JW Anderson has done it, he has won the prestigious Emerging Talent Award at the British Fashion Awards. Presented by Pixie Geldoff, Anderson picked up his award at the ceremony in the London Savoy Hotel.
Earlier this year in September Anderson launched his collection for Topshop, which will also be followed by a collaboration in early 2013.
Topshop Design By JW Anderson
His design signatures are
"Things that can be borrowed from a man to a woman and from a woman to a man." I love this way of looking at fashion, there is no reason why a man can’t get all glammed up, and why women cant wear suits these days!
Anderson has a loyal celebarity following, his clothes have been seen on Alexa Chung, Daisy Lowe, Rita Ora and Leigh Lezark.
Rita Ora wearing JW Andersons Cabel knit jumper.
JW Anderson is now collaborating with Dontella Versace by
creating a capsule collection for Versus. His collection will include both womens and mens Ready To Wear and accessories. The collection will be unveild around March or April next year and sold at top department stores worldwide as well as being sold online at Versus.it. Versace has stated "I saw something different in what he was doing, a real desire to push forward. I think Jonathan is a perfect fit for this inaugural capsule collection. In addition to being a talented designer, he's well versed with the new digital world and is, therefore, an ideal partner for our new direction."
JW Anderson has had a very busy year and personally I think he deserved the award, but do you agree?
The video I chose this week is from the Versace Menswear Spring/Summer for next year. The video features coverage of the runway highlights and some of what goes on backstage. Dontella Versace tells us about her new collection with the meaning to send a message of strength through the mind body and clothes. She also says how she wants to deliver her message to the world: to fight for your dreams and goals in life.
Versaces garments have the style of gladiators using blacks, browns, whites and golds, reminding me of the baroque style which I love at the moment!
What do you think of Versaces 2013 Spring/Summer style?
Video of the week - This week i chose this video of Haiti's Latest Trends and Styles 2012 at their first ever fashion week!
Organisers say it is a chance to give the Caribbean island's image just a dash of much-needed glamour! It took place on November 8 through to November 11, 2012 at the five-star Karibe Hotel in Port-au-Prince.
The event featured more than three dozen different designers.
A model presents a creation by Haitian fashion and accessories designer Giovanna Menard during Haitian Fashion Week 2012
Australian supermodel 29 year old Miranda Kerr married to Orlando Bloom, started her professional modelling career back at the young age of 13. She has featured as the face of Maybelline New York and Levi’s jeans. Miranda has also been known as a Victoria Secrets ‘angel’ since 2006. In 2009, 2010 and 2011 Miranda has made it onto FHM’s ‘100 Sexiest Women’ Poll, as well as being number 1 on the Australian version in 2011. But this year, since the last Victoria Secrets show her status seems to have boosted and everyone is talking about her!
Miranda Kerr, Victoria Secrets Fashion show 2012
Spanish fashion retailer ‘Mango’ has made her become the new face of their company announcing that she will feature in print and video ad campaigns for them. Miranda posted in the labels blog, "Mango is a brand that I love. You always find the perfect garment for every occasion!"
Mirada Kerr shooting for Mango.
Miranda is joining the long line of supermodels being Kate Moss, Milla Jovovich, Naomi Campbell, Eva Herzigova, Claudia Schiffer and Christy Turlington who have all also represented the brand.
It is great to see the Model doing something she enjoys so much, she has said, ‘I am delighted to be collaborating with Mango for the spring/summer 2013 season. We had a great time shooting the campaign and it was very easy working with the entire team.’
Here is an interview with the model Miranda Kerr.
I think Miranda is a beautiful model and perfect for the Fashion retailers Mango, but what do you think?
Last week we hosted another of our vibrant networking talks, this time focusing on how mobile websites and apps are revolutionising online shopping, Smartphones are becoming a force to be reckoned with for the industry, with over 25 % of online searches relating to fashion brands come from a mobile device.
We discovered how easy it is for a fashion brand to now have their own mobile app and make sure they are not being left behind and benefiting from changing buying patterns of consumers.
The evening started off with a short presentation from Michael Langguth, co-founder of mobile app developers Poq Studio. This set the scene and showed us that its isn’t necessary to spend a lot developing your own app – it’s much simpler and more cost effective to use an existing platform.
After the presentation, Sonja Todd from jewellery brand Tatty Devine joined us for the panel discussion. Tatty Devine launched their own mobile app around 10 months ago and have seen their online sales increase as a result.
First we discussed how to decide whether your brand is ready for a mobile app or not. This is fairly simple as Google Analytics allows to see whether traffic to an existing website is coming from. If you see that a lot of traffic is coming via a smartphone then you can assume that a mobile app will benefit your business as your target audience are engaging with you this way.
One of the key benefits with an app is the ability to use push notifications as a way to drive sales on your app (it’s like text messaging your customers!).
