fashion's night out 2012

1Vogue Fashion’s Night Out : London : 2012


Introduction Undoubtedly the biggest night on the High Street calendar, ‘Fashion’s Night Out’, has proved itself to be a win-win for retailers - not only delivering sales but also a huge amount of exposure, with over 50,000 people on the streets of central London.

With over 400 stores taking part in London alone, we headed to Bond Street, and beyond, to bring you reports on our favourite brands of the evening. As well as talking to figures from within the industry, we also spoke to consumers to get a picture of what makes ‘Fashion’s Night Out’ a major opportunity for brands - and not just fashion brands.

The event was established in 2009 by Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour and CFDA president and designer, Diane von Furstenberg, as a way to bring shoppers into stores without resorting to traditional discount tactics - although discounts are very much part of the appeal.

Aside from the bargains, crowds are swept away in a heady mix of catwalk shows, branded experiences, limited-edition goodies and, of course, the free champagne. As they shop and party alongside Hollywood starlets, music artists, models, designers and the stars of stage and screen, ‘Fashion’s Night Out’ allows everyone to feel truly fabulous for one night.

‘Fashion’s Night Out’ is the festival for fashionistas.

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what

is happening.”

Coco Chanel


The Numbers:

1 Night4 Years5 Hours

19 Countries 500Cities

400 Stores in London

30,000

Likes (London)

217,000Likes

(FNO NYC)

50,000People

92%Increase in footfall

162,000followers (FNO NYC)

135,000 Tweets over seven days (Topsy.com)

210,000 +promo viral views


What the industry said:

“We have a young generation of designers and we like to get close to our customers”

Jonathan Saunders

It’s a proper celebration of British fashion and it’s about

brand building

Matthew Williamson“It really is a new holiday.

The night for people who love fashion and style to celebrate”

Michael Korrs

It’s buzzing. I have never seen anything like this

in London

Florence Brudenell-Bruce

“A fantastic, big shopping evening”

Alexandra Shulman, Editor, Vogue


“It was really cool and interesting. I just wanted to look at some people who are cooler

than me mainly.”

Sara (22) & Alex (24)

“We came out tonight because we normally do

it every year and it is shops that you wouldn’t

normally go into.”

Chimere Cisse (29)

“I think this is a wonderful initiative,

I love the people.”

Nick (24) & Stefan (23)

“An amazing atmosphere. I’ve never seen as many

cool people in one area, ever.”

Heather (24)

“We have been for the last couple of years so that’s why we made a plan to

come tonight as well. It is more to look around than actually buy anything.”

Helen (25)

What shoppers said:

“I have come out to see people, be inspired, go to a few parties and see new

products. Basically to enjoy myself.”

Anuerin (32)

“I’m from America and Fashion’s Night Out is a really big deal over there, it is advertised on TV. So when they said they were

having it in London, I knew I would be here.”

Annie (19), Taylor (18), Amanda (19)

“I’ve been in London since the first Fashion’s Night Out so it’s kind of a tradition to do it with

my girl friends.”

Verity (26)

“The energy is great. It’s a fun night. Everyone is out

on the street partying,”

Bianca (24)

“To be honest I hadn’t really heard of it before tonight but

I’m really pleased we’ve come down. The atmosphere

is amazing!”

Joseph (26)


MULBERRYThe quintessentially British lifestyle brand Mulberry has become one of the most prevailing brands of the last decade. Established in Somerset, the designs were originally inspired by outdoor pursuits such as hunting and fishing, as well as often being the accessories of these sports. The brand has become renowned for the highest quality materials and the finest craftsmanship and much like Barbour, people have embraced the brand’s heritage appeal. The brand’s dynamic collections and significant relationships with celebrities have propelled Mulberry to the higher echelons of the fashion industry.

