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Fashion’s Shifting Ecosystem Through the Years
Fashion, both as an art and as an industry, has faced different and continuous waves of change since the very beginning. At first, the competitive advantage of the brands’ was production, later after production was established it became selling. After the industry evolved, brands turned more into marketing and campaigns as well as CRM (Costumer-Managed Relationship). For the past few years fashion has been paying attention to CSR and sustainability; these aspects are now forming the trends of the market and therefore the popularity of the players that adapt to this new reality.
The brands that have formed the industry over the years show their variation through creating an ecosystem that is ever changing, mainly focused on the new trends’ formation. But the players of the industry are not the only shift in fashion. As the world progresses through the years, so do demand and style. People’s attitude and need for expression also change; in a sense people themselves do too. Their purchasing habits rearrange and their preference towards the main players of the industry can reform at any given point.
Brands tend to phase different states internally, since the customer is the centre of every business and their consumer strategy. It is recognised that customers’ behaviour is always affected by external changes. They pass through high demand and spotlight to non-recognition, while always striving to surpass that second idle phase.
How Brands Stay on Top in Fashion
The question is what do brands have to do to be in the spotlight of people’s choices and maintain that over the decades? Truth is, that it is not so easy. Different moves whether those are business related or creative ones, shape the history of each brand and make them pass from unknown to popular and vice versa. The big competitors were not always the same and will not remain the same over the years. Each and every brand passes through intervals when trying to address the current market. The insider brands inside also vary in popularity, even though big groups have always dominated the market. One wave of fashion might favour some brands of each group while the next one will favour different ones. The competitive advantages and the ‘savoir-faire’ of each brand will shine in its relevance at the time.
Τhere are several ways to achieve the goal of remaining and becoming competitive through all the changes of the industry. Whether that is a product strategy, a communication strategy, the team or its storytelling. All that brands seek is adaptation and success.
The Dynamic Between Creative Directors and Fashion Brands
Creative directors also affect the awakening of the brands, since they represent their vision and the strategic step into the future. Each brand is stating its essence through the persona of the creative director. The same way Jonathan Anderson is leading Loewe to success and global approval, as well as Daniel Lee and the vision he incorporated into Bottega Veneta or Alessandro Michele in Gucci. All of them marked the course of their brands and led them to their place in the market.
Whether the breakthrough of each awakening phase a brand goes through is positive in the long term or not, that is something that cannot be measured. We come to understand that the industry performs as a living organism through the different stages of life, ups and downs, through trial and error.
Written by Eirini Pytianou
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