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This study aims to identify, within the context of the French fashion industry, the characteristics of multichannel shoppers, that is, consumers who use more than one channel in a single shopping trip. We especially investigate whether consumers' focus on quality versus price affects their multichannel shopping tendency and their flexibilities in their shopping lists (basket flexibility).

We surveyed a representative sample of 400 French shoppers regarding fashion apparel purchasing. We use a logistic regression framework to measure the probability of a shopper becoming a multichannel shopper based on the key constructs and a battery of control variables.

The analysis shows that, in fashion buying, shoppers focused on quality and those with high basket flexibility have a higher probability of becoming multichannel shoppers. The probability becomes even greater when a shopper is both quality oriented and has basket flexibility.

We focus on the fashion apparel market for a deeper understanding of multichannel usage of products with both experience and search features. Future research can investigate other industries for higher generalizability.

Our research provides insights into multichannel fashion companies whose managements aim to effectively manage high-value customers who tend to use more channels when shopping. Specifically, an omnichannel marketing strategy should focus on capturing the quality-oriented and highly basket-flexible segment of consumers.

Our study provides evidence that for products having high experiential as well as search features, quality-oriented and highly flexible shoppers engage more in multichannel shopping. Because these characteristics are related to the long-term value of customers, we provide the link between multichannel marketing and firm profitability in the context of the fashion industry.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century Paris was the global capital of art and fashion. Today it remains a key hub in the global cultural economy. Male and female artists/designers develop new products and production techniques and marketing techniques are used to gain an international reputation. The top designers are embedded in a supportive milieu of cooperative competition, where ideas are exchanged and resources accessed. The purpose of this paper is to draw on archival documents to examine the privileged role cities have played as centres of cultural and economic activity, with specific reference to Paris and haute couture.

The paper employs a case study approach, accessing data from a number of sources including secondary sources and grey literature, the analysis of archival material, and in‐depth interviews with key stakeholders in examining the role of Parisian haute couture.

Parisian haute couture developed using the system pioneered in the nineteenth century by the Englishman Charles Worth. Their ideas inspired fashion trends globally, and this persisted for over a century. The salons tended to be owned at least partially by the artist/designer. The most successful designers based their reputations on a specific and well defined fashion innovation. A further strategy adopted by couturiers was the use of subsidiary lines of products to offset uncertainties in the market for fashionable clothing, the principal one being perfume.

The paper links the work of French and Anglo‐American writers on the cultural economy, and highlights, using case studies, the pivotal role Paris has played in shaping global fashion trends since the nineteenth century.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the online fashion sponsorship, shedding light on the content and appeal of online fashion magazine advertising. Heeding the call of researchers for cross-cultural advertising investigations, this research offers a comparison of online fashion magazine advertisements in France and the USA in terms of needs appeals, emotional appeals, and sex appeals.

Elle and Vogue were identified as prominent fashion magazines with an online presence in France and the USA After pretesting to identify appeals that appeared most frequently in online fashion advertisements, a content analysis of website advertisements was conducted with the full population of online advertisements in the US and French Elle and Vogue at the time of the study.

The research found that need appeals conform primarily to national character and that emotional advertising is more preponderant in French advertisements, whereas sexual advertising is more preponderant in US advertisements. For needs appeals, the need for affiliation was higher for US advertisements, whereas online French magazines advertisements were more likely to use guidance and safety appeals. The need for prominence, attention, and autonomy were higher for online US magazine advertisements, whereas French advertisements were more likely to use escape and aggression appeals.

As fashion magazines develop an online presence that is well coordinated with their print fashion pages, it is important to understand how advertising sponsors on the magazines’ webpages target consumers. This study is a first step in providing cross-cultural comparative insights into advertising appeals in relation to national character and preferences.

This chapter explores the evolution of public and private intervention in the fashion sector in France from the end of World War II to the mid-1960s, highlighting the first connections in the relationship with tourism, a link between the two that is increasingly consolidated today and in which the mutual influence between them is becoming more relevant. For this reason, a historiographical reconstruction of the initiatives undertaken in Paris for the promotion and organization of the fashion sector is proposed. The chapter discusses the main aspects at work which shape the interconnection between fashion and tourism.

This paper examines the internationalisation activities of eight French fashion retailers, with particular reference to their motivations and methods of entry into the UK retail fashion sector. The research results suggest that the ‘new wave’ of French fashion retailers (ie those established within the past 20 years), take a more proactive approach to cross‐border expansion than their more established counterparts. Expanding further the traditional motivations for internationalisation, as well as emphasising the importance of wholesaling and master‐franchising to fashion retailer market entry, the research provides a valuable insight into the pan‐national activities of fashion retailers. The paper concludes by making a case for further research into this much neglected, but very important area.

This case examines the internationalisation of fashion retailing and is based upon the entry of French fashion retailers, Morgan and Kookai, into the UK. The case considers their motivation for entry into the highly competitive UK fashion retail market, and explores, in particular, the methods of entry adopted by these companies. The case concludes with an assessment of the potential barriers that exist in respect of successful fashion retail internationalisation and seeks to identify the internal competencies that are required of fashion retailers in order that they might replicate their domestic market success within other countries.

This chapter explores how department stores came at the end of the 19th century to be at the origin of what is now called “fashion tourism.” Contributing to a new “geography of commerce,” it highlights the role of the space of the department store both as a place of conspicuous fashion consumption and tourism. Further, it demonstrates how Parisian department stores helped consolidate Paris's place as the capital of fashion and luxury. Far from being only places to buy the latest in fashion, the latter became indeed a symbol as quintessentially Parisian as the Eiffel Tower and as necessary to visit for the “Paris experience.”

By celebrating tourism destinations through cruise collections, luxury brands open to new influences. They may develop deeper connections with certain geographical areas, but may also challenge the quintessentially national dimension of luxury brand culture. The best example of synergies between a luxury fashion brand and tourism destinations are the Christian Dior cruise collections with Maria Grazia Chiuri at the helm. This chapter is to understand how cruise collections may enhance luxury fashion houses' brand culture through the connections they develop with tourism destinations. Further, the chapter assesses the extent to which destinations can benefit from the exposure provided by luxury fashion brands' cruise collections.

A recent development within the UK fashion sector has been the adoption by younger consumers of products and brands which have been traditionally targeted towards older customer groups. While previous research has tended to focus upon developing an understanding of the motivations which lead young consumers to adopt, adapt and in some cases undermine the brands and products typically associated with other demographic groups, little attention has been given to the role that fashion companies play in this process of market extension and development. By examining the activities of four fashion companies which have successfully extended into the youth market, the research identifies the varying strategic approaches that these firms adopted as well as the alterations they were required to make in order to satisfy the needs of this new group of customers. The research concludes by examining the long‐term implications of this type of market development.