TREND PUB by Northumbria University

rana plaza and what it taught us

The oil industry is the only industry in the world that beats fashion in terms of the carbon footprint, essentially the fashion industry is the dirtiest in the world. Before the last number of years it seems as if we were indulging in fashion in a gluttonous amount with absolutely no regard for where the clothes came from, who made them or the working conditions for these people. We began to see this shift when the tragic Rana Plaza incident happened in Bangladesh in 2013 killing 1,134 workers. After this amogst other sweat shop tragedies as a whole the world began to dig their heads from under the sand and pay attention to the implementations of this vicious cycle. If it had not have been for the power of social media these injustices would have never have been brought to light and these fashion brands would have never received the clout they so importantly deserve. from Rana Plaza on we saw a shift in major fashion brands and how they communicated their ethics, as they didnt have any other choice.

never again never again never again never again

aware

never again never again never again never again

“The Future Belongs To Honest Porducts” -Cohn & Wolf

Paves The Way

Until now the fashion industry as a whole has largely lagged behind consumers in responding to their growing demand for environmentally responsible, sustainable fashion. Adida’s has just recently taken a leap of faith and announced that by 2024 all of their clothing and products will be completely sustainable and recyle friendly. sustainable fashion up until now has been something adopted by niche brands like patagonia for example, for a brand with Adidas status to take such a stance of complete transparency with regards to every aspect of their product development and manufacturing is a great step for the mass market. Adidas’s decision follows initial success in selling recycled plastic footwear. Its commitment has grown from one million pairs produced in 2017, to 5 million in 2018 and this year a projected 11 million pairs. This really is a testminent to the direction the consumer market is heading in the new decade.

Images taken from: www.adidas.com

Goes

Green

The Brand Pledges To Be Completely Sustainable By 2024

HOW NICHE BECAME THE NORM

Patagonia was founded in 1973 by Yvon Chouinard a thrill chaser to took part in ice climbing, surfing and fly fishing. The ironic thing about the rise of Patagonia is that the brand has never actively considered its appearance to be one of the main brand factors and doesnt hold any relavent importance to its core values. What Patagonia is concerned with however is the carbon footprint and how treatment of the planet through their production. Before the last number of years Patagonia was considerend to be quite a niche and under ground brand, only worn by true adventure seakers or enviromentally concious shoppers. This has changed massively since sustainability has been brought to the fore front of our awareness, as we become more and more ethically concious the more brands like this floruish. Patagonia commits much of its resources to environmental and labour advocacy, so much so that it can resemble less an apparel company than an activist collective with a robust merch component. Patagonia’s store in SoHo, streetwear’s red zone and home to Palace, BAPE, Off-White and Supreme, looks more like the student union at a liberal arts university, with a message board toward the front plastered with posters railing against dam proliferation and plastic pollution. The brand’s self-imposed “Earth Tax” means it donates one per cent of its sales to nonprofits.

TRANSPARENCY IS THE NEW MAINSTREAM

TRANSPARARNCY WE ARE LIVING IN A CRISIS OF TRUST

In order to create a truly ethical and sustainable future for fashion we need to raise awareness of the fashion industry’s most pressing issues. Fashion companies are now stepping further into transparency – more brands are disclosing their supply chain practices and talking about who made their clothes and their manufacturing practices. However, transparency alone doesn’t necessarily mean consumer loyalty. There’s a need to build trust, and that’s not only about being transparent, it’s about being honest.

image: wearefuttera.com

Especially on clothing labels and at point of sale

image: wearefuttera.com

How can people embody honesty? – Strives for humility – Offers unprompted information that’s in your interest – Has a reputation for honesty – Accepts responsibility when things go wrong – Accepts and shares their limitations – Keeps their promises (or explains why they can’t) – Says what they think and believe

breakthrough brands act like humans

How can products embody honesty? – Acknowledges limits – Anticipates what you might find important – Has a good and trusted reputation – Admits fault and problems still to be fixed – Doesn’t promise beyond its capabilities – Keeps its promises and explains decisions – Is clear on what it stands for

What Beauty Brands Are Doing

Niche Is Now

Miller Harris a luxury perfumery which is housed in London have taken transparancy to a whole different realm witht the launch of their new fragrance collection ‘Forage’. The collection is inspired by London and all of the hidden, intricate elements of nature that inhabit the iconic city. the motive behind the whole collection was to celebrate ingrdients that can only be sourced in London.

“We were inspired by this. We are of the city and we are natural. So, we worked with urban foragers who understand the scents, tastes and secret treasures that nature in the city provides to create perfumes which interpret that magic. From the city’s rooftops to the hidden, lush green spaces of the capital, our perfumers then explored hidden enclaves in the urban landscape to create HIDDEN (on the Rooftops), LOST (in the City) and WANDER (through the Parks), and introducing DANCE (amongst the Lace)” Miller Harris took this one step further for the pr launch of Forage by designing a scavenger hunt for their guests at the launch to go forage the ingredients that are blended into the perfumes. By doing this the brand created a completely unique stance of transparancy by not only showcasing and being honest about the organic ingredients that inhabit the perfume but by turning this into an experience for the consumer which adds that personalised feel which builds customer repour.

