Wednesday January 27

1. Wednesday January 27 • Jennifer Cassel • Veronica Cetnar • “500 Days of Summer.” • Write down three “relationship” trends you find in this film—hand in at end of class. • These may become the basis of your first assignment, which we will discuss next Wednesday.

2. Fashion • So what will be the next big fashion swing if you follow the guidance of our author? • Or should we look to your trends—a bit of crowdsourcing? • Nerd glasses—party glasses? • Flannel shirts • Thigh high boots • Loud patterns • Tattoo fashion

3. Monday • Where should we go? • Meet at the classroom for a quick lecture and your assignments.

4. Fashion Trends Crocs, Burberry, Jeggings, Keffiyahs, Climbing Carabiners

5. Coercion—Atmospherics • At a time, when traditional advertising and marketing (television, newspaper, radio) is receiving less and less of our attention—atmospherics (where we buy) plays a bigger and bigger role. • As Doug Rushkoff says: it’s cutting out the middleman • We’ll look at how Crocs and Burberry did this. • But think about where you shop? • How do these places get you to buy?

6. Nike and Gothic CathedralsIs shopping our new religion? Niketown Chartres Cathedral

7. How does your brand—retailer, product, service—create desire? • Through Affluence? • The customer is unworthy—so they feel they want it more. • “You can’t have this.” The red velvet ropes in front of a nightclub. The bouncer who won’t let you in. • Being “in the know.” Special sales, trunk shows, invites to special events. • Sales clerks who make decisions on who is worthy—and who isn’t • Use of specific types of sales clerks to set the standards for who can shop there—and who can’t.

8. Creating desire? • What is the Gruen Transfer? • How does Abercrombie & Fitch take you from being a customer to one who will impulsively buy? • How did shopping become more about the customer than the product? Do you buy something because it’s high quality or because someone else is wearing it? • The shift from climate controlled malls (Somerset and Briarwood) to “historical” places like Quincy Market or South Street Seaport or Times Square—minus the sleaze? Anything like this in your hometown? • Now the shift to “authenticity.” Fake Main Streets and downtowns when they are actually malls? • So what keeps Ann Arbor from becoming this? Why is there no Gap downtown or Anthropologie or A&F?

9. Carpet and Muzak • Hard material on the floors versus carpet in the stores. • Muzak: not just for elevators anymore. • Now we even buy the music that we hear in a certain place i.e. Starbucks mixes, W Hotels, and? • We have gone beyond the concept of “third places”—not our work or our homes—but to the creation of brand “places” that characterize who we are and what we want to be. • Examples: REI, Whole Foods, ????

10. For the Field Trip • Where could we see the “Decompression Zone?” • An example of the “Invariant Right?” • The Butt Brush? Or lack thereof? • The Gruen Transfer? • Music and furnishings?

11. Anatomy of the Burberry Trend

12. Burberry Trend from 1856 to 2009 • Founded in 1856 by Thomas Burberry. • Wanted to protect his clientele from the weather. • As the New Yorker so eloquently puts it “Weather is to Burberry as sex is to Gucci. • In 1880, he creates a waterproof coat that is made of treated cotton. • In 1891, he open his first store—maybe one of the first destination stores in retail history. • And like Nike it signed up the sports heroes of its day • Explorers who go to the North and South Poles

13. Burberry Trend • The coats are worn by the likes of Robert Scott who traveled to the Antarctic. Roald Amundsen goes to the South Pole. • Explorers’ endorsement lead to the leisure classes wanting to “look” like them. So they buy Burberry coats. Not unlike guys buying Nike Airs to be like Mike. • In 1997, the company underwent a revolutionary change from stuffy, boring British raincoat brand to high fashion and beyond. • Hired Rose Marie Bravo to “transform the company into a “modern luxury brand.” • Changed the name from Burberrys to Burberry and hires famous photographer Mario Testino to shoot ad campaigns. • Gives trenchcoats to 30 New York fashion editors when Hurricane Floyd hit New York. Each coat costs $1795

14. Burberry continues • In 2002, the company goes public—which can be a bad habit for fashion brands because now they must show growth every single quarter. • What does that mean?

15. Is it real nor not?

16. Bikini anyone?

17. Real?

18. And my favorite: Burberry for dogs

19. And that’s how a trend can go oh-so badly • In 2002, East Ender actress goes on a Burberry buying spree after having her septum repaired because of too much cocaine use. She is wearing is a vision in Burberry and so is her one-year-old daughter. • In 2008, a poll by a London newspaper ranked the Burberry plaid as the worse fashion faux pas…”beating out puffy jackets and even Crocs.” • Burberry has to discontinue a $90 checked cap because it become the favorite accessory of a “chav”—people in England who like their football. And also in the U.S. Burberry becomes a fashion accessory among gang members and urban youths.

20. So how does it stop this? • It has discontinued many items. • Hit hard at counterfeiters. • And hired new designers and executives who…you guessed it are going back to the good old days of explorers for inspiration. • Going for a “drab fab” look • May 28, 2009 was named “Burberry Day” by the Mayor of New York

21. Crocs 2002-2009 • A much faster rise and fall than Burberry • Starts out as a shoe for sailing designed by Lyndon Hanson • Raised $239 million for its IPO in 2007 • Ben Affleck and Paris Hilton seen wearing Crocs • New book on President Bush says he liked to wander around the White House in Crocs • 100 million pairs have been sold

22. Crocs rise and fall • By 2009, they were “over” • The Washington Post quoted a fund manager as saying "the company's zombie-ish. They're dead and they don't know it." in the summer of 2009 • No style icons—and how could there be—they were ugly. • But how did they make an ugly shoe seem not so ugly. • A few ideas? Passed them out at volleyball tournaments. Nice looking folks wearing ugly shoes.

23. Perfect example of: • A brand that becomes less about the product and more about the customer • Starts off as a shoe that is lightweight and resists bacteria. It makes it great for sailing • A team of three friends start taking the shoes to boat shows • They bring in a new executive who speeds up manufacturing so when a color goes “hot” they can make it under four weeks. • But is this more than a fad? • Can they make it into a company? • Crocs stores • Crocs high heels • Crocs with furry linings?