The Week in Review, May 21 - 25, 2012

Edward Enninful (The Creative Class)
“What we all aim for is to make it more approachable, but that doesn’t mean low end,” said Edward Enninful, who, as style and fashion director of W, is a critical part of the international A-team that’s been tasked with transforming the iconic Condé Nast magazine.”

Stylitics (Elevator Pitch)
“The fashion technology scene continues to explode, and one of the epicentres of activity is New York City. Following in the footsteps of Gilt Groupe, Moda Operandi and Warby Parker, Stylitics is a New York-based fashion technology start-up founded by Rohan Deuskar and Zach Davis.”

Are We Failing to Fulfill the Potential of Fashion Film? (Op-Ed)
“There are so many missed opportunities in the way fashion, as an industry, is currently approaching video content, from planning to production to distribution. Is it really a surprise that the results are often less than spectacular?”

What the Chinese Want (WSJ)
“The rise of microbloggers, the popularity of rock bands with names like Hutong Fist and Catcher in the Rye, and even the newfound popularity of Christmas all seem to point toward a growing Westernization… Consumers in China aren’t becoming ‘Western.’ They are increasingly modern and international, but they remain distinctly Chinese.”

Spain’s got talent (Telegraph)
“Stuart Vevers and Lisa Montague, the British duo who set Mulberry on the road to global superstardom, have taken their recipe to Loewe, the luxury heritage brand based in Madrid. Will it taste as sweet?”

The Future of Armani (WSJ Magazine)
“Few people in the fashion world are as entwined with their brands. In most companies, a creative director designs and an executive manages. Armani does both. Many important designers, including Karl Lagerfeld and Marc Jacobs, work under contract for brands that aren’t their own. Armani hasn’t designed for anyone else in more than 30 years.”

Prada to Add 260 Shops in 3 Years on Demand From BRICs (BusinessWeek)
“Prada, the Italian fashion company that owns the Miu Miu and Church’s brands, plans to add 260 stores in the next three years to tap demand in emerging markets including Brazil, China and Persian Gulf countries.”

Asos fashion retailer’s top managers reap £66m payout (Guardian)
“Seven top managers of online fashion retailer Asos are being handed £66m in shares after hitting all the targets in a three-year incentive plan. Chief executive and founder Nick Robertson is receiving almost 1.5m shares worth nearly £25m while his three fellow directors are sharing more than £35m, and a further £6m is being handed to three senior colleagues.”

Nordstrom Intensifies its Internet Presence (Forbes)
“Nordstrom management has committed to invest this year $140 million or about 30% of total capital expenditures for IT infrastructure this should give customers the same high quality of service on the Internet as they have in the store. Nordstrom added that today’s customer demands both speed and service.”

Q&A Andrew Rosen (Style.com)
“As the CEO of Theory and Helmut Lang and an investor in on-the-rise New York labels like Rag & Bone, Alice + Olivia, Gryphon, and now Proenza Schouler, Andrew Rosen occupies a unique and uniquely powerful perch in American fashion.”

i-N Conversation: Proenza Schouler (i-D)
“For autumn/winter 12 Jack and Lazaro reached out to Bhutan and Japan for inspiration but, as they reminded us, not without their secret ingredient, New York. Having already won four awards at the CFDA, the pair were recently and rightly nominated for the Womenswear Designer of the Year Award.”

Giorgio Armani | Source: Telegraph

The Future of Armani (WSJ Magazine)
“Few people in the fashion world are as entwined with their brands. In most companies, a creative director designs and an executive manages. Armani does both. Many important designers, including Karl Lagerfeld and Marc Jacobs, work under contract for brands that aren’t their own. Armani hasn’t designed for anyone else in more than 30 years.”

ASOS profit jumps on overseas growth (Reuters)
“British online fashion retailer ASOS met forecasts with a 43-percent rise in year profit as stellar growth overseas offset a weaker home market.”

Trying to Click Online (NY Times)
“As fashion companies explore new ways to engage consumers online, some designers are embracing experiments that might sound strange on paper but are having unexpected results.”

China’s Taobao Says High-End Online Sales Jump (Investors)
“China’s biggest e-commerce website, Taobao, is gaining ground selling to middle class buyers of luxury goods. China Daily Online cites Taobao saying it was getting 1.8 million visitors a day at the end of April at global.taobao.com, its luxury goods site. Global.taobao sells discounted luxury goods to Chinese consumers from around the world.”

