A Cut Above Prime: Amazon Enters the Realm Of Couture, While Taking A Page from Target’s Playbook

As Amazon’s piece of the fashion industry grows, so does its desire to be an arbiter of what’s cool. With the downturn in department store buying, Amazon has become one of the most popular clothing retailers, particularly among millennials. While fashion still makes up less than 15% of Amazon’s total sales, in 2018 that amounted to an eye-popping $35 billion. That’s a tad shy of TJX’s total 2019 revenue of $39 billion. Now, Amazon is looking to make some significant strides toward building cred among taste-makers and social media influencers; and it appears to be working.

Last May, Amazon launched The Drop, where influencers design limited edition collections, that appear exclusively on Amazon. They maintain product exclusivity by limiting the selling time to 30 hours, or until the products are gone. A year earlier, Amazon had introduced both Echo Look and Prime Wardrobe. Echo Look allows customers to take six-second, 360-degree pictures of themselves in outfits and offers a “style check” for feedback. While Prime Wardrobe takes a quasi-Stitch Fix approach to sending out a group of products. Customer’s keep what they love and return the less loved items.

From the Runway to the Internet

Now, powered by Amazon Studios’ success with new streaming entertainment content, they are experimenting with an unscripted TV/online sales hybrid. Fans of Bravo’s Project Runway know that two years ago the 16-season long show got a remake, with the star’s supermodel Heidi Klum, and fashion mentor Tim Gunn exiting amid the reshuffling. The duo approached Amazon Studios with a decidedly more elevated concept, and “Making the Cut” was born.

The subtext for the show in the words of one of the show’s judges, award-winning designer Joseph Altuzarra, was to create “the opportunity to help shift the perception of Amazon and allow for people to think about Amazon as a destination for fashion with a capital F.” And by all outward appearances, budget was never an issue.

The show was shot in Paris (naturally) in the summer of 2019, prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. And in stark contract to its Runway predecessor, which focuses on discovering the next rising fashion star, The Cut brings together a group of already seasoned fashion names. The show’s objective is to identify the next mega-international fashion brand; offering a cool $1 million and all the PR any “breakout” could possibly want.

The Next Mega Fashion Brand?

Over the 10-episode series, Cut follows the team of 12 designers, from the Eiffel Tower, to the Louvre, and through the Yves Saint Laurent Museum, in search of inspiration. Then it’s off to the chic workroom where competitors must create a both a couture look, a “more accessible” under $100 look, destined for market. Besides Altuzarra, judges include Naomi Campbell, Nicole Richie, Carine Roitfeld, and Chiara Ferragni, all heavy hitters to be sure. Once the episode’s winner is named, the “accessible” piece magically appears on Amazon, in (tape-delayed) real time.

While it’s certainly not the first time that items appearing on the small screen were simultaneously available in the market, Amazon’s making it happen is noteworthy. And so far, the stuff has been selling out as quickly as it drops.   

As far as the show goes, the reviews have been mixed. The fun and authenticity of Project Runway gets lost amid judges’ drama, and an overt emphasis on building the designer’s brands. But the real question is whether or not it becomes a bona fide sales or brand building tool for Amazon. Social media mavens I’ve talked with are a bit skeptical. The quantities are infinitesimal and the likelihood of the show creating a “halo-effect” among its prized audience remains uncertain.

Social Sells

What is known however, is that Amazon’s associations with social media influencers (or “international trendsetters” in Amazon-speak) such as Paola Alberdi, with 1.1 million Instagram followers, is indeed working. Paolo was one of the first designer/influencers that Amazon called on for The Drop’s limited-edition collection last June.

The move emulates one that Target initiated over 20 years ago, in its collaborations with leading and emerging fashion designers on over 300 limited edition collections. Historically, these blow out of the store, and in some cases blow-up their website. Amazon knows who to borrow from and most importantly, what to do with both the dollars and the data that follows their every endeavor. And that’s regardless of the fashion’s cut.