MY INDUSTRY

Before deciding on the level of entry into the fashion market, first the tiers themselves need to be investigated.

Who are you designing for?

HAUTE COUTURE - associated with fitting individual customers with a lot of money . Either traditionalist or pushing fashions boundaries. The creations tend to be dictated more by the customer than the designer.

READY TO WEAR - Expensive but still not as expensive as couture. The construction is still of a high quality but more of the product in produced. More influenced by the designer’s vision than couture. This is a diverse range of designers who include the super brands and the independent designers. 

LUXURY SUPER BRAND - Conglomerate brand such as Gucci Group or LVMH (owns a considerable amount of designer’s labels) who have a whole range of products associated with a name i.e a brand. This is includes accessories, footwear, jewellery and perfume. Generally tend to have their own shops and a huge advertising campaign behind them. 

MID-LEVEL BRANDS AND DESIGNERS - An established company that has been trading for a few year. Not as powerful as the super brands but still have an excellent reputation and following. Tends to sell clothing in franchises and department stores. These could range from Liberty to Debenhams.

INDEPENDENT DESIGNER LABELS - The collection is created with a small team. They run their business solely and have to deal with all the other aspects of a designer label as well as the design process; this means accounts, advertising and everything else is their responsibility. Still shown on the catwalk or shown in franchises and department stores.

HIGH STREET - collections go straight to the shop with the exception of Topshop who have catwalk shows for their higher end products. These are products that are meant to fulfil the desire for fast fashion. Influenced by catwalk fashions. Construction and fabrics are of a lesser quality. 

SUPERMARKETS - satisfy consumer demands whilst they food shop. Quick consumer product, quick construction and basic quality fabric.

What type of garment?

CASUAL WEAR? - The clothes that we wear everyday. Everyone has a slightly different opinion on what they wear everyday. Perhaps some people prefer to be more extravagant. However, it is generally a more relaxed form of dress influenced by sportswear and underground cultural scenes.

EVENING WEAR? - Allows you to be more imaginative. The fabrics tend to be of a higher quality and much more luxurious. They should be able to transcend the seasons and not be as obvious in regards to which year they are from.

SHOWPIECES? - This is the undiluted vision of the designer. Most of the other designs in the collection will be a toned down version of the showpieces or the avant-garde pieces. It helps to get recognition and press coverage to show off the rest of the clothing.

TAILORING? - More structured and fitted than casual garments (unless it is casual tailoring of course!) and require more skill to develop and construct. They tend to be seen as something to wear to work or for a more formal daytime occasion for women. They tend to be more form fitting and seen as more serious. However, that is not a reason to not have fun!

Fashion really does capture the culture of the world it was created in at the time. Cultural, economic, political and social changes all influence the progression of fashion. Currently everyone is aware of the state of the world recession, the majority of the countries in the world are in economic crisis so how does the world of fashion contribute to this? In the previous two recessions designer lowered their prices or created diffusion lines. Today it appears that neither of these are happy. Perhaps people still want luxury in a time of crisis and London Fashion Week showed that the need for escapism was still prevalent in our British culture. It also appears that people don’t buy investment pieces any longer and go for fast fashion; there is always the desire for women to want something new. I also feel that people are in general becoming more experimental with fashion and enjoy different looks. They can adapt to a trend rather than fully buying into it and crave transitional pieces too. Even though wages are being frozen or decreased, people are still buying into fashion whatever level of the sector they are aiming for. Culturally, more awareness is being raised about the use of furs and exotic skins and more and more designers are opting for alternatives. Stella McCartney promotes the use of alternative materials to real fur and leather. However, some designers claim that real fur and skins are actually more environmentally friendly due to their biodegradeable nature. Personally, I don’t agree with the way in which exotic skins and furs are cultivated and therefore would not use them in my designs.

Prevalent trends this winter season:

- CUT-OUT - Many collections showed structured pieces with cut outs

- PANELLING - panelling was shown in either contrasting or similar tones 

- ASYMMETRIC - Asymmetric was shown everywhere; perhaps clothing doesn’t have to be symmetrical and matching any longer!

- EARTH TONES - following on from the nude tones of the summer collections, the colours become more autumnal

- RED AND ORANGE - red is the new empowering colour, find the right colour for your skin tone

- LEATHER & PVC - these fabrics are becoming more acceptable in mainstream fashion. We want to be excited by new textures and looks.

- METALLIC - more specifically gold, bronze and off-gold. Adds an air of expense or will update anyone’s wardrobe.

- LAYERING - whether it will be see-through layers, layers of textures or different lengths; this is a key look.

- SEE THROUGH - a coquettish element of teasing without fully revealing. Tastefully placed transparent materials.