The End of the Big Brands
why the next big thing in fashion is small business.
Did you ever dream of the day when you’d own a multibillion dollar company? Or at least work for one? In all fairness, I didn’t (I don’t have the stomach to do what it takes in business to net that much profit) but I would argue that anyone out there coming across this article shouldn’t dream about it either. I know that flies in the face of the prevailing business “success” stories: scrappy young founder(s) get into business with well endowed venture capital firms, their business achieves the ever-elusive ‘unicorn’ status and they’re on the cover of Fast Company looking happy as ever. And, scene.
The problem with this way of doing business is that it is antithetical to creativity. Maybe this works in tech or commodities, but in an artistic medium this business model is all but asking you to extinguish the passion and innovation behind you and your team. When I see headlines about a brand like The Row having a $1B valuation, I don’t see a net positive for that business and for the arts as a whole. The Olsens spent close to 20 years creating a cult-like following, crafting an aesthetic on their terms. Whether or not I ascribe to the aesthetic, I will always respect creatives who bet on themselves. Maybe the Olsens have changed course and no longer want to bet on themselves, but I think everyone should consider the paradigm shifts happening around us.
In case you haven’t noticed, every creative industry is in freefall right now. I’m not a movie or TV buff but you’d have to have your head in the sand to not see the stagnation all around us. I’ve been to the movies maybe 3 times this year and everything is either a reboot, a sequel, or a Marvel money grab. In short, Hollywood has made their position clear: don’t pump any energy (read: money) into telling a story these people haven’t already seen before. But Hollywood isn’t alone- I’ve felt like the fashion industry has been incredibly derivative for a while now. Whether it’s the clothing, the content creators, the campaigns- I couldn’t tell you the last time one of these folks playing in the ‘big leagues’ intrigued or surprised me.
Paradoxically, the more powerful these entities get the less they want to carve out a lane for themselves. On some level, I understand their thinking: it’s easier to fail when no one is watching. A video floating around of actor Tyler James Williams perfectly echoes the sentiments. On a much bigger scale, this is the fear of mega conglomerates like LVMH and Kering, whether or not anyone over there would openly admit it. The irony here is that the longer these brands stagnate, the more people question why they continue to purchase from them. Chanel’s classic flap in 2024 is a worse investment than buying a pre-loved one from 1999.
The model of success is changing. We have hyper-visibility into each other’s lives that has completely upended everything we thought was responsible for a ‘good life’. CEOs telling the truth about when they end their workdays has folks reconsidering everything they thought they wanted. Why does your business need to aggressively scale to be successful? In the (very near) future, the biggest competitive advantage will be the ability to pivot. And as I already said in a recent TikTok, small businesses will be more nimble and have an easier time adapting to the market.
How does this translate to fashion? For me, it would be a less is more approach with a ‘profits over growth’ mindset. Your brand only needs for revenue to exceed operational costs for you to be profitable; that’s all that means! Oftentimes, the American business model posits itself into this narrow funnel where we only think a business is successful if it scales aggressively. Would you rather be a profitable company with 12 U.S. stockists that hit 85% full-price sell through on your merchandise every season OR would you rather have 500 U.S. stockists who struggle to sell your merchandise and end up putting half of it on markdowns and tainting the image of your brand? The designer with 500 stockists may sooner land a nod in WWD or BoF, but in reality are they really more successful? The world does not look the way it did when most of these heritage brands and their parent companies came to be.
We’re too segmented now and too good at tuning into our own frequencies now to go back to a time where we all blindly shopped in the mass market. In retail, the future to me looks like highly curated boutiques *not* interested in world domination like McMullen, Tootsie’s and Kirna Zabete, to name a few.
The days of a Montgomery Ward level ubiquity are behind us. These are companies that persisted because only a few outlets existed in comparison to today; as long as you had existing relationships with those outlets (even just word of mouth), you’d be fine. Those same outlets still exist today but a decentralized society is harder to herd in the direction of a particular department store. The future belongs to those who see nothing wrong in serving their clients well and taking pride in cultivating their own universe.
TL:DR: Every creative in business needs to deeply reconsider the desire to scale their business as bigger is not always better
-xoxo Jenn
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