“Bringing together two clients who should not have met.” when fast fashion borrows (a lot) from haute couture

Rokh at H&M last April, Marine Serre at Zalando in November, or even Stefano Pilati at Zara this fall… Twenty years after the first event of the great fashion name, the pioneer and visionary Karl Lagerfeld and the fast fashion giant; H&M – More and more established designers are teaming up with mass market brands.

“These collaborations have made it possible to bring together two clients who should not have met a priori.” Audrey Katz, principal at CCK Avocats, a firm that primarily handles intellectual property matters.

“The collision of these two worlds creates a third that creates a form of reverse snobbery when it comes to buying affordable designer pieces. We cannot deny certain positive aspects of these arranged marriages; on the one hand, the popularity of designers is growing, on the other hand, fast fashion offers more creative and environmentally responsible capsules. In terms of image, it is beneficial,” continues the lawyer.

With each new exclusive capsule collection, the customers are also there. But now fast fashion brands are going further as they appoint renowned designers like Zac Posen at Gap or Claire Waight Keller at Uniqlo to perpetuate this gradual move to the upmarket.

Strong competition

If fast fashion today aims to produce more high-end collections than in the past, it is because it in turn has to face competition from fast fashion giants such as Shein or Temu, who are establishing themselves in the market en masse, very and with many products: low prices (sweater 12 euros, coat 25, etc.). The latter do not have the difficulty of being inspired or attracting creative people. artificial intelligence (AI) collects for them what generates the most numbers on the Internet… We are far from the time when Cristobal Balenciaga did not put his dresses in the window for fear of copying, and the 1990s, when fashion photographers were secretive resold photos of fashion shows to workshops in the Sentier district of Paris.

“Now the computer system combines millions of images taken on sales sites and, like an algorithm, recreates what works best,” explains Jan Rivolan, president of the French Ready-to-Wear Federation. It’s a statistical tool. launched at the end of 2022, with three billion investments in its online presence, is one of the most visited sites in France. The evolution of these fast fashion companies parallels the emergence of generative artificial intelligence in 2016. “The competitive relationship is completely unbalanced. while a “normal” brand releases one new link a day, Zara offers a hundred and Shane ten thousand, analyzes Ian Rivollani. The classic ready-to-wear brand updates its collections every six months, fast fashion about every three weeks, extreme fast, every three days.”

“Premiumization” of affordable fashion.

This new balance of power is changing the fashion industry. Faced with endemic competition from fast fashion, which drags down the market, fast fashion is forced to position itself upwards… and luxury towards extreme luxury.” The first generation of fast fashion, H&M or Zara, raises both its prices and its level of supply releasing collections consisting of more expensive and quality raw materials; silk, tweed or lace,” notes Corinne Champagne Katz, a Paris-based barrister specializing in intellectual property law. Additionally, groups like Zara and H&M are rethinking the shopping experience by closing some older stores to focus on new, more spacious ones. and on luxury stores such as Zara, which has just opened at 117, rue du Bac, opposite the Bon Marché. The heart of Paris.

For several years, the fashion market has been shaped like an hourglass. Jan Rivoalan recalls that if twenty years ago barely 1% of the world’s population bought luxury, today it is 10%. We don’t buy the product for what it is, but for its image. The mass market thrives on creative collaborations that ensure originality and legitimacy.”

And which enable them to claim a more virtuous offer, even if quantitatively these more “environmentally responsible” capsules do not represent their entire production chain… “As for designer brands or luxury groups, these hybrid collaborations can also be to ‘compact’ Counterfeit and a tool to neutralize, specifically, logos and other symbols that point customers towards luxury to collect and identify,” emphasizes Corinne Champagne. Sit.

Well designed features

H&M, which this year celebrates its twentieth anniversary of “luxury” and “designer” collaboration, awakens this desire to democratize fashion by staying true to the values ​​of the guest labels on the landscape,” recalls Anne-Sophie Johansson, H&M’s creative consultant, “today it’s hard to explain how revolutionary those were. collaborations at the time introduced creators to a wider audience and brought together different sectors of the industry.” Also seeking to anchor pieces that we hold for a long time; Comme des Garçons capsules by Rei Kawakubo, Viktor & Rolf,

Balmain, Mugler, Moschino or Rabanne imply a different rhythm of production and consumption. Furthermore, H&M has just created the Pre-Loved Archive, a limited selection of designs obtained from twenty years of collaboration with designers, available at H&M ennobling these pieces on the site But Audrey Katz reminds us that these fertile unions sometimes do not prevent the “high” from attacking the “low”. After their collaboration in 2013, Isabel Marant sued Swedish group 2020 over a jacket that had a “similar visual impression”. The lawyer reminds. “There is no stable peace in fashion, there are only possibilities.”