According to which criteria are brands selected?

Since professional buyers meet many labels, visit numerous trade fairs and leaf through many look books, they are used to analyzing a fashion brand. Some are particularly good at scouting young brands that could become major international fashion labels. We met with them to answer the question that young brands ask themselves before each ordering season: What criteria do fashion buyers use to choose the brands they order?

mind or heart?

Birdy is its own little universe of sophisticated taste. Alexandra Makowski, who owns seven designer jewelry stores in Paris, goes for a bohemian chic, which she chooses with the furniture and labels according to her own style. She is particularly looking for labels that make her dream and enrich her universe.

Alexadra Makowski: “I have to like it. The idea is that every piece of jewelry that comes into Birdy has to please me and I want to wear it myself. I like boho chic, I like stones, what they say and what they radiate. A brand that sells gold-plated jewelry or does not offer stones is not interesting for me, I will not like it, it has to fit the concept of my boutique.”

A view shared by Roman Martinez of concept store Gloriette and boutique Roman Prat in Caen, France, who puts emotions first. He also reminds us that these emotions must be linked to a certain balance within the brand portfolio: “If I like it, I ask myself if it resembles something I already have in my shop, if it brings something new, and whether it will trigger an emotion in my customers. It’s still very personal. First comes the heart, then the mind, and then the stock.”

“First comes the heart, then the mind and then the stock.”

At Printemps.com, the Parisian department store’s e-commerce platform, the answer is as strategic as it is poetic. Anissa Draa, buyer for women’s clothing, wants brands to grow and for that they need space.

“One wonders who this brand will target, or whether it will be able to thrive in the environment it already has,” says Anissa Draa. I often speak of a bouquet of flowers and ultimately each brand is picked to be included in a composition. It must have the space to flourish and flourish. If there are already one or two brands that target the same audience or offer the same products, this fledgling brand won’t get a chance to join the adventure. Because of that, our curating work is very strong and we look for uniqueness in the brands that are joining us now.”

“I often speak of a bouquet, because ultimately we pluck each brand to tie into a composition.”

The flower metaphor makes it very clear that good curation is extremely important in retail, serving both brands and sales. It allows brands to thrive, not die, to avoid what is commonly referred to as cannibalization. Thanks to her, the store remains coherent, dynamic, understandable or becomes unique like the Mad Lords jewelry store.

Represented in Paris, Deauville and Saint-Tropez, Serge Muller tells us about his favourites, but his precise and uncompromising words testify to the demands of his selection. “Loving the product is important. Love for the designs is important, we meet with all the creatives we work with. The materials are important, we reject anything that is not made of gold or silver. The quality of the stones, the fact that they are natural. And then the absolute requirement that there is no plagiarism. This is how we defend creativity and can defend the designers at the point of sale.”

The heart, the emotion, the first impression – they talk about the purchase like a love story and they are right. After the purchase, the brand will only be present at the point of sale months later, then it is the turn of the customers to make their own judgment and integrate it into their own world.

Demanding selection criteria can serve to preserve the elitist character of a point of sale, as with Mad Lords, but also to bring about a rethink, as with the We Dress Fair team, which literally and almost scientifically examines its suppliers.

“We pay attention to three things,” Marie N’Guyen tells us at her eco-friendly shop in Lyon. First, there are the raw materials. We only accept a product if more than 90 percent of the final material consists of environmentally friendly materials. For example organic cotton, Tencel, linen or hemp. Second, because we are not “product specific,” we select brands that have committed to this approach throughout their supply chain and on at least 75 percent of their products. We really look at the whole brand, what their action plan is, how many products they changed their raw materials on and only then do we select the products. We also ask for proof of labels, traceability of factories and the name of these factories. There aren’t many brands that meet our criteria, but our goal is to develop the market further.”

From artistic and personal preferences to ecologically responsible specifications – the selection criteria in purchasing are numerous and yet very similar. Advice to all retailers and young designers embarking on the great adventure of wholesale: as in this article, the first step in convincing buyers is to understand each point of sale’s vision of fashion and choices interested.

This article was previously published on FashionUnited.fr. Translation and editing: Barbara Russ