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Lesson #3: Create a Lifestyle

Article Overview: A line of Sean John clothing, a line of Sean Jean Navigator custom SUVs, a new Unforgivable fragrance, an upcoming line of Sean Jean Elite shoes – Combs has saturated the market in an attempt to move from being an urban clothing label to becoming a lifestyle brand. He has attempted to incorporate his sense of style into all of his products, creating a lifestyle based on urban sophistication and sensibility and appealing to young adults worldwide to embrace this lifestyle.

Lesson #3: Create a Lifestyle

A line of Sean John clothing, a line of Sean Jean Navigator custom SUVs, a new Unforgivable fragrance, an upcoming line of Sean Jean Elite shoes – Combs has saturated the market in an attempt to move from being an urban clothing label to becoming a lifestyle brand. He has attempted to incorporate his sense of style into all of his products, creating a lifestyle based on urban sophistication and sensibility and appealing to young adults worldwide to embrace this lifestyle.

Through his line of Sean John products, Combs has tried to create an emotional connection with the consumer. Because the line is modeled after Combs’ own style, he says that consumers know that what they are buying are styles that came from “somebody that looked like the consumer, that acted like the consumer and understood and cared about the consumer.”

Initially a line of urban street wear for men, Combs’ desire to create a lifestyle brand was what propelled him to expand his men’s line of clothing to also include women’s and boy’s apparel. Whereas his competitors were striving to make clothes that met the demand of what was popular at the time, Combs was busy trying to define what would be popular tomorrow. And, in that, he was successful. He not only brought a new style of urban clothing to the city streets, but he brought it to the suburban market as well. “I think the mainstream is coming to what we are doing at Sean John rather than the other way around,” said Combs.

Combs’ goal was to create a line of products that became “not just a lifestyle brand but a brand that represented the attitude of ‘New America’”, and it was Combs who was going to be one of the leaders and trendsetters in this ‘New America’. Dressed in Sean John, his women’s line Sean, and wearing Unforgivable, these new Americans would exemplify the Sean Combs lifestyle.

“Ghetto-fabulous” is how Combs describes his brand, a style that lies caught somewhere between high fashion and anti-fashion. “I’m the one driving around in the Rolls-Royce with his hat turned, going down Fifth Avenue with the system booming in the back,” he says in describing this style. “Driving up to Harlem, out to 125th Street, and on my way back downtown going and giving hundred-dollar bills to homeless people…I’m ghetto-fabulous.”

The success of Combs’ in creating a lifestyle brand lies in his ability to carefully toe the line between high fashion and that of the streets. After being recognized for his designs by the Council of Fashion Designers of America numerous times, Combs had entered the world of elite fashion designers. At the same time as being acknowledged for the high quality of his clothes, Combs’ maintained his tough street reputation, which appealed to his major market. Despite having the solid reputation that he had on the runway, Combs always kept in mind that it was his reputation on the street that would make his living.

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Article Tags: attitude, city streets, clothing label, elite, emotional connection, ghetto fabulous, high fashion, lifestyle brand, mainstream, new america, new style, sean jean navigator, sean john clothing, suburban market, trendsetters, unforgivable fragrance, urban clothing, urban sophistication, urban street wear, young adults



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