A few years ago I took part in a focus group that an Italian luxury clothing brand had assembled. They had invited a number of their customers to a blind panel (i.e. we didn't know who the sponsor was) and a researcher asked us (a group of ten New York women, ranging from a well-known hedge fund owner to self-proclaimed major shoppers) about favorite brands. After an hour what emerged was a clear consensus: some of the brands with great historic cachet had gone too mass market to appeal to us any more and there were only a handful that still represented true quality. (One was Hermès, which is one of the few luxury companies having a banner year after the economic crisis.) We bought investment pieces and fashionable accessories, but most of us got our true shopping thrills out of discovering little-known, one-of-a-kind artisans in our travels or from limited edition releases. The second half of our session was devoted to trying to persuade the brand (Loro Piana) not to expand with advertising campaigns or additional shops but to stay small and special and customer centric. Loro Piana is hardly unknown, but it has remained rarefied and countless times since that panel, I have seen further proof that what truly discerning shoppers want is the rare, the anti-ubiquitous. It's why limited edition bags, boots or books are all the rage. It's why pop-up shops have become so popular. In fact, this year, the holiday gifts to get are going to be those not available online but at pop-up shops. At Design Miami this week Limited Editions Experience is bringing together a host of renowned fashion houses including Fendi, Maison Martin Margiela and Marni in temporary stores and 'pop up' boutiques. Each brand will showcase limited edition merchandise (including Fendi's customized needle point baguettes) and 'performance' retail experiences such as a Duncan Quinn ready-to-wear store complete with indoor croquet lawn, and Gucci's second installment of Icon-Temporary, a flash sneaker store with designs by award-winning DJ Mark Ronson. And at Indagare, we invited little-known artisans from Cambodia, Colombia, China, India, Mexico, Kenya, Morocco and more to send artisan made products for three-day market starting December 1 at the Surrey Hotel.
Read more on Flash Fashion at Art Basel Miami Beach
Read more about Indagare's Pop-Up Souk