menswear Archives - Page 5 of 8

Archive by category "menswear" (Page 5)

Atlantic Migration: American Eagle Nestles Down for the Winter

Travellers to US malls will be fully familiar with American Eagle as the “Man on the Streets” call to casual clothing. Affordable and accessible in contrast to some of its more narcissistic neighbours it has built up a loyal following-

A Warm Welcome Home: White Stuff at Bluewater

White Stuff, the purveyor of distinctive quality fashion has found a home. Its new concept store is modelled on a 2-storey Edwardian house complete with majestic flowing staircase, authentic wooden floor tiles, grand open fireplaces with festive stockings, and more-

Backing Black: GAP betting on Boxpark

The trendy transient shopping centre of Shoreditch is many things to many retailers. Boxpark has been home to new brand launches, curious collaborations, assortment edits, entries into the UK market and a physical presence for marketing campaigns and promotional activities.-

Retro-Techno Pull & Bear: A Colour Daze of Future Passed

A colour, graphic explosion lights up the latest store incarnation of Pull & Bear, the young casual concept from Inditex.

But this is no blind leading the colour blind, no random application of hues and tones to randomly revive a fading friend. In a very cool but classic way Pull & Bear has combined the innocence of classic times with the dynamic technology of today.

Imagery abounds from the fun of the fifties with retro posters in glorious Technicolor saturation, and then adds the complementary neon highlights from a thousand timeless fun fares and fairground attractions to create a space of life and fun.

New technology is integrated in a subtle sympathetic way not clashing but complementing the simplicity and naivety of the bold shapes, spinning circles and shining stars. Its value is in the dynamic changes it offers the stores from seasonal backdrops to promotions and hero pricing. The low resolution, large pixel delivery is deliberately dumbed down to fit perfectly with the show-time signage throughout the store.

This is technology taken from Lefties but exploding centre-field to transform Pull & Bear from a moody moribund teenager of a concept into the fun-loving, life enhancing brand now bursting onto a street near you.

Are your graphics centrepiece or peripheral to your store experience?

Are you harnessing the dynamic opportunities offered through in-store technology?

VM-unleashed has worked with a variety of brands and retailers on visual communication strategies, store delivery and dynamic retail calendars.

For more information…
tim.radley@vm-unleashed.com

VM-unleashed monitors and celebrates best practice such as Pull & Bear, to advise our clients and make then more profitable.

Visit the blog: www.vm-unleashed.com

Defining Desigual: Putting a Price on Personality

Always the unashamed showcase for unique creativity and distinct colour combinations and designs, Desigual sometimes felt like the awkward overdressed guest at the party that was the hugely successful Spanish high street.

Against the mass market commercial appeal of its rivals, their fast fashion footwork, and intelligent interpretations of the catwalk, Desigual had many admirers, advocates of its distinction, but not always the footfall walk to accompany the flattering talk.

However, still set against this unique stance, Desigual has added a new assortment of more approachable apparel lines, maintaining its point of difference with a concentration on its colour and creative forte, whilst moving to a stable of safer and more acceptable product silhouettes. And in an acceptance of its value critics, the latest store displays communicate clear pricing for more commercial lines such as T-shirts and fashion tops.

Always a store full of mystery, a clear value message and a new commercial edge will be a pleasant surprise for its vanguard of loyal followers, whilst also sure to attract a whole new range of admirers, still advocates from afar but now also customers through the door.

No compromise on creativity, but an affirmation of commercial credibility.

Has your USP become too unique for the market?
Are you trying to balance creativity with commercial credibility?

We have worked with a variety of brands and retailers helping to define and develop an assortment structure plan for commercial success, that also incorporates and celebrates a distinction and difference, strategically controlled for sales impact.

