PPD

This project was certainly the most challenging one I faced in 2 years of the course. It was very academic and artistic at the same time.
Before selecting the topic, it was quite difficult as there were many multiple topics that I was interested in. During the Easter break I did the research on what luxury brands don't have their brand perfume and I didn't succeed to find one, as most of the luxury brands already have one or more fragrances. Only in the middle of my Victoria Beckham and H&M collaboration project I came up with the idea of Giuseppe Zanotti perfume as I've realize the brand doesn't have one yet, but I decided to stick to my topic. Another idea I had was the brand extension for Victoria Beckham, that would be Victoria Beckham Jewelry, including fine jewelry such as earrings, necklaces, rings etc
. However, I decided to take this topic to challenge myself and research for both brands Victoria Beckham and H&M. H&M proves excruciatingly difficult to find but one example of a luxury brand high street collaboration that hasn’t been a roaring success and  the research showed that having VB as a next collaboration designer as well as a fashion influential figure would benefit both parties.
Perhaps the most obvious benefits lie with the high street retailer. Luxury brand collaborations are notoriously effective for driving foot traffic, frenzied sales and immeasurable buzz, which permeates both the mainstream media sphere and luxury consumers outside its current influence.
H&M collaborations call for higher prices, resulting in increased revenues and healthier margins. They also serve as a point of differentiation over other fast retailers and give consumers a new reason to visit stores. In terms of sell through, these limited ranges generally completely sell-out.
These collaborations can also greatly benefit the brand lending its cache, which often includes significant financial remuneration. It has been reported that Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney were paid $1 million for their H&M collections. The brand is also able to raise awareness in consumer segments or geographical markets where awareness is low. That is how I came up with the idea to bring VB for H&M collection to Russia. VB has stores in 32 countries excluding Russia, however the brand has a established customers base (showrooms in Moscow order the collections online and sell it for higher prices), so introducing VB to Russian customers through the collaboration collection will be the first step to enter the market in Russia.
I have enjoyed the artistic part, including making the video, working with Photoshop and writing in the blog. In the academic part I have enjoyed the secondary research and working in Excel creating the budget as I like working with the numbers.
The main problem I faced is the time management, as we had to do more work in less time I found difficult to deal with the pressure and believe I could've done better if I had more time. But at the same time I have learnt how important the balance is, I have started working productively at the last 10 days before the deadline, if I had started writing and creating in the first week I wouldn't be as stressed as I was at the end. 

Story Board

The video starts with the words "H&M presents..." written on a black pattern background explaining the viewer what he is about to see.

The next slide is a piece of a black and white picture showing the legs, which doesn't explain match and makes the viewer wonder what this ad is about.

 The next text says "The collection You have been waiting for...". According to MarrieClaire.co.uk

Victoria Beckham For H&M is the collection fashion world wants to see. "You" with a capital "Y" makes it more personal.

 The next piece of the picture shows the torso and yet it's impossible to guess who the person on the picture is.

 The last words before showing the last piece of the picture are "The time has come..." which is dramatic and make the viewer excited of what he is about to see. I've used the effect "Boogie Lights" on the all slides.

 On the last piece of the picture you can see Victoria Beckham's face clear. Now the viewer know who's collection it is.

 To make it clear the next bit of the video is "Victoria Beckham" written on a white background using the original shrift.

 The next picture is the poster which is will be use as an advert for the collection. In where Beckham will be wearing the dress from the collection and the logo stands out.

 Next fragment is the video where Beckham finishes the catwalk of her last collection, but represents her definite appearance on the feature VB and H&M collaboration catwalk show.

"Spring/Summer 2016" is the season in which collection is oriented and give the followers a clue when to expect the launch.

 The next few seconds just show the queue, crowd, rush, shopping, the store to give the viewer a taste of the excitement the collection launch will bring.

The last slide is the image of the H&M logo. Which is a logical finish of the ad as all H&M's collaboration videos end by clarifying the company that intended the collaboration whith the previously mentioned brand.

YouTube Video

The video is up, the link is below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJkM8dj7-EQ&feature=youtu.be

Enjoy!

Balmain for H&M / #VBforHM

Today Olivier Rousteing has confirmed that he is designing a Balmain collection for H&M.

Enlisting the help of two of his famous fans, Jourdan Dunn and Kendall Jenner, the designer announced the collaboration at last night's Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas - with both models arriving on his arm, wearing designs from the collection. 

"I want to talk to my generation − this is my main aim as a designer," Rousteing said this morning. "H&M allows me the unique possibility of bringing everyone into the world of Balmain, getting a piece of the dream and creating a global #HMBalmaination: a movement of togetherness, fuelled on a hashtag. The collaboration felt extremely natural to me as H&M is a brand that everybody connects to. It calls for unity, and I am all for it."

