Creative Recreation Barneys exclusive, spring 09

LOS ANGELES, United States — When the cast of Saturday Night Live flies you across the country to have you design a pair of shoes, you must be doing something right. The specially designed shoes were featured in the finale of the legendary American sketch comedy show’s 34th season.

The Creative Recreation story began in 2005 when Robert Nand and Richard Cofinco set up Creative Recreation in a small office in Orange County, California, benefiting from their shared experience as shoe designers at Vans. Their aim was to go beyond the traditional separation of men’s athletic and dress shoes to focus on the intersection of the two, thereby creating a brand new market segment which has subsequently been targeted by high-end fashion brands including Lanvin, Jil Sander and Pierre Hardy.

Nand and Cofinco developed a series of four standard shoe silhouettes which serve as canvases that can be embraced by distinctive colour palettes and carefully selected materials ranging from leathers, suedes and artificial snakeskins. Over the years, they have developed 23 different shoe patterns, releasing about 200 different styles per season in limited runs, offering something more like a collector’s piece than a mass-consumed athletic shoe. Indeed, many fans of the brand, including young creatives and hip hop stars alike, collect the shoes religiously.

Fans of Creative Recreation also love the aesthetic versatility of the stylish sneakers. A pair of high-top Di Cocco’s in black patent leather can be worn with a tailored suit or with a pair of shorts and a tshirt, with equal panache. And, the shoes are instantly identifiable—not because of an obvious logo—but because their standout design aesthetic is a signature in and of itself.

The market has responded with enthusiasm. In a time when designers are having to compromise and brand’s sales are shrinking, the team at Creative Recreation is doing quite the opposite. in 2006, Barneys New York approached the brand to do a limited release shoe to be sold exclusively at their New York stores, becoming a highly coveted release for Creative Recreation aficionados, season after season.

Kenan Thompson and Andy Samberg

So how did they do it all? The company has grown from a team of about five to 60 in the last three years, in large part due to a formula that can be described as organic and opportunistic. Since the very beginning, the company has attracted a team of dedicated and talented individuals who live, breathe and promote the brand. One such person is Jai Beck, who joined Creative Recreation in 2006 as an active investor, taking on the role of Head of Production. Thus, Creative Recreation inadvertently solved their largest challenge: by joining forces with Beck, whose expertise is in overseas production, they have managed to maintain healthy margins while doing only small runs.

Looking forward to Spring 2010, Creative Recreation is plotting a global product launch for its new Select line, targeting a more mature and loyal clientele who aren’t quite ready to give up the comforts of a high-top sneaker, but are no longer drawn to flashy pink patents or evocative leopard prints.

Perhaps the most interesting lesson that can be learned from the brand is the idea of affordable exclusivity. By keeping both their prices and production runs low, Creative Recreation’s consumers can continue to buy exclusive shoes at a price that won’t break the bank. This means, that die hard fans can rock their favourite sneakers with the confidence that no one will be cramping their style.

Khaleed Juma is the Managing Editor of The Business of Fashion.

Private Sale

Designer Bargains, for the Invited (WSJ)
“Online retail startups that specialize in “private sales” of discount designer apparel are gaining traction in the U.S. and, armed with fresh venture capital, plan to branch into new businesses.”

Couture houses refuse to tumble (Toronto Star)
“You can never be too rich, too thin or own too many couture items. High-end buyers continue to pop in to Paris for the shows.”

Neiman Marcus, Inc. Reports June Revenues (WSJ)
“In the five-week June period, comparable revenues in the Specialty Retail Stores segment, which includes Neiman Marcus Stores and Bergdorf Goodman, decreased 23.0 percent. The Company experienced weakness across all geographies and merchandise categories in the Specialty Retail Stores segment.”

Gap, Abercrombie June Sales Trail Analysts’ Estimates (Bloomberg)
“Gap Inc. and Abercrombie & Fitch Co. reported June sales declines that were steeper than analysts estimated as a rise in U.S. unemployment and a drop in consumer confidence kept shoppers away from the malls.”

American Apparel June same-store sales drop 13 pct (MSN Money)
“Many merchants in June struggled to drum up sales amid continuing worries about the overall economy and jobs, but clothing retailers have been particularly hard hit as consumers cut back on discretionary spending.”

