Boden's Clever Content
If you struggle to find your sartorial sweet spot between the high-cost, trend-hungry end of the high street (Whistles) and the too young, too short, not-made-for-boobs (Zara, TopShop), then you may have been paying attention to Boden's recent smoothly-does-it creep up the fashion ladder.
The weekend papers were full of Johnnie Boden's suddenly-cool clothes. I've seen this image in at least three premium fashion magazines over the last couple of weeks:
Like JCrew, clever styling and a strong POV and voice has turned around a brand that used to be about as cool as LLBean.
Based on the direct marketing, catalogue selling model, they were early in catching on to the fact that middle youth women (ahem, 30+) are, for the most part, too busy to shop, and - for the most part - hate shopping.
And they've always had good content. Even back in the day of jersey dresses and comfortable, school-run ballet flats, they allowed their models to have a personality, a good while before the rise of the Influencer or guest blogger.
They allowed the lowliest model a voice. Like here, in this 2013 catalogue. Camile tells us her greatest extravagance is a leopard print lead for her cat. Cute. And she's half falling down a wall with one shoe falling off, which is something I can relate too. (That's a vodka and tonic hidden behind her back, isn't it?)
Since the success of Boden's global expansion , the conversation with their customer has got stronger and stronger. They are really nailing it at every touchpoint.
The website does seem heavily inspired by JCrew's but it doesn't matter - it's so cute and clever it makes me want to buy the lot. Plus, the clothes don't come with JCrew's excessive UK price point.
If you'd rather eats your A.P.C. T-shirt than wear Boden's stripy tops and animal-print flats, then I'm not sure this site will necessarily drag you away from Liberty, but if you like Boden a little bit (and an awful lot of us do), then with all this clever consumer messaging (and favourble PR), you'll like them even more.
And - unlike JCrew - their bloggers don't make me feel like I'm continually underachieving. (Yes, I'm really that susceptible to peer pressure but I'm not the only one.)
