textiles companies, which supplied apparel to the major global fashion
brands.
Today, however, the story is changing and bountiful examples attest to this;
Stella McCartney left Chloé Paris to launch her very own successful brand;
Alexander McQueen has a flourishing luxury brand; Ozwald Boateng’s brand
was already thriving before he joined Givenchy as the head of the men’s wear
design team. Also, Matthew Williamson’s own design label is prosperous,
while John Galliano’s haute couturedesigns continue to be sought after by
celebrities and the world’s wealthy. Jimmy Choo is another notable British
brand that has achieved a global cult following in a decade of existence. Other
notable British designers include Alice Temperley, Hussein Chalayan, L.K.
Bennett, Philip Treacy and Stephen Jones. Among the rising British design-
ers are Osman Yousefzada, Clare Tough, Christopher Kane, Richard Nicoll
and Roksanda Ilincic, Marios Schwab, among many others. Several of these
emerging designers are now able to receive financial support and funding to
launch their fashion brands from institutions like The British Luxury Council.
This shows a change of attitude towards fashion. Consequently Britain is
today known as not only a country of history, tradition, literature and educa-
tion but also one that nurtures fashion talent.
These talented individuals represent a revolution that is taking place in the
luxury fashion scene, which has its underlying strength in understanding the
current consumer market needs and aggressively striving to fulfill them. The
majority of the designers also have a rare combination of creativity and entre-
preneurship, which is lacking in high doses in the fashion business. The rise
of the British fashion designers has also significantly contributed to the
lowering of the previously high entry barrier of the luxury goods sector. Also,
British brands represent more than 70 per cent of the new luxury brands
launched in the last fifteen years. Through this, the British luxury brands
have defied the popular belief held by several luxury practitioners that it
takes a minimum of thirty years to build a successful global luxury brand.
The achievements of British luxury fashion brands lead to the following
question:
Are there branding lessons to be learnt from the British fashion brands?The following brand fundamentals form a part of the key success factors of
the British fashion brands and should serve as directional tools for both young
and new luxury fashion brands.
1 Innovative brand development strategies in product design and communi-
cations. For example, Jimmy Choo adopted celebrity endorsement as a
core brand-awareness and appeal-development tool.
2 Product and services personalization and customization, which contributes
to customer empowerment and satisfaction, brand loyalty and enhanced
chapter 10 311case illustrations