Vol.07: Luxury in the 21st century
Your bi-weekly newsletter covering the latest in fashion, tech and wellness
As we are approaching the weekend, I am sure many of you are planning to get cozied up with a face mask 💅 (clarification: not the face cover), a drink🍸 and a side of online shopping🛍️.
With luxury prices at all-time high (disregard the ditto all-time high seasonal / clearance sales) and global lock-down😷, replicating in-store exclusivity in a digital environment can be tricky. How do you engage with customers so they justify buying large ticket items they can’t touch or try? How do you maintain a cohesive brand perception across channels? How do you continue building or nurturing an evangelic customer base who dream of owning your items when you are restricted to digital? What is even luxury in the 21st century?
Luxury in the 21st century
Luxury is often referred to as “a state of great comfort or elegance, especially when involving great expense”. Historically, luxury often meant something elegant and indulgent, typically only accessible to the wealthy few. Recently, the word “comfort” is being seen with greater importance and “accessible” can sometimes be questionable.
The blueprint for luxury fashion (early 2000s) 🧬
The 21st century luxury scene, was in my opinion kicked off around 2001-2002 by one pioneering creative: Marc Jacobs. At the helm of Louis Vuitton and later launching his own brand, he set the blueprint for what luxury is and can be, not just once, but twice.
1) Creating a “Golden Ticket”🎟️
Marc Jacobs re-issued the Speedy bag (a 1930s style), which with its recognizable monogram print, durable coated canvas with a touch of leather detailing and unprecedented $200 intro price tag makes it the perfect luxury entry ticket.
Recently: Many luxury houses have adopted what I like to call the “golden ticket” strategy, which is conscious on price point. It usually pertains to entry lines of small leather goods and accessories which functions as a way to lure new customers in. It has allowed the aspiring middle class to start their designer collection earlier, and simultaneously started a trust-building exercise where revenues for the luxury brand could grow proportionally with customer income. Another strategy which is a subset of the “golden ticket” strategy, is the one of producing inferior product lines under a separate name, which again, you name it, Marc Jacobs pioneered via his “Marc by Marc Jacobs” line (#MBMBMBMBMJ). This is a genius idea in theory, but in practice it has two major flaws, as introducing inferior products (i) often ruins perception of brand, and (ii) often cannibalises existing demand and product lines (notable examples: Michael Kors - aka Voldemort, ugh).
2) Creating a “Hype” 🤘
Long before Hypebeast was even a thing, Marc Jacobs created hype with a big capital H. Via a cool, imaginative partnership with graffiti artist Stephen Sprouse, he explored the relationship between street art and fashion, creating one of the most sought-after collaborations in fashion history. As the products were combining old and new elements, they felt fresh and timeless at the same time, a great way to revive and “re-invent the wheel” to ensure you stay relevant.
Recently: Several popular and unlikely brand collaborations have emerged (e.g. North Face x Gucci, Adidas x Prada) allowing immersive, thought-provoking twists transpire, enabling brands to access new, previously untapped client groups, while also rewiring brand perception and associations.
Expanding the definition of luxury (2020s) 📈
I recently read in Vogue Business that luxury “no longer [is] about a price point; it is about relevance” and the “most relevant to customers right now is an alignment of luxury and wellbeing, a pandemic-driven form of “comfort consumerism” that sees customers indulging in purchases in the pursuit of consolation”. To succeed in the “post-pandemic” world, it is essential to grasp how consumer preferences have evolved and embrace consumer-centric strategies to adapt.
Before delving into how to create an engaging digital offering, let’s first examine how offline luxury shopping works.
The in-store experience
If you have ever shopped at a luxury store (e.g. at mono “super”-brand stores such as Chanel or Bottega Veneta or in exclusive multi-brand department stores such as Selfridges or Browns), you have come across the luxury in-store experience. In addition to curated product selections, beautiful and inspirational visual merchandising and the allure of exclusivity, nothing speaks luxury shopping quite as the importance of the sales associate.
Debundling the role of the sales associate (‘SA’)
The first and last person you see when you are in a shop is the SA. A typical SA functions as the face of the brand, ensures interaction and engagement with respective clients, and oversees that the clients are getting the help they need. If you’re an SA at a high street brand, there are no strict standards as to how you speak, present products or even what knowledge you need to possess regarding the products you are selling. A luxury SA on the other hand, has higher standards and demands, and their controlled behavior, gestures and persona resemble that of an artist. A luxury SA is often expected to speak several languages (sometimes receiving additional training in how to formally address clients), presents products on beautiful trays wearing white gloves and puts the clients wants and needs above everything else.
Several online solutions exist today, and is aimed at replicating parts of the services a sales associate offer in a digital environment.
