Latest / The Retail Podcast / Why M&S, Topshop, H&M & Vogue Are Winning Fashion Culture Again

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Why M&S, Topshop, H&M & Vogue Are Winning Fashion Culture Again · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  It's Friday the 15th. This is Five Things Friday UK
• 0:03
  edition. Hello, Simone.
• 0:18
  Hi. How are you?
• 0:19
  Yeah, good. Thank you.
• 0:20
  I'm always like, whenever I watch this back, there's a bit
• 0:23
  where the music stops and I go, hello, Simone.
• 0:26
  And I was like, I ended up doing exactly the same.
• 0:31
  For those who don't know who you are, Simone, who are you and
• 0:33
  what do you do? Hi everyone, I'm Simone, the Co
• 0:36
  founder and CEO of Need It for Tonight, also known as NIFT with
• 0:40
  two sides of the business. 1 is kind of like delivery but for
• 0:44
  quality fashion, which is the marketplace.
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  The second is a plug in version of that super retailers
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  checkouts to give them very speedy delivery.
• 0:53
  Thanks, Simone. OK, it's five things Friday.
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  What's top of mind or what have we seen that's interesting?
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  We're going to start with you, I believe, and we're going on a
• 1:01
  plane to Ibiza. I wish we were going on a plane
• 1:04
  to Ibiza. If you're watching any sponsors
• 1:08
  that do want to fly Simone and I to Ibiza, we'd welcome you.
• 1:12
  This was all over my Instagram this week, so it felt rude not
• 1:16
  to mention it. And but M&S just did what luxury
• 1:20
  fashion houses usually do. They flew the runway to Ibiza.
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  And not only did they did that do that, they live streamed it.
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  They made it shoppable in real time and somehow still made it
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  to feel British and quite fun and accessible.
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  And this was just, This is why they're winning right now.
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  And, you know, they've figured something out that a lot of
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  retailers happen, you know, that people want they, they still
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  want this kind of trend LED fashion without feeling priced
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  out or intimidated. You know, half this in a
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  collection is literally like 30 lbs.
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  You know, the styling actually feels very wearable and the
• 1:57
  marketing bills culturally and and culturally aware instead of
• 2:02
  trying too hard. You know, we've just had the
• 2:04
  Gillian Anderson campaign as well.
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  Gillian Anderson is iconic and we love her and that I think
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  that was actually M&S is best performing clothing ad ever.
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  And now they've brought in that Amelia from the the Ibiza show.
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  So yeah, the product is matching the hype.
• 2:23
  I loved it. I I really did.
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  Yeah, I look from what I can see from Miss Rachel Stevens's trip
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  out there, it looks amazing. And there's been a few of the
• 2:32
  influences they've used. And again, I must say they're,
• 2:35
  they're not ignoring, you know, the cohorts when normally they
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  just fly out. The beauty, I mean, everyone is
• 2:40
  beautiful, but some people are more beautiful for some people
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  than other people. They've managed to get a good
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  spectrum of what beautiful it is ages as well, which in fashion
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  super difficult. I think in sorry go.
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  On, I was going to say, I think just on that with like the
• 2:55
  agent, they've managed to feel like heritage still because M&S
• 2:59
  is very heritage, but still very current at the same time.
• 3:02
  I think that's why they bring in solely different kinds of
• 3:05
  people. Yeah, I think Stewart is a
• 3:08
  Stewart matching or matching, phenomenal job.
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  CEO obviously going down, taking the brand from strength to
• 3:13
  strength. Beautiful.
• 3:14
  OK, coming on to me last week you mentioned King's Cross cold
• 3:18
  drop yard cold drop Shard. You also want to drop a see
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  thing now it's two episode we've spoken about you slow fashion
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  festival created by N4 makers market.
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  I was having a look. I was like, who was N 4 makers
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  market and given all of the employment data that's coming
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  out for young people, this is an indie curated design LED market
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  that they run. And obviously now they're doing
• 3:41
  this sort of slow fashion in coal drops yard.
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  But it looks super interesting. And in my mind, again, this is
• 3:47
  not the reason why for me, this is important.
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  Another signal of the types of things that come, you know,
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  something traditional market, but curated in terms of style.
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  So slow fashion festival starts tomorrow, Saturday.
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  It says free entry. I'll put the link in the show
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  notes. See if he can go ahead or go and
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  visit back over. Good to you Simone, for this
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  little collab. Yeah, a cab wasn't expecting but
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  works H and I'm partnering with Laura Ashley.
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  The kids wear, which I think is a smart move.
