a couple of weeks ago high street spanish retailer mango unveiled its latest collaboration with designer victoria beckham. the collection is pure “posh”: there’s a lot of tailoring, bias-cut slip dresses and some knit pieces that can easily transition from the city life to a beach escape. but aside from a screenshot of a knit skirt that a friend sent me over text, I haven’t heard much about it. and it’s not like I’ve been living under a rock, but how do we feel about are these collaborations between fast fashion and luxury designers? are they still relevant? or have they reached fever pitch?
when it comes to collaborations between fast-fashion and luxury brands, no other brand does it like H&M. the swedish house has partnered with all the big names: the late karl lagerfeld, lanvin, jimmy choo, maison martin margiela, alexander wang, kenzo, mulgler, balmain just to name a few. people would literally queue for hours in hopes of putting their hands on an item or more from these collections. I was that person. luckily, at the time, I was a fashion blogger and would get early access and invitations for all the press events. but still, the hustle was hard. over time, I ended up getting rid of all the items I once owned. some still had their tags on them, some I wore once or never at all.
in theory, these collaborations are a good deal for all the parts involved: fast fashion retailers keep their relevancy, luxury brands get exposure to aspirational customers, and customers get designer items for a fraction of the price. it’s the democratization of fashion. but irl, who got the time and energy to queue in front of a store for hours or even camping overnight? I certainly don’t. also, by the time these collections hit the stores, we’ve already seen them countless times on every major fashion influencer on social media.
and collaborations can go beyond the retail-luxury logic. in recent years, we had two major players in the luxury field, gucci and balenciaga, joining forces on what felt cool and odd at the same thing. a balenciaga “hourglass” purse with the gucci signature gg logo? and balenciaga is no strange to “odd” collaborations. they once teamed with courier company DHL and last year with LA based luxury supermarket chain erewhon. the truth is that brand collaboration has been around forever, and it’s probably not going anywhere soon. but as much as we once loved these collections, times have changed. with sustainability playing such an important part in every discussion regarding fashion, do we really need more clothes to what is already an abundant stream of collections?
cátia santos reis "the world is yours but greece is mine” could be her mantra as cátia santos reis is yet to find a greek island she hasn’t fallen in love with. in the meantime, she keeps traveling the world. for CINCO editorial, the 34 year-old, will share her favorite things to do, visit and eat in every destination.
