UNITED KINGDOM/CHINA/FRANCE: Designer Roland Mouret and blogger The Sartorialist weigh in on new media's effect on fast fashion, ahead of Mouret's show in Paris

Record ID: 197431

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM/CHINA/FRANCE: Designer Roland Mouret and blogger The Sartorialist weigh in on new media's effect on fast fashion, ahead of Mouret's show in Paris
  • Date: 8th October 2009
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - MARCH 14, 2009) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ROLAND MOURET FASHION SHOW
  • Embargoed: 23rd October 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAB0QSTR2EOI2W07Q96ANK6XB5S
  • Story Text: The speed of fashion has designers and industry experts coming up with new business plans to keep up with demand and protect brands.
    The increasing speed of fashion has designers and industry experts scrambling to find solutions to keep up with demand. Pictures and news of a fashion show from nearly anywhere in the world can immediately be shown on iPhones or other mobile mobiles nearly as quickly as the photographer has taken the picture.
    This rapid pace of information today, as well as the growth of high street retailers like Topshop, H&M and Zara are fuelling demand from customers all around the world.
    This ever-increasing demand has had a knock-on effect with the luxury goods market where many high-end designers are being forced to increase their output. In recent years, fashion designers have added Pre-collection and Cruise collection shows to their bi-annual parade of runway shows. Alexander McQueen, Chanel and Marc Jacobs are just a few.
    Now fashion designers and industry experts are looking for new business models to keep up with the demand.
    But fashion blogger Scott Schuman, better known as "The Sartorialist", disagrees, he says people don't want more.
    "You could think that fashion was speeding up. It speeds up if you let it speed up, if you let that affect you. Most of the people I shot, I shot over a three year period, most people would look at all those shots and think 'Wow that looks really cool.' So we let fashion seem fast if we allow ourselves to be that way," he told Reuters Television when he was recently at London Fashion Week to attend shows and sign copies of his new book.
    The social documentarian says because of the increase in information as well as clothes, it is up to the consumer to be selective, especially during the global financial crisis. But he said one good thing to emerge from the credit crunch was that less successful designers were having to close their businesses, keeping good designers at the top.
    Designer Roland Mouret said while we cannot stop progress, the recent developments in new media including social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter aren't always good for clothesmakers and customers.
    "The good side is worldwide, is information, it's right now. You know what's happening everywhere. You can understand what's coming out, what's the right trend. It's strong information. The bad side of it is that the information is there straight away, that's allowed some people to copy you. That allowed some people to (unidentifiable) the information, but I think that's part of life," he said.
    The French designer knows all too well how the high street copies designs straight from the catwalk. His famous "Galaxy" dress was seen on nearly every Hollywood starlet from Scarlett Johannson, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz and caused a stir amongst the fashion set. The garment was later copied at a much reduced price by high street retailers all around the world.
    Mouret recently split from his long-time business partner and has found a new home with 19 Entertainment, specifically Simon Fuller. He's the man behind the Spice Girls and the worldwide Pop Idol phenomenon. T
    "My way to work now is to really visualise how my clothes has to arrive to the customer. And to me the best luxury is that they should arrive straight away, at the same time as the information is there. It's a new way of thinking. I think it's part of the price of luxury is that people want it now," he said.
    Instead of showing his collection and delivering the goods six months after the show, after the world has already seen his designs, he takes orders almost immediately after the show and will be delivering in a month.
    Mouret's next show will take place in Paris on Thursday (October 8).
    Schuman said it sounds like a great business plan and offered his own solution. He pointed to a changing world where climates are irrelevant, due to more international travel and technology stabilising climates in places like shopping malls, in cars, etc. He said the key was to focus on one market.
    "I think if you can do it and you build the waits that are right or you focus on a market, the U.S. is still very, very warm for the most part, so if you decide the U.S. is my market and you're going to go for that kind of thing then that's what you can do. It gets much more difficult when you're big and global," he said.
    Paris Fashion Weekon Thursday with the next round of shows taking place in February.
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