With high-street retailers getting designer copies into stores within weeks, and transeasonal collections creating confusion on the catwalks, the newly relaunching fashion brand Halston have decided to shake up the traditional industry structure by offering a selection of their new range on fashion e-tailer Net-a-porter the day after the show.
Last season Net-a-porter scored a coup by offering the chance to order the new RM for Roland Mouret collection the day after the show, but whilst this still left a few months wait for delivery, the new deal with Halston will let shoppers buy – and receive – the new collection 24 hours after the catwalk show.
‘As the collection goes down the runway on 4 February and the press and buyers are seeing it for the first time, two of the key pieces will be sitting, wrapped, packed and ready to go in our distribution centres in Manhattan and London for worldwide delivery,’ Net-a-porter founder Natalie Massenet explains.
‘We are allowing a luxury brand to reclaim the right to sell to the customer first. We are only doing it with two looks, but hope that we are offering a glimpse to brands that we can change the fashion system and say, “We can get the product to the customer, because we can market and distribute in the world.”‘
WWD are calling it a groundbreaking move, saying ‘At a time when customers can see runway looks on fashion sites and blogs within hours of a designer’s final exit, and stores ask for earlier and earlier deliveries based on the strength of pre-collections, many industry executives are increasingly questioning the commercial validity of the much-hyped bi-annual runway extravaganzas’.
24 hours after the Halston show, Net-a-porter will present edited video footage of the runway show. Shoppers can then click and buy two looks, a $1,495 shirt dress for daytime, and a $1,795 silk evening dress. Due to launch today is a microsite on Net-a-porter featuring a retrospective of Halston curated by fashion writer and historian Colin McDowell, aiming to increase brand awareness in the run-up to the brand’s relaunch.
via WWD
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