The question of whether fashion is an art or a business is an imminent challenge for those who begin to explore the various ways of this industry. Heterogeneity and the increasingly difficult characterisation of society by market segments highlight the influence of powerful forces such as marketing and advertising in the conformation of market preferences, leading them to levels of desire increasingly complex and demanding.
On a daily basis, and especially in the fashion world, societies seem to be involved within dynamics based on creating illusions and ideals attainable primarily through the acquisition of certain items that accompany a piece of art displayed glamorously across magazines and hoardings. Fashion, as a creative process, fulfils its purpose representing the ideals of a society; but those ideals are shaped according to the taste of a group of people consuming the same information and thus predisposing them to perform the respective associations between the market offer and their personal desires. As such, fashion grows and develops, not as art but as a business.
In this context, the role of fashion designers, like any other designer, cannot only be based on their free will and imagination; as contrary to an artist, a designer works with and for other people, caring about their problems rather than in solitude. The designer is obliged to his brand as the brand is to the market; therefore it is the latter which judges not only the creativity of the pieces but their relevance through a rigorous discourse of purchase. As Norman Potter wrote in a chapter about Good Design, “… a well-designed product must be sold competitively. Experimental work may be chancy as a sales proposition” , emphasising the close relationship between sales and the designer's creative process.
However, that same statement also brings up the opposite situation where a number of less refined products are consumed daily. McDonald's and Primark are examples of this system where large companies focus their marketing strategies to launch mass products at extremely low prices, sacrificing quality and value. It’s difficult to imagine Primark’s design team discussing the most appropriate pocket slit on their jackets or reflecting through their creativity the aesthetic values of a society. In fact, it is commonly known that their design process is regularly limited to garments copied from other brands, with their plagiarism widely denounced over the years; “The clothing chain Monsoon is taking legal action against the discount retailer Primark for the alleged breach of the design rights pertaining to a number of items of clothing (…) Primark is currently involved in a high court dispute with H&M over the appropriation of designs and motifs on a range of adult and children’s clothing and have refused to comment on the case.” If the copy, in an industry where creativity has always been considered as the core of its development, is so broad, massive and successfully sold, sometimes it results in the role of designer becoming indefinable and makes it increasingly necessary to rethink the concept of fashion both as business and in general.
Another striking example of the lack of originality applied to pieces and their impact on the fashion market becomes evident with the Spanish multinational, Zara. According to a study published by Harvard Business School in 2005 on the brand, its success is based on the hasty management of their supply chain, achieving 'design', distribution, and exhibition of a piece in stores in only 15 days, becoming one of Fast Fashion’s business leaders; “Such a retail concept depends on the regular creation and rapid replenishment of small batches of new goods. Zara's designers create approximately 40,000 new designs annually, from which 10,000 are selected for production. Some of them resemble the latest couture creations. But Zara often beats the high-fashion houses to the market and offers almost the same products, made with less expensive fabric, at much lower prices.” With this general scheme in which major retailing companies are evolving, re-discovering the role of design becomes a challenge. The industry that once provided power and sovereignty to a group of designers and obeyed their every whim, is now focusing on promoting commercial, economic and organisational facts, meeting their markets needs and creating strategies to ensure permanence within the collective memory.
Taking a look at Burberry’s strategy for London Fashion Week last February, the consensus was that rather than the attention of the brand being focused on their trench coats and handbags, it was instead focused on the following: the strategy of expansion through new media and networks, investment in innovative proposals for pre-ordering collection items via the Internet (using devices such as the iPad), plus a stunning message of democratisation of its shows. This included live-streaming on their website, at flagship stores, as well as in the public space. Burberry had transposed inspiration from the actual clothes to the communication, marketing and sales departments.
Louis Vuitton has also been recognized for its groundbreaking use of new technologies. Their applications for mobile devices with geo-location, such as the recently launched Amber, focused their attention on the additional services that a luxury brand can offer to satisfy customers, rather than more traditional creative outlets such as their suitcases and bags.
Even though professors at my university insisted on the importance of creativity applied in products in a capitalist universe (even more in the fashion system), after looking roughly at the new commercial dinamics it always comes to my head the lesson that design skills on their own will never be likely to make you millionaire. As a wide range of items and prices have changed purchase habits substantially, the phenomenon of Fast Fashion has created a turning point between what we knew as fashion and what we consume, brands have been forced to modify their business models, decentring them from clothes design and focusing on elements such as marketing and designing immaterial experiences that constantly change and reach people through multiple touch-points in order to create more powerful commercial relations. Product is no longer the focus; in the fashion battlefield Market Strategy is the new black.