Prada store on Rodeo Drive, Los Angeles

Luxe Redux (Reuters)
“Lavish. Silent. Undisturbed. Visiting luxury boutiques these days can seem like stepping into a time capsule, and in a sense, you are, as retail and marketing plans and products conceived during the bully days of early 2008 are still on display and feel, in this post-luxury age, as anachronistic and appealing as Zeppelin travel after the Hindenburg disaster.”

Let crisis inspire haute couture, says Gaultier (Reuters)
“Fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier said on Wednesday tough times were triggers to think out of the box and that way haute couture will weather the world financial crisis.”

Uniqlo reveals details of Jil Sander sub-brand (Drapers)
“Jil Sander’s debut collection for Uniqlo this autumn will be called +J. The collection will feature around 40 pieces for men and 100 pieces for women. Price information and an actual launch date have not yet been released.”

Retailers focus on standout items to spur spending (AP)
“At luxury merchant Neiman Marcus, employees are explicitly asking shoppers about what their wardrobes already include, instead of just helping them stuff their closets with new things. But persuading financially squeezed shoppers to open their wallets without dangling fat discounts continues to be challenging.”

In the third and final installment of our in-depth feature on the future of fashion magazines, we address the biggest online trend of all — the fashion film.

LONDON, United Kingdom — Pioneered by SHOWstudio and powered by the spread of broadband internet and the popularity of video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo, fashion film has emerged as the most influential new format for fashion editorial online. Shorts like “Black and White,” captured on set by Nick Knight and former assistant Ruth Hogben during Mr Knight’s shoots for British Vogue, use music and movement to communicate the power and poetry of fashion in a way that static editorial simply can’t.

Fashion film has taken off at Dazed Digital also. “We have been experimenting with some of these directors to shoot fashion videos direct to the web and the results are cost effective and really impressive,” said Jefferson Hack. For a recent editorial previewing the Autumn/Winter 2009 menswear collections, Dazed Digital published an online fashion film, shot by Matt Irwin and styled by Robbie Spencer, to accompany the still images.

But what’s resonating with readers? The beauty of digital is that publishers can monitor success and failure in realtime. “We’re able to pin-point with incredible accuracy, article by article and shoot by shoot, what people are really looking at,” said Jefferson Hack. “The blogging and re-tweeting of content also shows what’s really capturing people’s imaginations. It’s a tremendously useful feedback loop for the editors.”

Indeed, the ability to capture and quantify realtime feedback from readers themselves has helped build a stronger business case for lots of digital experiments and encouraged others in fashion media to follow suit.

Faced with the new digital reality, more and more fashion magazines are launching interactive experiments of their own. POP plans to redevelop thepop.com to coincide with its re-launched next season under new editorial direction, while i-D has promised that its “restructuring” will come with a renewed focus on the web. According to Matthew Hawker, Production Director at the magazine and the person charged with relaunching i-Dmagazine.com, the revamped web experience will include “a sophisticated content management system that will allow the world’s best photographers, stylists, DJs, filmmakers and designers to create their own environments within the editorial control of Terry Jones and the i-D team.”

So what will fashion magazines look like in a few years’ time? While websites like Dazed Digital and SHOWstudio point the way forward, offering readers greater immediacy and access, new opportunities for participation, and more multi-sensory content than ever before, nobody really knows the answer to that question. That’s because unlike print, digital is a medium that’s always evolving.

“We are now entering the restless world of interactive, self-created, digital-imaging: accessible, downloadable and constantly changing,” said Nick Knight. Indeed, unlike traditional photography that “ends” when the image is developed and printed, digital imagery on the internet has no fixed ending. It can be changed constantly by its creator or programmed to evolve based on inputs as varied as user interaction or time of day.

What Mr. Knight observes about digital imagery is true of digital media at large. Unlike print, the internet is not a stable medium with fixed properties. Quite the contrary. The web is an ever-changing universe in which new media forms like Twitter and Tumblr are literally being born every day. In this ecosystem of constant change, fashion magazines must accept revolution without end and learn to embrace constant experimentation, constant innovation and the constant birth and death of new editorial formats.

Read Part One - A Changing Landscape here and Part Two - Lots of Little Experiments here.

Vikram Alexei Kansara is a digital strategist and writer based in New York.

Chanel Haute Couture show, courtesy of The New York Times

Chanel, Now and Then (New York Times)
Cathy Horyn discusses the future of Chanel with Karl Lagerfeld.

Louis Vuitton, Cartier Are Preferred by Chinese, Survey Shows (Bloomberg)
“Louis Vuitton and Cartier are the top choices of Chinese consumers for purchases as their thirst for luxury goods remains unabated in the global economic crisis, a survey commissioned by Ruder Finn Asia showed.”

