Digital meets physical, defining the retail landscape in 2020

Over the past few years the retail landscape has been evolving at rocket speed with 2020 set to be the definitive year of immersive retailing. The much talked about ‘store of the future’ must, in fact, become reality today.

As digital and bricks & mortar strategies merge to co-exist, the retail apocalypse of the 2010’s which saw a surge in shop vacancies, has fuelled the era of temporary store spaces and pop-up models.

According to retail and data analysts Edited, temporary instalments, brand activations and in-store sensory experiences are here to stay. With the autumn winter show season starting in January, designers will continue to explore and innovate with these concepts to generate hype alongside their latest collections.

A new decade of sustainability

With 2019 dubbed as the ‘Year of Sustainability,’ it is expected that sustainable innovation is a top priority for retailers in 2020. This creates several opportunities within the virtual and digital space, according to Edited.

Overproduction is often first of mind concerning the fashion industry’s negative environmental impact. However, even before goods are put into production, retailers need to consider the contribution to landfills from their sampling processes.

Outside of the sustainable element, digital fashion is also making its way into the physical space bridging online and offline to create a new shopping experience.

Virtual influencers

Building on from the vision of a future connecting digital clothing with real-life influencers is scaling the possibility of digital influencers wearing digital clothes. Over the years, virtual influencers have appeared in luxury campaigns for designers such as Balmain or have interacted with real models as per Bella Hadid with Lil Miquela for Calvin Klein.

Openings, closures, mergers and acquisitions

A host of store opening and closures will put a mark on 2020, with Debenhams set to close 22 locations in the new year after falling into administration. Sears will shutter 51 stores starting in February and Sports Direct announced further House of Fraser closures are expected in 2020. Forever 21 announced it will be closing in Southern California, adding to the list of US locations shutting down in January. In the new year, the retailer will also shutter all its UK locations. Marks & Spencer will continue closing its bricks-and-mortar presence in 2020 including downsizing some of its largest flagship stores.

As for retail openings, Inditex has benchmarked 2020 to sell all brands worldwide online. Primark will open 19 new stores, as well as roll out new extensions and relocations. Gucci is launching a series of pop-ups called ‘Pin’ across Paris, Seoul and Hong Kong between January and March 2020. Pin will focus on augmented reality and interactive consumer experience. Moncler’s ‘House of Genius’ project in Paris, Tokyo and Milan will continue until the end of January 2020.

As for mergers, acquisitions, and the musical chairs of brands changing Creative Directors, we will have to wait and see.

Article source: Edited Image: Gucci Pin, source Gucci.com

* This article was originally published here

How technology will revolutionize the bridalwear industry

“Bottom line, I believe the wedding industry is broken for brides,” Leslie Voorhees Means told FashionUnited upon the launch of her company’s new digital bridal gown customization tool.

Means is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Anomalie, a made-to-order bridal brand that allows any bride the opportunity to fully customize her ideal gown at an affordable price. Last week, Anomalie launched DressBuilder to serve as a digital resource for all brides to visualize the wedding gown she wants through a series of questions that lead to a highly customized sketch.

DressBuilder was born out of an industry need for an accessible solution to all brides, regardless of size, geography design preference or price point.

“There are so many changes and evolutions within fashion, but just look at bridal boutiques,” Means continued. “We are hearing from brides that when they shop in traditional boutiques, they are confronted with the tough realities of the traditional bridal industry's lack of accessibility. The journey to find your perfect wedding dress has become at best, an inconvenient process for a lot of women and at worst, an exasperating experience.”

Means lists limited inventory in brick-and-mortar boutiques as the most prevalent issue, though behind it is a lack of size diversity for brides who fall too high or too low on the traditional womenswear sizing scale. “Location can also play a role as there may not be as many brick-and-mortar options for each bride,” she added.

With DressBuilder, Anomalie is easily equipped to deliver any bride, sized 00 to 30+, with the exact dress she wants even if she can’t find it in a store. The service aims to shift the bridal industry into an online-first model so as to not limit consumers by what is or is not available in stores.

The process begins with a data-backed survey, for which brides answer a number of questions and then are immediately shown a highly-customized sketch of a design with personalized recommendations for fabric and lengths. She can then alternate and browse through options and customizations, receiving suggestions as she wants them. The next step would be speaking to a stylist from Anomalie’s customer service team, who are made available to the shopper whenever she is ready to move forward.

