Coach & Kors’ Marriage of Convenience

Brands playing the long game go to great lengths to become vertically integrated. That is, they own and control their production and supply chains. This requires plenty of upfront capital, to be sure, but the move plumps up a company’s margins and allows for quick product development and iteration.

Zara is building a hybrid business model, where it combines fast fashion with cues of luxury (curated capsules, art direction, photography, model selection, styling). Zara is still in the business of the mass consumption of standardized products, but now it’s also in the business of considered consumption of signaling products (Peter Lindbergh merc... See more

Independent brands — even those with significant backing — were boxed out by luxury’s biggest players, whose heft gave them a major edge in distribution and marketing, where they enjoy greater leverage with multi-brand retailers, mall owners, real estate developers, magazines, influencers and other key players in the fashion ecosystem. In 2019, LVM... See more