Idolising Fashion

London Fashion Week is over for another year, generating much journalistic fodder for readers across the publishing spectrum. There’s even been some hypothesising of a generational trend gap developing as suggested by Anna Wintour’s perceived snub of Alex Chung and Pixie Geldof. Whatever next…

In all though, one would think its business as usual in the fashion industry at the moment (albeit with suppressed sales), but having dug a little deeper there are a few stories surfacing around what’s been happening ‘off-catwalk’ that has made the most compelling reading. The irrepressible impresario Simon Fuller (the man behind American Idol) has been on a spending spree in the fashion world. First, buying into London’s Storm model agency, we’ve already seen the use of some of his charges, David Beckham, being used in ads, followed by an investment in a new type of fashion website.

Fuller has an ability to understand how consumer’s can become more involved in creating entertainment (as evidenced by American Idol) and then deliver this to a mass audience. Where most are struggling with increasing media fragmentation, Fuller is still riding high with ‘Idol’ pulling in consistently large audiences. There’s a great piece focusing on this in Vanity Fair this month.

Vanity Fair’s Conde Nast sister publication, Vogue, has always been the place to turn to should you need to become informed of new trends. It’s very much in the mode of ‘We (Vogue) are telling you (consumer) what’s coming up’. Vogue however, was born in an area where self-publishing was economically unviable for the many, whereas today there is a proliferation of self-publishing equivalents from those who work in the fashion industry. It looks like Fuller has deemed this part of the industry ripe for a shake up.

There’s accelerating instances of converging worlds of entertainment, fashion, brands and consumers too. Something Scott Donaton and Madison + Vine have been bleating on about for years….so what does this mean for fashion stalwart publications such as Vogue and retailer’s like ASOS with minimal fashion content? Are they under threat by new digital publications of very high quality content, consumer generated ideas and fashion commerce? And could be the impact of Fuller’s foray into fashion content and sales upon VF’s sister publication Vogue?

Let us know your thoughts, comments….

Jeremy Radcliffe, Head of Insights Planning