Fit not Thin!

This weekend Daisy Lowe teamed up with The Sunday Times to launch their new ‘Fit not Thin’ campaign.  The message is that fit is the new thin, encouraging women to focus on building their strength rather than shedding the pounds.  Top personal trainer and ex-Olympic speed skater, Sarah Lindsay, told the Sunday Times she thinks “the message that fit is the new thin is brilliant, I applaud Daisy Lowe not bowing to pressure to be model skinny.  It’s extremely encouraging given the size zero look that has plagued the past decade”.  She goes on to say how she thinks the Olympics has had an influence on this view and that more and more of her customers are asking for guidance to tone up rather than just lose weight.

So how do we think the fashion industry will take to this idea?  I think it’s about time women’s attitude towards body shapes and sizes got a little healthier and focused on being fitter rather than trying to achieve unhealthy goals.  Hopefully this shift in attitude will influence the fashion industry when it comes to model casting, although I think this will take time.  We know a lot of people within fashion like their stick thin models as they believe this look retains an element of ‘exclusivity’ but working hard for a fit body seems much more aspirational than just starving oneself, wouldn’t you agree?  

Oxford Street partners LFW

This year Oxford Street is to launch a 17 day festival which will give shoppers the opportunity to mix with top designers and catwalk stars in the run up to LFW.  This collaboration comes as part of Oxford Street’s £25 million five-year re-branding programme to reaffirm its position as ‘the most powerful fashion destination in the world.’

Oxford Street is joining forces with the British Fashion Council to bring exciting pop up events.  These will include big names in the fashion industry making appearances in stores to offer high end makeovers, styling sessions and guidance talks for those interested in a career in the industry.  Stores such as Debenhams, Selfridges, Topshop, John Lewis, H&M and Gap are a few of the many to get involved!  This is a great idea to promote LFW and Oxford Street and I can’t wait to get my pointy elbows and marching boots to get to the front of the queues.  See you there…  

Leading Ladies from M&S

Marks and Spencer’s has had a lot of press coverage saying the company has been struggling this past decade, not meeting customer expectations.  They have been accused of losing their way and failing to respond to the needs of its customers. 

Officially launched September 3rd M&S are responding with a campaign called ‘Leading Ladies’.  New adverts feature a dozen successful women, considered at the top of their fields.  They include Nicola Adams, Darcey Bussell, Tracey Emin, Monica Ali, Dame Helen Mirren, Laura Mvula, Hellen Allen, Jasmine Whitbread, Katie Piper, Karen Elson Ellie Goulding and Grace Coddington and all ad’s have been shot by Annie Leibovitz.

The concept is that successful women or “Leading Ladies” will want to remain fashionable as they mature and M&S will help them do that.  “We wanted this campaign to signal a new and confident tone of voice,” said Patrick Bousquest-Chavanne, executive director of marketing and business developments at M&S

It will be interesting to see how women respond to the campaign and whether customers will return.  Speaking to my mum and nan on their thoughts behind the campaign they think that whilst some of the styles have gone adrift this is still a shop where they get good customer service and fair quality at a fair price.  Its somewhere they have always popped into and still regularly purchase basic items.  So if they can get their act together and tempt them with more stylish fashion choices, they’ll be picking up more that their regular tights, socks and food items. 

A sad day for Zara

Really sad news to find out the Founder of Zara, Rosalia Mera, has died aged 69 from a stroke on August 15 2013. 

Starting out in the 60’s, Mera and her husband Amancio Ortega, stitched quilted bathrobes and lingerie based on designer collections and sold them for an affordable price.  Today Zara is one of the world’s largest fashion retailers, with over 6000 stores in 86 countries and the ability to change their branches stock every two weeks!  This massively successful brand made the self taught entrepreneur one of the richest women in Spain and earlier this year Zara overtook the telecom company ‘Telefonica’ to become Spain’s largest listed company.   

Rosalia Mera and her husband pioneered the concept of ‘fast fashion’ where they adapted the latest catwalk trends and made them into affordable versions to sell in store within two weeks.  Zara was also one of the first companies to use computers to analysis customers wants- when shop assistants notice certain products not selling they are able report this information straight back to headquarters where they will immediately stop production. 

I find it very impressive that Mera left school at the age of 11 to work as a sales assistant and was able to create and grow such a large successful Brand without any formal training.  It is said that, although very wealthy and successful Mera remained a very down to earth lady “who could be seen in La Coruña dancing salsa on Thursday nights, and singing with friends at a local tavern on Fridays.” 

The story of Rosalia Mera is truly inspirational.  She created a Brand that will continue to thrive. 

The black and white of the catwalk

Supermodel, businesswomen, philanthropist and wife of David Bowie, Iman, has called for designers to start using more black models, saying it’s time to protest against those that don't by any means possible.   Starting her career back in the 80s, Iman feels designers have become less open to using multicultural models.  This can be backed up by the 2% drop in black models being used during New York City fashion shows this year in comparison to last, with only 6% of models being black.

Iman says “It feels to me like times need a real hard line drawn like in the Sixties, by saying if you don’t use black models, then we boycott.  If you engage the social media, trust me, it will hurt them in their pockets.  If you take it out there, they will feel the uproar.”

It seems a shame that it such changing times we seem to be going backwards.  Looking back to the 60’s, Saint Laurent was labeled ‘The House of Love’ for promoting the use of black models in his shows, so what’s happened?  I think it’s time we saw a bit more variety in our fashion casting!