How and why 2014 became the year of affordable fashion
2014 was rich at the collaboration. The most powerful and noticeable was the collection of American designer Alexander Wang for H & M. However, other brands surprised no less, pointing to a completely different course of democratization of fashion. The main difference of the year is that mass-market brands are becoming bolder and cooperate with intellectual designers and heroes of the new time, who have replaced commercial recognizable names from the classic suite of the 1980s-2000s.
The example with H & M is the brightest. Previously, the Swedes worked with Karl Lagerfeld, Viktor & Rolf, Jimmy Chu, Donatella Versace, Albert Elbaz, Anna Dello Russo and Roberto Cavalli under the concept of cheap and chic. The point was to bring the mass consumer to the distant world of luxury with the help of “cheap and chic” collaborations, and brands from both sides to get more information coverage.
Among this series of special H & M collections, more complex ones stood out - with Marni and COMME des GARÇONS. However, the turning point was one of the most anticipated collections of the Swedes with the house of Maison Martin Margiela. This 2012 collection has become exemplary in terms of conflict in terms of the democratization of fashion. He concluded that fashion in its purest sense is the work of hundreds of people who work on ideas. This idea can be aesthetically complex and even obscure, but necessarily carefully implemented - from the complexity of the cut to the choice of fabric and attentive work with details, which is practically inaccessible to the mass market, working with other industrial volumes. So, in the case of the 2012 MMM and H & M collections, we were sold the idea of collaboration between the mass market and one of the most conceptual contemporary designers Martin Margiela. In fact, Margiela himself had nothing to do with this collaboration: as early as 2009, he left the MMM house. So we received the goods H & M, where the intellectual fashion was only the label "Maison Martin Margiela". All the ideas of the fashion house in the H & M collaborations were simplified and presented to the mass buyer in a chewed way. In addition, up to a certain point in collaborations, the quality of things was consistently much less than the “original” collections.
Alexander Wang x H & M
A new page in the history of fashion collaborations was the collection of Alexander Wang for H & M, which appeared on sale in November of this year. First, it appeared exactly when the fashion trend of democratization became apparent. It only happens not in the mass market, but in the premium segment itself. Luxury things are becoming easier to understand and for sales - more wearable and commercially viable. Accordingly, they are easier to present and implement the idea in the mass market. In addition, the mass market itself becomes a bit more expensive and improves the quality of things. That is, the parallel axes of high fashion and the mass market suddenly moved and were directed towards the intersection point.
However, the powerful advertising campaign of the collection reached out to even the majority of Russians. Although ask anyone on the street - no one is likely to tell you who Alexander Wang is. Nevertheless, fans dared everything in one day exactly the same way as all previous H & M collaborations. Indeed, in fact, we got one of the best collections of Swedes in terms of ideas: it recorded the triumph of sports style as the main fashion trend of the year. But that is not all. Things were performed much better than previous collections and using technological materials. Not surprisingly, Wang is known as one of the most technologically savvy designers in the world. Unlike the previous H & M collaborations, this collection was not made “under the designer’s style” - it was the complete work of Wang and his team, and things could easily be imagined in the second own line of designer T by Alexander Wang. Wang for H & M was the most accurate goal hit. It must be understood that Wang is a brilliant businessman who in seven years managed to build a company with an income of one hundred million dollars. With commercial success, he subtly feels tseiggeist and offers a completely different identity of the modern woman - strong and athletic, not devoid of a sense of humor.
Thus, in 2014, collaborations do not just go to a new level in the quality of performance, but in fact become an accessible fashion, rather than an attempt to mimic it. The next H & M collaboration could well be working with Moschino or Marc by Marc Jacobs - besides informational noise and a clear aesthetic identity, these brands offer wearable things with a bright idea that can already be repeated on an industrial scale.
Topshop x Marques'Almeida
We see cool design and execution in other joint collections of democratic brands. Topshop has always managed limited collections with British designers - their work is from Christopher Kane and Mary Katrantzou to Meadham Kirchhoff and J.W. Anderson. This year Topshop presented three collaborations with adidas Originals, Ashish Gupta and duet Marques'Almeida. The Marques'Almeida collection is worth special attention. First, because Marta Marquez and Paulo Almeida received the British Fashion Awards prize this year in the category "Emerging Womenswear Designer". Secondly, the duo personally worked on the design of things, including repeating their hits from the “blown up” denim, which the brand is famous for. In Britain, collections are always sold out in a matter of minutes. In Russia, it’s still not too ideologically and informationally savvy as a buyer, so the collections of the British live up to sales.
