This week I’m still thinking about my beautiful Barbour-style jacket from British brand, Paynter. You may have heard of them from the NY Times coverage which took them from tiny and under-the-radar cool to THTH (#toohottohandle). Why do I love? Let me list the reasons why. They only cut to order, no more. They drop four new products a year, that’s it. They alert customers about their next product a week in advance and allow you to place a preorder via the newsletter alert. Then, when the product goes live at 9am BST on launch day, it sells out within minutes. Done and done. It’s not done there. Once you’ve purchased you get a really cool BTS look at the product in the making: fabric purchased, fabric cut, sewing, seams, trims, press until it’s on its way to you weeks later. This is slow fashion at its finest. Storytelling, aspirational, exceptional quality and it’s not ludicrously overpriced.
My husband tells me I look very “East-coast” in this jacket. I say I look British which is what I am (half the time I’m not a country-loving Yankee). I guess I just need the wellies, rifle and a cocker spaniel to keep me company.
Fashion (and not fashion) news I care about
Mara Hoffman shuttering. It’s really sad to see a brand making really beautiful, well-made things and employing really thoughtful practices, close down. I’m trying to take the line of sight that 23 years is a great run and it’s a great thing to end one thing to move into a new phase of life. But, there’s also a reality that Mara addresses herself about how hard it is to run a small-ish business (~$5MM/year) in an industry with a seriously uneven playing field. In her words, “its structure is archaic and was never built to prioritize the Earth or its inhabitants. It’s no secret that its “success” is still to bound to harm, unchecked growth and extraction…”
I think we are going to see a lot more of these small, independent brands closing in the next few years as we swing back towards a more consolidated (and extreme) fashion landscape. There will be cheap and there will be luxury. Sad day! Go support independent brands! please!
The Global Fashion Summit kicked off this week in Copenhagen and, let’s be honest, I wish I was there. It’s like a fashion COP26 summit. The priorities for the conference - which has become a bit of an EVENT on the fashion calendar - are:
Operationalizing Sustainability
Redefining Growth
Activating Consumers
Prioritizing People
Mobilizing Materiality
Like with most of these conferences, the criticism is that there’s a lot of talk and not much action. A lot of signaling and cute outfits. But I actually think these events are super important and happen more in sustainability than other areas of fashion because people are actually collaborating on initiatives to try and move the needle. And the connections and energy from an event like this can bring some much needed optimism when it really is such an uphill battle.
SNL’s take on fast fashion. Lol.
Listening to / Reading
Did you see the Seed probiotic and Swehl campaign brilliance? I found this excellent recap in this awesome substack about brand building, entrepreneurship and other stuff.
Experimenting with Beautiful.ai, an ai tool for decks and presentations. Shout out to my Papa; this is for you!
Patagonia released this kind of weird, quirky short film on YouTube, Shitthropocene. It’s supposed to be mockumentary style film about the stupidity of the fashion industry and overconsumption whilst also, promoting Patagonia products? It didn’t totally land for me but would love others to weigh in.
Much love
xx
If anyone wnats to read more about the threat to independent brands right now, read here: https://www.businessoffashion.com/briefings/luxury/the-existential-threat-to-independent-brands/https://www.businessoffashion.com/briefings/luxury/the-existential-threat-to-independent-brands/