Fortune Favours The Bold : Virgil's epic poem find spirit in the high street reshuffle

Where brands have failed in the recent past, opportunity to move forward on the Monopoly board of the High Street has been created for the lucky few retailers. These brands will have business models attuned with the economy and collections that match the mood.

So what happens to the rest of the players, when the Railroads are occupied? Ah, they still get their roll of the dice and when they haven't landed on a Chance Card, they creatively sub-divide their neighbor's property and set up shop.

The BOLD innovators behind the new High Street creations are Mary Portas, Peter Davies and Nicky Dulieu. You may know Mary Portas from the TV show, Mary Queen of Shops, but the other two dynamic movers work behind the scenes from the eye of the general public. I am here to fill you in.

As a designer of luxury retail spaces, Mary Portas is one of my heroes. Championing the expulsion of retail shop blight is a noble cause that surely deserves an MBE. Not only has she contributed on improving the image of average British indie clothing shop, but she has valiantly raised the expectations of the customer. (I may start a campaign.) She also has the talent and courage to align a brand’s collections with its identity. My perfect job would be to consult as a brand guardian and do just that. I would be great at it.

Portas has great business acumen. First she let the great British public see her as the firm, yet compassionate High Street look/feel authority. Then, she named Primark as her opposition. Any great new leader needs a lumbering giant to leverage against. Think of JFK and his ability to convince the American public that the 50s were an era of complacency. He reminded Americans that there were still adventures to be had, which sparked the space race and a vein of national optimism that people still refer to nostalgically. Mary Portas has named the charity shop the new frontier and it is!

I've tried to find a picture of the LVMH store and Mary's Living and Giving Shop in the same shot at Westfield, but fortunately for LVMH, I cannot find one. While I am not a huge fan of slat wall, no discount shop can be without it and Mary Portas makes it look cool again. http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/whatson/mary-portas-shop-at-westfield-article-8291.html


Innovator Peter Davies, the chairman of Clarks also has an eye for bold opportunity and fortune.
When Principles grabbed the short straw out of the Mosaic Fashions brands, talent was released. Atypically there wasn’t a need to coax and court the talented team under a new roof. As the economy of Iceland melted, Peter saw opportunity and created Mint Velvet, utilizing the core Principles retail team.

Mint Velvet has found a home in House of Fraser stores and etails from their website. Their moody grey concessions nicely lull you into the mood to embrace their bold new venture and it is worth a browse. Their casuals and separates collections for the over 30s are best experienced in person, but you can check them out at http://www.mintvelvet.com/.


Our third bold innovator is Nicky Dulieu, the Chief Executive of Hobbs. I scour the hidden Retail Gems (The name of my personal index of who is doing what in retail and succeeding.) for the latest and greatest daily, but somehow the new contemporary sub-brand of NW3 has flown under my radar for months. My eyes must have been focusing on all things luxury-esque, but I am very familiar with the adverts. www.hobbs.co.uk/nw3.

NW3 is the new contemporary sub-brand of Hobbs. As diffusion brands generally go, this one targets a younger and female clientele. Piloting as a concession within four Hobbs stores and dipping its toe firmly in the water with a flagship this next year, NW3 is going for “quintessentially English with a modern twist.” Fashionable mums and daughters will soon be shopping together.

Nicky’s bold vision is to create a diffusion brand for a successful (profitable) high street brand and bring in the right person to direct it. She cleverly has brought in the deftly experienced Alana Mazza as the Retail Director to deliver the new Hobbs and NW3 concepts, which will both receive a make-over in their fusion.

If successful, NW3 a namesake for the postcode where Hobbs debuted, will sub-divide the Monopoly High Street with a further 55 stores.

I was surprised to learn that the design firm selected for this bold venture, barely has a retail portfolio, so I’m going to visit their Regent Street store to assess the success. I’ll let you know what I find!

10 Trends on the High Street

TRENDS have many angles for discussion. As with any trend, one must be quick to pick it up and discard it just as quickly. Here are 10 for you to consume.
 
Number 1 
Mixing your wardrobe with high street and designer brand pieces. With luxury continuously on sale, women are investing in their wardrobe. It is a reason to rejoice the recession. 

Number 2  
Pop-up-tastic shops (formerly known as guerrilla stores).  The concept is bold, fun temporary re-invention. Established brands can take risks and be edgy without committing much capital and without diluting their brand image. It offers a chance for the timid to engage with a brand that they may feel is out of their league and it allows the brand to be friendly and extend that invitation to garner a new legion of loyalists with whom they wouldn’t otherwise mingle with. Pop-ups are win, win for everyone, including the journalists that have some optimistic to write about.

Number 3   
The recession has chased bling into hiding. Display windows are showing restraint; presenting less theme, more space between the noise and spotlighting moments of cross merchandising heaven.

Number 4  
Over the knee boots. Little boots = living life in the moment. Very tall boots = a reflection of the muck that is life in a financially driven world….the fashion designers are indicating we are in it deep.

Number 5  
We are also blessed with fabulous military detailing in the Autumn collections. Epaulettes, insignias, structured shoulders and brass button clothing are right on trend. No one does this better than Temperley. Their new Alice By Temperley brand will compete with the high street brands. (I want a jacket in grey!)


Number 6  
Roger Vivier is loving the patent leather revival. Any colour, except black will give you a retro-modern look. Best used sparingly, ladies.

