Founded in 1978 by Gianni Versace, Versace is one of the world’s most prominent fashion houses. Established in Milan, the brand is acclaimed for being a symbol of Italian luxury, Versace are known for producing various fashion and lifestyle products including haute couture, prèt-à-porter, accessories and fragrances which all feature the brand’s iconic Medusa logo. With more than 130 Versace boutiques around the world, there is no doubt that the brand has built a legacy over the last 4 decades. Versace is adored by many, having its designs showcased on red carpets by many famous faces over the years, such as icons like Micheal Jackson and Princess Diana.
Versace is known for its very recognisable style, the designs are powerful, seductive and designed to perfectly flatter the female figure. The fashion house is known to push boundaries of clothing using heavy metal detailing and bright colours to create sexy and luxurious pieces. The Versace aesthetic is known for bold colours, daring cuts and focuses heavily on sex appeal.
As of recent years, Versace has shown a more conscious effort to encompass sustainability in their brand, making it a crucial part of their marketing stratergy. The brand has said that they are approaching sourcing in a more holistic way, making sure to do everything they can to keep their carbon footprint down and support biodiversity. Versace is taking the necessary steps towards being a more sustainable and eco friendly brand, one of the biggest actions they have taken being going completely fur free in 2019.
Versace’s recent collections have been new and refreshing yet sticking to the brand’s signature recognisable style. One of its biggest collections as of late being “La Vacanza” which debuted in Cannes and is co-designed by famous singer Dua Lipa, one of Versace’s most prominent muses.
Miu Miu the outpost for the most refined femininity. The brand was created by and named after Miuccia Prada as a sister brand of Prada to create an outlet for a more playful, youthful accessible and affordable line of clothing alongside the Prada line itself. The line was produced as a way to expand Miuccias’ designs to appeal onto a new cliental target audience of fashion lovers in their 20s and 30s. The brand was used as a creative outlet for Miuccia to create clothing as her own creative outlet. To introduce this narrative, they specifically chose youth models for ad campaigns and used a different less sophisticated approach to advertisement to connect with the correct audience the clothing was intended for. Unlike Prada at the time she decided to focus less on trends and focussed on designing clothing based on ‘the woman she wants to be.’
The brand started as a reflection of the designer to freely expressing her creativity and inner musing but over the years it has grown into a platform for inclusion and diversity for women empowerment. Initially in 1993 the brand wasn’t successful in the retail industry because they struggled to differentiate themselves from the Prada brand itself, because Miu Miu at this time didn’t have many strong brand identifiers.
Miu Miu collection Autumn Winter 1994 collection
This changed when the brand relocated for three seasons starting 1994 and because of Miuccias’ links with Prada the company was commercially viable. After, the brand naturally gained brand identifyers like these pieces which include colour detailed collars, the 60s as inspiration, stripes, babypinks and mini skirts (more recoginsable to todays brand identifyers).
Winter 2002 was one of the first collections which is still currently recognisable and distinguishable against Prada and after this the brand kept growing. A key piece in the collection was a clutch bag, which launched their line of accessories. It was made with the technique of gathering leather, called the mattelelaisse technique, and is still very popular to today’s collections. The spring summer 2022 collection for Miu Miu was what created an even bigger platform for the brand and how it has become extremely recognisable today. This particular show Mrs Prada used aspects of deconstructivism within her pieces, something she isn’t known for. This show was just after covid and critics stated she did it as a link to the current times to show the peoples rebellion to going back to work. It resonated aesthetically and emotionally to the viewers.
Miu Miu viral micro mini skirt (Spring/Summer 2022)
Prada as a brand portrays sophistication much more intently throughout their whole process of the production of designs, compared to Miu Mius spontaneously. The spontaneously of the brands designs is shown thought the outcomes produced. Miu Mius brand identity focuses on a mix of beautiful minimalism and avant-garde. The company produces a range of products from sunglasses, bags to perfume scents as-well as clothing.
The brand has stopped using fur and have been fur free since summer/ spring 2020 womens collection. This wasn’t long ago but because of the brands luxury influence from Prada they decided to keep fur in the collections. Miu Miu as a brand has developed massively and its progression of quality and sustainability is ever-growing to todays date.
There are many attractive features in Uma Wang clothing. Her design and tailoring of clothing, as well as some Chinese elements added to the clothing, and the selection of some environmentally friendly fabrics, are one of the reasons why we like this brand. Her clothes give people a calm, restrained but strong feeling, just like the softness of the East beauty that people imagine.
