WANT TO BUY THESE LEGINGGS? THE BRAND 'S CEO WILL GOOGLE YOU FIRST
From invitationonly websites to Google-stalking customers, some luxury labels have started playing hard to get. Angela Buttolph discovers the brands so exclusive that it’s almost impossible to actually buy them
you probably haven’t heard of WONE ( pronounced ‘one’), a West Coast-based luxury athleisure label from sometime style blogger, wellness pioneer and former Nike creative director, Kristin Hildebrand ( pictured left). Yet for those in the know, WONE is making a lot of noise. The label claims to be a couture version of sportswear – its leggings start at £300 – and uses fabrics of a premium quality previously only worn by elite Olympic athletes. WONE doesn’t advertise ( its only Instagram post is an enigmatic blank white square – yet the account still has 10,000 followers). So far, it is discovered only on a word-of-mouth basis. But don’t think knowing about WONE is enough to actually purchase WONE.
Sure, you can register on the WONE website to ‘apply’ to buy WONE. But then Hildebrand will… Google you. Wait, what? Yep, Hildebrand is going to check you out and, even if you’re lucky enough to make it off the waiting list, you’ll only get access to the site for a mere seven days.
Those who remember the shop Voyage will be familiar with these tactics. Back in the 1990s, the Fulham Road boutique selling pricey boho-luxe cardigans and slip dresses to supermodels and the Chelsea elite, created a hurricane of hype by adopting a cut-throat (and seemingly random) door policy similar to Studio 54’s. Legend has it, even Madonna and Julia Roberts were turned away when they rang the doorbell. Stock flew out of the store.
‘Exclusivity has always been at the heart of luxury fashion,’ says luxury brand consultant Paula Reed. ‘Everything is available out there now – so anything you can’t have you want more, it’s just human nature.’
Reed has worked with The56.com, a new couture and demi-couture e-commerce site that was originally launched as an invitation-only platform. But, she insists, ‘ This isn’t just about dangling some desirable item tantalisingly out of reach. It’s more about keeping customer numbers limited in order to be able to intimately understand their needs, and building something that
lasts and has some integrity behind it. Otherwise, why would you spend all that money setting up a business?’
Still, Reed knows that there’s no denying the bragging rights for those who are ahead of the curve when it comes to new labels. And getting in on a brand that’s ultra-selective when it comes to its customers undeniably bestows a halo of extra style kudos.
The master of this new lockdown culture is RŪH collective. Claiming to be ‘dedicated to upholding luxury craftsmanship’, its fabrics are sourced in Italy with the ready-to-wear produced in a family-run atelier that also works with Oscar de la Renta and Dries Van Noten. Designs range from achingly beautiful soft tailoring to ’70s pointed-collar patent trenches and silk blouses. I only know all this because a selection of the clothes is available on Net-a-porter, so the label is not exactly under-exposed. But this is merely a tease; log on to the website for a proper fix and it’s a big No Entry sign.
As the home page explains: ‘Our site is private to members not out of exclusivity, but so that we can recapture what was always the most romantic part about the internet… in our time of overexposure and exhibitionism, we hope to build a deep community, not just a wide one.’
The clothing, designed by Sonia Trehan, is very much part of the new modesty movement – maybe the site aims to align its online access with equal discretion? I contact the label directly for answers, but they’re a little… evasive? Elusive? In other words, they politely decline to elaborate.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t massively turned on by all of this. Irresistibly drawn to any club that doesn’t want me as a member (sorry, Groucho Marx), I am dying for access.
Undaunted, I complete an online access request form. An email pings back: ‘ This email is a recognition of your curiosity and interest in RŪH. We appreciate it, though require time in order to process your request’. I wait… and wait.
Of course, nobody knows the desires of your heart better than Google, and while I’m at my laptop attempting to gain access to some of fashion’s most infuriatingly inaccessible fashion brands, I notice that black-and-white online adverts for Giada, a luxury brand in Milan, start appearing on my screen.
Giada has been a fixture at Milan Fashion Week for a while. Originally founded by former Max Mara designer Rosanna Daolio, it’s now overseen by creative director Gabriele Colangelo – and like RŪH, its minimalist-elegant aesthetic and woodsy-neutral palette would be a good fit for any Phoebe Philo-philes currently missing their Céline fix. The ‘online boutique’ says ‘invitation only’ – yet how do I request an invite?
Giada actually has a flagship store in Milan, open to all, without even a doorbell or an appointment policy. But when I call, a sales assistant confirms on the phone that purchases on the website are, indeed, only available ‘to a select few’.
Then one day, while I’m once again online, gazing longingly at RŪH’S lockeddown homepage, something magical happens. A line of dots suddenly appears in the password box. And I realise I’m in – behind the digital velvet rope. There are designs on here that are totally Rūh-extra – double-layered plissé metallic skirts, leather trench-style dresses, pencil skirts with elaborate button placements – as well as mentions of future salon gatherings and trunk shows. Trehan’s aim may not be exclusivity, but it certainly feels like a secret fashion society.
WONE’S Hildebrand also claims her shameless customer- Googling is ‘not motivated by exclusivity’. She explains her game plan is: ‘to be a brand that does things differently from the rest of the industry. Our goal is to build personal relationships with our customers, and so we are keeping the brand deliberately small and niche.’
Hildebrand says that, after working at behemoth brand Nike, ‘I just wanted to have a dialogue with my customers. I can’t do that if I have 10,000 customers.’ And WONE’S elite-clique of shoppers sure are getting premium customer service – from requesting changes to the label’s designs (Hildebrand has adjusted the rise in the cycling shorts according to her customers’ own measurements, for instance) to asking for more clothing that would work as in-flight wear to be added.
But Hildebrand does admit the brand is ‘slowly opening up’. It will even be available in London’s Selfridges from April 2019. At which point, it will be time for fashion’s ( log)in-crowd to find a new velvet rope to conquer.
wone wants to build personal relationships