LUXURY FRAGRANCE AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR AUDIENCE

The problem with most beauty brands at the moment is that they don’t know who their client is, they see their client as the retailer. If as a brand you are striving for the soul purpose of your porducts to be situated in Sephora or Harrods and and not in the luxurious bathroom of your consumer then you are completely by passing the most important demographic. Nowadays it is not just older generations that want to be sought after by brands, Gen Z when investing in beauty and fragrance products want to invest in something they feel has personality. A luxury fragrance brand who is pathing the way for the future is Maison Caulières—one of the most successful, under-the-radar independent beauty brands out of France. In four years, his body-care line has earned a prominent home within Rosewood luxury hotel properties around the world, from the spa at Paris’s Hôtel de Crillon to the 413 rooms at the group’s new flagship in Hong Kong. The main standout difference between this brand and otherbeauty companies is that the brand was founded on the aspect of family and not marketing or sales, this is something an audience taps into & if for a brand one of your leading VIP customers is queen Elizabeth II you must be doing something right.

The Future For Transparancy

Brands Doing It Different

Personalized Fragrances Personalization is not new in the world of Fashion with tailoring and hand crafting garments for special customers been weaved into the heritage of that world from the dawn of time. Bespoke fragrances is something that is slowly beginning to make headway in the world of beauty and fragrance with brands such as Jo Malone with their fragrance combining marketing and also Ex Nihilo witht ehir Harrods store customer experience. When walking into the Harrods store the personalized and trasnparant experience begins immediately, A smelling test in Ex Nihilo’s boutique leads you to your perfect luxury base fragrance from the collection. Once you’re settled on this, you can play around by adding a single ingredient to create ‘the one’. The best part of this experience is watching staff blend scents together in a unique high-precision dosing machine created uniquely and just for you.

Gen z Has Changed And Adapted The Face Of Luxury Is This Infultrating Transparancy?

The basis of luxury and what it was built on is luxurious fabrics and the formal and over the top aspect of garments and dressing. In a world where flagship store staff members now currently have the knowledge that the most casually or downplayed dressed person in the store is probably the one with the most disposable income, we now live in a society that has turned luxury on its head. Louis Vuitton products are designed to be sustainable and the essence of the breand is that these garments and products are hand crafted in the most seamlessly intricate way. This is something that is questioned in their collaborations with supreme this decade. Generation z and the street culture movement has led the luxury sector down a path in order to appeal to the mass market but in doing this they have blurred the lines of transparency, how can a consumer have condifence in the fact that their garment is crafted in the most intricate manner if it is a pair of sweatpants or a hoodie.

Because of the ethical uncertainty of Brexit we have seen the sheer lack of transparency brands can offer in regards to how they will market themselves after this catastrophic political change. The uncertainuty is vast, will brands cut down on imports? Will the element of British designers be embraced? Will fashion go into turmoil? These are the questions that for right now we just don’t have answers to. For all age groups but for Gen Z inparticular we are seeing thrifting make a huge comeback since the Brexit referendum . It seems that in order to be cautious about sustainability aswell as gain transparency people are more and more investing in preowned clothes as opposed to being loyal to brands.

2020 ONWARDS IS ABOUT MAKE DO AND MEND THE UK IS STEPPING INTO THE PAST TO BENEFIT OUR FUTURE

IS HERE

But Remember, Luxury Fashion Has Always Been Sustainable And Therefore Is Transparent

Although to an extent the luxury market has entered into a somewhat era inspired and influenced by streetwear it is still undeiniable that the whole premice of this industry is built on the best of the best in every aspect. In this way luxury has always been sustainable because it has a niche demographic, luxury does not want to appeal to the mass market and in doing so has always been sustainable. Luxury manufacture high quality biodegradable wools and fabrics for the most part and also in doing this make a small amount of every garment as the sheer enemy of luxury is mass produced goods. Through the eras of luxury one thing is imbedded into the heart of the industry and that is quality, luxury unlike the mass market or fast fashion has built a relationship of transparancy with their consumer. A luxury consumer has trust in the market that the items they are purchasing are made to the highest of quality with the most intricate detail and in this they create transparancy.

“Stop all this consumerism...I just tell people, stop buying clothes. Why not protect this gift of life while we have it?” “If you’ve got the money to afford them, then buy something from me. Just don’t buy too much” Vivienne Westwood’s Stance On Luxury

Trend watchers say luxury consumers are keen to express who they are in terms of being “ethical, creative, connected, and tasteful.

T E N

Y E A R S

O N

Blockchain Technology Blockchain is a as a data structure that holds transactional records and while ensuring security, transparency, and decentralization that is making its way more and more into consumerism aswell as other markets . You can also think of it as a chain or records stored in the forms of blocks which are controlled by no single authority. A blockchain is a distributed ledger that is completely open to any and everyone on the network. Once an information is stored on a blockchain, it is extremely difficult to change or alter it. Each transaction on a blockchain is secured with a digital signature that proves its authenticity. Due to the use of encryption and digital signatures, the data stored on the blockchain is tamper-proof and cannot be changed.

How this will boost transparancy and effect the fashion industry? As with any industry, the fashion industry also has its own set of challenges. One of the biggest such challenges is counterfeit products flooding the market and taking profits away from established brands while reducing the quality of items, thus damaging the brand’s reputation. Another challenge is the shipment tracking and timely delivery of products with the right specifications. Blockchain carries to potential to solve a majority of these problems. Aswell as this blockchain will now hault all brands from bending the truth about where there clothes where manufactured. For the luxury industry this will change the way they operate things massively, it is never disclosed where lucury products are made, over the years this has been subject to alot of scrutiny in the industry as it would be very easy for them to overexaggerate their luxury manufacturing. With this blockchain technology it will now be policy that every button sewn in milan and every zipper stitched in Paris has to be documented, this inevitably means that transparency is inevitable and is certainly the future.

SAYS

THE FUTURE IS TRAnsPARENT

THE FUTURE IS TRAnSPARENT

Ellie Heaney W18016027 FA5008 Consumer Trend Research and Publication Sem1 2019/20