Because deeply influenced by traditional philosophy, Uma Wang is good at using fabrics as a carrier to tell stories. Her designs always start with fabric selection, and then develop an entire series from one point. Using three-dimensional fabrics in an innovative way, she dyes, destroys and weathers cotton, linen, wool, knitted or woven fabrics, leaving the fabrics imprinted with traces of time and filled with various textures, patterns and textures. Layering. The natural and simple natural colors will have a calm and restrained visual experience after many processes, even if they are dull and dull. This is also the low-key and restrained brand gene that Uma Wang has always expressed.
And no matter how the fashion trends change, the influence of Eastern philosophy on Uma can be seen in Uma’s designs. Adhering to the consistent poetry and spontaneity, and pursuing naturalness without whitewashing, are the hallmarks of Uma Wang. Just like the designer Uma, who usually wears no makeup and has beautiful black hair standing upright, she is dressed plainly and elegantly, as if she is hiding in the city. Just like her designs, they are deep but full of Chinese charm.
Its clothing silhouette is like a mountain in Chinese culture. It has different ups and downs, but it still lies still and stable. The brand concept is also one of the things that makes people appreciate Uma Wang. The designer did not deliberately emphasize the Chinese culture or philosophical ideas in the design. Even some typical Chinese elements used by many brands rarely appear in the design. Instead, you can feel it through tailoring, fabric, color, and even the design of the tag.
In fact, as Uma Wang said, the relationship between people and clothes is very subtle. Clothes can give the wearer confidence or some inner feeling, but no matter what level of impression it is, it can ultimately bring inner pleasure to the wearer.
Innisfree is a prominent South Korean skincare manufacturer owned and founded by Amore Pacific with an affordable price point and popular for its brand concept, which emphasizes products made from ingredients sourced from Jeju Island. Innisfree has an unwavering dedication on developing high-quality beauty products that only use rare natural resources extracted from Jeju Island in order to provide skin care solutions for every concern.
The exploration of ingredients is the name that describes the history of Innisfree. Innisfree focused on the natural island of Jeju while thinking about nature and undertaking endless study, and the company found 12 elements in the island’s land, sea, water, trees, and flowers. Innisfree’s commitment to high-quality ingredients embodies the company’s mission to offer clients natural products that promote healthy beauty as their tagline states “Clean Island, where clean nature and healthy beauty coexist happily”. This commitment is also evident on their official website, which offers details on the brand’s history, the sources of its ingredients, how those ingredients are extracted, and opportunities for customers to learn more about the advantages of Jeju Island’s natural ingredients. The transparency of the information could demonstrate the confidence the company has in its products and attract customers to purchase them.
The brand’s logo is in the colour green inspired by the Jeju Bija forest, which not only emphasises nature conveying a pure and clean image, but the green also exclude exudes life and vigour, symbolising vitality. Based on their website the renewed logo has a typography that embodies our promise and strong commitments. Innisfree has a large green tea field in Jeju Island where consumers may visit in order to build up customer trust and strengthen the “Inni-community”. This offers the company an opportunity to strengthen the bond between the business and the consumer as it works to offer the best products possible.
Additionally, Innisfree has a partnership with TerraCycle® since 2003 for their very own recycling programme where customers can return their empty bottles to any store and earn membership points that can be applied to subsequent purchases. This programme not only benefits the environment by lowering footprint, but it may also foster brand loyalty because it rewards customers for returning their empty bottles to any store. According to Innisfree “If all of us are in this together, we can save a pine tree.” their efforts on launching this programme and being one of the earliest brands considering environmental issue is notable. Moreover, their unweaving effort on maintaining it for 20 years now hey have recycled more than “800,000 bottles” and planted “860 pine trees” for a better environment.
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Reference list
Delhi, B.B., September 14 and 2023 (2023). Korean beauty brand Innisfree unveils fresh brand identity: Best Media Info. [online] www.bestmediainfo.com. Available at: https://bestmediainfo.com/2023/09/korean-beauty-brand-innisfree-unveils-fresh-brand-identity [Accessed 29 Sep. 2023].
Innisfree.com. (2020). ABOUT US – BRAND STORY – INNISFREE’S BRAND PROMISE | innisfree. [online] Available at: https://www.innisfree.com/my/en/BrandPage.do?pageName=brand_promise.
Koreaboo. (2023). Netizens Have Mixed Reactions To Innisfree Changing Brand Image And Models. [online] Available at: https://www.koreaboo.com/news/innisfree-ive-wonyoung-girls-generation-yoona-change-brand-identity/ [Accessed 29 Sep. 2023].
