Fashion as P.R.

The WSJ had an article last week on the power of outrageous fashion design to sell mere , albeit expensive trinkets. Branding is indeed a "magic" process. Take a designer, have him (her) design a line of clothes, produce a show, create "buzz" around the show, get some nice pictures in magazines, maybe an article in Vogue, a few clothes make it into a store of choice (think Colette, not Macy's). Designer is known, designer sells handbags, handbags are still expensive. Let's go down the licensing well, designer creates perfumes, expresses in inteviews that perfume reminds him of his native Provence, her grandmother perfume, the tree where she played hide and seek, and so on. Perfume sells at Macy's.

The New Times had an article on Thursday on a similar subject: the article quotes Suzy Menkes, "It was a season of bags and shoes", and notes that" in some instances, as at the Christian Lacroix show here, this point was put across so baldly that each model sashayed down a vivid green runway, stopped for the cameras and then, apparently as instructed, awkwardly held out her purse."