Sonia Rykiel Spring Summer 2011 | Source: Moda Paramujer

Sonia Rykiel in talks with investor Fung Brands (Reuters)
“Sonia Rykiel, one of the last family-controlled French fashion houses, is in exclusive talks with privately held Fung Brands which could lead to the investment firm taking an 80 percent stake in the company to help it expand internationally.”

China’s Hidden Wealth Feeds an Income Gap (NY Times)
“Wealthy Chinese are snapping up gold, Rolls-Royces and yachts, Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Gucci faster than ever before, with increases registering not in baby steps, as a decade ago, but in giant leaps — 20, 50, even 80 percent, year on year. The Chinese have become the world’s biggest duty-free shoppers. Where is all the money coming from?”

Italy woes weigh on luxury shoemaker Tod’s in Q4 (Reuters)
“Italian luxury goods maker Tod’s reported lower-than-expected sales in its crisis-hit core Italian market in the last quarter. The owner of the Hogan, Fay and Roger Vivier brands, with a market value of 2.1 billion euros ($2.7 billion), said on Wednesday global sales grew 13.5 percent last year to 893.7 million euros, slightly above analysts’ estimates.”

Vogue keeps No. 1 rank among fashion titles (New York Post)
“In the closely watched March issues of fashion magazines — where fashion designers typically advertise their spring and summer collections — the Condé Nast flagship Vogue retained its customary No. 1 spot. Vogue had 442.74 ad pages, up 3.7 percent, handily beating Time Inc.’s In Style, which came in No. 2 with 347.0 ad pages, up a healthy 39 pages, or 13 percent.”

Cool Designer Ervell Hates to Shop, Wants NYC Store (Bloomberg)
“Dressed in jeans, New Balance sneakers and a simple blue button-down shirt, Ervell, 32, is indistinguishable from the vaguely mussed creative types who pack downtown. What makes Ervell — and all those scenesters — so effortlessly cool is his own, eponymous clothing line.”

?>
• 

  New Order accessories Winter 2012 | Source: BoF

?>
• 

  Boys playing in Santa Teresa | Photo: BoF

?>
• 

  Sandy sidewalk on the edge of Ipanema Beach | Photo: BoF

?>
• 

  Fabrica in Lapa district | Photo: BoF

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Arriving in Rio de Janeiro in the middle of the Brazilian summer, in a country experiencing an ongoing economic boom, certainly puts the bleak, uncertain economic outlook of wintry Europe and North America into sharp relief.

I was invited to Brazil on the generous invitation of ABIT, the Brazilian Textile and Apparel Industry Association, to attend Fashion Rio, the smaller of two semi-annual fashion events just concluded in Rio and São Paulo this week. And as ever on my trips to international markets, it was the perfect opportunity to explore firsthand one of the fastest growing luxury markets in the world, to see some local designers, and to get to know the local BoF community as well. Brazil ranked 13 on our list of countries with the most BoF readers, based on website traffic in 2011.

I came to Brazil with three questions on my mind: what are the prospects for the Brazilian luxury industry, what’s it like to do business here, and who is the Brazilian consumer?

HOMEGROWN LUXURY

With a population of 190 million people – the smallest of all the BRIC countries, but still the fifth most populous country on the planet – for years, Brazil received little attention from the international luxury goods industry, which was content to serve the market through other channels, primarily via licensing and franchises.

For years, Brazilians also simply bought luxury goods from their friends, who imported luxury products in their suitcases from their trips abroad. This is how the São Paulo-based luxury emporium Daslu is said to have been founded, before growing into the beacon (and then target) for a superrich elite in one of the world’s most unequal countries.

On my last visit here in December 2007, Brazil had yet to welcome stores from major international luxury brands like Prada, Hermès and Bottega Veneta. But all of this has changed. The aforementioned brands have recently opened new stores in Brazil and more than 30 other new retail openings are expected to follow in 2012, Carlos Ferreirinha, president of MCF Consultoria & Conhecimento, a São Paulo-based retail and luxury consulting company, told WWD. In short, the luxury retail landscape is being completely redefined.

This seems well-timed. The number of millionaires in Brazil is on the rise, spurred by a commodities boom and new oil discoveries, and is predicted to surpass 1 million by 2020. Property prices in Rio De Janiero are sky-rocketing. Meanwhile, this year, the Brazilian luxury goods industry is expected to grow to more than $12 billion. In comparison, there is also a thriving homegrown apparel and textiles industry, valued at more than $60 billion, with only $1.5 billion going to exports.

Brazil’s answer to LVMH and PPR is In Brands, a multi-platform “consolidation of lifestyle and premium fashion brands – the iconic brands – in Brazil,” but relatively unknown outside the country. These include high fashion line Alexander Herchcovich, menswear lifestyle brand Richards, swimwear label Salinas, online website FFW.com.br, and the branded fashion weeks organised by Luminosidade in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, whose fashion week is touted as the fifth largest fashion event in the world.

