Rick Owens

London Trip, Brand Research

 

When we first came across the shop on South Audley Street it reflected the complete minimalist personality of the Rick Owens Brand. The simplicity of the store and the Black and White aesthetic was shown throughout. 

Unfortunately when enquiring about the brand in store, the staff were quite dismissive of us as students and wouldn't reveal any background or present information on the brand or allow us to use any photography inside. However, despite initially feeling as though this was a hinderance we actually found it useful when thinking about what we could do for our new creative idea.

Luckily we visited the Rick Owen's concessions section in Selfridges on Oxford Street offered us some more insight on the brand and allowed us to take photos. 

In a nutshell, our primary research consisted of:

- Rick Owens was born in 1962 in California

- He began his career as a pattern cutter, therefore being skilled and aware of fabric quality. He then went on to work for a fur company where he met his wife Michelle Lame who became his muse and designer of his clothes

- His brand started off as an underground brand, it then became more of a niche, leading it onto the catwalk as a couture brand

- His clothes were first seen at Paris fashion week where Kate Moss wore one of his jackets!

Collections

Rick Owens has 3 types of collections:

Dark Shadow

This brand is the cheapest of the 3, but by all means is not cheap. It uses less leather and expensive fabrics and more denim. It is not as luxurious and more casual.

Lily's

This collection is more mid market within the luxury hughstreet and consists of Rick Owens knitwear collections.

Mainline Rick Owens

This is the most expensive and luxurious of the 3, it is couture, the types of clothes that would be seen on the catwalk shows and worn by the more Avant Garde.

As you can see from the pictures, the 3 collections are easily recognisable from their tagging, of which also follows the same suit in standard of the collection.

Creative ideas for the future of Rick Owens are to come...

Love Livy x

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Brand Communication

Creating the Brief 

During todays lecture we watched a section from a film called 'The Lovers Guide to Brand Persuasion' we took notes on Chapter 4 - Creating the Brief/Inspire the Briefing. 

The first point that interested me was that a brief should be tight, only 1 page or so, not lengthy - clever and simple. The brief should reflect the truth about the product, however not be so logical in its ideas for creativity. What the product does and what does it say to the consumer! 

"A good brief is more like a spring board than a straight jacket" - it needs to be fresh, inventive and individual. 

For example the Guiness advert focusing around the fact it takes 119.5 seconds to pour a guiness pint - therefore good things come to those who wait. It play on the kinds of things you can do while waiting for your pint to be poured (but not just going to the loo or making a sandwich, the more extraordinary things, the things that you COULD do) 

Ideas

After the brief has been created Ideas then need to be capsulated in order to start the creative ball rolling. They should capture the human imagination, and still be believable as well as extraordinary. It needs to be able to feel like a product of tomorrow rather than yesterday, with a sense of purpose. What are the needs of that brand, what does it want to create, what is it trying to communicate! 

There needs to be powerful ideas that deliver! Never believe that the idea can't get any better, as there is always room for it to become better and stronger. 

In business you need to be an optimist.

The Execution of the Idea

Anything from Pomotion, Advertising, Events. Taking the idea and bringing it to life!

Speed is needed within this process as time tends to kill a good idea - context changes, the world that we live in and what we expect from it changes, new ideas are being made and promoted everyday, you need to get in there before the next person does!

Flexibility about which ways you what to capture that idea and the types of shots, designs or films you want to do, need to be able to have some leeway. However try to change as little of the actual idea as possible, only change what really needs to be changed. Try ad-libbing some bits and see what comes naturally, what is created in that moment. For example this Nike advert idea was never what was actually planned, the creators saw Tiger Woods messing around doing this trick on the side lines when he was bored and so they shot it and it become the main focus of the idea instead.

You have to be in charge of your idea, at this point it can be hard for the Client to let go of the idea and leave the Agency to it, however it can be hard having them looking over you at every point, they need to leave you to relax and get on with it.

Timeline

- Client creates the brief

- Agencies receive the brief

- Agencies cultivate and create ideas

- Agencies choose one idea and stick to it

- Clients receive the idea from the agencies and then choose to accept or decline the idea

- If accepted the idea cannot be changed, the client then leaves it down to the agency and their team to bring the idea to life!

Love Livy x

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Fashion Marketing Principles

THE 7P'S - aka GOD!

Marketing is pretty much everything:

- Creating

- Communicating

- Delivering

- Exchanging

It is there to create an experience that connects with people and their personalities in order for them to share that desire with others, leading to consumer repeat.

One very simple way to create an idea of the fashion marketing you are analysing is the7P's, here is an outline of the types of things that go into each P...

You can use this simple method to get started when analysing fashion marketing, it works for both high street and luxury brands

Love Livy x

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Fashion Platforms

Have you ever thought about the importance of the High Street?

Well if you answer is no, then you were the same as me...

