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The Future of Fashion

‘The Future Of Fashion’ was the main topic at this years L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival with some big names brought out from established global brands to give us their insights and perspectives on this very question. From Design to Marketing, Etail to Retail from the mass market to the luxury consumer, Scout was there to analyse where the industry is headed over the next decade.

One of the recurring observations was how Australia appears to have dodged a bullet and capitalised on the global economic downturn. A key message from UK based Paul Bennett, Managing Partner & European CEO of IDEO is that it’s a good moment for Australia and something that we should capitalised on; “seize the moment and do something different” was his mantra. Stirring stuff to start the day. Other advice is for brands to have a meaning and purpose, without passion, who are we, what do we stand for? Transparency is key to getting your message across and connecting with the consumer, dialogue not monologue. As the market is saturated with big ideas, little ones can be very powerful and end up being bigger.

Sojin Lee, The Co-founder of Fashionair.com a multi media fashion website told us that Aussie shoppers are the third highest ranked online shoppers in the world and are always on the top five list at Net-A-Porter where Sojin cut her fashion teeth. Fashionair is soon to feature more Aussie content onto the site since her trip down under after all the positive things she’s seen on her trip. One of the key reasons she started the site was to fill the gap of luxury and designer brands using the Internet as a vehicle to market their products. As we now witness brands like Louis Vuitton, Calvin Klein and Burberry using the net via live feeds of their shows and embracing Facebook to connect with younger consumers, Sojin is obviously onto something.

Dispelling the rumour that luxury brands sales are dead and that this market has taken a bit of a hit, Former Executive Vice President of Hermes, Christian Blanckaert gave us some interesting statistics on the growth of sales even in some of the toughest markets, his message was positive and upbeat too with a strong focus on being ethical, sustainable and being generous. When asked if he’d seen any Australian brands that had the capacity to become luxury brands, he spoke of Australia’s uniqueness and heritage, the countries vastness and space as a way creating such a brand. No clues exactly but R.M Williams does spring to mind…

One thing that struck us after much talk of the world getting faster, busier, overcrowded and over supplied is that the future is still ours to be had and enjoyed and that TIME if anything is luxury.