The New Masters of Parsons (NY Times)
“Last week, those students were among the first to complete a new M.F.A. program in fashion design that has drawn enormous interest from the industry…who have traditionally viewed Parsons as the premier design school for fashion in the United States yet somehow inferior to its counterparts in Europe, especially Central Saint Martins in London.”

NEW YORK, United States — Each season, shortly after the four main fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris, marketers in our industry begin planning their print campaigns for the following season. It often takes us weeks, if not months, to assemble our creative teams and produce immaculately crafted shoots, followed by still more months to buy media placements in magazines and on outdoor billboards.

Meanwhile, for digital campaigns, it’s quite another story. Most brands piggyback their digital content creation on print shoots — when the photographer allows it — only to capture scrappy video clips, often nothing more than “behind-the-scenes” footage. Sometimes they use leftover dollars from budgets to quickly pull together a short film and launch it on their own website or Facebook page — often, all within the span of about a month. Indeed, there are so many missed opportunities in the way fashion, as an industry, is currently approaching video content, from planning to production to distribution. Is it really a surprise that the results are often less than spectacular?

As digital consumers watch video content at higher and higher rates, a study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) in the US found that 69 percent of marketers and 55 percent of agencies plan to increase their use of digital video advertising. And indeed, leaders in other industries have leveraged digital video campaigns to terrific effect, notably Procter & Gamble, Absolut and BMW.

Of course, fashion has produced a few winners as well: Steven Meisel’s Fall-Winter 2011 video for Lanvin launched a cultural meme, while Inez and Vinoodh’s latest film for Dior (above) earned over 4 million views in just two days. But for the most part, our industry has yet to take advantage of the full power of video. Budgets are misallocated. Content is poor. And distribution strategy is neglected. As a result, most fashion films fall flat. Just take a look at the YouTube channels of most top fashion brands. Most films do not even earn 10,000 views, let alone 100,000. The good news, however, is that the barriers to success are largely self-imposed and surmountable.

Lack of Distribution Strategy

A “build it and they will come” approach simply does not work. Online, people are busy socialising, being entertained, pinning or catching up on celebrity gossip and current events. They don’t stop to wonder what your brand is up to. To capture our audience, we have to go to them. But, for fashion companies, the standard approach to distribution tends to be: host the content on a brand website, post it to Facebook and tweet about it. Unless the brand in question has 12 million Facebook fans and 1 million Twitter followers, like Burberry, for example, this “distribution” only reaches a very small audience. (The average Facebook post is only seen by about 26 percent of the total fan base).

Brands should place their video content as carefully as they place their print campaigns. We need to distribute strategically, where our audience lives, works and plays online. Additionally, we need to publish video content to the right platforms. Posting a recipe on Tumblr, or a self-portrait on Pinterest, would be a faux pas that’s out of tune with the culture of those sites. Similarly, posting the same video across every social media platform is a mistake. Ideally, a brand should launch a fashion video with earned media to give the content credibility and later support the video with paid media to achieve maximum reach.

Uncompelling Content

Possibly the single most important point to consider when creating online film is: Why would anyone want to watch this? Before creating any piece of content, brands should understand their audience, psychographically rather than demographically, and why, where and how they are behaving online. Successful content will fit into these patterns.

It seems painfully obvious that content also needs to be good, but what constitutes good content can be highly subjective. To be sure, making good content is more art than science, but the most popular online videos do have some similarities, in that they often triggers core human emotions like humor, awe, sorrow or disgust. Remember, viewing online video is a voluntary experience and most videos are abandoned within the first 15 seconds. As an industry, we put aesthetics before storytelling. And while many of the fashion films being produced look good visually, the storytelling is often banal and dull.

Power Structures, Budgets and Politics

In fashion, the budgets allocated to print campaigns are sizable and the most sought-after still photographers (and their agents) wield quite a bit of power. Though they are not necessarily filmmakers and often don’t know how to tell a story through film, some photographers ban other imagemakers from their sets, claiming that the lighting, styling and other components of the shoot are part of the photographer’s “copyright” and cannot be replicated by others without consent. All too often they insist on shooting the video themselves, holding the camera, rather than working with seasoned directors of photography and technical camera operators.

