Melissa Green

Purpose is essential for a brand to establish, develop and stand out in the fashion industry. To form a purpose a brand must use a strategy, this is a plan of action for the journey of a brand. They must consider mission, values and vision this means a brand shows understanding of their current position, what’s important to them and their future ambitions. Brands mostly communicate their purpose to the general public through a mission statement on their website which they then strive to follow throughout their business journey. These days most brands aim to create a better world through their actions and remain conscious of their impact on earth. Research conducted by Zeno Group found that when a brand has a solid purpose consumers are 4x more likely to purchase products and 4.5x more likely to recommend the brand to friends or family (Forbes, 2020), this demonstrates the power of purpose as it creates a trust between the brand and consumer.

There are many brands that surround their mission statement on ethical practices which will help them be seen in a positive light by consumers and demonstrate their core values. These ethical practices may focus on sustainability, an example of a brand that has this purpose is Eileen Fisher who concentrate on upcycling with the take back and reuse program. This program aims to prolong the life of Eileen fisher clothing by providing good as new cleaning and deciding if it’s in a good enough condition to resell in their renew stores (Gwilt, 2020). Another brand that makes their purpose clear is ASOS, they state on their website the importance in self confidence and inclusivity which is clear through the representation in their marketing.

Appealing to Gen Z is vital within the fashion industry, this generation are most demanding on purpose and accountability from brands specifically advocating for diversity and sustainability. Gen Zs needs mean that brands must become completely authentic in their actions to gain the consumers trust (Mckinsey, 2023). A well known brand that has connected with generation Z is Nike who have collaborated with Billie Eilish, a current day mainstream artist who continuously advocates to protect the planet, and created a collection of their signature AF1 trainers that used recyclable materials from the artists prior collaboration with the brand (Nike, 2022). This campaign cleverly combined a Gen Z star who has strong values surrounding sustainability to create a collection focusing on recycling which generated the authenticity generation Z have been searching for from a established brand.

bibliography:

Aziz, A (2020). Global Study Reveals Consumers Are Four To Six Times More Likely To Purchase, Protect And Champion Purpose-Driven Companies. [online]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/afdhelaziz/2020/06/17/global-study-reveals-consumers-are-four-to-six-times-more-likely-to-purchase-protect-and-champion-purpose-driven-companies/?sh=1423e78435fe [accessed 27/10/2023]

Gwilt, A. (2020). A Practical Guide to Sustainable Fashion. London: Fairchild Books. [online]

Available at: https://libsearch.arts.ac.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=1452042&query_desc= [accessed 27/10/2023]

McKinsey & Company (2023) What is Gen Z? [online]

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-gen-z [accessed 27/10/2023]

Nike (2022) Nike x Billie Eilish AF1 low [online]

https://about.nike.com/en/newsroom/releases/nike-x-billie-eilish-af1-low

Profit is one of the most important pillars within the fashion industry, the amount of profit maintained by a business determines the economic success which enables them to stay afloat within a fast paced, oversaturated industry. According to statista, as of 2022 the global apparel market revenue was calculated as $1.53 trillion in 2023 is estimated to increase to over $1.7 trillion which demonstrates the overwhelming size of the industry that’s continuously expanding. Profit is a main goal for fashion entrepreneurs and this influences a brands decision towards people, planet and purpose. In 2023, the current ‘hottest’ brands include Prada, Miu Miu and Moncler who have all used celebrities, collaborations and fashion events relevant to todays generation to promote their brands and lead them to the top. (Lyst, 2023)

