If you are reading this article, chances are you love fashion just as much as I do. However, the fashion world that I love, is not (just) about those breath-taking embroideries, the colourful textiles or the bold make up looks on the red carpet. I believe that there is so much beauty in taking your time to understand the complexity of this world, instead of passively admiring it. What does it take for a sustainable brand to become successful? How can online brands thrive? What was Gucci’s recipe for success? Every time my mind comes up with one of these questions, I run to my laptop and type three simple…
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Fashion Businesses and Disruptive Innovation
On the 18th of September Bocconi Students for Fashion in collaboration with Jeme Bocconi Studenti organized the event named “Fashion Businesses and Disruptive Innovations”, which was held at Bocconi University. Digitalization and online shopping are becoming elements that every fashion company should integrate in its business model in order to survive to today’s extreme level of competition. New technologies have changed the rules of the game, lowering barriers to entry and allowing new and disruptive business models to emerge. Thanks to an increasingly interconnected world, businesses no longer need high capital investments in order to grow both quickly and globally. As more and more ways of doing business emerge, those…
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A Trilogy on Tweaking Identities: A Case Study on Céline
As the continual from our discussion of Yves Saint Laurent on shifting identities of brands themselves and of society’s portrayal of dressing oneself, it would be oblivious if Celine did not take part in this potentially controversial yet necessary discussion. Why controversial? When a designer is to be succeeding a predecessor with a pronounceable-sized shadow, this signifies two things. On the one hand, there is the presence of a strong “fan base” who likely identifies their purchase vision according to this designer’s aesthetics, color palette, design philosophies, etc. On the other hand, to succeed said designer means to either play with the cookie cutters left around, or to throw them…
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Luxury Fashion for Stylish Pets
Fashion is undoubtedly one of the first things that comes to mind when we talk about self expression. Every small detail in an outfit join forces to create first impressions on everyone we come across, so it comes as no surprise that people search for ways to broaden this tool and convey more specific and genuine representations of their personalities. And our pets, especially our dogs that never leave our side, deserve to be as stylish as us, if not more. Today almost 70% of all U.S. households own a pet. Dogs are by far the most popular, around 60.2 million households own one, according to the American Pet Products…
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A Trilogy on Tweaking Identities: A Case Study on Yves Saint Laurent
The “Tweaking of Identities” could be roughly grouped into two categories. First and foremost, the internal modifications in regard to the brand, which are usually linked to changing creative designers therefore shifting how we perceive the label. The second dimension focuses on the external fashion-scape, where the actions of a designer/s collectively alter not just how we dress but how we think we should dress. Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent, professionally known as Yves Saint-Laurent, was born on August 1st, 1936 in Oran, Algeria to French parents. In his early teen years, Saint-Laurent spent his time creating intricate paper dolls accompanied by the precise accessorizes, clothes, and hair carefully curated at…
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Young Entrepreneurs in Fashion: A Conversation With L’HOMME DE CUIR
“One day I remember having some leftover brown suede leather in my apartment and somehow this idea popped my mind ‘What if I made leather bow ties?’. Literally the next day, I took this piece of leather to the tailor down my street and I told him to make a bow tie from it. After that, I got some suede bow ties produced and the feedback was amazing.” One year later, 21-year old Dutch business student Milad Saleh decides to make it official and starts L’Homme de Cuir. Currently the first and only company in the world selling suit accessories made of real lamb suede, the brand focuses on handmade…
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What is Camp?
One of the most anticipated fashion events, MET Gala is on 6th of May. For the ones who do not know what MET gala is for, it is the gala for The Costume Institute of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; it is also the biggest event on the fashion fundraising calendar. Founded in 1948, the gala has been chaired by Anna Wintour. The co-chairs are mostly well-known celebrities. This year’s co-chairs are Alessandro Michele, Harry Styles, Serena Williams and Lady Gaga. 2019 MET Gala’s theme is “camp”. Since the theme had been announced, there has been many questions but the main one is certainly “what is camp?”. The new…
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Cultural appropriation? How to do it right
Currently in the Philippines, I came across the myriad of indigenous designs and textile techniques used for centuries by the very many and diverse tribes of this country. This made me think of the sensitive topic of cultural exploitation and appropriation. From sushi, the most typical Milanese food, to a French marinière striped shirt or Greek sandals, all cultural inspiration and consumption is borrowed. All the time. And in my opinion, this is unavoidable. Since the beginning of times -Romans and Greeks, the interconnection between languages, the list is endless!- and in a globalised world more than ever, culture is fluid and evolving. Do we all just stick to our…
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How Call-out Culture Changed The Contemporary Fashion Landscape
“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby becomes a monster”, Friedrich Nietzsche famously observed. Some might argue that the only monsters in the glamorous world of fashion are it-girls’ favorite ‘ugly’ sneakers, but growing concern about how aggressive public condemnation of plagiarism, cultural insensitivity and various misbehaviours of market players affects the industry dynamics is an important question that many find themselves asking. After all, are we witnessing growing social consciousness that drives a more transparent and inclusive society, or are we simply entertaining ourselves with a new breed of cyberbullying? Take the recent downfall of Dolce & Gabbana that caused the brand to be banned…
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BS4F Career Guide: The Role and Future of the Fashion Editor
Fashion editors are hardly the most unheard of or enigmatic figures in fashion; names like Anna Wintour, Suzy Menkes or Carine Roitfeld surely ring a bell. Their roles have been glamorised countlessly on television and through literature. Although The Devil Wears Prada, supposedly a satire of Mrs. Wintour, gives fun beginner’s insight on this career, it isn’t a rigorously accurate depiction. So what exactly is a fashion editor and what comprises the scope of their responsibilities? Fashion editors are the people who oversee the process of imagining and producing content for fashion-specific outlets, traditionally magazines. Editors report to the editor-in-chief; the highest-placed and most powerful editor of a publication. Their…
