Mass brands have finally defeated podium standards in their run for young consumers. Nowadays it takes less than six months for Zara or Topman designers to analyse pret-a-porter collections, select next season tendencies, copy most successful models and launch their budget versions. The prevalence of plagiarism in the fashion industry has a solid economic basis. It takes only two weeks for mass brand to develop a design and promote the product on the market. And who will be ready to pay for an original pattern twenty times more if you can afford practically the same things at a very reasonable price?

It becomes more and more difficult to withstand the process of copying with the development of the Internet. Anyone can see brand-new collection immediately after the show or sometimes in real time mode. And there’s nothing to be done about that in the foreseeable future. No private screenings or an oath not to disclose can’t help the problem. In music industry you can go to court even for a few notes or a vague reminiscent of an already existing song while the famous jeans brand Balmain can’t do anything about H&M stamping prototypes. At the same time incomes of mass market and luxury brands are incomparable. If Gucci made 2.2 billion of Euros in 2009, then, for example, H&M finished that year with 12.3 billion.

In fact high end brands are worsening the situation themselves: there are numerous collaborations between giant brands and fashion designers. For instance Stella McCartney, Matthew Williamson and Sonia Rykiel designed capsule collections for Adidas and H&M. The problem is that great luxury brands will have to change to keep up pace in this race: to bring their products to such an extent that it could not be quickly reproduced in Chinese factories – either to reduce prices and become a modest rivals of Zara and Topman.

Brands come and go around the world but the Russian market has been always sort of ‘tabula rasa’ for the world’s fashion cycle. Key mass-market player were too reluctant to integrate into a complex local clothes industry.

The ice broke up when, two or three years ago, Zara and Topshop entered the market provoking a massive chaos around major retail malls in Moscow. H&M opening on the outskirts of the capital resembled Black Friday in the US at its worst with the 1km crowd gathering at the store entrance.

Uniqlo was the last player in the team of pop-fashion brands (except for Muji) to appear on Moscow’s market and finally the good news has arrived – March will see its grand opening. So everybody somehow connected with the industry is now guessing whether this overmastering Japanese brand will inject some fresh life into this frozen kingdom of Chinese borax and glamour Italian crocodile jackets.

Super great underwear collection this season for H&M starring the high priestess Sonia Rykiel.

The party last night (1st of December) was incredible. In the wondeful Grand Palais, they recreated a kind of glamorous disneyland with a parade, candy shops, a café and, of course, amazing models…. The party was definilty the “Victoria Secret killer”

Please check the collection.

Even if it is massive – Mass market can de sexy!