SASSYBELLA.com - Designer's rack up their high street credentials (part 1)

Designer's rack up their high street credentials

Helen Lee - May 15 2007

As you read this another announcement is probably being made for another high store and celebrity / design collaboration.

Karl Lagerfeld for H&M Designer fashion use to be unattainable for people on average salaries. Not anymore. Not since Karl Lagerfeld designed a collection for European chain store giant, H&M.

I think it’s fair to say that H&M started this new wave of diffusion lines. Sure Isaac Mizrahi had done his first collaboration with Target America before Karl did his for H&M, but the Mizrahi collaboration didn’t spark a customer frenzy quite like the Karl Lagerfeld for H&M collection did when it hit stores back in November 2004. H&M and every other chain store had never seen crowds quite like the ones that lined up outside the store and scrambled for a piece from the iconic Chanel and Fendi designer who’s designs can fetch upwards of a few thousand dollars a piece.

Fashion had never flown out of a store quite like that before.

Chain stores wanted to get a piece of the action, so from Target to the Gap, Topshop to sporting goods giant Adidas, designer collaborations soon started popping up everywhere. And it hasn't stopped at just clothes; there have been designer collaborations for shoes, bags, sportswear, luggage and even mobile phones.

Has fashion really changed to be something for the masses? Or do designers crave recognition so badly that they will couple their names with a chain store for a few more people to recognize their name and earn a few extra dollars? I guess it would depend on the designer. After all it’s not like Karl Lagerfeld himself is in need of a few extra dollars. But for brands like Luella Bartley, Christopher Kane, Belinda Fairbanks, and Behnaz Sarafpour, greater name recognition wouldn’t hurt their bottom lines.

Once upon a time a designer diffusion line was sort of for the masses, Marc Jacobs launched Marc by Marc Jacobs at the turn of the century, aiming it towards a younger audience with a marginally smaller price point. Now it sells out just as fast as the Marc Jacobs line these days. Recently revived French label, Chloe launched a casual diffusion line around the same time with See by Chloe and it sold out soon after the collection hit stores. With jeans priced at around $500 - $600 in Australia, it was still much cheaper than forking out thousands for a piece of Chloe, but still not a price point that your every day customer could afford. Soon more designer diffusion lines received great prominence, the likes of Armani Exchange, Versace Jeans, Paul Smith Pink label, Alexander McQueen's McQ, and Moschino Cheap and Chic have helped create a wider consumer base for designer fashion.

These days' designer diffusion lines have collaborated with chain stores for an even broader consumer base. Perhaps collaborations are inevitable since chain stores have a fantastic ability to replicate the hottest looks on the catwalks, designers are collaborating in order to stem the flow a little. After all designer diffusion lines were cheaper, but not at chain store prices.

Topshop have an initiative to "literally bring catwalk fashions to the high street."

British designers who are presented with the New Gen award are usually asked to create capsule collections for Topshop Boutique, a special space in selected Topshop stores that holds limited edition garments. The Celia Birtwell for Topshop Boutique in 2006 was so popular that it apparently sold out within 3 minutes.

Up and coming talents like Preen, Emma Cook, Gareth Pugh, Peter Jensen and Christopher Kane have previously designed a collection for Topshop Boutique, with Pugh coming out to say he has actually made more money off his Topshop Boutique collaboration than from his own designs for his signature line.

"My life is one long financial struggle. Topshop's New Generation gives me £7,500 and I live on that," he tells Style Magazine. "I've never had a heated studio. I've got two plug points, which have to serve sewing machines, irons, spotlights and music. If I overload them with heaters, everything blows."

The Kate Moss for Topshop collection was the first non designer collection the retail chain put together. The collection was dubbed Copy Kate for the clothes that resembled designer pieces Moss owned in her own wardrobe. The was so much interest in the collection that the flagship Topshop store in Oxford Square launched the collection a day earlier, with the website also selling the collection from 4:30am GMT.

It helped that the supermodel was a live mannequin in the shop front to promote the campaign. Americans was so interested in the collection that Barney's made a deal with Topshop to stock the collection across the pond.

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