Sir Philip Green cautious on autumn trading (Drapers)
“Arcadia owner Sir Philip Green is cautious about trading in the final quarter of 2009 and is concerned about how shoppers will react to price increases this autumn.”

Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci a/w 09/10 collection (Telegraph)
“A light breeze whipped away the billowing black and white chiffon robes and Arabic headgear, revealing gilded, jewelled armour and crowns, at the Givenchy haute couture collection for autumn/winter 2009/10 in Paris this afternoon.”

E-retailers find big brands hard to touch (FT)
“Anyone with a computer and something to sell, they said, had a good shot at taking market share away from the big brands. But progress has been slow and the reality is proving a little different.”

Images from SHOWstudio's "Dress Me Up, Dress Me Down"

Last time we surveyed the rapidly changing landscape of digital fashion media. Today, in the second part of our series on the future of fashion magazines, we explore the experimental approach that online pioneers like Jefferson Hack and Nick Knight are using to create unique content and experiences that truly bring fashion magazines into the digital age.

LONDON, United Kingdom — The internet’s ability to transmit information immediately, impossible in print and too expensive on television, has changed the way in which we create and consume content perhaps more than anything else. “Print magazines will never be the first to break any news,” said fashion blogger Diane Pernet, whose influential website, A Shaded View on Fashion, has been reporting live from fashion weeks, showrooms and studios around the world, capturing and transmitting the moment almost instantaneously with inexpensive camera phones and laptops.

In response, forward thinking magazines have done two things. Web pioneers like Dazed Digital, a fashion and culture platform launched in November 2006 by the publishers of Dazed & Confused magazine, have begun “live blogging” themselves, posting realtime reports from fashion shows in Paris, London, New York and Milan. But they’ve also learned to focus less on what’s new, a commodity that’s instantly available everywhere, and more on a unique point of view and reader experience that aren’t easily replicated. “It’s got to be more about experiencing the fashion; a stylistic point of view. It’s less and less about information,” said Jefferson Hack, founder and co-publisher at Dazed Group.

Indeed, the success of physical magazines like Purple Fashion and Katie Grand’s new venture Love, which sold-out on newsstands within days of its release, proves that an original point of view and well-crafted reader experience are important, no matter what the medium. But online, where information is easily and instantly exchanged, originality and experience are even more essential in attracting and keeping readers. “Where so many sites are aggregating content or acting as filters, it’s important that all the content on Dazed Digital is originated by us,” underscored Mr. Hack.

The immediacy of the internet has also given readers unprecedented access to the behind the scenes of the fashion industry. “Before, fashion shows were a closed affair for only a handful of professionals around the world. Now the news is dispersed instantly. Fashion is no longer the domain of a very few,” said blogger Diane Pernet. Indeed, amplified by the fashion world’s enthusiastic adoption of Twitter last season, consumer interest in the people and process behind the scenes of fashion is exploding and expectations are rising for fashion media to deliver.

Magazines have responded in some interesting ways. Olivier Zahm of Purple has launched a website called Purple Diary. Using the “micro-blogging” platform Tumblr, the site lets Mr. Zahm and his contributors chronicle their lives in realtime and post instant, and often intimate, updates directly to readers from fashion parties, runway shows, art happenings and photo shoots around the world.

Photographer Nick Knight’s SHOWstudio, which calls itself a “fashion website” rather than a magazine, has gone one step further, allowing its audience immediate and unparalleled access to the entire creative process of making fashion editorials for magazines like V and British Vogue. “The philosophy of the site is based on Nick’s belief that showing the entire creative process - from conception to completion - is beneficial for the artist, the audience and the art itself,” said Alex Fury, fashion director of SHOWstudio.

What’s more, on SHOWstudio the audience is encouraged to respond and contribute to projects that feature some of the most influential names in fashion like Alexander McQueen, Gareth Pugh and Kate Moss. For example, a project called “24 HRS” let viewers influence the narrative of a short film for the launch of Stefano Pilati’s “Edition 24″ collection for Yves Saint Laurent. Directed by Nick Knight, the entire shoot was broadcast live online, while model Jessica Miller acted out treatments submitted by SHOWstudio viewers. Another project, “Dress Me Up, Dress Me Down,” let viewers style model Liberty Ross for a photo shoot. “In a virtual chatroom, viewers posted their ideas for styling outfits for Liberty and forty ‘Stylists’ were chosen from the chatroom to style Liberty in their looks, live, via chatroom instructions,” said Alex Fury.