But the Brazilian fashion brand with greatest international visibility (if not sales) is Osklen, built around the relaxed lifestyle of Rio, founded in 1989 by orthopaedic physician Oskar Metsavaht. With 63 stores in Brazil and 10 stores and growing abroad, Metsavaht’s business is estimated to turn over between $170 to $230 million each year. Reports in Brazilian and international business media say that a majority stake in the Osklen business is currently for sale, with LVMH and PPR as two of the potential suitors.

BYZANTINE BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM

But beneath this glossy surface is a complex market with a complicated future. Despite the sense of optimism, the Brazilian economy has actually been slowing down. After rapid GDP growth of 7.5 percent in 2010, growth fell by more than half in 2011, to about 3 percent. Consensus forecasts peg 2012 growth to be slightly more than this. The spectre of a Brazilian bubble is debated in the financial newspapers.

Many local business people also complain that the Brazilian market is impossible to navigate. The country was ranked 126 in the latest “Ease of Doing Business,” report published by the World Bank in June 2011. As one expat described it to me, Brazil will welcome you with open arms, but when you actually try and do business here, you will eventually find yourself stuck in a morass of government bureaucracy, corruption and an incomprehensible system of taxation.

Indeed, nobody could definitively explain to me the country’s byzantine tax system. According to Rafael Cervone Netto, chief executive of Texbrasil, a textile and apparel industry export program, tax rates differ depending on the product category, the state into which the product is imported, and where the product is purchased, resulting in more than 300 different tax positions within the textile and apparel sector alone. What’s more, these tax policies are constantly changing, at multiple levels of government. A staggering 38 percent of Brazil’s GDP is comprised of taxes, versus 8 to 20 percent for other countries, Mr. Netto said.

Not only does this make Brazil extremely difficult for global luxury brands to manage, it also makes imported products as much as two or three times more expensive than in their home markets. According to Jenny Barchfield, fashion writer for the Associated Press, “at the Burberry store in Sao Paulo, a trench coat that retails on for $915 on its UK website was selling for 3695 reais, or $2075,” or more than twice as much as it costs in the UK.

WHO IS THE BRAZILIAN LUXURY CONSUMER?

All of this begs the question: who exactly are these Brazilian luxury consumers and why are they willing to pay such outrageous prices? Why don’t they simply shop abroad like their counterparts in China and India?

Brazilians do shop abroad, particularly in Miami or New York, but contrary to popular opinion as gregarious people, they “tend to be shy and prefer to buy at home because they are more comfortable here, where they can speak in Portuguese” said Graça Cabral, a director of Luminosidade. Customer service is also a magnet for shopping. In Brazil, clients have close relationships with their favourite sales people, who constantly feed them information.

On the recommendation of a Brazilian friend, I flicked on the television in my hotel room one night to watch Mulheres Ricas, or ‘Rich Women,’ a new reality TV show based around the lives of extremely wealthy women in Rio who apparently have nothing to do all day but flaunt their designer dogs and Birkin bags. One character named Brunete Fraccaroli, with her blown out hair and extreme plastic surgery, spent much of the episode clutching a Barbie-style doll, of herself. As it turns out, the doll was a gift from Mattel, who bestowed her with this honour.

Are these the kinds of consumers snapping up luxury goods at inflated prices in Brazil? Not entirely, said Monica Mendes, founder of the country’s leading lifestyle public relations firm that has worked with Daslu, and global luxury brands like Hermès, Chanel and Prada. “Of course we have these kinds of clients, but these are the very new rich, who want to show everything,” she said.

And then it came out. “The woman in Brazil is completely crazy,” said Mendes enthusiastically. “She is completely fashion-oriented. She knows everything about fashion.”

These women, said Ms. Mendes, follow American Vogue as much as they follow Brazilian Vogue. They see all the same editorial and advertisements at the same time as the women in America. “They tear out the pages, mark them with post-its and send them to sales girls who bring it all to their homes.”

“We like fashion,” agreed Ms. Cabral. “It’s a media phenomenon in Brazil. It’s not like [this] anywhere in the world. You see fashion on television, in every kind of slot and programme. You see fashion in all the newspapers. You see fashion in magazines — even magazines that are not fashion magazines.”

But still, how can they afford it? Luxury prices in Europe and America are already stratospheric, but in Brazil they are in another galaxy. “We’ve had a lot of economic crises. We’ve changed our [currency] I don’t know how many times,” recalled Ms. Mendes, and with no irony added: “The Brazilian people are very creative with money.”

You see, in Brazil you can buy everything by payment plan, even luxury goods from Chanel and Hermès. You can pay for your tweed suit in four payments or pay for your luxury handbag in seven installments, and so on. Depending on the kinds of stores you’re visiting, and how much you’re spending, you can split your payments into smaller and smaller chunks.

More than one expert suggested that these payment plans are also a convenient way for women to disguise their luxury purchases from their husbands, splitting up payments across credit cards, cheques and cash.

“We like to dress up. It’s different from other cultures. Maybe more similar to the Arabian culture,” said Ms. Cabral. “Don’t forget, we come from Indians and Africans, and all of them like to wear things and decorate themselves. It’s part of our DNA. It’s there.”