Sometimes they simply assign this task to their assistants. On a recent video shoot, a renowned photographer, struggling to complete an eight shot count, turned over the responsibility of shooting moving image to his trusted first assistant. Armed with only a handheld Canon 5D, the assistant tried his best to capture footage over the shoulder of the photographer. But unfortunately, even with the best of intentions, the footage was shaky and the subject never made eye contact with the camera. Predictably, the resulting video was distant, unfocused and rambling.

What’s more, considerably higher day-rates for stills photographers provide little incentive for aspiring imagemakers to focus on digital video, where budgets are often only a fraction of their print equivalents. Indeed, until brands start incentivising partners to create digital content by paying them properly, it’s in everyone’s interest to simply continue with the status quo.

Paralyzed by ROI

Whereas print has vague accountability, many fashion brands hold digital marketing spend to a much higher standard and often obsess about tracking return on investment, though traditional online metrics like impressions and click-through rates are not necessarily the best way to measure the success of online video. As an industry, we need to better track engagement metrics — likes, comments, plays, shares — which can help brands to more accurately gauge the value of a piece of video content. But many brands also fall into the trap of allowing themselves to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data that digital measurement allows, rendering them confused and, ultimately, unable to act in the face of a growing opportunity.

The big picture is clear. In numbers recently released by comScore, internet users watched nearly 37 billion online videos in the month of April, in the US alone. What’s more, in the same time period, US internet users watched 9.5 billion video ads, a record-breaking statistic.

It’s high time for fashion brands to overcome the hurdles that have kept them back and seize the digital video opportunity with both hands.

Quynh Mai is the founder of Moving Image & Content, a digital marketing agency focused on fashion and beauty brands.

Backstage at Loewe Autumn:Winter 2012 | Soure Wonderland

Spain’s got talent (Telegraph)
“Stuart Vevers and Lisa Montague, the British duo who set Mulberry on the road to global superstardom, have taken their recipe to Loewe, the luxury heritage brand based in Madrid. Will it taste as sweet?”

Burberry to invest in new, bigger stores (Reuters)
“British luxury brand Burberry posted a 26 percent jump in profit as expected and said it would invest up to 200 million pounds ($316 million) in new outlets and expanding existing stores in London, Chicago and Hong Kong.”

Vuitton tops Hermes as world’s most valuable luxury brand (Bloomberg)
“Louis Vuitton, the French maker of laminated canvas handbags, was named the world’s most valuable luxury brand for a seventh consecutive year.”

As U.S. retailers retreat, a Japanese chain sees an opening (NY Times)
“Uniqlo, the Japanese basics brand, is starting aggressive growth plans at shopping malls that are expected to include 20 to 30 new stores a year over the next eight years.”

Prada reveal Roman Polanski film starring Helena Bonham Carter (Telegraph)
“After much teasing on the part of Prada HQ, the Italian label finally revealed a very special project at the Cannes Film Festival last night.”

Stylitics screenshot | Source: stylitics.com

It’s time for the third edition of Elevator Pitch, where one exceptional fashion-technology start-up pitches its business idea and receives valuable feedback from a panel of fashion, technology and investment experts, as well as the wider BoF community.

NEW YORK, United States — The fashion technology scene continues to explode, and one of the epicentres of activity is New York City. Following in the footsteps of Gilt Groupe, Moda Operandi and Warby Parker, Stylitics is a New York-based fashion technology start-up founded by Rohan Deuskar and Zach Davis which signed up more than 10,000 users in its private beta. Now Deuskar and Davis are looking raise their Series A round of funding.

What do you think of their business model?

THE PITCH

What is your business idea and what problem is it solving?
Stylitics is a behavioral data and analytics company that provides a live, interactive view into the full cycle of clothing choices by consumers. We’re like Nielsen for clothing, providing fashion brands and retailers with insights on the consumer actions that most impact their sales and marketing decisions on a daily basis, something that can be difficult for them with current data. As an SVP at Li & Fung shared, “Stylitics takes the consumer’s passion for fashion and translates that into real time data. It’s like having a real time focus group at your fingertips.”

