According to Mintel, Adidas has recently produced a sweatshirt made from ‘100% liquefied old clothes’, in a partnership with Stella McCartney, one of the first luxury fashion designers that have been producing garments and accessories sustainably. Their partnership has created a new material, using the technology called NuCycl which consists of ‘purifying and liquifying cotton garments’, that process gave them raw material that will be later transformed by a 3D printer. This demarche reflects the urge to differentiate themselves from their competitors, by using innovative technologies to create environmentally-friendly goods.

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Another article, from Complex, mentioned an interview with Marco Kormann, the Director of Future Technology Innovation at Adidas. The interview highlighted their newest pair of sneakers, that was made with 4D printers. The material is liquid, it’s called photopolymer, hence it’s solidification when it’s ‘hit by UV lights’. The use of 3D/4D printers, in this case, is not helping the brand with its amount of waste and pollution: unfortunately, this material is not yet recyclable but the company is actively seeking for solutions. 

I have chosen to review multiple articles discussing the new collaboration between Adidas and Beyonce’s athleisure brand Ivy Park launched in January. Until 2018, Ivy Park was exclusively sold at Top Shop but they discontinued their relationship. The partnership between these two firms produced a gender-neutral collection, which reflects their urge to appeal to a range of different communities, to participate in the gender neutrality movement and create a collection targetted to a larger segment of consumers. The collaboration’s colour palette is made of Maroon, Orange and Cream and it includes hoodies, cargo pants for instance, which shows once again the universality of the collection.

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According to Mintel, thanks to this, Adidas would be able to increase their number of female customers, which was less important compared to their competitors Nike and Puma. The social impact made by this decision is beneficial for Adidas’ brand image, and it gives a competitive edge to the brand. Before that, Adidas was concentrated on the environmental impact of the brand and its sustainability.

Arnett, G. (2019). Beyoncé collaboration boosts Adidas searches fivefold. [online] Vogue Business. Available at: https://www.voguebusiness.com/consumers/adidas-hottest-brand-30-days-may-2019 [Accessed 21 Feb. 2020].

Reports.mintel.com. (2019). adidas announces new partnership with Beyoncé to relaunch Ivy Park. [online] Available at: https://reports.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen/display/id=953242?fromSearch=%3Ffreetext%3Dadidas [Accessed 21 Feb. 2020].

Spencer, K. (2019). Russian fashion follows inward turn of politics. [online] Vogue Business. Available at: https://www.voguebusiness.com/companies/russia-domestic-fashion-brands-streetwear [Accessed 21 Feb. 2020].

Ivy Park (2020). Adidas x Ivy Park. [image] Available at: https://www.harpersbazaararabia.com/fashion/the-news/beyonce-drops-ivy-park-lookbook-images [Accessed 21 Feb. 2020].

Key points of the following article:

• Russia had become one of top-5 largest luxury markets after the rising of prices on oil, a leading economy for the country, in the 2010s. 
• The Russian Federation has undergone numerous political sanctions concerning the import and export of goods in the country.
• Today’s Russian currency, the rouble, is comparatively low to other currencies. (83,24 Roubles equal 1 pound sterling if we look at today’s rates).
• Thanks to the rise of the young/millennial demographic in the federation, the intern streetwear market is growing.
• New local streetwear brands take inspiration from global trends and sell them at a convenient price; they have difficulties expanding to a worldwide level because of the import/export regulations and instead, they are starting to open selling points/shipping to countries that have been a part of the Soviet Union (like Belarus and Ukraine).

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I would like to display the economic impact on the fashion/textile market in the Russian Federation because they are obviously correlated. In order to produce garments, companies need a multitude of fabrics, the domestic production of fabrics in Russia is quite small after 1991 when USSR collapsed. As a solution, Russian designers need to look for extern sources, but unfortunately, it is too high of a cost for smaller firms because of the lack of free trade agreement between Russia and the European Union.

Spencer, K. (2019). Russian fashion follows inward turn of politics. [online] Vogue Business. Available at: https://www.voguebusiness.com/companies/russia-domestic-fashion-brands-streetwear [Accessed 21 Feb. 2020].

Hypebeast (2020). Russian streetwear Error 404. [image] Available at: https://hypebeast.com/2016/12/fucking-young-error404-2016-fall-winter-editorial [Accessed 21 Feb. 2020].

