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Moda Operandi – Blood on the Runway
With London Fashion Week just passed, it's a good time to think about the plight of catwalk ready-to-wear designers as a new sales model is launched, writes Josephine Collins.
As the seasonal round of designer catwalks shows got under way, for autumn/winter 2011, a new consumer-selling tool has been launched. Moda Operandi, based in New York, is making some 50 catwalk collections available to selected consumers within days of the runway event.
The business has been set up by two fashion veterans - Aslaug Magnusdottir, formerly of US private sale site Gilt.com and Lauren Santo Domingo of US Vogue. Icelander Magnusdottir worked in the UK before decamping to New York in the mid-noughties - she was a senior figure at London based retail investor Baugur.
Moda Operandi takes the private sale model of member-only online sales and gives it a twist.
Instead of being a discount venture as this existing type of operation usually is, the idea is to sell full price designer collections, taking orders with a 50% deposit for a limited time period within days of the runway event.
Delivery is promised some four months later - stealing a march on conventional retailers and e-tailers that will not have the stock available until the usual six-month timeline.
The first named designers are all New York Fashion Week names - Calvin Klein, Proenza Schouler, Thakoon, Alexander Wang and Derek Lam.
In addition, the 'member' shoppers - and MO is looking to have 100,000 by next year - are able to select from the entire designer collection unlike the buyer edited versions of the collection that are eventually available in store. At this stage it is unclear if the designers will produce any item bought from the collection regardless of how many orders that piece garners.
I can understand the attraction of this model to the 50-odd designers who have apparently signed for the site. Catwalk designers were the big losers when fast fashion hit the market in the early 2000s, and they have plenty of ground to catch up on internet retailing.
Every high street retailer was able to be "inspired" by the designers and get their "versions" of the latest looks onto their shop floors much, much faster than the designers could and, of course, at vastly different prices.
While copying court cases followed across the fashion industry, this type of "compliment" continues more or less nabated.
So while designers waited for the orders to come in, get production under way and deliver for the new season launch, the Zaras, H&Ms, Topshops and Primarks had already been and gone with that style.
At the same time as fast fashion took off, the internet began to democratise designer fashion. It was no longer the sole domain of privileged buyers and journalists, who not only saw the collections but also were able to buy pieces for early delivery.
Outfit by outfit images of the collections were being uploaded and available to see by anyone with an internet connection. As a result, consumers became that much more savvy about what designers were offering and wanted it sooner. Unfortunately for everyone they were not for sale for a good six months.
The situation is further complicated for designers in that they have been extremely slow to see the selling potential of the internet. They thought that consumers buying full price designer fashion would only do so in shops and stores. Net-a-Porter finally put that chestnut to bed.
Not only that, but it is was only this time last year that any designers have taken control of their own destiny and chosen to live stream their catwalk events. Last season saw the first ever immediate selling of a few items only.
Digital democratisation helped everybody, it seems, except the designers themselves.
Some unusual by-products of this cultural shift have emerged, however. As designers sought to offer entry-level products through key accessories brand extensions, the phenomena of the 'it' bag waiting list has emerged.
Who knows, perhaps Moda Operandi will foreshadow the end of the waiting list - in theory designer enthusiasts will be able to order those bags and receive them more quickly.
So where does this take designers? The reality is that many catwalk designers struggle to build strong businesses on their catwalk collections alone - and the six-month cycle is detrimental to them.
The big international brands are certainly profitable, but this is very much supported by the brand extensions - accessories are especially important plus perfume, specs and so on. And in some cases, if it was not for the diffusion collections then the main catwalk just could not exist.
Consumer trend forecasters are predicting a move away from instant gratification to slow gratification where the consumer thrill will be in waiting for something special rather than have something that everybody else has now. If that is the case, then catwalk designers may well get back to the top of the pile.