“Digital is breaking down the boundaries between artist, curator and consumer,” observed Ken Miller, a freelance editor and contributor to V, V Man and Interview magazines. “It’s become much more about the creative experience for all of the participants.”

Dazed Digital has also been experimenting with new ways to let readers participate in the creation of content. In April, Dazed became the first fashion magazine to stage a “twinterview,” giving readers the chance to interview Nathan Howdeshell and Hannah Blilie from The Gossip (Beth Ditto also joined at the last minute) live via Twitter. Dazed has also been using photo sharing site Flickr to source new talent, showcasing young photographers from their Flickr group on Dazed Digital and sometimes commissioning them to shoot for the print edition. “Social networking sites have played a big role in allowing users to participate in the magazine’s development,” said Jefferson Hack.

But perhaps more than anything else, fashion magazines are about fresh and provocative imagery. For decades, that largely meant still photography. But in recent seasons, that’s begun to change. “We are in the midst of a revolution in fashion imagery, moving away from illustration and stills photography,” said Nick Knight, director of SHOWstudio.

Read Part One - A Changing Landscape here.

Next time, in our third and final installment, we explore the biggest online fashion force of all — the growing dominance of the online fashion film.

Vikram Alexei Kansara is a digital strategist and writer based in New York.

Giambattista Valli A/W 09, courtesy of coutorture

Burani to License Giambattista Valli Fashions (WSJ)
“Italy’s Mariella Burani Fashion Group said it has signed a five-year contract to make and distribute the ready-to-wear collection of Italian fashion designer Giambattista Valli, a deal aimed at growing both companies as the luxury goods industry suffers through the economic crisis.”

Haute Couture Faces Uncertain Times (IHT)
“In the closeted world of satin and sequins that is Parisian haute couture, there is uncertainty about the future.”

Berlin Fashion Week Shows a Raw Energy (New York Times)
“From the discomforting sight of homeless people from public shelters as models at Patrick Mohr’s show, to the gritty glamour of the Boss Orange line strutted through a former electricity plant on the city’s outer fringes, Berlin Fashion Week, which closed last weekend, had a distinctive raw energy.”

Too Precious for a Recession (New York Times)
“In a different economy, Billy Mitchell and Nicole Drucker of San Francisco might have splurged on a $10,000 engagement ring. But Ms. Drucker is out of work and they need to save for a house. So in April, Mr. Mitchell got down on one knee on the Golden Gate Bridge and proposed with a $4,000 diamond ring he had bought on the Internet.”

Christian Lacroix: hanging on by a thread (AFP)
“Designer Christian Lacroix has had his back against the wall since the fashion house which bears his name went into administration early last month. If no saviour turns up, the house will close its doors at the end of July and 112 of its current 124 employees will lose their jobs.”

Screen shot of DazedDigital.com

Fashion media has long been a BoF obsession. This week, we bring you an in-depth, three part series revealing the strategies, plans and expertise of some of the most innovative and respected players in the online fashion scene. Today, we start with an overview of the rapidly-evolving fashion media landscape.

NEW YORK, United States—A few weeks ago, independent fashion magazine i-D, founded in 1980 by art director Terry Jones, announced it was cutting back its print run to 6 issues per year, while major commercial titles like American Vogue have been forced to slash payroll and scale back on expenses.

Across the spectrum, times are tough for fashion magazines. With ad sales dramatically down, their main source of revenue is evaporating. And while online readership is growing, the “culture of free” that dominates the web means magazines earn nothing from internet subscriptions, while the sale of online ad space simply doesn’t generate enough income to cover cost. It’s a crisis I first examined a few months ago, amidst dark headlines about powerhouse publishers like Condé Nast.

As marketers continue to slash advertising budgets, there’s no doubt the current economic crisis is contributing to the problem. But it’s not the underlying issue. Even if demand for print advertising rebounds when this recession ends, things will never be as they once were. The fact is, we are in the midst of a digital revolution as powerful as Gutenberg that’s causing sustained, seismic upheaval across the publishing industry.

Readers are migrating online, where information is abundantly available and freely shareable. But that doesn’t mean content can’t be monetized. The demand is there. Indeed, people are consuming more content than ever. And there’s no shortage of people who want to supply it. The problem is, the internet is destroying the business structures of the past faster than the structures of the future are being created.

