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By Osman Ahmed March 29, 2017 14:48

LONDON, United Kingdom - Japanese apparel giant Uniqlo is collaborating with Jonathan Anderson. The Irish designer, who is creative director of as well as his namesake London-based label, joins a roll call of major designers and other figures who have previously collaborated with the brand, including , Carine Roitfeld and Inès de la Fressange.

"Collaborations are incredibly important in design," said Anderson. "When I think of Uniqlo, I think of things that are perfectly made, that people have spent a lot of time considering; it's a difficult job, and I think Uniqlo do it very well. Working with Uniqlo is probably the most incredible template of democracy in fashion, and it's nice that my design can be accessible to anyone, on all different levels."

Speaking to BoF, John C. Jay, Fast Retailing's president of global creative, said of Anderson: "He is both a connoisseur of tradition and yet he defies tradition... The British tradition of dress - sweaters, trench coats - all of these things are very interesting to us, so how do we take that essential and give it a fresh spin? We need help with that, we need someone to develop it. And someone with his eye and his talent, it's extraordinary." Uniqlo may not consider itself a fashion brand, but designers like Anderson "help us redefine what a basic is. Let's rethink that. That's why we need their talent," continued Jay.

"Much of the clothing we wear today has a long history, and many styles originated from or work wear," added Yuki Katsuta, senior vice president of Fast Retailing and head of research and design at Uniqlo. "The British Isles constitute a treasure house of such apparel, with duffle coats and fisherman's sweaters being just two examples. In partnering with J.W. Anderson, one of Britain's most innovative and creative brands, we will tap into traditions while pursuing progress in design and fabrics, to craft styles that are enduringly appealing."

Anderson, 33, rose to prominence on the London Fashion Week schedule as a provocative menswear designer. He launched womenswear in 2010 and was appointed creative director of the Spanish leather goods brand Loewe in 2013. The designer's collaboration with Uniqlo sees him return to the high street for the first time since 2012, when he designed two limited edition collections of clothing and accessories for British retailer Topshop, both of which sold out within hours of launch.

Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing expects to post record operating profit in the year to August 2017.
Related Articles: Uniqlo's $50 Billion Brand Puzzle Uniqlo Boss: 'Without a Soul, a Company is Nothing' Jonathan Anderson's Cultural Cut-and-Paste Uniqlo Partners With Jeffrey Deitch on 'Art for All' Shop-in-Shops

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By Osman Ahmed March 29, 2017 14:48 LONDON, United Kingdom - Japanese apparel giant Uniqlo is collaborating with Jonathan Anderson. The Irish designer, who is creative director of as well as his namesake London-based label, joins a roll call of major designers and other figures who have previously collaborated with the brand, including , Carine Roitfeld and Inès de la Fressange.

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2019.05.27

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Primary Research - Space & Planning Research

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Primary Research - Space & Planning Research

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2019.05.26 COS Flagship store

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primary research_store & planning research

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2019/05/02 visited

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A screenshot from the Erdem x H&M trailer by Baz Luhrmann | Source: Courtesy

By Sarah Shannon August 5, 2017 05:30

LONDON, United Kingdom - For years, mass retailers like H&M and Target have worked with designer labels to produce limited-edition, "cheap and chic" capsule collections. Success was less about sales and more about generating media impressions and driving footfall to stores. After all, the collections themselves were usually produced in relatively small volumes and carefully calibrated to quickly fly off the shelves.

For participating designers, these collaborations offered both major marketing exposure and significant cash payments. Marc Beckman, CEO of DMA United, an advertising and talent agency that has brokered deals with Target for several designers, says sums in the six and seven figures are the norm.

For a while, the formula worked very well for both sides.

But on July 13, when H&M announced its latest annual fashion collaboration with , the London-based brand designed by Erdem Moralioglu - it's safe to say the internet did not break. In the days after the announcement, the hashtag #ErdemXHM clocked up 53.7 million impressions on Twitter and Instagram, well below what the brand's previous two fashion collaborations registered when they were announced. #KenzoXHM (2016) registered 81.6 million impressions on Twitter and Instagram, while #AlexanderWangXHM (2014) registered 266 million impressions, according to social media monitoring and analytics firm Brandwatch.

"I think Erdem is a great brand, it ties into the embellishment trend, but I'm not sure it has the same level of brand love," says Petah Marian, senior editor at WGSN Insight. To be sure, Erdem Moralioglu - though highly respected for his intricate dresses, stocked at influential retailers like Barneys New York and Bergdorf Goodman - has a relatively small following. And coming after collaborations with major names like Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, and Balmain, it looked as if H&M was running out of names.

"Every year when we do this we ask ourselves should we continue it? Should we do something else?" reveals Kristina Stenvinkel, H&M Group communications director, who has worked on every one of H&M's fashion collaborations since its first designer capsule collection with Lagerfeld back in 2004. "But we think we come up with great and talented designers and customers are really appreciating everything... People are taking the day off school or work for the launch day to be in store."
That may be true, but as the formula pioneered by the likes of Target and H&M becomes more widespread, it's starting to feel, well, formulaic.

The retailer really needs to fight to capture the attention of the consumer now.

And yet collaborations are as powerful as ever. Just look at the success of brands like Supreme and Adidas, for whom collaborations have been a critical component of success. "For years I thought this trend would slow down but it's not at all," Beckman says. "I think the reasons these partnerships will continue to go forward is predominantly because the advent of technology in manufacturing and in communications means the retailer really needs to fight to capture the attention of the consumer now," says Beckman.

That element of newness and surprise that collaborations can offer is a critical weapon in the war to stay present in the news feeds of consumers. "The unexpected is a very important factor in collaborations," says Cary Leitzes, founder of creative agency Leitzes & Co. But as expectations (and attention spans) increasingly move at the speed of Instagram, annual collaborations à la H&M may no longer be the solution. In comparison, Supreme drops a new collaboration each week, helping to drive continued buzz around the brand. Adidas, too, releases a much more regular stream of new collaborations.

Authenticity is also increasingly important. "Collaborations have definitely been more ubiquitous in the past five years and I think, in this oversaturated space, it's all the more important that there is a sense of authenticity, that there's something real behind it - a genuine connection between the collaborator and the brand," adds Leitzes, who says the consumer is savvier than ever and can tell when something is simply fabricated for marketing.

What's more, as brands run out of fashion designers for their tie-ups, they are increasingly looking at other verticals. "Platforms like art and sports that can create compelling storytelling are critical to these retailers," says Beckman, citing football players and NBA basketball players who "put on a fashion show every night" and could be powerful collaborators for retailers. "It's not just about fashion designers."

As for H&M, "we are excited about Erdem," says Stenvinkel. "We still have really good names on our list but we also want to surprise our customers so we take it year by year."
Related Articles: Can Streetwear Collaborations Make Luxury Brands Cooler?

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Do Fashion Collaborations Need a Revamp?

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A screenshot from the Erdem x H&M trailer by Baz Luhrmann | Source: Courtesy By Sarah Shannon August 5, 2017 05:30 LONDON, United Kingdom - For years, mass retailers like H&M and Target have worked with designer labels to produce limited-edition, "cheap and chic" capsule collections.

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Seasonal Range Plan Stores New_COS x Roksanda

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The shifting global sourcing landscape is seeing China's dominance being challenged

Garment manufacturing may have been steadily shifting away from China to other low-cost labour bases in recent years, but the country remains the biggest sourcing market for fabrics.

The latest available figures from textile and clothing-promotion body Euratex show that China was the top textile export partner for European countries: volumes grew 13% for the first nine months of 2015, up from a total of €7.7bn (£5.9bn) in 2014. The country was followed by Turkey, Pakistan, India and the US.

Although no breakdown for the UK is available, sourcing experts suggest China remains the most competitive place to buy fabrics in bulk.

"It's not as easy to relocate production of textiles to other areas and to chase lower prices, as it is for finished goods," explains Peter Rinnebach, senior manager at consultancy Kurt Salmon and editor of its biannual Global Sourcing reference market survey.

Although China has a 32% share of garment production from the top 10 markets supplying Europe, this is down from a 2010 peak of 40% as a result of competition from Vietnam, Bangladesh, Turkey and Burma.

Average Chinese wages in the industry have risen by between 15% and 20% in the past two years, says Rinnebach, so production costs are now comparable with those in eastern Europe and Turkey, and higher than Morocco. Greater distance and longer delivery times make China less competitive than in the past.

Despite this, the key fabric sourcing locations remain the same, as "there are certain things you can only get in places like India, Italy or Turkey", says Rinnebach: "Sourcing managers often have longstanding relationships with suppliers for specific types of fabrics and, because textile production is largely automated, it is less affected by rising wages. As such, we hear from clients that there are no significant shifts in fabric sourcing."

Key sourcing statistics

Jason Marchant, managing director of clothing supplier May Trading, which became part of global supply group Li & Fung in 2014, agrees: "For high street fabrics, China is still the best for us. The country is very strong for fabric and, even though it's got more expensive for garment manufacturing, because fabric production is all automated we buy 85% to 90% of our woven and yarn-dyed fabrics from there."

Marchant says he mainly buys chinos and twills from Pakistan, India, China or Bangladesh, while cotton nylons tend to come from Vietnam and South Korea. He also buys some wool fabrics from Italy for the higher end of the outerwear market.

Raw material prices have mainly fallen in the last year. At the start of 2015 cotton prices hit a fi ve-year low of almost $0.64/pound, compared with a peak of $1.64/pound in 2011, reports euratex. Synthetic fibre prices fell by around 18% globally in 2015.

In reality, it takes a while for price falls in raw materials to filter down into fabric prices, says Marchant: "Prices for synthetics like polyester should be coming down because of the fall in oil prices but they seem to drop more slowly than they go up."

Mark Dodds, a fabric technologist, sourcing and production consultant who works with cycling brand Lumo Clothing and whose previous clients include Asos.com, Next and Oliver Spencer, agrees: "It's not like prices are suddenly a lot cheaper because of the drop in oil prices." furthermore, exchange rates are enabling European fabrics to compete with Asian fabrics: "a typical [european] fabric might be about $0.50 per metre more expensive [than one from China] compared with around $2 five years ago. So you're finding that high street retailers, unless they're buying huge volumes, are looking closer to home and buying smaller minimums with repeats.

"We're also seeing a revival in the amount of sourcing in the UK and there are a lot of good jerseys coming out of the east Midlands. You find that most do a mixture of producing in the UK and importing fabrics to offer as stock service, which is slightly cheaper but tends to work pretty well." He also points to Portugal as a sourcing destination that is growing in importance thanks to its vertical integration, quality levels and small minimum-order requirements for jersey, cotton wovens, cotton nylons and polycottons.

"Turkey is starting to feel it a bit because there are usually higher minimum orders, but it is still very good for cotton shirtings and cotton blends, while Italy doesn't seem as expensive as it was for quality wools and wool blends for outerwear," he adds.

The pressure on margins is also causing sourcing managers to explore more fl exible production bases closer to home, says Rinnebach: "For apparel production, we're starting to see a polarisation in the market whereby sourcing managers are looking to cheaper sourcing destinations of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Cambodia, or locations where there can be faster turnarounds and more flexibility, such as Eastern Europe and Turkey. This could be something that starts to happen in textiles, but it's not something we're seeing on a large scale yet."

