Best Foot Forward: Opportunities in a Waste-Averse & Ethically Aware Marketplace

08 August 2019

In this issue of The Best of Intima, we have invited London-based design and trend consultant Catherine van Baal to present her take on market changes as our guest expert.

In her insightful article, she presents some new strategy adaptations to present a balanced product mix that offers newness in a market where sustainability and inclusivity are key.

Resale is being reported as a booming market where savvy fashionistas make product decisions with entrepreneurial sensibility. It is also a huge focus for influencers on Instagram who are driving the movement. How can we look at key resale pieces for intimate garments? It is slightly more complex than it may appear at first glance. Naturally, panty garments are less likely to achieve a high level of resale response, but let’s not forget the other key product areas included within intimates.

Luxury loungewear has seen impressive growth in recent years, where premium quality yarns are used with high level finishing. Customers who have a garment lifecycle preloved mindset are more likely to make a quality purchase that has the potential for resale. In particular, high quality worn-to-be-seen items have the potential to become heirlooms and have an advantage as they appeal to a wider resale audience. When looking for inspiration, it is worth taking a look at at festival and party contour garments- items that underpin novelty resale- where there are some key opportunities to be found: often embellishments, complex cutting and hand drawn prints created in small runs can inspire the conscious-minded customer to make their all important purchase.

When it comes to the shift towards resale, the generational divide between the youth and older people doesn’t appear to have an impact. Where the younger generation is predominantly looking for ways of making more conscious choices, the older generation seeks timeless, well-crafted perennial items with both of these thought processes aligning to enhance resale activity across the board.

THE DETOX JOURNEY
Key online second hand or repurposing sites offer what they call a fashion detox journey, where experts manage the entire process and make it easy to shift unwanted garments. Thredup in particular supports the whole resale process and claims to make it a seamless journey. In Fall 2018, they launched a collaborative service with mission-based fashion brand Reformation to offer a circular service: Reformation x Thredup. This new service enabled you to turn your old clothes into new Reformation shopping credit.
Online resale platform Depop focuses on speed: users can snap a pic on their phone & upload it for instant interaction. Faster models use clever tagging and slick navigation to aid the resale journey and aim to deliver speedily on their promises. This faster process, much like its content, is targeted at the mid to lower-end in terms of price point, whereas The Vestiaire Collective pitch themselves at the luxury market where the value of garments sold is considerably higher and from sought after fashion houses. Items sold are physically verified and authenticated by a team of experts, giving a look and feel that is more in line with its contents and users and in April 2019 the new CEO Max Bittner made substantial changes to its commission structure in order to enhance performance and competitive resale opportunities.

As more and more secondhand clothing outlets add sleek, curated web platforms, this allows consumers much wider choice than simply buying virgin garments. With 64% of people now willing to buy pre loved, it seems we are officially entering the golden age of secondhand shopping.

PULLING FROM THE NEW RHYTHM

Alongside resale, rental markets have been forecast to beat fast fashion sales by 2020 – it is time for brands to stand up for sustainability; they must act now or risk their future. This game is moving fast and the brands leading the field are the direct-toconsumer businesses who are digital natives and have been built with sustainability in mind. The end game is of course to limit landfill; brands should see resale and rental as an opportunity not a threat.

So how do brands and retailers pull from this new rhythm? There is a wider opportunity for retailers and brands to improve their green credentials by adopting the re-use mindset and wrapping it into product development. Alongside this, gentle marketing strategies can nod to the trend by adding widerreaching thought to the hero piece in a collection. It is all about mapping a products journey, improving longevity and enhancing end use by creating products that will hold their value as a quality item, thus being more sustainable. Transparency is key: for consumers, knowing where and how a garment has been created has become increasingly important.

