Alexander Wang And Other Brands Have Bet On The Mid Price Evening Dress Market.

New York, USA, during a recent visit to the new exhibition hall after the renovation of Alexander Wang,

Wang Daren (Alexander Wang) has a lot to say.

There is a specially divided area in the exhibition hall, displaying a wide variety of handbags.

With other accessories, there is a holiday series still wrapped in the packaging, which is about to be held in September this year.

Officially unveiled during the conference.

But nothing can be seen with Wang Daren's work that has been working hard for years: the $1150, pparent fishing line and a long drawn skirt that outlines the shape.

This dress skirt is also one of the best selling products of Wang Daren's direct retail and wholesale business for two consecutive seasons.

"I'm not really famous for my tuxedo," Wang Daren said. "But this is exactly the product category we've been building."

Alexander Wang fishing line details V collar dress

Indeed, the ever expanding Alexander Wang evening product line reflects the growing price of $3000 and fast fashion "wear several times to lose", formal evening dress and cocktail dress market.

"For those girls who are going to buy wedding dresses, but they don't have 2000o dollars or want to go to prom and do not want to go to the mountain, what clothes can they have between these two prices?" Wang Daren asked. "If you want to wear a more sexy, even more daring skirt?"

This is also the logic behind the founding of the London brand Galvan in 2014.

Its series appeared on the designer brand floors of Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus department stores, and also appeared on the web page of Matchesfashion.com with designer brand products, and manufactured in 5 factories in Greater London area. Most of the products are priced at less than 2000 dollars.

For example, the brand's top selling corset tights (the growing sub category of evening wear) retails at about $1300, and there is little discount.

"There's a dual concept behind Galvan," explains CEO Katherine Holmgren. "We want to create a clean, modern, cool, fresh evening dress.

It's not the formal, decorating clothes you often find. "

More importantly, "of course, there are beautiful clothes to choose from, but not at a price that is most friendly to women," she continued. "Modern women want to buy value for money.

Price is what we value very much, so we reduce costs by implementing simplicity. "

The Galvan team, which opened its own online stores in July 2016, spent 1 years developing the concept before the launch of the brand, and received a lot of feedback from retailers.

"Feedback came from Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Matchesfashion, Holt Renfrew, and they soon expressed excitement," Holmgren said. "Our first season was cooperating with 22 big retailers.

Mainly because we can fill the gap in the market. "

Mid end price evening dress market is still in its infancy.

In fact, according to fashion industry data company Edited, only 13.5% of the evening dresses in the United States are priced between 600 and 1200 dollars, 69% of them are below 600 dollars, and 17.5% are over 1200 dollars.

A more popular brand, such as Reformation (its sexy tea dress under $300 is a favorite for many people's summer wedding) and Self Portrait (the brand founder set up business around the $480 Azaelea lace dress), proving the great ability of the family price brand target group.

But as the middle and high end price market continues to shrink due to the continued fragmentation of wholesale mode, the brand of the market is looking for new opportunities in evening dress.

Let's look at the 2009 Sachin and Babi SachinAhluwalia and Babi Ahluwalia couples.

In September 2015, the design of the husband and wife files was evacuated from the daily wear series, concentrating on the evening dress and cocktail dress.

Under the umbrella of another enterprise, Mr. and Mrs. Ahluwalia got long embroidered woven fabrics of Oscar de La Renta, Carolina Herrera, Jean Paul Gaultier and other high fashion houses.

They found that retailers were more interested in using this handcraft for clothing products.

"We used to give 110 or 120 SKU to department stores, 40 to 45% of which came from this product category," explains Babi Ahluwalia. "They are increasingly attracted by the" occasion "dress.

At the same time, the contemporary price market is still very bad, because there are margin agreements, buybacks, and Zara, Uniqlo and H&M, and sports style clothes! Nowadays, people are very willing to spend money on yoga pants.

Occasionwear has become the highlight of the market. "Why do we not focus on Niche Marketing?" Babi Ahluwalia continued.

Today, the brand retailer includes Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Moda Operandi and Harvey Nichols, and dozens of specialized stores, priced between 650 and 1350 dollars.

In the late autumn of 2015, the design couples set up retail outlets in the upper east side of New York to cater for the needs of the social celebrities in the community, while allowing girls to dress up for the prom.

To be precise, many Sachin & Babi retail customers can afford more expensive things than these dresses.

But this is not the key.

"When they prepare a charity dinner, they may be willing to spend 5000 dollars on clothes.

But if it's a charity dinner for a friend, she won't be so nervous that she can buy the right skirt here, "Ahluwalia said.

Social media also has an impact on women's choice: "taking photos in a certain dress for several times, you will feel that it can" retire ".

Or she can choose to buy clothes here, and it feels just as good. "

The strategy of "formal dress only" was successful, and inspired the Ahluwalia couple to launch the bride's wedding dress series in April 2016.

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Although this strategy may not necessarily apply to all brands, cocktail skirts and evening suits that are "close to the people but not cheap" are catering to the current consumption values.

Fast fashion usually wears, but buying clothes for special occasions often involves more emotional experience.

"The development of this product category is not yet complete," said Paolo Riva, chief executive of Diane Von Furstenberg. "As for how to dress for cocktail parties and dinner parties, I see women consumers are becoming more free and flexible.

They are more confident and willing to try different brands and prices.

At the moment, cocktail skirts, evening dress and panties occupy 20% of all Diane Von Furstenberg products.

For Riva, its new chief creative officer, Jonathan Saunders, will show his first series in September this year. The challenge is to make the product stand out as in the high-end market.

"We all love Valentino's tuxedo.

They are masterpieces.

It's incredibly beautiful, so the price is not bad.

This is unique to Valentino evening dress.

But what we need to do is what we think is unique, "he said.

In addition, he added, the key is not over production.

"These styles must be unique.

It must be rare. "