The brand shows its character through these celebrity relationships and specifically aligns itself with names that they feel represent that Mulberry aesthetic. Alexa Chung has championed Mulberry for many years, so much so that they honoured her by naming a bag after her. More recently they have launched the Del Ray, in recognition of popular model and singer Lana Del Ray. The attendance of such celebrities at Mulberry’s Fashion’s Night Out throughout the last couple of years has caused much hype around the brand, none more so than this year.

This year saw Mulberry team up with Vogue to launch Fashion’s Night Out with an official party, hosted by Vogue’s Editor Alexandra Shulman. Filled with a mass of celebrities and designers, vast crowds gathered outside of the store to get a glance and extensive queues developed to get in store, it was the most sought after event of the night. Mulberry continues to establish itself as the brand that everyone wants a piece of.

Why We Like ItOfficial: So often headline sponsors play second fiddle to other brands - e.g. Adidas and Nike. However, by partnering with Vogue to launch proceedings, Mulberry was the one event everyone knew about and wanted to get into.

Fame: Hats off to Mulberry, Fashion’s Night Out has the great and the good from music, film, television and of course fashion. Competition is fierce and no one pulled in as many stars as them and that was reflected in the coverage.

From The Brand“Since Vogue launched this event in 2009 we’ve been a partner of it, both in the UK and the US and also in Paris and Amsterdam. We think it is a fantastic initiative to re-energise consumers to come out and spend and shop, I think it was a really great initiative post the recession and I think they have really managed to excite the consumer again and that’s something we really believe in. Fundamentally, we are luxury brand but we have a retail store that we need to get consumers into. This year, being asked to be the host of the event was absolutely spectacular and we’re really proud to be part of it again.”

Mulberry – Marketing Manager

DESIGNER /LUXURY

Word On The Street

“I’ve just come out of Mulberry. It is one to look forward to because the guestlist has a

lot of celebrities from the UK and US.”


Why We Like ItSpringboard: What better way to announce and launch a new initiative than to a large, consumer base of over 50,000 people? Not to mention creating one of the hottest tickets in town.

Brand: Eschewing the fashion world’s obsession with the latest trend, Emporio Armani unlined their commitment to building their credibility in the music space.

DESIGNER /LUXURY

EMPORIOARMANIAs the younger division of the Armani fashion house, Emporio Armani has always been out to prove that it is something different to its sister brand Georgio. Whereas Georgio Armani teamed up with Vogue in 2009 to kick off the night’s festivities with an ultra stylish cocktail party, Emporio has taken a different approach.

Last year Emporio teamed up with record label EMI to host a gig with some of their hottest new acts such as Emeli Sande, The Good Natured and Baxter Dury. This followed the success of their Summer Garden Live project, a series of music events held at the in-store ‘Secret Garden’, in partnership with other music labels such as Sony, Polydor & Island Records.

This year, Emporio Armani continued to develop this relationship with music by using Fashion’s Night Out to launch ‘Emporio Armani Diamonds’, a new partnership with MTV’s ‘Brand New For 2013’.

The prestigious music programme has previously helped to launch the careers of Tinie Tempah and Lana Del Ray. MTV again curated another very credible line-up including live performances from Labrinth and Jessie Ware, to the delight of the hip, young, music crowd in attendance.

Word On The Street

“The atmosphere is amazing. MTV and Armani!

It works!”


Why We Like ItCommitment: Not just a launch or a special offer, Louis Vuitton went all the way with a full store take over, taking their impact to the next level.

Brand: Like Emporio Armani, Louis Vuitton used Fashion’s Night Out as a brand development platform rather than a seasonal/tactical opportunity, by asserting their connection to art.

DESIGNER /LUXURY

LOUIS VUITTONLouis Vuitton has been named as the world’s most valuable luxury brand for seven consecutive years. Established in France in 1854 it has always had an affinity with Japan - its iconic logo was inspired by Japanese symbols, (reportedly a big trend in the late Victorian era), and its first stores opened in Tokyo and Osaka. It is fitting that in recent years it has collaborated with several modern masters of Japanese art, innovation and design.

