The Isabel Marant Otway Boot. Image from Wall Street Journal by Getty Images.
There has been a lot in the fashion press recently about the french designer brand Isabel Marant, who has until very recently banned any images of her products on the web. Of course, no one can totally ban how images and information about them online, however Marant has been very careful in controlling online exposure of her brand.
A quote from this article from the Wall Street Journal sums up her philosophy quite well:
“A major part of the brand’s allure is its rarity. Until this season, when Isabel Marant accessories were sold at luxury emporium Barneys New York, Ms. Marant’s goods could only be found at a handful of small boutiques in the U.S. Because the brand carefully limits orders, products rarely go on sale.
In addition, Ms. Marant forbids retailers to sell her products online, or even post images of them. Revealing prices online is also against the rules. Instead, stores often note on their Web sites that they have Ms. Marant’s items in stock and list a phone number where customers can pre-order the goods, sight-unseen.
Chief executive Sophie Duruflé says … that the brand ‘never entered e-commerce since that really wasn’t our profession.’”
But soon the brand will be available on Net A Porter, and has recently started being sold at Barneys, so it is beginning to increase its exposure and availability.
Isabel Marant Spring Summer 2010
Personally, it sounds ridiculous to me, although I am wondering if this is just a press tactic to get the exposure of the brand up so that when it is available online, it will sell like crazy. For any CEO of a fashion company to say “e-commerce is not our business” is like a magazine saying “we don’t need a presence online.” The WSJ article went on to report that
Ms. Borissova (owner of Curve in New York), who ordered 28 pairs of the Soono (boot), says that the company only delivered three pairs. She flew to Paris to plead with the designer to produce more. The brand resisted, but after she committed to a €50,000 (about $70,000) order, the company agreed to recreate the $1,300 boot.
Now, that just sounds crazy to me, as I know that retailers do not often beg to have their orders filled. Usually it is the other way around, and the experiences I have had in the past is that if you are a brand that only delivers 3 pieces of a 28 piece order, you’ll never get another order again. So what is going on here? The Isabel Marant collection is great, in fact, beautiful, but not SO great that it merits buyers flying around begging for orders to be filled. Are we just so in shock that there is a brand out there NOT jumping on the internet/online/social media bandwagon that we are fascinated and therefore obsessively buying?
Isabel Marant Autumn Winter 2009/2010: Mila Jovovich photographed by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin
I think it sounds like Isabel Marant is making life difficult for her stockists and her customers (according to WSJ, one London customer called her store to try and order a boot, and she was told she needed to come to Paris to get it) and therefore will need to drastically change her policy very soon. If not, I highly doubt her “difficult attitude” will be alluring for much longer. Many products or brands are very difficult to get ahold of in the early stages, and that definitely helps to create the hype, but it doesn’t last long (you don’t see people fighting over Ugg boots anymore, do you?)
Isabel Marant Spring Summer 09: Daria Werbowy photographed by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin
I completely respect that a brand wants to try and control their image online, but there are other ways of doing it. Peachoo + Krejberg don’t have a website, however, that hasn’t stopped them from selling at Holt Renfrew and other major stores, because they understand that sales keep you in business (and they deliver their orders in full too!) I don’t know how long this will go on, but Isabel Marant is soon opening a store in New York. Its one thing selling out in some major boutiques, but to generate enough sales to keep a store open in NYC, without any real online presence, is going to be very challenging. And buyers, as well as customers, will get bored of the the battle to get the product (regardless of how pretty it is), and will move on to the next brand.
How hard are you willing to fight for a pair of boots? I have gone to great lengths for a pair of shoes before, in fact, several times, but I didn’t have to leave the country to find them. And there’s a difference between waiting two years to get a Birkin Bag (which is an investment piece that will barely decrease in value), and embarking on a mission to get a pair of suede boots by a small French designer.
Catwalk images from Style.com and campigan images from the Isabel Marant website.