DressBuilder was created with insights from 30,000 hours of expert dressmaker knowledge. No matter how customized, each sketch is tied to specific attributes and instructions for Anomalie’s workshops for constructing each dress when the time comes.

Before the dress can go into production, each bride spends time discussing with a design consultant to go through every specific attribute to ensure she is satisfied with every detail and specification of the dress concept. Fabric swatches and measurement instructions are also sent to each bride in this stage. It typically takes four months to produce and deliver once the bride is ready to move forward.

Custom-made technology lowers retail cost of wedding gowns

While the average wedding dress costs around 3,000 dollars, pricing within the bridal industry has just slowly started to revolutionize as fast fashion retailers like Asos and H&M introduce bridal lines. However, Anomalie’s system brings brides the option of a more accessible middle ground.

Anomalie dresses fall at an average price point of 1,600 dollars, with the majority of dresses falling between 1,000 and 2,000 dollars. The reason for this drastic difference in pricing is the abilities of the company’s technology, which allows Anomalie to function without the cost of operating a brick-and-mortar store or stock inventory.

“We're able to scale our knowledge with technology, a dedicated team and designers so we can offer a digital experience that usually wouldn’t be possible without the traditional store,” Means said. She also noted that Anomalie’s direct communication with its workshops in China and centralized customer service operations in two locations help keep costs low.

The next technological advancement Means hopes to offer the bridal industry is to provide customers with a perfectly fitted dress, right out of the box. “It is ambitious, though it is our longer term goal because it is something we believe women would really love,” she said. “We're investing a lot in this area through hundreds of thousands of custom measurements at this point using highly skilled people on our team to pour into the data and analytics around custom fit to ultimately determine how can deliver a perfect fit to every bride right out of the box.”

As it stands now, most of Anomalie’s customers need little to no alterations on their gowns as they are made-to-measure and offer a truer fit than off-the-rack clothing. Means guessed that it would take at least a year before this goal could be met. The company is using consumer insights and feedback to help improve its true-fit sizing goal, along with its tailor-made styling recommendations. The more Anomalie and its technology learns about consumer preferences, the more it can offer brides a perfect vision of what they are looking for.

Image: Pixabay

* This article was originally published here

Mini Mode rebrands to Mini Mode - Global Kids Fashion Week for upcoming fifth edition

Mini Mode has rebranded as Mini Mode - Global Kids Fashion Week for its upcoming edition taking place during London Fashion Week on 14 - 15 February.

Taking place at St Mary’s venue in Central London, the show will shine a spotlight on inclusivity and sustainability and will showcase an eclectic mix of both established and emerging childrenswear designers from around the world. They include British brands A*Dee, Mitch & Son, House of Juniors, and Zoobug London; French brands Billieblush and Charabia; Korean brands Bebebebe and Maman Salon; US brand MadPax Backpacks; Japanese brand Présent de l’ondée; and Nigerian brand Ray and Roy.

The event will kick off with an industry show taking place on Friday 14 February for buyers, press, bloggers, influencers and celebrities who will have the opportunity to see the latest AW20 collections.

Two consumer shows open to the general public will then take place on Saturday 15 February and will feature the latest see-now-buy-now collections for SS20, as well as a selection of children’s entertainment, including kid’s DJs, kid’s hosts, a pop-up shop and mini makeovers.

Debuted in February 2018 and founded by UK childrenswear designer Amanda Rabor, Mini Mode focuses on kid’s fashion, from toddlers through to teens.

Five percent of all ticket sales for the upcoming show will go towards supporting the Osteopathic Centre for Children charity.

Photo credit: Mini Mode

* This article was originally published here

10 fashion exhibitions to visit in 2020

The new year is coming, which means that we can look forward to a whole lot of new exhibitions. For those who already want to make their agenda available for a visit, FashionUnited already selects various fashion exhibitions at home and abroad.

Exhibitions that are already open

Before the list with all new exhibitions scheduled to open in the new year, here is a list of those that have been running for a while. For a last minute visit at the start of the year, or a nice day trip around Christmas.

Zandra Rhodes: Fifty Years of Fabulous

worthwhile is the exhibition on fashion designer Zandra Rhodes in London. Rhodes is known for its unique and outspoken prints, and it is not for nothing that she was initially inspired by the art movement pop art. In total there are a hundred looks and 50 fabric samples to admire.