“We want to be cool and have everything that everybody has. We want to wear the Brazilians, but also the international designers,” she added. “We have more and more consumers that want [to buy] quality as well, who are more demanding. And even if you can buy a bag from a Brazilian designer that is 2,000 reais, or a bag from Balenciaga that is 2,000 euros, they prefer [the latter],” she said.

“It brings status as well, because they need that too.”

Imran Amed is founder and editor-in-chief of The Business of Fashion

Givenchy Couture Spring 2012 | Source: Style Heroine

The Fine Line (NY Times)
“Nowadays, almost no one talks about its demise. Quite the opposite. Not only have revenues reportedly risen, thanks to big spenders in countries like China and Brazil, but there are also more new names on the calendar, like Giambattista Valli and Bouchra Jarrar, who makes ready-to-wear but because of her small quantities and fine sense of craft, shrewdly decided to show during couture. This season Versace returned to Paris after an absence.”

Chinese Shoppers Putting Premium On “Made In USA” Labels (Jing Daily)
“By this point, it’s well established that China’s shoppers are fans of American brands like Coach, Ralph Lauren, Levi’s and Tiffany & Co…But for smaller brands, particularly those made on a smaller scale in the US, opportunities are opening up in the Chinese market as well.”

H&M Q4 profit falls, see tough economic outlook (Reuters)
“Hennes & Mauritz, the world’s second-largest fashion retailer, posted a surprise drop in fourth-quarter pretax profit on Thursday and said 2012 was looking tough due to a worsening economic climate in many of its markets.”

J.C. Penney Permanently Cuts All Prices by 40 Percent (The Cut)
“As part of J.C. Penney’s new pricing strategy, they’re marking down all of their merchandise by at least 40 percent — permanently — so that shoppers don’t have to wait for sales to get the best price. To make up for the revenue they’ll sacrifice to do this, Penney’s will have fewer sales and promotions throughout the year.”

The Year in E-Tail: Lessons Learned and Looking Ahead (WWD)
“If 2011 was seen as the year e-tail exploded, it was a mere precursor to what’s expected in 2012. Mobile commerce spending on smartphones is expected to reach $10 billion this year, said Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, and this projection doesn’t even include tablet shopping.”

Hermès Flagship, Mumbai | Source: skyscrapercity.com

In our second article this week focused on India, we investigate the barriers impeding the growth of India’s international luxury goods market, which go beyond the recently lifted restrictions on foreign direct investment.

MUMBAI, India — “By the end of 2015, emerging markets should account for more than 50 percent of luxury sales,” Antoine Colonna, a luxury analyst at the asset manager Carmignac Gestion in Paris, told The Wall Street Journal in the spring of 2011. “This isn’t evolution. It’s revolution,” she continued.

But in India, the revolution has yet to take hold. Despite having the world’s second-fastest growing major economy and a rapidly expanding population of high net worth individuals, the country’s market for international luxury goods, worth around $1.3 billion, remains surprisingly small. In fact, while China currently accounts for an estimated 10 percent of the global luxury market, India makes up a mere 1 to 2 percent.

So why has India’s market for international luxury goods failed to take off?

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT REGULATIONS

Recently, enormous attention has been focused on India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) laws, which for years capped foreign ownership of India-based retail operations at 51 percent. In a landmark decision earlier this month, India formally lifted restrictions on foreign investment in its single-brand retail sector, allowing global fashion brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Burberry to acquire 100 percent ownership of their India operations and trade without local partners.

“This was the last frontier to open. It will make India a preferred market,” Tikka Shatrujit Singh, chief representative in Asia for French luxury conglomerate LVMH, told BoF. But the decision comes with a caveat: foreign companies are required to source 30 percent of their production from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in India. “We’re delighted with the decision, but the 30 percent caveat about working with small industries has to be carefully looked into, since there are concerns over child labour and quality factory production,” added Singh.

“Sourcing from Indian SMEs will restrict investments since it’s difficult for brands to match their quality standards and positioning,” said Abhay Gupta, executive director at Blues Clothing Company, a firm that represents Versace, Corneliani, Cadini and John Smedley in India. “Besides, most brands cannot alter their DNA and signature specialisation of ‘made in country of origin.’”

“A bureaucrat’s delight, a business person’s nightmare,” commented Darshan Mehta, president and CEO of Reliance Brands, a subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, which represents international brands Ermenegildo Zegna, Diesel, Paul & Shark and Kenneth Cole in India. “India’s cottage industries are not equipped to even produce H&M quality goods, forget catering to luxury brands.”

But new sourcing requirements aside, FDI reform only addresses one of the many challenges that international fashion brands face in India.

HIGH IMPORT DUTIES

For one, high import tariffs mean that luxury products can cost between 20 and 30 percent more in Mumbai and Delhi than in London or Paris. “The government has assured us that at an appropriate time, the duty structure will be adjusted to realistic levels,” said Singh. But for now, the problem persists. “We have only seen year-on-year growth, but the reason that the business suffers, even if slightly, is on account of high import duties,” said Bertrand Michaud, president of Hermès India. In fact, affluent Indians, who are extremely price-conscious even when shopping for luxury goods, buy more than 50 percent of their international luxury goods abroad.

