Fashion Broadcaster | Labubu Charms: From Toys to High-End Accessories

Plus: Quiksilver and Zalando go all-in on 90s nostalgia to re-engage Millennials.

Author

Sophie Bruxner-Randall
April 30, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Welcome to Fashion Broadcaster, your essential newsletter for luxury fashion eCommerce professionals.

Editor’s Pick 🌟

Marketing thought leadership has a tendency towards binaries. The funnel is either completely dead or very much alive. Brand marketing is either pointless or the solution to all your problems, and ChatGPT is ending 30 years of search overnight.

At Fospha, we love the measurement challenge of any new channel that offers our clients ways to reach more customers. However, Google is still very much the biggest advertising platform. Performance Max (PMAX) and Search products alone represent around 30% of our clients’ digital share of wallet.

In uncertain times, it’s more important than ever for brands to nail these core channels, so we produced the definitive best practice guide on PMAX and Paid Search. Here were our top findings:

  • ⚖️ Best performing brands allocate 55% of Google budget to PMAX and 12% to Paid Search.

  • 🏆 Brands that pair Search and PMAX with ~50% of their budgets in YouTube, Demand Gen and Paid Social see optimal results.

  • 🎨 Especially for PMAX, high-volume creative is key for AI-powered optimization.

Sector Spotlight 🎥

BRAND LEGACY EXPANSION

Karl Lagerfeld’s brand sustains its market relevance through diversified ventures in design, real estate, sustainability initiatives, and retail, illustrated by new collections, a flagship redesign, global pop-ups, and luxury villas in Dubai. These initiatives prioritize premium materials, sustainability partnerships, and experiential pop-up concepts to amplify brand value. For marketers, this exemplifies how legacy brands can ensure sustained consumer engagement through cross-sector expansion, sustainable innovation, and consistent experiential branding.

FASHION ACCESSORIZING TRENDS

Labubu bag charms, created by artist Kasing Lung and popularized through collaborations with Pop Mart, have rapidly penetrated global luxury fashion by leveraging nostalgia, pop culture endorsements, and adult affinity for playful, Kawaii aesthetics. These accessories demonstrate the effectiveness of blending collectible culture with high-end branding, creating powerful word-of-mouth momentum and consumer engagement. Marketers can observe a strategic case study in merging emotional resonance with luxury eCommerce for viral, cross-demographic appeal.

ARTISTIC COLLABORATION

Lee’s collaboration with Berlin-based artist Ruohan Wang introduces a vibrant womens denim collection, infusing classic silhouettes with hand-drawn florals, self-portraits, and a bold color palette designed for the spring festival season. This collection is strategically positioned to engage a younger demographic seeking visually distinctive, art-driven fashion. Marketers should note the value in merging art and apparel to inspire authentic consumer connection and drive market differentiation.

The Blue Paradox Earth Day Sustainable Fashion Show at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry spotlighted emerging designers committed to eco-friendly practices, showcasing garments crafted from recycled materials and biodegradable textiles. For marketers, the event underscored a growing consumer demand for sustainability in fashion—presenting actionable opportunities to align brands with ethical practices and engage an audience increasingly attentive to climate impact and responsible eCommerce choices.

SUSTAINABLE FASHION TRANSFORMATION

Circularity in fashion is driven by regulatory pressure, consumer demand for sustainability, and advancements such as blockchain and recycled materials, yet widespread adoption faces significant hurdles including high costs, outdated infrastructure, and supply chain complexity. For marketers, the sector’s pivot toward circular eCommerce models offers opportunities to strengthen brand loyalty and competitiveness by meeting evolving ethical expectations. Strategic investment in sustainability not only addresses compliance but differentiates brands in a fragmented market.

BRAND HERITAGE INITIATIVES

Leading luxury brands—Chanel, Fendi, Bulgari, Prada, and Dior—are investing millions in restoring iconic cultural landmarks, leveraging these initiatives to strengthen brand narratives around heritage, authenticity, and social responsibility. This deliberate alignment with global heritage restoration positions each brand as a guardian of local culture, providing marketers with clear examples of how cultural stewardship can reinforce long-term brand equity, consumer trust, and global relevance.

BRAND REVIVAL

Quiksilver’s partnership with Zalando revives its iconic 90s surf-street aesthetic through a nostalgia-driven collection launch, strategically leveraging experiential pop-up marketing in Berlin to reconnect with millennial consumers and drive brand engagement. This collaboration taps into retro fashion trends while reinforcing brand authenticity by featuring classic silhouettes and the original logo. Marketers should note the effective blend of experiential events and heritage branding in fostering emotional connections and differentiated positioning within the eCommerce landscape.

Influencer Corner 📣

Meta Ads vs. Google Ads: Which One is Better for D2C Brands?

Meta ads excel at:
👉 Building brand awareness.
👉 Nurturing new customers with engaging content.
👉 Retargeting cold leads who didn’t convert initially.

Google ads are great for:
👉 Capturing demand when people are actively searching for solutions.
👉 Generating high-intent traffic with low CPC.
👉 Converting cold leads into paying customers quickly.

Which one should you focus on?
👉 Meta ads work best if you’re focusing on top-of-funnel and brand-building.
👉 Google ads work best when you’re ready to convert customers actively searching for your product.

Rumour has it that OpenAI might be quietly working on a native Shopify checkout inside ChatGPT.

Apparently ‘leaked’ code shows:

👉 'shopify_checkout_url'
👉 'buy_now'
👉 'product_offer_ratings'

No redirects. No search. Just chat, compare, and buy in one flow. Unconfirmed, but catching attention.

If this happens?

Google, TikTok, even product pages as we know them are all about to change.

📲 Like what you’re seeing?

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Optimization Hub ⚙️

SEARCH INNOVATION

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) integrates traditional SEO with AI-focused strategies, ensuring content is both visible in classic search results and cited by AI models like ChatGPT or Perplexity. Marketers must structure content to answer specific questions, prioritize authority, and track AI-driven citations. Adapting to GEO is essential for maintaining discoverability in an AI-driven search landscape.

DISCOVERY COMMERCE INNOVATION

TikTok Shop’s newly released playbook, developed with Accenture Song, provides marketers and brands actionable frameworks for driving growth through discovery commerce, leveraging real-time creator content and robust measurement. With TikTok Shop rapidly capturing eCommerce market share, ignoring these trends risks falling behind competitors capitalizing on content-driven online retail.

INNOVATIVE PERSONALIZATION STRATEGIES

Cookieless personalization is reshaping digital marketing by requiring brands to use first-party and zero-party data, contextual targeting, and server-side solutions instead of third-party cookies, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA. This shift enables marketers to maintain effective, consent-driven customer engagement while safeguarding user privacy. Marketers must adapt quickly to sustain relevance and trust.

ClickZ is a Contentive publication in the DTC eCommerce division