Dunhill: The Homes

The Dunhill brand represents so much more than the things it sells. Its about luxury, comfort, quality, longevity and most importantly, lifestyle. Alfred Dunhill's home cater to their customers with a little more than good customer service. There are four houses in London (shown above), Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong all equipped with either a bespoke or custom tailoring service, bar, restaurant, screening room, barber or spa. This is what I call the perfect shopping experience!

More than just clothes

If you go on the toast website, you will see that they have created a whole toast world, almost! They have the clothes and homeware sections, however they also have a feature called style stories where they have created small photoshoots to promote their products in storyboard form, which is a great idea. They also have another feature called Toast Travels, which is a blog. It is an opportunity for the staff and customers to tell stories about art, culture, food and life! Its a beautiful idea and a way for toast to show that they are much more than their products.

Toast have some beautiful videos which they have created to promote their collections, including this one called There, but it is worth having a look at the others, especially 6 1/2 Quiet Minutes and the mens one too! If I was any good at capturing anything, photos or movies, I would definitely create something as beautiful as this!

Mid-age Research

I did a little initial research on Mintel which had some great facts and figures about new mums. It revealed that new mums do not enjoy the shopping experience and have difficulty in finding clothes that suit their new body shape and that are fashionable as well as being the correct size. It also stated that there was a gap in the market for new mothers who struggle to find clothes, who are tending to be older when having children, therefore are more financially stable, and more likely to spend money on new clothes.

This is really interesting and something that I see in some of my relatives that have had babies, including my aunty and especially my mum whose body shape changed when she had me and my sisters over 22 years ago, however I don't think she found the confidence to experiment with clothes and figure out which ones suited her. She didn't have me or my sisters whilst she was in mid-age, but her lack of confidence in trying new styles is something that she still struggles with today. I have also noticed that ever since my aunty became a mother, she tends to stick to the same types of clothes that she probably feels comfortable with. However, before she had a child, just like my mum, she had a more varied wardrobe.

Looking at all of the evidence, it is clear that mid-age women need clothes that are stylish and suit a range of body types. I think there is a huge gap in the market which needs to be filled, so maybe a shop aimed at the middle-aged and purely for the middle-aged would be a good idea. A styling service may also be a good idea, to help them figure out what suits them best and give them confidence.

I have also been thinking about doing a tailoring service....looking at the British labels in the previous posts and others such as Paul Smith, Burberry, Dunhill and even Saville Row, they all have one thing in common, apart from the fact that they are part of Britain, they are also tailors. I guess tailoring is a very British thing, and just happens to be on trend at the moment. It is an opportunity for women who are not comfortable with their shape to have something custom made to fit them perfectly and to flatter their shape.

So my idea would be to have a boutique selling clothes with a tailored aesthetic running through the store, that also offers a tailoring and styling service.

Pringle of Scotland

These images are from the autumn/winter 10 advertisement campaign and they grabbed my attention because they capture the essence of a British autumn or winter so well, you can almost feel the chill! The clothes, the colours, the countryside, they all feel British. I also like how simple they are, there is not too much posing and it looks quite natural.  I also like the fact that they have used a mid-aged woman, Tilda Swinton, who looks amazing!

Hackett

Hackett is definitely not as old as Aquascutum, but it is as British as they get. The advertising campaigns,  marketing, products, styling, fabrics, clothes, everything creates a truly British image. So its a great company to get inspiration from...

These images show examples of Hackett's advertising campaigns from spring/summer 09 through to spring/summer 11. Hackett's branding remains true to its British roots, it has created an image of the English gentleman, who retains his timeless British style, but has lots of character.

Hackett also has a very strong relationship with the world of sports which it also manages to incorporate in its advertisements, creating a clear identity.

The images above are really nice. They capture a sense of nostalgia, classic British style, luxury, London city, sports and everything else that the company represents. They have managed to create a bold image and really know who they are and who their customer is.

British Heritage: Aquascutum

After having an initial briefing, the only thing that stood out to me was this idea of creating an image around British heritage or the quintessentially British, as it something that mid-age women can relate to, and I guess it brings back memories, or is something that is familiar.

This reminded me of a previous module: tailoring, where I had to do a report on British tailoring companies, some of which had a strong British identity. The companies I looked at include Aquascutum, Hackett and Paul Smith.

Aquascutum has a long history with British fashion, it is engrained in its DNA. The company as a whole including its style of clothes, marketing and branding,  has always retained a British aesthetic, but manages to keep it up to date.

For this advertising campaign, Aquascutum has used Pierce Brosnan, who plays a part in the quintessentially British movies, James Bond. The overall image sticks to a British theme, and I like how they have chosen to create a scene that isn't what you would usually picture when you think of British. The whole polished James Bond- suit and tie, English gentleman look is there, and the model wearing a mans shirt and tie. The decor is quite simple, but you can still imagine it to be English. I think they have created a really strong image.

This is from another advertising campaign by Aquascutum and it still feels very British. It creates an image of the clothes being made in the UK and a sense that they are hand made with care and quality. The factory feel, with the rails of clothes, the sewing machine, the seamstress, British!

New Year, Fresh Start

Its the beginning of the year and after having an amazing summer spent in London and a great internship at Erderm, its time for a fresh start with a new pathway: communication! It wasn't after a lot of thought that I decided to transfer from design to communication, purely for technical reasons! When I say technical, I mean the manufacturing side of fashion, which I just haven't managed to get the hang of in the 2 years that I have been on this course! So I have decided to focus more on the graphic or visual side of fashion, and I will see where it takes me...!

Back to the start of the term. A new term means a new module, and this is a really exciting one because it is a brief and competition set by the RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce). It is also quite a refreshing task because the target customer are the middle aged. I know very little about them and there are lots of misconceptions surrounding them that may need to be looked into a little more.

So the brief is to create a new clothing concept or brand for 40-60 year olds, whilst designing something that challenges the idea of middle age and focuses on the positives. It will be interesting to research and discover more about a generation that is not mine!