Prajogo, V.V. and Suprajitno, S. (2020). Multimodal Analysis of Innisfree’s Brand History. K@ta Kita, 8(3), pp.262–269. doi:https://doi.org/10.9744/katakita.8.3.262-269.
Shukla, N. (2023). How INNISFREE is showing the way for a successful sustainable beauty business. [online] www.adgully.com. Available at: https://www.adgully.com/how-innisfree-is-showing-the-way-for-a-successful-sustainable-beauty-business-136746.html [Accessed 29 Sep. 2023].
www.innisfree.com. (n.d.). ABOUT US – BRAND STORY – BRAND CONCEPT | innisfree. [online] Available at: https://www.innisfree.com/sg/en/BrandPage.do?pageName=brand_concept.
With their Instagram bio reading ’CREATIVITY. SELF EXPRESSION. STYLE.’ Bershka is exactly that. Their brand allows you to be expressive through fashion. Their products speak to the every generation, due to their brand being split into three categories – Bershka, Bershka Man and BSK (their teen brand) . Quoted from the website ”BSK is the brand for younger people, and always caters to the interests and needs of this public”.
They make up one of the seven brands in the Inditex Group and are responsible for 9% of the total revenue after only 18 years in business. Other brands in this group include Zara, Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear.
Their concept is unique and striking, you feel magnetised to their stores which are placed very strategically in the most convenient locations. They have been merchandised in a way that compliments the architecture, the stores feel fresh, exciting. They make you feel a way that fashion should.
As previously mentioned, Bershka offer products for men, women and teens, they have something for everyone. Each piece is carefully constructed and versatile. From their website ”A wide spectrum ranging from casual wear to sports and from basic garments to more fashionable items.” This helps them to appeal to the maximum audience. Another way they do this is by offering ’extra’ products such as shoes and accessories. It’s a simple thing but smart.
Like many other brands in the 21st century, Bershka have a big focus on sustainability. From their website ”We are developing an ‘eco-efficient’ shop management model, by integrating sustainability and efficiency criteria, which will allow for a reduction in energy consumption of 20%.” This new model will be put in place from the stores to the factories to allow for more sustainable practices. Products are being made with more sustainable resources such as organic cotton. These products are marked with a specific label. It is also mentioned that products containing fur or leather have been resourced from farms raising animals for food and not the sole purpose of slaughtering them for their skin.
Overall, Bershka is the future of fashion. They are always testing the limits of fashion and producing exclusive lines and products. They have a strong stand on sustainability in all aspects of their company and offer products at a reasonable price.
Tiffany & Co has a rich history spanning nearly a century and has grown from a small jewellery house to an iconic, world renowned luxury goods brand. The elegant Tiffany blue is immediately recognisable around the world and is at the face of the brand, making the colour a staple in any jewellery collection. Legendary stars, such as Beyonce and JayZ are affiliated with the brand, the Tiffany house is the official jeweller for the renaissance world tour, meaning this jewellery really does span worldwide. Beyonce was the fourth person to wear the priceless Tiffany diamond, showing us the exclusivity of the brand itself, this adds to the allure of the brand and shows what it means to wear a piece from the Tiffany house. The Tiffany experience in itself feels luxury and easy, from scrolling through the website, accented with the Tiffany blue, to choosing, perhaps a piece of jewellery at an appointment in a beautiful Tiffany & Co shop. The iconic Tiffany diamond was recently remastered, the pendant/brooch honours the original Tiffany diamond and nods towards the rich history of the tiffany brand itself, that has multiple layers from the steady growth of the brand. Non profit organisations, specifically responsible mining and coral conservation, receive grants from the Tiffany & Co foundation, proving the consciousness of the brand itself in an industry that is constantly changing and churning out more and more product. Tiffany plans for net-zero emissions through sustainable buildings by 2040, the thought towards our climate creates hope within the industry that luxury brands are taking steps towards a cleaner environment. In 2022 more than 65% of the popular blue Tiffany boxes was recycled content, Tiffany has stated they want to sustainably source 100% of the blue boxes. A newsroom can be found on the Tiffany & Co website, which keeps loyal customers interested and updated whilst simultaneously pushing product through stories and headlines; the branding is clear, however clever and sleek.
Charles Jeffrey Loverboy is a fashion brand that emphasises strong personal style through the use of colours and patterns. The strong brand identity of punk and edgy style has been well known for. The brand delivers its punk element majorly through the styling and photoshoot for their products. The brand also uses moving image on its home page which is a different but outstanding decision in comparison to other fashion brands targeting the similar group of consumers.
