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Fashion Brands
Book

Fashion Brands

Branding Style from Armani to Zara

Mark Tungate
Kogan Page, 2005
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Editorial Rating

8

Recommendation

If you want to understand the true meaning of style, the fashion world can explain it. No other industry is as adept at transforming a commodity into an art form, and doing so repeatedly on a seasonal basis. Journalist Mark Tungate presents a terrific overview of many key aspects of this gritty yet ephemeral business. His wide-ranging book covers everything from fashion photography to haute couture, modeling agencies, accessories, second hand clothes and even the history of department stores. He goes into journalistic detail about established and avant-garde designers, photographers, ad agencies and trend consultants who work side by side to sell image to the public. This is a serious book, complete with the URL’s of key Web sites, and profiles of the top designers who create brands. Tungate goes inside fashion firms that know how to sell dreams and illusions made of Italian fabrics and fine leather. getAbstract.com recommends this book to marketers - even those who are not fashion minded - who want to rejuvenate their creativity and pick up some new sources of inspiration and style.

Summary

From Garments to Fashion

How do assembled pieces of fabric get transformed from plain garments to high fashion? It’s a long process, but meeting the basic worldwide demand for clothes and footwear is a $1 trillion-a-year business. When marketers enter the luxury end of the business, they set out on a worldwide quest for part of the projected $100 billion consumers will spend on high-end fashion by 2008. Clothing and leather goods make up the largest share of this market, followed by perfume, cosmetics and, last, watches and jewelry.

Fashion stems from the French word, facon, which means making sure that cloth is worked in a certain way. While the globe now has many design centers, from Milan to Manhattan, France is still considered the world’s fashion capital.

Why do people purchase luxury clothes when standard brands will serve? People buy fashion to accommodate their moods and help shape their identities, both of which are associated with certain brands. What makes fashion industry marketing different from marketing in other industries? Basically, fashion creates a need where none exists. Jackets and pants come in many styles and brands, but fashion caters ...

About the Author

Paris-based journalist Mark Tungate has a weekly column in the French media magazine, Strategies, and writes regularly about advertising, style and culture for Campaign and CNN Traveler and for the trends intelligence service, WGSN. He also wrote Media Monoliths and is the co-author of The Epica Book, a review of European advertising.

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