naomiklein Archives

Marketing killed fashion!

17 February, 2023 / Leave a Comment

Pharrell Williams, Louis Vuitton & the era of celebrities in fashion design

Marketing killed fashion – this is it. Top brands have no soul anymore. “It might seem crazy what I am ’bout to say”, Pharrell Williams is the new men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton! That is to prove that the fashion industry is just a marketing game, a matter of greed and money.

Not only do brands pay celebrities to wear clothes, putting the cost on customers. So, people who can afford luxury clothes don’t pay for them. While those who can’t, spend all their money to purchase them, and so, they support the lifestyle of their idols.
Now celebrities are paid to design collections. Well, designing means they put their names, and someone else will do the job.

Clearly, this is not fashion. Indeed, this is one of the biggest marketing operations ever.

Marketing, fashion & celebrities

We like Pharrell’s music. He is a great artist and musician, but he is not a fashion designer. It seems like Louis Vuitton is becoming a mega fast-fashion brand for people who want to spend a lot of money. And perhaps Vuitton made things clear: designers are not needed anymore! No heritage, no luxury, and no fashion. They want easy profit. Therefore, they want celebrities in order to get there quickly and sell more.

Who is the target of this marketing strategy?

In addition, to understand why fashion Maisons need this kind of marketing operation and who they are appealing to, we quote Naomi Klein from her must-read book No Logo:

“…it’s the young people living in developed and semi-developed countries who are the great global hope. More than anything or anyone else, logo-decorated middle-class teenagers, intent on pouring themselves into a media-fabricated mould, have become globalization’s most powerful symbols.”
No Logo – Naomi Klein

Now let’s observe a minute of silence for the death of the job of fashion designers. No one cares anymore about you. Truly no one cares about talent and skills. The era of fashion designers is gone. Marketing killed fashion!

The fashion industry wants celebrities. So, enjoy your new role, Mr Williams! Sorry if we don’t clap along.

Marketing killed fashion! Read More »

Fashion vs branding

16 March, 2022

The trick to making money

There is a difference between branding and fashion. The two elements are part of a bigger picture but aren’t the same thing. Perhaps it doesn’t take an expert eye to notice that branding is at the core of fashion nowadays. Or, to rephrase it, fashion stops at branding, which means no particular effort in terms of design. No designers too!

When branding is too much

The logo is a symbol used to identify a company. So the website, the promotional material, and everything else related will show it to reflect the brand essence.

But the point is that now, all they sell in fashion are t-shirts, sweatshirts, and accessories showing a logo. Visibile, as much as possible, or all over!

Branding fashion
Why? And who is the target?

First, big logos are easy to sell and make money. But to understand why fashion Maisons need branding, we quote Naomi Klein, from her brilliant book No Logo:
“…it’s the young people living in developed and semi-developed countries who are the great global hope. More than anything or anyone else, logo-decorated middle-class teenagers, intent on pouring themselves into a media-fabricated mould, have become globalization’s most powerful symbols.”

Logoed items are products used as bait. Can we call it fashion? No, we do not think so. That is branding.
Fashion is more than stamping a logo. Fashion means creativity, culture, a vision and a soul shown through the design.

For instance, printing a logo on a t-shirt doesn’t require the same creative work as designing a garment from scratch, but it grants a large audience and quick money. Instead, brands that focus on design have a limited audience. That is why we call them niche brands, their work is for a more cultured audience.

So, it’s not difficult to understand why top brands moved from fashion to branding.

To demonstrate, we quote Glenn Martens (Y/Project and Diesel designer) via Financial Times:
“I’m a very bad creative director, according to the CEOs I work for, because I won’t put logos on garments… We all know that luxury brands are selling sweatshirts that cost €70 for €700 by putting branding on them. That’s not for me, and it’s not taking your customer seriously.”

Fashion and branding: enjoy the trick!

If you believe that showcasing logos is fashion, we are sorry to inform you it is not. That is branding. Unfortunately, designers have stopped creating value. And to make easy profits instead of making fashion, they have switched to branding.

People love logos, people love brands! Status, even though fake, works for the masses.

Of course, if you are looking for true style, you don’t need that fluff. The branding optical illusion won’t catch you.

Fashion vs branding Read More »

Eco-friendly vs critical thinking

19 November, 2021

Eco-friendly is the new frontier of marketing. Even if frequently misleading, it is an effective strategy. So far, the logic is ‘fake it till you make it.’ Or worse, just fake it. That’s enough for people to buy your product.

In a conversation about clothes, a friend of ours said: “all brands now make eco-friendly garments.” That with a tone of appreciation. Her statement meant there’s no need to pay any further attention to products you buy. You can trust the advertising messages since the eco-offer is wide and meaningful.

If brands promote their garments as eco-friendly or sustainable, people take those statements for granted. In the case of fast fashion as well. A tag or an advertising campaign with magic words induce people to take sustainability slogans as absolute truth. They have no doubts. And they do not feel the need to know more, compare and question.

At least two aspects emerge from that.
First, it means that marketing works well. People buy whatever gets packed up with the right slogan. Fake or real, consumers don’t take it into account.
Second, in a world dominated by social media language, the art of reasoning is lost. You don’t have to make the effort of reading the full article. Titles are enough, slogans too.

eco-friendly vs critical thinking: image of cotton plant

Sustainability and critical thinking

Depressing, isn’t it?
If people don’t read, we cannot expect they have ever heard about greenwashing.
But what about that minimum level of critical thinking that each individual should possess? That analytical sense we should develop in order to be able to discern.

According to a report released by Changing Markets Foundation, about 60% of sustainable fashion claims are greenwashing.

We are citing this report to give an idea of how widespread the practice is. But that’s not truly the point. Even before seeing the numbers, it’s important not to swallow everything. Otherwise, critical thinking is dead.

Thoroughly knowing the reality is very complicated, yet we can analyse it. Conscious individuals don’t stop at advertising or ‘media-fabricated mould’ – as Naomi Klein calls it in her brilliant book, No Logo.

We ponder and break the mould.

Eco-friendly vs critical thinking Read More »

naomiklein