Bespoke services are also provided by other luxury brands. Gucci has a
renowned custom-built service for its leather goods collection, available to
both male and female customers; Ermenegildo Zegna provides excellent
made-to-measure product services to a wide clientele; and the list goes on to
include Louis Vuitton, Prada and Armani, among many others. At the same
time, several other luxury brands have shunned bespoke services as a result
of the inkling that it is a declining retail service that is on the verge of disap-
pearance. This wrong view could have a negative impact on luxury brands
that intend to erase bespoke services from their offerings.
Made-to-measure goods have been a core aspect of luxury branding for a
long time. However, as previously highlighted, the current level of bespoke
services available from the majority of luxury brands is exclusive and
restricted. While exclusivity is important in maintaining the prestige aura of the
brand, retaining a limited bespoke service without providing a parallel service
to a broader consumer base spells of old-fashioned aristocracy. This element is
contrary to the attributes that modern luxury consumers seek to identify with.
A luxury brand that has struck a balance between providing exclusive
bespoke services and taking customization to the masses, is British leather
goods brand, Anya Hindmarch (Figure 8.9). The brand provides a package
that addresses the customization yearning of the new luxury consumer and at
the same time appeals to the bespoke nostalgia of the old luxury consumer.
The brand, which was launched in 1993, offers customized services through
two main categories in its product portfolio. The first is the bespoke range
called ‘Be a Bag’, which provides customers with the opportunity to trans-
pose their personal photographs onto a bag, made of different materials. This
chapter 8 261customize me!Figure 8.9 Anya Hindmarch provides one of the most efficient bespoke
services in the luxury sector, through the Bespoke Ebury (above) and the Be A
Bag (not shown) collections. The brand has effectively combined the innovation
of product customization and personalization provided through its website, to
enhance customer satisfaction (May 2006).