Tuesday 25 January 2011

Fashion PR and Celebrity Endorsement

‘Fashion Brands’ by Mark Tungate contains a chapter about the relationship between fashion designers/brands and celebrities. He used a lot of examples to show how this relationship evolved from celebrities just simply wearing designer clothes, to celebrities being constantly given clothes by fashion designers with the hope that they would wear them, to the development of partnerships where celebrities design their own collection for the high street shops.

He makes a very clear assumption, that celebrities definitely sell the clothes and that partnerships with them is one of the most important Fashion PR strategies. This opinion is shared with many professionals in this field. Fashion PR and marketing expert Crosby Noricks on his blog writes thatPR professionals know that introducing celebrities to client products can be a crucial part of the overall strategy and, when it works, makes life a whole lot easier’. 

Tungate supported his assumption by using many examples from the fashion industry. For example, Victoria Beckham being photographed in a green Chloe dress by the Sunday Times Style section. It created a demand and after the publication the sales of this particular dress soared.
As a benefit of the designer - celebrity relationship, Tungate mentions gaining well-defined brand personality, bringing a rich fantasy world to which consumers aspire as well as using the attachment that the public have with celebrity.  

Tungate sees dangerous trends in celebrity placement which is making designers go from being elitist to popular. Fashion PR in his opinion is changing and becoming very celebrity orientated. He claims that since fashion became a part of celebrities’ lives it has become very kitsch. He expresses his worries and questions what will happen next after observing how fashion has lost its value and how models, singers and actresses are turning into designers, belittling the importance of traditional designers and the quality of their work.

As a conclusion Mark Tungate is questioning how long this relationship will last and expresses his opinion that the celebrity craze in a Fashion PR might be dying out. Will it? 
         
    




















Foto. Nicole Kidman in Emilio Pucci, 2003  
Source: http://www.vogue.com

Monday 24 January 2011

Fashion branding by Mark Tungate

A few weeks ago I bought a book that in my opinion is like a small guide for anyone who wants to know more about the fashion, especially about how the branding experts turned clothes into objects of desire. The book is taking its readers though the history of fashion, bringing attention to names like Frederick Worth, Paul Poiret and women fashion icon Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel. The text is full of anecdotes from designer’s lives, for example why Rene Lacoste chose a crocodile as his sign. These stories make the book very interesting and in places very funny. 

‘Fashion Brands’ is full of first-hand interviews with important people from the fashion industry, which makes it a great source of knowledge, especially from a marketing perspective. Great language, quick reading and everything you need to know at the begging of your career in fashion makes it an important book on your reading list. 

There will be more from this book in the next post, so continue to read if you’re still not convince.



 Foto. Mark Tungate   
Source:  http://www.londonspeakerbureau.co.uk

Saturday 22 January 2011

Dates, Dates, Dates!

The Fashion calendar is full of dates. 

The most important incoming events are Fashion Weeks held in different places. Some of them have already started, some have finished, but still a lot to come. 

Important fashion week dates Fall/Winter Collections 2011/2012:
 

Friday 21 January 2011

Welcome to Feel Fashion PR

A week ago I took part in my first Fashion PR class. Our tutor, Kim Blake, worked on over 250 runway shows in London, Paris and New York. She promised to show and share with us as much of her experience as she possibly can during the short three months she has with us. 
 
Sound exciting? 

When I came home I was so excited that I could not sleep. I cannot wait until the next lesson, it is like discovering a magic chocolate factory and being able to take a chocolate bath. I want to get as much as I can from these lessons and almost drown in fashion knowledge. 

The introduction to the module sounded great. There will be lots of walking, talking and looking. There will also be lots of work, fun and most of all lots of guests, who will honour us in sharing their knowledge about fashion PR.  Next week with bit of luck we might get to meet John Walford, director of Vauxhall Fashion Scout.