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Lessons from Inverted Edge: Fashion & travel for the global sophisticate
Posted on 16 Aug 2013 at 00:01 am by Yeoh Siew Hoon

Travel has lots to learn from fashion retail and vice versa and Debra Langley (left), founder of new start-up Inverted Edge, definitely has her pulse on the fashion industry. In her two decades in fashion, based in New York, Hong Kong and now Singapore, shes seen how the web has revolutionized fashion retail and ecommerce, how retail is fragmenting, how consumers are changing and how supply is also evolving. With her latest venture launched earlier this year, Langley wants to create a different kind of marketplace for discerning shoppers by curating a collection of designers whose unique fashion would appeal to a global sophisticate. In particular, it wants to play up The Asia Factor by paying special attention to designers from Asia whove trained overseas and are making their mark globally as well as those who are based in the region and blazing a trail for Asia-led fashion. As a consumer and traveller herself, Langley believes both travel and fashion have a lot to learn from each other. Here she shares the reason why she started Inverted Edge, her plans to build a new kind of shopping experience for global sophisticates, and the lessons travel and fashion can learn from each other.

Note: Inverted Edge will be the retail partner for the WIT Conference in Singapore this year and registered delegates will have an opportunity to shop at her store at a special discount. Q: Why did you decide to start up Inverted Edge? After a cushy life in the corporate world, why take a plunge into the unknown? (Langley was previously with Club 21, a high end boutique which brings in luxury brands to

Asia.)

Id been thinking about the Inverted Edge concept for some time because of my experiences with international retail and cross-border ecommerce, and watching consumer behavior change as a result of rapidly growing web penetration. Thereare really two parts to this: First, consumer demand, and how thats evolving so quickly. And second, whats happening on the supply side. Q: Tell us how consumer behaviour has changed and why retail looks different now. Internet penetration and online shopping are growing faster than we could ever have imagined. 2.4 billion people wired by 2012; thats 7.9 new Internet users per second, and globally about 30% are shopping online. In Asia Pacific, its really only been in the last couple of years that online buying has shown growth, but its been growth of the exponential, hockey-stick kind, as the regions middle classes have ballooned and started buying up the value chain. And change like that affects not just the customer, but also the nature of retail. I think the path for online retail will follow that of real world retail, only much faster and with lots more iterations and exciting innovations along the way. Q: How do you think online retail will evolve? Online retail will naturally segment, just like bricks and mortar retail has. But for bricks and mortar, it took decades; online, its already happening in a period of months. The cycle typically starts with marketplaces that offer millions of products. They compete on product range and margin so price becomes their key differentiator, and in the online world, dominant players like Rakuten, Amazon and Taobao/TMall have emerged.

But certain types of consumers inevitably start to look for stores or sites that are more specialized, that dont have millions of irrelevant products, but rather reflect their opinion or the way they view themselves. In fashion, images and information are now readily accessible to everyone. Theres a rapidly growing class of sophisticated shoppers around the world who are more individual in their approach to style. They look for items that reflect who they are, and they easily mix unknown brands with luxe, high street and vintage choices. This creates an opportunity for e-tail ventures like Inverted Edge where we offer a distinct point of view, personality and positioning. This is probably not dissimilar to travel industry segmentation on the consumer side. Q: Yes, we are also seeing that in travel and, at the same time, we are also seeing a change in the type of products being offered and more Asian brands coming on. I am sure the same thing is going on with fashion. Yes, over the last eight years, theres been a wave of Asian designers like Jason Wu, Richard Chai, Prabal Garung, Doo.Ri Chung, Thakoon and Alexander Wang who were educated at top schools like Parsons in New York or Central St Martins in London, who have established their brands in the West and gained international recognition. Theyve garnered a lot of press coverage, primarily because the fashion world had for so long been dominated by US, UK and European designers of Caucasian descent. These groundbreaking Asian designers have become the poster children for a new wave of aspiring independent design talent with Asia Pacific ties. Their success tells us its possible for designers from this region to make it on a global stage. But our view is that this kind of success should be possible from right where they are and they shouldnt need to move to New York, London or Paris to achieve it particularly when within their own region theres a burgeoning group of increasingly wired and sophisticated fashion shoppers. The Asia Pacific designers who we feature are often the epitome of the global citizen: they grew up in the region, were educated at great schools around the world, have interned with well-known brands and are now building audiences back home or somewhere else. But here lies part of the problem. Many of these incredibly talented designers are successful in their own countries, but less so beyond that. Sometimes this is due to limited resources to tackle the complexities of doing business across borders, or a lack of exposure to different channels. For other more established designers, the challenge can be to find a platform where they can launch a diffusion line or test a targeted capsule. This is a conundrum because these designers collections are actually well positioned to meet the demands of a global style customer. So I saw an opportunity to curate a collection of designers whose unique fashion would appeal to a global sophisticate, and help to raise the profile of those individuals who we feel have the potential for international success.