Drapers analyses the key factors in pricing and supply of the main fabric types for the coming year:
Cotton
What happened in 2015? Despite India surpassing China as the world's largest cotton producer, global production of cotton fell in 2015, mainly as a result of declining output in the US, China, India, Pakistan and Turkmenistan, Cotton Council International (CCI) reports.

Prices have been depressed since the summer of 2014 and market revenue has declined significantly over the past few years, at a time when production costs remain at elevated levels. CCI says the differential between costs and market revenue is the largest it has been in the past 10 years. As a result, US producers only planted 8.6 million acres of cotton in 2015, a decrease of 22% from the previous spring, and the lowest level since 1983.

Throughout the growing season, US cotton growers faced difficult weather conditions, from water restrictions in California to excessive moisture during planting, followed by drought in the Southern Plains across the southern states of the US, as well as excessive flooding in the Carolinas. CCI expects prolonged production declines of this scale to cause severe strain on the entire US cotton infrastructure.

Expectations for 2016 Prices have remained relatively stable throughout 2015, in the $0.60 to $0.63/pound range, and are likely to trade in the same range in 2016. US growers will make 2016 planting decisions based on relative prices of competing crops, such as grains and oilseeds.

China is expected to further reduce its cotton acreage in 2016 and to continue to import less cotton. Recent reports from CCI indicate that China might attempt to reduce its massive cotton stockpile this year.
Luxury fibres
What happened in 2015? UK-based luxury fibre supplier and textile group SIL Holdings reports that prices for mohair, cashmere, alpaca, silk, angora, camel hair, yak and vicuña fell from January 2015 to January 2016, as a result of weaker demand in Europe and the slowdown in China.

Sourced from rare camelids living in Peru and Argentina, vicuña fibre is the most expensive, but is only sold in very small quantities, whereas cashmere is typically the most expensive fibre sold in bulk. Fibre prices fluctuate according to fashion demand with rises and falls that are significant and rapid, says SIL Holdings group managing director Andrew Seal.

Expectations for 2016 Seal expects prices for luxury fibres to remain stable in 2016, although they could decline further as macro-economic factors continue to have an impact.
Synthetic fibres
What happened in 2015? Statistics from Euratex and synthetic-fibre consultancy PCI Fibres show that the price of synthetic fibres - acrylic, nylon, polyester and polypropylene - fell by 18% in the last year, as crude oil prices dropped around the world.

Expectations for 2016 Polyester fibre prices will remain stable or have very marginal reductions after several months of continuous heavy falls, predicts PCI Fibres. Opinion is split on whether prices have entered a period of stability or will fall again, based on the outlook for oil prices.
Wool
What happened in 2015? In Australia, the largest producer of wool, prices rose by almost 20% from December 2014 to December 2015, as shown by the AWEX Eastern Market Indicator, the most common index used to measure raw wool prices.

Australian Wool Industries Secretariat consultant Peter Morgan says demand for medium and coarser wools has risen in comparison with finer merino wools, as the Italian textile industry, which typically buys more of the premium fibre, is under increasing pressure from Chinese rivals.

Expectations for 2016 While Australian wool production is expected to fall by 7%, the outlook remains steady for prices in 2016, although global economic uncertainty always has an impact.

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The shifting global sourcing landscape is seeing China's dominance being challenged Garment manufacturing may have been steadily shifting away from China to other low-cost labour bases in recent years, but the country remains the biggest sourcing market for fabrics.

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Gone are the days when finding a new sourcing region was the simple answer to getting ahead of the competition. For one thing, there is no one country poised to be the 'new China' and it is no longer about delivering bulk orders but aiming to provide a customised item to a single individual, anywhere in the world.

Sue Butler, director at consultancy Kurt Salmon, says that success in a multichannel world relies on having production flexibility within an integrated supply chain, with the merchandising, design and logistics functions and fabric and accessory suppliers more involved in the process than ever before. "There also needs to be a greater use of analytics and investment in technology that will assist in the planning, production and speed of delivery," she says.

According to one department store boss, investment in the right systems is vital. "International ambitions are changing our supply chain strategy significantly, and this is where the investment in systems comes in because quite often you can't do things in the supply chain that you want to do without a clever system," he explains. "The way the supply chain is changing is that we want to be able to send products directly from our manufacturers to international markets as opposed to products being sent to the UK and then shipped back out again to an international market."

The choice of where to source production is in itself complex, with 66 countries all able to serve the fashion sector, according to Kurt Salmon. And with production costs in classic sourcing regions in southern China having increased by more than 160% since 2005, bringing them level with those in some Eastern European markets, everyone is looking at other options.

China's significance as a main sourcing country will persist due to its integration into the textile value chain, but a shift to other countries will continue with Cambodia, Bangladesh, Poland and Vietnam the main beneficiaries. However, most countries with low labour costs still lack the infrastructure and production competencies required to deliver similar volumes as China.

Cambodia is showing strong double-digit growth in six out of 10 product categories including shirts, blouses, skirts and dresses, according to research conducted by Kurt Salmon for its latest Global Sourcing Reference (which analyses production costs in key regions globally), but its market share remains relatively low. Within China, the movement from the coastal regions into the inland areas where labour is cheaper continues for various product groups, from denim to pullovers to shirts and blouses.

Turkey, which remains the third biggest apparel exporter to the EU behind China and Bangladesh, is also shifting production to cheaper regions to try and keep costs low. The country's core strengths remain its vertically integrated production facilities and high productivity levels, and buyers will continue to pay the price of having these options.

India's importance as the fourth biggest exporter to the EU is slightly diminishing. To hold its ground in the medium term, Kurt Salmon says it has to master the challenges of infrastructure, productivity and business environment if it is to regain its importance as an alternative to Bangladesh.

With brands such as H&M, Primark, Tesco and Walmart involved in pilots in Ethiopia, there is growing interest in sub-Saharan Africa.

Chinese and Turkish producers are building vertically integrated production facilities there to take advantage of the local cotton availability and low labour cost. The parallel infrastructural investments such as the new railway from Addis Ababa to the port of Djibouti, due to open in 2016, can provide a basis for future growth. However, production there is still in its infancy.

"Just as fashion goes in cycles, so too does the way in which retailers and brands manage their sourcing. Spurred on by the need to feed online sales and to deliver in super-quick time, retailers and brands are once again looking at the balance of own sourcing offices versus using a buying house or agent and some are even rethinking the advantages of owning their own factories," explains Butler.

"There can be significant cost advantages if the business has sufficient scale of volume going through its own sourcing office, but once volumes drop below a critical mass then the cost of running the office starts to erode any margin advantage. If an organisation has product produced across many different geographies that would need to be managed by more than one sourcing office, or if it is working in new geographies where there is risk and the market is unknown, then the preferred option might be to use agents."

According to the boss of one high street chain, his company is taking a similar approach. "As international [sales] grow, we are putting more focus into the international supply chain and looking for cheaper and more efficient routes to get products to market quicker."

Alek Adamski, head of Kurt Salmon's supply chain practice, says retailers and brands need to better aggregate their production.

"We have numerous examples of companies putting their production in the incorrect location - they need to make sure they have the right geographical balance to achieve an overall better margin. This is based upon a basket of costs such as volume discounts, logistics savings, smarter routing and storage options and better flow planning and markdown processes."

The majority of companies interviewed for Kurt Salmon's Global Sourcing Reference, including fashion brands, retailers and suppliers, are planning investment in technology that will better integrate suppliers. While only 31% of the interviewees were already using product lifestyle management (PLM) systems - which manage the lifecycle of a product from inception to the finished article - 54% plan on utilising them in the future.

"To operate a successful multichannel business, there is a need for common master data across channels with product information management (PIM) systems that can add ecommerce-specific data (such as pictures or Google search keywords). There is also a need for solutions that use inventory availability to route orders based on business goals and customer preference," explains Adamski.

Another trend is that as online retailers push their offline competitors into same day or next day delivery, this is impacting heavily on the location of distribution centres [DC]. In this anytime, anywhere environment, physical retailers need to use their biggest asset - their stores - to help reduce costs.

"While using a store to fulfil the DC function is probably only a temporary measure as it adds complexity and cost, it can delay the need to open a new DC to relieve lack of capacity at already stressed facilities, which at around £60m each is no insignificant expense," says Adamski. "If retailers can encourage customers to 'click-and-collect' this can also help save on transportation costs, which is especially important as fuel costs remain high and show no sign of coming down."

He adds that retailers and brands need to ensure that each product is being fulfilled from the smartest location as it relates to both customer experience and profitability. "Electronic tags will be instrumental in enabling this which is why retailers from Macy's to C&A are using RFID [radio-frequency identification] tags," says Adamski.

Not surprisingly, as a reaction to Bangladesh factory disasters, sourcing experts interviewed for the Global Sourcing Reference also reported an increase in importance in attention to corporate social responsibility (CSR), along with greater control of sub-suppliers.

However, only 35% of retailers and brands questioned had standards established for tier two suppliers, although 50% planned on introducing them.

Despite the increased focus on CSR, the boss of one fashion chain cast doubt on the real impact of incidents like Bangladesh on people's shopping habits: "What I have noticed is that in any scandal involving what you put in your mouth, customers will vote with their feet. But not necessarily if the scandal involves something you wear."

However, as the chief executive of one department store sums up: "Supply chain transparency is higher on the agenda than ever."

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Gone are the days when finding a new sourcing region was the simple answer to getting ahead of the competition. For one thing, there is no one country poised to be the 'new China' and it is no longer about delivering bulk orders but aiming to provide a customised item to a single individual, anywhere in the world.

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where British fashion companies will be sourcing from next

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where British fashion companies will be sourcing from next

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Holi Studios, Cambodia

A shift is happening in garment-manufacturing. For British brands and retailers, China is still by far the biggest player when it comes to sourcing apparel in large volumes - but it is becoming more expensive, and its position at the top is not as secure as it once was.

A survey by Barclays and research agency Conlumino shows that 28% of British retailers are considering changing their sourcing countries following the UK's vote to leave the European Union. There are myriad other factors driving changes to the sourcing map, such as the demand for faster fulfilment, ethical and legal considerations after incidents including the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh, and political turmoil in locations such as Turkey.

Some smaller sourcing markets stand to profit from these changes. Vietnam has been a top-five sourcing market for the US for some time, but is now becoming increasingly important for the UK. Cambodia, Morocco, Pakistan and Myanmar are also developing quickly. Opportunities in Africa are on many a retailer's radar and, although the Barclays research suggests EU countries may fall out of favour with British retailers, Portugal is enjoying a resurgence.

China is still the most established sourcing market for the UK. Data compiled by the UK Fashion and Textiles Association (UKFT) shows that the total value of garments imported from China to the UK was just shy of £4bn in 2015, up 13.2% since 2010. In second place was Bangladesh, at £1.8bn.

"Currently, no other market can compete with China for comprehensiveness of its product offering, technical capabilities and integration of the textile value chain," says Peter Rinnebach, senior manager at consultancy Kurt Salmon. But he adds: "China is not a low-cost sourcing country any more."

UKFT chief executive Adam Mansell takes up this point: "When it comes to sourcing apparel, the key cost is labour. One of the reasons China is slowing down is that labour costs have gone up considerably."

This is where countries such as Cambodia could step in, says Mansell. The average wage for a garment factory worker in Cambodia was $140 (£105) per month in January 2016, compared with China's range of 1,000 yuan ($150/£112.50) in poorer provinces to 2,190 yuan ($327/£245.25) in Shanghai. Moreover, Cambodia's unemployment rates are higher.