Brands also face significant difficulties finding suitable retail space and understanding and catering to Indian tastes and sensibilities, challenges that can make partnerships with savvy local allies highly advantageous.

NO RUSH TO END LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS

Indeed, despite recent changes to FDI law, few brands are in a hurry to snap their ties with their Indian partners. “The FDI announcement doesn’t affect Hermès at all,” said Michaud. “Our partners in India, Ashok and Neelam Khanna, have been friends of the brand family for 50 years. They are in sync with our aesthetics and the Indian market.”

“The relaxation in FDI norms is a progressive move in the economic reforms process; it opens up the economy further to competition from global players, resulting in better processes, improved supply chains, better pricing and of course, more jobs,” said Sanjay Kapoor, managing director of Genesis Luxury Fashion, which holds Indian franchising and distribution rights for Burberry, Paul Smith, Bottega Veneta, Canali, Jimmy Choo and Etro. “But on their own, brands may not have enough understanding of the Indian market, its nuances and customer demographics; all critical to the luxury retail business,” he added.

A SCARCITY OF SUITABLE RETAIL SPACE

In particular, the challenge of finding suitable retail space in a country without equivalents to London’s Bond Street or New York’s Fifth Avenue makes local knowledge highly valuable. “One of my jobs is to continue an ongoing dialogue with real estate developers,” said Singh. “Purchasing property is extremely expensive and quality rental space in India comes at a premium.” Ambiance, cleanliness and security can be significant concerns, as well. As a result, luxury retailers have historically favoured opening stores in five-star hotels and upscale malls. But in cities like Mumbai, for example, brands face a shortage of premium mall space and selecting the right retail location is no simple task for those unfamiliar with the local landscape.

Hermès was the first international luxury brand operating in India to open a stand-alone boutique with an open storefront to the street in South Mumbai’s Fort District in 2011. The brand’s two other outlets in Delhi and Pune are both housed in hotels.

“Retail is about detail,” said Mehta. “Galleria gets 10 footfalls a day! Tod’s had to shut down,” he continued, referring to retail space at South Mumbai’s Hilton hotel. “The next best bet is malls. Palladium in Mumbai is doing well,” he added, mentioning a luxury mall in Mumbai’s Lower Parel neighbourhood that houses international brands like Burberry and Zara (which in India is positioned as a premium label).

CULTURAL COMPLEXITY & LOCAL LUXURY COMPETITORS

International brands operating in India also face a market with cultural complexity and culturally-attuned, local luxury goods. “Indian consumers are price-sensitive when buying Western high fashion. They won’t spend easily on that one lakh-plus rupee ($2,000) eveningwear dress. But they’d splurge on Indian couture-based wedding wear in a jiffy,” said Sanchita Ajjampur, a design consultant to international fashion brands including Lanvin, Gucci, Marni and Etro, underscoring the enormous cultural and economic importance of India’s wedding market and the local designers who cater to it. Indeed, a wedding outfit by Indian designer Sabyasachi, for example, can come at couture prices, which leaves less “share of wallet” for international brands. “This probably explains the decision to launch the Hermès India sari collection,” she continued.

“I am not here to get tourists. I want Indians. I want Hermès to be in the hands of Indians,” said Christian Blanckaert, senior executive vice-president of Hermès, at the launch of the brand’s first India store at New Delhi’s Oberoi hotel back in 2008. But achieving this is no simple task. To attract local clientele, Hermès has experimented with a number of India-inspired product lines, including a recently launched line of saris, based on the company’s famous scarves.

Other international fashion brands have also offered Indianised products, tailored to local tastes, like Bottega Veneta’s Knot India clutch, Jimmy Choo’s Chandra clutch and Canali’s Nawab line, all designed to cater to the country’s large wedding market. But while most India experts emphasise the importance of a tailored offering, localising product isn’t a guarantee of commercial success. “India-inspired collections add PR value to the brand, but they don’t always translate into serious sales,” said Mehta.

“Every brand has a different approach; global but tinged with local ideas,” said Singh. Indeed, knowing exactly when and how much to localise is a delicate act and each brand has a different formula that must be fine-tuned to its specific positioning and target customer. “When we tied up with Diesel, my friends asked me, ‘Are you launching desi (local) Diesel or the real Diesel?’” Mehta continued. “Luxury brands have a Western quotient attached to them. That’s what adds the aspirational value for Indians.”

LONG-TERM DIVIDENDS

Indeed, despite recent FDI reform, the on-going challenges of cultural complexity, scarcity of suitable retail space and high import duties mean the “Indian problem” is far from solved. But for brands with staying power, India presents a compelling long-term opportunity. According to Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer, the number of high net worth individuals in India with assets of over $1 million is expected to reach 403,000 by 2015. Furthermore, according to the United Nations, India is set to enjoy favourable demographic momentum for another three decades and will add over 241 million people to its working-age population by 2030 (far more than Brazil or China) boosting the country’s economic growth prospects in the coming years.