Q: I gather this will be how you will differentiate yourself in the super-competitive world of fashion retail. Yes, we differentiate ourselves from our competitors through our point of view, our exclusive capsules, and our pre-order Limited Editions. Our aim is to bring unique fashion to a global sophisticate; so we choose looks (not just pieces) from our designers that work easily in multiple countries and situations, that can be styled or accessorized in many different ways. Some of our designers have created exclusive capsules for us that are available only on our site. With Limited Editions, customers have an opportunity to pre-order something really special that the designer is planning to make only in very small quantities and usually these are serialized, so you know which of a certain number you possess. It gives the designer a chance to create something incredible and different, and for customers to buy a piece thats effectively a collectible.

In Singapore we also offer a real world service, By Appointment, where customers come alone or in small groups to shop the collection with our stylists (pictured left is Geraldine Laborie, chief buyer). Its probably the only place where you can try product from 40 different independent designers from the region. Q: How big is the market in Singapore? How big can your business grow? The Singapore market is quite small compared with other English-speaking markets, but web penetration is high around 75% - and women in Singapore are stylish, and very open to style ideas and new brands. And of course when we think about the global sophisticate and women business travelers, there are plenty of those in Singapore. Globally, e-commerce is developing at a shocking pace. Its the only trillion dollar business growing in double digits, so the upside is huge. In Asia, where ecommerce is growing by an average 27% pa, weve already surpassed online shopping levels in the

EU, and analysts projections for China alone (US$356 billion in online sales by 2016) are, I think, actually conservative. Q: Youve been in the fashion trade for a long time and prior to that media. How have both worlds been changed by the advent of the Internet? And what does it take to remain relevant and survive? OMG, both industries have been and continue to be turned on their heads and thats a good thing. Shakes out inefficiencies, opens up opportunities for innovation and creates new ways to engage with customers. So for both industries, if you cant innovate yourself, its important to follow the innovation trails and see whats resonating with customers and then see what part of that or what kind of variation might fit with your own proposition. No one says you have to reinvent the wheel to make our customers happy. Q: What do traditional retailers have to do to get people to come through their doors physically and buy? I think the first step is recognizing that online and offline can coexist in a powerful way; its not a matter of an us versus them situation. Theyre just different channels to deliver the same product but in a different way and with different engagement mechanisms. Thats a brand opportunity right there something I think Burberry has done very well in the way it marries its experiential bricks and mortar with interactive online experiences. So its entirely possible to leverage an offline initiative with online and together drive the overall top line (the most important of the lines!), and I think this is something traditional retailers need to be open to doing. Of course its much easier if youre a vertical . Q: Lets talk about women as customers, youre close to the pulse of their aspirations and needs as consumers. How has that changed? What trends are you seeing? Were targeting a customer segment that we call The Global Sophisticate. Shes an independent, well-traveled woman who has a good sense of her own style, and she happily mixes high street choices with ready-to-wear, vintage and luxe. Shell buy on trend, but equally, shell keep pieces for many seasons and style them differently depending on how she feels. She knows how to make her fashion choices work for her, and not the other way around. And she knows where to look if she wants more advice or new ideas. The global sophisticate transcends boundaries, because women are transcending boundaries everywhere, whether physically or online, professionally or personally. Style influencers encourage trend watching but also owning ones own style, and what we see is more women in Singapore and China [and Australia, Korea, New Zealand . everywhere] making those choices and mixing things up in unique and personalized ways. Granted, in China, its the younger women (Chinas Gen 2 shoppers, as McKinsey calls them) who want to dress in a way that reflects their