The exhibition can be visited until 26 January in the Fashion and Textile Museum in London.

Marche et démarche: a history of the chaussure

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs has been focused on shoes since this fall. The exhibition zooms in on the different ways of walking, from the Middle Ages to the present day, from the West to non-European cultures. The French exhibition has a Dutch touch with the work of designer Karim Adduchi, which is exhibited among other things. More than five hundred objects are on display.

The exhibition can be visited until 23 February at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

Beeld: Kunsthal/ Marco de Swart

Thierry Mugler Couturissime

Designer Thierry Mugler had never said 'Yes' to a proposal to make an exhibition about his work. Until he met Nathalie Bondil, general director and chief curator of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The result is the exhibition 'Thierry Mugler Couturissime', which is now visiting Europe for the first time with the opening in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam. The multimedia approach of the exhibition deserves a special mention. Not only videos and sounds have been added to the set-up, but also the 4D presentation in one of the rooms and the projections on the walls in another are worthwhile.

The exhibition can be visited until 8 March in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam.

In Pursuit of Fashion

The Sandy Schreier Collection is central to the current fashion exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Schreier collected garments from French and American couture and ready-to-wear from the last century. Not as his own wardrobe, but as an appreciation of fashion as a form of expressing creativity.

The exhibition can be visited until 17 May in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Exhibitions to be opened in 2020

Christian Louboutin: l'Exposition

An exclusive look at Christian Louboutin's personal archive, who wouldn't want that? The Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris is organising an exhibition this spring about the illustrious shoe designer who became world-famous with the red soles of his designs. Many court cases have been brought against the trademark, but of course that is not the focus of the exhibition. The creative process and the inspiration that the designer gained for his collections will also come to light.

The exhibition can be visited from 25 February to 26 July 2020 at the Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris.

Photo: Star Wars courtesy of LucasFilm Ltd

Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk

From costumes for Star Wars movies to an Alexander McQueen dress designed for singer Björk. While many people will immediately think of traditional Japanese clothing when they hear the word kimono, the word now refers to many more pieces of clothing than was initially thought. That's where the Victoria & Albert Museum comes in. The exhibition includes 315 items that tell the story of the kimono from 1660 to the present day.

The exhibition can be visited from 29 February to 21 June 2020 at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Bags: Inside Out

A bag often says a lot about the wearer. What do you carry, does he or she go for something practical or just a statement? The new exhibition of the Victoria & Albert Museum looks at the function, status and craftsmanship behind a bag. More than 300 objects are used to illustrate the theme. Bags from the royal family, but also from other celebrities and well-known fashion houses are given a place in the show.

The exhibition can be visited from 25 April to 31 January 2021 at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

About Time: Fashion and Duration

For the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2020 will be marked by its 150th anniversary. This year's major annual fashion exhibition, which is linked to the Met Gala, will be devoted to 'time'. What exactly the show will look like is not yet known, the description on the website of the museum still raises questions. For example, the clothing will be exhibited from 1870 to the present day, 'according to a disruptive timeline'. Only time will tell…

The exhibition can be visited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from 7 May to 7 September.

Prada. Front and Back

In 2020, the Design Museum in London will present a fashion exhibition with a focus on fashion house Prada. The exact opening date has not yet been announced, but the opening is expected in September. The exhibition zooms in on the creative process, the inspiration and the important collections of Prada.

The exhibition can be visited from September in the Design Museum in London. Tickets will be on sale next spring.

Photo: V&A door Adrien Dirand

Dior

Christian Dior has been in the limelight for many years. First at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and then at the Victoria & Albert Museum in early 2019. When the show opened in London, the Art Museum in The Hague was asked if they also thought of a show about the French designer. An exhibition about Dior turned out to be already in the making and will finally see the light of day in 2020. The illustrious designer himself will of course be featured, but also his successors Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Raf Simons and Maria Grazia Chiuri.

The exhibition can be visited from 10 October to 28 February 2021 in the Kunstmuseum in The Hague.

This article was originally published for FashionUnited.NL, edited and translated.

Main image: V&A by Adrien Dirand

* This article was originally published here

Helena Schargel: designing and modelling lingerie for women over 60

Wearing nothing but a lacy bra and matching panties, Brazilian grandmother Helena Schargel strikes a seductive pose during a photo shoot featuring her latest lingerie designs for women over 60.

