The launch of menswear-only stores shows that New Look is taking fashion’s growth market seriously.
Men’s fashion, once the poor relation of womenswear, is booming. It grew by nearly 20% in five years between 2008 and 2013 and London now has its own very successful men’s fashion week, London Collections Men. On the back of that, labels including House of Holland and Whistles have launched menswear lines and this has had a knock-on effect on the fast fashion market.
New Look is riding this wave. Young men are far more fashion-aware than they were five years ago and more willing to try out more out-there trends thanks to style icons such as Kanye West and Brooklyn Beckham. It is West, an experimentalist who has been known to wear womenswear in the past, who can be held responsible for the current street trend for longline T-shirts reaching the thighs of their wearers.
New Look’s competitors will likely be brands such as Asos, H&M and River Island, all of whom have benefitted from young men’s spending habits (Topman and Cos perhaps have a slightly more grown-up consumer). Unlike young women, whose purchases are trend-based, this customer is more likely to pursue specific items – a printed T-shirt, or cropped joggers, Beckham-esque short-sleeved checked shirts – and it is this market that New Look should focus on if it wants to succeed.
A quick glance at the website – those shirts, joggers and T-shirts are all there – suggests they have the right instincts. Providing this customer with his own standalone space, in addition to the hiring of H&M executive Christopher Englinde as its menswear design chief, may be the move that puts them ahead of the pack.