“Doing business in India doesn’t have a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am formula,” said Gupta. “It’s a slow process but it’s one that will eventually pay long-term dividends.”

Shweta Shiware is a freelance journalist based in London and Mumbai.

Burberry store Chennai India | Source: Luxury Facts

Worst of times prove best for luxury brands (CNN)
“Luxury brands, including fashion label Burberry and vehicle manufacturer Rolls-Royce, have all enjoyed bumper years, recording slump-busting profits that may raise eyebrows among consumers forced to tighten their non-snakeskin belts. Such income surges will dispel doubts raised when markets first began to falter over the resilience of the high-end market.”

Chanel’s Blue-Sky Thinking (IHT)
“Chanel took flight on Tuesday — both in its air travel stage set, inside the Grand Palais, and in the soaring imagination of its summer 2012 haute couture collection, all in blue, like an open sky. Trim and elegant as fantasy air hostesses, the first models were sent out by Karl Lagerfeld, who appeared in front of a mock pilot’s cabin at the end to take his bow.”

Jean-Jacques Picart Shares Four Decades of Fashion Wisdom (WWD)
“In a dense new book comprising 30 interviews with famous names and hidden talents, Paris-based fashion consultant Jean-Jacques Picart gleans life and career lessons — and unearths some candid snapshots of yore that alone are worth the price of admission.”

Osklen, Brazil’s First Global Luxury Brand (Forbes)
“Brazilians are snapping up luxury goods at a staggering rate. Industry sales were up 33% last year to $12 billion. So one would assume that the big, domestic brands would treat Brazil’s own consumers as a priority. Not Osklen, the sought-after maker of sportswear founded in 1989 by the orthopaedic physician Oskar Metsavaht.”

LVMH: daring to ditch the runway circus (FT)
“The Céline  move marks a conscious decision to choose the designer over possible marketing returns from the runway pictures (front row, celebs, backstage) that benefit brands every season, and is the first time I can remember that an LVMH house has done anything like this. Even after John Galliano’s fall, they continued to have major shows for Dior, refusing to miss a season.”

Christian Dior Couture Spring 2012 | Source: Style.com

Dior Designer: On the Doorstep? (IHT)
“The black and white, filmic Christian Dior haute couture show on Monday marked nearly a year since John Galliano left the brand in disgrace. But Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, confirmed that there would be no announcement about a new designer this week and that the ‘suspense’ would continue.”

How the other half dress: Paris says merci as haute couture sales rise (Guardian)
“The demand for haute couture is a reflection of economic reality. Not of the recession, but of the polarisation of wealth. Fifteen years ago, there seemed little economic logic in creating beautiful dresses which cost 20 times more than those available in the top Bond Street boutiques. But the emergence of a super-rich strata of society, tiny in number but fabulously wealthy, has created a niche market for whom couture makes perfect sense.”

Now, Online-Only Fashion Shows for Busy Editors (On the Runway)
“KCD, the public relations company that produces fashion shows for top labels like Marc Jacobs and Givenchy, announced on Monday that it is offering a new service wherein it will produce some shows in an entirely digital format so that overtaxed editors can watch them online.”

Little Red (Litigious) Shoes (NY Times)
“This week a federal appellate court will hear arguments in a case involving this very question. The issue arises in connection with shoes, specifically, the vivid red soles beneath Christian Louboutin shoes.”

Fashion’s beautiful relationship with art (The National)
“There’s a real buzz about the vivid, almost saccharine sweet pastel shades that will define spring/summer 2012 fashion. That, and of course the other huge trend of the moment: thrilling prints and 3D textiles. Sometimes it’s hard to tell one from the other because the surface is textured, which heightens the overall trompe l’oeil effect of the print.”

Bandana Tewari | Photo: Johan Sandberg for Industrie Magazine

PARIS, France — Bandana Tewari has made a name for herself as one of the fashion industry’s smartest commentators. As fashion features director of Vogue India, she has quickly become the go-to source for anyone who wants to learn about the country’s rapidly evolving luxury market. Recently, she was named to Industrie magazine’s Fashion Media A-list, alongside other leading fashion commentators including Cathy Horyn, Tim Blanks and Suzy Menkes.

So, I am delighted to reveal that Bandana Tewari will pen a regular column for The Business of Fashion, offering her unique perspective on the Indian luxury market, starting with this interview originally conducted for Industrie.

I sat down with Bandana in between shows during Paris Fashion Week in September to talk about India’s fast growing fashion market, tailoring luxury products to Indian sensibilities, the power of Bollywood and wearing Tarun Tahiliani saris with Manolo Blahniks.

BoF: How would you describe your point of view on fashion, your angle?

BT: Every time someone asks, ‘How do I become a fashion journalist?’ I say, ‘Forget fashion.’ You’ve got to be a social anthropologist first. That for me is the hook. I don’t think I could think of fashion in a uni-linear way. Fashion is like a fantastic hydra-headed monster that is influenced by everything around us – pop culture, state of the economy, global warming, you name it. I can only understand fashion in this holistic way.

