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Arket’s curated archive wardrobe is a breath of fresh air in the toxic world of fast fashion

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In an age where sustainability in fashion and provenance in food is starting to define how we choose to consume products, it’s refreshing to see a company building longevity and durability into a brand concept from the ground up.

Arket is a new retail brand from Swedish fashion giant H&M, but it is about as far away from ‘fast-fashion’ as it’s possible to be. ‘We are building a modern day market, where everything the consumer needs is under one roof,’ says managing director Lars Axelsson. ‘With Arket, what we want to deliver is an everyday uniform of curated essentials – everything should be easy to pick out and easy to work with. In time, it will become an archive wardrobe.’

Launching this week with flagship stores in London and then Copenhagen, as well as e-commerce operations in 18 European markets, Arket sells clothes for women, men and kids mixed with iconic ‘best in class’ brands as well as accessories and tableware for the home.

Wardrobe keepers

The classics-focused fashion ranges are well-considered and champion pieces that customers will always want to keep in their wardrobe: a trench coat or well-cut white shirt, a cashmere knit or sports blazer. The mood is gentlewomanly elegance with stylish design details. The women’s range is peppered with print pieces such as a floral dress based on an original artwork from the archive of Francois Ducharne’s silk firm and drawing studio, active between 1920-1960 in France. Menswear is more utilitarian and features khaki and navy outerwear, performance fabrics and functional waxed cotton or canvas jackets. (But there’s no reason why women can’t wear them too.)

Arket pieces are designed to be long-lasting, and updated over time through modern design details, quality fabrics and ‘a tonality that pulls everything together with warmth’, says creative director, Ulrika Bernhardtz.

Kidswear is especially charming with cute knits and colourful sweats – an organic cotton knit Breton stripe dress or fox ears cardigan spring to mind – and it’s designed to be worn, played in and then handed down when outgrown. The functionality of the kidswear collection is currently being promoted on Arket’s Instagram account via a quirky illustration gif, Egon the egghead, who demonstrates garments’ specific functions and attributes such as, wicking, durability and taped seams.

Brand friends

Arket’s wardrobe staples are merchandised alongside brands such as Converse or Veja that serve to echo the brand sensibility of ‘modern classics’. ‘We really believe it’s relevant to a modern customer to bring different brands together — under one roof, under one channel — and to make that choice for them and also make it more convenient, says Bernhardtz.

Brandstanding barometer

Through its numerous brand launches over the last few years, H&M has become a kind of retail arbiter of style. From Weekday and Monki to & Other Stories and COS, it has successfully held a lens up to the latest consumer (fashion) trends and translated them into retail concepts that not only capture a moment, but also an attitude towards style. And now that has been extended to homeware and food too.

Via Arket, it feels like H&M is shifting that barometer further. It is projecting a type of philanthropy, an informed choice architecture where quality, functionality, longevity and what Axelsson calls ‘archive essentials’ are all watchwords for luxury at a mass market level. Arket’s prices are at the premium end of high-street, with shirts ranging from £25 up to £119 and outerwear pieces reaching £399.

Coded archives

While there is little in the way of digital innovation in store, mobile discovery is key to the way Arket customers can purchase products in-store and online. I really like the subtle way the brand has slowly unveiled its look book campaign  images simultaneously via Instagram and online inviting early adopters to sign up for a promotional shopping rate.

‘There is a tiered code system for each product category, which is designed to be simple, functional and helpful,’ says Axelsson. ‘We designed the product code system to allow customers to follow the journey of a garment – from the first time they probably find one of our pieces online and bring an image of it on their mobile into store, to five years later, when they want to buy the same product and they can see how it has evolved. To help the customer save time is our role.’ In line with the mantra that the store is a place to re-charge, Axelsson adds that the product merchandising is sparse. ‘If you want to be in a store today you need to breathe out not breathe in. Leaving space on the store floor is important.’

Café community

There is a central café as part of the Arket retail concept and it’s designed to create an experience, according to Alexsson. ‘In the physical retail environment of today, you need an experience, and food & beverage is very connected to an experience. This is a place to re-charge. Whether that’s your mind, your laptop, your wife, your kids, yourself – all of these benefit from a pause,’ he says. 

The Arket café menu is based on the principles of the New Nordic Food Manifesto, an initiative created in 2003 by a group of chefs to help promote the sustainability of local food and local production techniques in the region. The vegetarian menu reflects the freshness of food found in the Nordics blended with more localised, seasonal influences indicative of the markets where Arket operates. Highlights from the launch event menu include: springy rye bread and avocado/radish open top sandwiches, sunset coloured beetroot salad and delicious oatmeal redcurrant cookies.

‘We wanted to democratise that quality and luxury approach to Nordic food. Seasonal and healthy food should be for everyone,’ head of café concept Martin Berg explained at the launch event.  ‘Some Nordic food preparation techniques were hijacked by fine-dining restaurants and it had become somewhat elitist,’ he says. So instead, Arket celebrates the New Nordic Food Manifesto with updated recipes in the café and aims to educate consumers about the benefits of eating this way, and how it impacts the entire food supply chain.