"In Cambodia, there are an awful lot of people looking for jobs, and it is more straightforward to set up factories there," Mansell says. The value of goods imported from Cambodia rose 302% between 2010 and 2015, from £161m to £646m. Vietnam, which, like Cambodia, has labour and fixed-cost advantages over China, has also enjoyed growth - from £226m in 2010 to £435m in 2015.

Holi Studios, Cambodia

Africa - in particular Ethiopia - is also gaining in popularity. Menswear supplier Bagir recently moved its production from China, Romania and Burma to wholly or part-owned sites in Egypt, Vietnam and Ethiopia. Chief executive Eran Itzhak explains that Ethiopia has a duty free route to the European Union and US, as well as competitive labour and other fixed costs (see box below). The International Apparel Federation is working closely with the Ethiopians to develop a sustainable manufacturing base and its website states: "The government is truly investing in the industry and a number of large companies such as H&M, [US brand house] PVH and [Indian textile manufacturer] Arvind are making a long term commitment to Ethiopia".

Near-shoring

Closer to home, UK brands and retailers increasingly favour factories in Portugal and Morocco, where there is good infrastructure and faster delivery.

"More [brands] appear to be sourcing near-shore than before, primarily because of the speed of delivery, working closer to the seasons and prices going up in the Far East," observes Buzz Carter, event director for near-shore sourcing show Fashion SVP.

"In the 1960s, Morocco was the 'Sewing Room' for European brands," says Mohamed Tazi, managing director of the Moroccan Textile Association. "Then they went to China and Turkey, but now many are coming back. One reason is the nearness of Morocco to Europe, and the high quality and flexibility our manufacturers offer." The Maroc In Mode trade show - taking place on 19-20 October - aims to emphasise this closeness and encourage European brands to source their garments in Morocco.

Maroc In Mode

Portugal has always had a significant manufacturing industry. "It is very competitively priced, the quality is high and factories there have speed of turnaround and ability to work with some of the last-minute changes retailers and brands are looking for," says Mansell. "They understand the British business mentality." Brands and retailers are also turning to some of these countries because they carry a lower risk. For example, fashion businesses can be reasonably confident that factories in Portugal complete due diligence in setting up any ethical strategies.

However, Kosten Metreweli, chief marketing officer at Segura, which offers compliant software for sourcing, warns that situations can change quickly: "Look at Turkey, with a reputation for high capacity and quality, yet now beset with political issues. When selecting new geographies, brands need to be prepared to be very agile with their sourcing approach, and understand where potential supply chain vulnerabilities exist."

Rinnebach points out that political instability is also affecting how brands view Bangladesh: "The political situation remains a risk, especially after the terrorist attack on the restaurant in the Gulshan district of Dhakka this summer. Another risk is the worker-safety situation. A lot of initiatives are under way, hopefully showing positive effects, but another Rana Plaza-type incident could force brands to question their strategies of further strengthening Bangladesh sourcing."

Itzhak says political stability and security are important for two reasons. First, you need to worry about the personal security of your local employees, experts that are coming to support production and customers who visit the factory. Second, instability can damage productivity. "This is why we are not operating in countries like Bangladesh," he explains.

Itzhak has five criteria for choosing new production sites:

1. Do you have a financial interest in the factory, whether it be an investment, joint venture or, ideally, full ownership or control?

2. Are there duty free routes to the markets you serve?

3. Does the country have competitive labour, energy, transportation and other fixed costs?

4. Can you access raw materials locally to create an efficient vertical operation and shorten the lead time?

5. Do the factories specialise in the type of garment you want to produce?

Despite the potential benefits of sourcing beyond China and Bangladesh, up-and coming source nations such as Portugal, Cambodia and Ethiopia have a long way to go before they can compete on scale and efficiency (see box below).

Ben Keisner, sales director at courier business Freight Brokers, says many of its fashion clients are reviewing their supply chains, but have not committed to any big changes: "A lot has to happen before people make a switch. China is still miles ahead in terms of quality control and ease of transportation."

Yet, while China's dominance remains unchallenged, the tide is turning. In five years' time, the sourcing map could look very different from today.
Case studies: Your views on where to source from now Ethiopia
Three years ago, sourcing from Ethiopia sounded like a dream. But there is huge pressure on prices and you need to compete - and the labour costs in traditional textile countries such as China, Vietnam and Bangladesh are going up. Ethiopia provides a duty free route to our markets, and has competitive labour and other fixed costs. We could also buy 50% of our facility, so we're controlling the production.

The first challenge is transportation. One of its major disadvantages is that Ethiopia has no seaport. Goods travel by land to Djibouti's port, which takes two days. A railway line to Djibouti is under construction, which will decrease transportation costs by at least 40%, but in the meantime it is still expensive. We have mitigated the risk by signing an agreement with the biggest mill in the country, so we're not dependent on raw materials from outside Ethiopia.

There is also the lack of textile tradition and knowledge. We are the first ones to export tailored garments from Ethiopia. It's like being the first man on the moon. We had to relocate our general manager from China to Ethiopia to oversee the production and we're recruiting experienced managers from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to run the line.

If you are considering setting up production in Ethiopia, you need equity and your own managers. It is not because the locals are not talented - they just don't have the experience and they need training. Five years from now, it will be a different conversation.
Eran Itzhak, chief executive of menswear supplier Bagir Portugal
We work with Portugal on some of our products including towelling robes and swimwear. We find it easier to source more premium textiles and fibres from within Europe, and the consistency of product and the workmanship is excellent. We work with smaller quantities and the lead times can be more flexible than sourcing from the East. There is less emphasis on filling containers to gain good freight rates, and there are no duty rates to take into account. We can solve any issues quickly and we have the ability to take on repeats within season, although Portuguese factories do suffer from production capacity constraints in the peak season like any other country.

We find that development can be facilitated quickly and the mills and factories have a better understanding of the European market trends to bring ideas and concepts to us. We believe, as do many of our customers, that consumers consider "Made in Portugal" in the label to be a stamp of quality and understand the more premium nature and limited production that lies behind its creation.

The flip side of all this is undoubtedly price, as the worker rates are significantly higher than in the East, and garment production generally requires a large amount of labour input in cutting, sewing and checking. To give an example, for an embellished swim garment, the price difference can be more than twice what it would be if we sourced from Asia. As margin and price are such an important driver for many of our customers, there are only a selection who feel that Portugal is a viable option for them.
Tristan Haddow, chief executive of brand supplier Haddow Group Cambodia
Cambodia is actually very structured for a south-east Asian country. It has a lot of laws in place to protect both the employer and employee, and it is making headway with a living wage. It is taking a while, but [working conditions] are improving. It is also pretty fast and efficient; a lot of the main factories are run by people who used to work in China. People still associate Cambodia with fast fashion, but they do everything from fast fashion to luxury, and a lot of footwear, so there are a lot of different opportunities. There is a really good skills base.

One pitfall is that it is more expensive from a delivery perspective. They do have great logistics - quite fast - but it is much more expensive than shipping from India. I think because the infrastructure for shipping out to Europe is new, there are only a few international companies who really do it. And Cambodian factories have been focused on mass quantities, so they are very open to the bigger retailers, but for the medium-sized retailers it can be difficult to find out who is running what, where and how.
Leah Rodrigues, founder of Cambodian training and production centre Holi Studios

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Holi Studios, Cambodia A shift is happening in garment-manufacturing. For British brands and retailers, China is still by far the biggest player when it comes to sourcing apparel in large volumes - but it is becoming more expensive, and its position at the top is not as secure as it once was.

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WGSN womenswear textile forecast S/S 20

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COS is inspired by design world, working closely with creative industry

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COS is inspired by design world, working closely with creative industry

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Just be-COS

What does it say about London-based clothing brand COS that it is targeting architects and designers? Its price points ($99 to $225 for a men's dress shirt) are relatively accessible when compared to many other boutique or more explicitly luxury-oriented brands. At the same time, within the mass-market fast-fashion sector, COS has a different approach than other stores like Uniqlo or H&M (where dress shirts are more in the $30 range), which can tell us something about the brand and its ethos. Working in this sector, where does COS find its niche?

For COS, engagement has come through the design sphere; its target is the attendees of selective, high-end gatherings. In contrast, Uniqlo has partnered with MoMA, an institution that is trying harder everyday to cast as wide a net as possible, with celebrity-driven events like its controversial 2015 Bjork exhibition, or its apparent decision to get rid of permanent, discipline-specific galleries like architecture and design, in favor of cross-disciplinary shows with wider appeal. The Uniqlo-MoMA relationship includes the Japanese fashion brand's sponsorship of free Fridays at the museum, as well as a line of collaborative T-shirts that are sold at the Fifth Avenue Uniqlo flagship store just a few doors down from MoMA in New York City.

COS's involvement ranges from sponsoring Park Nights at London's Serpentine, a series of programs in the annual pavilion, to site-specific installations at global design events such as Design Miami/ and Milan Design Week. A recent string of projects has moved the brand away from earlier collaborations that were simpler and fairly vague-such as a 2014 project at Salone del Mobile with Japanese design studio Nendo -toward more interactive, experiential installations that activate space and merge into the architectural.

In November 2017, COS and New York-based Snarkitecture presented Loop, where visitors to Seoul's Gana Art Center gallery could place a white glass marble on a light- blue metal track, where it would descend to the gallery floor below. Similarly, London designers Studio Swine brought their Salone del Mobile installation New Spring to Miami for Design Miami/. There, visitors could play with special bubbles that fell from an arched sculpture and were filled with one of five scented mists. Next up is a collaboration with the Palm Springs-based artist Phillip K. Smith III in Milan, for which details are still pending.

While these installations might seem random, they make sense as an outreach and audience-building strategy for COS. Material and geometry are an important part of the COS brand, and in this sense, it shares DNA with modernism in architecture and design.

"Ornament and Crime," by Austrian architect Adolf Loos, is one of the most important treatises on the role of decoration after the industrial revolution. Personally, Loos preferred to wear very simple English wools suits. "When the English set it upon themselves to rule the world, they freed themselves from the imitation of silly costumes that they had been condemned to by other nations, and imposed the primeval dress around the globe," he once said, albeit extremely problematically by today's standards. But as a material analysis of post-national modernism, it can be applied to understanding his work.

In his architecture, such as the iconic Villa Müller and its rich marble and wood surfaces that layer over one another through adjacent spaces in a raumplan, Loos preferred simple geometries with rich materials that let the texture become the ornament-one of the major tenets of Miesian modernism and the International Style. Similarly, for COS Creative Director Karin Gustafsson, "We are interested in research such as materials or finishes. We also talk a lot about tactility."

But simplicity wasn't just a stylistic choice for Loos. He also famously said in 1908 that "when I look back over past centuries and ask myself in which age I would prefer to have lived, my answer is, 'in the present age.'" He believed that fashion and the reuse of older styles were an unnecessary infatuation with the past. Not surprisingly, he also was one of the pioneers of the modernist aesthetic, which abandoned ornament that he felt harkened back to a premodern sentimentality. To be thoroughly modern, one had to move beyond the past. For COS, modernity also comes from the timeless. "We are a fashion brand the focuses on well-made design and design that is made to last. It is timeless, it is about modernity," Gustafsson said.

But Loos's criticisms of older styles were also part of his commitment to the International project and his disdain for ornament, which he thought represented antiquated nationalism. As for COS, "We are a global brand," COS CEO Marie Honda said. "We want to always represent this through our projects and activations."

