information technology in inventory management and control and in tracking
product stock and delivery. Technology also provided a new channel of retail
and distribution through the Internet. However, the dotcom crash of the late
1990s highlighted by the failure of the first fashion e-retail start-up company,
boo.com, discouraged the adoption of Internet retailing during this decade.
The Internet, however, affected other aspects of fashion such as the influence
of celebrities like Sharon Stone and Elizabeth Hurley on a global level.
The 1990s was also the decade that launched the luxury services sub-sector
in response to the increasing business needs of luxury brands. The company
that pioneered this sector was Atlantic Publishing Ltd London, owned by
James Ogilvy, which publishes the pioneer luxury industry journal, Luxury
Briefing. The journal was launched as a response to the market size expansion
and competitive structure changes which called for specialized market infor-
mation and analysis.
Another significant fashion market change of the 1990s was in the mass
fashion division but with a direct impact on the luxury fashion sector. The
mass fashion sector grew rapidly as a result of advanced manufacturing,
designing and retailing techniques. Brands like Zara from Spain, H&M from
Sweden and Top Shop from Britain began to produce catwalk-style fashion at
low cost, offering consumers luxury fashion alternatives at significantly
lower prices. Their fashion goods were instantly embraced by global fashion
consumers, leading to swift success. Their presence in the fashion market also
led to a dramatic change in luxury fashion consumption attitudes, as had
never been witnessed in the history of fashion. These changes have been more
prevalent in the noughties.
The noughties
The luxury fashion terrain has undergone significant developments so far in
the noughties. The decade was ushered in with the negative impact of the
dotcom crash of the late 1990s and early 2000s, which led luxury brands to
develop an aversion to e-commerce at the beginning of the decade. LVMH,
however, changed this stance with the launching of an e-retail company, elux-
ury.com, which sold products from its brands, Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior,
Donna Karan and several other internal and external brands in the US market.
The unexpected success of eluxury.com led to the 2005 launch of e-retail
operations in France and the United Kingdom for LVMH brands like Louis
Vuitton and Christian Dior. Eluxury.com also spurred competitor luxury
brands like Gucci, Hermès and Giorgio Armani to adopt e-retail. However,
there remains a continuous debate among several luxury brands over the
adoption of e-retail. The main concern of the luxury brands that are reluctant
to adopt e-retail such as Chanel, is the dilution of the ‘exclusive’ and ‘pres-
tige’ attributes of their brands, on the Internet. The advancement of e-retail
chapter 2 35the history of luxury fashion branding