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Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Heinz ketchup, Goldfish crackers, Walmart, Asda. While decidedly not fashion brands, all have recently partnered with independent designers. What’s going on?
In June, Kate Spade collaborated with Heinz ketchup on a capsule collection. At New York Fashion Week earlier this month, Kate Barton played on the floating goldfish in her signature resin bag by serving Goldfish crackers to guests at her show, which was sponsored in part by the snack brand (Goldfish crackers were placed in the see-through resin bag on the runway, too). In London, Chopova Lowena’s show featured a white bag with a jar of Hellmann’s mayonnaise strapped to it (the bag comes with a charm and antique spoon). British label Roksanda is designing a clothing line for supermarket Asda in the UK, while Brandon Maxwell is creative director of two Walmart lines in the US (the company also sponsors Maxwell’s fashion shows).
There are a whole host of other unexpected partnerships, too. High street fashion brand Pull Bear is sponsoring London Fashion Week. Coperni is working with Disney for its upcoming show, taking place inside the Paris theme park. Luar’s NYFW show was not only sponsored by American Express, but the brand developed gold, silver and rose gold iterations of its bestselling Ana bag with charms attached representing Amex member benefits. LaQuan Smith partnered with Samsung to introduce sleepwear in his SS25 collection, inspired by the tech company’s Galaxy Ring, which he wore while designing the collection. Tinder partnered with Area on a “Bans Off Our Bodies” slogan T-shirt and donated to Planned Parenthood as part of the collaboration.
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“Until now, collaborations have been about finding these unexpected synergies between brands that made sense enough but would also find new customers. Now that’s been played out, but designers are still looking to collaborate, and also looking for money,” says Vogue Runway’s José Criales-Unzueta. “Independent designers need money and are open to collaborating with brands that are happy to give them money — that’s translated from an H&M, Amazon or Target to an American Express or a Hellmann’s.”
In recent years, the market has been flooded with an excess of collabs as brands have cashed in on the marketing power collabs provide, particularly via social media. Industry commentators have been quick to warn brands not to dilute their image with too many collaborations and to only strike when it makes sense for each side. Brands are usually advised to choose a partner who is a natural fit in terms of brand positioning, target market or brand values or a partner that is strong in a particular market or product category they’d like to tap into.
This season, designer brands are breaking a lot of those rules — to the point that some collabs have become memes. Some seem silly on the surface, but that’s the point. In a market that’s oversaturated, a collaboration that’s slightly absurd is a surefire way to stick out. Using humour can help justify a strange partnership, especially if the brand is as self-aware as its post-fashion, chronically online customer. “The reason [these sorts of collaborations] work is because it has a sense of humour; it’s fun and unexpected,” says Criales-Unzueta.
It’s also a path to funding shows as traditional wells run dry. Many of these partnerships are sponsorship deals that come with a showpiece, some of which are produced depending on the brand. Of the collaborations we saw this season, most are going into production, including LaQuan Smith’s sleepwear, Luar’s metallic Amex bags, the Area x Tinder T-shirt and the Chopova Lowena mayo bag, for instance. Kate Barton’s collaboration with Goldfish was initially intended to be strictly for the show, but it was so popular on the runway that she’s now planning to produce the Goldfish branded tank top and two keychains.
However, it’s unclear how many products will be sold in the end, and for most brands, the sponsorship element is a bigger revenue driver than the product. “There’s an incentive to see the collab as a sponsorship, and then if the product isn’t sold, it’s not really much of an issue,” says writer and critic Alexandra Hildreth.
Sponsorship is an attractive and also necessary offer: rising costs, subdued demand, a rocky wholesale market, and a broader luxury slowdown have made the landscape challenging for emerging and independent labels. Many aren’t able to show without a corporate sponsor. “You need cash to make the show happen,” says publicist Florent Belda, founder of New York-based Rep Agency, which represents brands including KidSuper, Kate Barton and Carolina Sarria. “But you’re always scared about how [sponsorship] will be perceived because you don’t want to antagonise the creativity of the show and the brand identity.”
The pros and cons of meme-ification
Critics and commentators have mixed views on the meme-ification of collabs. Hildreth believes fashion has approached post-meme culture, particularly in online fashion discourse. “We’re too self-aware [about marketing tactics] for collaborations to have any effect for anyone who might truly think it’s funny or cute; instead, you’re going to get videos of people discussing the marketing aspects of it as opposed to enjoying the actual product,” she says. These strange collaborations make Hildreth wonder whether a product will even be produced, and if it does, whether customers actually want to buy it, and if they buy it, whether customers will still like the product in six months’ time.
It’s a balancing act to get a meme-ified collaboration right. These collaborations bank on the consumer being aware enough of fashion’s marketing machine to find the playful elements enjoyable but not so fatigued that they’re put off.
For Criales-Unzueta, a show sponsorship or showpiece is an easier win than creating an actual product to be sold. “The moment it starts to become about a product, it’s trickier: the same people who buy Luar or Kate Barton or Chopova don’t always love an overt corporate logo unless it has a sense of humour and is done in a post-fashion way,” he says. “The same people who would find it humorous to wear the corporate branded T-shirt are the same ones who would question the values of what they’re engaging with and see through these corporate entities working with young designers because part of being post-fashion is being post-capitalism.” In this sense, choosing a corporation that is “one of the good guys” is important — as is preparing for the likelihood that we’ll eventually get bored of the meme-ified collab model, as this cyclical industry tends to.
Fundamentally, the design has to be good. “I think they can be done right if the objects themselves are a little bit less meme-y. I understand the incentive that when you sponsor something, you want your name on it, but I think the products would probably sell better if they weren’t such weird products and trying to make a joke out of the collab,” says Hildreth.
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Criales-Unzueta references Luar’s Amex collab — it’s a collaboration, but it’s also “just a fabulous metallic bag”. Likewise, Chopova Lowena’s bag fits a Hellmann’s jar, which is funny, “but it’s also a water bottle holder”, he explains.
Kate Barton’s Goldfish collab was a particularly good fit; the designer has been making goldfish resin bags since she was a student. “For my first show, I wanted to do it in a way that makes sense and is smart for the business,” she says. “It wasn’t like we had to explain to the consumers, this is why we’re doing this — it immediately made sense.” The design itself is already playful, so the collab doesn’t feel out of place.
“A lot of these brand partnerships don’t lead to compromising what your collection looks like,” says Criales-Unzueta. “If anything, it leads to allowing you to explore what your collection looks like with better resources.”
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