Coming to a village near you
Travel & Tourism
Get on the bus -- the London Fashion Bus, that is -- for unique pieces by young designers. Touring Britain to bring fashion to the people.
Update, March 2006 — Unfortunately, the London Fashion Bus is no longer in business. But we still think it’s a great idea!
Get on the bus — the London Fashion Bus, that is — for unique pieces by young designers. Touring Britain to bring fashion to the people.
Make way for the London Fashion Bus. Launched at the end of May 2003, this cool new business idea is the brainchild of Barry Laden, the man behind happening Laden Showroom on Brick Lane. The London Fashion Bus is a continually touring showroom, stocking over 1,400 pieces of selected work from the 40 designers who showcase at The Laden Showroom, from Candace Miller and D 4 Discus to Nicki Pumpkin and Nobby Styles.
The refitted double-decker metro bus brings unique designer pieces to areas throughout Britain that don’t have London’s uber-trendy boutiques and outlets, while giving young designers a wider audience. The website lets consumers check on exact tour dates and locations. (Source: Springspotters, thisislondon.com.)
Opportunities
‘Moving Retail’ works well for many reasons. It allows entrepreneurs to bypass often impossibly high real estate investments. It also gives companies in developing nations a chance to service customers living in remote areas without any retail infrastructure. Customization of inventory, based on where one’s taking the ‘store’ is another plus. In prosperous regions, it’s a way to present smaller, sometimes exclusive manufacturers, designers and producers in an original way, or give aspiring consumers outside the big cities access to the latest and greatest from happening urban centers. Our other website, TRENDWATCHING.COM will highlight this multi-faceted trend (‘5th Ave. meets Main Street’) in one of its upcoming issues. In the mean time, may we suggest a Dean and Deluca truck touring the US, backed up by a mouthwatering website? In partnership with Amazon.com Gourmet? 😉 And somehow, the vast rural areas of China and India in combination with Oceanic style ventures conjures up images of lots and lots of Rupees and Renminbi. We know Springwise has quite a few subscribers from P&G and Unilever, so…8th August 2003