AZ Factory launching exclusively on Net-A-Porter and Farfetch with fashion talk show

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Jan 19, 2021

AZ Factory, the fashion house led by Alber Elbaz that is the most widely anticipated new brand in the industry, is planning a talk show as well as exclusives on Net-A-Porter and Farfetch as part of its entertainment-driven launch.

 
Elbaz will reveal his first collection for the form of “product stories,” on January 26, at 8 p.m. CET as a guest member during the four-day Paris haute couture which starts next week, the house said in a release.
 
AZ Factory is a new joint venture between Elbaz and the giant luxury group Richemont which hopes to disrupt the traditional fashion business model by launching a luxury marque via an exclusively digital and entertainment-driven approach.

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It’s “an innovative format that promises to be educational, emotional, and of course, beautiful,” predicted the house.
 
In another shift in classical strategy, AZ Factory will debut its distribution exclusively on Net-A-Porter and Farfetch. 
 
“I’ve dreamt for years about a fashion reset… and that dream is even more relevant today at a time when people cannot be together. The world is changing fast, and we are all adapting to new behaviors and emotions. This dreams factory is focused on developing real solutions for today’s women. It is a product-focused and a communications-focused project, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to bring it to the world in a fabulous, entertainment-driven way with two of the leaders of the digital luxury world, Farfetch and Net-A-Porter,” Elbaz stressed.

Prior to creating this new brand, Elbaz was for over a decade the highly acclaimed creative director of Lanvin, turning a formerly dusty Paris maison into one of the half dozen most influential collections in fashion.
 
Besides being a brilliant designer, Elbaz is known for his dry, ironic wit, heard memorably when he would stage private presentations – almost style tutorials - with live models and patter worthy of a stand-up comic before small groups of barely a dozen senior editors inside the Crillon Hotel. Now, thanks to social media, Alber’s warm and witty words can be heard by millions.
 

In another example of his disruptive plans, Net-A-Porter will host The Talk Show with Alber & Friends, starring Alber Elbaz; a very special co-anchor and VIP guests, all to be livestreamed from Paris on the online etailer’s Instagram and YouTube channels at 3 p.m. CET, Jan. 27. Their goal: to launch their dream factory by presenting innovative solutions for women’s wear, representing a disruptive evolutionary step in the fashion industry. 
 
Furthermore, the Israeli-raised, New York-trained and Paris-based Elbaz will undertake a AZ Factory World Tour, an immersive, virtual experience, going live on Farfetch.com immediately after the AZ Factory launch on January 26. Since linking with Richemont, Elbaz has been working from studios in the Montparnasse district of Paris, inside the Cartier Foundation, the single largest luxury marque owned by the luxury behemoth.
 
“We were so inspired by Alber, and the innovative approach he is taking to creating AZ Factory. The values of the brand – love, trust, respect, and treating customers as friends, along with the desire to experiment and try new things, resonated strongly with our own values. This shared approach was really behind the inspiration for the AZ Factory #worldtour. In a world where we can’t physically be together right now, the next best thing was to use our creativity and technology to bring our customers on tour and let them jump on board, take a tour of the incredible collection, and help spread a feeling of joy and togetherness,” said Farfetch’s Chief Brand Officer Holli Brown.
 
Added Sheena Sauvaire, Chief Marketing Officer of Net-A-Porter: “Alber’s vision for AZ Factory is truly original. He has created a wholly new approach to launching a brand at a time when our industry is evolving and consumers are looking for escapism. With a shared belief that fashion should be joyous and uplifting, he captured our imagination to create ‘The Talk Show with Alber & Friends’; an irreverent spin on an analogue TV format inviting VIP guests to discuss what makes us happy through the themes of fashion, science and body positivity.” 
 
As part of this new strategy, Farfetch has also developed a content-driven experience, allowing customers to “virtually try on” the AZ collection while browsing. While augmented reality technology, developed by the etailer’s partner Zeekit, will let clients see how products appear in different sizes and skin tones. All before making any purchase.