For more information…
tim.radley@vm-unleashed.com

VM-unleashed monitors and celebrates best practice such as Desigual, to advise our clients and make then more profitable

Welcome to “The Monaco Book Club” Take a visual tour through Faded Fashions & Yesterday’s News

Taste is not an option for the ever-over-performing Club Monaco. Store and stock in faded harmony as sun-bleached beauty is applied to fixtures and fashions, to windows and wardrobes.

“UFO lands in NYC!”: Uniqlo’s Universal Appeal

Uniqlo is on an international mission from its Japanese heartland to become truly an international fashion destination. It is already the 4th biggest fashion retailer after Inditex, H&M and the GAP.

The new 5th avenue store is as impressive a brand statement as you could ever wish to see. The store is spread over 4 floors which are used to create a jaw-dropping entrance where the full store height is awash with colour and excitement.

The customer is taken on a definitive journey, firstly up 3 floors on an escalator into the sky. The customer then enters the main store through an illuminated corridor where best sellers, classics and image makers are presented with enticing graphics and flashing LEDs.

The collection is displayed through a series of rooms where the product grouping is still largely in the traditional Uniqlo categories.

However silhouettes are brought together on mannequins and focal displays and the collection also includes coordinated themes for women.

Hero categories have special status such as the mezzanine floor dedicated to the Uniqlo T-shirt and displays in museum fashion all of the designs and characters that have been used on the T-shirts over its history.

Uniqlo is developing a multichannel presence where its focus is currently to create an international fashion community.

On websites and mobile platforms an international audience recommend and model inspirational ways that customers can mix and coordinate the range of Uniqlo classics and new fashion pieces.

Watch this space. you won’t be able to take your eyes off it!

Pretty Amazing: Fits.me makes ’em Green with Envy

The fun continues with the revolutionary Fits.Me function on the stunning Pretty Green website where customers input their shape and can then see exactly how each type of shirt would look on their frame.

Sustainable technology with continued benefits and results – conversions up, returns drastically down and customers sold forever on the idea of Fits.Me

Left of Centre Fashion: The Value of Digital Communication

Not so long ago Lefties was at the periphery of the Inditex empire, viewed generally as an outlet for the unsellable assortment cast down from Zara, Stradivarius and the like. The poor relation, with a poor proposition for the poorer end of the fashion market.

Now Lefties is at the vanguard of value fashion, with its same low prices, but with an assortment that is now fashionable and desirable to a wider market. The latest store environments show the revolution full-circle, adding more value to the low prices, with a light environment, tressel tables and bespoke furniture and a revolution in digital communication.

Mannequin groups are complemented with large promotional images for hero price points, whilst a journey through the store introduces smaller digital promotions and dynamic price signage.

Most striking is the external logo, not only communicating the brand name but a host of promotional messages flashing from left to right, announcing to the world low prices, daily and weekly product heroes, promotional offers, and the arrival in the Spanish fashion scene of another serious contender in the value fashion market.

VM-unleashed work with retail businesses on visual communication strategies for stores.

Stand & Stare: Pull & Bear Take to the Road

The anti-corporate momentum builds…

as recognised brands balance the safety of recognition and loyalty with the excitement of individual assortments, personal enhancements and store environments that look like they come off the back of a lorry rather than the end of the corporate conveyer belt.

Pull & Bear, from the biggest brand house about, have a new store, urban and improvised, re-stressed and distressed. The logo is viewed through the glass blocked windows of the municipal shelter, whilst tiles and timbers, the remnants of a ruined landscape, are used to create the tables, fixtures and focal points.

The assortment is mixed with originality, imagination and unusual juxtapositions away from historical categories, whilst unit depth, table piles and the order of colour and fashion position are all for experimentation for the pleasure of the modern customers delectation. The abandoned Beetle drives a solitary path through brand convention as this innovative emporium tests the limits of brand conformity, and the battle for loyalty enters an ever more familiar territory.

…is your brand stuck in your corporate past, or responding to customer trends and forcing the market with innovative store environments and creative customer engagement?

Category: menswear