I found todays lecture really interesting when talking about what we personally think plays an important role within the fashion industry today, and if we were a business starting out, what we would encourage the business to be a part of. 

Instagram 

I felt that a main focus should be on instagram and the incorporation of brands branching out to our younger generation by posting their latest stock, their shop windows, special offers, trends, colour palettes and outfit ideas, on the site in order to draw us in as consumers. 

Looking through instagram now, it is rare that a well known brand or company will not be on there posting their latest updates, even more so with the idea of hash tagging now, you can find any image someone has posted with that hashtag. 

The Shop Window

Another one of our teams mentioned the importance of shop windows drawing in the consumer. Companies such as Harrods and Selfridges & Co spend thousands on their shop windows, especially at Christmas to do just that! The more high-end, expensive and luxurious the shop window looks, the more high-end customers it is likely to draw in. Highlighting just how important a shop window is for the overall brand essence and value in the consumers mind. 

The Shop Experience

The shop experience plays a vital part within the fashion industry and consumerism. In order for me to go back into a shop, I need to have enjoyed the overall experience, ease to walk around, layout, displays, politeness of staff. A tactical way of doing this is by using the display. Setting them out as a journey - Dress, Jacket, Tights and then the shoes are usually located at the back of the store, so as you walk around you create your outfit. Topshop are a good example of this, they create colour schemes and different sections: pastels, knitwear, punk rock 80's, smart wear, dresses, coats ext as well as having an accessories section, shoes at the back and dressed up mannequins at the front to set out outfit and trend ideas for you. 

Chanel is also a good example of the shop experience as they make you feel exclusive, you may have only bought a £20 lipstick, however they package in up in a lovely box with ribbon and then into a branded bag, making you come out feeling a million dollars!

Lighting is also effective and should be unique to the overall brand, for example foot asylum has quite a dull cool lighting to reflect its modern hipster feel on the dark wooden interior.

Is the Internet Replacing Shops?

Back to my main point, although shop experiences are nice to have, how many times have you just thought...ahh its raining outside so ill just have a browse online instead of going out. With the use of online shopping now being introduced to just about every company, the experience of the high street is decreasing slowly. With shop windows, new seasons of clothes, trends and special offers all being promoted on social media sites such as instagram, Facebook and twitter our generation is receiving all the information we need and can access it all from our bedroom!! Its could only be a matter of time before our bedroom becomes the only shop source we have...

making the need for an exquisite shop experience even more vital now than ever before, or the shop experience could be diminished completely.

Love Livy x

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Street Style

I couldn't have been given a more fun activity as my first task! 

We were asked to go onto the streets and take pictures of people who we thought had UNIQUE AND INTERESTING senses of style. Then within that see if we could notice particular trends that were popular! 

The next part was to introduce us to Pinterest, we needed to set up a board and then pin the best selected pictures onto that board and tag them with the trends/ groups we thought they fitted into. 

The most common trends we found were: 

- City G-er

- Logo Legends

- The Proof is in the Print

- Nitty Gritty Nomads

- The Bangs Band

- Pretty Polly

- Monochrome Madness

- Kooky Krisp

- The Plaid Parade

- Doing Denim

- Bohemian Rhapsody

Here are a few of my favourite takes from the shoot :)

SKETCHBOOK FUN

Love Livy x

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Bill Cunningham, New York

BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK 

During my first week at NTU, part of our induction was to go to Nottingham's Broadway Cinema and watch the film titled 'Bill Cunningham New York'. I have to say it is definitely one of the most inspiring films I've ever seen. 

Cunningham photographs people and the passing scene in the streets of Manhattan every day, focusing on their genuine usage of clothing to express personal style. He is known not to overly photograph celebrities (like the paparazzi) or people that use fame to showcase clothing they didn't originally pick themselves (sponsored, free clothing). Most of his pictures, he has said, are never published. "You see if you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do kid” he states that freedom is the most expensive thing, and money is the least.

BRIEF HISTORY

Born in Boston, Cunningham dropped out of Harvard University in 1948 and moved to New York City, where he initially worked in advertising. Not long after, he quit his job and struck out on his own, making hats under the name ‘William J’. This business folded when he was drafted. After serving a tour in the U.S. Army, he returned to New York and started writing for the Chicago Tribune.

During his years as a writer he contributed significantly to fashion journalism. While working at the Tribune and at Women's Wear Daily he began taking photographs of fashion on the streets of New York. He published a group of impromptu pictures in the Times in December 1978, which soon became a regular series. His editor, Arthur Gelb, has called these photographs "a turning point for the Times, because it was the first time the paper had run pictures of well-known people without getting their permission”. He photographed socialites within the fashion industry such as Anna Wintor, who speaks very highly of him within the ‘New York Documentary’.

"More than anyone else in the city, he has the whole visual history of the last 40 or 50 years of New York. It's the total scope of fashion in the life of New York”.

I think it will be one of those films that stays with me throughout my whole life.

Love Livy x

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