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  You know it's Laura Ashley is one of those very nostalgic
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  brands. I think we've spoken about them
• 4:24
  on here and very smartly for Laura Ashley partnering with
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  H&M. But yeah, we're seeing, I think
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  we're seeing a lot of this kind of heritage brands come back
• 4:33
  everywhere right now. But the difference is, is how
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  that being reintroduced used to young audiences, You know, Laura
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  Ashley, I think a lot of people, Gen Z aren't going to typically
• 4:44
  chop it, Laura Ashley, are they? But instead of it feeling dated,
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  they're being repackaged through accessible collaborations and
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  more kind of social first styling.
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  So yeah, I really liked it, but be intrigued to see what it
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  does. But I think as well that it's
• 5:00
  quite, I think parents often want pieces that feel quite
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  nostalgic, you know, false sermon and timeless and but
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  obviously still feel quite practical.
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  And I feel like Laura Ashley is very much kind of that brand.
• 5:13
  Yeah, no, I love it. Wholesome and nostalgic.
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  Definitely the interesting for one for me is who needs more?
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  I mean it doesn't really matter who needs who right now, but HM
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  has been having a tough time, right?
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  There's that's been all over the papers and it's interesting.
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  One of the things that I, I have no idea because I can't sort of
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  say have they been doing enough collaborations?
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  But is this a thing become because they're looking at the
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  likes of Adidas and sauce and their sellout campaign, right,
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  which which is phenomenal. And obviously this lens, this is
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  totally a different end of the market, but is this the shape of
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  things to come more from HM, we'll see more collaborations
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  and if they have done more collaborations that I don't know
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  about it, apologies. OK, moving on.
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  We have got McDonald's. I'm not going to be talking
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  about McDonald's, but there is a Spanish brand called EME
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  Studios, super cool. Obviously I don't have anything,
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  but they have got a store in Madrid.
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  But I think I've spoken about this theme.
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  I don't know, early on in December, Oh, sorry, last year
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  in January where I was saying lookout for the influx of
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  international brands coming over to the UK, right, Which is
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  fantastic for the UK sort of retail fashion culture creature.
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  But this is Emmy EME Studios that they did a collab with
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  McDonald's earlier on this year, which I thought was really cool.
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  So EME Studios, Gen Z, young millennial, but you know, very
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  relevant, very now, have done a phenomenal job in Madrid and
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  Spain in growing their cultural reference points.
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  And now we'll be opening in 57 Carnaby St, Nice.
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  Final one, Yeah. Final one staying with me,
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  Topshop. And it was interesting flower
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  shops because Sephora did this last week for Mother's Day here
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  in Madrid was last week, I think.
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  But Vogue and Topshop are doing a flower market to launch the
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  new summer season from Topshop. They're doing a takeover of the
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  Wild restaurant on Westborn Grove and it's the launch their
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  summer out thing. I'm obviously Simone.
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  You love Topshop, right? I do.
• 7:19
  I can't actually see when I said that.
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  Ultimate nostalgic brand, Yeah. Yeah.
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  I mean, you were the first, but to be fair, you were the first
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  person. You talked about this somewhere
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  last year. And we're just seeing this go
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  from strength to strength from in the activations they're
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  doing. And obviously now Vogue are
• 7:34
  coming up. For me, the interesting part is
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  Vogue are coming in on this as well as part of this sort.
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  Look up and I'm sure there'll be beautiful photography and
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  everything that comes out of that.
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  And I believe that brings us to our five things Friday in record
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  time of roughly about 10 minutes.
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  What you got planned for next week very quickly.
• 7:54
  What have I got planned for next week?
• 7:57
  Oh, it's a busy week next week. There's lots of exciting
• 8:02
  meetings in the diary. It's oh cool, full on and yeah,
• 8:08
  I've been here now in everywhere this week I was at Pulse, which
• 8:12
  is an amazing retail event and that I was like this morning and
• 8:16
  a breakfast there. But next week, I want to say I
• 8:20
  feel like I'm back-to-back music.
• 8:23
  It's OK. Well, next week in London, Well,
• 8:26
  actually London and Milan, we've got NRF Europe doing their
• 8:30
  roadshow. I'll be at both of them.
• 8:33
  If you want to come along to the London show, let me know.
• 8:35
  And if you want to come to the Milan show, let me know when
• 8:38
  you're watching the UK episode. But yeah, so there's a whole
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  bunch of things that we're doing in terms of filming.
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  We'll be filming in and around London.
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  That's going to be really cool. But until next week, Simone,
• 8:48
  thank you so much. Have a fabulous week.