Collaborations between retailers and luxury brands give customers what they have been after for quite a long time. Brands like Zara and Forever 21 owe a great deal of their success and popularity to their ability to emulate high-end brands for reasonable prices (Patel, 2019). On the flip side, though, retailers who make it their strategy are often accused of being copycats. On the other hand, collaborations are genuinely creative: both sides come together to give birth to something new that they would not launch individually (Srinivasan, 2019). It only adds to each party’s reputation as it makes high fashion more accessible and elevates the image of mass-market stores. Joint collections are unlikely to alienate the original customers of high-end brands. They can still buy luxury goods that are not part of the collaborative effort if they wish to signal their status.
I did take advantage of this new trend and enjoyed the H&M x Moschino collaboration. For me, this union was unexpected, so I was genuinely curious about how H&M’s casual vibe and the funky vibrancy of Moschino could find a middle ground. I was not disappointed as both brands poured their hearts and souls into the collection and amplified their strengths. The clothing pieces were daring, boisterous, and decidedly street-fashion, yet I could wear them every day and feel comfortable.
Some brands, such as Valentino, are more protective of their vision and reluctant to enter collaborations (Zargani, 2015). However, doing so would not necessarily hurt Valentino’s image – it all depends on how the company would go about that. As mentioned before, the appeal of collaborations comes from the uniqueness of the end result. If Valentino could preserve what makes it unique without stepping on a retailer’s ideas, their joint line could be popular. In contrast, letting the retailer decide and only putting their name on it to drive sales would probably leave customers dissatisfied and make them feel deceived.
References
Patel, P. (2019). Zara uncovered: Inside the brand that changed fashion. BBC News. Web.
Srinivasan, V. (2019). The era of the luxury/mass brand collaboration is only getting started, and that’s a good thing. Retail Touchpoints.
Zargani, L. (2015). Valentino aims for the $1 billion-plus sales mark. WWD. Web.