BoF’s guide to the changing fashion calendar tracks new operating models and approaches, brand by brand.
On Friday 9 September, Club Monaco will host its first on-schedule presentation during New York Fashion Week. The Ralph Lauren-owned lifestyle brand will show its men’s and women’s collections together, comprising 37 looks which will be immediately available to buy in select stores in North America and the brand’s e-commerce site.
“Based on the evolution of Club Monaco and our New York heritage, the timing felt right for us to show at New York Fashion Week,” said chief executive officer John Mehas. The presentation will also unveil the first collection by the brand’s new menswear designer, Matthew Millward, a former menswear design executive at Nike.
Rebecca Minkoff to Stage Runway Show on New York City Streets (1 September 2016)
In February 2016, Rebecca Minkoff presented immediately shoppable looks during her NYFW runway show, dubbing the experience #seebuywear. That month, the contemporary label saw a 200 percent increase in year-over-year sales. But what comes next? “Because we had this phenomenal retail performance after the last show,” explains chief executive officer Uri Minkoff, “We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we had a runway show outside of our own store?’”
At noon on Saturday 10 September, the New York-based designer is doing just that, staging a runway show on Greene Street right outside her flagship boutique. About half of the 750-person audience will be fashion industry regulars — influencers, editors and buyers. The rest will be consumers, including Minkoff’s direct-retail customers, as well as customers invited by key retail partners. Influencers who have been cast to walk in the show were also encouraged to invite a select number of their own followers.
The ambitious project, which Minkoff is calling #RunwayToRetail, took months to hash out with the City of New York, which heavily regulates events happening in public spaces (especially those that affect traffic). “We had to do permits, we had to do spreadsheets, we had to do charts of the street,” she says. “The amount of detail required was Herculean.”
The majority of the product will be available to purchase immediately after the show at the store, where Minkoff will host a meet-and-greet shopping event. The full collection will be available to buy within 60 days.
Topshop Unique Unveils Runway-to-Retail Strategy (31 August 2016)
More than 50 percent of Topshop Unique’s Spring/Summer 2016 collection will be made available to buy in stores and online immediately after the British high street label’s catwalk show on 18 September during London Fashion Week. The rest of the collection will go on sale on 11 November.
Topshop plans to roll out its “Runway-to-Retail” concept further next year, making its Unique Autumn/Winter 2017 collection fully available to buy after its show in February.
Kate Spade New York Tiptoes Toward the Consumer Calendar (26 August 2016)
Kate Spade New York is almost as well known for its whimsical, garden-party-style presentations during New York Fashion Week as it is for its whimsical, fit-for-a-garden-party clothes. But this season, the brand is foregoing a large-scale event packed with media, retailers, celebrities and influencers in order to better align itself with the consumer calendar in 2017.
Instead, the label is set to host intimate appointments on the rooftop of the NOMAD hotel. While the set will be as immersive as the theatrical constructions the team has created in the past, the invite list will be limited to long-lead and fashion trade media. Select trade publications will have the opportunity to cover the collection in real time, although full looks will be embargoed from consumer-facing publications until the clothing begins to hit stores in February 2017. Attendees will also be discouraged from posting full looks on social media.
To make up for the media impressions typically earned by staging a well-attended, Instagram-worthy show, Kate Spade New York will promote its Autumn/Winter 2016 collection with the second episode of its branded-content series, “Miss Adventure,” as well as a spinoff series called “Miss Behavior,” both of which will feature products that are currently available to purchase in-store and online.
The brand has also partnered with mobile video shopping network MikMak to create directly shoppable mini-commercials for certain under-$100 items. “The distance between when [the customer] starts thinking about what she wants to wear each season and when she expects to be able to wear it has shortened,” said Kristen Neiman, senior vice president of brand creative at Kate Spade New York. “We’re in a constant conversation with her and responded to that.”
The company is considering a two-pronged approach for February 2017. Though still unconfirmed, the brand is currently planning to host a large-scale party presentation featuring in-season, instantly shoppable merchandise in addition to a smaller, next-season press presentation. “We know that the customer doesn’t want to know about it until she can have it,” explained Deborah Lloyd, president and chief creative officer. “We are going to talk to the people who need to know about it, at the right time in the right way.”
Vivienne Westwood is combining its womenswear line, formally known as the Red Label, and its menswear line, formally known as the MAN Label, into one collection, which will be shown during London Fashion Week Men’s, starting in January 2017. Until now, both collections have been presented in Milan. In a statement, the brand said showing on the men’s schedule would enable it to “present the collections ahead of the sales period giving buyers a clear vision for the season prior to the appointments in the showroom.”
Reblogged from Club Monaco Joins NYFW Schedule with Shoppable Presentation
Retail Therapy 