Check out my newest project: For Those Who Notice.
All based on inspiration and the latest and greatest from the fashion world.
Click here to check it out: http://www.forthosewhonotice.com/
For Those Who Notice is a cheat sheet of fashion’s most influential inspiration. The exclusive FTWN content is instigated by the world’s best designers, stylists, hair stylists, makeup artists and casting directors among others. We bring you unbiased reports of what is most relevant in luxury fashion. FTWN is inspiration for fashion and beauty industry professionals as well as fashion fanatics.
FTWN’s reports are visual-based marketplace assessments (sounds SO professional) written and edited by stylist Sally Lyndley. (see bio below) For the past ten years, Sally has been creating an internal company version of these reports for her own strategy. Working with these reports has significantly increased her company’s competitive edge and profit, so she decided to make them available here on this website exclusively.
For Those Who Notice is designed to empower CEO’s, Design Teams, Marketing Departments, Art Directors and other roles directly affected by the luxury fashion world. FTWN’s seasonly reports are published 2 weeks after the collections so it’s readers have an immediate sense of the marketplace drift in fashion. Beyond simply reporting, FTWN includes tools and suggestions for implementing its information into the reader’s role in her/his company and key demographics for the company. The main objectives of FTWN reports are to create a competitive advantage and increase profitability for it’s readers.
We focus our content to the most influential information and the most significant “moves” by the fashion elite being made in luxury fashion, enabling our readers an advantage in designing more powerful strategies for their design, product, buying and marketing plans. FTWN gives reader’s not only insight into what the most influential teams in fashion have created but also what inspires them. This allows our reader to choose to be inspired by the same ideas rather than just blatantly copying designer’s clothes and accessories. Being able to utilize a designer’s inspiration and making it their own, instead of reproducing exact items from a collection, allows our users the freedom from copy right infringement law suits, and the ability to challenge and out perform their competitors with more original ideas.
We created FTWN as a “stylist and fashion expert” living on your computer via this website. For Those Who Notice is available 24 hours a day 365 days a year. With top stylist’s rates reaching into the high six figures for a season’s work, FTWN’s reports are the cliff’s notes of a fashion consultancy available to refer to time and time again whenever needed at a fraction of the cost of a stylist.
For Those Who Notice’s ultimate purpose is to to help company’s succeed in their market sector by making more money. Being ahead of “trends”, inspiring trends or being smack dab “on trend”, translates into higher revenues for our readers. The reports empower the readers to make more informed choices resulting in larger incomes for themselves and their company.
What is our assessment of influential or the most relevant? How do we differentiate the “best”?
Never follows, always leads, these designers and their teams don’t follow other designers. Our influencers have their own ideas, not following the herd and not using a trend reporting website to choose their references for next season. They are looking at pop culture, history and their favorite arts for their own inspiration. Yes, the group who are leading the pack tend to flow in the same directions, but that is also because they are all friends and acquaintances working and playing with the other influential stylists, art directors, hair stylists and makeup artists. It’s all driven by the a small circle of people.
Not scared of anybody, criticism, never driven by reviews. Not scared to get panned or harsh words from the journalists. Our influencer’s could care less. Because they also know, many journalists are not even qualified to judge their work.
Financially successful. These brands sell, and these designers get paid the big bucks.
Influencers enter a new brand and within seasons the company is flourishing.
Leading designers and their teams create sales and press increases the company has never experienced before.
Shot by most powerful editors, all of the powerful stylist want to shoot these designer’s clothes, whether they are advertisers are not. Another way to separate the leaders and the followers. If the clothes are not being shot in the top mags, the designer is irrelevant.
Supported by fashion’s key players, this group of people play together and stay together. They watch each others backs and recommend each other for jobs.
Impossible to ignore. If you choose to ignore this crew, you’ll miss something and be seasons behind in a flash.
