Will the Internet kill fashion weeks? Uh no probably not…

Ifashion has a post by Milisuthando Bongela from Flux Trends on the rise of video presentations via the internet of collections. Its an interesting thought that fashion designers have also figured out that they can sell directly to consumers via the web and save costs substantially. However I don’t think we should be writing the obituary for the fashion week just yet. If anything fashion weeks are expanding – certainly we can see this locally but also there is pressure on the major fashion weeks to also expand particularly in the US. I think what we’re more likely to see is online presentations happening alongside Fashion Weeks rather than replacing them completely. There is a huge difference after all between seeing something in real life and in a small screen on your desktop.

Listening to a couple of the interviews with buyers on the Vogue podcast it was interesting to hear how many of them mentioned they go and check out video and photos online after the shows (one mentioned she’d stopped taking notes completely as she can just hop onto vogue.com). Really though the fashion set may whinge about treking to all the fashion weeks every six months, but try and get them to cancel their international jaunts round New York, Paris, London and Milan and I suspect you’ll have a riot.

I certainly agree that all the online coverage of fashion weeks and new collections is democratising fashion – which previously kept fashion weeks locked behind closed and carefully guarded doors. Maybe the real threat to fashion weeks is rather that consumers will like the collections they view online so much they won’t want to wait for the season to come around and will nip down to a savvy retailer like Zara to get hold of the looks sooner. I think its also worth mentioning that as online becomes a more important platform for the industry there is also a similar migration happening in the media – as a legion of bloggers (some journalists some not) ofter instant analysis. As much as some designers might like to  there is no bypassing the media in the internet age if anything there is more comment.

The video at the top is from Viktor & Rolf which is interesting but not universally adored see the New York Magazine’s review… Viktor & Rolf’s Online-Only Spring 2009 Show Premieres

Is the Tote the new Tee?

I recently suggested we make some branded canvas  tote bags for an event – and received filthy looks down the phone (weird how you can hear these) from the poor agency client wrangler. Entirely deserved as it was half way through the campaign’s development, but I still feel a bit guilty that we chopped down half a rain forest to make some paper bags but even worse for missing the fricking trend. The trend being that re-usable canvas tote bags are the new t-shirt (according to The Guardian). It’s not good enough to have a plain woolies bag – it has to have some kind of personality defining slogan on it (from an organic farm, eco-fashion exhibit, folk festival…). Despite having a number of great eco-bag companies in South Africa (Give-It-Bag and Carbon d’afreeque for example) we’re a bit behind (for now) on this trend.

It would be great if we’d truly experienced an eco-epiphany, but the success of the reusable bag is as much about style as saving the planet. Like T-shirts and badges, the square-shaped shopper is the perfect blank canvas for slogans, logos and patterns. Consumers who couldn’t give a toss about the planet love its fashion statement just as much as the green contingent loves its ethical credentials.

At last month’s Fashion Week the designer shopper replaced the paper goodie bag at shows from Mulberry to Marc Jacobs. Fashion East, a London showcase for young designers, asked new talent David David to create theirs. ‘The shopper is a billboard and a status symbol,’ he says. ‘It’s perfect merchandise.’

It’s certainly the first bag taken up by pensioners and hipsters alike, and the green movement hopes there’s life in it yet. Eco entrepreneur Kresse Wesling created Sainsbury’s new reusable bag from used jute coffee bean sacks. (The Guardian)

Also check out Susie Bubbles Tote collection:

Creative 30

I came across Creative 30 on PSFK its a (PR) campaign initiated by Volvo (in partnership with Vice Magazine, The Independent and Yahoo) to find the UK’s top 30 emerging creatives. Interesting that they didn’t stick with one discipline and I think this is a real trend at the moment: creatives being considered “creatives” first (as apposed to “designers” or “musicians”). I also really like the use of video in the site. Its a cheap and simple format but because the interviews with each finalist are shot in their home there is a really nice personal feel to them. Visit the Creative 30 site to check them out.

Virgin Mobile Pop-up store

I don’t know you wait around for a pop-up store for ages and then three come along at once. In a slightly different spin on the whole thing Virgin Mobile have customised a shipping container and turned it into a temporary store (like a spaza store for hipsters). They’re keeping the whole thing pretty under the radar, which I assume is deliberate, so its become almost a bit like an urban legend. I mentioned it to a couple of people in Joburg and most of them had heard of it so it has generated word of mouth buzz amongst the fashion set at least.

(pic blatantly stolen from here)

I got an email from Love Jozi this morning who are selling a limited edition t-shirt at it. Worth going for that reason alone then (you can see where it is below).

For more on the pop-up store thing you can visit:

Robyn’s article on iafrica The Pop-up Store Concept

And for an international take visit Pop-Up Retail on Trendwatching.com

A word of warning I think this trend has a limited shelflife unless you’re going to do something different with it … Maybe something along the lines of Banksys Pet Shop and Charcoal Grill pop-up in New York for example (check the nuggets).

Baileys Trunk Show pop-up store

So i’m back from Joburg and the Baileys Trunk Show. An interesting experience that involved setting up and running from scratch a pop-up store in a gallery space tucked away in Craighall. Baileys is a client of Atmosphere (where I work) and the idea behind it was to create a brand building event but one that offered a genuinely interesting and different experience (rather than just handing out free drinks at some bar for example). I still think the pop-up store is pretty new to South Africa, and maybe its a bit difficult to get for some (this being a mall obsessed culture). But the designers took around R30,000 (from about 150 visitors) in total over the day so I think this shows its useful for designers (assuming they have a brand paying for the set-up and publicity that is). Here are some of the pics from the event:

This is Irvan from Carbon De Afreeque talking to the crew from African Couture. Certainly their bags were one of the most popular items at the event. The concept behind their company is that they make bags and other objects (lamps and furniture for example).

