'Shine' by Perez Hilton, exclusive to ShoeDazzle.co.uk
In a week that saw Goldman Sachs reveal record losses of £294 million Debenhams, in contrast, announced profits of £166 million. Amazing in itself during tough retail times, but even more surprising is the secret behind this success. It was the Designers at Debenhams range – Henry Holland, Jasper Conran, John Rocha et al – that accounted for much of the profit, indicating that cash savvy consumers are, when times get tough, less enamoured with throw-away fashion and prefer to invest in better quality items. With Gok Wan for Sainsbury’s, Mary Portas for House of Fraser and Versace for H&M all hitting the high streets, it would seem having designers and big name stylists on board is the latest brand strategy of choice among fashion retailers.
It’s also, of course, the added element of exclusivity that has always made buying designer just so desirable. Capsule collections and limited editions are all the more sought-after because you have less chance of bumping into someone else wearing the same outfit. As befits the prevailing cult of the individual, ‘style’ is increasingly about a look which is (or, at least, feels as though it is) personal and unique to you, something which our client ShoeDazzle knows all about.
This online personal styling service and retailer of shoes, handbags and jewellery, co-founded by Kim Kardashian, was the first to develop a business model built on providing consumers with a monthly ‘showroom’ of products which fit their individual style. All products are only available for a month so when they’re gone, they’re gone. If you don’t like what your showroom has on offer the best and quickest way to see what else is available is to ‘share’ showrooms with friends via Facebook, hence creating an instant online ‘shopping trip with the girls’.
But perhaps more importantly, with Kim Kardashian, one of the world’s best dressed and most popular women (10 million followers on Twitter), acting as chief stylist, shoppers feel they are getting access to their own nugget of fashion gold. When the latest stylist to join the ShoeDazzle team of ‘personal shoppers’ is Hollywood power player Robert Behar, who dresses A-list lovelies like Jennifer Aniston, Eva Mendes and Janet Jackson for American Idol, you know you’re shopping in safe and oh-so fabulous hands.
Another layer of glitz sprinkled over the ShoeDazzle business model is the regular introduction of celebrity guest designers, whose creations are sold in aid of their favourite charity. The latest name to sign up is superstar blogger Perez Hilton who has created two limited edition shoes for December, with 100% of profits going to UK LGBT organisation Stonewall. Such initiatives are a virtuous circle of CSR, brand association and desirability, invariably converting into strong sales.
All-in-all, smart fashion businesses are showing that a bit of glamour can go straight to the bottom line.
