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British luxury fashion brand Burberry has already carved out a reputation for dressing rock bands and music stars such as Bryan Ferry, Coco Sumner and One Night Only.
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07/08/2010 09:07FT.com / Style - Fashion labels create their own soundtrack
Page 1 of 2http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/975185ac-a0ea-11df-badd-00144feabdc0.html
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Fashion labels create their own soundtrackBy Lucie GreenePublished: August 6 2010 22:01 | Last updated: August 6 2010 22:01
British luxury fashion brand Burberry has already carved out a reputation for dressing rockbands and music stars such as Bryan Ferry, Coco Sumner and One Night Only. Last month,however, it took its music connection one step further with the launch of Burberry Acoustic, aninitiative – part record label, part talent scout – dedicated to championing emerging musictalents.
Visit live.burberry.com and you can watch performances from a host of new acts (all clad inBurberry, and hand-picked by the brand’s creative director Christopher Bailey), includingsinger-songwriter Misty Miller and north London guitar group Ramona.
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Burberry is but one of many fashion brands reaching beyond the conventional music-fashioncollaboration. While pop stars such as Madonna and Beyoncé still feature in fashion advertisingcampaigns for certain brands, an increasing number of fashion labels are also hosting livemusic events, collaborating with music festivals, setting up their own recording arms, andlaunching interactive music formats in a bid to target youthful and trendy consumers.
British lifestyle brand Jack Wills has a following among its collegiate audience for its musicevents and now even has JW Unsigned, a Jack Wills record label that allows fans to uploadtheir music and review each other’s tunes. The brand hosts regular live performance nights atits London flagship stores and also has an online radio station.
“Music is integral to Jack Wills,” says Peter Williams, the company’s chief executive, of itsmusic ventures. “Our core customers are 18- to 21-year-old university students. We’re intowhatever they’re into, and music is often a major focus for them. They dictate where the brandgoes.” The number of members signed up to Jack Wills’ social network community hasreached 180,000, fuelled partly by its music and social media projects.
Gucci’s sneaker collaboration with DJ Mark Ronson – who designed a limited-edition range ofGucci shoes last year – is another example of the trend. It included the launch of an iPhoneapp with curated playlists by Ronson alongside touch-screen mixing decks where fans couldcreate and share their own music tracks. More than 600,000 people have downloaded the appsince it launched last year.
Then there is Prada, which this month took over jazz club Joe’s Pub in New York to launch itsnew “swing” music-inspired collection of 1950s eyewear, with Nina Hagen performing livetracks from her album (later a viral video was released for the campaign, created byphotographer Steven Meisel and set to the blues song “Fever” performed by singer KateyJudd).
French contemporary line APC has even given karaoke a dose of Parisian cool, creating aDVD for Lula Magazine’s pop-up store at Harvey Nichols, featuring backing tracks of tunessuch as “Addicted to Love” by Robert Palmer and “Like a Virgin” by Madonna, rearranged andspecially recorded by the company at its Paris studio and producer Bill Laswell’s studio in NewYork.
There’s more to follow, too. This September Tommy Hilfiger is celebrating the brand’s silveranniversary with a viral video featuring the new band Locksley.
The appeal of live music for luxury brands is its vast scope. In the UK last year fans spent£1.45bn on music concerts, and sales of live music in 2009 surpassed CD sales for the firsttime, according to the live music website efestivals.co.uk. The Glastonbury music festival hasexpanded to cater for upwards of 177,000 people in recent years and is one of the most widelyfollowed media events of the summer, while California-based festival Coachella now drawsmore than 17,000 glamorous youthful attendees, as well as a host of celebrities (all of whomreceive ample coverage from the style press).
Fashion labels hosted some of the most high-profile parties at Coachella this year, with Diesel
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07/08/2010 09:07FT.com / Style - Fashion labels create their own soundtrack
Page 2 of 2http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/975185ac-a0ea-11df-badd-00144feabdc0.html
taking over a Spanish-style mansion for a house party, attracting screen stars Rosario Dawsonand Gossip Girl actor Penn Badgley, and Lacoste hosting a barbecue with Twilight teen starKristen Stewart, American actress Rachel Bilson and British televsion presenter Alexa Chungas guests. US clothing brand Express went one step further and hired a private home to stagelive concerts by Macy Gray and Crystal Method.
“Companies are working harder than ever to make sensory and romantic experiences forcustomers,” says Rita Clifton, director at the brand consultancy Interbrand. “These musicprojects are a way to engage with their audience while controlling as much of the experienceas possible, and making it as branded as possible. They control the music they play at theirshows and in their stores. When you think about it, it’s not a big step to start creating their ownsound.”
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