So what’s a magazine to do?

So far, nobody has cracked the code. But what’s increasingly clear is that there’s no single code to crack. As Clay Shirky, internet writer and professor at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program puts it, “there was one single business model in a world where media was scarce, but there needs to be many when media is abundant.”

In other words, there is no generalized answer to the problems facing publishing. “We are not moving from a world of Business Model A to a world of Business Model B. We are going from Business Model A to Business Models A to Z,” says Mr. Shirky. That means each publication will have to find a model (or models) that suits its particular content, readership and market position.

Although many new business models have been proposed, from “free” content that’s bundled with internet access to micropayments for individual articles, it’s extraordinarily difficult to predict which solutions will work. As with political revolutions, nobody really knows exactly what’s on the other side of this digital upheaval.

What’s more clear is that success is likely to come from lots of little experiments whose importance will be revealed only in retrospect. “Now is the time for experiments, lots and lots of experiments, each of which will seem as minor at launch as Craigslist did, as Wikipedia did,” says Mr. Shirky.

What’s also clear is that the challenge posed by the internet impacts more than business models alone. It’s not just how publishers package and deliver content that’s in play. It’s the content itself.

The internet is transforming the way in which content is both created and consumed, challenging the current emphasis on static words and pictures pasted on a page. Nobody really knows which new formats for telling stories will capture the collective imagination of editors and readers. Again, success is likely to come from lots of little experiments.

But admidst all the uncertainty that revolutions like this create, it’s important to remember writer and futurist William Gibson, who observed: “The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” Indeed, amongst the fashion media, a handful of online pioneers have been conducting lots of little experiments in digital content that help point the way forward for their more mainstream counterparts who are just beginning to understand the impact of the internet.

Tomorrow, in part two, we investigate how little online experiments enable trailblazers like Jefferson Hack of Dazed Digital and Nick Knight of SHOWstudio to see into the future of fashion media.

Vikram Alexei Kansara is a digital strategist and writer based in New York.

designerclothing.com

Indies click onto online portal to boost sales (Drapers)
“An increasing number of independent retailers are planning to plug into online portals to help raise their profile and drive online sales.”

Wealthy look for value as downturn bites (The National)
“Luxury retailers in the UAE are stocking more lower-priced items and classic pieces to cater to a new customer mentality after the economic downturn.”

Lunch with the FT: Manolo Blahnik (Financial Times)
Vanessa Friedman interviews Manolo Blahnik.

Sourcing at risk in Bangladesh (Drapers)
“Ongoing protests by clothing factory workers in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka are likely to become a long-term threat to retailers who source from the country, according to leading industry experts.”

Tight Squeeze: Making Room For a New Men’s Fashion (WSJ)
“Skinny jeans, with tapered legs and narrow-peg ankles, seemed like a flash in the pan when they appeared in stores a few years ago. They seemed more suited to women. Today, though, sales of men’s skinny jeans are going strong, and mass brands Gap and Levi’s are getting in on the action.”

Poppy line for Coach, Courtesy of Coach

Coach Is Now Traveling Coach (Reuters)
“With this month’s release of the budget-conscious Poppy line, Coach, a luxury-retail marvel once ridiculed for being stodgy, is increasingly associated with an entirely different-and notoriously fickle-population: teens, coeds, and grads.”

Escada Optimistic of Rescue as Katie Holmes Dressmaker Suffers (Bloomberg)
“Escada AG Chief Executive Officer Bruno Saelzer said he’s optimistic investors will back a refinancing plan and avert insolvency at the German dressmaker whose celebrity clients include actress Katie Holmes.”

Fashion sales down 1.1% in June (Drapers)
“Like-for-like fashion sales in June were down 1.1%, a little more than the average retail drop across all retail sectors of 0.9%.”

Aquascutum pulls out of London Fashion Week (Marie Claire)
“Amongst all the hullaballoo surrounding September’s London Fashion Week - billed as one of the most fabulous ever due to a new location at Somerset House and the return to the capital of blockbuster brands Burberry and Matthew Williamson - one brand, Aquascutum, will no longer be on the glittering schedule.”

From Europe | Designers’ Day at the Museum (The Moment)
European museums remind us, “that a fashion exhibition can also be thoughtful and original, with a purpose beyond just that of a brand extension for publications or an advertising campaign for fashion products sold in nearby boutiques.”