The brand has a long-standing relationship with art and is always on the look out for collaborations that give their very traditional bags a radical new twist. The Bond Street store has even been described as an “art gallery” itself, containing the works of Damien Hirst, Gilbert & George and Jeff Koons. It has been a dedicated sponsor to many major exhibitions across the world and Fashion’s Night Out has provided another opportunity to highlight this position to the industry.

This year, Fashion’s Night Out was a celebration of Louis Vuitton’s latest collaboration with the iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Shoppers were engaged and enraptured with the eccentricity and personality of Kusama. A live mannequin was put in the window display for part of the evening. In-store shoppers were invited to style themselves with some of her most distinctive props; have their picture taken by a professional photographer; explore a full branded pop-up shop and all while enjoying a taste of Japanese drinks.

Word On The Street

“Everywhere we have been tonight I have been hearing about Louis Vuitton, it’s just

great and a little mad. I love it”


Nicola Rutledge: Communications PartnerMedia owned events are notoriously difficult to gain press coverage on in other titles. This year’s Fashion’s Night Out was still understandably something not to be widely covered by the consumer fashion titles, however, thanks to the wide variety of newsworthy celebrities, the event successfully gained press coverage in a number of national UK titles.

The likes of Daisy Lowe, Cheryl Cole, Kelly Brook, Pixie Geldof, Yasmin Le Bon, Bip Ling, the Made in Chelsea cast, Labrinth and Wretch 32 were all in attendance at various store parties and led to a number of picture-led stories being covered by the likes of Daily Mail, Huffington Post, The Sun, The Daily Star and Sunday Mirror.

The night provided the perfect platform for style and fashion bloggers to gain a wealth of content from street style photos to store showcases. All of the main fashion editors of the nationals and consumer titles were in attendance, particularly to observe how certain stores were showcasing their brand and collections.

The majority of previews and pre-promotion was through Vogue, Vogue.com and in-store. London-based media such as Evening Standard, Time Out and The Londonist all provided previews. As did The Daily Mail, which created a FEMAIL guide to the event, outlining key stores and after-parties for their female readership to look out for on the night.

However, the biggest PR win of the event is from a reputation management perspective. For Vogue, the event allows them to further reinforce their fashion credentials with an exclusive association with the capital’s retail district and the full cross-section of high-end and mainstream fashion brands.

For the multitude of fashion brands and retailers involved, it is a mutually beneficial association with Vogue. For a high-end brand it acts to underline their fashion credentials and deepen their engagement with their customers, while for a mainstream brand it can help leverage style kudos in the eyes of their consumers.

It provides all retailers involved with the ideal opportunity for not only key seasonal promotion but also providing the perfect platform for brand building activity – the chance to showcase their brand personality and values to a captivated target audience. Of course how much they decide to capitalise on the opportunity depends on the individual retailers.

Fashion’s Night Out enables fashion retailers to successfully reach and engage style conscious females. And with more brands from outside the world of fashion getting involved (music and mobile for example), I expect to see more and more brands jump aboard Fashion’s Night Out next year.

MY THOUGHTS


Why We Like ItEntry Level: Building their activity around an entry point product was a bold and very smart move that enabled Hermes to attract a whole new generation to the brand.

Product Integration: Dancers performed with the headscarf, firmly placing the product front and centre, as well as matching their window displays and staff dress to the activity.

From The Brand“It’s for people who love fashion and are really interested in fashion. They can come down and have an experience with Hermes that perhaps they don’t have on a day-to-day level. They may also think that Hermes is very classical whereas inside the company we know that our spirit is very young and creative so this gives us an opportunity to express that to a younger audience who can start having a relationship with Hermes.”

Hermes - Communications Director

HERITAGE

HERMESEstablished in the 1950s, Hermes is a brand that oozes heritage and finesse. An elegant lifestyle brand built around Parisian style, delicate fabrics and enchanting designs, it is best known for its beautiful scarves. Like so many other heritage brands, Hermes, are in the process of increasing their relevancy to a younger generation.

