Who influences fashion?

Fascinating, if somewhat irrelevant (to serious B2B marketers), discussion on BBC Radio4’s Woman’s Hour*. It discusses the influence of fashion magazine editors from Vogue and Grazia.

Who would you say is most influential? Two interesting points for discussion emerge:

Influence applies to different people at different times. Vogue aims to influence aspiration and is orientated around what will happen in the fashion industry. Grazia influences what is being bought right now. Different audience and different roles in the decision process.

Some influencers are unaware of the extent of their influence. Asked to estimate their own influence, the editor of UK Vogue, Alexandra Shulman was refreshingly humble and declined to accept that she had much influence. Editor of Grazia, Jane Bruton, was in no doubt as to her influence (and comes across as a tad arrogant).

Caught in the middle was Lorna Perrin of French Connection, the obligatory ‘vendor,’ who did a good job of explaining how she supplies each influencer with the resources they need: one-off samples of the latest garb for Vogue; examples of what’s hanging on the rack in store today for Grazia.

Perhaps not so irrelevant after all – we can all learn from this approach to influence.

*I’m not in the habit of listening to Woman’s Hour, you understand.