How Do Street Fashion Culture Master The "Power Of Life And Death" Of Clothing Brands?

Luxury brands are using the cultural power and business models of the street trend to ensure the status of the industry. Virgil Abloh takes over the Louis Vuitton men's clothing as the most powerful proof.

Street culture

Street apparel has become the main business of European luxury brands.

After all, Millennial consumers have mixed up Supreme and Dries Van Noten clothes for more than one or two years.

This week, the founder of high street brand Off-White Virgil Abloh formally entered the Louis Vuitton menswear as the creative director of the global luxury brand men's clothing, emphasizing that street dress is becoming more and more important to luxury fashion. It is not hard to see that some of the fashion industry giants have wisely chosen to subvert themselves in order to avoid being subverted.

Masculine and gentle coexist Dries Van Noten2013 spring and summer show

The core force is the new generation of consumers.

The Y generation and the Z generation have long been the main engine of the growth of the luxury goods market, contributing 85% of the luxury consumption growth last year.

By 2025, their spending on luxury goods is expected to account for 45% of the total.

But this underestimates the influence of the new generation of consumers.

The way of thinking of the millennial generation is taking root in the luxury market, changing the buying habits of all generations of consumers.

But there are many traditional luxury brands still cling to their original business models, which are out of line with the millennial values and consumption habits, and will not be considered "cool" by them.

In fact, in the view of many millennials, the traditional luxury brands are printed on glossy coated paper, decorated with dazzling brand flagships, and fashion shows held every season, but they are boring and distorted marketing methods. They are bundled with old-fashioned social hierarchy and luxury.

Instead, they attract more avant-garde Street clothing brands such as Supreme and Gosha Rubchinskiy.

These brands strive to create good street reputation, adopt innovative business models, sell fashionable but moderately priced products, and strictly control the frequency of product distribution.

The explosive development of street clothing reflects the great changes in the cultural field: the rise of rap music and the mainstream of street culture.

Each generation has a unique cultural preference. For the millennial generation, hip hop culture is more resonant than Hollywood.

So it's natural to turn to brands that they consider to be cooler and more authentic.

Moreover, the millennial generation was originally "the Aboriginal people in the digital age", and the street tide card was more suited to the Internet culture they grew up at multiple levels.

First of all, Chao brand uses more planar visual elements that are easy for all kinds of screens to read. Secondly, it is full of poisonous tongue and Tucao elements everywhere in the Internet world.

You can refer to Abloh's use of question marks (for example, a little black dress printed on a little black skirt).

Street corner also brings the concept of "drop": it is far higher than the rhythm of traditional fashion brands, controlling the release of new products, and ensuring the excitement of consumers with a steady stream of freshness.

After all, their expectations and trends of "new things" are no more than two streams of Instagram news flow.

The reality of the world is becoming more and more virtualized. Millennials are eager to have the truth, and have the real things that can really drive them to experience offline, feel a sense of belonging, and prove their beliefs.

Music has played this role, but with Spotify turning music into another cloud service, touting mobile phones can appreciate the music all over the world. Street clothes have begun to take the place of music in young people's lives.

In 2016, when Rubchinskiy launched its first fragrance series, it told BoF that "brands like Supreme and Gosha took the place of bands."

In fact, street clothing brands are very similar to the minority bands in the former Spotify era: they have a large number of loyal fans, and fans believe that they have less contact with tradition and are the catalyst to link each other and produce common experience.

Queuing up with friends to buy the latest version of Supreme is like a new disc that used to queue up to buy a favorite band.

By breaking the traditional model of luxury and embracing the typical elements of the street tide brand, Balenciaga and other brands have successfully attracted millennial consumers. The best selling products of Balenciaga include Triple S and Speed series sneakers.

The same success has been achieved by Gucci, which was first created in the era of Tom Ford, with the luxury of high profile and the display of wealth status as the focus of Alessandro Michele's recognition of mobility and community.

Balenciaga and Gucci belong to Kai Yun group (Kering), the main rival of open cloud, and Louis Vuitton's parent enterprise road LVMH.

Louis Vuitton, the creative director of former men's clothing Kim Jones, knows the street culture well, and the joint series released jointly with Supreme is very popular, so Lu Wei Ming Xuan is also very clear about the huge market which the street tide brand backs.

Now, Lu Wei Mun Xuan group hopes that Louis Vuitton men's clothing can further develop in the field of street clothing under the leadership of Abloh.

But when the world's largest luxury goods group embraces street signs, the danger will follow: maybe it will become another mode of the luxury sector.

As a result, observers are doubtful whether street brands will be attracted to luxury brands.

Although there is always the risk of brand dilution, we should also realize that street apparel is not a pient fashion trend.

Very simply, street clothing is the dressing style of the new generation of young people.

In addition, Abloh's entry into Louis Vuitton men's clothing and Jones's taking over Dior Homme reflects the way of Wei Ming's reflection on men's clothing strategy, and the rise of street clothing may also affect her women's clothing business.

Finally, despite the fact that Louis Vuitton's classic handbag still contributes to the brand revenue, the most prominent place in the world's flagship stores is the Archlight series sneakers, which are among the most popular products in the world's Nicolas Ghesqui re. This is also one of the most popular products of the top fashion opinion leaders in Instagram.