Fashion’s Night Out provided the perfect platform for the brand to attract and engage a younger audience. Last year was the first time Hermes had participated at Fashion’s Night Out, hosting a bangle bowling game in a branded horsebox. This year a stage was placed outside the store on Bond Street making a statement of fun, energy and participation for all to see. 1950s dance classes, performances and a DJ, ensured Hermes had undoubtedly the biggest presence on the busy pedestrianised road and was one of the most talked about brands of the night.

Through in-store scarf styling classes the brand educated young customers and changed perceptions about wearing scarves. The product was at the heart of every aspect of their offering from window displays to dancers skirts made from Hermes scarves and a specially choreographed dance routine performed using the scarves.

The Hermes team even got into the swing of things, all styled in 1950s wear, helping to re-enforce and introduced the often-overlooked personality of the brand to consumers.

Word On The Street

“Scarves are something that everybody wears but nobody

knows how to style for everyday, so they taught us how to do it,

which was amazing. We learned how to incorporate their product

into our day-to-day.”


HERITAGE

Why We Like ItAudience: Working with cult East London collective, The Last Tuesday Society, ensured that a young, hip crowd made the effort to walk past Bond Street and Piccadilly to explore stores not normally on their radar.

Experience: A genuine festival experience that immersed and entertained in equal measure. With a thematic that felt true to heritage of the surrounding but offered an exciting twist and plenty of ammunition for Facebook shares and champagne fuelled conversations.

From The Brand“It’s a great opportunity to expose your brand to a wider/ younger fashion conscious audience – which is part of our current brand strategy. This event is now recognised on the national/international annual calendar and we saw a great influx of overseas visitors too, which drove good sales on the evening. Whilst heritage is fundamental – its important to show that we are also evolving – not only with our new store offering, but also with our on-site activity – being connected to arts, fashion, culture is the way to show that we are leading, not following.”

Burlington Arcade – Retail Marketing Manager

THE BURLINGTON ARCADEA place where old and new worlds meet, the Burlington Arcade offers an ornate and historic shopping destination. As one the world’s first shopping arcades, its heritage is personified by the Burlington Arcade Beadles - guards who patrol the arcade dressed head-to-toe in the most traditional of outfits. You may ask how this translates into to one of the glitziest nights on the British fashion calendar, well rather successfully it would seem.

With the presence of designer brands throughout the arcade, this year a combined effort to do something unique brought to fruition a collaboration with The Last Tuesday Society. Known for their eccentricity and exploration of the esoteric, literary and art, they are renowned for their extravagant and decadent events – and even popped up to host a midnight masked ball at our very own multi-arts festival, Wilderness.

The “Couture Carnival” was brought to life with marching bands, acrobats, cabaret artists, live snakes and puppet shows. A chocolate fountain flowed, popcorn popped and candy-floss was spun, giving the Arcade a festival vibe. It was an exhibition that exposed the true character of the sometimes seemingly ‘sedate’ shopping Arcade, which was woken up and turned on its head.

Word On The Street

“What else can I say? It has just been so much fun.”


HERITAGE

BOUCHERONFor over 150 years, Parisian brand, Boucheron has been making some of the finest jewellery in the world, taking inspiration from the contemporary movements of the time across art, fashion and culture. The brand has consistently developed products that innovate and push the jewellery industry forward.

Last year’s Fashion’s Night Out endeared the brand to all in attendance with a children’s choir singing outside the store and this year Boucheron continued to radiate with warm charm. Perhaps not language you would associate with a Bond Street jeweller.

The brand reflected on its French roots, bringing a taste of Parisian street culture to Bond Street. Artists dressed in berets drew characterful portraits of consumers on the template of a Vogue front cover, while listening to some cheery French music being played on an accordion. As many of the designer Bond Street jewellers dismissed the chance to take part in the event, Boucheron used the opportunity to give something back to consumers. Without doubt very few of the people who received a portrait could afford to purchase the bespoke jewellery on offer but who knows, one day when they do, the brand they will think of is Boucheron.

