In the West the practice of creating a single fashion space is very common. In the famous Dresden Kraftwerk Mitte is one of the largest creative spaces in Germany, offering preferential rates for tenants.
Benefits allow us to attract more designers and authors who, having chosen the place and creating around it a friendly and recognizable atmosphere, make it possible to hold multimedia show, parties with DJ-sets and various large-scale events to compensate for all costs.
Fashion clusters began to emerge on the same principle in Europe. This space, which in the modern world, connecting emerging designers and established fashion brands wishing to strengthen market position and to ensure a competitive advantage due to the location. Modern centers of the fashion industry has grown from occupying their creative communities and small businesses. An example is the famous district of SOHO in new York or rapidly growing trendy areas in London, as Hackney Walk. There are hundreds of designers who, in addition, organize public workshops and screenings.
Among the known clusters are also highlighted Luxembourg Creative Industries Cluster in Luxembourg and The Metropolitan Fashion Cluster in Montreal, Canada. The latter includes 225 companies and is financed by one third by donations and business investment. The Dubai authorities also allocate considerable resources to the development of Digital Design District is a cluster, which should change the approach to design, translating it into digital.
In many cases, the introduction of the “cluster approach” in the development of fashion demonstrates effectiveness. Partly because of reference to the needs of young designers and their support failed to achieve a breakthrough in the development of fashion in new York. Today the city has more than 40% of all designers of the USA more than 900 companies. A resident fashion clusters, which bring more than $2 billion in taxes to the Treasury.
In Italy, for example, have long understood: it is impossible to maintain a strong brand, if not to diversify the product line at the expense of small producers. The house of Gucci is based on hundreds of small firms working within fashion cluster. In Milan the industry every year to generate income amounting to more than $13 billion, and the city has more than 13 thousand organizations category SME ( small and medium-sized enterprises).
The Italians also learned to export their fashion clusters. Established in 1998 the company for the production of leather goods Caravel and Bluetonic at the fashion cluster of Santa Croce sull’arno eventually become suppliers of French Louis Vitton in addition to contracts with Chanel, which is also located in Florence.
Basements instead of clusters
During Soviet times, industrial diversity was suppressed by monocultural production practices and a planned economy. However, we cannot say that the “cluster approach” in the Union did not exist. Rather, it was implemented in the format of numerous “scientific-industrial complexes”, at least a quarter of which focused on the military-industrial complex. Soviet fashion cluster, in fact, existed outside of the law. The most famous – the cellars, where in the 1980’s boiled jeans.
In modern Russian reality, when the offer on the commercial real estate market exceeds the demand, and the production cost low, fashion clusters become competitive model of the industry. First, it is the perfect solution of the project on import substitution. Moscow ranks in the top three after London and Paris in the presence of major international fashion brands and is considered a large market, which is estimated at 591 billion rubles a year. All of the fashion market in Russia is about 2.5 trillion rubles, but does not develop quickly.
In the course of this year announced plans to build a fashion hub in Moscow as part of a integrated innovation-production cluster, consisting of 400 companies with combined revenues of over USD 48 billion. During SPIEF-2017 also talked about the upcoming opening of a fashion cluster in Saint-Petersburg, and in January of this year, defended the project “St. Petersburg- the centre of the fashion industry”. The budget for 2018 equal to 100 million rubles, and the total budget until 2020 should amount to 14.4 billion rubles.
From already operational projects are aware of the work of design factory “Flacon” and Artplay in Moscow, center of contemporary art “Bakery” in Vladivostok and the art space “spark” in Saint-Petersburg. But they only partially resemble the classic fashion clusters. Although the same Italian “cluster approach” would work in Russia. The potential is there. Of course, the Russian fashion market has not recovered after a fall of 9% in 2015, but the last two years it is growing again (on 0,2-0,7%).
The main reasons for the slow development of the fashion clusters are administrative barriers, the developing status of the local fashion industry and the General weakness of small series production in the light industry. The key players are the small and little-known, sometimes artisanal, fashion spaces that all the forces struggling for survival. The situation may correct a departure from the widespread gigantism and promoting a “cluster approach” at the level of small and medium enterprises. In the future we can achieve world average growth rate of 4.5%.
The advantages of the enterprises
Co-working model is one of the key advantages of the fashion cluster, because this allows users to get advice from colleagues, exchange experiences. Working on this model, residents learn to act independently: debug production, improving their knowledge in marketing, are becoming key skills for business.
Thus designers have the opportunity to share experiences with each other and to feel supported, for example, clustered in a complex marketing strategy works to attract customers all at once. For example, on the basis of the St. Petersburg cluster Modul Fashion Design Loft project Rebel Eyes, which helps to sell designer goods online and offline.
In fashion clusters, you can also configure the exchange of skills for sales and search the available production capacity. For example, due to this practice in the cluster EMIVI a project was implemented Amova Jewelry, which combines the Russian and European approach to jewelry, and Bazarov Group, which implemented a joint project supported by the Ministry of sports of Russia.
Business clusters does not SAG and parts management, document management these issues are provided by competent professionals who are working with similar tasks constantly. For example, in the Dresden Kraftwerk Mitte is a special team, a salary which pays the landlord. Utilities, security, service cluster, the default shall be the responsibility of the organizers.
If necessary and with the consent of the residents of the cluster, the owner may take over the accounting Department. In my experience: when working in the Studio a few people accounting even under the simplified scheme becomes very complex. Often the accounting Department is working on outsource basis. In addition, the cluster model allows us to save on the organization of offline events like shows and presentations. For example, the recent display of a collection of works EMIVI and residents have attracted more than 600 guests, and the total budget amounted to about 750 thousand rubles, which is not so expensive. Also is known about the job the showroom Must Have the same St. Petersburg fashion cluster module, which organizes something like that.
One of the main lessons of the work of the cluster EMIVI was the experience of the resident. It turned out that the designers who work in the same direction, such as creating sweaters, perceive each other as competitors. A similar negative impact on the internal atmosphere, making it less suitable for societies. It became clear that in fashion the cluster should work the same industry, but not even remotely competing industries.
