Search for innovation

Fashion changes are very frequent, tendencies grow and die in a few months and there is never a single style. Somehow, there is a perpetual search for innovation. While snobs don’t want to look like anybody else to try to distinguish themselves, there are the masses that follow elite fashion. 

Who decides what is fashion? 

Fashion brands may adapt and respond to the changes of the Industry. Despite the fact that there isn’t one best way of managing the company for innovation I will try to  simplify it in only two:  

1. Leaded by a designer, the company tries to create products that customers didn't realise they wanted before, so the tendencies are decisions of the designer. Furthermore, they are used to having a stylistic identity that keeps every fashion collection and they are better suited to periods of incremental change than periods of ferment. This is because in periods of transition in fashion, people tend to go back to brands who have their own identity. In this kind of organization for innovation the Firm takes the risk that not all the proposals are going to be successful. 

Some examples: 

VERSACE (Donatella Versace as a designer)

ESCADA (Daniel Wingate as a designer)

DIOR (Maria Grazia Chiuri as a designer)

2. Firms adapt to the kind of clothes that people wear because this is what they want. For this reason they are open to radical ideas instead of trying to impose a style. Their popularity is based on who is wearing the product, from bloggers to royal members, not in who is the designer. They are better suited to periods of ferment than to incremental change fashion.

DIESEL

ZARA

LEVIS

Additionally, I would like to portray two firm strategies for their success. 

Firstly, the location of shops is important because it is vital to be close to where their consumers are. 

Secondly, vertical integration of shops and workshops. It is a potential advantage, specially for the creation of the design for the market, given that information between designers and customers with a vertical integration flows more quickly.

In conclusion, when answering the question of who decides what fashion is, there are several strategies that need to be taken into account. It is not just us the people, who have voice on these kind of social trends; the importance and implications of brands is vital to understand the whole process, which can be summarized as a transition in fashion, but as well as a change in society.  The brands who have their own identity take advantage of the periods of incremental changes, as they are seen as the least risky choices. This way, they conform an important role as the actors of innovation. Additionally, there are other types of brands who have become successful by tracing their loyal customers´ preferences in terms of fashion. To achieve this, the location of the shops and the vertical integration of the company is quite necessary.

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