Understanding Brand Heritage

Hello! I will be using "Driscoll's What Model". It encompasses three parts outlining a reflective practice using these three key parts:

1)What: outlining the experience and what you are reflecting on.

2) So what: reflecting on the experience, and what you have learned as a result.

3) Now what: how you will use what you have learned in the future, and future practices.

1) What?

Today, we learned several things in class in regards to brand heritage. I really appreciated that our education encompasses not just the present trends and brands that are well known, but goes far back to beginning of fashion.

It feels especially nice that after learning theories of fashion, and understanding the word "fashion" holistically, we are now learning more about events and major people who have changed the concept of fashion to possibly what it is today. Several things I was surprised about while learning about the luxury heritage brands was information such as how close they were to aristocracy, as well as their work involved in patronage and sponsorship. I think these are aspects in luxury management that are extremely important to know. It's also nice that within these lectures these are thoughts I've had, but having them organized into very well developed slides make it all the more easier to retain the information!

I am now currently building my knowledge of luxury brands. Each weekend I have I've been compiling brand names I've heard of, but don't know much about. After looking them up and learning more about them, I feel a bit better about knowing more about the fashion industry in general. At first, I thought about compiling information each week on one major luxury brand (such as my blog post on Prada), but realized this would take far too long, and there were far too several brands to analyze and learn about in time for my project.

Emotionally, it's been a bit uncertain still, but understanding what I can do, and knowing where I can put my energy and efforts has been significantly easier. It has also been so nice to meet my classmates in the same time zone, so I feel less pressure to wake up at 5am for my lectures. It feels even better that I can meet them soon!

2) So what?

Learning about key brands in history in class has been useful in pointing out certain brands to focus on when developing my knowledge about which brands to narrow down on in choosing my three brands for my luxury project. I decided that I would use this knowledge to focus on large brands and then scale downwards in my research, rather than just learning a lot about one brand each week (as I previously had planned).

This week has been much easier to manage my time as I am now safely in London and have less worries about traveling and moving in. I still have several lectures to catch up on, but dividing the work, plus dividing the amount of time s[pent (knowing how much time I do have) is now better for my overall project timeline!

3) Now what?

In my "so what" I decided to focus on larger well-known brands, then narrow it down. So I will make a list of large brands I know, then brands I don't know, learn as much as I can about them first, then divert my focus into other brands in the luxury sector. I know that this is all a bit generalized, but is my step into knowing how to manage my time in learning and organizing the information I need to know. Highlighted are brands I am considering for my three brands in my luxury project. Here is an example of my list I have created so far:

Italy

-Prada (1913)

-Bulgari (1884)

-Gucci (1921)

-Fendi (1925)

-Bottega Veneta (1966)

-Versace (1978)

-Emporio Armani (1978)

-Dolce & Gabanna

France

-Dior (1947)

-Hermes (1837)

-Cartier (1847)

-Chanel (1910)

-Celine (1995)

-Givenchy (1952)

-Saint Laurent (1961)

Spain

-Balenciaga (1917)

London

-Burberry (1858)

-Rolex (1905)

-Jimmy Choo (1996)

-Alexander McQueen (1992)

American

-Tiffany & Co.

So far, for my project I am a bit overwhelmed by the amount of information and brands that I need to consider for this project. However, if I follow my method I developed in this blog post, I think I will be well on my way to discovering several brands to focus on for my project.