Fashion Notebook

John Varvatos Goes Back to His Record Collection For Spring 2008 Campaign

It's always been clear where designer John Varvatos
gets his inspiration: his record collection.

Growing up in Detroit, Varvatos became infatuated with the slew of 1970s-era rockers that defined the music scene of the time (and, obvs, continued to influence for many years to come), and that infatuation has become the flashpoint of influence across not only his collections, but also his advertising creative. Recent spots have included Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop and Aerosmith's Joe Perry, alongside more modernist rock figures such as Chris Cornell, and the Scott Weiland-fronted and Slash-anchored Velvet Revolver.

So another season, another rocker and this time from the vinyl bin, Varvatos, and the team over at Yard, New York, have unearthed another vintage treat: Cheap Trick. Check out one of the spots above (click to enlarge), which feature members Bun E. Carlos, Rick Nielsen, Tom Petersson and Robin Zander (can you believe they're all still alive!) racing along on, what else, 1970s-era vintage two-seaters.

The creative, steered by Stephen Niedzwiecki, the creative director over at Yard, was inspired by boardwalk and carnival imagery (why do we always think Diane Arbus when we hear these words?) from the 1940s and 1950s.

"The Cheap Trick guys have an almost uncontainable energy," said Varvatos, in a statement. "This season is one that embodies a freewheeling style that is so quintessentially America. The campaign continues to be about iconic rock n ' rollers caught in real moments."

Real moments? I'd definitely classify this as stylized fantasy. I mean, honestly, when's the last time you saw a bunch of guys pushing into the stretches of old age racing around on bikes in full evening wear? (And if you have seen such a phenomenon, frequently, let me know where you live because it sounds like an interesting vacation spot!)

We also have to wonder if this campaign doesn't make Varvatos' brand feel too old. While we loved the campaign with Iggy Pop (who, let's face it, is no spring chicken himself, with wrinkles that recall Varvatos' own pricey, aged leather carry-alls), that campaign had a youthful exuberance that we just don't feel from the shock-white heads of the Cheap Trick-ers. This could also be a function of the fact that our eyes automatically gravitate to Rick Nielsen in the spot above; his bandmates do look more youthful on second consideration.

Regardless, the aging rocker-as-posterboy works for Varvatos, solidifying his brand's musical heritage, and, here's the big bonus: he'll never get accused of just tapping somebody because they of-the-moment (looking at you Versace with your robotic Jonathan Rhys Meyers ads). And double bonus: these guys probably come pretty cheap.

  You know what would make our day, though? If Varvatos' next campaign featured T. Rex's Marc Bolan (pictured, left). C'mon John, you know you love him too! This guy is the original unicorn... Just imagine that sex bomb in a Varvatos suit!

The Luxury Market, The Recession and What Marketers Can Do About It

If you haven't checked it out already—and it seems many of you have since it's o ne of the most popular stories on our site this week—give a quick gloss to my story about mass affluent consumers retreating from the luxury market as we head into what analysts and the papers seems to be projecting as a certain American recession. Read the full story here. 

Raúl Martinez, CEO and  executive creative director over at AR New York (they've done worked for brands including Salvatore Ferragamo, Dolce & Gabbana, Yves Saint Laurent, Versace and the most recent ads for Valentino, post the namesake's well-publicized adieu, pictured at right) seemed to sum it up nicely.

“I think the downturn in the luxury-goods market is now trickling down to Europe and it’s been a shock to many over there," he told me. "For a while there’s been a sort of comfort-level that luxury brands have enjoyed. Consumer are cautious and luxury brands are in alert mode.”

It's an interesting time for sure, and many of the analysts and consultants I spoke to for this story told me that they see several key points emerging from the luxury market's stumble over the past few weeks:

1. That affected luxury brands were taken by surprise given that they underestimated how much of their growth over the past five years had been fueled by these mass affluent consumers;

2. That the first area where tightened budgets might force some changes will be in the marketing and advertising departments. (This is, of course, a general market theory as well, and can be extrapolated to areas far beyond the luxury market in specific.;

3. And that some of those tightened ad dollars could increasingly go towards online campaigns, which offer greater ROI than the traditional media (no big secret to anyone) and also have the additional benefit of global reach that could prompt sales in foreign markets, which are still a thriving area for luxury goods.

However, the problem is that luxury marketers will most likely not be making quick, dramatic changes to their traditional media buys.

As Pam Danziger, the head of Unity Marketing, a luxury consultancy based in Stevens, Pa., told me: "The idea that magazine and TV advertising will go away is ridiculous, but what will become more important is having a better understanding of the consumer they're looking at. It's becoming much more vertical...with some of these niche magazines providing more connection to [the luxury sector's] real target market."

This trend seemed to be confirmed by Jason Binn, CEO of Niche Media, New York. Unless you're part of the uber-wealthy for whom these magazines are as ubiquitous as McDonald's golden arches are for the rest of us, you've probably seen his titles—among them Gotham, Hamptons, Ocean Drive and Los Angeles Confidential—in the high dollar rooms you booked through the company for a recent conference in Vegas. I know that I never stay at The Hotel on my own dime.

Per Danizger's assertion, Binn's group offers luxury marketers access to the consumers who will buy their products regardless of recessionary woes, the kind of folks, who, to paraphrase a WWD headline a few days ago, are more concerned with getting their high heels wet waiting in a drizzle outside of Chanel's couture show, than they are about this "thing" called a recession.

The titles are distributed to a consumer base in which roughly 50% have annual household incomes of over $250,000, as well as liquid assets and homes each valued at over $1 million. The books are also distributed through Net Jets, the private jet company owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, where Binn says he reaches customers with an average net worth of $25 million. 

"[Luxury brands] are relying on us more than ever to vertically integrate their products and their services to these wealth markets that we’re targeting with these very unique readers and consumers that we have,” Binn told me. “The [vast majority of] mainstream consumer magazines can’t really deliver those kind of  economic demographics to these brands.”

Though he did acknowledge that luxury marketers were shifting some dollars to more non-traditional media, for his part, Martinez said that it's a time when these brands need to maintain a consistency in their messaging.

"At a time like this its more important than ever to communicate with a singular voice and a singular vision...I think the worst thing a brand can do is to deviate from who they truly are, because over the long-term consumer confidence will be lost," Martinez told me. "One thing I think we have seen over the last number of years is a movement away from the more emotional creative and towards a more product-centric messaging. More dollars are being applied to Resort and Pre-Fall which are becoming true collections in their own right, where wearability becomes much bigger.”

Looks like for now, we'll have to play a game of wait and see concerning how the ad market will change for luxury players. Saks Fifth Avenue, for example, has already said that they're looking into doing ads in foreign magazines to grab some more tourism dollars, something the luxe retailer has never done before, and soon they'll start offering international shipping on their e-commerce Web site.

Meanwhile, I'll be comparison shopping the Vogue ad pages to see if any of this media shift stuff pans out. Oh, and Vanity Fair, you're on my list too.