Online becomes the latest fashion trend

Look around and it becomes clear that in recent years, creativity has loomed large on the fashion radar of young Romanians. Local and international brands alike have brought an explosion of color and shapes to the bold and the beautiful, who are not afraid of mixing it up through their outfits. Fashion in Romania has truly become a statement for the sons and daughters of those who once wore the communist uniform and now seems to go hand in hand with online promotion, as social media manages to bring together members of the targeted audience.

Corina Dumitrescu

Maria Lucia Hohan is a perfect example of those fusing fashion and online communication. The designer says her creations address an emerging elite. MLH customers “are generally very young, have not reached 30 yet, don’t necessarily come from an artistic environment or showbiz, but are active women, who work in banking, advertising or law, among many other fields – or are enterprising and have their own businesses,” Hohan outlines.

The online environment is very important to this kind of emerging clientele, described as “urban divas,” says the fashion designer. “I have always believed in the potential of online. I purchase almost 90 percent of what I own online – from clothing and accessories, to furniture and kitchenware. I like seeing, comparing prices, analyzing, thinking, without being pressed by salespeople,” says Hohan, explaining why her online shop is functional 24/7, in every corner of the world. Some 50 percent of shoppers purchasing clothes from the designer’s online store are based abroad, especially those choosing MLH bridal dresses, “which is an absolute surprise and an unexpected success. We are very happy about it,” says Hohan.

Unlike in the case of more traditional designers, who spent most of their creative time locked in their studios, Hohan says that feedback from customers is very important, and is gleaned from social media. “Facebook puts me in direct contact with clients from all over the world. They write me messages, ask me for advice or give us suggestions. What’s more, I keep our ‘fans’ in touch with any kind of news, from appearances in the media to new creations.” Hohan’s profile now has over 3,000 friends.

But online communication is not all about Facebook, as Hohan is also preparing to launch a collection with a blogger, Alix The Cherryblossomgirl, with whom she will work on a more affordable collection. The Alix + MLH collection focuses on accessories and will be presented to an international audience both online and offline, which Hohan believes will be a success, since Alix’s blog is ranked as one of the ten most influential style blogs in the world (www.thecherryblossomgirl.com).

The young designer’s SS11 collection has been her most successful so far, notching up a 250 percent increase in sales since the previous year, and has been purchased by a prestigious online shopping website, “where there are only exclusive brands, which will implicitly increase MLH shop traffic”. The official announcement about this purchase will be made in spring 2011.

Handmade is a trend that has gained more and more ground in the last five years, supplying creative and colorful creations to the bohemian young, mixing art and practicality. Zuza Handmade is one such shop, having opened this year at the end of July. Although there has been an explosion in shops and designers in handmade fashion, Alina Galan, the store’s general manager, believes there is still room for newcomers, as what the local market has become saturated with is the word “handmade,” not quality creations in this area.

The best sold handmade products are not just clothing, but also bio-cosmetics, decorative ceramics and jewelry, which can also be found at Zuza Handmade. The investment in the handmade store, where prices range from RON 5 to several hundreds, is EUR 100,000, which Galan hopes to recover in one or two years. As for future plans, the entrepreneur says that Zuza Kiosk will be opened next year, as well as a London shop. Online and offline are regarded as equally important means of promotion by Galan, both contributing to the store’s products’ increasing visibility.

Individuals without the necessary funds to open their own business can open virtual online shops with the aid of sites providing such hosting services. Breslo supplies this kind of service, at a monthly fee of a maximum RON 10, independent of the user’s sales. The project, now showcasing 5,000 handmade designers, was initiated in 2008 by Luigi and Ruxandra Meclea, and joined by other collaborators over time.

Jewelry is currently the best sold product in the online shop. Breslo representatives say that the handmade market is not oversaturated, since “it focuses on the creativity of a larger and larger group of people, who reinvent themselves, explore new techniques, approach new types of products, so that the diversity becomes too high to talk about an oversaturated market.”

The recent years have also seen an explosion of in-your-face t-shirts, making more or less direct statements about their bearers. Adina Maiorescu designs this kind of attire. She is the owner of the Bubbles Handmade project, which manufactures t-shirts with playful, innocent and abstract messages for those who choose this means of expression.

She started her project “to pursue an old passion for painting and drawing,” as she says, one year ago and has already amassed around 4,000 friends on Facebook. Prices vary between RON 40 and 70, depending on the complexity and time she dedicates to each model, and the garments address women aged between 25 and 30, “in search of uniqueness and simplicity”.

Maiorescu uses her blog and Facebook profile as means of promotion, since they “are undemanding ways of promoting the tees. Though it’s not really obvious, Facebook is somehow a targeted channel, as the pages are continuously recommended by viewers to other Facebook users.” Offline promotion also comes in handy for handmade manufacturers, as Maiorescu sells her products in two shops and also used to attend handmade fairs, but is now too time pressed to do so. In the future, she wishes to extend her product line and join a group of handmade artists in a project abroad. Maiorescu’s best sold design so far is her “J’ai pas le temps d’avoir 30 ans” (“I have no time to be 30”) t-shirt and she is now working on designs inspired by contemporary society, as well as by Orwell’s and Huxley’s dystopian worlds.

Shoes are no exception to the creative trends that Romanian fashion is now following. Customization is the key to success in this area as well. ChouChou, an online and offline shoe store, with prices starting at around RON 200 or below, has chosen to take footwear out of the box and hand-paint it, addressing creative women aged between 15 and 35, who keep up with trends, are preoccupied with their career and are generally open to change and the exquisite.

Although ChouChou was started in early 2009, it has already reached 3,000 friends on Facebook, a profile which is regarded by the team of developers as a means of bringing people to the offline and online store, with sales through the former currently outstripping the latter four-fold. The initial investment in ChouChou was EUR 6,000, which was quickly covered in a few months, and it was followed by a new outlay, of EUR 5,500, for the physical store. Launched in the midst of the crisis, the shop seems to have escaped the worst of the economic woes. It has managed to sell abroad and store representatives have declared that a new outlet will open in Bucharest in the future, as well as elsewhere in the country.

In today’s Romania, since they address a similar target, fashion and the online environment seem to go very well together, whether it is handmade, for the more bohemian young, or couture, for the more mature. All in all, to succeed in this domain, in the words of Maria Lucia Hohan, “Think long and longer term. Understand that this is an extremely difficult profession and industry, in which experience is accumulated after years and years of work and dreams, and that sketches that are not put into practice will not pay salaries or bring customers. Think business!”

Image courtesy of Maria Lucia Hohan.