Fashion brands must stand out to make a stable profit within this competitive climate meaning its vital they consistently create uniqueness through innovative creative decisions which can be done by combining art and commerce, a great example of this is Louis Vuitton who have successfully collaborated with numerous artists including Takashi Murakami and Yayoi Kusama. These collaborations were so successful as they combined Louis Vuittons recognisable print and luxury with contemporary art designes which intrigued both fashion and art consumers. Focusing on the Yayoi Kusama collaboration Delphine Arnault, Louis Vuitton’s executive vice president stated “it’s going to be in our advertising so it exposes their art to people who would not necessarily have been to a museum” (MADE IN BED, 2023) and the unique marketing certainly gained traction from the general public as surreal trademark street marketing was spread all over social media. This demonstrates the importance of a creative director in generating profit as collections must capture consumers to generate revenue to be deemed successful by CEOs and shareholders, if the figures aren’t impressive the creative director will simply be switched out (Mitterfellner, 2023)

Being able to make profit in uncertain times is of the upmost importance in the survival of a brand, covid-19 severely impacted the fashion industry as the average market capitalization of apparel, fashion and luxury players dropped by almost 40 percent (Mckinsey, 2023). The uncertainty meant job loss and profit declines for many brands as they had to retract any business plans made, however e commerce contributes thrived in this environment as people turned towards digital shopping such as ASOS. To survive a time where fashion moved online, brands had to take advantage of this time to refurbish and innovate to make substanstial amounts of profit.

Bibliography:

Amed, I et al Balchandani, A et al Berg, A et al Hedrich, S et al Ekeløf Jensen, J et al Rölkens, F. (2023) The State of Fashion 2023: Holding onto growth as global clouds gather [online]

Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/state-of-fashion [accessed 21/10/2023]

Baran, M. (2023) Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama: A Fresh Take or Careless Mistake? [online]

Available at: https://www.madeinbed.co.uk/the-luxury-edit-1/ka2vu02bf7nrbkvh17ilnvgdzv7z6p [accessed 21/10/2023]

Lyst. (2023) Fashion’s Hottest Brands and Products Q1 [online]

Available at: https://www.lyst.com/data/the-lyst-index/q123/ [accessed 21/10/2023]

Mitterfellner, O. (2019) Fashion Marketing and Communication: Theory and Practice Across the Fashion Industry, Taylor & Francis Group, Milton. [online]

Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/reader.action?docID=7260416 [accessed 21/10/2023]

Schwab, P-N. (2023) Yayoi Kusama and Louis Vuitton: the best of street marketing [online]

Available at: https://www.intotheminds.com/blog/en/yayoi-kusama-louis-vuitton-best-street-marketing/ [accessed 21/10/2023]

Statista. (2023) Revenue of the apparel market worldwide from 2014 to 2027 [online]

Available at: https://www.statista.com/forecasts/821415/value-of-the-global-apparel-market [accessed 21/10/2023]

People is one the of four pillars within the fashion industry, humans determine the market through opinions, preferences and concerns. Within the fashion industry people are quite obviously a main influence on the way products are produced, trends are created and how companies think.

Gen Z is arguably one of the most influential generations on todays fashion industry, studies have found Gen Zers are searching for truth and they value individuality as well as avoiding labels (T.Francis and F.Hoefel, 2018) meaning fashion brands are becoming increasingly progressive and fluid. Whilst gen z has many positive impacts on the fashion industry, there’s also been a noticeable increase of online shopping as 92% of gen z and millennials now buy on mobile apps either often or sometimes (Drapers, 2023), this links to the increase in fast fashion brands that are influenced by ‘micro-trends’ which causes detrimental amounts of waste on earth. However, most of Gen Z are seemingly recognising the harmful practices and making steps towards more sustainable fashion which has caused an influx of pre loved businesses in the industry. People born from 1995-2010 are named the ‘digital natives’ by society, meaning that Gen Z are the most interconnected generation who can easily share their views and opinions with each other which can put enormous amounts of pressure on brands to promote and sell on social media, appeal to the younger generation and even consider more ethical practices. A brand that has responded to Gen Zs preferences is the body shop who have created youth advisory boards to help prioritise social responsibility and inclusivity.