Retail Planner takeouts: 

Arket feels like a breath of fresh air in the toxic world of fast fashion. With its family focused credentials and sustainability minded brand DNA, Arket is filling a growing gap in the market for thoughtful wardrobe essentials and a total 360 degree approach to provenance-based lifestyle choices. Isn’t it time other vertical retail operators changed their ethos to become more archive building instead of throw away?

Menswear AW15: at the shows, classic merges with contemporary and streetwear meets luxe

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Trendspotting at the recent round of menswear trade shows – Pitti Uomo in Florence, Seek in Berlin and various showrooms in Paris – the worlds of classic Italian tailoring, contemporary menswear collections and edgy streetwear seemed to merge into one defining Instagram moment. And it may well mark the mid-decade style statement of our Turbulent Teens.

Highlights at Pitti Uomo included Wooster + Lardini, the capsule winter wardrobe offer from menswear savant and streetstyle star, Nick Wooster. ‘It’s classic tailoring with a contemporary twist,’ says Wooster of the perfectly proportioned coats, jackets, trousers and shirts collections made in collaboration with traditional Italian tailoring brand, Lardini’s rich fabrics. In Wooster’s hands, camel coats and plaid suits have new life.

Wooster + Lardini Pitti Uomo AW15

Wooster + Lardini Pitti Uomo AW15

Meanwhile, organisers at Pitti Uomo have recognized that luxury menswear retail is increasingly influenced by streetwear, and the club kids who shop for the latest threads. Welcome then, the new hall, Unconventional – more of a concrete white-washed Brooklyn studio space than designer showroom – to house the new breed of streetwear labels. Here buyers could find a wealth of luxury leather sneaker brands such as Cipher and New York based Hood By Air, that also put on a rather strange, extravagant show (as a guest of Pitti), to showcase its latest range of deconstructed clothing that played on eroticized male body areas such as shoulders or knees.

Unconventional streetwear pavillion at Pitti Uomo AW15

Unconventional streetwear pavillion at Pitti Uomo AW15

At its spring/summer 2015 trend briefing, Judd Crane, director of womenswear said that Selfridges is putting more budget than ever into designer streetwear collections, with influential collections such as Moschino, McQ, Hood by Air and Balenciaga defining the category for the UK department store.

In Berlin, the AW15 seasonal fashion week was shaken up by the demise of stalwart trade fair, Bread & Butter. Now instead, a cluster of niche, targeted shows across the city cater to different market sectors – unlike Pitti Uomo that neatly encapsulates them all. One highlight was Seek, a contemporary menswear show that has emerged leader of the pack. Here sportswear, heritage brands, urban and outerwear labels are flocking to be seen by some of the world’s best stores and edgiest magazines. Stand outs included 2XH Brothers for its fluid dark sportswear and Natural Selection for its evolutionary denim and tactile outerwear pieces.

Natural Selection AW15 at Seek, Berlin

Natural Selection AW15 at Seek, Berlin

Among the street food trucks, car brand Audi and drinks brand Hendricks also got in on the act, hosting a lounge area and vintage bar respectively.

In particular at Seek, I liked the synergy of Audi’s collaborative workshop studio space that served as a kind of creative inspiration hub where both Audi designers and Seek exhibitors could riff off each other’s creative juices.

Audi creative workshop space at Seek, Berlin

Audi creative workshop space at Seek, Berlin

‘The space is about having a new type of dialogue with Seek’s influential design-led visitors,’ says Andrea Matthes, head of VIP sales for Audi, Germany. ‘The concept is focused on creativity – both for our design teams who are here to absorb new fabrics, influences and silhouettes, and to encourage the Seek community to consider driving Audi cars,’ he adds.

And in Paris a new era of luxe streetwear is emerging. From Raf Simons’ ongoing fascination with youth culture and his ode to student inauguration attire (hand-written scrawl coats available to order – seen here in the showroom) Designers channeling the current Health Goth (sub req) meme such as Ada + Nik or Blood Brother were showing at Capsule, while the new Wang-era at Balenciaga is fuelling fresh demand for high-end leather bombers and backpacks according to a recent article in the New York Times . Here fashion writer, Matthew Schneider also tips skate influenced Pigalle and OAMC as Paris Fashion Week men’s highlights, that are adding to the luxury retail industry’s new love affair with streetwear.

Raf Simons AW15

Raf Simons AW15

Finally, a little corner of Tokyo cool can now be found in Paris. 1LDK has opened on rue de La Sourdiere, a stone’s throw from Colette and offers a minimalist take on that classic Japanese mantra: Just Good Design, with er, a cleaning theme. If the launch party is anything to go by, the store will do a good trade on everyday clothes for everyday life; aka streetwear for fashionistos from Ginza to Brooklyn via Paris.

