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https://www.dailyedge.ie/fake-designer-goods-865028-Apr2013/

[tom-moda]

The rise and fall of a branded empire

Brand evolution is something that matures and develops overtime. During the twentieth century, a golden age of French design houses saw an influx of branded media swarm the fashion market. Now, as the market moves towards fast fashion and e-retailers, are we seeing a drop in the quality of the classic brand names such as Chanel, that have dominated the global luxury fashion market for decades.

One of the biggest problems post 2000 for luxury brands has been the increase in the online fast fashion market. Here, designers produce low cost copies of catwalk trends as soon as they happen, so a wider target audience has access to unique designs months before the original design houses release that design to their smaller, more concentrated market. Licensing is the biggest cause of brand dilution; poor quality or unrelated products with the brand name on it can take away the brands meaning (Finkle, 2018). Licensing has been a major issue in the luxury brand sector. Brands are now competing with their lower-end rivals to see who can keep ahead of the copiers. “The very fact that fashion designs are copied is one of the drivers of the continued reinterpretation of styles and collections. Fashion designers innovate to stay ahead of the copiers” (Van Keymeulen, 2012).

Opposite is an example of an advert that Chanel., one of the most recognisable brands in the world, release yearly to press and certain publications to print. The ad specifies certain terms involving the brand name ‘Chanel’ and asks readers to respectfully not use the terms as they dilute the meaning and the heritage that the name ‘Chanel’ holds. This is a very direct way of ensuring that when the brand is written or spoken about publicly, it retains the original meaning that the custodians of the brand wish it to have moving forward.

Whether this is the correct way to ensure the brands heritage in its name is not lost, is yet to be seen. But marketers and advertisers alike, have their work cut out to retain the most valuable asset to any brand- its name.

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https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/how-will-brexit-impact-the-uk-fashion-industry-a3931611.html

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The BREXIT Flatline...

In the financial year ending April 2018, the UK government had already spent approximately £400 million on BREXIT (Summary: Costing Brexit, 2019). With such large sums of money moving out of the country, it is likely to have a large impact on one of the biggest sectors in the British economy; Fashion.

Walking along the main street in Monte Carlo, it’s easy to see how the designer boutiques have merged into the economy here. The air smells of wealth. There seems to be a divide in the countries of mainland Europe and the UK at the moment. The British fashion market seems to have ground to a halt. And with the uncertainty that Brexit brings, shopping has become less of an extravagant past time and more of a necessity… “Rather than taking pleasure in their purchase, one is encouraged to “stock up” on them as one might tissues.”- Pithers, 2019.

But strangely, Brexit seems to have had a rather odd effect on the design industry itself. Instead of all hell breaking lose and rivers of hot lava flowing down streets as was once thought if Brexit where to happen… there seems to be a sense of euphoria in the design houses. Streetwear has reached a golden age that seems to have only been spurred on by the plight of Brexit (Bairrada et al., 2019).

Brands have had to keep up with the serious nature of Brexit. Working out new shipping costs and import taxes, financial backlash and the overall inevitable drop in sales that will come with the UK leaving the EU. All the while they have to maintain their personality so not to scare off the already cautious consumer. According to Aaker (1997) brand personality is defined as the set of human characteristics related to a brand, based on an approach that results from the personification of the brand. It’s this relatable nature of brands, particularly on the Highstreet that is giving consumers a safe space away from the Brexit spotlight and allowing them to spend money in what is essential a difficult time for the UK economy. The resilience of consumers in the face of Brexit uncertainty is largely being supported by the labour market, where pay growth is picking up, employment is at a record high and the jobless rate is the lowest it’s been since the 1970s (Goodman and Meakin, 2019).

Although Brexit is expected to have a large adverse impact on the UK fashion market (Imms et al., 2019) there are no worrying signs as of yet that the industry is slowing down. The UK is sat on a cliff edge that on the 31stof October 2019 it will have to jump off unknowingly into the abyss below. Its yet to be seen whether the fashion industry will fall or fly.

[tom-moda]

21.12.2018

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[tom-moda]

Hey everyone! Over the years I’ve had my fair share of English and other writing intensive classes, and combined with my tendency to procrastinate I’ve had to come up with a way to write papers fast. 

step one: finding a topic and research (aka the hardest part)

You can’t write a paper without a good topic, a strong thesis, and solid research. There’s no getting around that, no matter how short you are on time. Depending on the class and the teacher, you may have your topic chosen for you or you may have total freedom. If your situation is the latter, an ideal topic is one the you care about, have some general knowledge of already, and is specific enough to be covered in the number of pages you’re limited to. After you have a topic picked, do some quick searches to see what’s out there. If your school’s library has a database, that’s the perfect place to start. Be sure to chose quality articles that have been peer reviewed when possible, and where it’s not acknowledge that the source may be an biased in your paper. 