Why we created For Those Who Notice:
I spent many a day in the design studio or corporate head quarters of some of the world’s largest brands watching them shake their heads in confusion as I began to talk about the latest inspiration from the shows. All of my client’s teams had been working with the same large “trend” reporting companies but none of them knew what the biggest themes were from the shows not even a week before. The confusion from the teams showed in their design, new products, marketing strategies, sales presentations and PR pitches. I started working with the reports I created here at FTWN with my clients and suddenly lines were focused and marketing plans began to work. Sales for my brands were increasing by as much as 205% and as little as 40% per season. My companies were seeing 100-200% increases in celebrity and editorial coverage. So this past year, I thought, “Hey, let’s package this info in a pretty, affordable little website and make it available to the businesses that need it.” And here we are. I created these reports for myself years ago when I started in the beauty business. I needed for myself a quick read of the themes and most influential players in luxury fashion to consult with the product team and create a marketing strategy. Fourteen years on, and I am still working with these reports every season. They are the basis for my inspiration every season for my magazine editorials, commercial styling, design consultancies and every other fashion job I rope myself into. I am happy to finally be sharing them. Here is the short list of my own personal reasons for creating the FTWN reports for my business and my clients:
ORIGINALITY
Don’t be disrespected or even worse, sued in court, because you are just ripping off someone else’s idea and product. That’s the perfect way to NOT succeed or move forward in your work or career.
Stop ripping off exact looks from shows, inspire yourself to think and create new ideas and products by mixing references and letting the fashion’s elite bring something fresh into your vision. I use these guides as a starting point for my thinking, not a finish line. One reference leads me to another, and before you know it, I am onto a new subject, person or era that is exciting and unseen from the season before, and putting me ahead of the herd.
The PERFECT Edit AKA Save YOUR TIME!!
Grab a coffee with your boyfriend/girlfriend instead of trying to decipher another useless trend page that has nothing to do with relevant fashion.
With the vastness of the internet, no one needs ANOTHER endless report to read or blog to troll for hours. This is an edit of the best, so you don’t have to spend your time reading between the lines. Our references are clear and edited so you only see what is working in the market, not random, irrelevant information. On most sites, there are hundreds of shows to sift through.We are not going to send you irrelevant information on teenage girls nail art or what a college student is wearing in brazil. (see our demographics section on more info about “street” style) We are the cliff’s notes of fashion so you can see the world’s best within minutes.
MONEY HONEY
Western civilization is hitting a double dip recession, and in these times who wants to pay $25,000+/year on a “trend” reporting subscription or service that is irrelevant and un-edited by an expert. Our expert reports and soon to launch subscription is one tenth of the cost of every other trend report on the market, and our clients see an average increase in sales of 98% after working with me and the information in FTWN reports for 2 seasons. We are committed to saving and making you MONEY AND TIME, two very precious items in the current economy. Your budget manager and accounting department will thank you.
IT IS POLITICAL
Some people rely on magazines and fashion blogs for their references and inspiration. The only problem I have found with mags and blogs is the underlying and unseen politics of advertising. In some magazine, there are VERY few products featured that are unrelated to advertising companies. What does this mean? Almost no magazine actually has an editorial voice anymore, they are expensive, pretty catalogs. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fashion geek who LOVES and collects magazines, but I know the business and have learned to read between the advertising lines. Most people don’t realize that the editors and journalists are reporting on their advertisers, and for the most part, not what really interests them. That’s is why we have chosen to not feature advertisers for FTWN. We never want our content to be swayed by who is giving us advertising money. Instead we are taking the route of subscriptions. Charging a very small fee for subscriptions/memberships allow us to produce this site for you. WE will keep our content PURE. Otherwise, all of the relevancy is lost, and our content will suddenly become like all of the others. Booooo!
