Fashion Brands - Mark Tungate

Recently I read a book called 'Fashion Brands' written by fashion journalist Mark Tungate. It filled me with all sorts of knowledge about different brands including H&M, Zara, Japenese brand Uniqlo, and also high end brands such as Chanel, Dior, Gucci and many more.

He talks about how big brands such as these first started out and where they originated from and how they were founded/created. The book includes brand strategies and values, how each brand targets there consumer and how they retain their brand identity. For example H&M and Zara are seen as 'fast-fashion' brands and like to follow the trends as soon as they're seen on the catwalk, however Uniqlo focuses more on quality of the products and having a close connection with loyal customers. Although H&M and Zara may seem very similar their branding and advertising strategies are very different. H&M are known for there basic white background advertising shots and aren't afraid to plaster them everywhere whereas Zara is the complete opposite and only relies on the visual merchandising, layout and experience of their stores to represent them as a brand as they spend very little money on advertising elsewhere.

A good couples of pages in the book talks about Diesel and how their was a big risk in starting up their brand. This was because when they were just arriving in the fashion industry fashion was about wearing suits and formalwear but Diesel wanted to change it up a bit with their jeans and focus more on streetwear, so it was hard to persuade people to stock his jeans.

A big part of the book focused on fashion photography and about a couple of famous photographers such as Helmut Newton, Horst P Horst, and Cecil Beaton. Another Vincent Peters who said - 'you don't buy clothes you buy identity'. This statement I agree with entirely as I feel it s all about story and styling when taking photographs. When Ralph Lauren came about in the 19880's their advertising made people become more interested in the supermodels lives than the product just through photography.

As well as photography the book highlights the importance of the role the actual designer themselves plays in brand identity. Fashion designers have a personal vision and the has to be shown and recognised for the brand to be successful in my opinion.

In the 19th century there wasn't really such thing as retail and advertising as appointments were made to be able to buy single products and there were no such thing as seasonal sales and catalgoues.

Now there are trend books by Nelly Rodi that follow ready to wear, knitwear, lingerie, colours, prints, fabrics, lifestyle, beauty and perfume scents. It includes that teams go out to find the new trends on the streets at fashion shows, art events, exhibitions and social phenomena.

There are many well known advertising agencies such as Saatchi and Battle Bow Hegarty which are Levi's agency. In the agencies there are many roles such as creative directors, photographers and stylist. a well known creative director mentioned in the book is Thomas Lenthal who's worked with many brands and created an revolutionary advertisement for Dior featuring to French women which him and Galliano called 'porno chic'.

Another advertising agency is Exposure, who have worked for brands such as Levis', DR Martens, Burberry and Nike. Model selection is also important in an advertising company and Model 1 are the biggest agency for it. They separate there models into categories such as men's, women's, new faces and classic. There are models that are known as Fast track models because they are used for a couple of big jobs but then never again because they've gone 'out of fashion'. It is thought that catalogue models have longer careers.

Overall, this book has been really interesting and taught me a lot about that's important when creating a brand and making it a success. I now know of a lot more designers and creative directors and photographers so an be more familiar with them when creating my own work.