Digital Exposed Seminar

We only have one week until winter officially has a stranglehold over our weather patterns with harsh arctic winds and dark moody days. So we decided to brighten up your outlook and keep a smile on your face during the bleak months ahead with a wonderful winter wardrobe, courtesy of street style icon and Moda Operandi artistic director, Taylor Tomasi Hill.

Do invest in a scarf.
It might sound like simple advice, but really this is where your winter outfit should begin. Not only does it keep one of the key areas of your body warm, they also keep your neck looking pretty, and they break up the black with colour, a statement print or embellishment.

Buy a leather jacket.
This will be your go-to season after season. Not only is it a great layering piece to wear under a wool coat or trench, but it’s also something you can use as a transeasonal piece as winter loosens its grip.

The skivvy is back.
Remove all daggy imagery associated with this essential layering piece, especially any thought of the colourful Wiggles characters, because the skivvy is definitely a must-have for winter. And it’s anything but dowdy. Taylor Tomasi Hill shows how its done in an Après-ski style skivvy by kings of cool, Proenza Schouler. Or if print is too bold for you, then opt for a simple ribbed style in one of the hottest colours of the season, wine time.

Wear a skirt over pants or with thigh high boots.
Throw out the rule book. There’s no reason we can’t wear skirts or dresses in winter, just layer them up over skinny jeans, leather pants or thigh high boots. It adds another dimension to your look and keeps things interesting.

Go bold and bright with clashing prints.
There’s never been a better time to try out a punchy bright or pop of neon. Winter is dull, and most of us reach for the black unconsciously because let’s face it, our moods are already switched to dark thanks to our alarms buzzing us out of bed in pitch-black each morning. So lighten the load with a neon sweater or swap the black jeans for a printed pant, it’s a simple switch so just try it, we guarantee you’ll feel better for it. If in doubt, just see how good Taylor looks. Can’t be that hard, right?

Try out a red lip.
No explanation needed here, who doesn’t love a red lip!

Image via Mogul Theory

Fashion Exposed Blog was recently invited to the WGSN global retail trend seminar with fashion powerhouse and Senior Catwalks Editor, Sue Evans of the UK. The presentation highlighted the best retail practices across the globe including retail strategy, multimedia marketing and visual merchandising.

WGSN Senior Catwalk Editor, Sue Evans

We noted down the key global retail strategies to share with you and the main message? Everything is changing!

It’s not just about the recession anymore, online and mobile are making retail an increasingly competitive market. But if there is one really key message Sue honed on the day, it’s communication. With the introduction of social media and e-commerce, she stresses there has never been more channels to talk to your customer. Use them!

“You shouldn’t expect consumers to come to your product any more. We have moved on from a list on your own website, you have to take it to them” – Sue Evans

Image via Social Media Fish, read their article ‘A Basic Social Media Plan for Fashion Industry’

So here are the top retail trends to consider for your retail business;

Think local or hyper local

Image via mobile marketing

– Social is the new local. Pinterest is in the top 5 and now rates as the third most popular social network in the US. Switch from search to discover mode and take your retail store to the consumer.
- Pinterest is moving from text to image, putting the impulse back into shopping. 87% of the users are female, but there is a new platform for men called gentlemint.
- An increasing amount of retail pop-ups on Facebook.
- Instagram – staggering 25 million users, a major driver for photo flow, send images with a link to buy online
- Tumblr is the social currency for young online. Topshop harnesses this potential by posting real time images of people wearing current Topshop product on the street, and a link for where to buy of course.
- Cash mobs – everyone pledges to support struggling retailers in the local area
- Build your local social program, remember the local everyman, collaborate with interesting companies to increase new interest in your brand or store, and provenance is increasingly important.

New retail rituals

– traditional retail rituals are changing, jump from social to online as retailers now have competition from bloggers, social icons and celebs. The new nomadic trend is taking product out to the customer. New pop-up online stores are happening in the streets where a virtual wall is set up for passers-by to scan and buy with their phones.
- Shopable films – shopable, pinterestable and tweetable
- Everything in my house – a dedicated online mag and store for lovers of interesting homes and lovehats.com where consumers can upload an image of themselves and virtually try on hats
- New retail communities, bloggers in collaboration with brands such as Jak&Jil with Club Monaco.
- Social gaming trend – fantasy shopper players discover and share fashion from the real world using fake money, but can buy at any time.
- Gocitygirl.com is a way to gossip and shop for girls under 25
- Look at new ways of presenting products to consumers online and make friends with these new retail stars, bloggers.

NOTE: For more on how to implement social media into your marketing strategy and enlist online influencers, read `Fashion PR Trends: How Tibi Manages Social Media and Works with Bloggers’ which is a conversation with Liz Walker the Directer of Public Relations at Tibi, giving an insiders view on how they have embraced the blogging community.

Stakeholder society

Image via Digital Fashion Culture

– retailers need to act more like a brand so stakeholder consumer will want to be a part of your society and stick with you.
- Ask the expert, such as on Sephora where they are tapping into their staff skill base and linking them to beauty talk forum, pinterest account, making it personal.
- Manifesto retail trend taps into consumer desire to see `giving’ retail attitude.
- Make sure you `get’ your customer, make them feel involved, leverage staff passion and expertise, and get philanthropic.

