Luxury brands are an everlasting presence in the fashion community. Without surprise, of course – most of the big, luxury fashion houses have existed for way longer than any of the oldest people you’ve met have lived, and most of them achieved sway and recognition during the times when the Internet was not a thing at all.
These days however, while all the same brands are, undoubtedly, still influential and important, they no longer are the It – the voice of authority to dictate to all smaller brands and all consumers what to do, how to wear clothes and how much money to spend.
But why did that happen? Here are some of the reasons/causes.
A lot of the newer brands – all at varying price points, anywhere from mid-range and up – are very strong and stylish contenders, that dare to do things that a lot of the old, luxury brands would never.
As an easy comparison, we can take Vetements – still pretty expensive, while completely experimental, and Chanel – very expensive, very high-end, very traditionalist.
While the former keeps consistently delivering very varying designs, all connected exclusively by minimalistic colour choices and printed slogans, the latter kept sticking to the ancient Chanel formula of rectangular simple bags and the iconic two-piece suits.
Even the iconic things get boring.
Not only do fast fashion brands like Zara release new collections every couple of weeks, these collections make trends move on faster, and allow trends to be ripped off faster as well.
That, in turn, means that the luxury brands no longer have the comfort of their domination; where they would be sure that their designs that they showcased in a fashion show would stay in style and out of all stores for a couple of months before, now they have to hurry and release collections into stores almost immediately.
Because they know that fast fashion brands are waiting outside with notepads and sewing machines.
The aforementioned issue with fast fashion is only exacerbated by the Internet. Online shopping is easier than ever before, and fast fashion brands are newer and younger, so they do a better job at advertising their products correctly, as well as reaching a wider audience.
Not only that, but they encourage online shopping by the constantly changing collections – and, being cheaper than the luxury brands, they thus convince their audience to buy what they’re selling – even if what they’re selling is just a complete Dior rip-off.
Even though this point was briefly brought up before, I want to delve into it. The refusal to adapt to newer styles and more modern young-people-trends did make a lot of the luxury brands kind of lose their footing with the younger consumers.
Almost none of the young people are too enthused with LV’s traditional brown print pattern; Chanel, until very recently, would refuse to develop their designs into something way more colourful and appealing to younger buyers.
In addition, a lot of the brands are taking their time following newer trends of environmentalism and activism, of which only a select few have banned real fur, for example.
Frankly, the amount of drama surrounding the fashion community has always been incredible – for all the wrong reasons.
The numerous problematic ideas expressed by a lot of the designers and luxury brands (e.g. Dolce & Gabbana’s issue with their racist promo video, as well as late Karl Lagerfeld’s disparaging comments about Adele, amongst many other things) keep stirring up controversies and turning the younger market away from themselves.
And who will be left, if the younger consumers turn away?
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