RETAIL
Club Culture: Why luxury
retailers want to transform
customers into ‘members’
PLAYING FASHION’S GAME has always
been about access: to have or have not. In
the 1970s, part of the allure of investing in
a garment from Yves Saint Laurent was the
idea that an unmistakable silhouette could
grant imaginary access to Studio 54, a night-
club frequented by the designer and celebs
like Bianca Jagger. Since 1937, the Hermès
scarf has been known not only as neckwear
but as a square of silk, or carré, that elicits
the flutter of hand-rolled fabric in the breeze
of the Provençal countryside. Likewise,
wearing Prada couture gets you one step
closer to Miuccia Prada’s creative genius
without boarding the next flight to Milan.
For today’s luxury brands, how-
ever, reserving an exclusive lifestyle for
only the staunchest of followers no longermakes business sense: as fashion labels
establish an omnichannel media pres-
ence and increasingly look to self-disrupt,
‘experience’ usurps ‘product’, and access to
branded Instagrammable spaces now tops
every superfan’s wish list.
The change is prompted in part
by social-media influencers who act as
mediators between potential buyers and
companies. In marketing terms, influenc-
ers make luxury marques more relatable to
everyday consumers, inviting them, albeit
by proxy, to step into today’s rarefied brand
worlds. But ‘by proxy’ is no longer proxi-
mate enough, it seems. In a shift appropri-
ate to the current now economy, the fashion
industry is investing in a form of graduated
pop-up: the luxury branded club. »SPACES 115