Fashion without Limits
Designers at the world's fashion houses have an unenviable job: they have to constantly come up with new ways to dress the human body. One of the things they discovered a long time ago (though they could hardly claim to be the first) is that if you link clothes to peoples' values or sense of self, you can get them to wear things that they might not ordinarily. Also, you can get them to pay a lot more for wearing something than they would have otherwise. A lot more. And if you're really good, you can get them to do both. I have no qualm with that, per se. It is, after all, part and parcel of the marketing of everything from soft drinks to automobiles to athletic shoes to compact discs to laundry detergent.
That having been said, few industries have sunk to the depths recently sounded by the French marketing and style consultants Nelly Rodi and their client, Fashion Group International. According to AFP, during a seminar last week on "the future strategy of the fashion industry in Europe" the FGI was told the following:
"The masculine ideal is being completely modified. All the traditional male values of authority, infallibility, virility and strength are being completely overturned," said Pierre Francois Le Louet, the agency's managing director. Instead today's males are turning more towards "creativity, sensitivity and multiplicity," as seen already in recent seasons on the catwalks of Paris and Milan.
Arnold Schwarznegger and Sylvester Stallone are being replaced by the 21st-century man who "no longer wants to be the family super-hero", but instead has the guts to be himself, to test his own limits. "We are watching the birth of a hybrid man. ... Why not put on a pink-flowered shirt and try out a partner-swapping club?" asked Le Louet, stressing that the study had focused on men aged between 20 and 35.
The traditional man still exists in China, Le Louet said, and "is not ready to go". But in Europe and the United States, a new species is emerging, apparently unafraid of anything. "He is looking for a more radical affirmation of who he is, and wants to test out all the barbarity of modern life" including in the sexual domain, said Le Louet, adding that Reebok with its "I am what I am" campaign had perfectly tapped into this current trend.
The emergence of this new male beast who wants to look and feel good, and who will also have an impact on the role of women, presages a new potentially lucrative market for the European fashion industry. "All those labels which have adapted to this freedom of expression are on the up, all those which are too rigid will suffer in the future," Le Louet said, pointing to the growing success of sports and casual wear manufacturers.
Here's what I wondered as I read this: Do you have to first sell your soul to be able to say things like this with a "straight" face or does your soul sadly depart you once you have?
Further Reading:
Brand and Identify Management in Fashion Companies
STEFANIA SAVIOLO, University of Bocconi - Strategic and Entrepreneurial Management Department
Black Friday Fashion Bloggers and
Fashion Tribes and Papier Doll and Dynamist’s.
Comments
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are leading the way at this years MTV Europe music awards with four nominations...
Posted by: Kody Sowell | November 24, 2006 10:46 PM
"Fashion Without Limits by Starling David Hunter is a humorous look at what the French marketing & style consultants are saying about fashion. "
The new Carnival of Bent Attractions is up at Coaching4Lesbians at http://www.coaching4lesbians.com/blog/2006/08/07/carnival-of-bent-attractions-august-2006-edition/
Posted by: Paula Gregorowicz | August 8, 2006 6:51 AM