Hey guys, I know I haven't posted for I while, but I hope you're enjoying 'the new girl' Mel's posts. Today my post has mainly been inspired by my recent trip to Singapore a country I've always wanted to go to, and had an absolutely amazing time in and can't wait to go back to; and secondly the current project we are undertaking in Uni.
A little back story to my thinking, when ever I go abroad, for holidays, academic trips, or short breaks, I am defiantly the member of the group who always wants to go shopping, and a lot of the time doesn't even buy anything. Having been brought up for 8 years in Dubai meant that whenever I wasn't doing something outside 9 time out of ten I was at the Mall, with friends, family etc. And now as a fashion marketing student I like to observe and look at consumption and shopping from a different perspective. And frequently I see, hear and think myself "why do you want to go abroad and look around shops you find back at home." And that's why I'm going to look at why globalisation and its negative impacts on fashion.
Deja Vu
Looking first at luxury brands we have to look at both sides of the coin in that, on one hand there must be a supply of international brands in every local market, to a tourist it might seem clinical, and almost clone like, but to a resident its their standard of living and supply of wants and finer goods. Go to Dubai and you'll find Malls with designer galore fashion avenue in Dubai Mall, Mall of The Emirates the list goes on, Singapore walk down Orchard road around 23 Malls, large standalone stores of designer shops, with lots of the same shop 2 minutes from each other - all within a 2.2Km road. Brazil shopping Malls specific for designer outlets with beautiful fountains and terrace gardens, and spotless marble floors. You find the Parisian classics of Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, you are spoilt for Italian Alta Moda - and all of this is wonderful and there is no place I feel more at home in a new place then surrounded by this amazing brands. My issues arises that you rarely see a well indirectly lit, plushly carpeted, perfectly polished, store of a local designer. Of course this is not in every case, picking up a mix of tourist pamphlets for lots of different places and looking up retail they all seem to be distinctly proud and loud that this mall, or that street has all the international stores you will want, and small little paragraph telling you if you want local fashion 'go here'.
Asking a large and mixed group from China whether or not they think there is any local Chinese brands that are on the same level as for example Chanel the main response was a large 'No'. A few looked around and had a quick whisper to maybe think and check but their response was "the problem is that if a Chinese girl wants to spend lots of money and buy a nice handbag she wants a Chanel bag because its renowned and its a brand that everybody, not just Chinese knows and wants, she can say 'yes I have a Chanel bag' it doesn't need to have its logo everywhere which is what we used to buy but it still needs to be the brand".
I find that luxury has a large culture attached to it, if you spend that much money on a functional item, wether its fashion, or anything else your buying the prestige, history, and impact that comes with that brand. Newer designers whether in Europe or the far east struggle to compare and therefore struggle to get noticed and desired.
What would you do if you were going to buy a designer item (handbag, suit, etc) if the choice was a local designer with a beautiful product or an established international known brand also with a beautiful product?
The H&M and Zara sprawl
Fashion doesn't just live in the world of expense and luxury, high street fashion plays a large, and more negative part of this post. Where as I find that traditional luxury brands has its place in all countries, the vast sprawl of high street fashion which with lots of brands does not. H&M is a good example of where some talented people created a brand strong enough that it can take very simple products and sell it every where, my problem arises that this creates competition in all levels of the market and is almost straggling out uniqueness of international high street fashion.
Walking into a Zara in Brazil and finding that certain popular products which were being worn around in both England and Brazil where culture, climate, style, are all completely different and yet the brand was 'similarising' the two.
Again the argument of 'I want what everybody else wants' starts to take hold and alienating less globally accepted brands, and leading to local fashion being the underdog.
Thanks and I promise to do better
I hope you found this post engaging and please comment your opinions, thoughts; Do you agree with me is there too much of the same thing? Are global brands choking out local ones?
RNW
The Fashion Dialogue
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