I recently attended the Luxury Education Foundation’s Luxury Round Table – a series of conversations where luxury professionals speak to students from Columbia Business School and Parsons the School of Design. The panelists were owners and chief executives of luxury start-ups in New York City and the discussion’s topic was the challenges and opportunities they had encountered.
The panelists – ranging from the president and chief operation officer of The Row, Francois Kress, to Brandon Sun, owner and creative director of his eponymous label, were all faced with the challenges of dealing with retailers and distribution networks. I had previously written about the importance of supporting emerging labels and designers in their retailing effort. Listening to these business owners discuss their needs, I became more convinced that we needed a retail initiative to foster business excellence in American fashion and that addressed the following areas:
Firstly, we need a fashion retail initiative that helps emerging labels compete with established brands for retail share. Such an initiative would train owners and designers on how to work with retailers of different sizes and help develop growth strategies. This is because emerging labels must often balance their vendor relationships with boutique retailers who are able to devote more attention to the product but who might not have the financial resources of larger retailers and retail chains with more conservative buying considerations but who might afford these labels greater exposure. For example, while Mr. Sun has benefited from a great relationship with Neiman Marcus, he recounts his experience in a smaller Chicago boutique that was able to better promote his products because they devoted greater attention to educating its clients about the new brand and its offerings. In contrast, the sales staff at larger department stores was more likely to direct customers towards established brands given the fact that their commissions were based on sell-through. A retail initiative to support fashion start-ups would be able to step in by offering an incentive program for sales staff at major retailers. It could even maintain a directory of boutique retailers available to emerging labels and promote these boutiques through group advertising that would benefit both emerging labels and boutique retailers. The end result is to cultivate in emerging labels an understanding of retail that would enable them to better engage larger retailers.
In addition, a retail initiative aimed at taking emerging labels to the next level would have to focus on e-commerce and leverage on the possibilities of omni-channel retailing. Unlike established retailers with legacy systems, young designers today are confronted with multiple routes for distribution growth. While Mr. Sun was given the opportunity to connect with a broad range of clients through trunk shows in Neiman Marcus stores across the country, Ernest Sabine – owner of Ernest Alexander – began by offering his menswear accessories through e-commerce in a bid to retain greater control over the brand’s image. A retail initiative might partner emerging labels with e-commerce developers or even advocate for greater representation on online retailers like Net-A-Porter.
Finally, these start-ups often grapple with the challenges of branding and the implications that distribution have on their label’s image and identity. This is especially the case once emerging labels begin to interact with foreign buyers and expand into different regions in the world. A retail initiative championing emerging labels in American fashion could tap into burgeoning demand for locally-made goods and create a unifying marketing campaign along the lines of Fair Trade. This could bolster the collective presence of young designers from a market perspective but would create synergies with current efforts to champion American apparel production and manufacturing.
In a light-hearted moment, when asked what the value proposition of an American luxury brand was, Mr. Sabine responded that New York City was not too shabby. These emerging start-ups are eager to take American fashion into the future. In the interest of American fashion, our retailers must do what they can to support them.