Some fashion classics – like Cartier Love bracelets and Hermès Kelly bags – are still bestsellers, decades after their initial introduction. Others have suffered a more cruel fate, abandoned over time as dinosaurs by picky fashionistas. To entice consumers look anew at old style standbys, the Luxury Education Foundation recently sponsored a joint course at Parsons The New School for Design and Columbia Business School, partnering student teams with luxury marketers Hermès, Ferragamo, Graff, Louis Vuitton, Lalique and Saks Fifth Avenue. Their mission? To work some design and/or marketing magic on overlooked features and products.
LOUIS VUITTON
To publicize LV's travel fabulousness, the team dreamed up a Vuitton-sponsored island. "We love the island idea, not only because it, of course, speaks about travel," Blair Lawson, director of merchandising and leather goods at Louis Vuitton, recently told WWD. "Also because I think our customers feel such a close relationship with the brand. It's really a community for them, and an island extends on that idea."
GRAFF
"How long must I wait for you?" is the marketing theme dreamed up for an inaugural Graff timepiece, a $1 million, limited-edition, diamond studded wonder of a timepiece.
LALIQUE
To sex up their line of jewelry, the students' solution was Femme Fatale, a more streetwise Gothic-infused line including a bangle of encased mercury.
SALVATORE FERRAGAMO
To re-think the brand's "Vara", their 1970s bestseller, the team tweaked everything from the height of the heel, to the color combinations, even untying the iconic bow. "We gave them a big challenge," acknowledges Linda Russell, senior vice president of women's sales for Ferragamo. "Any time you have to touch somebody's icon, it's a very controversial issue."
HERMES
To reach hipper consumers and more of them, team Hermès tweaked the classic & toned-down monochromatic "H" belt, crafting it from enamel in brighter hues and patterns, and even making it reversible. According to Robert Chavez, chief executive officer of Hermès USA (who moonlights as the treasurer of the Luxury Education Foundation), it is "99 percent sure that they're going to incorporate the enamel concept" into current Hermès designs.
SAKS FIFTH AVENUE
Using a dose of charity and social events to promote the men’s department was warmly lauded by Jim Miller, a vice president and general manager at Saks Fifth Avenue. "With the objective of awareness and acquiring new customers, I thought you did a great job ... I love the idea that you've got us to think outside the box."