Why We Like ItPlayful: A brand that doesn’t take itself too seriously, breaking with the stuffy, old image of Bond Street jewellers.

Individual: Photobooths and curated photography seemed to be the activity de jour at Fashion’s Night Out, but it was great to see a brand thinking a bit more creatively to offer consumers something truly unique and memorable to take home.

Word On The Street

“The last thing I thought I would be taking home tonight

is a caricature of myself but it is going straight up

on my wall.”


Jono Marcus:Digital PartnerExploring the clouds of social media conversation about Fashion’s Night Out is a smart way to find out which brands have really been able to capitalise on the opportunity. Some of them are a little unexpected, for example if your job were to promote Covent Garden and Westfield to the world you’d be pretty pleased about the number of bloggers around the world talking about this as a shopping location, ahead of any brands involved.

The fashion brand that dominated online conversation and the only one to achieve any real cut-through around the initiative, was Mulberry. They benefited from visits from highly photographable models and celebrities to the store. The store experience was being hosted by Alex Shulman, Editor in chief of Vogue and Emma Hill, Creative Director at Mulberry.

A simple hashtag for conversation around ‘Fashion’s Night Out’ (#VFNO) and tweets - from the likes of Roberto Cavalli, the editor of ohmyprada.com, Lipsy, Lulu Guinness, Ted Baker, American Express and John Lewis - ensured it trended in the UK on the night.

Social media feeds were even easer to keep updated this year, as Fashion’s Night Out had a mobile app that integrated to store profiles, social media and Google Maps to help revelers navigate the 400 stores involved and post updates quickly.

As for individual brands, Liberty, Jaeger and ghd had social media successfully built into their campaigns but New York was way ahead. Fashion Night in New York saw brand Bergdorf Goodman working directly in collaboration with Tumblr, a photo based app-led scavenger hunt through the event from brand Downtown Seattle; and instagram photos with model from Juicy Couture. All this (and the higher mobile social media usage in New York compared to London) meant online engagement, the online brand footprint of the event and impact for the individual biggest brands involved, was over 500% more powerful the other side of the pond.

So as far as digital engagement is concerned for brands involved in Fashion’s Night Out London 2012, the report is good, but could be far, far better, with a little more inventiveness and little more investment.

MY THOUGHTS


Why We Like ItMoney Can’t Buy: A true fashion lovers dream, Liberty was able to offer customers money can’t buy opportunities to meet and interact with some of the hottest designers in London. Needless to say fans lapped it up all night long.

Space: Liberty is blessed with one of the most iconic shopping locations in the world and they really made the space count. At times it felt as if Liberty had held their own mini-fashion festival with several retailers vying for attention.

LIBERTYLiberty is synonymous with the best of British design, with an aesthetic that has often been defined by its iconic prints. In recent years it has continued to make itself relevant through collaborations with Nike and Kate Moss, proving that they still have their finger on the pulse.

Liberty have never lost sight of their heritage and have used Fashion’s Night Out in the past to demonstrate their eccentric character and sense of humour, as well as showcasing their prestigious design collection. Themes have set the tone and in the last few years have seen them host Hawaiian parties and the imaginative “Museum of Everything”.

This year the event had a Victorian Fun Fair theme in which many of their design partners got involved, from photobooths to themed cocktails. In-store appearances from top designers have always been a guaranteed at Liberty, last year saw Manolo Blahnik visit the store, and this year it was the turn of popular designers Jonathan Saunders, Roksanda Illincic and Richard Nicoll.

Saunders ran a photobooth (#showusyoursaunders), giving customers the opportunity to be personally styled by their idol whereas Nicoll and Illincic demonstrated the craftsmanship behind their luxurious products with a live mannequin display and signed hand drawn sketches of their A/W collection.