I’ve visited Urban Outfitters on Commercial street for my store observation. This store retails garments, lifestyle items, homeware and accessories. It is located nearby Spitalfields market, a highly visited spot by tourists and locals. This pertinent location makes the number of customers higher.

Store window.

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Strengths: The colours used for the display window are adequate to the season, they’ve used autumn colours (reds, greens, oranges and yellows). The store window displays both women’s and men’s clothing and accessories which enables the customers to see the whole range of products. The side of the shop that is situated aside the homeware area has its store window and reflects the diversity of the goods that the store has.

Weaknesses: Even though the display window gives us an insight into their latest collection, for me, it stays quite bland. The background is missing something, and they didn’t display any promotions in store.

What are the current promotions in-store? The only promotion I was able to see at that moment on their store window was their bottle customisation offer. They sell Chilly’s hydro flasks in-store and they offer a free customisation if you buy one at their store.

They also had a sale rack, with their previous collections. This promotion is made to get rid of stocks.

Why do you think these promotions are taking place now? This is a short-term promotion (two days), which enables to sell quickly a precise product and maximise profits. This product may be hard to sell by itself, because of its pricing (25 pounds a bottle) which has maybe led them to do this customisation promotion.

Which key Autumn/Winter 19/20 trends are being sold in-store? Urban Outfitters offers items that represent the Eighties trend, with their glittery clothing and shoulder pads. They also sell Check printed items (Trochu 2019).

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They also had a Vintage selection in a separate area, which became a trend lately as well. It is called Vintage Renewal, and it consists of selling vintage garments that have undergone a repair or have been “re-made”.

Select one of the trends in store and describe the garment shapes/fabrics/print/patterns/colour/of manufacture that make up this trend.

I chose the Eighties trend, more precisely the diamante/glittery materials. This trend is being applied to all kinds of garments and accessories, so the shapes may differ. In this case, the trousers I’ve found are high-waisted and flared at the bottom, with slits. They are made of Nylon, metallic fibres and spandex. The colour of these trousers is black, but the layer of metallic fibres gives it a dark grey colour.

Analyse your findings, what impact could they have on the brand/store? They will higher their profit by doing promotions and having trendy garments and accessories in their shop.

I have chosen the word “Balance“. Its meaning is ‘a state where things are of equal weight or force'(Cambridge University Press 2019). I associate this mood board with balance and it is, in fact, perceivable in the colour palette (between a neutral grey and bright blue, red, yellow and green). The colour ‘grey is a cool, neutral, and balanced colour’ (Bourn 2010). For instance, the first picture represents a naked tree and a fully leafed tree aside. I also wanted to represent the balance as literally as possible; using a picture of a two-wheeled bike, a picture of my groupmate balancing in a split and pictures of perfectly symmetrical stairs or windows.

I’ve learned from this exercise how to build a mood board and the difficulty of doing it from non-secondary resources.

We had to do our street style photography at Angel street. It is nearby Shoreditch and the City and living in this area is a popular choice for young moneyed workers. The cost of living there is quite high, and it counts numerous restaurants, bars and shops. We can find major retailers like H&M, Gap, M&S around Angel Centre while Upper Street has independent boutiques and upmarket fashion and chains (Davy 2018).

My groupmates and I took some pictures and asked a few questions to people that represent the best the diversity in terms of style that can be seen on the surroundings of Angel Street. We came across a group of six girls that were dressed in a “hipster” way, a boy that wore designer brands such as Balenciaga and a girl that tended to shop at high street shops.

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We’ve put together a questionnaire, in order to collect data about the consumers that shop around Angel Street. The questions we’ve asked them were: “Where do you shop?”; “What’s your favourite brand?”; “Where do you get your inspiration from?”; “Do you shop from any sustainable brands or vintage/charity shops?”. As a result, most of them do shop at vintage stores and charity shops and get inspired by other users of Instagram or on the street. The trends we identified are:

• Oversized/Baggy silhouettes
• Bucket hats and Beanies
• Flared jeans
• Midi/Maxi skirts
• High socks
• Abundant accessories ( rings for men and women as well as earrings and necklaces)
• Denim
• Unisex clothing
• Tote bags
• Shoewear: Buffalo, Dr Martens, Balenciaga, Converse, Vintage boots

To conclude, I may say that this experience made me more comfortable with speaking to strangers. After analysing the trends from this area, this sparked my interest in what it may be like in other places.

The only thing that you should know about me is that I can’t clearly express my thoughts whilst both writing and talking, so don’t expect much sense.