Molly’s Market of Fashion

Featured

A little bit about me

I am currently a fashion marketing and retail design student and have been introduced to the topic of ‘Consumer Behaviour’. As humans we all make choices everyday that we do not even think about and one of those choices are what we decide to buy and wear. You may think that there is not much thought process behind picking what outfits you want to wear other than you just like what you see. But have you ever considered the reasons behind why consumers buy, and the emotional, mental and behavioural responses behind it all? If the answer is no, you’ve come to the right place 🙂

For me, I absolutely love fashion and what I wear is very important to me, more so ever since I started college. From being very restricted all throughout my school years, wearing the same old boring uniform to wearing whatever I wanted to, being the free spirit that I am, I felt a major sense of freedom that no one could tell me what I could or couldn’t wear. I realised I could be feeling my best, most confident self through my put together outfits.

Finally being able to show my personality through my clothing choice, I was a tad bit more excited than I maybe should have been and this is what led me to gaining an interest in perhaps pursuing a career into the fashion industry. I’ve never wanted to be in a job that I had no interest about and I believe that if you have real passion for something, that you will thrive in it always no matter how hard it is. Doing business studies in college was a passion I had as-well, specifically in the marketing sector and I thought, why not combine fashion with marketing?

As far as hands on experience goes, I do not have any and this is why I chose my course because this is the field which is going to prepare me for the working world whilst I continuously work on my portfolio to gain that competitive employer advantage. As a generation who has grown up with social media becoming a bigger deal, it has been interesting to see how there are so many more opportunities now to engage and influence others and how businesses have adapted to this sudden change, specifically in the fashion world.

In my spare time, I like to engage with my own following on a designated fashion account and this allows me to target others who have the same interest as me and to show off outfits that I like to put together whilst gaining inspiration from others too! Thank you for reading my first post and stay tuned for more topics within the fashion sector that is to come 🙂

“The joy of dressing is an art” – John Galliano

Second-Hand Beauty

You may have thought about second-hand clothing but have you ever considered second-hand beauty products? A lot of us buy makeup but a lot of us do not use all of the products that we buy and find ourselves just leaving old makeup at the pits of our makeup bags to expire and no longer be in good use. I know for me this is something that I am guilty of doing, so I think that giving reused and unwanted makeup a new home is a positive service because it saves so much waste and has the cycle of, a consumer’s loss is another consumer’s gain.

You may have read this so far and thought, “what, I’m not using someone else’s mascara, that’s really unhygienic and dangerous”, there is no need to threat about this, because everything is sanitised, repackaged in a new container and sold at a lower price. Which moves on to me stating that people buy and are interested in this service because of how much money they save whilst doing so. If you aren’t majorly big on your makeup like I am then this service would probably be the best one for you because we most definitely do not want to fork out on expensive makeup as it isn’t a big deal to us, however if you are big on makeup, you will most likely be a bit pickier about the type that you use. A big concern for consumers showing reluctancy to purchase is the hygiene and bacteria, with a percentage of 68% consumers worried about this. A lot of people do not 100% believe it is still as clean as it can be and would not risk it.

I would not be opposed to using this service, I love makeup but I am not good enough at it to want to pay a lot of money for it as I am for fashion. As a struggling student, I would definitely pay for reused products at a cheaper price. As society is more environmentally aware, I wouldn’t rule it out that it wouldn’t be a popular option, although I feel like the best direction that second-hand beauty could go in would be to just re-use and recycle it into a completely different product because at least that way, sustainability and the environment is still being helped and people can feel at ease with the hygiene aspect.

Cultural Changes And The Impact On The Consumer

In 2019 there was quite a few popular cultural changes that impacted many people by the way that they behave as a consumer. Personally, as a consumer I do a lot of things that many other people do that we do not even think about, we just do it and this could be out of influence, morals, convenience or many other factors that apply to the individual person.

I have watched a reality tv show for a while now called Love Island, the show has grown into a programme that can open a lot of doors for the contestants. Obviously, there is a lot of outfits worn on there from specific brands and as the show has got bigger and how the demographic of young people is so high, they know that this target audience is very influential and will take inspiration by what they see. So of course, why not take this opportunity and collaborate with other fashion retailer brands like Misguided to create a boost in sales. This is exactly what they did and still do to create brand recognition and awareness, they also have an app that you can download and actually have a section where you can look for the specific outfits that has been worn by the contestants.

