Compared with ready-to-wear, small but fine accessories are more likely to form a clear and unique brand identity, and even more intuitively and concretely present social and cultural trends. Therefore, the accessories category also has the role of "reform pilot": whether it is to establish a new image for cutting-edge brands or the transformation of traditional brands, starting from accessories is often low cost and fast feedback.
This has also brought a more accurate choice idea to the fashion industry's co-brand boom - traditional luxury brands with international popularity are increasingly inclined to cooperate with niche accessories brands that have long focused on shoes, jewelry and bags.
On the surface, joint cooperation with niche accessories brands with different strengths is to quickly enhance the market volume of the corresponding subdivided product lines, and to give back to niche accessories brands with existing advantages such as supply chain and popularity, so as to achieve "equivalent exchange".
But for luxury brands that do not lack the strength of accessories design and development, are the advantages of niche accessories brands limited to category advantages? On what basis can they continue to be loved, and even expected to become another "chosen son" of the co-branding boom?
For the first time, Marni and Veja have teamed up to launch co-branded sneakers
On Friday, Italian luxury brand Marni and niche shoe brand Veja's first joint sneaker collection was officially launched, based on Veja's classic V-10 shoes and the newly launched high-top V-15 shoes, combined with Marni's pre-skilled graffiti embellishment, while presenting the iconic aesthetic elements of both brands. In the past, Veja has also worked with Lemaire, Rick Owens and local brands Icicle.
So for Marni, who does not lack popularity, let alone the strength of shoe design and development, what is the attraction of Veja?
As we all know, Veja is a niche shoe brand with small white shoes as the core product, simple design, the side of the shoe has a recognizable "V" logo and star powder, making it have a lot of "net red" sneakers should have the characteristics.
Sustainable footwear brand Veja
In exchange for a single product line, there is a clear and clear brand portrait in the hearts of many of Veja's loyal users, as well as a more subdivided high-sticky customer base in the social ecology. It is precisely because of this that it has become one of the indispensable shoes for many "heavy users of small white shoes", and even a social pass. Just like the invisible "social assets" owned by the explosive sneakers of various IP bodies in the past.
According to Lyst, a global fashion search platform, Veja sneakers have been ranked first on Instagram's "brands we want to wear the most" list, and the top ten of men's popular shoes. Since 2015, Veja's product sales have increased significantly, with annual sales revenue growing at a rate of 50%. To date, Veja has supplied products to 1,800 retailers in 45 countries and sold 550,000 pairs of sneakers in 2017, generating $21 million in revenue.
In addition, Veja has been founded in 2005 with the vision of "the world's greenest sneakers", and is popular with environmentalists and creatives with organic cotton from northeast Brazil, natural rubber from the Amazon rainforest and sustainable ideas to minimize waste emissions.
Therefore, in addition to the concentration of high-viscosity customer base and social traffic, the sustainable brand value advantage has also been more concentrated in the core product of small white shoes, and has been continued in this cooperation: the leather is sourced from farms in Uruguay and tanned in the local leather factory in Brazil certified by the Leather Working Group, and the other ingredients are recycled fabrics.
Coincidentally, in order to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the brand, in January this year, the American light luxury brand Michael Kors chose to launch a joint cooperation bag with the cutting-edge accessories brand Ashya, to which Mr. Michael Kors said that recalling the journey taken at the beginning of the brand's establishment, he decided to throw an olive branch to the emerging brand, so that it can use Michael Kor's global influence and mature social media platform to expand the brand's voice, reach and attract more audiences. In addition, he also hopes to share brand management experience with emerging designers and provide personal guidance to the team.
Michael Kors and Ashya launch a co-branded bag
It is undeniable that Michael Kors' global reach and international visibility such as mature social media platforms are inevitable for the corresponding support brought to emerging designers in cooperation. But that doesn't mean that in the two-way choice of this joint cooperation, the only beneficiary is Ashya, as a niche accessories brand.
As Mr. Michael Kors puts it, "When I first saw Ashya's work, I was impressed by their meticulous thinking and unique perspective, and then launched an invitation to collaborate. Therefore, in this cooperation, Ashya's niche independent creative perspective marked by the design of the belt bag in the past few years, and its minority groups, and the multicultural attributes of female designer entrepreneurs themselves, can also be more concentrated in the relatively single accessories brand positioning, through the joint cooperation, it will undoubtedly inject new creative vitality into Michael Kors, who is celebrating the 40th anniversary, to a certain extent.
This time, Ashya X Michael Kors' co-branded bag is a reference to Ashya's signature bag silhouette, selected from sex-coloured leather, printed with a west African signature weave pattern and MK Signature Logo.
Ashley Cimone and Moya Annece say: "In designing the Ashya X Michael Kors co-brand bag, we are doubly cherishing this rare 'global debut' opportunity to pay tribute to the culture of origin that we are exploring. We hope to introduce The Weaving Techniques of West African Characteristics, carefully present some elements that reflect the historical elements of West African culture, and make this special collaboration a unique and representative work. African textiles have always been the medium of cultural exchange in West Africa, which is of special significance. These textiles often become works of art passed down from generation to generation, following the ancient and silent family roots. The colours, patterns and decorative elements used in textiles convey extraordinary craftsmanship and an incomparably cherished historical significance. Whether it is a line or a pattern, these two co-branded bags can reflect the aesthetic value of West African textile artworks. ”
These also include the capsule collection that Loewe has just launched with the Swiss sports brand Angpao, valentino and Birkenstock' co-branded collection... Etc. have all verified the accurate joint cooperation through "traditional + niche, all categories + accessories brands", not only on the promotion of the corresponding product lines.
