English Version | Secrets are the soul of the business

01 Sep 2022
By Carolina Queirós

And rightfully so. The world of Fashion is filled with secret passages, hidden chambers, and unanswered question marks that we try to unveil, not without difficulty, in the name of upkeeping the industry’s transparency. We lift the veil to reveal some of the business strategies that intrigue – and captivate – us as consumers.

And rightfully so. The world of Fashion is filled with secret passages, hidden chambers, and unanswered question marks that we try to unveil, not without difficulty, in the name of upkeeping the industry’s transparency. We lift the veil to reveal some of the business strategies that intrigue – and captivate – us as consumers. 

© Getty Images
© Getty Images

Nothing like a good dose of intrigue to shake us up and keep things interesting. When it comes to Fashion, the concern with any type of secrecy might seem hyperbolic, unreasonable even, due to the poorly calibrated notion that this is a world apart, frivolous, and with no real impact in society’s conundrums. Knowing that this is a world apart, frivolous, and with no real impact in society’s conundrums, but valued in trillions with double-digit growing rates, motivates, at the very least, a more careful consideration. In simple terms, there is a fundamental trait that lights up a gossip’s fuse like few other things are capable of doing: influence, and money (and it happens that Fashion has plenty of both). In a world where oversharing is the rule and not the exception, where the concern with privacy is equivalent to the easiness with which we share with the world everything we’re doing, to keep some things as “secret” has become nothing short of a necessity. Within the Fashion industry, this secrecy manifests in various forms, with the primary goal of maintaining what today we define as the hype – this whisper that drives the masses crazy, that determines how viral a piece or collection can be, that heightens the desire for consumption based on little more than hearsay and gossip. Exclusive drops, capsule collections, improbable collaborations, sudden changes of creative directors, there are too many examples to count, but all feed into the same goal of trying to upkeep the obsession with certain brands and personalities that we gladly let ourselves get caught in. 

Another aspect to consider as a preface for these strategies is the way, whether we wish to admit it or not, there is a nearly morbid pleasure in engaging with gossip, with secrecy, in feeling like we’re part of a conversation that needs to be kept under wraps, or that we have access to bits of information that should remain private, regarding whatever subject. The exclusivity (and sensibility) of information is what turns these otherwise absolutely mundane and ordinary interactions into an adrenaline rush, and that corroborate the principle that, as human beings, we love the idea of belonging to something that feels somewhat unattainable. Perhaps it’s due to reminiscences of the foundations of our society’s vertical organization as we know it, or simply residual trauma from a time when we were not “cool” enough to sit with the popular kids. Digressions aside, the conclusion remains the same: everything that is secret, forbidden, inaccessible, or a result secret trading of information, will always be that much more attractive. Each professional sphere has its own version of this concealed code of conduct, variants of insider-trading put in practice to keep us in a constant state of alert about what might be around the corner – and permanently aware of how great it would be to belong to this restrict group of lucky people, who know and discover what that is before anyone else can.  

Fashion, very particularly, is built upon the principles of hearsay, through the establishing of word of mouth as not only influential, but determinant, remaining intimately connected to the beliefs and opinions of only a handful of individuals. Consequently, the true tastemakers, the dictators (and anarchists) of style, who make and break what we think about trends and the state of the art in general, are individuals that have learned the value of wisely spreading the information they have access to, and perhaps even more so, of choosing not to do so. There are thousands of books, documentaries, articles and analyzes written about the art of keeping certain pieces of intel under this imaginary rug, about the obligatory modesty that reigns within the most restricted circles of this industry, and how it ends up powerfully influencing the way we consume Fashion, in its most immediate and literal sense. A practical example that illustrates this dynamic is how accessible a brand or product is (or wants to be perceived as) in the eyes of the consumer. Reiterating the aforementioned argument, that the challenge of a barrier to immediate access makes everything truly more attractive, we need go no further than looking at the few brands that currently define the top levels of luxury, and that require no introduction. In addition to the periodic price increases – rarely accompanied by proportional improvements in the quality of the pieces –, intentionally low or non-existent stocks, and waiting lists that last for years with no end in sight, this not-so-subtle way of sorting customers has taken on proportions that raise countless questions (and eyebrows).

