Fashion-apparel beat: Internal talent hunt and delivery in 90 minutes!!!

Global slowdown and the internal talent hunt

This much they would admit... design houses are recruiting from within, instead of roping in big-ticket designers to add sparks to the ramps!

But, what the design-houses hold under the sleeves is arguably a big and unsettling secret: global slowdown has started affecting their voluptuous margins!!!

Recruitment from within the ranks is a silver bullet that can make not only a good kill, but can also act as a profit pill.

Senior designers who work closely with big names often gain the skill set to deliver in the lines their gurus used to. But since they belong to the design house and since they are yet to strike a chord with multi-billionaires and celebrities, they come relatively cheap.

What an idea Sirji!

Fast-fashion

What does Pizza Hut have in common with Aurora Fashions?

Pizza Hut delivers a free-pizza, if it misses a deadline. Aurora Fashions may not exactly do that when it comes to delivery; still they promise their brand delivery in 90 minutes!

Aurora has in its arms, tickets like Coast, Oasis and Warehouse and they have tied up with internet startup Shutl, a company set up by Tom Allason, the eCourier founder to deliver Aurora brands in London in 90 minutes: this is arguably the first in apparel retail history and only Londoners could nibble this service, initially.

Now, what if they miss a deadline?

Hash Ladha, group multi-channel director at Aurora Fashions is silent on that.

Imran Khan designing Denizen

I am not speaking of the bowling maestro, but of the Bollywood star Imran Khan!!! Denizen, the mid-market brand revealed by none other than Levi’s has already hit the Indian shores.

Imran Khan will choose the colour, the cut and the what-is-what of denizen (for an undisclosed sum). The Delhi flag-ship store of Denizen was recently opened by the star; spread across 1800 sq.ft the store caters to the urban dreams of 18-28 teeming youth of India.

Gloom and doom: Phew!

The United Kingdom’s economic performance is a bone of contention among its politicians. Whatever it is, the real estate people out there swear the retail space demand in UK is robust!

Occupancy rates are high at 98.5%, and rental value figures were up 0.7% ahead for the full year, according to British Land, a UK based property company.

“Figures, however, are relative to different parts of the country. While consumer spending held up better in the south-east, the strength of demand was more a reflection of the attractions of individual assets - accessibility, affordability, unit configuration and overall environment - than their regional location,” the group was quoted by fashionunited.co.uk as saying.

The best locations, while being snapped up like hot cakes, other locations where the performance of the store is sluggish, get least of big-ticket brand attention.

Western brands’ Chinese resurrection

China means boooooom! And boom means money!

No wonder, the elite French, Italian and Hong Kong brands top the China charts in preference rankings.

Let me make it clear: A majority of western brands had no choice but to speak Chinese and trade yuan when it came to the sales and profits; or in other words, survival, when growth in developed markets saturated. They found that the decades-old communism had left the Chinese consumption-hungry and to whatever the Chinese could stick on to, they would; only thing was that it should be “foreign”. The Chinese, who cherished the dream of grabbing western brands and sporting them, finally lapped up brands in abundance as the economy opened up.

The western brands could see their pie getting bigger day-by-day and even found that Chinese reliance helped many obsolete but historic Western brands to resurrect! It even helped them weather the downturn!

Now a KPMG report cited by fashionunited.co.uk reads: “French products, which were the most sought after, such as cosmetics, fashion and bags were the most coveted categories at 76%, 37% and 33% respectively. Italian brands gained the top spot for footwear (43%) and Switzerland for watches (87%). Hong Kong jewellery brands were particularly sought after by Chinese consumers, with several Hong Kong-owned premium clothing brands also doing well.”

Well, did someone say, ‘India’?

As published in: http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Fashion-apparel-beat-Internal-talent-hunt-and-delivery-in-90-minutes!!!-39431-2-1.html