Raf Simons x adidas
One of the best collections of the year was the collaboration of Raf Simons with adidas, who presented “terribly beautiful” sneakers, where instead of three strips of adidas there were barely noticeable lines, and instead of laces - stickies and zippers. Then Raf Simons rethought the most popular sneakers of the year Stan Smith. This year, among the adidas collections, we can also recall the Hels-Gothic sneakers, created by Rick Owens. Both those and other sneakers cost as much as 300-500 euros - all because the buyer received a designer product made from and to the sports giant, not saving on technology and quality. It can be noted here that the same Rick Owens personally had a hand in the design of the sneakers - since Rick always leads projects under his own name, and does not trust their team of young designers who work "under the approval of the boss."
J Brand x Simone Rocha
Another example of cooperation with the designers of the new wave was one of the last strong collaborations of the year - the J Brand x Simone Rocha collection. Here, the Americans are collaborating with another hope of modern fashion - Simone Rocha, who also won the British Fashion Awards this year in the "New Establishment Designer" nomination. The collection consists of jackets, vests, dresses and mini-skirts from denim and also jeans of pink, red and black colors, decorated with ruffles and frills. In Moscow, the collection can only be found in Kuznetsky Most 20.
Puma x solange
The second important point in the 2014 collaborations is the active work of the stamps with pop musicians, from adidas collections with Farrell Williams and Rita Oura to Likke Li's work with the & Other Stories brand. The latest example of this year is the appointment of Rihanna as the new creative director of the German sports company Puma. The singer will be responsible for the women's line of the brand. Before her creative director was an intelligent designer with a big name - Hussein Chalayan, responsible for the design of Puma from 2008 to 2012, whose work did not cause a resonance in popular culture. Rihanna is not a designer, but her name will definitely provide this resonance to the company. The most active on the part of the stars this year are adidas, who have historically collaborated with celebrities - remember the joint work of adidas and Run-D.M.C. in the 80s. This year, adidas presented the collections with Farrell Williams, Rita Oura and are preparing the collection with Kanye West.
Wood Wood x Disney
Separately, we can say about the collaboration of global companies with fashion brands. For example, Disney released a collection with the Swedes from Wood Wood and presented it in Colette Paris in October of this year, and in Moscow in the Wood Wood corner in Tsvetnoy. The collaboration turns out to be bold, surrealistic and completely childlike, consisting of sweaters, tops, sweaters, pencil skirts with prints in the form of stretched and bent Mickey Mouse. In the spring of 2014, something similar was shown by Disney with Opening Ceremony. Another example of such pop-global collaborations is Starbucks summer collaboration with the Band of Outsiders. Together they represent ceramic coffee mugs decorated with flowing paint. Prior to this, Starbucks worked with Rodarte, Charlotte Ronson and Alice + Olivia.
Opening Ceremony x Intel
International Business Times write that modern teenagers spend more on gadgets than on clothes and shoes. Hence, a new type of collaboration is the collaboration of fashion brands with IT companies, vying with each other to present new wearable gadgets. The year began with Google Glass's collaboration with Diana von Fürstenberg, and the last collaboration in 2014 was the MICA smart bracelet (stands for My Intelligent Communication Accessory), created by Intel in conjunction with Opening Ceremony. The bracelet is made of black and white snake skin, decorated with pearls, obsidian and tiger's eye and equipped with a touch screen with which you can receive text and electronic messages, as well as a built-in alarm clock. Presented the gadget during the last fashion week in New York. In addition to the Opening Ceremony bracelet, a bomber jacket was presented, in the pocket of which there is a smartphone charger, created by mophie. Opening Ceremony is not the first to move towards technology: recently, Ralph Lauren introduced a biometric t-shirt, Tory Burch released a collection of accessories with FitBit, and Samsung Gear S smart watches appeared on the Diesel Black Gold show.
As a result, the new time - new names. Today we get cool designer collaborations that look no worse than catwalk collections and are more than worthy in terms of style, quality and ideas. It is important that we already get the ideas from the designers of the new wave of the last 10-20 years, like Simone Roch or Alexander Wang, who replaced the classics like Karl Lagerfeld. Even the brand of plastic shoes Melissa has exchanged Lagerfeld for Gareth Pugh. Democratization and the commercial trend of fashion are supported by stars whose personal style and number of followers on Instagram are more important for sports brands than an expensive advertising campaign. The democratization of luxury and production technology is pushing for ease of reproduction. Even globalist companies are taken to work with progressive designers, and collaborations in technology become a completely new step. You can be sure that these trends will continue in the coming 2015.