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| Hood by Air SS14 Runway |
There’s a feeling that
modern streetwear is being priced out of the reach of the average cool kid on
the street whose aesthetic codes and lifestyle has helped shape its image
today. In the emerging streetwear business scene, the market and desire for
products are unbelievable. A decade ago the leading streetwear labels Stussy, Supreme and A Bathing Ape
sold tees for £35 on the average but with today’s new guard the likes of Hood by Air, Marcelo Burlon – County of Milan, Off White and Pyrex
average pricing for tees are around £130.
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| Marcelo Burlon Creative Director of Marcelo Burlon - County of Milan |
The new streetwear guards Shayne
Oliver of Hood by Air, Marcelo Burlon of his namesake label and
Virgil Abloh of Pyrex and it’s extension OFF
WHITE have moved streetwear to a new level of luxury-like pricing. All
three of these creatives don’t consider themselves as designers, but are
constantly influenced by fashion-forward output from designer brands like Raf
Simons, Givenchy and more which they rework and translate. It is common place
now to find the use of exotic materials like snakeskin or artisanal processes
employed in the production of garments by this new class. These days it’s also highly
likely that factories that make finished products for luxury brands also make
for them.
Design isn’t the only thing Oliver, Burlon & Abloh have
adapted. Their adept marketing and presentation skillset can be compared to
what Luxury brands offer. They have applied celebrity endorsements to build
hype which in turn they’ve exploited using new marketing tools like social
media and the internet. Limited edition collections and rare to find pieces
which were the mainstay for early streetwear marketing strategy have been sort
of disregarded in favour of a more accessible approach which is only restricted
literally by pricing. To give you an idea of the kind of reach it would be
interesting to note that Marcelo Burlon – County of Milan has over 250
stockists worldwide whilst Hood by Air can be bought at over 90 retailers
worldwide.
Another important marketing tool that has been explored is
runway shows and the art of presentation. Last season Burlons Label was on the
Catwalk during Pitti Uomo, Abloh’s OFF WHITE recently presented its collection
at CIFF in Copenhagen whilst Oliver’s Hood by Air ended its 3 stage ss15
collection – which saw it show in Paris – at the MOMA gallery in New York.
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| OFF WHITE FW14 |
All of this has created a
medium for youth culture to be repackaged, fused with a more luxe vibe and sold
at a higher margin.
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