Hi everyone! Sorry it’s been a while, but bear with me – flashback to the last class before we had a week off. My Fashion Merchandising class after touring the FIT museum had the pleasure of hearing one of our teacher’s ex-students speak. She worked for Adidas for a number of years and as of recently has been doing some work for Ricks Owens.
She spoke to us about the Adidas company itself, giving us brief rundown on it’s history and what they do as a company. She also spoke to us mainly about the different collaborations Adidas has and have had with different designers. Adidas has collaborations with many designers like Stella McCartney and Raf Simons – but we mainly talked the collaboration Adidas has with Yohji Yamamoto. The collaboration Yohji Yamamoto was so successful it became it’s own separate brand in a way called (as some of you may know) Y-3.
The whole thing was very interesting and I left wanting desperately to own a pair of Y-3 sneakers. But it also got me thinking about other design collaborations like the ones designers have with companies like H&M and Target. Perhaps this whole idea picked up pace when Karl Lagerfeld partnered with H&M back in 2004 – but I do find I’ve been seeing a lot more of it and it seems to just keep getting bigger and bigger. I mean just since I’ve had the idea to make this post H&M announced a collaboration with Alexander Wang and Adidas with Mary Katranzou (both of which I am very excited about)!
Personally I don’t mind these collaborations, it’s good for the designer and the consumers. The designers get their name out to people who perhaps wouldn’t have known them otherwise and the consumers get the chance to buy some pretty cool things (usually) at an okay price. I’m sure for some they can find some cons with the whole thing but if the designer is up for it – why not do it? For me it’s a win-win situation.
How do you guys feel about designer collaborations with companies like H&M and Target? Love them? Hate them? As always feel free to comment below with your thoughts.
Catherine