Fashion consumers have become increasingly receptive to designer collaborations, creating platforms for designers to connect and cross promote each other’s work. As a designer, not only are you growing your audience by tapping into a fellow designer’s audience but you are also aligning your brand with another beautiful, creative, and inspiring brand that people love. Assuming, that is, you do it the right way.
Given the recent rise in designer collaborations (amongst well established fashion houses, or between a fashion house and a well-established public figure), we decided to ask a few of our designer friends what it takes to put together a collaboration.
Getting started:
- Finding a collaborator – who’s aesthetics complements yours, it could be a brand that is not directly involved in the fashion industry but makes sense with yours (food,sport,lifestyle,etc).
- Defining the audience – how large an audience does each collaborator have, how skilled is each collaborator at marketing?
- Creative inspiration – creating a different approach to a collaboration, what is the story behind it, and why should people care?
The logistics:
- The legal aspects – even if this is one time thing, it is always smart to have an agreement in place.
- Promotional aspects – clearly outline what each brand is responsible for; the frequency of promotions, on what channels and for how long.
- Payment – agree on who is collecting payments, doing financials, taxes and pay-outs.
- Duration – decide what happens to the left over inventory, what happens if it does not sell and how long the agreement is in place.
