Need to know

Global – Luxury e-commerce platform Net-A-Porter has announced the launch of a new initiative designed to nurture and develop emerging fashion talent.

Known as the Vanguard, the incubator and accelerator will support emerging brands that Net-A-Porter believes will make a lasting impression on the future fashion landscape. Its members will be automatically added to the site’s roster of brands, while also enjoying access to a team of experts providing advice on topics such as business strategy and marketing. Brands will only graduate from the Vanguard programme once they have sufficiently matured after a few seasons on-site.

‘In an industry that is constantly focusing on the new, we at Net-A-Porter want not only to introduce novelty to our customers but also to make sure that we’re helping to set these brands up for self-sustainability,’ Lisa Aiken, Net-A-Porter’s fashion director, tells InStyle.com.

Brands set to be included on the programme include Toulouse-based Les Rêveries, which specialises in luxury shoes and accessories, and RŪH, which creates fashion-conscious modesty wear.

In order to discover and cultivate new talent in industries from fashion to furniture design, brands are lending their expertise to the next generation of talent. See our Viewpoint with Ruth Wassermann, design director at MADE, for more.

Spain – The shoe brand has created nine sci-fi inspired characters for its autumn/winter 2018 campaign, with a mini-site that encourages consumers to choose their avatar player in order to explore its new footwear collection.

The Augmented Virtuality campaign features characters including Rolling Chan, a rainbow-haired samurai, and evil lost soul Night Helix. Presented like gaming characters, each is classified according to their specific traits and special powers – credentials that also describe the Camper shoe that has inspired each character.

The brand has also worked with a notable line-up of creatives for the campaign, including creative director Romain Kremer, stylist Anna Trevelyan, make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench and hairstylist Charlie Le Mindu.

Like Louis Vuitton and Fenty Beauty, Camper has turned to fantasy gaming characters and CGI avatars to create storytelling around its new collections. For more, explore our Avatar Influencers microtrend.

Following the launch of Nike’s new Just Do It campaign featuring American football player Colin Kaepernick, the brand’s Labor Day sales rose sharply. Kaepernick, who has protested against racial injustice and police brutality by refusing to salute the American flag before football games, has been widely condemned by President Trump.

However, Nike’s Backlash Brands approach in taking a political stand with its Kaepernick campaign has paid off, demonstrating both the monetary and moral value in a brand standing up for what it believes in.

The campaign formed part of the brand’s 30th anniversary celebrations, which also included its first female-focused campaign in Mexico.