We gather data and information through a compelling consumer platform, where consumers actively share and store clothing information, including what they are wearing and buying. Users receive benefits including rewards from brands, personalized style recommendations as well as smart, virtual wardrobe and outfit planner.

What market does it address and how big is this market?
There’s a global market for our data, though we are mostly focused on the U.S. for now. In the U.S. alone there are about 55,000 companies that have immediate applications for Stylitics insights. Companies in our pipeline include clothing brands and retailers, agencies looking for rich behavioural data, and media companies who want better audience analysis to drive ad sales. Of these, about 7,000 companies are a good match in terms of audience/customer base and budgets.

Who is your competition and how are you different/better?
The current analytics market for consumer fashion is heavily fragmented with no market leader. Competitors include: 1) market research players like NPD, who focus primarily on retail data, 2) fashion sites like Polyvore, Pose, and Snapette that are not designed from the ground up to be market research platforms, 3) fashion insights providers like WGSN who focus on qualitative trend forecasting, and 4) high-cost, one-off research performed in-house or by agencies. Our difference is that we were designed from the ground up as an analytics provider, both to clients and consumers. The data we provide is behavioural data (vs. just intent) on the consumer’s actual choices from purchase to outfits to occasion.

What is the revenue model?
We have a straightforward monthly subscription model, where clients have access to rich behaviour data on the top categories and segments that matter to them. We also do custom projects to support market entry, product launches, ad campaigns, and more. We also allow clients to selectively engage with Stylitics members for deeper insights. As our user base continues to grow and our platform gets more sophisticated, we will generate advertising and affiliate sales revenues through targeted recommendations and offers.

Who are the team that will make your idea a reality?
Our management team has award-winning expertise in relevant areas: consumer engagement, product development, game design, analytics, and B2B sales. Our CEO previously helped build a $15M/year interactive marketing business and designed the largest SMS adventure game in the U.S. for Disney. Our other co-founder has led many blue chip client accounts and has deep experience selling business services to agencies and media companies. Our product team consists of several talented developers and designers, and our advisors are analytics experts, fashion executives, professors, current and former CEOs of successful, publicly traded companies.

How much funding are you seeking and why?
We’re currently raising $1.8m to grow our technology and enhance our product. The majority of funds will go towards headcount. We have half of this round currently committed for.

THE PANEL

Ben Lerer, Founder, Thrillist and Partner, Lerer Ventures, New York
At scale, the real-time closet inventory information that you’re after is no doubt interesting, but I worry about the approach. With consumer-facing applications that are essentially being built for brands and agencies in mind first, the major concern is sustained utility and incentive at the user level. Without a critical mass of engaged users, this data set is useless, so the focus here must be on the consumer side and not the other way around. If the consumer piece is wildly successful, the valuable reports you reference will follow. Asking users to recreate their closet online and update with some frequency sounds like a big ask – out of the starting gate, how can we ensure that the user benefits will be extremely compelling and the product experience near frictionless?

Frederic Court, Partner, Advent Venture Partners, London
I like the business premise a lot. If you can create a marketplace for real-time actual opt-in data from an hyper-engaged panel sharing what they wear, how and when they combine items, that’s clearly valuable. I can see lots of ways to monetise, from selling market intelligence to brands to offering targeted promotions for merchants. I would love to see the metrics from the beta site panel. How many users? How engaged? How do you plan to grow the user base?

The big challenge I see is that the barrier to adoption is high. Why should I upload all my closet and manually enter my look of the day (I tried and found it quite time consuming)? For instance we previously backed a data business called Fizzback with the ambition to provide real time customer feedback to brands, using mobile phones. They succeeded thanks to a very low barrier to adoption, i.e. all that was required was to send feedback via a text message. How are you planning to address this challenge?

Also you refer to being an alternative to research but how can you ensure that you build a panel that represents the market as opposed to mainly super-fashion savvy early adopters? Maybe you could work directly with brands to encourage and reward customers to use your independent platform as a way to share this information across brands and accelerate your development.

Sonali de Rycker, Partner, Accel Partners, London
Stylitics is pursuing an interesting market; the consumption of fashion is moving online and is therefore trackable, and industry innovations – like fast fashion – are creating a need for real time customer feedback and analytics. That said, the space is becoming crowded and it is not clear from the pitch as to how Stylitics really differentiates itself from companies like Polyvore, which have attracted large consumer bases and mindshare. It seems like this business requires a certain critical mass to provide meaningful analytics. To strengthen the pitch, I would focus on the key differentiating features that the site will use to attract users – what is Stylitics going to do to get above the noise?