The blues bloggers (that’s me in the “shop local” t-shirt) and angie from ifashion (who actually is an editor not a blogger but it sounds good).

All of the designers had spaces made from vintage wardrobes and trunks. The whole thing was beautifully styled by Chrisna de Bruyn and her team to mix the contermporary design and gallery setting with vintage pieces inspired by the original era of trunk shows. If you want Chrisna’s details please email (southafricanstreetstyle@gmail.com) as she did an amazing job. The pic above is the space made for Maya Prass.

And this was the area used for Abigail Betz who has just moved from Parys to Joburg where she’s opening a boutique. I’m obssesed with the big gilt mirror next time i have R10,000 spare (2018 maybe) i’m so getting one.

KWV eco-bag design competition

Are you between 18-25 and a graphic design hotshot? Do you know one of these individuals. If you do then you should know about their graphic design competition to illustrate the front flap of a wine cooler bag they’re making later this year with eco-fashion company GIVE-IT-BAG. These are their words:

Help us finish the design of our limited edition eco-bags and win yourself a R10,000 voucher to purchase any Apple product of your choice.

To celebrate 90 years in the wine business KWV has partnered with eco-fashion company GIVE-IT-BAG to make a limited edition wine cooler. We’re now calling all graphic wunderkinds and mouse wielding hotshots to design it into perfection.

The theme for the design is “Inside KWV” and is limited to a size of 28cm x 45cm (vertical) printed in two colours of your choice.

For details on how to enter go to the Inside KWV Blog.

That is all.

As you were.

Number Three

Some how I always seem to be out of town for What If The World’s fashion/design mashup events. So this will make three i’ve missed. However if you’re in town get there.

Visit the WITW Design Studion Blog for more.

Friday 10th October
Eight Pm
The Seapoint Hall
Cape Town

Featuring installations and performances by

Fashion /
Blasoen
Christopher Strong
Dokter and Misses
Suzaan Heyns
White Noise
Stephen Quatember

Product /
Adriaan Hugo
Liam Mooney
Xandre Kriel
Wouter Schreuders

Also featuring /
The Group
Willem Kitschoff
Givan Lötz
Reese Barkhuizen
Timothy Wang

Baileys Trunk Show 11th October

This weekend I’ll be in Joburg for the Baileys Trunk Show (come and say hello). The event takes place for one day only and features a number of SA designers. It’s being held at Art Extra in Craighall Park and the event plays with a couple of ideas. The pop-up store trend is an obvious one but we called it a Trunk Show rather because we wanted to play with the theme of the original trunk shows (which were effectively pop up stores under a different name). The idea is designers would take their collection (in trunks) to cities away from their home base and sell their work to local clients. Each designer will have their own uniquely designed space at the gallery to sell their work from and there will be a social area around the Baileys bar.

Designers include:

Maya Prass
Mad About House (furniture)
Fundudzi
Thula Sindi
Stiaan Louw
Mzansi Designers
Abigail Betz
Miss Scarlet
Carbon de Afreeque (bags/furniture)

If you want to come RSVP via the Facebook Group or send an email to baileystrunkshow@atmosphere.co.za

Hipsters will inherit the earth

Hipsters are more than just latte drinking, messenger bag wearing, electro listening, tapas munching wastrels, they are retailers ticket out of the slump according to Forbes (The New Counter Culture’s Buying Power). The magazine bases this on the results of companies such as Urban Outfitters, Mini and Marc Jacobs which are turning over healthy profits despite the economic gloom.

I hadn’t quite viewed hipsters as a demographic or movement of their own, but thinking about it they really are the noughties equivalent of punks, hippies and beatniks. The only difference is instead of strumming guitars naked in fields, gobbing at each other, or writing crazy street poetry, hipsters are hunting down a new pair of Brazilian trainers or Bathing Ape t-shirt in some boutique some where.

Hipsters are actually closers to yuppies than maybe any of the other movements i just mentioned. Instead of power suits and filofaxes they’re toting R3000 jeans and iphones. In other words my generation takes the whole counter culture thing very literally (i.e. culture is something you buy over a counter): it’s a movement largely based on consumption and talking about consumption (design, fashion, music, technology etc).

Another observation about hipsters is that no one will ever actually admit to being a hipster. In fact they we will talk in a slightly sneering way about “the hipsters” despite the fact they’re we’re at  a design exhibition, wearing imported trainers and clutching a copy of One Small Seed under their our arm. Let’s all come out of the closet now and just admit it: “I’m here, i’m hip, get used to it!”

Ok so here is a quick test just in case you’re still in denial. A yes to more than two questions and you’re a hipster (embrace it):

1: Do you buy your coffee from Vida? (despite the fact there is a cheaper coffee store within several metres)?

2: Have you recently read Chew, One Small Seed or Dossier magazine?

3: Do you prefere a trip to the Neighbourhood Goods Market to Checkers?

4: Have you bought something from A Store in Cape Town?

5: Do you have any of the following in your CD collection: M.I.A, LCD Sound System, Santogold, Vampire Weekend, The Knife, Hot Chip, Dubstep, or anything electronic from Berlin or Brazil?

6: Do you own a David LaChappelle photography book?

7: Do you own a pair of Wayfarer sunglasses?

8: Are you Facebook friends or a group member of What If The World or Doktor & Misses?

9: Do you read regularly a trendspotting blog of any kind? (i’m tempted to say just by reading this blog the chances are you’re a hipster)

10: Have you paid more than R250 for a t shirt?

Maison Martin Margiela at Paris Fashion Week

See also Fashion’s Invisable Man in the The New York Times