personal style versus buying a brand simply because of the name, but the point is that as women become more knowledgeable about style, they start to want to be who they are and style themselves on that basis and that happens across borders, but perhaps just at different paces. Q: Do you feel that with the ability of the web to form communities around special interests, brands are now able to target more by interests and values than by geographic or demographics? How is Inverted Edge forming a community around its content? Absoutely! Shared interests, values and life experiences are great unifiers, particularly with people who have traveled a bit. So were building our community through an editorial environment that we hope will engage our target audience with material thats relevant to globally-minded individuals Its called The Thread (below) and will feature not just news on trends and style, but interviews with designers, global sophisticates and influencers from all over who make our world interesting. Many of them will have an Asia Pacific connection, but not always.

Q: How are you building a brand? Using all online or are you doing some offline marketing? Were a start-up so we dont have huge budgets. We use social media platforms extensively try to combine what were doing there with other forms of online and affiliate marketing. We also work with partners who are interested in our content and with credit card companies like Mastercard and were about to embark on a series of PR initiatives targeting key bloggers and editors. Id also like to develop a campaign that leverages observations from some of our stylish customers, many of whom have told us how happy they are to be wearing items and looks that they might not have considered before shopping with us. Q: Do you think travel suppliers could do a better job of looking after women customers given their influence in planning and buying? I recently saw a stat that suggested women drive more than 70% of online purchases, and that doesnt really surprise me. Were incredibly capable of multi- tasking, so browsing for fashion, cosmetics, homeware, electronics, stuff for our kids,

hotels for professional or personal travel well thats just part of our typical day, right? Im sure travel suppliers already recognize that, which is why weve seen a number of different boutique travel sites spring up, and a little bit more focus on things to do on hotel sites. Id like to see more suggestions for women traveling/exploring a place alone or in a small group, women business travelers or women with kids this would be a useful time saver. I see info on this as possibly a section on TripAdvisor, for instance, or a way to tag an activity on a site like GoVoyagin (a Japanese site I recently found). For me personally, as a solo/group/mom with kid traveler, Im usually able to get myself sorted out with a combo of TripAdvisor, Agoda, various blogs and Google although it probably takes much longer to piece all this together than if there was (say) a way to filter this kind of information. Q: Youve said that travel and fashion go hand-in-hand. As a case in point, how can Inverted Edge work with travel companies for example? I think there are two different ways that travel and fashion can collaborate to create wonderful customer benefits. The first is the practical question of what to take on a trip. Wherever we travel, we have to consider what to bring even if its from a purely functional perspective. And for women travelers especially women business travelers - in terms of packing smart, theres the challenge of combining comfort and style, and maybe having to be in a position of being able to go easily from an airport to a meeting to a presentation and then to an evening event and on to the next country or city. And perhaps if theres time youll want to add in a weekend or relaxation day somewhere, and you wont want to wear work attire! So if were not going to take a container for our clothes, we want pieces that work for us in more than one situation, and that can be styled cleverly for different requirements. Second is the opportunity for the travel industry to offer ways for women travelers to experience fashion; and I dont mean learn to weave. I mean pure unadulterated fun fashion shopping whether its a runway show thats browsable afterwards, or a unique shopping experience. I remember many years ago pre online flash-sales sites when a big tourist offering in Hong Kong was a visit to the factory outlets (complete with little map) and it was a must do for tourists and expats alike. Fast forward 15 years, and what Inverted Edge can do for visitors to Singapore is provide private By Appointment shopping and styling. At the same time, since were online and offer door-to-door delivery, a customer can shop from us anywhere, and have the purchases delivered to her wherever she is all trackable via our courier.