BoF: You’ve been working in fashion for eight years now, and India has gone through a massive change in that time. Can you tell us what you’ve observed as India has become part of global fashion culture?

BT: In India everything happened so quickly. In the first phase, when fashion became corporatised and institutionalised into Fashion Weeks, it started off being very Indian. Then the media cried foul: ‘No one’s wearing just these traditional clothes – what are these Indian designers doing?!’ And then suddenly everyone was into – what I think is a reductionist Indian fashion term – ‘fusion-fashion’, as in Indo-Western fusion, which was basically Western silhouettes with dollops of very ethnic nuances and motifs. We were following all the clichés that we punish the rest of the world for using on us. A nice little jacket but paisleyed to death, you know? Or skirts that were too embellished.

BoF: But today, Indian fashion has morphed into something more defined.

BT: The third stage of fashion in India was the period when we reconciled ourselves to the fact that there is a certain DNA that cannot be taken out of the country. We do have a forte that lies in handicraft, in decorative arts, in embellishments, in technique. But what designers started doing was to not use them literally: they took little bits of it and used it in fluid silhouettes. And then we had beautiful collections from designers like Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Anamika Khanna, Varun Bahl, Savio, James Ferreira. They brought this very coherent vision of India, which unfortunately I feel the Western world still hasn’t seen or utilised.

BoF: What do you mean?

BT: Well, here we are at Paris Fashion Week for spring/summer 2012. I look around me there are events promoting all young emerging designers from London. I’ve just come back from a CFDA presentation of American designers. Then, you have the Koreans in ‘Seoul to Soul’ in the Museum of Decorative Arts. It’s phenomenal how much support different countries are offering to these designers. When I went to ‘Seoul to Soul’ I thought, ‘We now need to’ – and I’m definitely going to spearhead this –‘get five, six Indian designers to have a platform like this, where we, as Vogue India perhaps, can support it.’ I saw the emerging talent, and we are no less accomplished.

BoF: But we’ve been through this phase where Sabyasachi and Ashish N Soni were showing in New York and Manish Arora was showing in London. And it seems to me that, except for Manish Arora, most Indian designers have gone back to refocus on the Indian market.

BT: Well we’re at the stage where a top Indian designer like Sabyasachi Mukherjee can sell a garment for the same price as a couture dress by Dior and conclude, ‘I know my forte lies in doing Indian clothes for Indian people and catering to a market that is worth close to 11, 12 billion US dollars per annum’ – which is the Indian wedding industry. Some designers are like Manish, who [has shown] his first collection for Paco Rabanne: he’s very clear he wants to make it in the international arena. But other designers have decided their marketing focus is in India, and they are doing phenomenally well in their own country.

BoF: And maybe that makes sense. Because some global brands have failed to understand that the Indian market requires a really tailored offering.

BT: Absolutely. Not just tailored, but you have to understand India in terms of its spending power and when that money is spent. In a certain month you’re not supposed to be ostentatious, so forget about any grand opening in that month. You have to do full research of the rituals of India. Come August, September and right up to February, it’s the wedding season. It’s also the season with all the top festivals, Diwali, the festival of lights, where money is spent, buying for others and for yourself.

BoF: Do you think global brands are starting to understand this?

BT: Absolutely, and to respond to it too. Gucci did a limited-edition ‘Made for India’ series, which you can only buy in India. And it catered the Indian sensibility, which is a little bit bling. The India Knot clutch, which is by Bottega Veneta, was a sell-out, inspired by the architecture of India. Then Hermès recently launched six or seven beautiful saris – an extension of the scarves they’re doing, and I can tell you now, it is going to fly. There are so many customisations happening, on a small level: Jimmy Choo does bridal shoes for the Indian wedding industry. All these brands realise that just a bit of tailoring for the Indian aesthetic goes a long way for them to establish themselves in the hearts of the Indian consumer.

BoF: You have this interesting dichotomy between these big local Indian designers and the international superbrands. How does this divide represent itself in Vogue India, in terms of editorial and advertisers?

BT: When you flick through Vogue India, everything is customised for the Indian reader. So we put Indian designers alongside all the international designers irrespective of who’s advertising and who’s not. Because if you walk down the streets in Bombay, go to cocktail parties, go to dinner parties, we’re still wearing Tarun Tahiliani saris but with Manolo Blahniks. We are taking international fashion the way we want to. Not necessarily getting into gowns yet, because that’s something to be talked about and discussed further. The way we are indulging in [Western] fashion is really through accessories.

BoF: And so the consumer has created their own fashion fusion in the way they dress.

BT: Absolutely. So there is no way Vogue India would not put designers together. You know, we don’t care that Tarun Tahiliani doesn’t show at New York Fashion Week. He shows in India Fashion Week and that’s good enough for us. And he sells and he’s loved by his consumers and our readers. So if he’s doing a black sari that becomes the It-sari of the season and we do a ‘Midnight Black is Back’ page in the front of book, you’ll see a Jil Sander black shirt with that Tarun Tahiliani black sari, with a Dior black clutch and a black dress by Gaurav Gupta, who’s a young Indian designer.