Rachel Shechtman, Founder, STORY, New York
I really like the idea…in theory. Data and analytics – bring it on! However, I do question the time intensive and potentially cumbersome process of uploading and cataloging your wardrobe. I understand your b2b market for data, but who is your consumer market – the guys and gals who will upload their closets? I may not be the market, but when I signed up it wasn’t clear what benefits I would get from this as a consumer; and when I see the feature “plan an outfit based on the weather,” why wouldn’t someone just look on their phone? Excited to see how you develop!

Imran Amed, Founder and Editor, The Business of Fashion, London
I’m a data junkie, so the idea of more data for fashion companies to make informed decisions is very appealing, especially in a sector where so many decisions are still made by gut feel alone. While intuition will always be an important part of the fashion game, having a data set as another input to consider is very exciting indeed. I also really like your on campus engagement initiatives, as I think they get to the very heart of the community that so many fashion brands are so eager to learn about, but are amongst the hardest to reach.

However, like the other panelists, my biggest concern is that users, who are now inundated with opportunities to join countless new websites and social communities every day, will balk at the idea of manually uploading every image in their closet. For those users who are the most obsessed with fashion (possibly a key target market for Stylitics) the barriers for adoption are even higher as these individuals are likely to have many more items of clothing than the average person. I encourage you to think carefully about how to streamline this sign up and uploading process.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Now, it’s your turn. What do you think about Stylitics and its potential? And what advice would you give its founders, Rohan Deuskar and Zach Davis? Let us know in the comments section, and join the conversation.

Send us your Elevator Pitch: 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, send us your Elevator Pitch. We are accepting Elevator Pitches on an on-going basis, by email only, and will review the first 500 words you submit. For detailed instructions on how to submit your pitch, click here.

Elevator Pitch is a recurring feature on BoF, co-curated and developed with Rachel Shechtman.

Hermès tells a playful tale of leather (IHT)
“Every invention by Hermès, the French leather goods company, seems to have a story attached. There is the legendary ‘Birkin’ bag, created after the actress and singer Jane Birkin dropped her belongings in a mess on a plane from Paris to London in 1983.”

Gucci-crazy Chinese fuel rents in H.K. (Business Week)
“Russell Street in the Causeway Bay district trails only New York’s Fifth Avenue in terms of average retail rents, fueled by mainland Chinese shoppers seeking tax-free Gucci handbags and Rolex watches.”

Tweens on the runway (Slate)
“In recent years, the debate over underage fashion models has reached a fever pitch. Ondria Hardin starred in a sultry Prada ad at 13. An Australian modeling agency recently announced that it wanted 13-year-olds because 16-year-olds were ‘too old.’”

An intellectual fashion | Olivier Theyskens (AnOther)
“From the very beginning, Olivier Theyskens has been acknowledged as one of the most idiosyncratic voices of contemporary fashion design. Since 2011, his career has taken a new direction, as he now serves as creative director for the American brand Theyskens’ Theory and adapts his vision to the stream of contemporary life.”

Edward Enninful | Photo: Kevin Trageser for BoF

NEW YORK, United States — “What we all aim for is to make it more approachable, but that doesn’t mean low end,” said Edward Enninful, who, as style and fashion director of W, is a critical part of the international A-team that’s been tasked with transforming the iconic Condé Nast magazine, which has seen the top tier of its masthead completely turn over in a series of shakeups since Stefano Tonchi’s appointment as editor-in-chief in early 2010.

Since joining W last April, 40 year-old Enninful, whose team now includes Marie-Amélie Sauvé and Giovanna Battaglia, has moved the magazine’s fashion editorial towards greater and more direct emphasis on the woman. “Sometimes in the past, you didn’t see the woman. You’ll see a cloud, you’ll see a forest and you have to find a woman that’s in there,” explained Enninful. “But the woman is first for us. No matter what the context of the photography is, the woman has to be very present.”