As ever, good product images are essential – its important to have a few shots of each images so the customer can see the product from different angles, and also to have clear descriptions with key measurements.
As you’d expect some brilliant tips came out of the discussion
Sonja’s top tips for improving online sales:
Use Twitter to woo celebrities – and then make the most of any famous connections
Listen to your customers and see what they want
Use social media to respond– be as quick and as helpful as possible
Find the channels that work for you and stick to them, but don’t be afraid to experiment
Clever discounting can work wonders and boost sales
Keep your product ranges tight – especially if you are a small brand
Michael’s top tips on getting mobile:
Check your webshop stats to see how much mobile traffic you’re currently getting
First step is a mobile website which will work on all platforms. Then an iPhone/iPad app is a must for online businesses that want to grow.
Choose your developer carefully – ask to see their portfolio to check that they’ve made apps before.
Don’t be scared – mobile is a great opportunity!
For those that were unable to make the event, Michael’s full presentation is below
Interested in getting your own mobile shopping app and website? If you’re a fashion or design brand thinking about taking the plunge into mobile, we have arranged a special offer for you with Poq Studio.
They are offering an amazing 30% off the set-up cost and first three months of mobile shopping solutions. Click here to take advantage of the offer.
A big thank you to Michael and Sonja for making the evening such as a success.
Our next event The Shoe Lounge is on 5th December and focuses on setting up a successful footwear brand.
We held an informal talk on PR and Product Placement and were joined by PR practitioner Alison Lowe from Felicities, and freelance music and celebrity stylist Aimee Croysdill.
Aimee is a successful stylist who liaises with record labels, music videos, press shoots, styling for staging and red carpet events. During the talk she explained that if you are a designer looking to get known you should:
Forge a relationship with stylists- when your garment is used for a shoot or video, your designs will be noticed by many people in different areas of the industry. Take a chance with new music artists- they may be up and coming but could be the next 'big thing' so this could be very beneficial for promoting your brand. Mulberry noticed Lana Del Ray and now they have named a best selling bag after her. Fashion shoots are fast paced- garments may not come back in the same quality they left you, if a garment is very precious to you, only lend to editorial shoots. Social networking is important- most stylists have a Twitter account and are on other social network sites such as Facebook and Pinterest, so make sure you are always following and interacting with them. High profile events- If you know there is a big event coming up, contact the stylist in your network to see if they need anything for their clients. Let them know what you have available to borrow at that time.
'Pixie Lott - What do you take me for' styled by Aimee Croysdill
Alison Lowe has run several successful businesses including Felicities, a specialist PR and business support agency for emerging fashion talent. As well as having her own business, Alison provides PR and business support to a range of emerging fashion brands. Alison's tips on generating PR for your business were:
Communicate- talk to everyone and anyone about what you do, you never know what contacts people may have. Know your target market- look through magazines and find styling that suits you and then get hold of the stylist of these shoots. If you want to be a credible designer, put your garments on credible models. Social networking- Emails to journalists regularly go straight into spam mail so try and build relationships on social networking sites whenever you can. Use Twitter and Pinterest- ‘Twitter and Pinterest are the biggest things to hit fashion in... forever!’ Respond quickly to any press enquiries- make sure your images are not large file sizes so are quick to download. Large files should be sent via a http site such as Dropbox. Press releases should always be straight to the point- journalists do not need to know your inspiration, your garments should stand up for themselves. Make sure you keep the information as back up ready if it is needed for interviews.
Alison Lowe, Alison Lewy and Aimee Croysdill
5 TOP TIPS FROM THE EVENING:
-Talk to everyone
-Use social media to build relationships NOT to bombard people
-Respond to opportunities ASAP, people will not wait around for you
-Target your audience
-Have sturdy samples with nice labels, good quality zips and materials
We're super excited about the launch of our new Twitter competition.
3 lucky winners will receive a copy of Design Create Sell - a guide to starting up and running a fashion business.
All you have to do is retweet this message:-
We've got 3 copies of Design Create Sell to give away. RT #fashionbook & follow to win. Who doesn't want help with their fashion biz??
This essential guide, written by Alison Lewy, fashion industry expert and founder of fashion business accelerator Fashion Angel, will give readers an overview of the fashion industry and what makes it tick. It will guide them through the issues they need to think about before they start and take them through the key steps involved in setting up a new business.
Readers will learn how to conduct the research needed for their business plan and get practical guidance on building their brand, getting their product made, marketing & PR and how and where to sell products. This comprehensive book will inspire fashion lovers to turn their dream into a reality!
Can't Wait? You can order the book now from the Fashion Angel Shop Competition
Terms & Conditions
●Fashion Angel is solely responsible for all aspects of the competition
●Participants
must follow @FashionAngel1 and use the #fashionbook so we can DM the winners
●Entries
close: 23.59 on Monday November 12th 2012
●Open
to UK
residents only
●No
cash alternative. Prizes are non-transferable
●Only
one entry per person
●Entrant’s
data is covered by UK
data protection laws
●The
winner will be announced on the FA homepage and through its social media
networks.
