A fashion revolution?

By far the most exciting thing I saw last week during the couture in Paris wasn’t couture at all, but a website that launches today: www.honestby.com. The brainchild of Belgian designer Bruno Pieters, late of Hugo Boss, it is the most subversive etail initiative I have seen. I think it has the power to transform the fashion industry. Really. You know I don’t say these things lightly. Indeed, my natural instinct whenever a fashion person tells me they have something “revolutionary” happening is to roll my eyes and grimace. But then, Pieters didn’t tell me this – I thought it up all on my own when I saw his project.
Why?

Because this site, which will sell a collection of 56 pieces for men and women (only 20 items of each style will be made, including different sizes) by Mr Pieters, and then start offering collections by guest designers in three months (he wouldn’t tell me who they were), is transparent, and mostly sustainable. Let me say that again: transparent financially and in terms of manufacturing.

Since I know this is hard to imagine, let me explain. You go to “collection” and, say, you click on a coat. Under the section “material information” you will find the description of material used, its composition, weight, yarn or piece-dyed, the origin of the raw material, who spun it, who wove it, whether it is organic, if so, what certificate it has earned (and what said certificate means), and a website for the supplier – and you will find this for the fabric, the zipper, the lining, the trim, the label, the buttons, the thread and so on.
Meanwhile, under “price information”: you will find out the cost per metre of the fabric, how much was ordered, how much was used, how much labour was involved, what the mark-up was, and how the profit was used.

In other words, by the time you press “buy” you will know exactly what you are paying for. Zounds!
Nothing like this has been done in my living memory. Fashion, especially high-end fashion, is a business built on opacity: things cost what they cost because of ephemeral matters like “heritage” and “hand-work” and “brand equity” and the less the consumer knows about the literal value of these, the better off the brands are (and the more they can charge). Though he says most of the suppliers and designers he approached were enthusiastic, some were “upset, and said we shouldn’t communicate on this.”

It is precisely this attitude that Mr Pieters wants to change – he thinks it breeds consumer mistrust – and why he wanted absolute clarity in his own brand. Indeed, he says if orders go up and he achieves economies of scale, his prices will come down.

It seems to me this has the potential to be a real game-changer in fashion, because if consumers get used to having this sort of information available, they could start demanding it from other brands. Once information is out there in the world, it’s impossible to get it back. And then – goodness me. I can barely contain myself.





January 30, 2012 2:01 pm by Vanessa Friedman
http://news.style.com/view_mode/2100810/buzz/