1LDK

1LDK

Prada plays with phygital proportions

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For its AW15 menswear show, Prada worked with Dutch architects OMA’s research facility AMO for an optical illusion runway presentation inside its Milan Fondazione Prada space.

Prada AW15 menswear catwalk by OMA AMO

Prada AW15 menswear catwalk by OMA AMO

The disorienting set was built by partitioning interconnected rooms in two lines side by side, each with varying degrees of precision positioning. Called The Infinite Palace a Prada statement described the suite of rooms as a classic enfilade, with an ‘abstract mannerist perspective’.

Prada AW15 menswear catwalk by OMA AMO

Prada AW15 menswear catwalk by OMA AMO

‘The progression through the connected rooms simulates endless repetitions and symmetries, while providing the illusion of an infinite palace,’ says AMO in the statement. ‘As the models move linearly across the enfilade, members of the audience, divided into small groups, are pushed into close and intimate proximity with the collection.’

Also in Milan this week, Prada launched its new season window display, created by designer Martino Gamper, featuring a play on proportions through different wood grains where corners were the focus.  ‘The design draws its inspiration from perspective, fragments and contrasts between natural materials,’ explains Gamper on Prada’s website. ‘Those elements are enhanced by the simplicity of a corner, which is a common thread for all of the displays.’

Prada Martino Gamper SS15 windows

Prada Martino Gamper SS15 windows

*Prada’s playful approach to graphic presentation (both on the runway and in its windows), reflects the label’s attention to architecture, design and influence over perception. While the Prada menswear show was live streamed over the web, the effect for viewers not present at the event, was augmenting an infinite runway show, while for a select few in the audience, the sequential spaces multiplied and fragmented the show allowing for a series of intimate moments.

Mr Porter’s movie role

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Luxury menswear website Mr Porter has launched a Savile Row inspired tailoring collection that coincides with the upcoming spy thriller movie Kingsman: The Secret Service.

The online retailer worked with film director Matthew Vaughn and costume designer Arianne Philips to ensure the 60 piece collection (that is directly influenced by the movie storyline), reflects all that a British spy could need, sartorially speaking. Colin Firth and breakthrough actor Taron Egerton star alongside Samuel L Jackson and Michael Caine – who all look suitably suave and impeccably dressed throughout the movie. In fact viewers can shop any of the Kingsman looks on Mr Porter while they watch the film; content-to-commerce takes on new meaning with this collection that goes live on the website when the film launches in mid February.

 

Kingsman: The Secret Service - key looks in the film

Kingsman: The Secret Service – key looks in the film

Coinciding with London Collections: Men earlier this week, Mr Porter also launched a one-day pop-up at 11 Savile Row in London, bringing the movie location to life, literally.

Kingsman Mr Porter pop up store Savile Row

Kingsman Mr Porter pop up store Savile Row

The bespoke 60-piece collection includes suiting, outerwear, shirting, knitwear and accessories made from a range of British brands – including Turnbull & Asser shirts, Drakes ties, Cutler & Gross eyewear, Bremont watches and Swaine Adeney Brigg bags – all known for their craftsmanship. It features the costumes worn by characters in the film and is reliant on the audience feeling compelled to buy into the power-play style portrayed by Colin Firth who is the well-dressed, super spy lead character.

‘The idea of turning a costumed collection into a commercial merchandising opportunity is a first for the fashion industry, especially to do it this way around’, Toby Bateman, Mr Porter’s buying director told me at the press launch on Sunday. Vaughn approached Mr Porter because he couldn’t find the type of suits he wanted to wear himself, and from early on in the film’s development he saw an opportunity to turn Philips’ designs into a global clothing line, which is why he turned to Mr Porter. Bateman says he we wanted to make it more than just a one-off film merchandise collection. ‘We saw the potential to launch a new personality-driven Mr Porter collection that will continue with seasonal updates after the film,’ Bateman said. ‘The Kingsman collection has genuine integrity, it’s costumed from the film, everything is made by British craftspeople, it’s a who’s who of British sartorial style,’ he added.

Mr Porter's Kingsman collection

Mr Porter’s Kingsman collection

‘Men’s style has always been inspired by the look of leading men in film but this is the first time that the costumes for a movie have been conceived with the idea of selling those clothes to the film’s audience. You could be sitting in the cinema watching this film and shopping the looks from your mobile at the same time,’ he adds.

  • With the Kingsman launch, Mr Porter is breaking new merchandise grounds. The online retailer is tapping into the new entertainment-driven shopping trend as consumers increasingly turn to internet TV and shoppable videos for content on the move.
  • The Kingsman pop-up on Savile Row offers customers the opportunity for a touch of escapism. They too can play the part of a super spy for a while, adding retail theatre into the experience. The walls of accessories, corresponding iPads and bespoke ordering in-store, also serve as a great example of how to do phy-gital retail.

 

 

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