Recently, the brand released Creating Shapes, a book about fashion designer Usha Doshi, one of Gustafsson's teachers at the Royal College of Art in London. "She is one of the links between the designers and pattern cutters," Gustafsson told The Architect's Newspaper. Here, we see another connection between the COS brand and the design world, where making and materials are in a constant feedback loop, and often designers become the connection between the world of material innovation and the world of form-making. Designers and architects alike are always in search of the newest things to form into a chair or the latest glass technique that might lead to a beautiful window.

Executive Editor, Architect's Newspaper

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Why is mass-market fashion brand COS engaging the design world?

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Just be-COS What does it say about London-based clothing brand COS that it is targeting architects and designers? Its price points ($99 to $225 for a men's dress shirt) are relatively accessible when compared to many other boutique or more explicitly luxury-oriented brands.

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A Research Book contains facts that back up my 12 months campaign for ROKSANDA. Read the main book here https://issuu.com/maggiesyho/docs/final_major_project_-_issuu

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The decline of mid-market fashion brands

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The decline of mid-market fashion brands

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"The worst place to be during times of uncertainty is somewhere in in the middle, without a compelling proposition for either value or quality."

Prism Skylabs' retail senior vice president Cliff Crosbie might sound pessimistic about the much broader middle-market sector, but the facts and figures seem to be on his side.

A key battleground that lays bare the wounds of the mid-market sector is fashion. While luxury brands continue to cash in on the foreign tourists, administrators are nipping at the heels of those at a more modest price range.

This year already Brantano and Jones Bootmaker have collapsed. Last year many more, including American Apparel and Banana Republic, disappeared from high streets. Furthermore, Next and Marks & Spencer - which analysts often regard as bellwethers of UK retail - have sounded alarms over the increasingly tough market since the fall in the sterling.

As Retail Gazette established in the previous Sector Wars instalment, few think that circumstances are likely to change anytime soon. But why exactly is the sector struggling so much when its counterparts are enjoying a relative boom?
READ PART TWO HERE: Will the luxury sector win the Brexit recession?
Professor Steve Burt from the University of Sterling thinks it's all about reducing risk.

"There is a tendency in recession to go one of two ways - for price as budgets are constrained or for known brands at higher prices because it is a known quality/reputation purchase, you know what you are getting for your money," he told Retail Gazette.

"If you feel income and spending power are constrained then you look to reduce risk by either trying to get more for your money (discount), or making sure you know what you are getting for your money (known brands)."

"the ability to be flexible with fixed or semi-fixed costs will be important"

The depreciation of the pound since the Brexit referendum a year ago has had a huge and complex effect on UK retailers, both good and bad. To prevent becoming another administration statistic, Burt believes mid-market retailers need to consider flexibility.

"The fall in the pound should reduce buying costs, but impact ultimately will depend on scale - how much can scale be leveraged to make a difference in purchasing," he said.

"Buying costs fall for everyone in theory so the largest and most flexible can make the most of the fall. Also the lead time becomes important, fast fashion has shorter lead times, others may buy a few months in advance.

"Mid-market often tends to go for less fashionable (up-to-the-present) styles so is likely to have longer lead times. It will take a little while for the currency impact to come, through.
READ PART ONE HERE: Will budget retail win the next recession?
"Margins will be pressured so the ability to be flexible with fixed or semi-fixed costs will be important."

The mid-market seems to be between a rock and a hard place. Not only are margins taking a pounding, meaning there is less flexibility on which it is dependent to succeed, but both its more and less expensive rivals are stealing market share.

The University of Sterling's professor Leigh Sparks believes retailers need to push their unique selling point (USP) in order to fight back.

"The mid-range retailers have to focus on areas where they have some potential advantage," Sparks said.

"They have an ability to offer a better level of service than the budget chains and a better experience, but they need to work on this and make it distinctive and valued by the consumers.

"They can also seek out somewhat 'quirky' or different lines to make a differential point. But it is tough especially if it costs continue to rise and incomes fall."

"mid-market retailers are at risk of becoming Brexit casualties."

Ed Bussey, founder and chief executive of digital retail content specialists Quill, argues that the changes don't need to be dramatic for mid-market retailers to start competing.

"There are some simple things that mid-market brands can do better to survive during the next year," he told Retail Gazette.

"Luxury and budget customers are much more likely to go directly to a brand's website. For the mid-market though, the customer journey is more likely to start with a search engine, so being visible in search engine results pages (SERP) to garner organic traffic is vital.

"The only way to do this effectively is through unique and useful content - but you'd be amazed how many retailers we see failing to even add category page descriptions to their sites - one of the most powerful ways to secure search rankings against the large volumes of generic search traffic.

"Equally, given that product returns impact the bottom line significantly, I continue to be surprised at the consistently poor quality of product descriptions we see across the mid-market retailer sector, particularly around fit on fashion product pages.
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"Unless online storefronts are held to the same quality standards as their offline stores are, and are providing at least the same level of product information as would be available from a helpful in-store assistant, then mid-market retailers are at risk of becoming Brexit casualties."

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Sector Wars: Can mid-market retailers survive without change? - Retail Gazette - retail news, features and analysis

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"The worst place to be during times of uncertainty is somewhere in in the middle, without a compelling proposition for either value or quality." Prism Skylabs' retail senior vice president Cliff Crosbie might sound pessimistic about the much broader middle-market sector, but the facts and figures seem to be on his side.

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Richard Price

"Customers are becoming ever more discerning and are demanding products to market in a faster time" - Richard Price, CEO, F&F

2016 has been a competitive year and we expect to see more of the same in 2017. Customers are becoming ever more discerning and are demanding products to market in a faster time, which continues to challenge product development cycles.

On the other hand, there are inevitably going to be inflationary pressures next year, so having the right blend of style, quality and price will be essential to keep ahead. As retailers up their game, I think we'll see them searching for trend inspiration outside the traditional trade shows, catwalks and colour forecasts. I can see more focus on looking at global trends and how they are influencing what customers want.

Shop Direct group product director Matt Dixon

"2017 will be the year we super-charge personalisation" - Matt Dixon, group product director, Shop Direct

The trend for increased frequency of newness will continue, but at Shop Direct we'll temper this with relevancy - not newness for newness's sake. Being fleet of foot in offering the right products at the right time needs constant advancement on our site and in the way we speak to customers, and we embrace that. We've focused on this relevancy in our product lifecycles too, while also adding more thoughtful, planned and frequent promotions that align to our full-price newness cycles.

2017 will be the year we super-charge personalisation. You'll start to see our big bet on AI (artificial intelligence) paying off through real-time personalisation on site, and even more relevant, timely communications direct to our customers.

We'll also deliver our first AI-driven, natural language chat bot in 2017, following on from Very Assistant, which was our first conversational user interface.

rhian bartlett e bay

"Technology and retail continue to be more and more entwined" - Rhian Bartlett, director of retail, eBay UK

Technology and retail continue to be more and more entwined, providing the customer with choice and convenience, while services such as click-and-collect and mobile shopping are now considered a standard offering to shoppers.

In 2017 the relationship between tech and retail will continue to grow, particularly in the area of personalisation. We've already seen that from our emotionally powered shop experiment - whereby we opened a pop-up shop in November that tested consumer's emotional reactions to Christmas gifts - that there's an appetite from consumers to embrace new ways to shop. The challenge is how to commercialise the opportunity.

"We'll start to see more companies that marry deep technology capabilities with fashion expertise" - Kieran O'Neill, chief executive and co-founder, Thread

One of the big trends we'll see in 2017 is the creation of new customer experiences that weren't possible historically. For example, with Thread we're able to offer 425,000 men their own personal stylist for free, as well as allowing them to effectively browse their own store where every item is personalised to them. This has only become possible in the last few years with the advances in machine learning technology.

We'll start to see more companies that marry deep technology capabilities with fashion expertise. Historically, these two groups haven't worked together, but it's often at the intersection of two very different fields that you see breakthrough innovation.

Colin Porter

"Strong brands with true multichannel models will continue to stand out from the crowd in 2017" - Colin Porter, chief executive, Joules

The year ahead will bring challenges for the industry, including the weaker sterling and some uncertainty following the European Union referendum. However, we believe strong brands with true multichannel models will continue to stand out from the crowd in 2017. Joules remains very well placed in the UK and international markets, given the strength of our brand and loyalty of our growing customer base.

In terms of fashion trends, we anticipate that bright pops of colour and bold unique prints will remain popular across lifestyle categories. For 2017 we've taken a lot of inspiration from the folk trend.

Martin Harbech

"We expect to see more retailers using video in their campaigns, and taking personalisation to the next level through real-time storytelling" - Martin Harbech, head of ecommerce and retail, Facebook and Instagram

The increase in video on Facebook in 2016 has driven a new era of creativity on mobile and this will continue to evolve in 2017. We expect to see more retailers using video in their campaigns, and taking personalisation to the next level through real-time storytelling. With creative tools including Facebook Live, Instagram Stories and even bots for Messenger, we are giving brands a unique opportunity to reach people in a more relevant and timely way while offering an authentic, behind-the-scenes look into their business.

"Concern remains around exchange rates and the continued weakness in sterling" - Frank Slevin, chairman, House of Fraser

The Brexit vote does give a bit more certainty as at least we now know that the UK will be leaving the European Union, although we are still not sure exactly what form that departure will take. Concern remains around exchange rates and the continued weakness in sterling. Our new five-year strategy acknowledges the trend for shift away from retail and focuses a lot on the customer experience, so we are optimistic about the future. House of Fraser has been around for 167 years, and we have a supportive parent and strong partners, combined with our transformative plan to position us for the future of retail.

Ben lewis, ceo, river island

"Technology remains at the core of our strategy" - Ben Lewis, chief executive, River Island

While our outlook remains cautious, we are well positioned in terms of having the right product, and offering a great experience in store and online. Technology remains at the core of our strategy, implementing ground-up investment, and ensuring everyone within the company thinks and operates in a digital first way. We are plugging into something new as we move forward, positioning our thinking and development against the very best in the tech sector - we want to be renowned in the industry as pioneers, seeking out the best people and nurturing talent.

"Consumers want the latest looks faster than ever before" - Tarak Ramzan, CEO and founder, Quiz

Consumers want the latest looks faster than ever before and a brand's ability to respond to this immediacy while continuing to exceed customers' expectations will be key to future growth. The fast fashion market is growing rapidly. We will continue to expand our presence in the UK and explore new markets while investing in our infrastructure and new technology.

Juls Dawson

"For autumn 17 many wholesale brands will have no choice but to change pricing or mark-ups" - Juls Dawson, co-founder, Just Consultancies

The latter half of 2016 brought real challenge on a wholesale front, as Brexit came in the middle of the traditional forward-order selling seasons. Most brands on the launch of spring 17 campaigns had not accounted for the huge effect on the currency exchange rates that ensued, and altering their pricing at this stage for most was not an option. For autumn 17 many wholesale brands will have no choice but to change pricing or mark-ups at retail, wholesale or both. We will wait to see how this has an impact on buying by retailers and consumer alike.

Where we may seem some positive sales uplifts is where buyers and the public gravitate towards product - own label and wholesale - that are still perceived as accessible in a marketplace that will be languishing with increasing price points.

