From East to West companies are responding to the growing number of style-conscious male consumers
CONSUMERS
Girl Meets Boy: Luxury Brands Tap the Male Market
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Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.
PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.
In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”
The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris
From East to West companies are responding to the growing number of style-conscious male consumers
Since LS reported, a little over a month ago, on the growing awareness amongst luxury strategists that the male market was not being fully exploited, evidence of this ‘masculinising’ trend in luxury has only got stronger. Several brands and companies known for their specialisation in the female market are either boosting the male side of their businesses or even turning their elegant hands to the male market for the first time. Net-a-Porter have announced the launch of Mr Porter; king of feminine curves Roland Mouret has also decided to work his magic on men; Matthew Williamson CEO, Joseph Velosa very recently spoke to LS Editor in Chief, Imran Amed about taking the colourful womenswear brand in a new, masculine direction, and now Balenciaga have also extended their interests in menswear, including opening a freestanding menswear boutique in Paris which follows on from dedicated men’s retail sections in Hankyu in Osaka, Seibu Shibuya in Tokyo, Printemps in Paris and Harvey Nichols in London.
Designer Nicolas Ghesquière collaborated with French artist Dominique-Gonzalez Foerster on the Balenciaga menswear store on rue de Varenne which is designed to evoke that most boyish of things- a submarine. Nor is the Paris store the only retail development targeted at men, forthcoming Balenciaga boutiques in Beijing and Las Vegas will also feature dedicated menswear departments. “It’s definitely a concept made for men. It’s not a masculinisation of the women’s concept,” stressed Isabelle Guichot, Balenciaga CEO. Although the female offering has in some cases been developed for male consumers. For instance, the brand found that its substantial female leather goods lines also appeals to men and from this start point they have developed travel bags and luggage for a male consumer. The only category they have not so far developed for men is fragrance, although Guichot did say it was a “future” project. The male fragrance market is one that Chanel are already tapping into, with the launch of their new ‘male masterbrand’ also announced today.
The social shift towards higher standards for men in terms of grooming and appearance shaping this trend is particularly evident in emerging economies like China, which for the first time are experiencing the social impacts of a substantial class of professional men who want to project a sophisticated, polished appearance. The result of the ‘one child policy’ is that there are now 33 million more Chinese men than women in the country so young Chinese men find dating and marriage very competitive, which is also feeding into the culture for men to try to look their absolute best. Indeed Guichot said menswear would be a key focus category for Balenciaga as the brand expands into China.
Sources
WWD
Jing Daily
