Where did Fashion advertising go?Jose Miguel Sokoloff

M U L L E N L O W E

I used to see it everywhere...

Well, not everywhere,

but pretty much everywhere I looked.

It was out in the streets, it was filling the pages of the magazines I read, it occupied pages and pages of the newspapers. Beautiful people looking unhappy in beautiful clothes. It was omnipresent.

And then there were the gigantic logos on belt buckles, on shirts and jackets, the signature linings of some overcoats and the signature print on leather. People were advertising the brands they paid for so dearly all the time, sometimes more discreetly but always and everywhere.

All we wore was identifiable, the stitches on the back pockets of our jeans, the shape of our moccasins and the shape of our raincoats. It seemed everything was one huge personal branding exercise.

The Polo horse got bigger, the Lacoste alligator became big enough to swallow the Polo horse and every brand out there decided it was time to have a “smashable” logo and to have it everywhere.

Everyone started to follow in fashion’s footsteps. But fashion apparently had nowhere else to go.

Until the 3 revolutions.

RapYouTubeInstagram

High fashion brands

became rap itself.

Manolo Blahnik - 2000Moschino - 2001Prada - 2002Karl Lagerfeld - 2002Burberry - 2003Louis Vuitton - 2006Dolce & Gabbana - 2006Pucci - 2006Gucci - 2008Dior - 2008Ralph Lauren - 2008Mulberry - 2008John Galliano - 2008Phoebe Philo - 2008Fendi - 2009Lanvin - 2009Vivienne Westwood - 2009Christian Louboutin - 2010Marc Jacobs - 2010Valentino - 2010Isabel Marant - 2010Rick Owens - 2010Jeremy Scott - 2010Missoni - 2010Betsy Johnson - 2010Hermes - 2010Versace - 2011Tom Ford - 2011Hedi Slimane - 2011YSL/Saint Laurent - 2014Chanel - 2015Givenchy - 2015Balmain - 2015Margiela - 2015Alexander McQueen - 2015Phillip Lim - 2015Diane von Furstenberg - 2015Michael Kors - 2011/2014

Here’s a list of the year each of these brands peaked in Rap Mentions according to Chris Gayomali for GQ in 2015:

M U L L E N L O W E

s l o g g i i n c o l l a b o ra t i o n w i t h C e n t ra l S a i n t M a r t i n s

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the world.

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s l o g g i i n c o l l a b o ra t i o n w i t h C e n t ra l S a i n t M a r t i n s

steady and strongshe stands like a monumentmagnetic for all.

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steady and strongshe stands like a monumentmagnetic for all.

Sloggi x CSM Meta campaign 2019

sw loggi x CSM Meta campaign 2019

Ok, so fashion brands went HipHopThen they also went to You Tube. From Prada and its famous “a therapy” by Roman Polanski video in 2012 to many other content films about nothing really, fashion brands understood they needed to be available but not in your face.

The same principle led them to the real revolution. Instagram. Where happy people wearing clothes they love (once) is everywhere. Fashion has become more immediate, the time that separates the catwalk from the rack has almost disappeared. Instagram is the ultimate platform for this. Oscar de la Renta was the trailblazer, but everyone quickly followed. Today all brands have an App and an Instagram feed where millions of loyal customers get their kool aid daily. That’s where it’s at. Dedicated platforms that feed the hunger of the audience in the form of stories, short videos and product photo shoots. It’s like the first 100 pages of vogue in your phone daily. Nothing extraordinary to look at because it lacks the scale, but very transactional and commercial.

The ecosystem changed, but its effect stayed intact. Rap is now responsible for making the brands famous and cool, You Tube is keeping them avant-garde and interesting and Instagram makes them accessible.

“Everything changes, nothing changes” or as Saint Laurent might have said: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la