RETAILERS

Word On The Street

“We’re going to stay at Liberty now, this seems to be the place

where everything is happening. It’s the best place

we’ve been”


OPENING CEREMONYHaving only recently launched its pop-up shop in Covent Garden, Opening Ceremony can be considered a ‘newbie’ to the London fashion market. Based in New York, Opening Ceremony is a ‘multi-faceted retail environment’ - put simply, it does a little bit of everything. They have shops where they sell designer clothes, they have private label collections, studios and an international creative forum. Opening Ceremony have a host of collaborations under their belts including Spike Jonze, Chloe Sevigny and Levi’s. They are the super hip all-rounders in the industry.

Opening Ceremony like to approach fashion holistically, incorporating and merging cultures within design, as well as encouraging creative thinking. As their first big event, Fashion’s Night Out provided them with a platform to introduce their brand and communicate their principles. The in-store event looked to Korea for inspiration and consumers were able to engage their senses in some of its cultural offerings including Korean BBQ, K-pop makeovers, cherry blossom trees and paper lanterns, as well as specially curated products.

Opening Ceremony provided an immersive experience for consumers and shared their enthusiasm for culture and fashion, encouraging people to consider new ideas and get involved in the world around them.

Why We Like ItLaunch: Opening Ceremony created possibly the most hyped event of the evening by being brave and acting differently to anyone else. The K-Pop themed party that dominated the street introduced the brand to a UK audience in style.

Detail: Details turn a good idea into a great idea as well as arming customers and bloggers with stories to tell and re-tell. Every inch of Opening Ceremony felt like a curated experience and they have reaped the rewards of their passion and effort.

RETAILERS

Word On The Street

“We heard that this was going to be one of the parties of the night and we weren’t disappointed.

The colours are amazing as are the cocktails. People are even getting Manga makeovers”


ANTHROPOLOGIEThe American brand, owned by Urban Outfitters, market a very specific and enviable lifestyle full of individuality and the seemingly ornate. If you asked people what they think of Anthropologie they will swoon over the diverse patterns and rustic design that can be found dominating Pinterest pages. It is a brand with integrity that focuses on the beautiful and the eclectic, a very different offering from the young, trendy Urban Outfitters.

Having only recently made the move from the US to London it has undoubtedly made a mark with its huge store in Regent Street. Following last year’s Fashion’s Night Out which focused around an in-store pop-up shop with Peekaboo Vintage, this year Anthropologie focused on and engaged consumers with its own design principles. It offered consumers an education in print techniques and allowed active involvement in design.

Consumers were able to get involved in a scarf workshop, that encouraged them to pop on an apron, choose their favourite colours and used varied effects to design their own scarf, whilst listening to a live band. Anthropologie were comfortable avoiding the glitz and glamour often associated with the night, instead focusing on exactly what their consumer will value most - something individual to take home that demonstrates their creativity.

Why We Like ItGet Involved: On a night created to celebrate the designer, can there be a better piece of activity than enabling the audience to become one themselves?

Giving Something Back: We love the mechanic that asked for a charity donation to Refuge to take home your scarf. A nice ethical touch to the evening, not to forget the official Vogue t-shirt, design by Jonathan Saunders - it sold out in just one hour.

RETAILERS

Word On The Street

“They’re not just having a sale like most places, they had the

activity that you could make your own scarf and

I thought that was really interesting.”


David Proud-lock: Creative Partner Don’t be tricked into thinking that Fashion’s Night Out is all about the shopping, in fact very few of the people we met were there to buy due to the crowds. Many were there to browse and get ideas before returning later to purchase. Most attended to soak up the atmosphere, enjoy the entertainment with friends and, of course, drink as much free champagne as possible. In fact many people we spoke to referred to the evening as a ‘carnival’ or ‘festival’.

Undoubtedly Fashion’s Night Out offers a huge opportunity for brands and not just fashion brands, with over 50,000 people packed onto the streets of central London, Fashion’s Night Out is officially now one of the UK’s largest festivals.

Twice the size of Secret Garden Party and the same size as Bestival, in our opinion Fashion’s Night Out London is only going to grow in size to firmly establish itself on UK festival scene.

