Getting down to business
MELBOURNE: The L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival (LMFF) has a reputation as a not-to-be-missed date in the Australian fashion calendar. Taking place from February 26 to March 4, the festival provides a unique opportunity for retailers, designers, agents, consumers and investors to attend an array of shows and activities associated with fashion and style.
While for many the glitz of the runway shows is a major draw card, the LMFF Business Seminar, now approaching its second decade, is fast earning a reputation as a source of critical insights into the factors that affect the less glamorous side of the industry.
This year's speakers include Pierre-Francois Le Louet, director of Paris-based NellyRodi Agency, Martin Raymond and Chris Sanderson, co-founders of leading European trend forecasting consultancy The Future Laboratory (Futurelab), Christine Foden, head of UK consultancy D.cipher and Sydney-based consultant and author Peter Sheahan.
They will talk on a range of toWith international fashion clients including LVMH, Target Stores, Tommy Hilfiger and H&M, NellyRodi director Pierre-Francois Le Louet is well qualified to talk on the first of these.
Le Louet describes the new world order of fashion as one of "changing priorities".
"The fashion environment has changed a lot these last few years: fashion is not as key as it used to be in terms of consumption, and technology and leisure are more interesting for many people. As a result the real growth market is in accessories and small pieces."
He says as the consumer dollar shifts to other discretionary goods, middle market fashion is under particular threat.
"China has become the factory of the world; businesses focus only on low end volume markets or high end luxury. The middle [market] ranges and middle [market] brands have disappeared."
One of the middle market's successors is "mass prestige" or "masstige retailing", according to Futurelab co-founder Martin Raymond.
Raymond claims a growing generation of consumers is "keen to purchase products, brands and services that are design-driven, aspirational in look and finish but still pitched at the mass market in terms of price and accessibility".
Focusing on masstige may provide part of the answer for Australian fashion companies struggling in an increasingly aggressive and top-heavy home market, with "too many brands and too few consumers".
Australia's future may also lie in thinking global and playing to its strengths, Raymond says.
"As surf continues to be the pre-eminent casualwear trend throughout the world, the Futurelab has been analysing how this trend needs to start moving away from surf to understanding how a more general appreciation of the Aussie lifestyle has a universal appeal. We don't feel that one single brand has really capitalised on this yet, but forecast this as a real growth area for the apparel market."
Aside from the product itself, Australian fashion companies also need to be aware of shifting retail paradigms, with "experience retailing" becoming one of the most significant developments of recent years.
"Drama, theatre and experience are replacing service as key consumer motivators."
Furthermore, the emergence of global brands and a virtual world spawned by the online communication revolution has spawned an emerging model dubbed "concept retailing", he says.
"Is it necessary for a store to focus on selling actual product in the 21st century? As brands become more and more intangible and product is something we relate to conceptually (think AOL or Amazon) rather than drop on our foot, how does physical space remain relevant in an age of increasing on-line sales and consumer demand in emotion, story and feeling?"
Australian men's fashion probably still has a way to go before it can dispense with physical retail space, although D.cipher head Christine Foden believes the category has evolved in recent years and represents strong potential for growth.
Foden claims Australian retailers should be mindful that male fashion retail has come a long way.
"Men are shopping like women. These aren't just the cultured elite but the man on the street whose interests now have spread beyond bars, football and the stock market to what face products suit his skin."
Another market to watch resides in the demographic born between the late seventies and mid nineties and commonly known as Generation Y, claims Peter Sheahan, who is widely regarded Australia's leading Generation Y expert. "Bombarded with brand marketing messages since birth, these guys know a slogan when they hear one; they often shun mainstream media and look to the Net and niche media outlets for their information," he says.
One way of attracting the group - which has grown up with the digital and entertainment revolution - is through "multi-sensory retail experience," Sheehan says.
"[Youth streetwear chain] General Pants has done an awesome job of it in its Sydney Pitt Street store, where it got young people to come in and decorate the walls."
However, by far the greatest impact that "Y" will have is in the area of employment, particularly in the retail sector, where the pool of recruits is diminishing.
"There are less and less people to recruit and out of that talent pool it is becoming harder and harder to find high quality staff," Sheahan claims.
In his view, wise retailers recognise the importance of treating their staff well, particularly the growing number of casuals.
"Sportsgirl has realised that it's important to recruit [the kind of girl] that your brand stands for, but the kind of girl that Sportsgirl stands for won't put up with being treated badly."
Access to expert case studies like that of Sportsgirl and others like it are the chief attraction of the business seminar, particularly as the global flavour of this year's event represents the future of Australian fashion, claims LMFF director Karen Webster.
"This forum is an ideal setting in which to introduce new and dynamic international perspectives of real benefit to our increasingly internationally engaged Australian audience," Webster says.
"There's no doubt that forum delegates will benefit from a new way of thinking that will impact the way they will approach their business strategies for the year ahead."