"Wonderful, marvelous," the photographer gushes as Schargel, 79, stares confidently into the camera in a converted warehouse in Sao Paulo.

After decades working for a fabric company, the lithe and energetic Schargel emerged from retirement more than two years ago on a mission to drag older women out of obscurity.

Her tactic? Sexy fashion designed especially for them -- and modelled by her.

"This project has a clear goal: to make women visible," Schargel told AFP at her elegantly furnished apartment in Brazil's biggest city.

Schargel has launched several underwear collections with Brazil's Recco Lingerie. An activewear line with the company Alto Giro was unveiled this year and more are in the works, she says.

Schargel, who helps with the designs, says Brazilian women over 60 have long been overlooked by fashion companies, society -- and even themselves.

She shares words of encouragement on her Instagram account, where she has nearly 18,000 mainly women followers, of all ages.

Messages such as "take a risk" and "you can do anything" pepper her feed, which receive hundreds, sometimes thousands, of likes and comments.

"I never thought about how old I was, never -- this never worried me," says Schargel, describing the popularity of plastic surgery in Brazil as "madness." "It was only a few years ago that I realized I was no longer 33."

No gym trips

The daughter of Polish immigrants, Schargel began making clothes as a teenager and selling them in her parents' store.

It was the beginning of a lifelong career in fashion.

Along the way, she got married twice and had two children. She now has five grandchildren, some of whom wear her designs.

Retirement did not suit the soon-to-be octogenarian, who moves with the ease of someone decades younger.

"I thank God that I don't need to go to the gym," she says, lolling in a lounge chair in black and white leggings and matching loose-fitting top and sneakers.

"I do pilates three times a week, which is good for me and my spirit."

'Absurdly comfortable'

Schargel's decision to model lingerie was daring in a macho country where older women are treated as if they "are not alive anymore," says Vogue Brazil editor-in-chief Paula Merlo.

"She reminds you that there is a life after 60, 70 and it can be sexy, it can be fun and it can also be profitable."

After some initial butterflies, Schargel says she feels comfortable stripping to her underwear in public.

Determined to appear as natural as possible, she insists on no photoshopping.

"I always say, 'Please, leave all my little wrinkles just as they are'," she says.

"They are very important. They show that I have arrived here."

At the hours-long photo shoot, a barefoot Schargel drifts between the dressing room and photo studio, showing off lingerie and pieces from her new bed-to-street line.

She moves easily in front of the camera as a fashion photographer Pablo Saborido clicks away.

"I really like working with people outside... the model profile," says Saborido, 39.

Schargel says her lingerie is "absurdly comfortable." Some pieces even "help lift the butt," she adds cheekily.

As the global population ages, Schargel says the world needs to get ready for an explosion in elderly women in the coming decades.

"Twenty, 30 years from now, there will be many more grannies than young people," she says.

"We need to prepare for this -- companies need to prepare for this."(AFP)

Photo : Miguel SCHINCARIOL / AFP

* This article was originally published here

MCM expands to clothing with gender-neutral underwear

German leather goods brand MCM is moving further into the fashion industry with the addition of gender-neutral underwear and loungewear, which will also be the brand’s first foray into ethically and sustainably produced clothing.

The Korean-owned European brand—which is led by creative director Dirk Schönberger will be launching its debut underwear and loungewear collections in mid-January, according to WWD. The 13-piece foray into fashion includes boxers, briefs, cropped tops, leggings and more. The collection is based on the brand’s new aesthetic, which comprises of ‘70s-inspired contemporary sportswear.

As MCM continues to expand its brand and further establish its presence, the company will be opening flagship stores and experiential retail spaces in the U.S., Asia, and the Middle East.

Image: MCM Facebook

* This article was originally published here

Arcadia completes 310 million pound refinancing of Topshop flagship

Philip Green’s Arcadia has announced it has completed the refinancing of its 310 million pound loan on its flagship Topshop store on London's Oxford Street.

In a short statement released on Friday, the company said: “The Arcadia Group Ltd is pleased to confirm it has completed the refinancing of its 310 million pound loan on 214 Oxford Street for four years term with Apollo Management International LLP.”

Photo credit: FashionUnited

* This article was originally published here