BoF: Do you also Vogue India as playing a role in educating consumers about international fashion? Because before Vogue fashion magazines in India were not nearly at the international level.

BT: When we launched we said ‘education first’. Every brand story we did was almost like a profile: the legacy of Louis Vuitton, of Bottega Veneta. We’d customise it for our Indian readers. So if it was Gucci, it was about what Frida Giannini thinks about women all over the world and what she thinks about Indian women. And we’d weave the brand story with it so they get to know about the brand. A few seasons later, the next stage was to engage international designers properly with the Indian consumer. So it was about going back to the designers and saying, ‘How are you engaging out customers? What is it about India?’ So all our stories would revolve around that.

BoF: Condé Nast set up Vogue India as a fully owned subsidiary, so Condé Nast India operates as part of Condé Nast International. How does that relationship work?

BT: We were the first international magazine in India to be 100 per cent owned by the parent company, Condé Nast, and it makes a huge difference when you don’t have another partner. Your marketing strategy, your sales strategy, your editorial strategy is in tandem with the rest of fully-owned Vogues all over the world. In terms of the quality and content we want to bring to the consumer, I’d say it’s as good as even American Vogue, British Vogue. And that happens because we have full control of our magazine’s destiny.

BoF: Do you have interaction with the other Vogue Editions? Do you take content from time to time from British Vogue or American Vogue?

BT: We do that all the time. Because someone picking up Vogue in India wants to know what’s happening in the rest of the world too. So we take syndications, not just the English-language magazines but from Vogue Japan Vogue, Portugal, Brazil. We are global citizens. But globalisation is a dirty word today: I think the international community is getting so tired of everything that’s globalised. So we’re not homogenised – we have such an intrinsic indigenous quality to our lifestyle and we celebrate that. Because that indigenous quality is absolutely imperative.

BoF: You mentioned cultural clichés earlier. I wanted to talk about the power of Bollywood. There’s a lot of Bollywood in your covers. Is it is still very powerful force?

BT: Bollywood is by far the biggest marketing tool for anything that you do in India. I’d prefer to call it Indian cinema, but Bollywood is what it is right now. And we took a conscious decision to Voguify the Bollywood styles.

BoF: How do you mean?

I mean all these young actors and actresses are gorgeous. Whether you like the kind of movies they choose to act in… that’s a subjective choice. But we took these amazing women who are successful and extremely powerful. And there were a lot of designer gowns and designer saris, and they’re on the cover with the top make-up artists and photographers: Patrick Demarchelier shot our first cover. We’ve had Gisele on the cover wearing an Indian-style bikini done by Tarun Tahiliani and a Balmain jacket, and we’ve had Bollywood stars in Gucci dresses. So we’ve brought that Vogue element to Bollywood. And it has changed the way people now want to present themselves in public. Because the whole red carpet thing didn’t exist in India then, but it does now.

A version of this interview first appeared in Industrie magazine.

David Granger by Robert Caplin | Source: NY Times

How Esquire Survived Publishing’s Dark Days (NY Times)
“Amid the plague that hit the magazine industry back then, Esquire was worse off than most. Beaten up by a crop of lad magazines like Maxim, then hammered by the flight of advertisers and readers to the Web, Esquire suffered a 24.3 percent loss in advertising pages compared with 2008.”

Gilt Laid Off More Than 100 People (The Cut)
“A source tells us today that the company laid off more than a hundred people, and the canned employees might include John Auerbach, who headed the men’s division and spearheaded the launch of the full-price Park and Bond site, and Nate Richardson, who headed Gilt City.”

Fashion Silhouettes, Sharply Drawn (On the Runway)
“Last season, Rei Kawakubo used bridal lace in her men’s collection; this time, she went for old-time pink roses on gray suiting, sweet polka dots and boxy shorts or culottes with jackets that evoked the classic Chanel cardigan.”

Campaign trail (FT)
“February’s fashion magazines are out, complete with the newest spring/summer ad campaigns from the major luxury brand names. For many readers, such glossy bids for attention are as engaging as the articles and fashion shoots inside – which makes them irresistible opportunities for a brand.”

Lady Amanda Harlech: ‘I really like getting my hands dirty’ (Independent)
“Lady Amanda Harlech is the victim of many misconceptions. First and foremost is the fallacy that fashion really isn’t much work at all – something with which a hard-nosed professional working through nights to pull together not one but two major collections for a four-week catwalk circus can wholeheartedly disagree.”

L-R Mugler, Issey Miyake, 3.1 Phillip Lim Fall 2012 | Source: Style.com

Asian Designers Make an Impact in Paris (IHT)
“Asian designers, whether home based or in the fashion diaspora, are making an impact in the opening days of the Paris men’s 2012 season. Phillip Lim, the Cambodian-American designer based in New York, was smart to come to Paris to show a 3.1 Phillip Lim collection that was simple but laced with the conceptual.”