Once you’ve started research, you should have a pretty good idea of what your angle is going to be and what points you want to make. Next write a working thesis. This is basically a sentence or two that states what you will spend the next few pages proving. Once you have it, write it on an index card and put it aside for the next step.

step two: outlining 

Take a look at your past papers. How many paragraphs are usually on a page? It’s about two for me, so I keep that in mind when planning my outline. Now for the part that lets me write so fast: index cards. 

Take one index card per paragraph you’ll need to fill your page limit, and write “into” on the back of the one with your thesis, and conclusion on the other. Now think about how to best prove your thesis, and anything else you saw in research that you want to address. 

On one side of the card goes the general topic of the paragraph (ie, “significance of symbolism”).

On the back goes all of the specific notes and details that will go in that paragraph (ie, “spring as a symbol of a fresh start for x character”)

Once you’ve done that for every paragraph lay them out in front of you and experiment with order. How do they flow naturally?

step three: writing

Now that you have your outline, all you have to do is expand on what’s on your cards. Paragraphs should be at least five sentences each, which is super easy to achieve since you already know what you’re going to say! Think of each paragraph as a mini paper: sentence one should be a topic sentence/intro, explaining what you’re going to cover. The middle/body defends and expands on your topic sentence, and the last sentence or two should conclude the paragraph and transition to the next. 

Once you have your body, you can work on your intro and conclusion. A general rule of thumb for intros is to start with a hook (something interesting that draws the reader in) and ends with your thesis. In the middle should be a sentence or so for each paragraph/point, just to give a little map of where you’re going. The conclusion is basically the same, except in reverse. Wrap it up and tell them what you just told them. 

After that, let it sit for a little while (ideally a day, but if you’re short on time just go to dinner) and then come back to edit with fresh eyes. Reading out loud will help you catch typos!

step four: citations and formatting

I like to cite as I go so I don’t have to do it all at once. I typically write my own, but if I’m in a pinch I’ll use a citation generator (like son of citation) that works super fast. Just be sure to cite everything that needs one! Plagiarism is so not cool. Double check MLA/APA/Chicago guidelines and make sure that everything is formatted right, and you’re good to hit submit!

Good luck on those papers, my fellow procrastinators!

[tom-moda]

Beyoncé, May 2013

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Beyoncé, May 2013

Beyoncé, May 2013.

This was my first issue of Vogue. It is around this time that my love for fashion begun. Or at least, that’s when I remember it beginning. Of course, as a 15 year old gay boy, I couldn’t just march into any local WHSmith store. No, I was much too insecure of my own self to do that. I had text my mum to buy me the issue. She asked why I wanted it having never bought a magazine before let alone an issue of VOGUE. This was a question it has taken me almost 6 years to answer.

I now study Fashion Promotion at university. I often wonder if I have chosen the right path for myself (I had wanted to be a nurse and I had volunteered at the city hospital for over a year during college). I also wonder why I have chosen to start this blog now, two thirds of the way through my university course, and with no ambition to become the next Susie Bubble. I should have started my own podcast maybe, but like most things, I am late to the party on that one.

I often imagine my professional life to mirror that of Carrie Bradshaw. Of course, it’s not, but that’s just how I see it. In reality, it’s not that glamorous. I have learnt over the past year, during my internship at the fast fashion brand ISAWITFIRST.com, that fashion is a hard business to crack.  I knew this already, but everyone thinks they ‘know’ everything before they actually sit down and do it. I have enjoyed my time here, and at the beginning I was hoping it would teach me some valuable lessons in both life and skills. Which it has…  but in terms of my career ideas… it seems to have stretched the light at the end of the tunnel even further away. I am not sure what I want to do, who I want to do it with and for how long. Luckily, I have the advantage of having a partner at home to rely on, and timeto make up my mind on this. Something that many in my position do not have.

I consider this to be my editors’ letter of the blog. This is my welcome to you; to all the issues that are to follow. Both literal and figuratively. I want to share my career, my highs and lows, my experiences with you, the reader. I hope you find something interesting, something of value in what I write. If not, don’t @ me.

TR