BE ON TIME
The current fashion influence on the mass market trickles down over roughly one year. The early adopters, or Fashion Fans, catch on to the designer themes and inspirations about six months after the runway trends, as they study websites, blogs, magazines and coverage of the designer’s shows. Celebrities also drive the trends for the Mainstream as much, if not more, than most influential fashion magazines. Yet the celebrity stylists are not part of the influential posse driving the inspiration, so their fashion direction for their star clientele is generally also six months behind the themes we focus on here at FTWN. The ready to wear designers, who are NOT influencers or originals, are also following our list of talent on a six month timeline. This is why “trend” report content is out of date at least six months. All of the “trend” reports we have encountered are reporting trends from over 100+ designers, while only 15 designers are influencers. Because they account for trends from designers FOLLOWing the trends, not setting them. Mainstream audiences embrace runway inspiration created by FTWN’s influencers about one year after they have seen the imagery and themes repeatedly in their favorite magazines and on their trusted blogs, on celebrities they like, and in the store windows at their local shopping haunts. Repetition of the inspiration and themes allows the mainstream to get comfortable with the new ideas in fashion, and then they choose to buy. We will point out when is the right time to move on an inspiration for your reference.
How to use FTWN in your role:
CEOS & Executive Teams:
- FTWN’s reports allows you to read the marketplace quickly.
- If your company is looking for collaboration designers and partners, this is the A-List of the most powerful people in fashion, perfect for creating powerful partnerships.
- We know creating strategies is key to achieving results, FTWN’s reports will help ensure your strategies are relevant to what is happening in the industry.
- Your executive and creative teams look to you for leadership and guidance, and our reports help you understand how to support and encourage them inside of the themes of the moment.
- Many companies are struggling with creating influential blog and online editorial content. The information included in the FTWN reports, gives online teams a starting point for planning content.
- FTWN has worked with many companies to create inspiration reports for the company culture. The reports in our e-commerce store are a perfect gift to rouse inner company creativity.
- Assessing the talent of your design/creative/marketing teams is hard to do when you don’t know what the changes and creative moves of the fashion marketplace. FTWN’s reports give you the cliff’s notes of fashion’s biggest trends and key items so you can make an assessment of whether your teams are capable of creating the relevant products and marketing materials to correspond. Also great for executives to examine if the teams can understand and interpret the inspirations into profitable product and imagery.
Creative Directors:
- Work with FTWN to create strategies seasonally with your team using the references, hair, makeup, models and styling from the pages of the reports.
- These reports are a starting point for inspiration and working through what will work for your company’s demographic. Starting with the season’s inspirations, creative teams can add and mix relevant references to invent new trends.
- Reference Media (80-100 books & dvds recommended per season, included in the References Report) give inspiration for campaigns, in-store imagery, store concept, packaging, e-commerce, events and product.
- Use FTWN’s reports as a way to assess your creative teams aesthetic and ability to translate the runways, and whether it is right for your company and your team.
Design Teams:
- A resource for inspiration to apply to your demographic (existing or aspirational).
- Observe the themes and references to create something original instead of just knocking off exact items from other brands.
- A starting place for new inspiration, these thoughts and themes can lead to new references to drive your design forward.
- The perfect edit of research and references behind the best shows of the season.
- FTWN’s reports also help you know what NOT to design, what trends to pass on, by not covering them.
- Get on the same page with all of the members of your the design team by scheduling meetings to review and work with FTWN’s reports.
- Think about your customers concerns, situations, body type/likes and apply accordingly, which looks, silhouettes, colors, fabrics and themes will work for them.
- Time your collections accurately for your demographic.
Art Directors & Graphic Designers:
- FTWN’s reports are produced and available faster than any other trend reports or magazines on the market.
- Use FTWN as a reference guide for ad campaigns, e-commerce strategies and swipes.
- The reports are also a reliable source the season’s most relevant hair, makeup, models, clothing, styling, and accessories, when creating the briefs for teams on ad/commercial jobs.
- FTWN’s Color report is useful for choosing text colors and the References report is useful guide for layouts.
- Themes from designer’s collections may fuel your inspiration for images and photography direction on campaigns and many commercial projects.
- Many art directors get tear sheets from magazines. Only problem with this method is magazine editors get inspired by the designers so the pages are at least 6 months behind. With FTWN, you can pull ahead of the trends and be first, or in sync with magazines.
- If you work in coordination with stores, FTWNs references report is a new tool in coming up with concepts and our specialized clothing and accessories reports will give you an idea of key items to feature in the windows.
- Booking models can always be a tough if you are not working with an amazing casting director. FTWN created the Model report to give you a cheat sheet of this season’s most used girls on the runways. The report also includes the model agency information to make the casting process easier.
