The Kingsman Collection – A Fashion & Film First

Official film merchandising is no new concept, and especially for films with pre-existing fan communities (think Twilight and Harry Potter), or the potential to create new ones (Frozen anyone?). However, the scale of these merchandising agreements is usually quite large, and results in items that are often affordable for the average filmgoer. For this reason alone, upon hearing that Mr Porter (brother of online retailer, Net-A-Porter) was co-producing a luxury menswear line with the costume designer from upcoming release, Kingsman: The Secret Service, I was genuinely surprised that such a collaboration was to take place.

For a little backstory on Mr Porter, the online retailer has been curating and selling high-end menswear items since 2011, and now stocks more than 200 of the world’s leading brands. In addition to this, it has a total of 1.6 million monthly unique visitors, and offers worldwide express shipping to 170 countries. Having ordered from this site on numerous occasions, I can personally vouch for the fact that it is without doubt the most premium online shopping experience a man can get, right down to the personalised ‘Mr Kumar’ printed stationary that arrived with my order.

So although I never doubted the Mr Porter side of this new collaboration, I was more intrigued as to the potential market for a luxury menswear line inspired by an essentially pop culture film. Admittedly, the attempt at such a collaboration has the danger of being ‘gimmicky’ (no matter what the price tag of the items), but where the strategy really seems to hold is that both parties have involved existing Saville Row designers to create custom pieces for the ‘Kingsman’ line. In doing so, not only does it add designer credibility to the collection, but it also becomes associated with brands that the existing Saville Row customer (who is most likely the target market of the collection) is already comfortable with.

Whether this collection has the potential to organically grow into a full-flegded menswear brand is still up in the air, but its an idea that is certainly a first for the luxury fashion industry, and thus may result in a new niche in this market. It’ll also be interesting to see how the Kingsman brand and movie individually perform, and whether the success of the movie translate into more sales and brand awareness for the menswear collection.

To read more about this collaboration visit Mr Porter’s website.

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School