Photo courtesy of Azzi + Co.
When Covid-19 hit, fashion week was well underway in Europe. Buyers, editors and industry professionals began skipping shows and sales appointments for fear of making contact with the virus. Cut to the next fashion season and fashion month has gone almost entirely digital due to the spread of the pandemic. Even despite Covid-19, the fashion industry had been questioning the rigorous and fast-paced fashion calendar for years. Was it really sustainable for brands and designers? For buyers and journalists? What about for small international brands in countries like Brazil, with so much creative talent going undiscovered by global retailers simply due to their lack of access? This was a question Manoela Amaro, formerly a marketing executive at LATAM Airlines asked before starting digital wholesale platform, BLANC in 2017. “Every time I traveled, I often wondered why it was so hard to find Brazilian brands abroad,” says Amaro. “That sparkled my interest in wanting to internationalize Brazilian brands in a professional and efficient way.” This propelled her to launch BLANC, a digital platform that allows buyers and industry professionals to shop emerging Brazilian designers and see trends digitally from the comfort of their home or office. Going digital has become more realistic and sustainable given the circumstances of recent events, and many industry insiders forecast digital fashion weeks continuing beyond the pandemic for that reason. Below, we spoke to Manoela Amaro, a leader in this space, to discuss her approach with BLANC.
MM: Explain BLANC.
Manoela Amaro: BLANC was born in 2017, representing only Brazilian brands. Now, we not only work with Brazilian brands, but also with international brands from all over the world. We are an interactive digital platform for the fashion, home and beauty industries. It’s a portfolio management tool for brands and an interactive market place for buyers. Most of the brands we represent come from Latin America and especially now, with the travel restrictions, our goal is to make the connection between the buyers and brands more smooth and efficient. We blast weekly digital marketing campaigns that introduce and prospect our database of 16,000 qualified buyers within 90 countries. The business model also supports the brands offering a customized human sales force and capsule showrooms during international fashion weeks. It’s more like a ‘boutique’ platform that helps brands and buyers with a more holistic view on the wholesale process.
MM: What were the challenges you saw the industry facing that prompted you to start the company?
MA: Many different industries have made the shift from indirect to direct sales with the help of technology. Fashion is one of the biggest exceptions because the industry relies on a very physical and personal process of seeing, touching, feeling in order to understand the product or the brand. Although digital platforms started appearing in the market more than 10 years ago, the industry hasn’t fully shifted yet. When we first launched BLANC we stayed 1 year in beta gathering feedback from a very qualified and diverse database. I found buyers reluctant to use the platform (any platform) finding the language and interface difficult or with features nobody understood the use for. Still, the most important and reliable information wasn’t yet in the system, which was important and key information about brands. That would be the digital version of what the showroom workers are used to doing to engage and make business that can only happen in one-on-one meetings. We believe that the physical part will always exist. While our technology itself is super simple and easy to use, we contextualize the brands in their own branded environment with key information, tailor-made to buyers. It’s way easier to discover and know brands from anywhere in the world from their desk or their beds!
MM: As buyers had to pause on their wholesale buys, how did you have to pivot your business during Covid-19?
MA: While some buyers paused their wholesale buys, others have much more time and are much more open to understanding digital platforms, as this is the only possible way to keep up. The traffic has increased by 200% last season compared to the same one last year. Also, it became the only way for the brands to showcase which has brought us an increase of more than 100% in our number of brands.
MM: While you are a digitally native company, did Covid-19 help accelerate any fundamental changes to your company that you will carry through when the pandemic is over?
MA: Yes, for sure. It has brought many business opportunities, for example hosting trade shows and different showrooms and helping them create their own clustered environment which made us look into ourselves as a very dynamic business.
MM: What is the future of BLANC?
MA: We grow towards being a 360 degree business solution for brands from trends to wholesale and retail.