Fashion’s Night Out offers brands an edge over music festivals as everyone is, openly, there to engage with brands, with the added bonus that they will remember it the morning. Besides, where else can you reach this many young, female consumers?

Unlike music festivals where brand exposure has reached saturation point, Fashion’s Night Out is under exploited by brands and therefore offers a great opportunity to stand out from the crowd, especially since fashion brands have always been slightly behind the curve in terms non-traditional marketing channels - especially in social media.

This year saw the first sign of non-fashion brands joining the party with brands like Samsung, creating a live music stage headlined by Wolf Gang, and Vodafone, adding a mobile phone recharge tent and free nail bar whilst you waited.

As Fashion’s Night grows, more and more brands will get involved, just as they have in New York. The most successful brands however, will be the ones to come up with original and highly relevant executions to suit the occasion.

MY THOUGHTS


JAEGERJaeger is at the high-end of the high street, as an established British brand they have always concentrated on quality, chic design and distinguishing themselves with their simplistic colour palette. The brand has become associated with a mature consumer despite recent attempts to launch more modern collections. Fashion’s Night Out gives this brand an opportunity to reach out to new customers.

Having been involved in Fashion’s Night Out from 2009, they have shown their dedication to Vogue’s project. The brand has evolved in its approach to Fashion’s Night Out, more recently favouring engaging creative projects, which is clearly something that they feel fits the brand. Last year saw consumers designing their own handbags with Pantone pens and this year they ran a t-shirt design competition, showing further commitment to customers, by putting the winning design (chosen on Facebook) into production for the S/S 13 collection.

Embracing the creativity of shoppers and upping the tempo of the store with a DJ in the window, a manicurist on the top floor and G&Ts provided by local bar Sketch, the brand tried and succeeded in reaching a new generation of shoppers.

Why We Like ItThe Idea: A great idea that not only encouraged people to hang around the Jaeger store and enjoy a free drink, the design competition also created a lot of buzz pre, during and post the night.

Commitment: It would have been so easy to ruin this idea by limiting it to the night or a window display. Credit to Jaeger for having the guts to include the winning design in the S/S 13 collection.

From The Brand“Fashion’s Night Out is a great celebration of shopping, which is why we like to get involved. It’s not necessarily about discounts, it’s about doing something innovative, doing something fun in store. It’s really good for us as Jaeger, we have quite a lot of older customers and it gets the younger Vogue reader in as well and introduces them to the brand. We’re always really happy to be involved and have the Vogue name in our windows.”

Jaeger – Marketing Manager

HIGH STREET

Word On The Street

“Next year people might be coming to Fashion’s

Night Out to see my design.”


BEYOND RETROBeyond Retro opened on Brick Lane at the start of the area’s vintage revolution, demonstrating their ability to predict trends. Now with a collection of shops around London and abroad they are very much established as the people in the know. From the outside they are a store that celebrates originality and creativity through its broad selection of vintage wear, whilst behind the scenes they are a fountain of knowledge when it comes to forecasting fashion’s next movements.

Last year at Fashion’s Night Out they chose to share some of this knowledge and connections by hosting three of London’s top stylists. They shared their experience by styling the models in vintage as well as encouraging customers to take more risks with fashion. This year they continued to share their secrets by allowing consumers a peak at their extensive archive around their theme of the moment, Rainbow Grunge. Eastern fashion was the flavor of the night with the store transformed into a Harajuku dream world - bright colours, vintage cartoons and brave combinations.

The daring Tokyo inspired collection demonstrated, once again, that this is a label that enjoy taking risks and inspire consumers to think differently about fashion. This was nicely topped off with sushi, Japanese inspired drinks and a karaoke booth. Beyond Retro do not do things by half.

Why We Like ItCollection: Creating a collection for the evening transformed Beyond Retro from one-off purchases and accessories into a genuine fashion brand that is clearly ahead of the curve of the K & J Pop trend alongside Opening Ceremony.