"Prices will go up - by how much depends on the degree of exclusivity and differentiation of your product - but go up they must" - Daniel Rubin, executive chairman and founder, The Dune Group

Every now and then an event comes along that provides a shock to the system. Brexit was such an event. The impact to date has been benign and less damaging than commentators predicted. Don't be fooled - the full impact won't be felt until next year. As retailers' forward-currency contracts run out, prices will go up - by how much depends on the degree of exclusivity and differentiation of your product - but go up they must.

And certainly, whatever the pundits say, there is also an underlying fragility in consumer confidence, which, combined with the increase in the living wage, the introduction of the apprenticeship levy, increases in business rates and most likely a cold summer spring/summer and warm autumn/winter, will make 2017 one challenging - "challenging" must be the most overused word in retail currently - year for fashion retailers.

Despite all the challenges, I am surprisingly optimistic for Dune in 2017. That shock I mentioned has resulted in us - and I'm sure many other retailers - reviewing all aspects of our business to work more efficiently and productively.

"Machine learning has the potential to revolutionise personalisation for fashion platforms of the future" - Moritz Hahn, senior vice-president for category management and markets, Zalando

Machine learning has the potential to revolutionise personalisation for fashion platforms of the future. By using input from several sources, machines can recognise and categorise virtually any fashion item, revealing symmetries, structures and trends from every corner of the industry.

We will also focus on apps in 2017. Mobile provides the ultimate gateway for personal connections. We're already pushing personalised content via the Zalando app and attracting more loyalty from customers.

Having a closer look at product trends, in 2017, the focus on well-being will continue and lead to further blending of sports or leisurewear with more formal clothing. And the developing economies and their cultures will have a huge influence on fashion: you will recognise folkloristic elements that are typical for particular cultures - eastern European, African and Cuban, for example.

At the same time, fashion becomes more eclectic and opulent. Even minimalism, which has dominated fashion in recent years, is becoming more decorative.

"Consumers are looking to spend a portion of their disposable income on well-being and experience" - Beth Butterwick, CEO, Karen Millen

At the beginning of 2017, we're focusing on the current year-end close and initiating the strategic levers that form the plan for the new financial year.

For most consumer sectors, volatility seems to be the new normal. The only certainty as we face 2017 is the continuation of economic and global uncertainty, coupled with those widely reported headwinds impacting us all. Additionally, consumers are looking to spend a portion of their disposable income on well-being and experience. Most businesses will be focused on customer retention, acquisition and how they best secure a share of spend.

To be successful in 2017 retailers will need to be obsessive about understanding customers, as well as offering local and global consistent brand experiences, brand storytelling across physical and digital platforms, and tailored customer service through seamless omnichannel integration. On top of all that, they will need real sales growth to underpin cost and productivity efforts.

This year, we've seen the theme of "personalisation". In 2017, as consumers continue to look for "unique experiences", personalisation will move to new levels, impacting retail more broadly and moving in to travel, leisure, beauty, health, services generally and many more.

"There will be extreme trading periods, good and bad" - Peter Ruis, CEO, Jigsaw

If not the toughest year I can remember in retail, 2016 was certainly the strangest. We operated within the sheer extremity of the pre- and post-Brexit debate (sterling started to fall aggressively from January - we have not seen this in elections and referenda before), the bizarre weather, turbulent consumer confidence, a discounting epidemic, and the furore around BHS and Sports Direct.

In 2017, Brexit, Trump and European elections will still dominate the news agenda - consumer confidence will bounce around. There will be extreme trading periods, good and bad. However, truly differentiated brands and retailers will stand out. There is some recovery in currencies. There is likely to be more political certainty at least by the autumn. We remain very optimistic for the Jigsaw brand, which will continue to expand aggressively, domestically and internationally.

"It's all going to be about regional centres and making a statement: your retail is your marketing - David Reiss, founder, Reiss

The Brexit vote was a shock to the system but there are bigger changes too: people's shopping habits have changed - they are shopping much more online and they are spending money in different ways. You have to adapt to the way the market is. And also - let's face it - the world is overshopped. I have said for a while that secondary retail is dead - you don't want to be touching secondary retail.

It's all going to be about regional centres and making a statement: your retail is your marketing and you want to make sure it is special.

"Customers want hassle-free, convenient shopping via omnichannel integration" - Susan Saideman, vice-president, Amazon Fashion in Europe

The fashion industry is speeding up - trend cycles are accelerating with an increase in consumers who want to "see now, buy now". This new pace can be seen in our customers who are reacting to trends more confidently and making purchases more quickly. Our customers often have busy lives and are looking for ways to become more "time rich", so they can cherish their leisure and family time. They want hassle-free, convenient shopping via omnichannel integration, and a speedy and reliable delivery service.

"Social media will sit at the heart of many future transactions" - Mary Turner, CEO, Koovs

M-commerce will continue to leapfrog traditional ecommerce, bringing with it a shopper that expects instant gratification, speed and relevance. So, a traditional "catalogue"-style transactional website will no longer fit the bill. Social media will sit at the heart of many future transactions, providing more of an emotional connection. We are already seeing this trend with shopability across various platforms.

Data is now like water: it's abundant and it's also vital. But brands will need to be smarter in using it to serve customers better, and this is doubly so for mobile, as it is an instant, on-the-go medium.

In a world with near-endless choice, we will be using data to provide dynamic personalisation and artificial intelligence to continually learn about the customer and make instantaneous recommendations.

Wendy hallett

"Having and retaining the right talent to cope with the continuing changing environment will be key" - Wendy Hallett, founder and managing director, Hallett Retail

It is hard to predict what 2017 will hold for our sector given the number of uncertainties and unknowns in this country and beyond. However, having and retaining the right talent to cope with the continuing changing environment will be key, whatever comes our way. Having an agile workforce working cross-functionally and adapting quickly to changing demands will be vital.

The spotlight on the gender pay Gap from April 2017 [when new company reporting requirements come into effect] will help businesses consider a more flexible approach to working, increasing agility and growing the talent pool at all levels. It is well documented that a better gender balance throughout an organisation can bring better business results.

"Instead of buying 'more', customers will 'buy once and buy well'" - Anthony Thompson, chief executive, Fat Face

Customers will feel the pinch in 2017 as inflation flows through to retail prices as a direct result of the devaluation of the pound. The clothing sector is not immune to this reality and we will witness higher underlying retail prices for the first time in a generation.

Short term, some retailers will resort to radically changing their sourcing strategy and even reducing quality in an effort to hold prices. But it won't work and customers will not be impressed. In an inflationary environment customers will race towards quality rather than "race to the bottom". And instead of buying "more", they will "buy once and buy well". For brands that want a sustainable business, this means providing the best value, not just the lowest price.

Discounting and lazy marketing will no doubt continue in the short term, but the trend towards providing a more full-price proposition where price integrity matters, will also start to gain momentum as retailers face up to margin pressures and finally recognise the damage that constant discounting has had on their profitability.

So despite the cost pressures, I approach 2017 glass half full. There is a great opportunity for clothing to reinvent itself in 2017, and to start to get its act together again.

"There will be continued acceleration in digital innovation and increased consumer demand for 'buy now, wear now'" - Ulric Jerome, CEO, Matchesfashion.com

I see the next 12 to 18 months as being quite transformational for the industry. There will be continued acceleration in digital innovation and increased consumer demand for "buy now, wear now". At Matchesfashion.com we're ahead of that trend, having just launched on-demand 90-minute delivery and invested significantly in technology to enable the digital consumer - 45% of Matchesfashion.com sales are now generated via mobile phone. The luxury and fashion industry is being reshaped by digital and, like us, every company will need to put technology and innovation at the heart of their business.

"The speed of last-mile delivery options will start to dictate how etailers convert customers" - Sach Kukadia, co-founder and buying director, SecretSales

The future of retail is being moulded by consumer convenience. Speed of delivery will be paramount in the coming year, as many businesses search for same day deliveries and in some cases same hour options. Operationally we are focusing our efforts on improving customer experience, specifically our delivery lead times, which frankly hinders all businesses in the flash Sales sector.

The UK market is extremely complex in terms of landscape and, with the uncertainty of our economy and the speed at technology is advancing, the shopping experience is inevitably going to evolve.

With the introduction of wearable technology, 2017 may bring the first shift in consumer behaviour. Facebook and Amazon will soon introduce wearable eyewear technology that allows consumers to shop instantly by directing their focus on to a specific item.

Coupling this with the advancements in logistics carriers, and, of course, the use of drones, items will be delivered to your desired location within an hour. Subsequently the speed of last-mile delivery options will start to dictate how etailers convert customers.

It could even be that in 2017 we see consumers shopping "in store" through virtual reality headsets from the comfort of their own home. Either way, 2017 is undoubtedly going to be a difficult year while the economy stabilises post-Brexit vote and retailers play catch up with technology.

"Inflationary price rises will be felt by everybody" - Colin Temple, managing director, Schuh

2016 was an interesting year for retailing, one from which I will be happy to move on. The strong athleisure trend combined with a mild winter and heavy discounting on Black Friday have been challenges for us. We have, however, enjoyed a bit of a comeback thanks to London tourist spend and, generally, apart from Black Friday, retailers have not been overly discounting this year.

2017 will no doubt be another year of unusual weather. The uncertainty of Brexit and probable inflationary price rises will be felt by everybody. Not much you can do about these things but the biggest challenge is to be fully joined up on the multichannel front, giving the customer a seamless experience, however they wish to shop. Considerable amounts will be invested by retailers to better understand the customer journey both in store and online. Retailers will also be working very hard to get efficiencies with staffing, central overhead costs and distribution to offset cost increases.

"We will remain fully focused on brand and customer experience" - William Kim, chief executive, AllSaints

Since 2012, we have been obsessed with creating a global, direct-to-consumer business model - both in terms of distribution and communication. Over the next year, we will remain fully focused on brand and customer experience, and continue to drive this direct model, by further enhancing our customer journey via digital, especially on our mobile platform. We expect these efforts to take our digital penetration to more than 20% of total global revenues. Additionally, we have created in-house technology, which enables our retail stores to fulfil online orders, and we envision new global partnerships in digital coding and innovation.

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Richard Price "Customers are becoming ever more discerning and are demanding products to market in a faster time" - Richard Price, CEO, F&F 2016 has been a competitive year and we expect to see more of the same in 2017.

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Competitors' product & pricing strategy (EDITED)

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Competitors' product & pricing strategy (EDITED)

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cos & competitors pricing & product strategy

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aspirational competitor

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Roksanda Ilinčić is a fashion designer based in London and the founder of the label Roksanda.

Ilinčić studied architecture and design at the Faculty of Applied Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade, before studying at Central Saint Martins in London in 1999, where she graduated with an MA in Womenswear.

"I was hungry to learn and start the label, but I wasn't really aware of what my strengths were. At Saint Martins, they were able to push that out and make you realise - and in my case, it was the complete opposite to what I thought it was. I had rebelled against anything feminine when I was back home - all the classic elements that I appreciate now."

Today, Roksanda has become a must-see at London Fashion Week where the line is known for her bold use of colour, luxurious fabrics and clean, elegant lines. The label - which offers day and evening dresses, handbags and swimwear - is now available at 122 stockists around the world. In July 2012, she launched a new childrenswear line, 'Blossom', inspired in part by her daughter, Efimia.

"My clothes are about the fit and feeling comfortable. Even when they are experimental, they are very wearable. It's not about creating pieces of art. My way of designing isn't perhaps what people expect to see from London," she says of her elegant, dressy collections. "But I never had any thoughts about going anywhere else. People in London are so open-minded to any kind of creativity." Ilinčić told The Daily Telegraph.

