What Made for a Successful Fashion Collaboration in 2023?

Every year is abundant with fashion and beauty collaborations, ranging from clever to completely random. In 2023, notable duos included H&M and Mugler, Louis Vuitton and KidSuper, Crocs and McDonald's, Christian Cowan and Teletubbies. The market's gotten so saturated, it begs the question: What's the point of introducing a collaboration today?

"Brand collaborations started as an experiment in creativity," Thomai Serdari, director of NYU Stern's Fashion and Luxury MBA program, tells Fashionista. "It's a very great opportunity to put two different DNAs together and see what the baby will be."

Joëlle Grunberg, a McKinsey & Co. partner in apparel, footwear and luxury, says that "one of the key objectives is to bring the brand to life, to bring fun and excitement while increasing awareness, especially for smaller brands, and increasing desirability, especially for bigger brands."

Collaborations are, ostensibly, a brand marketing tool. "Sales would be a very obvious and very important metric, but I wouldn't dismiss the ones that come before: Increasing awareness is important," Serdari argues. These partnerships put weight behind telling a brand's story and finding "customer segments that are adjacent to their existing customers."

In fashion, the collaborations that have historically had an impact are those that marry the high and the low — i.e. when a luxury brand teams up with a more affordable label to meet the price-sensitive customer where they are.

H&M has really been a leader in this, ever since it introduced its first designer partnership, with Karl Lagerfeld, in 2004. This past spring, the Swedish retailer worked with Mugler; in addition to H&M elevating its brand by positioning itself next to high-fashion, Mugler became accessible to more fans by making items at a lower price point (albeit still higher than that of an average H&M garment). In 2023, we also saw On Running working with Loewe, New Balance with Aimé Leon Dore, Adidas with Moncler — more examples of brands coming together to amplify their stories and get new customers while building loyalty.

But what of the other, more eccentric pair-ups? Prada and NASA. Christian Siriano and Sherwin Williams. Christian Cowan and... Candy Crush. Even if they seem random, there's a business case to be made.

"Brands want to create resonance and impactful moments that last in consumer consciousness," Launchmetrics Chief Marketing Officer Alison Bringé says. "They're looking for partners with shared values and a common goal, enabling them to craft unique messaging that would not only strengthen their existing positioning, but also bolster their presence in new markets or amongst new consumer segments."

In a recent interview on The Fashionista Network, New York-based designer Jonathan Cohen explained that admiration and shared values motivated his brand's recent collaboration with Larroudé. "I love someone who goes against all odds, like you didn't think I could do this, but I did," Cohen said. "And, the product is amazing."

These projects obviously don't come together overnight. (Most are plotted around a year in advance.) According to Grunberg, "one of the key success factors is to spend the necessary time developing a product that will be interesting and innovative. It's not just about putting two logos on a sweater or pair of shoes — that won't fly with the consumer anymore. They're expecting something more sophisticated. Anything that falls short of feeling genuine can risk losing customer trust and seeming transactional."

There's not one definitive metric by which to holistically measure the success of a collaboration. Companies like Launchmetrics, for one, calculate media impact value (MIV), which looks at media placements and online mentions; based on its calculations, one of 2023's top collaborations was the Nike x Tiffany & Co sneaker, which got over $11 million in MIV in five days (despite — or maybe thanks to — online critique).

"A key reason this partnership attracted so much attention was simply due to the element of surprise," Bringé says. "Unexpected collaborations are great for engaging with audiences by making a splash in headlines and generating social media buzz, instantly grabbing attention in a noisy market. Such buzz not only elevates brand visibility but also positions them at the forefront of cultural conversations."

The most impactful collaborations of 2023, according to Launchmetrics

Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama
Mugler x H&M
Dua Lipa's "La Vacanza" for Versace
Tiffany & Co. x Nike
Fenty x Puma
Adidas x Prada
Prada x Nasa
Adidas x Moncler

Grunberg agrees that collaborations are "defined by the buzz and the heat that you're going to create, how many people are going to line up in front of your stores, if you have stores; how many people are going to be waiting before the opening on the web."

Because collaborations have become a dime a dozen in fashion and beauty — now the norm, versus once a trend — it's harder to introduce one that'll have that kind of impact. There's still room for innovation in the formula, though: In 2023, we more cross-category collaborations, between beauty and food brands (Rhode and Krispy Kreme), fashion and hospitality brands (so many this year), luxury and gaming brands (like Fendi's recently announced partnership with FRGMT and Pokémon). These are "a strategic response to changing consumer tastes which are constantly seeking novelty," Bringé argues.

"With today's consumers looking for unique online and offline experiences, collaborations between brands from different markets offer a fresh and unexpected approach to universe building," she adds.

Grunberg thinks to Dior's Riviera pop-ups, which catered to travelers at luxurious locales, like The Beverly Hills Hotel, with fully-stocked stores. Post-pandemic, she says, "people are continuing to prioritize experiences. For brands, this is a reason to rethink their marketing strategy."

In beauty, especially, the approach to collaborations has evolved because of how the ways we shop for these products have changed. Before, it was all about "[finding] your perfect color scheme and [sticking] with it for the next 50 years," Serdari says. "Today, you have self-expression, graphic makeup... all sorts of things."

A good partner for a beauty brand to collaborate with would be a company "that has a similar attitude and similar self-expressive identity, because perhaps the two brands together can have a greater impact in their message being heard," Serdari continues.

In Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Co.'s 2024 State of Fashion report, Grunberg wrote that 2023 saw brands reap the fruits of their investments in brand marketing. As a result, in 2024, they're "going to try to think about how to surprise and delight the consumer in a new way. The consumer is getting more savvy. She's waiting for something a bit different, and she wants to be surprised."

The tried-and-true formulas for bringing a collaboration to market — and having it be successful — might not work for every brand in the new year, though.

"The barriers to entry are not so high anymore. At the same time, it's so much harder to compete," Serdari says. "Advertising online is expensive. Real estate in retail is expensive. You need to know where the consumer is before you go to market."

Bringé also warns about brands getting too comfortable with collaborations as a foolproof way to engage new customers: "As more brands embrace a greater variety of collaborations, they'll need to turn to partners that will help them to cut through the noise and bring mutually beneficial results."

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