Startups to watch:
Setting tone of interaction
Macty: Deploys AI, computer vision and natural language processing that retailers can integrate within their IT stack, to allow novel and fun ways for consumers to discover products online and offline. Unknown funding and stage
Identifying a need
Snap Vision: Makes product discovery magical both online and in the real world through AI and machine learning. £2.3m (total funding), unknown stage
Aesthetic presentation
The Fabricant: Digital firm offering services for brand communication through 3D narrative videos. Unknown funding and stage
Product information
Smartzer: Interactive digital video player that lets users find clothes and accessories people wear in the movies, learn more about them and eventually buy them online. £630k (total funding), seed stage
NearSt: Retail technology company building the world’s source of real-time local inventory. £5.2m (total funding, seed stage
Styling advice
Intelistyle: Provides AI styling solutions to fashion retailers, helping them address the needs of customers looking for styling advice. $778k (total funding), seed stage
Shavatar: Predicts your 3D body shape up to 7 mm accurate, without the need for a scanner. Unknown stage and funding
Product recommendation
Wide Eyes Technologies: Ever seen someone walking by wearing something you’ve just gotta have? Snap a pic and send it to Wide Eyes. Their visual search engine uses AI technology to suggest similar looks from its catalogues. Unknown stage and funding
Vue.ai: AI-based visual search and product recommendation solution for fashion retailers. $17m (total funding), Series B
Genostyle: Applies machine learning to the shopping process to aid in product recommendation. Unknown funding and stage
Trendalytics: Surveys social media and web searches to offer brands and stores crucial information about what consumers are talking about. $3.7m (total funding), unknown stage
Wrapping / boxing
Tiny Box: Offers a wide range of customizable, luxurious packaging alternatives from recycled materials. Unknown funding and stage
Customer service
Eloquent labs: Supplies artificial intelligence to augment and replace live chat customer support agents at eCommerce companies. $1.5m (total funding), seed stage
Future engagement
Reflaunt: Allows brands to keep customers engaged for longer by bringing the second-hand and resale market in-house. Unknown funding and stage
Visual merchandising 101
Offline: A luxury boutique or store needs compelling visual elements to tell the brand’s unique story, which should be embedded in details throughout the store’s interior and exterior. Visual merchandising, often dubbed “silent selling”, aims to boost sales through curated window displays, store layouts and design elements.
Online: Detailed product imagery and consistent digital storytelling are important elements to ensure customer engagement and strong perception of brand. This can be heightened by adding aesthetic unboxing videos, showing uniform product images (set on similar background, with similar lighting, providing options to view product(s) in different settings), glossy campaign multimedia and additional resources (newsletter, blog, FAQ and similar).
The luxury SA together with the visual merchandising (curated storefront, aesthetically pleasing interior) and the rest of the #shebang (custom room scents, decadent packaging, subtle music, vibrant lighting, you name it), is the USP of the luxury shopping experience. When you are restricted to digital, you are also limiting the sensory experience, and rely on boosting the few senses that are alert.
Successful online luxury fashion experiences
In the last 5 years, a lot of fashion houses have revised their digital strategies and presence. Chanel, who never had an online presence, moved digital and a lot luxury fashion houses rebranded, swapping their passé logos for monotone bold fonts (e.g. Burberry, Balenciaga, and not to forget Celine who lost the “é” #phoebephilo4ever). In the current retail landscape, bolder moves than bolding font is required. According to this recent article in Business of Fashion, there is an own art of selling “meaning”.
Let’s explore the luxury fashion brands and concepts that have mastered online.
Visual first, consistent theme:
Net-a-Porter: With more than 800 of the world’s most coveted designer brands, NAP is the world’s premier luxury fashion destination. With its glossy magazine touch and curated styling features, it’s as if Vogue and Barneys had a baby
Luisaviaroma: With 5mn visitors per month, Luisaviaroma features the best selection of the top established designers as well as young emerging talents. Through its LVR Edits, it offers beautiful guides and product imagery which makes us 🤤
Information first, authentic storytelling:
Nanushka: The contemporary house for the modern woman, from Budapest with love, ships to over 100 countries worldwide. With its Sustainability Report, complete transparency on everything from material use, origin and sustainability impact, Nanushka is the trust-worthy friend you need for your eternal wardrobe
Finematter: The go-to-destination for jewellery from the world’s finest designers. Forget about poor studio standards, unethical materials and overseas production, Finematter has your back, offering a full checklist of which sustainability practices every item adheres to
Experience first, behind the scenes:
Balenciaga: The brand known to have revolutionized women’s fashion with “never-before-seen shapes”, continue to stay at the forefront of what’s next. In addition to recently launching a gamified fashion show, visitors to their website are greeted with a pop art / grunge video with the message “I 💗 U”
Gucci: One of the oldest Italian fashion labels, dating back to 1920s, continue to impress (although I had my doubts in the early 2000s). Gucci has launched several experiential initiatives, including #GucciFest, short episodes mixing fashion and art and Inside the House, which focus on experiential content
My prediction is we will see more gamification, immersive experiential offerings and more authentic storytelling going forward. This is just the beginning, desperate times, call for desperate measures, let’s hope the right creatives get the spotlight.
“One thing that is exciting about fashion is the surprise element. People don't know what they want. They just know when they see it.”
Marc Jacobs
Disclaimer: Hectic weeks have gone by, and this bi-weekly newsletter has been put on hold. I have however drafted 3 (!) articles (in no particular order: (1) “Enjoy the ride” (about happiness), (2) “Swipe nation” (about dating), (3) “Replicas: an endangered species” (about luxury authentication) - stay tuned. Please comment below if there is anything in particular you fancy reading. Your wish is my command. ✌️