The collection - which includes menswear as well as womenswear - will land in stores on November 5 2015.

The world is in anticipation for the Balmain collaboration with H&M and I'm sure Victoria Beckham's collection would cause not less excitement once the collaboration announced.

 In the interview Rousteing mentioned the creation of the hashtag  #HMBalmaination which gave me the idea of creating one for Victoria Beckham's collaboration. A hashtag is a unique strategy for categorizing messages on social media and is seen as a very powerful marketing tool by businesses. The process of implementing the hashtag would be by mentioning it by Beckham in the interview about the collection, which will allow the future customers to follow up on collection's updates before the launch. It will also increase the awareness through the social media. The hashtag for VB collection for H&M would be #VBforHM 

Adverts

Today I've created the examples of how the adverts for the collaboration would look. I took existing images from the internet of Victoria Beckham and put the H&M logo on them using Photoshop. There are some examples of the different adverts H&M has done previously for their collaborations below.

MoodBoard

My moodboard shows the images which are relative to my idea of H&M collaboration with Victoria Beckham. The colour pallets shows the colours which will be in fashion in s/s 2016 according to British vogue. These are mainly pastel colours which suits Victoria Beckham's ready to wear style. Some of the images from VB's ready to wear collection are presented in the moodboard, also those images shows the similar cut the dresses in VB for H&M will have. A mix of a simple shape with the sophisticated twist. The image in the top left corner is the perfect example how H&M style and colour could come together with VB's style to produce the collaboration, it also shows how the images in the lookbook will look. The idea is for Victoria Beckham to model for the collection herself, wearing the pieces from the VB for H&M collection, just like the image in the middle. The image of the queue and Beckham waving represent the event of the collection launch which will take place in the main H&M shop on Oxford Street, where Beckham will attend and great the customers. 

Spontaneous is Good

For me choosing "Victoria Beckham for H&M" as my individual project was a very spontaneous decision. I was at the meeting with one of my professors and he was asking everyone in the group what their project will be. At that point I had no idea what I want to do. During the Easter break I thought about it for a few times and was thinking of making a project about launching the perfume for one of the luxury brands, but after some research I couldn't find any brand which hasn't done it already. So under the pressure of the circumstances (as all my classmates seemed to be pretty confident about their projects) I came out with the thought the Victoria's Beckham collaboration with H&M could be a good idea for the project.
 When I got home I started doing my research from finding out what other collaboration H&M has done before. Here is the list:

H&M Designer collaborations

• 2004: Karl Lagerfeld
• 2005: Stella McCartney, Elio Fiorucci, Solange Azagury-Partridge
• 2006: Viktor & Rolf
• 2007: Roberto Cavalli
• 2008: Rei Kawakubo and Comme des Garçons
• 2009: Matthew Williamson, Jimmy Choo, Sonia Rykiel
• 2010: Sonia Rykiel, Lanvin
• 2011: Versace
• 2012: Versace, Marni, Maison Martin Margiela
• 2013: Isabel Marant
• 2014: Alexander Wang

Style icon collaborations

• 2006: Madonna
• 2007: Madonna, Kylie Minogue
• 2012: David Beckham
• 2012: Anna Dello Russo
• 2013: Beyoncé

H&M Design Award Winners

• 2012: Stine Riis
• 2013: Minju Kim
• 2014: Eddy Anemian

A selection of other collaborations

• 2008: Fashion Against Aids
• 2008: Marimekko
• 2009: Fashion Against Aids
• 2009: Jesper Waldenstam, Liselotte Watkins (H&M Home)
• 2010: Black Book
• 2010: Julie Verhoeven (H&M Home)
• 2010: Lovisa Burfit (H&M Home)
• 2011: Elin Kling
• 2011: Fashion Against Aids
• 2011: Swedish Hasbeens
• 2011: Knotted Gun, Non-Violence organisation
• 2011: Trish Summerville, The Stockholm collection: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• 2012: Fashion Against Aids
• 2013: H&M for Brick Lane Bikes

H&M believes that high-fashion design doesn’t have to be a matter of price. In my view VB would perfectly fit and supplement the list of H&M designer collaborations as well as style icon collaborations.
Regarding to Marie Claire Victoria Beckham For H&M is collection fashion wants to see. So after doing some secondary research I became positive that this idea can make a good and interesting individual project.



Sources:
http://about.hm.com/en/About/facts-about-hm/fashion-for-all/collections/collaborations.html
http://www.themuse.tv/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/victoria-beckham-british-fashion-awards-738a-120710.jpg
http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/fashion/544912/victoria-beckham-for-h-m-the-collection-to-change-fashion.html#index=1&uiSynced=true