The trick to successful fashion retail is exclusivity. Traditionally, large stores sought to entice shoppers by securing limited-edition colourways and shapes from their designers’ collections. Browse the websites of Net-A-Porter or Bergdorf Goodman and you’ll find countless mainline products proudly branded “Exclusively Ours!” But delivering something novel has become increasingly challenging in the current retail environment. With fashion being presented on the catwalk months before the clothes go on sale, everything is seen online or in print months before it arrives in store. By the time products drop, shoppers are often already bored. So, to offer some element of surprise, retailers are now working directly with labels to produce one-off capsules and collaborations that sit outside the main seasonal calendar and are unseen anywhere until they arrive in store.

In the past year, online and boutique retailer Matches Fashion has released more than 15 exclusive capsules, with brands ranging from established luxury groups such as Balenciaga and Nina Ricci, to cult young labels Mary Katrantzou and Marques’Almeida. “Exclusive collaborations are a powerful way for us to offer our customers a sense of discovery — either digitally or physically,” says Matches buying director Natalie Kingham. “We’ve found it particularly effective to work with brands on delivering collections at points in the season that aren’t always catered for, such as high summer exclusives in May and June, when the customer is looking for newness.” In today’s cluttered fashion landscape, finding something no one else has is the true luxury, and it’s this exclusivity that savvy shoppers seek.

Dover Street Market, Comme des Gar’ Rei Kawakubo’s concept store (which has spaces in London, Tokyo, New York and online) has always made exclusivity its point of difference, working closely with designers on pop-up installations, window displays and one-off products from day one. Today, its model is the norm but back when it opened in 2004, with stock that included an exclusive furniture collaboration with Hedi Slimane and a Lanvin collection made entirely in white, the practice was revolutionary. “We are simply interested in creating exclusive products whenever we can,” says Adrian Joffe, president of Comme des Gar International. “It could be a celebration, a collector’s item, or a capsule. The idea is to share the spirit of the store and work closely with our brands.”

This notion of a collector’s item is central to the trend. All retailers want to make shoppers feel like their products have been created just for them. And retailers have realised that exclusivity can come from pushing prices. That’s the thinking behind Harrods’ current “Made with Love” campaign, a two-month promotion offering limited-edition products and bespoke personalised services. Harrods works with designers on special garments or one-off pieces which can be sold at higher price points than those brands usually occupy.

London designer Alice Temperley was drawn to the project because of its focus on higher prices — for her pieces, around 10,000 (most stores want dresses within the 800 to 1,000 range). “We designed a small collection featuring three exclusive eveningwear designs for Harrods,” she says. “The high price point meant they were lovely to work on and not something that fitted in our ready-to-wear plan.”

Fellow London store Selfridges has made a niche of quirky themes and often invites designers to produce special items based around topics: “Agender”, for example, launched in March as a celebration of gender-neutral dressing, sparked much coverage in the fashion press — exactly as planned.

For exclusive lines, such as high-street retailers’ collaboration with high-fashion labels, sales alone are not the end game: press attention and social media awareness are other important components. And the attention generated elevates the rest of their stock. Topshop has collaborated with designers from JW Anderson to Marques’Almeida, and Kendall and Kylie Jenner. “These exclusive collections allow us to capture the energy and aesthetic of the brands we are partnering with,” explains Mary Homer, managing director of Topshop.

When Matches Fashion teamed up with Mary Katrantzou this spring to launch a 26-piece set of handbags (575 each) each marked with a letter of the alphabet, it made sure to utilise her social media presence — she has 264,000 followers on Instagram alone. Alongside the release, it hosted six events across London, LA and Dallas and encouraged attendees to share their “initial” online. The project reached 40m unique users and most of the alphabet had to be reordered within 24 hours.

But while the stores benefit, keeping up with the demand for such products can be tough on designers, especially when it comes to production. Temperley admits, “When you already work on about 500 items a year it’s a lot of extra work, and when working with small units you have to bend suppliers’ arms.”

Often it’s young designers who get hit the hardest. Big retailers will sometimes demand a one-off piece, such as an exclusive T-shirt, but fail to place an order on the designer’s mainline collection, thus capitalising on the buzz of the brand without truly investing.

“Some retailers would only take on a collection if they could have a separate piece of their own,” says Dominic Jones, who struggled with retailers’ demands when starting his high-fashion jewellery line in 2009. “I also experienced a relentless pressure to sign sale-or-return deals or offer ‘trade discounts’. They knew, as a young designer, it was good for me to sell with them.”

“Typically, at Matches, the cost structure works in the same way as buying the designers’ mainline collection,” says Kingham — in other words, designers cover the production charges while the retailer pays wholesale price for the item and profits from the price hike at retail. Dover Street’s arrangement is less fixed. “It’s a case-by-case situation. We often assist with costs,” says Adrian Joffe.

Retailers are adamant that the benefits of agreeing to do exclusives outweigh the disadvantages for designers. For Kingham, successful partnerships work when the designer is willing to listen and shape a product around shoppers’ needs: “Something that combines the DNA of the brand with our knowledge of our customer. We have our in-house content, communication and event team who can support the global outreach of the project,” she adds.

Likewise, Joffe insists communication is key. Just as the market is already saturated with product, too many exclusives can be time-consuming and costly. There’s no point collaborating for the sake of it, or tapping a designer for a range without having a relationship. Is there a trick? “Good, desirable product, not random gratuitous co-branding,” he says. You heard it here, exclusively.

Case study: Matches x Y-3

Matches’ collaboration with Adidas’s Y-3 on a capsule range featuring ink drawings by designer Yohji Yamamoto went on sale in Paris in June during men’s fashion week.

“Our menswear business has doubled in the past year and there’s an ever-increasing appetite for product,” says Damien Paul, head of menswear at Matches, who says men now account for 30 per cent of its business. “Exclusives are often a way of developing a relationship with a brand that we’re seeing a great reaction to. Our business with Y-3 has tripled over the past two years. Pieces were selling out within 24 hours and we frequently have waiting lists for the sneakers. This felt very relevant for us — especially as Yohji was so directly involved.”

Case study: Net-a-Porter x Chanel

Chanel made its e-commerce debut in April with an exclusive jewellery line for Net-a-Porter. The “Coco Crush” range featured just six designs — a cuff and five rings — priced between 1,400 and 13,500. In return for the debut, Net-a-Porter’s tech-team created a digital pop-up shop that mimicked the aesthetic of a Chanel boutique.

The benefits? Chanel got to experiment with e-commerce and capture some online data, while Net-a-Porter landed the coup of being Chanel’s first etailer — and lots of press. “We felt the exclusive married Net’s pioneering technology within the luxury retail space, along with Chanel’s chic and timeless style,” says jewellery buyer Sophie Quy. “It was a dream partnership and, needless to say, our customers absolutely loved it.”

Case study: Dover Street Market

Dover Street Market (DSM) proved itself the original master of the innovative exclusive by getting a “who’s who” of fashion to produce one-off items to celebrate the store’s 10th anniversary last year. Among the items were a Nike tennis sneaker featuring the DSM logo and a Giambattista Valli limited-edition bag.

Simone Rocha, who offered two silver brogue designs, says it was her opportunity to thank the retailer for its continued support. “It was a special milestone for them and for me because I’m a part of the store. It was like my birthday present to them,” she says. Being smart with quantities allowed her to budget for such an undertaking. “We have only ever done a small run of special limited editions, so our team works with our factories to see if we can push it through with our regular schedule.”