Marketing and PR Teams:
- Plan the season’s strategy with the most vital themes and silhouettes in mind.
- Pitch and suggest stories and products based on the season’s fundamental inspirations and items.
- Know the themes of the season to speak about in Editor Meetings after reading FTWN’s reports.
- After reviewing FTWN’s reports, prioritize the most essential items for Press Days.
- Pull suggestions for editors and stylists inside of the appropriate themes with the background created from reading FTWN’s reports.
- When working on Event Planning, FTWN’s reports, especially references, provide a powerful starting point for themes and ideas.
- Our reports let you know what the editors and magazines/celebs are going to want ahead of time, so you can appropriately stock your showroom and shoot key pieces and themes for advertising campaigns.
Editors:
- The FTWN reports are a cheat sheet to prepping and planning around the season’s most vital and significant themes, looks and designers.
- Our reports also provide endless inspiration for editorial planning for front of book and main well stories as well as online videos.
- Several sections of the reports focus on Models, hair, makeup, giving our editors a cliff’s notes to the season’s most important models and the major looks from the world’s best hair and makeup teams.
- Working from our Designer reports is a quick way to do look requests.
- The Reference report, among others, gives online editors some starting points for creating their web editorial calendar for the season.
Celebrity Stylists:
- Planning for your clients is easier with the FTWN reports as a cheat sheet.
- Mark the reports with what works for your clients look, body and coloring, as well as the themes you know will inspire them.
- Know the hair and makeup trends before consulting on your client’s look to keep them on time with fashion inspirations.
- Our FTWN Reports include only the most impactful designers from PR standpoint, and in achieving Best Dressed coverage for your clients.
- FTWN is the A-list of fashion, a good place to start requesting for the clients looks for events and red carpet.
- We provide an essential guide to speaking trends powerfully when quoting for editors and blogs about your work and your clients.
Buyers:
- FTWN’s reports are fashion’s cliff notes of this season’s significant themes, not swayed by politics of reviews or the publisher’s advertisers.
- A read through the reports we have created will quickly inform the reader on which key silhouettes, colors, fabrics and items to buy into for your key product areas in your store.
- Plan your buy according to what works from your company’s demographic while reading FTWN’s report. The edited information gives you the most powerful overview so you can edit relative to what your customer wants.
- This is the A-list of fashion items, use the reports as a cheat sheet for ensuring you a covering this season’s principal “it” items in clothing and accessories.
- FTWN’s Reference Report helps you quickly manage which themes you want include in your buy, and which you would like to avoid.
- Working with FTWN’s reports, you can focus your vision for your company and customer by being clear about what themes and items work for you and which do not.
Sales Teams:
- Cheat sheet of fashion’s relevant themes. not swayed by politics of reviews, so you can speak powerfully into this season’s most influential trends when speaking to buyers about the collection you are selling.
- Quickly know which key silhouettes, colors, fabrics and items to buy into for your key product areas for company store buys and prioritizing production from the line.
- Use the reports as a reference tool for highlighting and crossing out which silhouettes, themes, colors and items work for your customers, and which do not work.
- FTWN’s reference report is a principal tool for creating Trade Show and Sales Event plans and themes.
- When presenting lines to the buyers, FTWN reports give you the information needed to organize your look books or looks on models based on the season’s essential inspirations, colors, fabrics, etc.
- For online buyers, FTWN reports provide background for choosing influential ideas, silhouettes and colors for the web store and the styling on the site.
Fashion Fan-atics:
- Use FTWN as a guide of the most important purchases for your fashion archives from clothing to accessories to strategic beauty buying.