A spellbinding Kate Moss cover story for magazine’s March issue, styled by Enninful and shot by Steven Klein, marked something of a turning point for W, which, after a reboot that has not always been smooth, now appears to be hitting its stride.

Kate Moss on March 2012 cover of W | Source: W Magazine

On the landmark story, which has been described by industry insiders as “pure Edward,” Enninful said: “I saw a picture a couple of months ago of a rosy cheeked girl with a very round face looking really angelic, like she was going to Sunday school. I fleshed out the character and you end up with a picture of Kate Moss wearing a mantilla on the cover of W.”

“Before anything starts, I need to know whom the character is,” said Enninful of his creative process. “Who is this woman? What are her dreams? What are her aspirations?” he continued. “The second step for me is the location. Where does she live? What world does she inhabit? Then once that’s fleshed out, I go to the photography. How do you shoot her? What angle?”

The story of Enninful’s start in fashion is the stuff of industry legend. Born in Ghana, he moved to the Ladbroke Grove area of London with his parents and six siblings while still very young and, at the age of 16, was spotted on the tube by stylist Simon Foxton, who asked him to model for Arena and i-D magazines. It was a pivotal moment that Enninful describes as his “baptism into fashion.”

“Back then, the majority of modelling was just free editorial and then you do tons of music videos,” recalled Enninful, who modelled and danced in TV music programmes like “Solid Soul,” Britain’s version of “Soul Train.” But Enninful knew early on that he wanted to be a stylist. “When I was modelling, I would bring my own clothes to the set,” he recounted. “I was into clothes. I was making clothes with my mom, who was a seamstress when I was growing up.”

Within weeks of first meeting Foxton, Enninful was shooting with the photographer Nick Knight, who soon introduced him to Terry Jones, founder of the influential youth culture magazine i-D. “I assisted the fashion director at that time, Beth Summers, and when I was 18, Beth decided to move on and I was made the fashion director. That’s how I started,” said Enninful.  It made him the youngest ever fashion director at an international magazine.

“It was about fashion and music going hand in hand,” said Enninful, a self-described club kid, of the late 80s and early 90s scene in London. And it was through nightlife that he built lasting relationships with some of the biggest names in fashion, including David Sims, Pat McGrath, Craig McDean, Mario Sorrenti, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell. “We went to rock and roll clubs, we went to soul clubs, it didn’t matter, and it was one big melting pot,” recalled Enninful. “We all came from the same place. We all had a sort of punk rock aesthetic.”

At i-D, Enninful produced a body of groundbreaking work — often inspired by nightlife and the streets, and featuring finds from Portobello, Camden and Kensington markets — that captured the intoxicating energy of London fashion at the time. “You always wanted to be the most original. If you had a leather jacket, you would customise it with safety pins or paint,” recalled Enninful. “It was great time for creative freedom.”

But Enninful’s most impactful piece of work may well have been his collaboration with Franca Sozzani and Steven Meisel on Vogue Italia’s historic July 2008 ‘All Black’ issue, which featured only black models, including Naomi Campbell, Jourdan Dunn and Alek Wek, and became the top selling issue in the publication’s history.

Vogue Italia Black Issue | Source: WSJ

“I was happy about the black issue,” said Enninful who is still one of a handful of people of African origin to hold a prominent position in the fashion industry. “But I’d be even happier when it’s just the norm and not necessarily always a special issue; when every time you open a magazine, you see a black model, a white model and a Chinese model.”

Over the years, Enninful — who eventually became a contributing fashion editor at American Vogue in 2006 — has seen his job evolve significantly. “We went from styling little fashion shows for friends, little free editorials, to helping direct designer collections and shape advertising.” Indeed, alongside his editorial work, Enninful has created campaigns for blue-chip brands including Versace, Dolce & Gabbana and Calvin Klein. “When you work with a brand, you’ve got to remember that it’s not about you,” he said. “It’s about working within the constraints of a company to bring the best out of the company.”

For Enninful, the rise of digital media has also been a driver of change. “I don’t know if it’s actually changing my way of working,” said Enninful. “A good stylist can work in any medium whether its still photography or moving image. But it adds another facet to the whole job of styling. The times have changed so much and still images can’t just sell on their own anymore,” he added. “I think for every shoot we do, we have to think about how it moves,” he added. “That’s with us now and its going to be like that for a long time.”

