If Gok Wan has proved anything it is that designer get up doesn’t have to cost the world. In his ‘Fashion Fix’, week in, week out, audiences were hard pushed in telling apart the designer labels from the high street imitations, demonstrating that there really isn’t much between the runway and the walkway.
And so 2010 has to be the year of collaborations; the union of designer and High Street fashion. Valentino has done it; Jean Paul Gautier and Barbara Hulanicki are doing it. It seems your stores are worth nothing nowadays without a designer in toe.
It was Kate Moss with her boutique range at Topshop that caused hundreds to flock to Oxford Street all eager to have their own little piece of the supermodel’s wardrobe. This partnership gave momentum to the designer/high street movement and since then it is very much becoming the norm. This year the style stakes have been dominated by H&M and their partnership with the French label, Lanvin. The collection manages to capture the extravagance of high fashion, giving us evening dresses, shirts and quirky t-shirts all at a reasonable price.
However, some pieces are better than others and only time will tell the success of this unusual alliance but certainly it has been a smart move for H&M, raising their profile.
Below pictured: Lovely Grey Tulle Dress From the H&M Lanvin Limited Edition Range, priced £199.99
The varying success of designer collections seems to depend on how their clothes translate under the constraints of mass production. Designers characterised by luxurious fabrics and high quality draping are less suited to high street fashion but those known for amazing prints and innovative designs fit right in.
Perhaps designer-high street partnerships are inevitable as store owners realise the power of the designer name for shifting clothes. There is no doubt people love to feel like part of the ‘IT’ crowd. Whether or not this is a dilution of would be exclusive fashion or a smart way of bringing variety to our stores is questionable. Are designer-high street merges merely producing poorly made versions of one-off collections and do these designers even have an influential input in the ranges themselves?
We will never know, but what can be said is the collections do make for imaginative fashion and more importantly in this economic climate, cheap purchases. The new Jil Sander range at Uniqlo is about quality basics and key items that won’t go out of fashion. Ultimately, for designer high street partnerships to work, it needs to be about more than just pulling in the designer addicts but genuinely producing clothes that will sell out because they appeal to the broader public. The future of this fashion hybrid remains unclear.