Like someone desperately trying to fit into a hyper-restricted club about which little or nothing is known, it is important to point out how what we once defined as hype has the catastrophic potential to materialize a very unhealthy level of madness and obsession. While for common mortals, standing in line for hours in order to buy a pair of sneakers, or standing outside a fashion show for days in the hope of catching sight of the tip of a model's or celebrity's heel, may (and perhaps should) seem inconceivable, the fever induced by this mirage of exclusivity gives rise to the most unusual incidents, some of which I have had the displeasure of witnessing. I remember an episode in which two ladies – who, in retrospective today, I can only describe as the most faithful incarnation of the 1% I have ever come across in my life -, beautiful and elegant, entered the store where I was having a typical "look around" one summer afternoon. The beauty of the savoir-faire (combined with the power of the air-conditioning) attracted a considerable amount of people into the store, as is expected on a Saturday afternoon in the City of Light, when, in what felt like a socio-anthropological experiment, all the participants of this vanity fair showed up in their most exquisite version of themselves, with looks accompanied by the best composure they were capable of displaying. That is, of course, until the sales assistant in charge of attending to these two customers was forced to utter the fateful words, "That piece is not available." Sacrilege, revolution, armageddon. It was inside the four walls of a store of one of the most prestigious luxury brands in the universe that, amidst shouts, insults, and cursing, the customers, both with their credit cards in hand begging for a chance to spend the quasi-GDP of a small sub-Saharan country on the season's latest hit, were politely asked to leave - and not to come back. One small detail to mention, is that this "unavailable" and "impossible to order" piece, was displayed inside one of the vitrines, in no less than three different color and pattern variations, with a tiny label that read, like a line in a misleading contract, display only.

The mindset that Fashion demands of consumers today has become so antagonistic that, regardless of the level of fanaticism from which we may or may not suffer a priori, we are almost always forced to consider how far we are willing to go to be given the opportunity to spend our time and resources on items that, deep down, we don't need. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the ironies of the world of modern capitalism, in which our collective desire for consumerism is the gasoline, speculation and gossip are the match, and everyone loves to play with fire. Consider the so-called "accidental" leaks and sneak peeks, for example, about unexpected job changes, or collaborations with personalities more bewildering than the last season of Game of Thrones. Or the amount of website crashes that curiously only seem to happen when brands drop their most exclusive collections. Although voluntarily decided to take part in this game, we, the so-called victims of style, those who survive on cosmopolitan's and Vogue alone, are not blind to the influences of word-of-mouth, or to the ridicule we can reach in the trenches of this open war. Don't be fooled - we know. How else could this almost pathological reasoning subsist? The pleasure of being a fashion victim has deep sociological ramifications of which we scratch only the surface, but that have become almost immediately recognizable among those who share the same admiration for the potential of beauty that Fashion has the power to materialize. You have to know the rules of the game to get around them. 

The most curious feature behind this infinite list of stratagems with which we interact more or less frequently, but that indirectly define our consumption patterns, is that the concern with maintaining secrecy is so well known and assumed that it has become the most transparent and predictable strategy of all. At first, the elites were simply acting in accordance with what they knew as the standard, but then quickly realized that what they chose not to share made them infinitely more attractive, and the circle began to narrow. While the world was thirsting for transparency, honesty, and inclusion, the seats at the table we desperately wanted to sit at became increasingly scarce and inaccessible, and simultaneously more appetizing. What the Fashion industry realized along the way is that this desire to belong, sells, and through this realization, the paradigm shifted: gossip is the sincerest counter to the unbridled exposure we are subjected to today by the action of social media. It was necessary to preserve the illusion, the dream that is to belong to the world of Fashion, in an age where with a click, the curtain goes up and the mystery disappears. It was imperative that the clothes, the shoes, the bags, and accessories, allowed the projection of all the ambitions and aspirations of those on the other side of the shop window. Each collection had to be the spectacle of the season, the guest list had to be head-to-head with the one of an Oscars after-party, and the location had to be able to transport viewers to the most exotic places on the planet, literally and figuratively. A designer's legacy should be built on all industries adjacent to Fashion, so that the cultural impact of the brand they represent can justify everything else. Opinions differ on the sustainability of this approach, as do the moral and ethical bases that define it. The recent example of the COVID-19 shake-up in the international economy and markets calls this into question. While it would be easy, tempting even, to look at the exceptional performance of certain brands and conglomerates and assume a return to form for the industry as a whole, the disparities have never been greater, and the ratio of small players that manage to subsist is as alarming as the absolute disconnect we see in the strategies put in place to maintain the illusion of success, of hype, that in recent times we have become accustomed to using as a thermometer of a project's health. Unfortunately, the best-kept secret of the business is that these viral moments do not necessarily translate into lasting value propositions - we sacrifice the added value of a concept with longevity, which requires time for constant and discreet investment, more quickly than an isolated moment of cyber exposure, only to let its purpose fade and die as soon as the clock strikes 15 minutes. Perhaps there is still room for more real openness, to add seats at the table in an honest and tangible way. Maybe we are still in time to avoid the crossroads between extremes that we are so used to in this sphere of business, where secrecy can (and in some cases should) still exist, but the soul of it all, the soul is somewhere else.

Translated from the original on The Gossip Issue of Vogue Portugal.Full credits and stories on the print issue.

Carolina Queirós By Carolina Queirós

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