LIZ JONES: Olé! Zara’s the new king of High Street fashion
Posted by Lucky on Jun 14, 2010
While there have been many stories of late of fashion brands going to the wall, there is one soaring success story on the High Street. Zara, the Spanish brand that made its name bringing a wearable working wardrobe within reach of the masses, has posted record profits.
Last week, its parent company Inditex posted a 63 per cent jump in quarterly net profit. Zara is now the world’s biggest fashion brand in terms of revenue, worn by working women everywhere – as well as by the likes of Samantha Cameron, Tess Daly and Princess Letizia of Spain.
These three typify the Zara shopper: busy mums with jobs, but glamour pusses, too.
I wear Zara all the time: today I’m in very wide Margaret Howell high-waist trousers that are 25 years old, raspberry Burberry platforms that are five years old and a raspberry fine merino wool cardigan from Zara I bought two sizes too small so it can be tucked in, worn almost slashed to the waist.
I love my Zara cardi because it’s classic and sexy – but most importantly because, after a thousand washes, it has never bobbled or lost its shape or colour.
Zara has achieved all of the above by being very clever indeed. First, it prides itself on bringing trends from the catwalk to the shopper faster than any other store – its turnaround from drawing board to rail is just ten days, helped by a network of factories in Spain.
It injects new items into stores every three to four days, which keeps shoppers hurrying back just in case something unmissable is now on the rails.
It has opened new stores, too. in May, it opened its very first store in India. But lots of brands are fast and have tentacles all over the world. Lots make good cardis, shoes and jumpsuits.
So what exactly is Zara doing right now that has sent it into the stratosphere? And has it abandoned its USP of great, if sober, tailoring, to maximise profit?