●Entrants
acknowledge that by entering the competition they are authoring Fashion Angel
to contact them with relevant information.
●Entrants’
data will not be passed to third parties.
●Fashion
Angel reserves the right to withdraw, change or cancel the competition at any
time.
I had the pleasure in attending the first London Fashion
Decoded conference on Thursday. The goal of the conferences, which launched in NYC
in April, is to promote creative collaborations between the fashion and
technology sectors.
The event was even more poignant considering the organiser Liz
Bacelar, and chair Dirk Standen from Style.com, managed to get to London
from New York despite all the problems caused by Hurricane Sandy. It was a
tribute to Liz and her team that she managed to run such a successful the event even though soem speakers didn't make it and she
must have been very concerned about friends and relatives.
The first panel discussion was on the Future of Runway in the digital age with designer Henry Holland, On/Off
founder Lee Lapthorn, Erik Torstenson from The Saturday group and Gillian
Harding Morre from Fashion GPS.
The question posed by moderator Noelle Reno was - are catwalks relevant in the digital age?
Key point to come out of the discussion:-
For some designers, such as House of Holland, a
physical catwalk will always be important as the whole theatre and buzz of an
event is key to building the brand.
Live streaming of most on schedule catwalk shows
means the opportunity is there to reach a wider audience and gives consumers a chance
to feel the excitement around the shows
Burberry was acknowledged as the game changer by
being the first to invest heavily in technology and allowing customers to order
at the same time as watching the shows.
Lee felt whilst it was undoubtedly necessary for
some high end luxury labels, it depends on their brand positioning. The costs are
often prohibitive without sponsorship which is becoming harder to attract. There
are now viable alternatives to show a collection via digital catwalks with the advances
of 360 technology and this method of showcasing will be adopted more and more in
the future.
There is also something to be said for the Tom Ford
approach – just inviting the really key buyers and press to a small
presentation as in reality probably on 50 people attending shows are important buyers
or press.
Erik suggested that as consumers were able to
watch and even order items from catwalks as they are live streamed the next
step could be that designers could reserve a number of seats for key buyers/press
at their shows, and then charge customers/fans to attend, as a way of financing
the shows.
I was so delighted that the fashion tech keynote interview
was with Aslaug Magnusdottir from Moda Operandi, as have been interested in
their business model since they launched in February 2011. Moda Operandi really did disrupt the fashion industry hierarchy
by providing customers immediate access to runway collections. A summary of how
they have become so successful:-
As soon as a designer’s catwalk show has taken place, their
team photograph the collection which is then uploaded to the site within 48
hours.
The beauty of this is that customers pay 50% deposit and the
balance on delivery which helps the designer finance the production.
When they started they were told it would never work but
they now have over 350 brands featured on the site.
The US and UK designers were supportive from the beginning
but the French designers were the hardest to convince.
They have a very clear idea of their target customer – their
average customer is a high net worth female age 43.
The average ticket price is $800 and average customer spend
per transaction is £1300
The high level of customer service is paramount to their
success - personal stylists are on hand to advise their customers on making the
right purchase and putting ‘looks’ together.
They use archival packaging so the customer receives their
purchase beautifully packed.
When they first started around 50% of customers used the
stylists but now customers are more confident buying from the site its around 20%
and tend to be the high spending repeat customers.
Next stage of their business development is the launch of in
season product later this month.
Although an online business, they do see having a physical
presence too is important for brand building – they host trunk shows to promote
their designers and customers can get advice from their personal stylists.
They are also planning to open up a pop up store in Brazil
in March which will heavily feature London based designer brands.
Social media is very important to them, particularly Pinterest
which they use to build interest around their designers – it’s a common misconception
that high end customers don’t engage with social media.
This point was reiterated in a later interview with by Tracy
Yaverbaun, Facebook’s Director of Fashion and Luxury partnerships. Their
research has shown that high net worth consumers spend a disproportionate amounted
time on Facebook compared to other traditional media. To prove the point they have
run very successful campaigns with both Tiffany and Cartier.
KEY MESSAGE FROM
THE CONFERENCE
One message came through loud and clear throughout the whole
day – the future is mobile - all the businesses
represented on the various panels were heavily investing in their mobile technology
and strategies. According to Martijn Bertisen, Head of Google Retail UK/IE, by Christmas 40% of fashion
related searches will come from a phone.
The popularity of our M-commercefor Fashion Retail talk on 14th November shows that SME fashion businesses
are also realising this is something they cannot ignore. If you want to book a
place go to our Fashion Angel Events page.
Next week part two of my personal highlights talks about The
Fashion Pitch section.
