Plush suits, printed bombers, ragged jeans and declarations of love for Justin Bieber - all these became a new direction of Dolce & Gabbana who recently sang the murals of Botticelli. To demonstrate the results of the pop art turn, the modern youth's idols, such as Negin Mirsalehi, Pixie Lott, Madison Beer, and two dozen novice models were invited. Each of them brought a key message for the autumn-winter show – #DGMillenials – that proclaimed adolescents as the key segment of today's fashion target audience.
According to the expert Pam Danzinger, today's millenials will have become the most solvent generation in history by 2035. Only in a few years, "Y"s will have sufficient financial resources to stay the leading fashion houses up. From this, the main mission of designers and PR people comes: to make sure that a student bought her first purse from them and later returned for an office suit. In a sense, brands are "nurturing" their audience, fueling interest in collections and not letting to forget about them for a second. That's why Domenico and Stefano, with their excellent marketing brains, invited to the show "social influencers" who have access to millions of users and can lead them.
On the Milan runway, they demonstrated clothes with kittens, slogans and hashtags serving as a communication tool between millennials in Instagram. Today, Instagram is the best way to promote an idea or a product to masses, as well as a measure of success for many teenagers. It promoted careers of Hailey Baldwin, Gigi Hadid, and Jasmine Sanders.
The status that "likes" gave them in social networks coupled with nice appearance has unlimited influence: it can destroy the reputation of a young brand in the twinkling of an eye or contribute to a loud political action.
It is already a victory to invite one of these girls to your campaign – she will bring the countless army of fans to the brand.
Idols of millenials cultivate a love of millions for a particular brand or trend. If the older audience looks for something more practical, "Y" generation remains with a label simply because of sympathy. It does not matter for them whether the shoes have orthopedic pads or whether a jacket will look fine after two years of continuous wearing. The main thing they value in clothes is beauty and the way they look in Instagram.
Virgil Abloh and his brainchild, Off-White, were uninteresting to anyone until media stressed that the guy is Kanye West's creative director and Bella Hadid was spotted in his clothes. Now, Off-White has a million followers in Instagram and love of millenials to his underground jackboots, plastic bags and hoodies, which has already been classified as "the most wanted".
Long before, Raf Simons, trying to modernize Dior and dilute the bourgeois client base, invited Jennifer Lawrence, who was gaining popularity at that time, to cooperate with the brand. The main heroine of the Hunger Games ensured the brand attention of millenials, that later was bolstered by collaborations with Rihanna and A$AP Rocky. At that time, Gucci began to work with Jared Leto (whom thousands of girls from all over the world are lovesick for), Chanel - with Willow Smith, and Louis Vuitton realized a capsule collection with the skate brand Supreme. By the way, they sent the first sample to the twelve-year-old Cruz Beckham who hurried to thank them in social networks.
The process of reorienting companies to millenials is not new. Collections have always been directed to the young generation, ignoring "35 +" segment. However, if earlier the youth was a "canvas for drawing", today it is a profitable and well-analyzed market. "Fashion has long ceased to be an art," explains the fashion analyst Sue Evans, "this is the most common business. And like in any other business, you need to think here how to be successful and make money. Today, no one wants to make a revolution – everyone analyzes the sales of a previous season and thinks what a good response was at and what should be abandoned."