Charles Jeffrey Loverboy is a brand that doesn’t intensionally differentiate its clothing into menswear and womenswear. This can be noticed through its navigation page. The brand has listed the different types of clothing as well as the accessories, but no clear gender guides are presented on the page. Accessories are the highlights of the brand besides their clothing, or might have been even more popular. The most well known accessory of the brand is the ear-shaped beanie, which has been used in styling projects with high frequency, especially in Korea. The style of the brand is also delivered through the colour and the patterns from its products. Base on the genre of the beanies, the brand has chosen to use very strong and high-concentrated colours or with strap patterns in contrasting colours, which is iconic as a brand.
Being influenced from the Scottish background of the designer Charles Jeffrey, the brand uses a massive amount of plaid in their pattern designs. But unlike the traditional Scottish plaids, the brand often uses high contrasting colours in their pattern. The design of the clothings are also often more edgy with the tailoring or very sporty which shows contrast to what plaids would normally be used on. The brand also only establish one plaid pattern every season so the design of each season would be highly synced.
The brand established every season’s look book onto its navigation page. Within every look book, a video with narrated and edited runway show is presented at the top, following by the images of each look. The video of the look book is also narrated with the theme of the season’s collection, which is very interesting to get to know the true message that the brand wants to deliver through that collection. There is also a video available on the “About us” page, which is delivers its brand identity thoroughly. The style of punk, the use of graffiti are all highlighting the edginess and the fashion style of the brand.
Schiaparelli was founded by the unique creative Elsa Schiaparelli in 1927. It all began when she decided to create her first trompe l’œil motif on a hand-knit sweater for herself. They were the black and white pullover that boasts the illusion of a bow, pierced heart, skeleton, or a sailor tattoo. It was shortly after that in 1931 the brand’s first artist collaboration took place with Russian-French writer Elsa Triolet to create the iconic Aspirin Necklace. This catalyzed the brand’s identity as a champion of surrealism and the arts. Later on, Elsa collaborated with artists like Salvador Dalí pushing even further the barriers that divided fashion and art. Schiaparelli began a new movement and a new vision for what fashion could become, clothes for the sake of artistry and aesthetics rather than just luxury and practicality. Currently, the brand describes its offer as an alternative luxury proposal for the audience that seeks to acquire a long-lasting piece of fashion. Something to pass on down from generation not just as one inherits a bag but rather a masterpiece like a canvas or a sculpture.
What is most unique about it is its close relationship to the Fine Arts and how it showcases fashion as an art form rather than a superficial product. The garments look like a piece of art rather than a garment as it challenges the concept that a piece of clothing could be in a museum rather than a shop. The key to the brand’s vision lies in the strong creative concept behind every runway, which nowadays is being created by Daniel Roseberry. Some collections like Inferno (Haute Couture 2022) are perfect examples of how the brand aims to portray fashion as wearable pieces of art. The event displayed outfits with elements like lion heads, a guest completely painted in red and covered in Swarovski crystals (Doja Cat), and shape-innovative garments to refer to the gates of hell. This demonstrates just how important craftsmanship and artistry are for the brand.
Overall, Schiaparelli is an exciting brand that challenges the status quo and has managed to remain exciting throughout the decades. It adheres to the standards of traditional Parisian Haute Couture but with an innovative performative element that cannot be found in any other brand. To wear Schiaparelli means to wear a piece of art, a performance, and a unique garment all in one.
Acne Studios is best known for their innovative technology, contrasting silhouettes, creative collaborations and trendy visuals. Acne Studios definitely owns their key pieces and features within the brand which makes them stand out. The most easily identified feature is certainly the Face Logo and this logo can be left very recognisable. It’s simple and represents the brand. Another one would be the mohair checkered scarf, because of its huge design, blocks of mismatched colours that neatly meld together, and a large “Acne Studios” insignia on the hem, this scarf is a true statement item that completely transforms an outfit.
The company’s founder and well-known designer Johansson refers to the “maximalist minimalism” design language that is created by the deliberate contrast of materials, textures, and varied colour palettes including “millennial pink”.
The nordic design principles of Acne Studios are present in ready-to-wear. Whether you’re sporting men’s, women’s, denim, or footwear from Acne, or one of their cult scarves or shearling jackets, odds are good that you’ll look unapologetically stylish. Everything we adore about Swedish fashion is present at Acne Studios, but it’s utterly fresh, or perhaps we should say original. The juxtaposition of design and attention to detail, with a focus on tailoring, an eclectic use of materials, and specially created textiles, that is Jonny Johansson’s trademark, defines the collections. The collections include denim, footwear, accessories, and ready-to-wear for both men and women. The variety the brand provides and how unique it is, it definitely draws the attention to customers and buyers