“Blogs have had a huge impact on stylists too,” said Enninful. “Sometimes how a stylist looks can be as important as the work she produces,” he added, referring to the growing importance of street style blogs. But while many fashion bloggers curate the world around them as they experience it, “stylists’ roles extend beyond the minute,” he continued. “We have to look a season ahead, two seasons ahead… it’s basically like fortune telling.”

But Enninful is by no means immune to the past. “Last March, when Kate [Moss] and I did the cover for W, we were reminiscing about the old days and how far we’ve come. And how far fashion has come.”

The Creative Class explores the personal and professional stories of leading creatives from across the fashion industry. More stories on Kate Lanphear, Peter Marino, Inez & Vinoodh and others are available here.

Robert Cordero is a contributing editor at The Business of Fashion. Photography by Kevin Trageser.

Prada Menswear Spring/Summer 2010 | Source: Twenty2

What the Chinese Want (WSJ)
“The rise of microbloggers, the popularity of rock bands with names like Hutong Fist and Catcher in the Rye, and even the newfound popularity of Christmas all seem to point toward a growing Westernization… Consumers in China aren’t becoming ‘Western.’ They are increasingly modern and international, but they remain distinctly Chinese.”

LVMH looks to burnish Vuitton mystique and buoy sales (Reuters)
“French luxury giant LVMH is struggling to retain its image as exclusive and high-end creators of $10,000 alligator handbags and goat-lined fur coats, while opening enough stores and reaching enough customers to keep profits high.”

Dr. Martens awaits private equity tie-up (Independent)
“Private equity firms have put their best foot forward and submitted first-round bids of up to £120m for Dr Martens, the British footwear brand made famous by skinheads but now favoured by a trendier crowd.”

Sartorialist Founder Scott Schuman Airs Grievances in GQ (WWD)
“Good old print magazines keep getting the shaft these days. Even in their own pages. ‘It shocks me when young kids still say, ‘I want to do a magazine,’ Scott Schuman said, in the June issue of GQ.”

Fashion Talks: Steven Alan (WWD)
“Stores are very capital-intensive, so for us it’s a slow process, but I’m thinking about Boston, Georgetown, Chicago, Seattle. We’re really a neighborhood store, like on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn — I can’t imagine us ever being on Fifth Avenue or 57th Street. It’s really fun to shape the store to the community.”

The Week in Review, 14-19 May 2012

Is Fashion Ready for a New Aesthetic? (Intelligence)
“Over the past year, a loose group of creatives in London’s East End have given birth to a counter-narrative to the growing tide of heritage and nostalgia, examining the reality of our increasingly artificial and technology-mediated world head-on.”

Commerce That’s Curated Just for You (Fashion 2.0)
“Ambitious start-ups are aiming to offer consumers more sophisticated personalised product selections and styling advice by building expert curation into their online business models.”

Inez and Vinoodh (The Creative Class)
“Working as a team, Lamsweerde and her husband, Vinoodh Matadin, have forged a unique personal and creative union which has given rise to a remarkable body of work.”

Edeline Lee (The Spotlight)
“Seeing the designer in her element, there is no mistaking that Edeline Lee is woman who wears many hats. For the designer, entrepreneur and mother, the reality of a multitasking lifestyle is central to her work.”

Richemont Full-Year Profit Beats Estimates on Asian Sales (Bloomberg)
“Richemont, the second-biggest luxury goods company, reported full-year profit that beat analysts’ estimates as sales were boosted by buoyant demand for high-end goods in the Asia-Pacific region. Net income climbed 43 percent to 1.54 billion euros ($1.96 billion) in the 12 months through March 31, the Geneva-based company said today in a statement.”

Rebranding Africa (IHT)
“Africa is in the news — but not just for the sad and familiar reasons of conflict and suffering. The continent is entering the fashion arena, with the quality of its handwork, artistic creativity and its potential for economic growth bringing Africa literally in vogue.”

J. C. Penney Posts Big Loss as 3 Retailers Gain (NY Times)
“While retailers including Home Depot, Saks Fifth Avenue and TJX Companies reported solid profits on Tuesday, J. C. Penney, in the midst of an ambitious turnaround plan, posted a big loss and said its quarterly sales had dropped 20 percent.”