Be a smooth operator

– Being a smooth operator and becoming omni-channel, but don’t worry as hardly any retailers across the globe have got this right yet.
- Macy’s are the best example of omni-channel retail right now. After 9 mths they have gone from domestic to shipping to 101 countries globally. They doubled their earnings in last four years, so must be doing something right.
- Click and collect – a new trend where consumers buy online and collect in-store. ASOS are about to launch a pick up network of corner shops like 7eleven.
- Gucci equipped sales staff with iPhones to process sales anywhere in store and email the receipt to the customer.
- Donna Karan has reinvented the QR code to make it look fashion and pretty
- Richard Nicol with iPhone created a rechargeable handbag, plug phone into a discreet pocket and charge away.

Romancing the store

- The social entertainment of shopping will keep the four wall store alive, but it is essential to give a reason and woo the customer back in. Enrich the in-store experience by showing customer product with new meaning, and change it often.
- New lifestyle values trend – swap aspirational retail for health and beauty. New retail opportunity to cross sell.
- Staff just don’t sell the lifestyle they live it. Staff who skates and sells skate footwear means that customer’s lifestyle values are being understood.
- As consumers reign in consumption, beauty treats are on the rise. Fashion retail are bringing in beauty `spots’ into store to enhance dwell time.
- Heritage and provenance trend – real genuine props in store tied to a story with personality fixtures

Images lensed by Tommy Ton at MBFWA for Style.com

There are some success stories that just instantly inspire you to perform at your peak, to look at your work with fresh eyes and reach your ultimate goals. This is how we all felt when global influencer and one of the original fashion bloggers (launched in 2006), Susannah Lau aka Susie Bubble of Style Bubble came to Melbourne courtesy of Portable.

She spoke of the integral role bloggers now play in a brand’s marketing plan, and how this new relationship can be harnessed for a positive result on both the readers and the fashion industry. But it’s all about getting the balance right, one that is mutually beneficial but doesn’t sacrifice your independence or stifle your self-expression.

One of her top tips was to blog regularly with quality content. In the beginning she blogged 2-3 times a day which really helped with her organic search traffic on Google. Then it was just a matter of it growing slowly from 10,000 uniques a day to 20,000, then 30,000 and 40,000.

“This natural growth comes with time and dedication, ensuring you blog quality vs quantity, understand your readers reactions and your blog audience.”

Susie believes influence is more valuable than numbers and while she admits Style Bubble has less hits per day than some of the other bloggers in the fashion network, her influence is what sets her apart and can’t be measured by numbers alone.

Susie also touched on the ongoing global debate of bloggers vs journalists and she believes the continued comparison in holding bloggers up against journalists or critics is misguided.

“If we look at the dominant personal style category of bloggers, there is no inkling among them to be journalists… instead of fashion critiquing, bloggers are creatives through illustration, photos, styling, modelling, editing and writing, it’s a form of self-expression… there needs to be acceptance that projecting your own image our there is not journalism but a form of self-expression that connects with an audience… give up the comparison, move forward and allow bloggers to flourish in what they do”.

Overall, it is all comes down to one thing, `for the love of it’. Susie believes the blog landscape can be improved by taking pride in content and enjoying the task.

“Blogs should be valued and accepted without added hype or fanfare… treasure the diversity… brands/PR need to look deeper to find voices that are more valuable than established faces.”

It was an incredibly insightful seminar. A big thanks to Portable for inviting Fashion Exposed Blog.

We also had to share these top ten takeways from her chat, put together by LMFF blog;

1. Rise above the clutter – you need to find your niche and standout from the pack.

2. Story is even more important that timing, it is be better to have a story worth telling than race to get something up first.

3. Understand your motivations for blogging.

4. Ask yourself ‘what does your blog stand for‘ and think about how it may be perceived.

5. Think about how you may want to integrate brands into your blog.

6. Content is king – make sure you take charge over the editorial content and find your own voice.

7. Utilise other brands to create useful content for yourself and the brands you work with.

8. Learn to be a spokesperson for a brand – you have the potential to be their megaphone and amplify their message.

9. Remember “Bloggers are not the future of fashion magazines, they are the future of fashion branding” – AdWeek 2011.

10. Once established, consider moving your blog from online to offline and build real life experiences such as in store appearances, editorial styling, curating and more.

Fashion Exposed Blog flew into Sydney yesterday to experience MBFWA for a day. Sitting front row at the AJE shipwrecked ball SS12/13 collection debut was a huge thrill and what an incredible show. The Paspaley boutique on Martin Place was transformed into a very luxurious version of a deserted island, one we’re sure many of the editors and style set wouldn’t mind getting lost on, especially if it means pocketing a Paspaley pearl.

Pearlescent sand was sprinkled across the boutique display tops, littered with pirate treasures including crystal glass skulls and messages in bottles.

The first look (worn by model on the rise, Nicole Pollard) was a deep burnished gold sequin dress which twisted across the arms in decorative rope-like patterns, and their signature sequins just kept coming. From emerald green to squid ink black, and a stunning finale gown in opalescent white featuring exquisite train of hand sewn layers reminiscent of a goddess emerging from her clam shell. This is definitely one for the modern bride, especially coveting the Paspaley pearl choker necklace.

Click the link below to see the full collection;

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