Early in 2014, Ilincic attracted investment from Eiesha Bharti Pasricha, who took a minority stake in the business. The infusion of capital enabled Ilincic to open a 2,500-square-foot David Adjaye-designed boutique on London's Mount Street in June. "I wanted to support young talent, but with a brand that already had some traction with its consumers and had a presence, however small," said Ms Bharti Pasricha.

She has also produced diffusion lines for high street stores Whistles and Debenhams. In the run-up to the London 2012 Olympics, she was one of a number of designers who created a tee-shirt to raise funds for the Evening Standard's 'Dispossessed Fund'.

Ilinčić has dressed Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Michelle Obama, and the wife of the British Prime Minister, Samantha Cameron. Other notable clients include actors and performers Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Amy Adams, January Jones, Jessica Chastain, Emily Blunt, Tilda Swinton , Rachel McAdams,Rita Ora, Lady Gaga, Róisín Murphy, and Naomie Harris.

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Roksanda Ilinčićis One of the 500 People Shaping the Global Fashion Industry in 2018

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Roksanda Ilinčić is a fashion designer based in London and the founder of the label Roksanda. Ilinčić studied architecture and design at the Faculty of Applied Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade, before studying at Central Saint Martins in London in 1999, where she graduated with an MA in Womenswear.

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Massimo Dutti United Kingdom | Men & Women's AW Fashion

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Discover the latest Massimo Dutti clothing, shoes & accessories for women and men from the elegant Autumn/Winter 2021 collection. Luxury at your fingertips.

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Designer ID: ROKSANDA

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ROKSANDA Ilincic interview

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Roksanda Ilincic Designer Women Fashion Power interview

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WGSN Message S/S 20

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Top 10 Most Iconic Art and Fashion Collaborations
Art and fashion are two fields of ongoing innovation and creative expression. Yet they are decidedly distinct from another: while art is free from any restrictions, fashion is bound to the demands of a fast-paced industry. Naturally, fashion designers have repeatedly turned to art to imbue their creations with this flair of artistic freedom, giving way to sensational art-meets-fashion collaborations. Follow along some of the most iconic pairings between these two worlds...
Elsa Schapiarelli x Salvador Dalí

The "Organza Dinner Dress with Painted Lobster" is probably one of the earliest collaborations between a fashion designer and an artist. Designed by Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí, this quirky, yet elegant piece is the result of a fruitful collaboration between these two creative minds. Worn by Wallis Simpson for a Vogue spread in 1937, the dress is considered to be one of the most iconic garments of that era.

Dubbed as "monster bags" by some critics, this accessory line was designed by Tracey Emin in collaboration with Longchamp. Coinciding with their 10th anniversary, the French luxury brand invited the British artist to design a bag collection that featured some of her signature techniques, like patchwork, destroyed textiles, and painting. Drawing from Emin's confessional work, the designer bags were linked to a love story, in which a woman would travel from one city to another in search of an "international love".

Rei Kawakubo x Merce Cunningham

As the creative director of Comme des Garçons, Rei Kawakubo has always been known for her concept-driven approach to design that blurs the lines between fashion and art. Inspired by legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham, she created the groundbreaking 'Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body' Summer/Spring collection in 1997. A stunning interplay between contemporary dance and avant-garde fashion that reimagines the body.

Louis Vuitton x Richard Prince

For the Spring/Summer 2008 Louis Vuitton collection, Marc Jacobs and Richard Prince decided to bring the artist's recent iconography to life. A nod to his famous Nurse paintings, the models walked down the runway dressed in see-through nurse dresses. Other references to Prince's art were worked into the LV bags - a coup that had previously proven successful with the famous Takashi Murakami x LV bag collection, as we will see in the following.

Yeezy x Vanessa Beecroft

From dressing her performers in Gucci bikinis to collaborations with Louis Vuitton, Vanessa Beecroft was no stranger to the fashion world when Kanye West invited her to collaborate with him on his Season 3 Yeezy collection in 2016. Together they staged a performance for the Yeezy runway show, which showcased hundreds of performers dressed in West's uniform like designs.

Prada x Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset

Set against the stunning scenery of the Texas desert, this site-specific installation is Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset's ironic take on luxury shopping. Echoing the design of Prada stores you can find in the most elegant neighborhoods around the world, the installation, succinctly titled "Prada Marfa", displays the brand's Spring/Summer 2005 collection. Since its creation, the piece has become a site of cultural pilgrimage to art lovers, but also victim to repeated vandalism.

Alexander McQueen x Damien Hirst

It was the shared skull iconography that prompted British fashion house Alexander McQueen to enlist controversial art market star Damien Hirst for a collaboration. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the brand's iconic skull print scarf, Hirst created a limited edition of 30 designs adapted from his Entomology series. In this collection, the butterflies and insects that populate the artist's Dante inspired aesthetic are laid out to create Alexander McQueen's skull motif.

Stella McCartney x Ed Ruscha

In 2016 American artist Ed Ruscha lent his signature style to Stella McCartney's winter campaign, #Stellacares. Reflecting the fashion designer's cruelty-free production ethics, the campaign images shot by photographer Harley Weir were superimposed with phrases such as "Meat-free" and "Veg out" in Ruscha's characteristic 'Boy Scout Utility Modern'. A sans serif style font, which he created in the 1980s and became a central component of his work.

Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami

Probably one of the most commercially successful fashion-art collaborations, the 2003 Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami accessory collection revealed the economic potential that arises from a collision between fashion and art. Featuring a colorful LV monogram designed by the Japanese pop-artist, these bags can safely be considered to be some of the most paradigmatic It Bags of the 2000s.

Raf Simons x Robert Mapplethorpe

Shown at the Pitti Uomo in 2017, the Spring/Summer men's wear collection by Raf Simons took inspiration Robert Mapplethorpe's incredible photography. Some of the artist's seminal pieces like his Patti Smith portraits, as well as lesser-known, erotic photographs were worked into the garments in print form. But Mapplethorpe's art was also present in more referential ways, like in the white wide-necked shirts that could be seen on the runway in reverence to Smith's androgynous style. Incidentally, it was the Robert Mapplethorpe foundation that reached out to Simons, allowing him to go through the photographer's archive in order to translate his transgressive work into fashion.

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Top 10 Most Iconic Art and Fashion Collaborations - ARTLAND

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Art and fashion are two fields of ongoing innovation and creative expression. Yet they are decidedly distinct from another: while art is free from any restrictions, fashion is bound to the demands of a fast-paced industry. Naturally, fashion designers have repeatedly turned to art to imbue their creations with this flair of artistic freedom, giving way to sensational art-meets-fashion collaborations.

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"Create Better Basics"

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Collaborations are no longer just celebrity lines for mass-market retailers or designers creating cheaper facsimiles of their most recognisable designs or looks. Right now, it’s about high-low, hype-slow, luxe-street juxtapositions.

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Buy One, Get One Free isn't the sort of sales incentive you'd expect to find in a luxury fashion boutique. Yet in the last few years, one would be forgiven for thinking there are bargains to be found in the form of two-for-the-price-of-one luxury goods that bear the branding of not one, but two monolithic brands.

Fashion - or luxury, rather - has caught the collaboration bug.

Look no further than Louis Vuitton and Supreme, which sold out at eight dedicated pop-ups around the world and has rocketed in resale value on platforms such as Grailed and eBay - you can currently buy a red keepall for just under £14,000 on the latter, almost six times the original retail price. Elsewhere, there's also been the unexpected combinations of Fendi and Fila, Polo Ralph Lauren and Palace, JW Anderson and Converse, Burberry and Gosha Rubchinskiy, and Vetements and just about everyone.

In February, Moncler launched a dramatic new business structure entirely centred on multiple collaborations with a diverse range of designers, such as Valentino's resident couturier Pierpaolo Piccioli, lauded London designers Simone Rocha and Craig Green, buzzy streetwear label Palm Angels, and cult Japanese designers Hiroshi Fujiwara and Kei Ninomiya. The Italian brand put its 27 per cent jump in revenue in the first half of 2018 down to its Genius project, which has already lived up to its name.

Tod's has also launched a similar initiative titled Tod's Factory, a non-seasonal collaboration in the form of a capsule collection, the first of which is designed by Alessandro Dell'Acqua. Next month, Burberry will drop a capsule collection designed by Vivienne Westwood - just in time for a collaboration-friendly Christmas.
Read more: The Burberry And Vivienne Westwood Collection Has Dropped - And It's Brilliant
If it all sounds familiar that's because it is - albeit at a much more accessible level. Limited-edition collaborations are nothing new. In fact, they've always been a mutually beneficial trade-off for catwalk designer and mass-market retailers or sportswear giants.

Just look at H&M's ambitious partnerships with just about every major fashion designer - from Karl Lagerfeld and Martin Margiela to Rei Kawakubo and Donatella Versace. This year, the Swedish fashion label's buzzed-about partnership is with Moschino, the Italian fashion house headed up by Jeremy Scott. The collection launched with a star-filled fashion show in New York last month and it hit stores on 8 November. "When I got the call about working with H&M and being their designer collaboration for this year, I was excited as I love the idea of bringing my [designs] to the masses," Scott told Vogue at the show.
Read more: A First Look At The Full Moschino x H&M Collection
Indeed, making catwalk fashion available to a wider audience is a central tenet to H&M's approach. Ann-Sofie Johansson, H&M's creative advisor, points out that when the first collaboration (with Karl Lagerfeld no less) was launched, it was expected to be on the rails for weeks, but completely sold out. "The word collaboration is now part of fashion's everyday language," she says. "With each of the collaborations, the aim is to pinpoint the essence of the brand. It is all about capturing the designers' or the brands' DNA and offering it to the world."

At the height of H&M's collaborations - which have arguably waned over the years, according to media impressions - it was the blue-chip designers who were in feverish demand. In 2018, the tables have turned. Now, it's the cheap-but-cool streetwear and sportswear labels that really matter - and the luxury brands are the ones eager to get in on the action.

For younger designers, collaborations with mass-market retailers can be a lifeline. In New York, designers such as Prabal Gurung, Jason Wu and Proenza Schouler have partnered with Target. In London, runway stars Christopher Kane, Ashish, House of Holland, Charles Jeffrey and the now-defunct Meadham Kirchhoff have relied on collaborations with Topshop to bolster business.

"We have to keep it interesting and keep the momentum going, and I have to keep challenging myself, otherwise I would still be making ruffled shorts," Jonathan Anderson said at the launch of JW Anderson's collaboration with Converse. "Sometimes you have to change the fundamentals of what you're into, which takes a lot of energy. You have to question yourself and think of how you keep your brand moving forward."

Anderson has collaborated with several brands including Uniqlo, Sunspel, Topshop, Converse and even Diet Coke, and has acknowledged that collaborating with flagship brands is an essential part of growing a fledgling label. "Converse or Uniqlo serve an incredible purpose to me," he says. "They are universal and I would love JW Anderson to be that universal, but we don't have that [production] volume."

"Collaborations are not going away soon - they are a much needed marketing tool to assist institutions with cutting through the massive amount of noise which is disseminated through owned, earned, and paid-for media every single day," says Marc Beckman, CEO of DMA United, an advertising and talent agency that has brokered deals with Target for several designers, as well as deals between Jeremy Scott and Pepsi and the NBA. "North of seven digits is not uncommon now," adds Beckman, who points out that pre-recession a designer could earn as little as $20,000 to participate in a mass market collaboration. Today, Beckman says that fees continue to increase exponentially. "If properly executed, this can bring [designers] significant brand awareness, exposure to new audiences, and of course, meaningful revenue."