European Luxury-Goods Stocks May Benefit From Weaker Currencies (Bloomberg)
“Investors forecasting the euro and Swiss franc will weaken against the dollar may find comfort in shares of European luxury-goods companies. Financiere Richemont and LVMH are among stocks that would benefit disproportionately if the currencies fall further from year-ago levels.”

Crisis on the catwalk over Britain’s fashion brain drain (Independent)
“The British Fashion Council (BFC) yesterday announced the formation of a Fashion 2012 Menswear committee, designed to raise the profile of UK designers and increase sales.”

More Heads Roll at Ungaro (The Cut)
“After losing Giles Deacon in December and new CEO Jeffry Aronsson just last month, Emanuel Ungaro appears to be on one shaky last leg. WWD reports that the ailing French fashion house told retailers that they’re unable to deliver their spring-summer collection because of ‘internal reorganization.’”

Louis Vuitton’s Kim Jones: exclusive Q&A (Guardian)
“British menswear designer of the year Kim Jones presented his second collection for Louis Vuitton. He talks exclusively to the Guardian about his inspirations and moodboard.”

Antique Elevator | Source: elevatorpreservation.com

In our final post in a week of articles on e-commerce innovation, we are pleased to launch Elevator Pitch, a recurring feature on BoF that will showcase one exceptional fashion-technology start-up per month and provide valuable feedback from a panel of fashion, technology and investment experts, as well as the BoF community.

LONDON, United Kingdom – Ever since the early days of BoF, we have taken a keen interest in the exciting emerging activity at the intersection of fashion, technology and entrepreneurship. From the first article we published about Gilt Groupe back in November 2007, when the company had only 5 employees, to our four-part series on FashionStake, which last week announced its acquisition by Fab.com, to our early features on platforms like Pinterest and Tumblr, which have gone on to attract tremendous attention from the fashion community, BoF has a track record for being the first to spot and support the most innovative start-ups making a mark in the fashion space.

As we have examined over the last few days here on BoF, we are currently witnessing a veritable surge of innovation and venture capital interest in the fashion-technology space. Amongst e-commerce start-ups alone, we have seen the emergence of new business models like curation, subscription retail, social merchandising, mass customisation, retail gaming and collaborative consumption.

What business models will be next to emerge? Who will be the next Net-a-Porter, Gilt Groupe or Pinterest? If you have a promising business idea in the fashion-technology space or are already working on a start-up and looking to raise your profile or attract funding, we are putting out a call for your Elevator Pitch: concise pitches that you might give to a potential investor, partner or key hire if you bumped into them in an elevator.

For entrepreneurs wishing to participate, please respond to the questions below for the opportunity to have your pitch featured here on BoF and receive valuable feedback from a panel of fashion, technology and investment experts.

THE QUESTIONS (maximum 500 words):

1. What is your business idea and what problem is it solving?
2. What market does it address and how big is this market?
3. Who is your competition and how are you different/better?
4. What is the revenue model?
5. Who are the team that will make your idea a reality?
6. How much funding are you seeking and why?

HOW IT WORKS:

1. We are accepting Elevator Pitches by email only and review the first 500 words you submit. Please send your submissions to elevatorpitch@businessoffashion.com. We cannot respond to every email and will only contact those pitches selected to be published.

2. Each month, the selected Elevator Pitch will be presented to members of our Expert Panel, who will provide their feedback on the business idea and its potential.

3. We will publish one Elevator Pitch per month, along with feedback from our Expert Panel, and invite the BoF community to join the discussion.

THE EXPERT PANEL:

Sonali De Rycker, Partner, Accel Partners, London
Sonali has been active in the European venture business for 12 years focusing on investments in the consumer internet and digital media sectors. Sonali is responsible for investments in KupiVIP, Lyst, StylistPick, Spotify, and Top10.

Kirsten Green, Founder, Forerunner Ventures, New York
Kirsten has been in the investment business since 1996, investing in both public and private companies and building a focus on the consumer sector. Representative investments include: Birchbox, Bonobos, Chloe & Isabel, Cleanwell, Serena & Lily, Skullcandy, StyleOwner, Warby Parker.

Ben Lerer, Founder, Thrillist, New York
Ben Lerer is a Manager of Lerer Ventures and the Co-Founder and CEO of Thrillist.com, a leading men’s multi-platform lifestyle publication with over 3 million daily subscriptions in 19 localized markets in the U.S. and the U.K.

Rachel Shechtman, Founder, Cube Ventures, New York
Rachel has been a marketing and merchandising consultant since 2003 working with clients including Gilt Groupe, TOMS, and the CFDA; and advising others such as Birchbox and Quirky. Recently she launched a new retail venture in Manhattan called STORY.

Imran Amed, Founder and Editor, The Business of Fashion, London
Imran is a fashion business advisor, writer, and digital entrepreneur, and is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Business of Fashion.

Elevator Pitch is a recurring feature on BoF, co-curated and developed with Rachel Shechtman of Cube Ventures, that will showcase one exceptional fashion-technology start-up per month and provide valuable feedback from a panel of fashion, technology and investment experts, as well as the BoF community.