Always a hit on Instagram are hero pieces that promise to hold their value as a quality and sustainable item with the potential for extended end use. When it comes to creating a collection hero piece, brands must be aware that there are additional pointers to nod to outside of the sustainable storyline: it is important to have an inclusive view point, to offer the perfect fit and to use sourcing strategies to underpin shared goals and beliefs. For the larger retailer or global brand, this may mean revisiting best sellers and upscaling them with enhancements that can be underlined using innovative marketing.

Look out for Nudea, set to launch in September of 2019. Aimed at diverse body shapes, the company has based their debut collection on going back to basics and will offer a broad range of sizes from 30A - 38E. The company has engaged 600 women in a pioneering fit process during their development process and will offer a neutral, contemporary color range with hero styles available to complement different shapes. As seen in the image, up-scaled basics also pull on the ‘at home’ trend as customers spend more time in the nest, but maintain a discerning need for aspirational perennial classics.

REGENERATED YARNS, EXTENDING GARMENT USE, AND STYLE BY DEFINITION NOT SIZE
In the swimwear industry, brands continue to choose recycled synthetics over virgin synthetics. Some newer players who are leading the way such as Stay Wild Swim even include a guppyfriend bag for the consumer to wash the item in, a solution also that promotes responsible laundering.
More brands than ever are creating collections using regenerated nylon; luxury brand Biondi creates highly aspirational swimwear with the perfect fit and offers an eco range with post consumer waste fabric Econyl. Made in Italy with a core focus on quality & craftsmanship, they also offer clever beach clothing options (pictured) made from specially crafted eco swim fabric for use in the water or by the bar. The open work beach dress is made out of strip cut swim fabric that may otherwise end up in landfill - extending the garments use and blurring the boundaries between swimwear and beach ready-to-wear.

Newly launched brand We Are We Wear offer an eco, directional range aiming at style by definition/not by size customers with a strong marketing realism campaign. Inclusivity and body positivity are an important mainstay point of view – becoming a requirement and an expectation, rather than a specialist niche. Through marketing campaigns and clever product adaptations, brands and retailers are starting to find ways to respond. But it is not that simple when it comes to cup size, again this is where the digital natives have the advantage: with lower stock level risks, they are able to learn about their customer quickly and react accordingly. It is no longer enough to simply create a collection that has strong aesthetics; the discerning customer demands much more from their garms and this trend isn’t about to slow down.

The intimates market once allowed exclusive brands a platform of speech and an opportunity to differentiate through increased product sizing, but all this is changing and now the everexacting consumer expects a wider choice across all brands. The challenge here for the intimates and swim players is how to create a well-rounded offer of cup sizes across their category. Perhaps the days of the fuller bust brand may be limited, with long development times, its necessary to respond quickly to avoid irrelevance

DEVELOPMENTS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN THE FUTURE

It is becoming commonplace knowledge within the industry that considering the environmental impact of fabric during manufacture, wear, and endof- life aids the search for more sustainable options, such as renewable, bio-based and recycled materials. The next challenge is for fabric companies to create textiles for the active, athleisure, and contour markets made with a higher percentage of raw materials including organic cotton, wool, kapok, hemp, linen, Tencel and soybean fiber. In most cases these natural and renewable fibers are still being blended with synthetics to provide durability and additional performance features. However, there is a definite up-scaling trend to keep fabrics ‘clean’ and free from synthetic elements. This is an area of development to watch and will be the next step in terms of purifying the yarn journey and development within the stretch fabric and intimates market.

Catherine van Baal is a freelance senior design & trend consultant. Her experience includes product design and analysis for global retailers through to premium and luxury brands with a specialist focus on swimwear, lingerie, loungewear, active wear & beach RTW. She is known in the trend industry for her time at WGSN & recently consulted for Liberty London, creating their latest lounge & swim collections. To discuss partnership, contact via Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-van-baal-45013415/

Best Foot Forward: Opportunities in a Waste-Averse & Ethically Aware Marketplace

In this issue of The Best of Intima, we have invited London-based design and trend consultant Catherine van Baal to present her take on market changes as our guest expert.

Contents