Interesting article by
Robb Young:
"(...)
Marquee names like Hermès, Chanel, Prada and Dior have been touted by
observers as the most likely targets since none of them have yet to
stake a claim in Polish soil despite the country’s spectacular ascent
after joining the European Union ten years ago. Having undergone “shock
therapy economics” in the early 1990s to keep it from going bankrupt,
Poland in turn shocked the world as it emerged hyper-charged less than
two decades later.
As the only country in Europe to escape recession
during the global financial crisis and, later, as the continent’s
fastest-growing economy for several years in a row, international
investors in many sectors began to see Poland in a whole new light.
It was this revelation that ushered in the first wave of global
fashion companies: high street and fast fashion brands. So famished was
the market for affordable,
trend-led clothing that brands like H&M
and Inditex-owned Zara very quickly came to dominate the landscape.
H&M now has a whopping 114 stores in every corner of the country
compared to just 43 in nearby Russia.
“Besides the fall of communism and joining the EU, the next big
milestone that really changed the way people dress here came in 2003
when the first H&M store opened. It made Poles indistinguishable
from the youth of other European nations,” says Filip Niedenthal,
executive fashion editor of
Harper’s Bazaar Polska which bowed here last year through a partnership between Hearst and Marquard Media Polska. (...)
“Generally, Polish consumers would rather choose well-known brands
with quality and a kind of coolness that doesn’t put them on a stage,”
says Anna Jurgas who began her career at
Elle before being appointed editor-in-chief of the Polish edition of
Glamour four years ago.
In other words, here, the road to discernment has been a more
gradual, prudent and even introspective one, in sharp contrast to the
other markets where conspicuous consumption and extravagant taste seemed
to grip the fashion-conscious as soon as wealth began flooding in.
Although many other former communist countries also endured a century of
extreme social upheaval, the hard years in Poland seemed to impact
people in a way that made many Poles hesitate before flashing their cash
on expensive clothes quite so soon after lifting themselves out of
poverty. (...)
“The Polish market’s [taste for fashion] can’t be compared to
something like the Russian one. It’s a misconception to believe that,
just because we’re neighbours, there are significant similarities.
Actually, Poland is much more comparable with the Czech Republic or
Germany [than to Eastern Europe],” says Arkadiusz Likus, a pioneering
Polish retailer who brought brands like Maison Martin Margiela and Ann
Demeulemeester to local shoppers ten years ago through the Likus Concept
Store he founded, which has outposts in three of the country’s most
style-conscious cities: Warsaw, Krakow and Wroclaw. (...)
“Poland’s luxury fashion market is still in its infancy. Don’t forget
the country only freed itself from communism in 1989. But the luxury
fashion market is growing thanks to a huge increase in wealth and
disposable income. It’s still early stages, but there is solid demand
here. So we took a gamble,” he says. (...)
“The market here is still very polarised,” says Likus. “On the one
hand, upmarket shoppers are very knowledgeable about the collections
from the world’s fashion weeks, so they seek out the best pieces from a
particular brand. But [that means] they need to make a lot of effort to
be satisfied… On the other hand, mainstream shoppers are still mainly
looking for a bargain. They tend to buy discounted goods and are driven
by promotions as opposed to wanting a particular product or brand.”
Pan-European e-commerce sites like
Zalando are growing rapidly here and according to Ewa
Kowalewska-Kondrat, founder of one of the country’s leading fashion
blogs Harelblog.pl. (...)."
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