
Burberry Combines Men’s & Women’s Show; Plus They’re Making Shows Direct to Consumer
Burberry Prorsum RTW Spring 2016
Times has changed and so has fashion. Buyers wants clothes sooner, as soon as they get done viewing the collection at runway shows. The industry is currently debating the future of seasonal fashion. Burberry is adopting a “see now, buy now” model.
The brand will combine its men’s and women’s shows together in two annual runway events (February and September rather than Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter) during London Fashion Week, with ‘seassonless’ collections available to buy immediately after the shows.
Immediately after the show, the full collection of men’s and women’s will be available to buy both online and in-store. Window displays in its stores and media campaigns will change following the show as well.
WWD says, “Burberryâs shift could be the snowflake that begins an avalanche of change as designers, retailers and fashion organizations debate the overheated fashion system; the future of shows; social media; the growing move to mobile and e-commerce shopping from brick-and-mortar, and how to energize a consumer who seems gripped with ennui when it comes to fashion.“
âThe changes we are making will allow us to build a closer connection between the experience that we create with our runway shows and the moment when people can physically explore the collections for themselves,â Christopher Bailey, the companyâs chief creative and chief executive officer.
Adding, âOur shows have been evolving to close this gap for some time. From live-streams, to ordering straight from the runway, to live social media campaigns, this is the latest step in a creative process that will continue to evolve.â
In an interview with WWD, Bailey said the decision had been evolving naturally. âWe began live-streaming in 2008-09 and ever since then weâve been talking directly to a customer about the collections, about the mood, about the music, about the fashion and about the event. But then weâve also been saying to the customer, âYou have to fit into the traditional sector thing,â and it just didnât feel right and it hasnât felt right since the beginning.”
âI told the teams that we canât expect a customer to understand our timings because, I mean, itâs silly, which is why we did runway made-to-order collections. You canât talk to a customer and say, âWeâre really excited, weâre going to stimulate you and inspire you, but you canât touch it or feel it for another six months.â In fashion we talk about âa moment,â and what feels right for the moment. And Iâve always battled with that because the moment is when youâre showing it, but then youâve got to kind of say is it the right moment five or six months down the line? I just struggled with it. So itâs just trying to say to the customers: âYouâre really important to us. Weâre serving you and we need to change our ways rather than expect you to do these things.ââ
Asked about the logistics of switching to a buy-now-wear-now business and about the impact the move will have on wholesale and retail partners, Bailey said the process will take time.
âWe do not have the answers to everything today. It is certainly new behavior for us, and it will mean that we want to build stronger collaborative partnerships with our wholesale partners because it absolutely is a different way of working. We will be doing things where we invite those partners to see the collection, and that will have to be embargoed. It will just mean a different way of working. But what I love about it is our partners can work with it, they can see it, we can create special packages for them, we can then start saying âOK, do we do a special event for your customers where they watch the show live, and then they can shop immediately.â So then it starts to open up actually a whole new, really exciting world.â
He added that Burberryâs twice-yearly pre-collections will be integrated into the runway event. âPre will become part of the show, and it will also become part of an earlier delivery. Weâre just thinking more about what will we have in the store in September, what will we have in the store in October. It will be more of a capsule, creative capsule approach than just two collections per season,â he said.
Backstage at Burberry Menâs RTW Spring 2016
Photos Credit: Giovanni Giannoni | Kuba Dabrowski
Source:Â WWD
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