Key to the brand\u2019s success is how it has consistently deployed clever, clear messaging. My research<\/a> explores how luxury brands raise customer engagement<\/a> and connect with their communities<\/a> through distinctive shared values. From the outset, Schiaparelli\u2019s messaging has been based on four central pillars: a strong connection to fine art; cultural relevance; recognisable iconography; and the promise of a heightened customer experience. <\/p>\n Elsa Schiaparelli pre-empted the kind of connection to the art world that many brands have tried to leverage ever since. When she arrived in Paris in 1922, she fell in with a distinguished avant-garde circle. Within a few years she opened her couture house and began collaborating on designs with artists. These included Cecil Beaton, Marcel Vert\u00e8s, Jean Cocteau, Alexander Calder and Man Ray. <\/p>\n The work she did with Salvador Dal\u00ec in the 1930s is of particular note. It features several legendary pieces, including the Lobster Dress<\/a> (1937) and the Skeleton Dress<\/a> (1938). During this time, she also introduced her signature colour, shocking pink<\/a>, to the fashion world.<\/p>\n The fashion consumer\u2019s identity is no longer defined in relation to their ability to purchase particularly expensive items alone. It emerges, instead, from mastering sophisticated skills and accessing knowledge of what is cool, before it becomes too widespread. <\/p>\n This has led to the emergence of a new form of currency. Rather than status being solely tied to affluency, it is now connected to privileged access to information. The Schiaparelli brand pioneered a shift from a purely economic elite to a cultural elite.<\/p>\n Second, the brand cultivates cultural relevance<\/a>. Schiaparelli was a sharp observer of her times. She gave imaginative life to objects while understanding how to reinterpret them to reflect prevailing cultural currents. <\/p>\n In the 1930s, by placing upside-down shoes on her models\u2019 heads Schiaparelli sought to generate debate and prompt unconventional thinking. Similarly, the fashion house\u2019s show at Paris Couture Week 2023 featured faux taxidermied tiger and lion heads incorporated into feminine dresses, in metaphorical irreverence. <\/p>\n This approach has made the brand very polarising in terms of public opinion. At the same time, it has freed it from being bound to temporary fashion trends and allowed it to be more versatile and confident, in embracing contemporary semantic codes. <\/p>\n Third, in place of a logo, the brand has nurtured very identifiable recurring stylistic elements. It deploys in an unconventional way what marketing scholars Young Jee Han, Joseph C. Nunes and Xavier Dr\u00e8ze have termed \u201csubtle signalling\u201d<\/a>. Here too, however, it has done so in a very loud, maximalist way. Schiaparelli is anything but boring. <\/p>\n Subtle signalling is often related to what branding specialists term \u201cquiet\u201d or \u201cdiscreet\u201d luxury. In Schiaparelli\u2019s world, nothing is quiet or discreet. Its boldness itself is the signifier. <\/p>\n Take the keyhole silhouette that appears on bag flaps and shoe toes. The anthropomorphic references that take inspiration from Salvador Dal\u00ec\u2019s alphabet, transforming eyes and noses into buttons. The tape measure that runs along shirt collars \u2026 These are just a few of the brand\u2019s recognisable motifs. They comprise the kind of trademark that remains fundamental in the luxury world<\/a>: that distinguishes people in the know, those who have the cultural capital to be able to confidently recognise a Schiaparelli piece, from those who do not.<\/p>\n Fourth, in a luxury market where people increasingly value unique experiences as well as exclusive products, Maison Schiaparelli has paired very selective distribution with a distinctive customer experience. This starts when you ring the bell at the Maison\u2019s iconic atelier in Paris, on Place Vendome. You are given an historical tour of the house, before even getting to talk about the clothes. <\/p>\n As research shows<\/a>, an environment combines the domestic with fashion retail imperatives accentuates exclusivity<\/a>. It evokes in the customer a feeling of being grounded<\/a> in heritage and tradition.<\/p>\n Brand desirability is the main challenge for many players in the fashion world. Schiaparelli has cultivated an atelier environment and a theatrical atmosphere that enhance what makes buying and wearing the clothes so desirable. That haute-couture spirit runs through the brand\u2019s ready-to-wear collections and it shapes its commercial strategies too. <\/p>\n This is the fourth pillar of the brand\u2019s success. Creation is rooted in craftmanship and collaboration with textile artisans and embroiderers. From Schiaparelli\u2019s handcrafted Lobster Dress to Roseberry\u2019s most recent sculptural collections, each piece is a tribute to sartorial skill and attention to details, not to mention cutting-edge material technology. <\/p>\nA connection to the art world<\/h2>\n
Cultural relevance<\/h2>\n
Recognisable iconography<\/h2>\n
Heightened customer experience<\/h2>\n
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