In the business school you learn to categorize the world as starts, cows, question marks and curs. You also learn to prefer the starts and the cows (and build brands around them) and get rid of the question marks and curs.
If Chis Anderson, the editor in chief of the Wired Magazine would give you a lecture on business, he would probably flush this matrix down the toilet – or at least turn it upside-down and drag your attention to the millions of question marks and curs in the global neighborhoods that you thought have nothing to do with your business. In the widely spread Long Tail article he writes that the future of the entertainment business is not in the hits, but in the misses – in music that would never end up hits but that many people still find interesting. With the virtual distribution channel the practices of word-of-mouth and sharing have radically changed. “The market that lies outside the reach of the physical retailer is big and getting bigger (…) Suddenly, popularity no longer has a monopoly on profitability”, Anderson crystallizes.
On my way home along Liverpool street the other day I was thinking what Anderson had said. If Amazon.com is the long tail of books, and Napster or iTunes of music, what is the long tail of fashion?”
“Well, if you ask me”, said my London pocket guide, “its Brick Lane”. With its vintage shops and second hand markets the tail reaches through decades of fashion from 1920’s elegance to 1980’s punk. Providing cheap stalls to young designers it covers the variety in contemporary street styles and with distinct cultural flavors.
Still, the rules of a long tail business do not quite apply to Brick Lane. The availability of “everything” depends on your physical presence (not to mention orientation skills and patience). The prices are quite low, but especially of the vintage clothes they could be lower. And yet, things are not easy to find (On the other hand, this may be the holy idea of shopping).
It never occurred to me that Brick Lane could exist in the web, until I found vintagevixen.com, and vintagetrends.com. I think I'm going to give this web-vintage a try. Watch out mass-manufacturers: one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.
