Uniqueness - A Refreshing dose of Fresh Air

Have you ever heard of Alessandra Facchinetti?

I hadn't until I read an article in the Financial Times about her new brand - Uniqueness.

Specifications for the way we live now - FT

It seems the concept of the brand is to take fashion directly from the catwalk to the store front, but without the astounding price tag.  Another core concept of the brand is that its not seasonal, and is targeted to be worn everyday of the year.

I've always had some doubts about the expanding seasonality of fashion.  It reminded me of how the story I heard about how the Japanese confectionery industry created "White Day" on March 14 by labeling Valentines Day as the day women give men chocolate (thereby necessitating a day on which men return chocolate gifts to women from which they received chocolate on Valentines Day).

Great marketing, very corporate, and I can just imagine the sales of chocolates doubling from this very savvy maneuver.  That said, its sad.

In the past, fashion like the weather had its 4 basic seasons - spring, summer, fall and winter.  The cycle to launch new collections seems to be shortening all the time with the introduction of the resort collections (for holiday goers that avoid the cold in January and February).  Seems like the same concept as White Day, but that may just be me.

So when I read about Ms. Facchinetti's new brand, I couldn't help but feel that the naming was spot on.  Ignore (for the most part) seasonality.  Ignore (for the most part) the excessive premiums put on catwalk fashion.  Ignore (to a certain degree) market position and price quality items at luxury price ranges (but not hyper luxury as we often read in the media as being an area of fashion that is doing well in these hard times).

I like it.  I like it a lot, and quite frankly (even across other industry sectors) its unique.

Uniqueness is definitely well names and is a brand I'm looking forward to seeing.