From the perspective of creativity and design research and development, the single and niche style of niche accessories brand categories is the advantage of more iconic brand images, or more condensed multicultural microcosms, just like the hip-hop culture presented in the 1980s and 1990s youth who did not tie shoelaces, oversized gold earrings and other iconic accessories; from the perspective of community maintenance, more concentrated and accurate business delivery in exchange for a "social pass", followed by more sticky, even "brand worship" Effects of social assets.
These are all difficult for traditional luxury brands to take into account, but they need to be made up urgently.
Looking further, this cooperation model is to some extent beneficial and harmless to traditional luxury brands – as analyzed above, it can directly reach the highly sticky customer base of niche accessories brands and share their avant-garde, diverse cultural epitome. At the same time, based on the "time-limited nature" of joint cooperation, for traditional luxury brands, it is not a big effort or "testing the risk", but a reserved way to ask for directions for future transformation.
So for niche brands, how much popularity can they gain through joint cooperation with traditional luxury brands? Or, after the continuous improvement of brand voice, what does the future of niche accessories brands need to go?
Thinking about this level, Ambush, which has cooperated with international brands such as Bulgari earlier, or Crocs, a shoe brand that has cooperated with brands such as Balenciaga, can be seen as a model of "success" to a certain extent.
Crocs and Vivienne Tam unveiled their collections at Shanghai Fashion Week
In addition to working with luxury brands with brand awareness and global influence, Crocs, known as the "crossover pioneer", has also cooperated with Trend Icons such as Justin Biber and Post Malone, who are known as representatives of contemporary pop culture, as well as The Supreme, Chinatown Market and Sankuanz, from street brands to designer brands, to make Crocs from niche to popular and form a new one." Social Trends".
Among them, through the joint cooperation with Christopher Kane and Balenciaga, Crocs has also appeared on the international stage such as London and Paris Fashion Week for many times. During AW19 Shanghai Fashion Week, Crocs teamed up with Vivienne Tam to unveil a new shoe inspired by Vivienne Tam's "East-Meets-West".
Birkenstock, a shoe brand that has also cooperated with well-known international brands such as Valentino and Jil Sander+, also appeared on the official agenda of paris men's week in autumn/winter 2019, and in the same year, Shanghai Fashion Week was jointly unveiled with Chinese sculptor Jiang Sheng and women's brand Ms Min.
Valentino and Birkenstock launch their collaborative collection at Paris Men's Week
In addition, Ambush, which was once a trend accessories brand and just opened its first store in China in Taikoo Li, Qiantan, Shanghai last month, from the endless joint experience with Brands such as Bulgari, Gentle Monster, Sacai, Undercover, Off-White, has not only expanded the popularity of Ambush for all to see, but also attracted the attention of capital, with its help from niche accessories brands to a successful template for all categories of fashion brands. Yoon Ahn, one of the creative directors, has made the gorgeous transition from trend designer to star designer.
Ambush opens its first store in China at Taikoo Li, Qiantan, Shanghai
Yoon Ahn was immediately named Dior Homme Jewelry Designer after Kim Jones became artistic director of Dior Menswear in 2018, and the first Dior menswear collection brought by Kim Jones was unveiled at Paris Menswear Week in June 2018.
Although it has launched a ready-to-wear collection as early as 2015 and appeared at Paris Fashion Week, as Ambush's voice in the international fashion industry continues to increase, in 2020, Off-White's parent company New Guards Group announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Ambush, saying that in the future Ambush will expand to more categories and expand the size of the international distribution network, including opening stores outside of Japan. Since then, it has obtained more stable financial support and distribution channels, and the road to brand development can be seen to be more and more stable.
Yoon Ahn was named a Dior Homme jewelry designer
A win-win situation, cooperation is born.
Learning from each other's strengths and borrowing from each other is the underlying logic of joint cooperation, and it has been more concretely presented in the cooperation between traditional luxury brands and niche accessories brands, which is a smart choice for both sides.
But all brands, and even any industry, need to be alerted that different eras will hardly have the same kind of success, and the so-called "success template" is also time-limited and may come to an abrupt end at any time. The only thing you can do is to maintain a sober brand self-perception and be cautious about every choice.
As for the choice of niche accessories brands for the future, is it to expand towards all-category fashion brands? Or continue to adhere to the small and fine brand strategy, is also an open issue. As Elza Wandler, founder of Wandler, a Dutch accessories brand that started with handbags and expanded its product line to footwear and ready-to-wear last year, said in an interview with WWD: "Even if the core of the brand is always a bag, it is always a good thing for the brand to expand the product line slightly, thereby enhancing competitiveness and facing changes in the trial production pattern." ”WWD
Written by Xing Yun
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