There are now more attempts of diversity as most consumers currently desire inclusivity from fashion brands. One brand that stands out to me in terms of body diversity is SKIMS by Kim Kardashian, this shape wear brand strives to represent people of all sizes through their campaigns. A specific campaign of theirs includes adaptive shape wear made for those with limited mobility meaning that the clothing is accessible for ALL, the unique selling point being that the adaptive elements are subtle and comfortable compared to other brands and using paralympic athletes in the marketing campaign to have true representation of the people that may have been overlooked by fashion brands.

“Diversity and inclusivity are in our brands DNA”

– Kim Kardashian, VOGUE (2021)

Fashion brands also require an array of people skills, this may include the ability to speak different languages to communicate with a wider range of people in the fashion industry and the ability of considering norms and values internationally meaning that the brand can appeal to everyone. This represents the importance and impact of people in the fashion industry.

Bibliography:

Adams, M. (2023) [online] Understanding the next generation of shoppers https://www.drapersonline.com/guides/gen-z-and-millennials-2023 [accessed 15/10/2023]

Barandy, K. Designboom (2022) [online] kim kardashian’s SKIMS launches adaptive collection for limited mobility https://www.designboom.com/design/skims-adaptive-collection-kim-kardashian-limited-mobility-scout-bassett-05-02-2022/ [accessed 15/10/2023]

Francis, T. and Hoefel, F. (2018). ‘True Gen’: Generation Z and its implications for companies. McKinsey & Company. [online] https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/true-gen-generation-z-and-its-implications-for-companies [accessed 14/10/2023]

Weinstock, T. Vogue (2021) “It Felt Like The Perfect Time To Bring A Fresh Perspective”: Kim Kardashian West On Revolutionising Shapewear [online] https://www.vogue.co.uk/news/article/kim-kardashian-west-future-of-skims [accessed 15/10/2023]

(image) https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dezeen.com%2F2022%2F05%2F06%2Fskims-adaptive-collection-kim-kardashian-news%2F&psig=AOvVaw21_gbw_zcZM3hp0gIZlN0C&ust=1697472574004000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBAQjRxqFwoTCPD6oaC4-IEDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

Planet is one of the four pillars of sustainability within the fashion industry, it is crucial to recognise the impact the fashion industry has on the planet and we must take responsibility for its damaging practices. There are both social and environmental impacts along the supply chain, for example the creation of materials includes the use of pesticides and water in cotton growing, genetic modifications of fabric, use of oil in synthetics, the conditions and prices for growers and even animal welfare. Distribution and retail of clothing also impact the planet through high street working conditions, treatment of suppliers, energy use in retail outlets, environmentally harmful packaging and co2 emissions in transportation as well as the use of products which require chemical detergents and energy use in washing + drying and in addition the disposal of clothing ending up in textiles landfill (Alison Gwilt, 2020). The United Nations has adopted 17 sustainable development goals which are urgent calls of action to heal the earth and improve living conditions for all, the fashion industry is a key element in the sustainability conversation and we must apply these SDGs throughout ALL stages of the supply chain.

The fashion industry was responsible for 1,715 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2015 (Pulse of Fashion) and this is predicted to increase by 63% by 2030. A huge issue within the fashion industry is ‘fast fashion’ which causes mass pollution and poor working conditions, to combat this we must consider the 12th SDG ‘responsible consumption and production’ through circularity this means reducing harmful substances and microfibres and sharing, reusing, recycling, and refurbishing clothing as much as possible so the life cycle of clothing is lengthened and therefore waste is reduced to a minimum. A current example of circularity is the woman owned, London based brand ‘BEEN’ who were named “one of the most innovative fashion companies in the world” by VOGUE. ‘BEEN’ use discarded materials ,such as leather trimmings and landfill bound plastics and even pineapple leaves and apple peels, to create timeless trend-proof designs which helps tackle the issue that 85 percent of textiles are sent to landfills as well as contrasting the overconsumption and waste caused by fast fashion.

“waste can become beautiful inside and out”

– BEEN London

However, the fashion industry still has a long way to go with sustainability and we only have 12 years to save the planet from irreversible damage (according to the UN) but if we follow the SDGs and further our research on sustainability we can reduce the risk of a climate catastrophe.