Online shopping

Why has Cocosa opened a physical store?



Flash sale websites are raising their game as competition between them increases. Which is good news for the consumer. Cocosa has already stepped up its offer with a beauty section (which is quite impressive with regular sales from some of my favourite brands including Cowshed, This Works,  and Super by Dr Perricone), and from today opens its first bricks-and-mortar store. The four-day pop-up shop will give customers up to 80% off international menswear and womenswear brands including Halston (above left), Issa (above right) and Missoni.

But why a pop-up and why now? “The pop-up shop experience is designed to raise the awareness of Cocosa to new audiences and enables both new and existing customers to experience Cocosa live, where they can browse and buy incredible designer brands at up to 80% off,” says Cocosa’s Head of Operations, Andrew Miles. And the timing is no coincidence. “The pop-up shop is centred in one of the most fashion forward cities of the world just as fashion weeks across the globe start to kick off,” says Miles. “It’s perfectly positioned to display our ethos to consumers and that’s simply handpicked designer fashion at incredible prices.” For all the hoopla about online shopping, it seems that a physical presence is still a plus when it comes to raising brand visibility.

Cocosa’s pop-up is at The Oui Rooms, 40 Eastecastle Street, W1 from 11-15th September.



Zalando Collection: The Blogger Apartment



My first introduction to German etailer Zalando came via Uslu Airlines make-up. Trying to find an online stockist for some nail polish a year ago led me to this multi-brand site that also sells a mind-boggling array of international fashion labels. Now, alongside the likes of Equipment, Filippa K, Moschino and Sonia by Sonia Rykiel, it also boasts its own in-house line, Zalando Collection. To celebrate the launch of the second collection I was flown to Berlin to co-host an event with Amlul and Lesmads. (more…)



Q&A: River Island’s brand director Farida Kaikobad discusses social media, the future of fast fashion and *that* blogger collection




A few months ago, there was a big old hoo-ha when Fashion Editor at Large published a post about River Island’s blogger-inspired range. The range is part of the River Island AW12 collection and was presented during the press preview but there was a bit of an uproar from bloggers feeling they were being lumped together in a ‘blogger style’ of clashy prints and OTT ‘please-photograph-me’ accessories. The collection is now trickling onto the shop floor so to coincide, I emailed some questions to River Island’s brand director, Farida Kaikobad to find out how a high street brand puts its collections together in these crazy speedy-to-market times, how blogging and social media affects the brand and how that blogger range came about… (more…)



Introducing: Work Out Life



In the post-Olympics afterglow I’m sure there will be thousands of people catapulted off the sofa into a life-affirming fitness regime. If you’re one of them (I’m not…yet), this might help get the pulses pumping. Newly launched WORKOUTLIFE.com hopes to be a bit of a game changer in the fashion-sportswear space, simply because it doesn’t want to be slotted into one neat box. Founded by Rebecca Quade and with design headed up by Ebru Ercon (formerly of Hussein Chalayan for Puma and Stella McCartney for Adidas), WORK OUT LIFE is all about multi-tasking for the overlapping areas of life, so think working out, workwear and everything else.

With her background in high end sportswear (as well as working on New Power Studio, her own line, and a collab with Asos), Ercon has brought a knowledge of cut and quality tech fabrics together to produce a collection of handsome pieces that tick multiple boxes. My favourite pieces from the website are the tailored ‘Gigabyte’ cropped trousers, the ‘Sidelined’ gathered mesh skirt and ‘Get Sophisticated‘, the poshest cropped sweatshirt you’ll see this side of the catwalk. Quade, a former marketing pro, is keen for the website to be more than just a clothes shop, her vision is for a global portal to promote a healthy body image in the fashion space. For starters then, here’s a video of Bambi Northwood-Blythe looking divine while getting her yogi on…

youtube placeholder image

www.WORKOUTLIFE.com