So why are established luxury brands tapping into collaborations right now? As creative directors continue to play musical chairs, coming and going at an unprecedented speed, collaborations provide a sense of security for fashion executives and allow brands to tap into the non-seasonal 'drops' that have been popularised by streetwear labels, such as Palace and Supreme. Collaborations are no longer just celebrity lines for mass-market retailers or designers creating cheaper facsimiles of their most recognisable designs or looks. Right now, it's about high-low, hype-slow, luxe-street juxtapositions.
Read more: Palace X Polo Ralph Lauren Reveal Full Lookbook
"Fashion collaborations are one of the levers that brands are using to surprise consumers, get their attention and drive traffic to stores," explains Luca Solca, head of luxury goods at Exane BNP Paribas. "We are living in an era of abundance, with many brands competing for the consumer wallet. Surprise - with new products, new communication, new stores - is of the essence and that's the main reason behind pop-up stores and collaborations."

It's no coincidence that Off-White, which is known for its relentless collaborations, was named by Lyst as the "hottest brand on the planet" according to the inaugural Lyst Index. Part of the brand's meteoric success, according to Lyst, is Virgil Abloh's collaboration with Nike. However, there's also his hook-ups with Ikea, Rimowa, Levi's, Dr Martens, Byredo, Jimmy Choo, Kith, Moncler, Warby Parker, Umbro and Champion to name a few.
Read more: Introducing Nike x A-Cold-Wall*: The Trainers Rejecting Box-Fresh Sneaker Culture
What once would have been considered brand dilution for a luxury brand is now seen as brand enrichment. If there was ever any doubt, in March Abloh was named the new artistic director of menswear at Louis Vuitton, a brand that has a long history of collaborations with artists and designers, and recently experienced blockbuster success with its logo-heavy Supreme collaboration, which sold out at pop-up locations around the world.

For the customers who queued and were limited to purchasing only a few items, it all came down to one thing. Well, two things, really.

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Buy One, Get One Free isn't the sort of sales incentive you'd expect to find in a luxury fashion boutique. Yet in the last few years, one would be forgiven for thinking there are bargains to be found in the form of two-for-the-price-of-one luxury goods that bear the branding of not one, but two monolithic brands.

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COS collaborations with architects, designers and artists

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COS collaborations with architects, designers and artists

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from WGSN:
Buy well, choose less, make it last.

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Interview: fashion brand COS is heavily influenced by architecture and design, says managing director Marie Honda, who tells Dezeen how the company built a global business with 104 stores in 25 countries without using conventional advertising or catwalk shows (+ slideshow).

Instead, COS uses collaborations with designers including Nendo and Numen/For Use to target customers who work in the creative industries.

COS launches The Serpentine Shoes to coincide with pavilion opening

"You can see from our trend boards that our inspiration from the beginning has been very, very strong from the design world, architecture, graphics, etc," Honda told Dezeen. "It has been a key influence."

The brand's minimal garments, which Honda describes as "understated" and "timeless", defy seasonal trends and have became popular with architects and designers, who see COS as a more affordable alternative to luxury brand Prada.

COS, which stands for Collection of Style, launched in 2007 as part of Swedish retail giant H&M with the aim to provide "design quality for an affordable price" to shoppers looking for high-fashion garments for high-street prices.

"It felt like it was something missing in the market," said Honda, who began her role a year after COS launched and has since steered the brand's unique approach to fashion and retail.

The brand has used all aspects of design to build its reputation, following the principles of "timeless, modern, functional and tactile" for its garments, store interiors, graphics and packaging - all of which are currently designed in-house.

"These are the things that we really believe in throughout the brand, so not only with the collection but when we build the stores," said Honda, who added that the graphics and branding design also "goes hand in hand".

Honda was speaking to Dezeen at the brand's London headquarters, close to its Regent Street store - the first that COS opened and provided the model used for all of its retail interiors.

Metal rails divide the open spaces into the brand's four different collections - womenswear, menswear, children's clothing and accessories - while wood and concrete surfaces are used to "enhance the products".

COS opened its 104th store in Los Angeles last week and plans to roll out new locations in Tokyo, New York, Melbourne and Seoul before the end of the year.

"Attention to detail is in everything throughout: what kind of buttons do we use, how do we cut the garments, but also within our packaging and our bags we have in the stores," she said. "How long should the handle be, what is the softness of the handle etc. It's key throughout all areas of the brand."

Rather than putting on fashion shows, COS shares its new collections directly with its audience via its website and a biannual printed publication that both feature pared-back designs.

The brand does no advertising and instead sponsors events like the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion's Park Nights summer talks programme, for which it created a limited-edition Serpentine Shoe to coincide with the opening in June.

"We try instead to find other people who influence us to work together, for example when we work with Serpentine," said Honda. "There are other ways to reach out."

COS is also supporting an installation of translucent tape tunnels currently on show in a Paris art gallery, and collaborated with Japanese design studio Nendo to create an installation at Milan design week in April.

"One of Nendo's chairs with the clever part that has been created from one piece of wood features on our trend boards from time-to-time," said Honda.

Read an edited version of the transcript below:

Dan Howarth: Could you tell me a bit about the story behind COS and how it was set up?

Marie Honda: We've been based in London since the start, launched in 2007 with the business idea: high-fashion quality for an affordable price. We always said it was so fortunate that it was a group within the H&M group, which really felt strongly about this idea and developed this further. The response came to us quite quickly that it felt like it was something missing in the market, filling a gap in the market - something a little in between the high end and the high street. The response was really positive from the beginning, and that's kind of where we stayed in a way, in both worlds.

Dan Howarth: Have you been involved since the beginning?

Marie Honda: I started in 2008, so I joined a year after they opened the first stores. So still fairly young and not so many stores so it's been a fantastic journey throughout. As I said the response has been positive so far from the customer and we take that with us all the time to continue to develop the brand.

Dan Howarth: Where were the first stores opened?

Marie Honda: The first stores were here on Regent Street in March 2007 and it was quite a quick roll out, the first year. We rolled out stores here in London, also in Berlin and Copenhagen and so on, then there was a few stores here in the first years. Since then we have opened store 103 in Paris.

Dan Howarth: How do you translate the middle ground between high-end and the high street into the clothes?

Marie Honda: For our customer and our aesthetic, I think the key for us is timelessness, modernity, functionality and tactility. The timelessness is in the garments for everyone's essential wardrobes that don't have to be trend specific. Something that lasts a little bit longer in essential garments, such as the white shirt that we strongly believe in throughout all the concepts in our range, the trench coat or the fitted blazer, in menswear the perfect pair of chinos. It's not so much about trend and season, it's a bit season-less and lasts a little bit beyond.

It's important then to be modern still. We talk a lot about our customer being aware and really knowing what they're buying into. Modernity is important in that sense. How does the colour look this season? Is it a little bit of stretch that we're adding? How is the cut of the garment? Of course that sort of thing is always changing. But modernity can also be within the material, which is changing a lot right now overall. A lot of new materials are coming in, a lot of finishings. Or how you cut can be quite modern, maybe with a fastening etc. It's just always pushing ourselves and our production team to make sure we can make it new for the customer.

Tactility goes throughout, not only the collection but everything that surrounds us, also the stores and all areas of the brand. What is the finishing? What is the softness that it feels? If we work on the store designs it's equally important. What kind of materials do we choose for the cash desk, for example, because that's something that the customer touches and the fitting rooms etc. For all the materials around us, we always talk about the surface and how it feels.

The functionality is key for us as well. It's important if you have a new shape or cut in the garment that it is still functional and flattering when you wear it. People tend to say we are quite minimalistic but it's not always the case that we want to be. I think it's just the way we work with the garments. We don't add things if there's no reason for it, really. So then it becomes more minimalistic in that way.

Dan Howarth: There's a lot of emphasis on detail?

Marie Honda: Absolutely. Attention to detail is in everything throughout: what kind of buttons do we use, how do we cut the garments, but also within our packaging and our bags we have in the stores. How long should the handle be, what is the softness of the handle etc. It's key throughout all areas of the brand.

Dan Howarth: How would you describe the brand's overall aesthetic?

Marie Honda: From the beginning it's been a different aesthetic, more understated rather than showy. I think the key was for us is the design quality for an affordable price and just to find the perfect essentials for everyday wardrobes.

Dan Howarth: Your stores are all designed in-house. How would you describe their aesthetic?

Marie Honda: I think the original concept was created by William Russell. We have the four different concepts within our collection, the idea was to create rooms within rooms. That's why we have the metal rails and we don't have any fixed walls. We love the open space, but create the smaller rooms for each and every concept with the rail system to create rooms within the room. It's important to have the place as a blank canvas because we really want the product to speak for itself, that is the most important thing for us, but also by using some of the materials it can enhance the products in a way. By using the metal, concrete and warm woods in there we create a really nice atmosphere for our garments to hang within.

Our architects here do everything in terms of store planning. Each and every space in the store is unique so we sit down and look at every space together and say "OK, what can we use?" We love the light, we love to have all the open windows, we like to have a lot of old features that we always keep. We want to keep the original features as much as we can then try to find a way that we can create the space to work together with the original features. So we have some fantastic old features, for example in our Florence store, it's a very old building and we still have the wooden ceilings.

Dan Howarth: How important is graphics and brand presentation?

Marie Honda: It just goes hand in hand, I think. Again this goes back to the first words we talked about - timeless, modern, functional and tactile. These are the things that we really believe in throughout the brand, so not only with the collection but when we build the stores, timelessness in the material that lasts a little bit longer and wood that gets more beautiful when it gets more worn. When you come into communication, graphics and marketing, it's the same thing there again, we wanted it to be something that has the same aesthetic and feeling of timelessness and tactility, so I think it's just surrounding the whole brand. I think it's very important that the customer should appreciate it as much as we do, that they should really feel everything that is put into it is there for a reason.

Dan Howarth: Is your graphic design and branding all done in-house as well?

Marie Honda: Yeah, we're all sitting together, which is fortunate because we can work across all departments. We have heads of design for the collections, then we have a team for the art direction for all the graphics, and then of course we have the architects working for the stores. So we have teams, marketing, graphics, interiors, with architects, with design and buying, but the beauty is that we all work together.

Dan Howarth: Where do the COS fashion, interior and graphic designers get their inspiration?

Marie Honda: You can see from our trend boards that our inspiration from the beginning has been very, very strong from the design world, architecture, graphics, etc. It has been a key influence. The creatives here and heads of design always make their in-house directions and colour schemes, picking from everything that surrounds them that they are influenced by right now. That tends to be a lot from the art world, design, architecture and photography. At the moment there's a lot of lighting and sound installations going forward but it's just something that influenced them. They use that as a direction for the collection but also for the rest of the brand so for the visual team, marketing and online.

Dan Howarth: Do the disciplines you mentioned reflect the customer base that you have?

Marie Honda: The customer that we have met throughout the years in our stores and who contacts us online, we feel like this is someone who is very aware and has a big-city mindset. They don't have to live in a big city, but they have a big-city mindset so they're aware of and interested in everything that is happening around them, it doesn't have to be fashion, it can be design or culture, politics, everything really.

They're very aware of how they spend their money and what they buy into, so they really appreciate value for money in that sense. We are hugely influenced by that and also how we create the stores, it's a fantastic response if we also get those influences the same way back to us. It's a cycle I guess, we hope we can of course give back in a way.