Understanding DEMOGRAPHICS
The current fashion influence on the mass market trickles down over roughly one year. The early adopters, or Fashion Fans, catch on to the designer themes and inspirations about six months after the runway trends, as they study websites, blogs, magazines and coverage of the designer’s shows. Celebrities also drive the trends for the Mainstream as much, if not more, than most influential fashion magazines. Yet the celebrity stylists are not part of the influential posse driving the inspiration, so their fashion direction for their star clientele is generally also six months behind the themes we focus on here at FTWN. The ready to wear designers, who are NOT influencers or originals, are also following our list of talent on a six month timeline. This is why “trend” report content is out of date at least six months. All of the “trend” reports we have encountered are reporting trends from over 100+ designers, while only 15 designers are influencers. Because they account for trends from designers FOLLOWing the trends, not setting them. Mainstream audiences embrace runway inspiration created by FTWN’s influencers about one year after they have seen the imagery and themes repeatedly in their favorite magazines and on their trusted blogs, on celebrities they like, and in the store windows at their local shopping haunts. Repetition of the inspiration and themes allows the mainstream to get comfortable with the new ideas in fashion, and then they choose to buy.
“Street” style is informed by luxury fashion, by the way. Yes, here and there a designer will see an amazingly self-styled person on the street and be inspired. But it is very rare. Every big “trend” I have seen in the past few years is a trickle down from the most influential shows. Because the influential kids on the street are inspired by the best shows, and buying their product at the mass market, which is usually knocking off the runways. See how circular it is? I think following the “kids in street” vibe is a mistake for most companies because the “trends” are usually a VERY watered down version of luxury fashion. The street fashion is only useful if your company has a VERY specific subculture it is selling to, i.e. Steampunk, hip hop teenage girls, cowboys, etc. I do think the clothing being worn by stylist, editors, buyers and
Here are the Categories I have been able to pinpoint inside of demographics for considering the timing of working with FTWN’s references:
Lifestylers
1mo-3mo.
Influencers. Very rare, these are the leaders of the pack and industry leaders who mostly buy luxury brands. IF they are buying mainstream, less expensive products, it would be at a place like H&M or Topshop, and it would be because they couldn’t afford luxury yet. Fashion is their job, their life or both. Their tastes move fast and furious. They shop on websites like net-a-porter.com and Moda Operandi and have shoppers at all of the most important stores.
Fashion Fans
3mo-6mo
Early Adopters, but still followers. This demographic considers fashion to be a regular sport/hobby. They follow the runway shows and read blogs and fashion magazines on a daily basis. They love to talk about and obsess over fashion, it’s key players and magazines. This is the group that camps out overnight in front of H&M for the latest designer collaboration. They shop mostly contemporary brands (Marc by Marc Jacobs, DKNY, Coach) and high street or fast fashion like H&M, Topshop, Forever 21.
Mainstream
6mo-12mo
Mass market.This is the most common and profitable consumer base. They like fashion, but follow it very loosely. They mostly are inspired or encouraged to dress and shop by celebrities, and what they see in the store windows, magazines or catalogs. If a company can identify this demographic’s specific style, it’s quite easy to adapt the runway inspirations to the mainstream client. The Mainstream is where the real money is. That is why luxury brands have fragrances, and market them separately for the Mainstream customer rather than how they market the ready to wear and custom luxury to the fashion forward customer.
Aspirational versus Reality
Whenever I have consulted with a company, whether it be a mass market brand, luxury brand or action sports brand, success is always based on being grounded in reality about the company’s demographic, current and aspirational.
Successful design and marketing, which leads to high revenues, is a result of knowing your demographic inside and out, and being “real” and honest about who he or she is, time wise, style wise, age wise and income wise. A company without an idea of their demographic usually has INTENSE identity issues. Marketing may not match the product and it leaves all shoppers confused about the brand and what they stand for.
If you are working with a company that is attempting to RE-brand, please be sure to realize it will take one to two years to begin to see the revenue return, re-branding always results in a DEcrease in revenues first. While publicity sees an increase, the executives, creative teams and sales teams must be willing to ride out the decrease in sales while your new demographic is discovering the brand, and the old demographic moving on to a new shop. Be clear about the differences in the customer who IS (AKA who is actually in the store buying the product) and who you WANT to buy your product. IF the customer who is buying your product IS or WANTS to be the customer you are designing and marketing for, than you are in very good shape. IF not, get the design, marketing and sales teams together and get on the same page about the customer who is actually buying and the aspirational customer.
