project Runway judge Nina Garcia, alongside notable Silicon Valley investors.

Marketing deals look set to follow with retailers as the company pushes the fact its users are often actually in the store’s changing rooms at the time of participation.

3. Goldrun

www.goldrun.com

Goldrun is an interactive app that layers augmented reality with game-play. Users track GPS-linked virtual objects placed around the city, share them with friends through Facebook and earn rewards.

For brands or retailers, it can be seen as a tool to drive traffic and increase sales. The app launched in November 2010 with a campaign for H&M where users in New York were sent on the hunt for virtual items from the popular high street retailer. In taking a picture of them they received 10% off their next purchase.

The app has also created a “run” with Airwalk as well as businesses outside of retail, such as NYCGO (the official New York Guide) for city guides focused on restaurant and theatre listings.

4. Path

www.path.com

Path is another new take on the social-network-cum-photo-sharing concept. Rather than aiming for as many friends as possible, however, as one might on the likes of Facebook or Flickr, Path restricts users to a maximum of just 50 followers.

Dubbed “the personal network”, it is designed to be a place for users to capture personal moments (through photos and more recently video) and share them with their closest friends. “Think of it as a place for the memories along your path through life,” reads the introductory blog post.

It doesn’t, however, aim to replace consumers’ existing social networks, but “augment them”. Accordingly, in December it began a relationship with Facebook so users can cross-publish as desired. For now, it only available as an app for the iPhone.

5. Pinterest

www.pinterest.com

Pinterest is the latest proponent of social bookmarking. This virtual noticeboard provides a simple service that allows users to collect things they love from across the web and save them into collections.

Doing so is as easy as uploading a file directly to the site, or installing the Pinterest bookmarklet into your browser, which enables images to be pinned directly from any other website.

Users can then follow the collections of others, and repin pins to their own collections. Again, users can publish to their Facebook profiles in the process.

6. Quora

www.quora.com

One of the most-talked about sites so far this year, Quora is a place to ask questions and get answers. Aiming to be a “database of knowledge”, it allows users to not only ask whatever they like, but to respond to everyone else’s queries and edit others too, so as to make for the best possible answers.

It markets itself as “a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organised by everyone who uses it”. Every question has a topic attached to it to facilitate searches, meaning anyone in the future who is interested in the same subject can find some answers. Users can also follow individual topics so the system shows them questions they are interested in, or might already know something about.

The site was founded by some former Facebook employees. Following investment from Benchmark Capital in March 2010, Quora was rumoured to be valued at $86m. It was made available to the public in June 2010.

7. Retailigence

www.retailigence.com

As previously reported by WGSN, location networking is presently one of marketing’s big digital trends. Retailigence seeks to combine this concept with actual store inventories, making it hold huge potential for the retail market.

“If you knew there was a customer nearby and looking for something you sold, wouldn't you want to find a way to let them know you have it available now?” it asks. It connects shoppers with local retailers by broadcasting exactly what is available, therefore facilitating sales and walk-ins.

In late 2010 it secured $1.5m in funding from several prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firms. Google is also working on a similar solution, suggesting positive things for this start-up if it can get it right and encourage enough businesses on board.

Poetry in Motion

Today I have been watching fashion films on YouTube as i recently read an article in Vogue from the October 2010 issue about how fashion houses are using film to create dreamy universes. Titled 'Poetry in Motion' it contrasts with my ideas of fashion narrative which i looked upon in the first unit of my university project.

Poetry in motion proberly best describes this as 9/10 fashion films have no language just music and are often colleges of imagery merged together.

The first i looked at was Marc Jacobs 'Carnival in Provincetown' film which in a way is more a documentary of how Marc Jacobs created a one off event.

 

Another I came across was Comme Des Garcons 'Wonderwood' film which bests describes exactly how I see poetry in motion.

Watching these short videos has verified different ways to approach fashion film, whether it is poetry based or portrayed as a documentary of an event. Both films reflect a different purpose and feel. Watching these types of short films also presents varied ways of soaking up a brand or designer. Would definately love to view more of these and hope other designers continue in the making.

Online Retailers Discover the Joy of Journalism

I came across this blog post from the Business of Fashion regarding mail out magazines and e-magazines. The article discusses how journalists are being used more now to promote to consumers on a more one to one level via mail out magazines or e-magazines.

It provides statistics from ASOS and Net-A-Porter. Net-A-Porter, as far as i am aware, does not have a mail out magazine? could this be something for the brand to expand on?

To view go to: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/4dc5e92c-2fe3-11e0-a7c6-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1DMjtEk1p