Dan Howarth: Why does the company sponsor events like the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion talks?

Marie Honda: We have supported various big organisations before and collaborated with a few different galleries and artists. I think the Serpentine for us, here in London is such a fantastic charitable organisation that is open for everyone - art for all is their value, so we found a lot of common values with them, that they wanted to give back and share with everyone. When they have their talks, most of our team attend and are really influenced, so we felt that also this was a really nice collaboration to do. Sponsoring them to continue to do the Park Nights, as they did this summer, they were able to do more over a longer period of time. We're hugely inspired by what they do.

Dan Howarth: Has the collaboration resulted in any specific products in your range?

Marie Honda: Last year we did a couple of shirts that we already have in the collection but in a light blue colour that we also sell in their gallery shop and also in our store. This year we created an addition of lace-up shoe for men and women.

Dan Howarth: How did the collaboration with Nendo at this year's Salone del Mobile in Milan come about?

Marie Honda: Again through a very organic process in that way. One of Nendo's chairs with the clever part that has been created from one piece of wood features on the trend boards from Karin and Martin from time-to-time. So when we had the chance to meet with Oki Sato it just felt right for both of us. We had a talk and from there we took it on board and it was a process for both of us coming up with the idea, it came very natural for both of us and it came quite quick. I think sometimes those are the ones where it becomes the best because it just feels right from both, so we were really happy with the outcome of the shop where we sold his Nendo things and our garments together with the installation of the white shirts.

Dan Howarth: Does your team go to Milan every year?

Marie Honda: Yeah it has been really amazing for us to be able to sell our things there and to be able to decorate that store environment. But also it's such a nice environment to be in, to go and look at what everyone else is doing. So we've always been there to get the influences and be part of it. We really see our customers there.

Dan Howarth: Why do you not have biannual fashion shows like most other brands?

Marie Honda: It has always worked well for us in a way that we try to share as much as we can directly with the customer. Since the beginning we have had our magazine that we print twice a year. We have a lot of information shared on our website, obviously a lot of collection things. We can share the content we produce with everyone and that's how we share it.

Never say never, but also we don't advertise as a brand either, we're a non-advertising brand. We try instead to find other people who influence us to work together, for example when we work with Serpentine etc, so there are other ways to reach out.

Dan Howarth: How has being based in London been beneficial?

Marie Honda: It's a very international city and looking at the level of colleges and design colleges here in London it's fantastic the level that we can get on the design but also in all areas of the brand. So I think it's just that international client that you have in London.

Dan Howarth: Do you hire a lot of your staff from the London design schools?

Marie Honda: Yes, our head of design for womenswear, Karin Gustafsson, came from the Royal College of Art, and head of menswear Martin Andersson comes from Central Saint Martins, so we have quite a huge talent from the colleges here in London.

Dan Howarth: H&M is a Swedish company and you're Swedish too. Does COS have a strong Scandinavian influence?

Marie Honda: It's difficult to shy away from, we have a heritage in that sense from a brand that grew and was based out of Stockholm so it has an influence on us. I think it's amazing that we have that background but to be based where we are and to create something that feels quite new, we always hope we can develop it in our own way.

Dan Howarth: What direction is the brand moving in?

Marie Honda: It's been an amazing autumn for us already, we have a lot of new store openings. We're opening up in LA later on and also Tokyo, and a new store in New York and also Melbourne, and the last also in Seoul.

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"Design and architecture has been a key influence" for COS

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Marie Honda tells Dezeen about COS' various collaborations and how the "non-advertising brand" is using design as a promotional tool.

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The formula is working. From 2009 to 2014, Cos grew from one percent to three percent of H&M Group’s total revenue, an increase of $132 million to $625 million in sales according to estimates by Euromonitor. In eight years, the label has built up 125 points of sale in 26 countries across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the US and Australia. And now, Cos is pulling the trigger on its biggest expansion yet, with 27 new stores opening this year.

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The formula is working. From 2009 to 2014, Cos grew from one percent to three percent of H&M Group’s total revenue, an increase of $132 million to $625 million in sales according to estimates by Euromonitor. In eight years, the label has built up 125 points of sale in 26 countries across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the US and Australia. And now, Cos is pulling the trigger on its biggest expansion yet, with 27 new stores opening this year.

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LONDON, United Kingdom - on London's Oxford Street is on sale. A red haze of crimson £2, £3, £4 and £5 tickets has descended over the crop tops and t-shirts bearing slogans like "School Sucks" and "Don't Kill My Vibe." A song by Swedish dance duo Axwell λ Ingrosso plays loudly and a blinding neon white light tells customers to PARTY!

Across the road, the ground floor of Topshop smells - of hairspray, of cupcakes, of a garden in full bloom, from the mannequins in suede skirts and floral minidresses that are draped in fake flowers pumping out perfume.

Then, a few doors down on Regent Street, there's Cos. Like H&M, Cos belongs to Stockholm-based H&M Group. In Cos stores (the Regent Street location is currently closed for refurbishment), clothes are neatly folded on plain wooden shelves, the music is quiet and there is ample space between the matte metal clothing rails. Inside this oasis, the clothing is embellishment-free and largely without patterns or prints. You won't find a buckle or a zip on a Cos garment that doesn't absolutely need to be there.

Since its launch in 2007, this clean, minimalist approach has made Cos a quiet rebel on a high street driven by fast-changing trends and flashy in-store experiences.

The formula is working. From 2009 to 2014, Cos grew from one percent to three percent of H&M Group's total revenue, an increase of $132 million to $625 million in sales according to estimates by Euromonitor. In eight years, the label has built up 125 points of sale in 26 countries across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the US and Australia. And now, Cos is pulling the trigger on its biggest expansion yet, with 27 new stores opening this year.

"They [H&M Group] really found the missing link and the gap in the market for a brand like Cos," said Marie Honda, managing director of Cos, in an exclusive interview at the brand's London headquarters. "The approach that we have, to have design quality for an affordable price was something that was missing."

Contrary to H&M's 'fast-fashion' model of quickly designing catwalk-inspired product and delivering new styles to stores each week, Cos - which stands for Collection of Style - creates two collections per year, each designed 18 months before it goes on sale.

"H&M is focused on volume - they need to produce higher quantities at a much faster rate," said Bernadette Kissane, apparel analyst at Euromonitor. "H&M have to restock their stores every day, whereas Cos is more likely weekly."

While product selection at other high street stores go wide and shallow, Cos goes narrow and deep. Alongside a vast array of blank architectural separates - drape-jersey t-shirts, skirts with asymmetric , clean-cut culottes - Cos's website offers 22 versions of a white women's shirt. "It's those investment pieces, something that you can wear all over again and keep in your wardrobe all the time," said Honda, who joined the brand in 2008.

Indeed, with its precise, smaller product selection and art-world allegiances - this year, Cos sponsored the summer "Park Nights" events at London's Serpentine Pavilion - Cos has avoided H&M's mass-market image, courting more mature and high-end customers with a shopping experience that feels more expensive than its price tags. A Cos shirt dress costs between $99 and $225, compared to $34.95 for a similar item at H&M.

This upscale positioning makes Cos a unique weapon in H&M Group's arsenal - one that many competitors do not have. Key players like Forever 21, Primark and Uniqlo are absent at the high end of the high street. 's owner Inditex, the world's largest fashion retailer and H&M Group's biggest rival, has Massimo Dutti. With Cos and & Other Stories, a younger label priced between Cos and H&M that launched in 2012, H&M Group has two.

"H&M have a very well rounded portfolio at the moment," said Kissane. "H&M is towards millennials, & Other Stories, although it is more expensive, is focussed more towards a younger consumer than Cos. Whereas Cos would be 35 plus, working, high disposable income."

According to Honda, in its first five years Cos opened 10 to 12 stores a year. This cranked up to around 20 per year in 2012, when the brand launched in Hong Kong, China and the Middle East. This year, six of Cos's 27 store openings are in North America, adding to the two in New York and Los Angeles that opened last year. As well as two in Toronto and Montréal in Canada, this year's openings will include 4,000 sq. feet stores in New York, Houston and Costa Mesa, Orange County, and a 3,000 sq. feet store in Boston.

Cos's initial presence in New York and Los Angeles has been well received, especially amongst fashion insiders, who knew the brand from trips to Europe. Known as "high-street Celine" in fashion circles, before it launched in the US editors were known to bring empty suitcases to European fashion weeks to fill up with Cos.

"We were so excited to be there for a long time," said Honda, who explained that the availability of retail spaces is always a crucial decision-making factor - and the reason that Cos went into Asia before the US. Having opened its first locations in the US, Cos launched its American e-commerce business in 2014 and has since used online sales data to help inform where to next open physical stores.

"There's the potential to grow even further within the cities that we're already going into. New York and Los Angeles areas are definitely big potential to continue," said Honda, but added that she sees Cos's customer as having "more of a mindset and an awareness" than a specific geographic location. "To have the 'big city mindset' you don't have to live in a big city, to be curious and confident and really up to date about everything that's happening around you."

But store growth is not limited to the US. This year will mark Cos's biggest global retail rollout yet, with nine stores already opened and 27 more to come. Of these total 36 stores, 13 will be in Europe, seven in Asia, six in North America and one in Australia. Canada, Czech Republic, Luxembourg and Hungary are all new markets for the brand.

Compared to H&M, Cos's store expansion has been relatively slow. "They're using the H&M main brand as an entry point into new markets," commented Kissane. "That gives them [H&M Group] the chance to gain clearer insights into how that market works, the consumer base there. They are able to set up supply and distribution logistics - and then they go in with other brands, such as Cos."

This strategy is akin to that of Inditex, which uses Zara as a litmus test in new markets before moving in with its other brands. H&M is in 59 countries, giving Cos a wide range of options of where to potentially move next.

But, according to Honda, Cos isn't prioritising certain markets. "I don't think we can single out one. But we're continuing existing markets growth, and then also a lot of bigger markets like the US and some of the countries in Asia, where we see much faster growth," she said. "For the next coming years, it will be quite equally spread out."

But how far can Cos go?

"There is a limit to growth when you compare it to the H&M brand," said Kissane. "I think the limit would be its price positioning and its demographic. H&M is quite versatile in the fact that it's low-price and it's trend led, fast moving, whereas Cos is quite specific in its target market."

Honda explained that Cos's growth is balanced. "We studied the balance within every market, so I don't think we grow too quickly in each," she said. "Just choosing locations carefully, give a lot of attention to each and every project to make every product feel unique... Design and quality and affordability. It will be our brand mission indefinitely."
Editor's Note: This article was revised on 30 July 2015. A previous version of this article implied that Cos had stores only in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the US. Cos is also present in Australia, where it has one store in Melbourne.

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BoF Exclusive | Quiet High-Street Rebel Cos Accelerates Global Expansion

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LONDON, United Kingdom - on London's Oxford Street is on sale. A red haze of crimson £2, £3, £4 and £5 tickets has descended over the crop tops and t-shirts bearing slogans like "School Sucks" and "Don't Kill My Vibe."

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COS offers reinvented classics and wardrobe essentials for women, men and children. Made to be worn beyond the season, the collections merge lasting quality with timeless design; clean silhouettes, innovative techniques and functional details inspired by art, technology and architecture.

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from EDITED:
sporty day, new romance

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from EDITED:
key trends: Athleisure, keeping it classic, Deconstructed