In the World of Hats

Blog 1: Target Audience and Competitor Projects and Research

A Hat is a substantial communicator of specify gender, age, social status, and set association. They are also distinguished as ritualistic symbols and enhancers of sexual attractiveness. As a sculptural art form, hats may be designated and construed in terms of different shape, colour, surfaced materials, decorations, quantity, and scale to the wearer.

Hats have always been commonly worn, the historical growth within the Western European fashion world grew with time. Women’s hat fashions started in the revitalisation and enhanced sensationally with the nineteenth-century industrial upraise, also known as the “Golden Age” of millinery, which continued till the mid-twentieth century.

In England, after a two-decade pause, Princess Diana was the famous public figure who played a part in re-popularizing, wearing attractive hats in the 1980s (Fashion-history, 2019). She made hats as an elegant accessory of her outfits. She made it look like a statement piece that would stand out and distinguish among hundreds of people. Her London-based milliner John Boyd and others (Simone Mirman and Graham Smith) sustained designing and crafting hats for royal family members.

X-Terrace fashion platform is a brand that creates and exhibits the handcrafted hats from milliners all around the globe. The brand aims to link creative people in Europe with fast growing fashion companies in Asia, for paid projects at home and abroad. They ensure smooth communication and to overcome the language barrier. There teams are based in London and Shanghai, to connect people with jobs across the globe (X Terrace, 2019). The London Hat Exhibition is where Millinery from around the world come together and present their art and craft in shape of hats. The purpose of this exhibition is to bring together the talent and give appreciation for the creativity and effort put in the work. This gives the opportunity to the designers to representation their capacity and get valued by the people who have special interest and love for hats.

X-TERRACE – Target audience

The main target audience for the brand are women of age 25 to 65. The consumers shop for different occasions such as Royal weddings, Royal Ascot, King George Weekend or themed events and functions. They usually shop hats from big departmental stores including John Lewis, Harrods and Selfridges etc. According to the reports of Statista, people are highly interested in personalised fashion accessories in UK.  Main target consumer also includes milliners, designers, fashion editors and bloggers.

X-TERRACE – Competitor

The fashion industry moves at a very fast pace, where you must be on a look out all the time. Be on top of your game and present your customers with something unique that matches their needs and wants. One of the main competitors for X-Terrace fashion flatform at the moment would be Love Hat.com as they are based in London sharing the same vision of bringing milliners together from different parts of the world (Lovehats.com, 2019). The brand Love Hat.com aims to bring forward the inspiring artists from all around the globe and present the fine art through their website (Lovehats.com, 2019). Another main competitor for X-Terrace is Jane Taylor. The brand is very consistent and focused on the clear designs and what differentiate them from x-terrace is that they have a physical store (Jane Taylor London, 2019). This allows the brand to have a competitive advantage and brand trust.

References

Fashion-history.lovetoknow.com. (2019). [online] Available at: https://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/fashion-history-eras/history-womens-hats [Accessed 10 Oct. 2019].

Jane Taylor London. (2019). Jane Taylor London | Bespoke hats, headbands & accessories. [online] Available at: https://www.janetaylorlondon.com/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2019].

Lovehats.com. (2019). About Us. [online] Available at: https://www.lovehats.com/content/about-us [Accessed 10 Oct. 2019].

Pinterest. (2019). 21 Absolutely Outrageous Hats From the Royal Ascot | Ideas | Royal ascot hats, Kate middleton hats, Ascot hats. [online] Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/155866837084498030/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2019].

X Terrace. (2019). X Terrace Home – X Terrace. [online] Available at: https://www.xterrace.com/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2019].