Joseph H. Hancock II is a professor at Drexel University and the editor of the Intellect journal Fashion, Style & Popular Culture.

Dr Gjoko Muratovski is the Director of The Myron E. Ullman, Jr. School of Design at the University of Cincinnati (USA) and Guest Professor at the College of Design & Innovation at Tongji University (China). With over twenty years of global, cross-disciplinary design and branding practice, Dr Muratovski brings experience that spans from Europe and Asia to Australia and the Americas. Over the years he has been working with a wide range of governmental, not-for-profit and corporate organizations - ranging from NASA Johnson Space Center, UN Association of Australia and Greenpeace, to  Deloitte, Toyota, and the Auckland Council of New Zealand.. He is also regularly retained as an advisor on issues ranging from strategic design to brand development strategies by international design firms and advertising agencies.

Anne Peirson-Smith, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, City University of Hong Kong teaching and researching fashion communication and branding, creative industries, public relations, advertising and popular culture. She also has a professional background in public relations and branding for a range of global clients. She is coauthor of Public Relations in Asia Pacific: Communicating Across Cultures (Wiley 2009).

Introduction

Part I
From the Editors 

Rebranding American men’s heritage fashions through the use of visual merchandising, symbolic props and masculine iconic memes historically found in popular culture  – Kevin Matthews, Joseph H. Hancock, II and Zhaohui Gu

Producing and consuming American mythologies: Branding in mass market fashion firms – D. J. Huppatz and Veronica Manlow

Co-branding strategies for luxury fashion brands: Missoni for Target – Edwina Luck, Gjoko Muratovski and Lauren Hedley

Comme on down and Choos your shoes: A study of consumer responses to the use of guest fashion designers by H&M as a co-branded fashion marketing strategy – Anne Peirson-Smith

Part II
Brands, Style and Mass Market 

ModCloth: A case study in co-creative branding strategies – Kendra Lapolla

Juicy (contradiction) couture: The Starburst Prom Gown and female teens’ appropriation and emotional branding of a candy label – Tara Chittenden

It’s all inside: J.C. Penney and ‘cut ‘n’ paste’ as branding practice – Myles Ethan Lascity

Effortless consumption: The ‘Anthropologie’ of a brand-focused online shopping community – Lauren Downing Peters and Anya Kurennaya

Visible status: Couture and designer abayas – Christina Lindholm

Part III
Brands in the Luxury Market

Managing an iconic old luxury brand in a new luxury economy: Hermès handbags in the US market – Tasha L. Lewis and Brittany Haas

Communicating brand image through fashion designers’ homes, flagship stores and ready-to-wear collections – Osmud Rahman and Lauren Petroff

Leveraging designer creativity for impact in luxury brand management: An in-depth case study of designers in the Louis Vuitton Möet Hennessy (LVMH) brand portfolio – RayeCarol Cavender and Doris H. Kincade

Narratives of Italian craftsmanship and the luxury fashion industry: Representations of Italianicity in discourses of production – Alice Dallabona

Part IV
Brands in Historical Context

Do contemporary luxury brands adhere to historical paradigms of luxury? –Shaun Borstrock

The ‘age of enchantment’, the ‘age of anxiety’: Fashion symbols and brand persona – Linda Matheson

Louis XIV, ‘Le marketing, c’est moi’ – Ellen Anders