Diffusion Lines has been in existence for few decades and it almost feels like they are going into extinction. The designs of most diffusion lines are mass produced by retailers, this leaves the Original brand at loss. If the case of copy write was the only challenge faced, then diffusion lines would have no problem at all.
Diffusion lines are the subsidiary products of a luxury brand, it is the cheaper version of a high end fashion label. Simply put, diffusion line is the surrogate child of an expensive fashion label, they are inexpensive and they are more affordable for fashion consumers who are not ready to rob the bank because of a piece of cloth.
Luxury brands saw a need to reach a more broader market, increase sales of company and also become more significant in the fashion industry, hence they created diffusion lines.
In recent times, diffusion lines is not that much of a deal, the advent of high street fashion and the sudden rise of fashionistas has made diffusion lines insignificant thereby losing sales and forcing the parent company to close them down. One of the most baffling actions by parent companies who have not built their luxury brand to any level at all is opening up diffusion lines that end up complicating their brands identity and causing the parent company to fold up.
What threatens the existence of Diffusion lines the most is the resurgence of fast fashion brands like, H&M, Zara, Top Shop to name a few. these brands are coming up with designs that are threatening the existence of the fashion cycle. for instance, it takes Zara about 15 days to to get a product from concept to the store, in a year Zara would have produced about 450million items, how many diffusion lines can stand that, especially when the parent company has catwalk shows to plan and presentations to show to the press just so that ego is not dented.
In Nigeria, the concept of Diffusion lines is new and very few brands have been able to achieve that feat. Ejiro Amos Tafiri in 2012 debuted her diffusion line DEAT, Deola Sagoe has a diffusion line called Clan which is run by her daughters, J label by Jewel by Lisa and recently Luxury by Feyi launched a diffusion line FEYI. Those are the few diffusion lines that exist in Nigeria, and people seem to love the idea of diffusion lines, and that is because they are new to the concept and also majority of the Nigerian masses are dressed in less expensive clothes than luxury.
While diffusion lines are gaining presence in some places like Africa, they are literally becoming extinct in other fashion capitals. In 2015 Marc by Marc Jacobs absorbed back into the main brand, Kors by Micheal Kors is no longer in existence, D&G was closed down in 2011 by parent company Dolce & Gabbana, CK by Calvin Klien still exists, MuiMui now stands on the same level with her parent company Prada, for some reason DKNY by Donna Karan seems to be striving but for how long?
There is no forecast for the future of Diffusion lines especially if the parent companies decides to revamp the diffusion lines into trends that people are willing to buy or stick to their high horses and do nothing.
