As demand for premium fashion grows, competition among brands is expanding beyond product quality to the value consumers actually experience. Good materials and solid construction are no longer enough. How effectively a brand conveys the texture and silhouette of a garment, and how it lets shoppers experience its own identity, are emerging as new points of differentiation.
Sales of cashmere products at LF's Hazzys menswear line rose about 80% in the first nine months of this year from a year earlier, according to industry sources on the 24th. That far exceeds last year's annual growth rate of about 10%. Even as fashion cycles grow shorter, the company said, more shoppers value items they can wear for years regardless of trends, such as cashmere, high-grade fabrics and precise fits.
Centered on its Hazzys and DAKS brands, LF is diversifying the premium brand experience across materials, visual content, flagship stores and cultural programs. The aim is to convey more broadly the distinctive value of a brand, which is hard to build through trend-chasing product planning alone.
Hazzys womenswear has added videos of models wearing the clothes to its online product pages, showing length, volume and how the silhouette changes with movement. The approach uses video to fill in details of fit that still images cannot capture, giving shoppers more information as they decide what to buy. HIS HAZZYS, a Hazzys sub-line, has focused on the polish of its visual content. For its premium items this fall and winter, including a 100% cashmere coat and European goose down pieces introduced for the first time this season, the brand strengthened its imagery and styling to convey the texture and silhouette of the high-grade materials more directly.
Physical stores are expanding from sales floors into places where shoppers experience a brand in three dimensions. Space H Shanghai, which opened in Shanghai's Xintiandi district early this year, was designed with the participation of Kaspar Mueller Knier Architects, the architecture group behind stores for Celine, Saint Laurent and Jil Sander. The design reflects British rowing club culture, a core part of the Hazzys story, in both its architecture and spatial layout. Large rowing objects and exhibition-style displays make the store itself function as brand content.
DAKS is also weaving its history and philosophy into the customer experience. Drawing on more than 130 years of British heritage, the brand began linking space, content and experiential programs this fall and winter season. To mark the launch of its new London Suit, it recently held a "British Suit Lifestyle" class with Glenfiddich, the British whisky brand. The brand is also offering art and culture lectures and styling classes for VIP customers, giving them a chance to experience the culture and lifestyle the brand is rooted in. Renovated flagship stores feature curved layouts inspired by English gardens and signature walls that render the DAKS house check as a structural element.
"The faster trends change, the more attention the competitive strength of premium fashion draws," an LF official said. "Beyond investing in good materials and solid fundamentals, the value of premium becomes clearer when content, space and customer experience come together as one consistent brand experience."