As a fashion lover I am constantly drawn to peoples outfits on a daily basis even if I particularly wouldn’t wear something myself, I can’t help but be curious and gain inspiration. So as someone who watches Love Island, a lot of the brands that the contestants get to wear are brands that I buy from already so it is definitely convenient for me to watch the show and get inspiration for what I may like and want to wear in the future. The app is extremely handy because I find myself watching the show and clicking on the ‘islandstyle’ to see if a particular item is in stock.

Regrettably I do not consider the environmental impact because I do shop fast fashion and it would be hypocritical for me to say I do care. I recognise it is bad but it is the convenience factor for me that I love so much. As for celebrity preferences this is not something that motivates me to buy, its more so the fact that if I like an outfit Im going to buy it regardless of who’s wearing it.

Access Vs Ownership – Rental Clothing

Do you think that the predictions about renting clothing is going to overtake the fast fashion sector within the next 10 years? If you’re wondering what this oh so new modern-day fashion invention is, it is the act of having access over clothes rather than ownership, evidently saving yourself a lot of storage. In my opinion, I would want to try this at least once because I feel that it would be really fun to have a complete new wardrobe from which I can choose from and not only is it saving me a lot of luggage, but it is broadening my fashion tastes which is something I am continuously striving to do, especially when gaining inspiration from others.

I will say that it could be a good idea for the cliental with a higher wage who aren’t restricted or motivated as such by price, however I feel that buying from the fast fashion sector is just overall more convenient and from writing this as a student “everyday” person, I can say that I would rather have my own clothes rather than pay monthly for a wardrobe. From a student’s perspective on a budget, price is the biggest motivator rather than product thus meaning I rather bring clothes I already have and save money rather than branch out onto something that is a bit ‘out there’ to the ordinary person. With the way that the world is going now and how big awareness of the environment is, I would not rule it out as not filling a gap in the market. Plus, people are becoming more against fast fashion and aware of the damage it causes, but is it enough to cause this drive for access rather than ownership?

There is a company called ‘renttherunway’ in which you can have 4+ items at a time and swap them whenever you want, practically a digital walking wardrobe which I’m sure is any modern days person dream. What I think is a really good idea is they provide for maternal women for every single stage, promoting them to feel good at a stage in their life which they may be feeling insecure and unstylish with their limited garments. I think it will work best as a luxury business aimed at the higher class of cliental given that the garments are designer. The ordinary person probably wouldn’t take to this because it is costly and not time convenient in this fast- paced on-the-go world.

Blogging About A Blogger

Through years of scouring the internet, I have come across many fashion bloggers that have taken my interest and have had a part in giving me inspiration to investing my time in the fashion world. One of my favourite bloggers is called Navaz, a London-based fashion editor and rather known on her blog by ‘disneyrollergirl’. Her blog focuses on ensuring she is the ‘go-to’ resource to fashion and beauty industry insights, emerging trends and editorial shoots from an industry insider’s point of view.

She inspires me because she gives her whole view-point and help towards any of the topics talked about and doesn’t just stick to one niche so I like that she is very versatile and is not gender specific, so she talks about men and women which broadens her demographic of readers. This will inspire me in my blog to not just stick to one specific topic and to broaden my horizons to give an interesting and different account.

What I like about her blog is that they are not completely biased when giving their insights. For example, they will state their full opinion on something and that could be negative, however they will end it with something that they like about the specific topic and I think that’s important because it shows the blogger is very optimistic and will look at all sides, which in return will gain the readers trust and become a reliable source to them because if they was only mentioning the positive things then that may seem a bit sketchy to the reader.

If she was going to improve,I would say organise their blogs into different theme titles at the top of the blog so that it would be easier to find. I realised I had to continuously scroll down and I wouldn’t know which blog was coming up so I thought that was quite off-putting and time consuming. However she does have a search button so you could put the title of the blog or keyword in there that you was trying to find but again, you still have to scroll down until you find your desired blog.

I absolutely love the images that are on the blog and love even more that she has inserted a videos page on there too. However, I feel that her writing style could be a bit more informal to grab the readers attention more and make it seem more like a ‘friend’ is talking to you.