PSFK was curious about what makes the perfect fashion brand. After all we’re a publisher, a voyeur on the world of fashion. Our voice is small and what we think makes the perfect fashion brand others with more experience than us may not think. So what did we do? We cornered three of the UK’s most fashion forward thinkers for the answer: Craig Spellar one the designers behind hip London brand and retail experience Harriet’s Muse, Nikki Rowntree the straightest talking fashion PR you’ll ever meet, Jo Phillips one of the most sought after UK stylists until she was seduced by the world of print and founded the uber-cool Cent magazine and asked them each 1 simple question.

Q. What makes the perfect fashion brand?

Jo Phillips - Creative Director - Cent Magazine

Its almost impossible to answer, what constitutes a  perfect fashion brand? Is that something that sells a lot? something that looks great? In this day and age I even ask the question what constitutes a brand?

The term ‘brand’ to me has become over used and I consider that it refers to high street not designer, so maybe I could answer the question in two parts.

The perfect high street fashion brand? I can’t name one, but I can sight a few high street retailers who I think are interesting and are responding to the very savvy customers out there. H&M I think have been very clever in their link ups with top name designers like Karl Lagerfeld  and Stella McCartney .  Debenhams have also been very successful albeit with a very different customer they are attracting into store.  Top shop also, with their capsule collections in collaboration with young designers, that tend to be relatively new to the catwalks of London fashion Week.  Then there are the sports brands like Umbro with Kim Jones and Philip Tracy, Adidas with Stella MaCartney  and Puma with numerous names.

As I do believe consumers know who these people are, they all want,  to have their slice of the designer market.  We know that in relative sales terms these sales are not huge numbers but they increase the footfall and are an amazing profile raising, clever marketing ploy, and I don’t feel uncomfortable (as many do) with high street and designer linking up.  Often for young designers these link ups can help them stabilize their businesses or afford them the opportunity to show at high profile events like London Fashion Week.  At the end of the day, I really believe that big business needs creativity not just to survive but in order to move forward.  No business, whatever field, can grow without a creative input.  Peoples’ imagination needs to be caught, if you, as a business, want them to be interested in what you are selling, then designer link ups with the high street work well.  But I would say Brands beware, it’s not just enough to bring a designer in to highlight your brands there must be a real synergy otherwise it looks cheap and cynical and will end up being an expensive mistake. Also this market is becoming saturated so clever link ups are vital.

As for designer labels, again almost impossible to answer, but a good designer firstly knows who they are selling to. This may sound obvious but I see so many collections and the first question that pops into my head is ‘who is supposed to wear this?’ even when a designer is in their embryonic stage, and they want to be capturing and enlightening peoples imagination, I do honestly think, even within a very press orientated collection, there must be a core selling collection that is visible. Fashion is a wonderful art-form and a fantastic vehicle for expression I firmly believe that, but its not art for arts sake. This is after all the Fashion Industry!  Tom Ford when at Gucci and Roland Mouret both understood exactly who the women were, they were selling to. This means they create a loyalty from these customers not only do they come back and buy again they also work as a fantastic ‘word of mouth’ vehicle for the designer.

Well cut and well made, again sounds obvious but when the clothes are hanging in the shop if the make isn’t quite right it really shows up, and if once the item has been bought and worn it starts to wear badly, this isn’t going to get repeat buys.

A uniqueness to the design; I may seem to be stating the obvious but a signature is really crucial, what makes a customer buy your black trousers compared to somebody else’s? Think of somebody like Issey Miyake and instantly you can instantly visualize what the clothes could look like, the same with labels like Vivienne Westwood, Comme de Garcons or Versace all instantly conjure up an image. Although a lot of designers rely on their advertising campaigns to create a visual identity the best labels do this through their clothes. I wont be boring and bang on about the tribal elements of this but this does play a part in creating an identity.

I could over analyze this subject, but why don’t I just close with one final thought, that DOESN’T answer the question of what makes the perfect fashion brand. Somewhere what makes a great piece of clothing is often something whimsical, something you can’t always put your finger on.  In reality, people that buy designer clothes don’t NEED them, they DESIRE them, it’s that feeling when you walk into a store and see an item that just grabs you EMOTIONALLY, and you know you have to buy it. If you can do that with your brand then in my eyes you’re great!

Nikki Rowntree - Founder - Nikki Rowntree PR

As you say in your intro, the perfect fashion brand means different things to different people.  Was it Janet Street Porter or Jerry Hall who described Antony Price’s super seductive, sexy dresses as ‘result-wear’? For many people the perfect fashion brand has the frisson and fulfillment of a fantastic date – anticipation, flattery and, of course, wanting more at the end of it all. 

Rather less explosively, and at the risk of being a tad boring, my own personal idea of perfection in a fashion brand starts with a heartfelt point of view.  It is something that the designer or founder simply can’t help but express and that other people are excited to adopt. When the starting point is honest then the ensuing conversation between brand and customer has an unmistakable integrity that I really value. Prada and Toast have both been fantastic conversationalists in their time.

For the future, I think that the perfect fashion brand will be less about clothing and more about all the other services we use and how we would like to see them packaged, wherever we are in the world.  When our computers become cognitive I have no doubt that someone will realize that they (the computers) will work better and more efficiently wearing Prada, or will be warmer and more forgiving in Ralph Lauren.  Of course, by this time we will have chips with everything anyway so the perfect fashion brand will simply be whatever you programmed it to be and, as it is now, your view might not be quite the same as mine darling!

Craig Spellar - Founder and Creative Director - Harriets Muse

Audacity, gumption, dogmatism, vision and self belief! A brand is a personality, a vehicle to articulate values and character, a voice of principles… Fashion is more than having that great ‘one idea’ it is the ability to define a moment through the true balance of aesthetics and aspiration. For me a fashion brand should be experiential, accessible and above all enjoyable. Designer brands should be uncompromising in their principles and embrace slow fashion; (slow fashion being the antipathies of fast fashion and the hyper acceleration of high street trends). True fashion brands are develop through concept exploration, cut and fabric development – to me a good brand transcends trend and is desirable for its individual design ethos.

Harriet’s Muse represents a utopian paradigm of dream and hope, femininity and sensualities; sinister and at times down right dark! We are mischievous and somewhat risqué: daring but never obvious. To be sexy is not overt nudity conveyed by only the most subtle of detail, Sexiness is an instinct, an attitude and an emotion; we do love to dress up & style ladies.!  Our design ethos is feminine flavors complimented by adventurous and contemporary cutting, juxtaposed by sinister aspirations. Our collections are asperitional and intellectually informed, they are conceptual yet commercial, We believe that good design should work on many levels. Our patrons enjoy our work for many reasons; we are highly individual, outspoken and often not conformist. We adore tradition but are not bound by convention, trend nor hype.

PSFK finds immense similarity in each of the answers given by our three experts even though they each cover completely different fields within the industry.  Their enlightenment has prompted us to examine our initial ignorance.  Now in light of their enlightenment and a week of navel gazing PSFK has decided that we can also answer the question.  Only our answer is in the shape of the following formula:

Brand x Truth = Brand Truth
Good Designer x Good History of Designer = Legend
Designer x Brand Truth x Silhouette = Designer who understands the brand or DUB for short
DUB x Legend = Press = Sales = Success

Thank-you to Jo, Nikki and Craig for your time in answering the question.

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