Diversity in Fashion Part 2.

Politics

Fashion often coincides with politics, as some methods of designing, creating and customising are questionable. Using materials such as leather and fur are becoming more and more frowned upon, as activists and human rights speakers are becoming more persistent than ever. 

Most magazines and luxury boutiques will not go near any materials that are seen to be controversial, as they cannot afford to loose business. They also realise how strong campaigns are against animal testing and slaughter. 

When Prada decided to create a whole collection out of vibrantly coloured fox fur this year, there was huge room for discussion. This was a huge risk they took, considering that so many consumers are highly against the use of anything remotely involving animals.

Macaroni Man

The term Macaroni Man became popular in the mid 18th century. It is referring to an English man that is very fashionable, dressing and even speaking in an outlandish manner. They were seen as men that moved the boundaries of what was acceptable fashion for men of those days. There was a lot of negative opinions towards men who took care of their appearance in those days, and it still even continues a little today. Some see it as men cannot look after their appearance without being or seeming too feminine. Especially in the fashion industry, as there is a lot of preconceptions anyway. 

The Future

In the current technological based world that we find ourselves in everything is based around our most searched statistics on the internet. Data companies are watching our every move, and gather data referring to our most recent online searches. There is no privacy, even in the comfort of our own home, on our own internet devices. This scary invasion of privacy is what leads consumers to want to adopt the 'Stealth Pocket' life. This is where you have the chance to become completely invisible, even stopping to contact you or find out your location. 

Although it has come to light that there are now some huge positives, when it comes to technology invading your personal information. An app created by Meat Pack, called Hijak has been created specifically to make consumers aware of discounts on specific products that that are wanting at a give time period. Hijab sells limited edition kicks and is known for its amazing promotional deals!

How it works is that you download that app onto your phone and it sends you a notification with a 99% discount on a specific pair of kicks you want. It will decrease every second it takes you to get to a Hijak store. This is something that is fun, and is definitely a new way of getting consumers proactive in participating in something fun. The highest discount to date was by a consumer that got to the Hijak store in under 10 seconds, leaving him with an 89% discount. 

This generation is constantly trying to attract customers by giving something back to them. Businesses have realised that discounts and advantage points are a great way forward. As customers like to feel that when they are purchasing a product or a service, they are either making a saving or building up a future discount with points. 

Going Native 

As everything in this current time is so easily accessible, consumers are starting to think this is necessary in most businesses. For example consumers are wanting their food to be locally sourced so that they can feel as though they are consuming fresh produce. Therefore, businesses are realising that this is the case, and advertising their products as 'local'. But this is often not the case, as 'their' local is not what we would consider 'our' local! By law, a businesses' 'local' can be anything up to 500 miles away; which is therefore not as fresh as their consumers may think. This is all down to how a business words their advertising. So if it has the word 'local' in its title, the consumer cannot help but to think that it was grown only a few miles down the road from where the products are situated at the point of purchase. 

Avoiding Mega-systems

Global companies are avoiding paying their taxes and quite frankly getting away with it. Companies such as: Starbucks, Google and Amazon have been named and shamed, but there has not been a great impact on their sales at all. 

Companies have tiring and complicated tax methods, but recent reports have shown that these companies have not paid a single part of their taxes in recent years.

Starbucks

They had sales of £400 million in the UK alone last year and still paid no corporation tax. They manage to transfer some money to their Dutch sister company, buy coffee beans from Switzerland and pay high interest rates to borrow from other parts of their business. 

Amazon

Amazon had sales of £3.5 billion in the UK alone in 2011, but only reported paying £1.8 million in tax. 

Google

Google had sales of £396 million in the UK alone in 2011 and only paid £6 million to the Treasury.

But we wonder why these companies do not get fined billions of pounds... The answer is because what they are doing is still legal; they in avoidance of tax, not evasion!

The Age of Collaboration

Luxury fashion brands are realising that they have to rebrand themselves in a modern light, as they are often seen of heritage brands. They see and understand that in order to survive, they have to entice new age target audiences in order to stay current. 

Fashion is teaming up with all different media strategies to not only rebrand themselves, but to also target different genres of target audiences. As I mentioned in my previous paragraph about trying to attract age specific target audiences. But brands also want to attract genre specific audiences. For example, the macro trend that is neo-tolkienism displays this perfectly. It is fashion and beauty brands wanting to entice fans of fantasy fiction. Therefore, the brand will get actors and actresses in these fantasy fiction series' to be the face of their new ad campaigns.

Digital Craft

As we are such a digital age, consumers know a great deal about online experiences. As most things have been thought of and carried out, there is little room for improvement. This is why businesses have to constantly be thinking of new and innovative ways to impress. Therefore, a innovation team is key in any successful business. 

Also stores that have digital crafted themselves in a way that would work with this era is the Burberry store on Regent St. The flagship store owns a digitally interactive 22ft screen to showcase their digital products in the physical store. The Regent St. store is said to have the biggest screen in a singular shop; with 500 hidden speakers and a hydraulic stage. They merge both online and real life promotion into one, as they know that consumers are coming away from shopping in stores now. It is all about the convenience of online shopping, so Burberry had to think of something innovative for consumers to want to come out of the comforts of their own homes and shop!