Fast Fashion COS'S "Basic Business"

"We hope that consumers will have a long-term relationship with this dress."

COS Christophe, a creative director of Menswear, said, obviously, in the competitive retail market of middling price, if it can be done, it is a feat of COS.

Copin also wants to make you feel that a simple shirt is "interesting" and can see from the details that this is COS's clothes.

"It must be very light, but it must attract you to touch and try it on. When you wear your upper body, it must be easy to wear."

Copin added.

Prior to being the creative director of COS menswear early last year, Copin, a family in Paris, served as director of menswear design at Maison Martin Margiela in London. He worked in London on Monday to Friday for her work. Besides designing an impressive minimalist dress, he needed to make this minimalist brand continue to strengthen its art cells. Besides, he needed to develop high-end men's wear market for COS.

COS, founded in London 11 years ago, is the only high-end fashion brand in the world, after Zara, the second largest clothing company in the world and H&M, a fast fashion group in Sweden.

Relevant data show that sales growth of COS is fast, and now it has become the main engine of H&M growth.

COS currently has 167 stores worldwide, 30 of which are in China, and COS recently opened a new store in Suzhou and Shijiazhuang.

COS has been labeled as the "high-end market knocking" in the seven brand matrix of H&M. According to the data of Euromonitor, many people remember this brand because of the design of their retail store. Each store needs to maintain its original architectural features and create a contemporary gallery space for its brand.

"Compared with other H&M brands, the design style of COS is a clear concept of minimalism and peace. This exquisite high quality clothing reflects exactly the Nordic fashion styles that are still in fashion."

In a report on brand, Euro international wrote.

In addition to busy design, Copin has just worked on the summer art project. COS, in collaboration with the French architect Arthur Mamou-Mani, is trying to print 3D. Consumers can download the "clothes" directly from the Internet. After finishing the 3D print, they can wear the body directly.

COS frequent art cooperation, in addition to attracting consumers of art community, has also become the core competitiveness of its brand.

Rather than consumption upgrading, brands like COS can play an aesthetic education and upgrading role.

This is the seventh year that COS has entered the Chinese market.

In June 2012, it opened its first store in central Hongkong, and opened its first store in Beijing in the autumn of the same year.

This is a brand that represents the upgrading of consumption in the Chinese market.

"COS was amazing when it first appeared. Although its design is low-key and implicit, its fabric texture, design details and style positioning are all impressive at that time."

Yao Qingzhao, trend director of WGSN, a trend forecasting agency, told BoF.

"I remember it was a lot of fashion bloggers and buyers for more than 10 years in London."

Harsh demands on retail space can also create a unique image in the market for COS's minimalist style.

According to the point of view of Byron Sharp, an American marketing expert and Professor, how HBG develops (HBG, How Brands Grow), this theory mainly reveals the pattern of user purchase and sales growth. It mainly relies on three points, namely Penetration (Penetration), brand memory (Mental availability), and (Physical availability). It has already possessed a certain scale of physical stores, and has also opened the Tmall flagship store. How to achieve "being remembered" is a smart business decision starting from clothing.

Under the simple wind of restraint, COS tried to give the men's clothing shop enough local marks.

This space, inspired by the Beijing alley, reflects the architectural pparency that the brand has always emphasized. It is designed by COS's interior team.

In terms of space design, it has two symmetrical exports, small shops, but regular and clear display. In order to let consumers have a relaxed environment, the COS team has left a lot of space for the same style of minimalist Nordic designer furniture and books, including one from Shanghai's architectural design office, such as Tu EN design.

"Besides, a few Chinese artists have also become the source of inspiration for this store. For example, en design will certainly be our cooperation partners in the future, and their aesthetic will be very close to ours."

When COS opens a new store, the challenge for branding is to let consumers have different shopping experiences.

The brand takes every new store as a retail experiment, and every shop has something in common: by reducing the density of the merchandise and updating the display window to emphasize the brand image, it will leave a good impression on the customers who are not willing to queue up for payment, so that they can complete the shopping online.

"When you start a new store, the interesting thing is how it relates to the current environment, and in different circumstances, what consumers want to buy will change.

It's like listening to music, you know this rock band and their characteristics, but you will hear the difference from their different songs.

Copin said.

COS wants to be such a diversified "rock band". At the same time, its "music" can be widely resonated.

"I think the success of a brand is not so great as that of the consumer. I even feel that it is not smart to distinguish consumers from the state."

In Yao Qingzhao's view, COS, which is already more mature in its brand, should now be more localized, especially in men's clothing.

"Consumption of this style of the group, their income should be good, there is also a certain fashion taste, and the pursuit of higher cost performance.

But I find an interesting phenomenon is that many of the men who meet this type of consumer can not find their clothing models suitable for COS at most times.

In addition, European development believes that the development of COS may not be fast enough because of its extremely strict siting strategy, but this is also a common challenge faced by many high-end brands -- how to develop the Chinese market at the right pace.

However, it should not be overlooked that female consumers are also potential users of this men's clothing store.

COS at the end of last year, a men's and women's clothing store opened in London. It seems abnormal to mix menswear and women's clothing. It is also in line with the current consumer habits that young consumers do not deliberately discriminate between sexes.

When asked about his idea of men's clothing market, Copin also thought that the future distinction would be less and less obvious.

"Men and women will become more and more willing to consume men's wear and women's clothing at the same time. We think this kind of cross-border shopping will become a more visible trend."

He said.

Interestingly, although Copin is responsible for the men's wear line, in fact, in COS, the communication between men's and women's clothing on the upper and lower floor neighbors, including the inspiration for starting the new quarter, the plate making process, and the final marketing advertisement, are more common than the general brand, and finally show a more unified brand image.

COS will popularized Nordic "frigid" style at the same time, in the increasingly fierce competition of medium price clothing category, continue to upgrade and upgrade on the basis of basic funds, and make a single product deep (for example, the white shirt series this season has, the choice of (quantity), and hope to maintain brand competitiveness.

"Of course we are also facing many competitors, but there is a challenge that is good. If we continue to follow the old way of work and not be challenged, we can not continue to make good clothes."

Copin added.

"I think you can always find an unexpected COS product in COS, a nice shirt or pullover, but you always expect something unexpected, which is very important to me."

Copin said.

For this reason, he will explore the possibility of creativity in detail in every single season.

"For example, this striped jacket, the latter part of it is long, because a man's shirt always sticks into his pants. When you bend down to pick up something, you don't want the whole thing to fall out."

This is the starting point of Copin's original design, and also the design idea of COS.

"The essence of doing this is that we hope that consumers can buy a COS dress for many years, and then discover the little details hidden in the clothes one day."

Copin said.