Number 7  
Cashmere is mingling with the wool in the high street shops. As luxury dips in the high street pocket with sales, the high street is reaching up into luxury’s with cashmere. The smart retailer will explain the difference between baby and white cashmere and that the ridiculously cute Hircus goats roam the high steppes of Asia to win the extra pounds from their customers.

Number 8  
Specialty retailers are catching up with department stores and finally building in their visual merchandising zones. Visual marketing via a post-rationalise poster sites are now being integrated in the enveloping retail experience and gondolas of merchandise no longer have the sole purpose of propping up products. Because, many brands get their start from a capsule collection, each fixtures needs to convey the essence of that fledgling brand and that is best conveyed with the brand’s own imagery. The philosophy here is any opportunity to get a marketing message across should be taken, but it is now integrated. With over 10,000 messages in anyone’s day, the majority of ads that win your attention are simply beautiful and calm to look at. 

Number 9
 The hierarchy of retailers in the sea of fashion can be described like the cartoon where the medium sized fish eats the little fish, then promptly gets eaten by the bigger fish. Only the little fish and the medium sized fish are happy to be eaten. Department stores once started with categories with the message of a one-stop shopping experience.  As time passed, specialty and luxury brands were established within department stores. Brands now dominate the department stores within open boutiques. One couldn’t survive without the other, although the luxury brands would like to think they can. Specialty stores in our little story are the medium sized fish and for a while they have been championing young designers, whom will graduate into the next ‘own bought’ brands within department stores. So what is the trend? 

The trend is set by those who figure out a new way to attract the media and customers. There are two trends most admired in this sea. The first is Sir Philip Green’s success at bringing in Kate Moss’s style into Topshop. The second success is H&M who are bringing even more fame to the establish high-end designers, making designer wear accessible to the high street consumer. Designers are now courting H&M and I bet they are enjoying it.

Number 10

There always must be balance. An anti-trend to the cool we are magnetically drawn to. 
It is almost December and red and green in primary colours are in season. Notice I didn't say in fashion.

Rushing to a lecture on Space and Time yesterday, I wedged myself into the elevator at Goodge Street station. A sight of heels and lace patterned tights in matching Pellegrino green was mesmorising.

SINGING TO SHOES

Some stories are so sweet that to not share them would be selfish.

Recently, I found myself at a dinner party discussing mens shoes. The conversation was rather amusing. He wanted to buy a new pair of shoes that he would love looking at. The spoken adoration for these shoes that he had yet to find, was a descriptive search for future and enduring happiness. It was a shoe bonding moment with mutual respect and how could one not encourage such passion.

I had forgotten completely about the conversation until I received this message.

"I must have been six years old when I got a new pair of Clarks sandals. Single buckle, domed toe, chestnut brown, room to grow. I loved those new shoes very much. I loved them mostly because they were new but being only six this was my first infatuation and it was serious (only ever beaten by my first crush... Shirley Bassey, Jeez, I am gay).

I talked to those shoes all the time telling them how much I loved them. One day, during school assembly, I was yanked out by my ear and marched to the head-teacher's office for causing a disruption. My crime; Singing to my new shoes. My punishment: No singing to shoes in school and no milk at break-time. I haven't sung to a shoe since."
 

Inspired to find those shoes, that certain happiness and move beyond the unnecessary repression inflicted at a young age, he wanted to go shopping. More importantly, I was needed to guide this quest. Laughing out loud, how could I refuse. I was also six when my innocence and love for a pair of Wonder Woman underoos was squashed by a teacher in front of my classmates. Damage control can come at any age.

Cloth bags, shoe trees and a beautiful Barkers pair later, the dream of obtaining boxed happiness is complete. My smirking apologies to his flatmate if songs of shoe adoration waft through the air in the coming weeks.

OVER THE KNEE BOOTS

Besotted with a pair of Stella McCartney, laser-cut patterned, outrageously mid-thigh tan stiletto boots last Autumn and euphoric at the prospect of the high-street brands tripping over themselves to support a genuinely gorgeous trend when executed well; the fashion world has done well to bring us Over The Knee Boots, albiet four years after they first tempted us with the fashion trend.

The genuine question is how women will make them their own. How much of our knees will our collective recession conscious ethos permit us to reveal or cover? It will be a measure of our confidence. Excitedly, leggings finally have a pairing, hemlines will drop a little and there is a purpose for shorter coats that add elegance to our pins. Will the terribly chic go for taller boots, flaring tops, sheer stockings and thin dresses with hemlines that stay near the body?

Obviously there should be some guidelines on how to select your new boots and what to wear them with. Remember that these boots will show a lot of physical material. For each centimeter higher you venture, the more subtle the style should be. Go for timeless when you select for colour, texture, bulk, ornamentation and length. Shiny is great for wellies and patent flat pumps by Roger Vivier, but please leave the Pretty Woman-esqe look in your DVD collection.


We are also blessed with fabulous military detailing in the Autumn collections. Epaulettes, insignias and brass button clothing will look right on trend with over the knee boots and purveyors of tights and stockings will continue to be reigning kingpins.

For a casual look and if you aren't ready to indulge(invest, because it will be an investment), short skirts look great with a colored sock rolled above the top of a fitted boot that comes mid-kneecap.  However, after you've dipped your toe into the sole of empowerment and declare you are bold enough to pull a zip a third of your body length; embrace the over the knee boots so that other women will follow. The box will probably not fit in your closet, but we know you are resourceful.