Fun: Fun and fashion are not two words you often see together but we loved Beyond Retro pricking the pomposity of high-end fashion with an evening all out fun and a tongue in cheek confidence that felt very on brand. We look forward to next year.

From The Brand“We’re not just an a-typical vintage store, we pick up pieces on a trend-led basis and obviously catwalks and London Fashion week is something we’ve always been happy to be a part of. The benefits for us are to say to people you know you that you don’t need to necessarily go to Topshop on the high street to get the most up to date trends, it’s more about recycling and reusing for us and it’s a good opportunity for us to meet those kind of people half-way and get them involved in our store.”

Beyond Retro – Store Manager

HIGH STREET

Word On The Street

“I heard there was free sushi at Beyond Retro so that was a big draw I’m not going to lie and I’m wearing Japanese fashion so I thought it would be a good

place to go.”


TOPSHOPTopshop is the epitome of the British high street, with over 300 stores around the UK (440 worldwide), it holds its own as a style-led shopping destination for young men and women. The Oxford Street store in itself has become a London tourist destination and the world’s largest fashion store, entertaining a mighty 30,000 visitors a day. Topshop takes its inspiration from the catwalks and translates them into accessible and affordable collections for every day women. It reigns high above its British competitors in variety and could be confidently labeled the leader of the high street pack.

In terms of Fashion’s Night Out, Topshop tends to keep it simple, mainly because they have less to prove than other high-end brands to high street consumers - they are most likely already holding a place in their wardrobe. Last year they took video clips of consumers having a “fashion moment”, which were projected onto a video grid in-store, along with stylists giving shoppers advice and sharing the latest hero products. This year saw them host a party of makeovers and a special performance in the window by London singer Delilah. For Topshop who has sweets, beauticians and personal stylists built into its stores all year round, they simply maximize on this for Fashion’s Night Out. Once again proving to the consumers that they know what they like and a singer in the window is just the icing on the cake.

Why We Like ItSpot On: Topshop know who they are and what their audience is looking for. Topshop didn’t mess with a winning formula but merely exploited their position as destination fashion.

Credible: The days of Kate Moss are gone and working with credible up-and-coming musicians like Delilah rather than big name performers, shows yet again why Topshop stay at the top. They stay in touch with and lead the trends of the day.

HIGH STREET

Word On The Street

“I have just been getting as many freebies

as possible.”


Will Parkinson: Production PartnerEvents are all about creating memorable and highly engaging experiences for consumers, the brands that really caught my eye at Fashion’s Night Out were those who broke free of the confines of their stores and took to the streets of London.

Stores have never been great event spaces in my opinion, as they are simply not fit for purpose. They are inflexible, low capacity, with limited floor space and have poor access for large groups, not to mention all the stock. With over 50,000 people and just 400 stores the result is often a weak brand experience and often complete rejection as people avoid the crush.

Several people I spoke to were less than happy having stood in a huge queue only to leave soon after they entered, as they were unable to move once they were inside.

The stand out experiences of the night for me all took place outside of the store and brands used the space for different purposes.

Hermes, Opening Ceremony and Burlington Arcade were able to pull in and introduce themselves to a whole new audience by dominating the pathways. Without doing so people would have walked straight past the stores either unfamiliar or uninterested in the brands’ offering.

Non-fashion brands such as Samsung and Vodafone ‘hijacked’ the event, understanding that no one want to visit a mobile phone shop on Fashion Night’s Out.

Finally, ghd, with no high street retail presence launched their socially powered, mobile ghd Air Boutique in a converted airstream trailer to engage their Facebook community as well as the thousands of passersby.

These activities are some of the most talked about activations of the night, perhaps because more people are able to see and engage with them. My advice, get on the street to get the most of Fashion’s Night Out.

MY THOUGHTS

www.thisisinkling.com

About Inkling Inkling is a creative marketing agency that specialises in idea generation, research and brand strategy, social media, digital production, PR, experiential, event production and content creation.

If you would like to talk to us about how we can help you please call Nicola, Jono, Will or David on 0207 697 9587 or email [email protected]

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