The coronavirus pandemic has left the fashion industry reeling. Small businesses have been pushed to the brink of survival, while consumers are examining their relationship with their clothes – and whether it should change. We don’t have the answers, but we do have questions. Will we – should we – still shop? Will independent brands survive? What about influencers? And will everything that’s happened finally mean that sustainability gets taken seriously? We consulted the experts, including the British Fashion Council’s Caroline Rush and Eco-Age’s Livia Firth, to talk about the future of the fashion industry and how, exactly, it will impact your wardrobe.
Q: WILL WE STILL SHOP?
Absolutely. But how we shop will likely change. The new fashion landscape will be challenging, but as consumers we have the chance to help rebuild it into something more positive. Here’s what to look for next:
Buy less, but better
We’ve been forced to pause, causing many to have an ‘I’ve got too much stuff ’ epiphany. A seemingly unstoppable, escalating cycle of newness was the norm for too long. Let this be the start of a more conscious fashion era.
Positivity
It’s been inspiring to see so many fashion brands unite behind worthy causes during this crisis. Consumers are more likely now to demand that their favourite names stand for something – and shun those that don’t. We need to think as much about where our clothes come from and who made them as what they look like.
Fashion with a point of view
Middle of the road won’t cut it. With so much competition for our money, it will be the brands that offer something different (original design, a refreshing brand ethos) that will thrive.
Q: WILL INDEPENDENT BRANDS SURVIVE?
There’s no denying the current crisis has hit the fashion industry hard. High-street giants and luxury behemoths aren’t immune, but for independent designers – many of whom rely on wholesale orders that have been cancelled – this is a terrifying moment.
‘For us, logistics are the main challenge,’ says Alighieri’s Rosh Mahtani, recipient of the 2020 Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design. ‘I’ve had to move all our stock to my apartment, from where I’m packing and shipping our website orders. Liaising between all our team members, splitting materials between the production team, it’s a constant juggling act. The early days of lockdown were so unlike anything we’ve ever experienced.’
Richard Malone, who scooped the International Woolmark Prize in February, adds, ‘This virus highlights the questions a lot of us have been asking for some time: how can this industry continue to function? How can we, as young designers, work around this or build real businesses without the infrastructure of larger companies? It’s a tricky situation, but it reveals how damaging the current system is, and shows that change is needed. A lot of designers, particularly in London, operate on a knife edge in order to keep up, taking on massive overheads and working to this idea of growth and expansion, which truly isn’t for everyone.’
Still, there is optimism. ‘I hope there will be a positive outcome for the industry; it will force retailers to slow down, to buy concisely, to consider the preconception that newness is king. I believe relationships are getting stronger during this time,’ says Rosh. ‘It’s very collaborative and open, in a way that I hope continues.’ ‘This time allows potential customers or supporters to reach out and talk to brands and designers, to look at their offering – how they might be helping or solving problems with their practice,’ agrees Richard. ‘There is a huge shift towards information’.
Parts of the industry are rallying (through its BFC Foundation, theBritish Fashion Council is making £1 million in emergency funds available to designer businesses). But what can we as consumers do to ensure the brightest talents survive?
Shop independently
Or, where possible, directly from the designers. ‘Buying direct is a huge support. Many smaller designers are donating to charity as well, so it’s great when customers can get behind the cause,’ says Rosh.
Follow and champion them on Instagram Connection is priceless. ‘Hearing a stranger say that your tireless work in developing sustainable fabrics is rewarding and valuable and inspiring is a huge boost,’ says Richard. ‘We sometimes forget that behind small brands are real people, who often work in isolation and struggle to find validation, so having those little encouragements can be a massive boost when much needed. The biggest lesson should be in community, we need to open up our doors, share with each other and support each other through this.’
Q: WILL SUSTAINABILITY FINALLY BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY?
Livia Firth, founder and creative director of Eco-Age, thinks so...
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What we’re experiencing today will transform everything. I believe it will be for the better. The normality everyone keeps referring to – as in, ‘we want to go back to normality’ – wasn’t a normality. We were operating and living in a system that was not in equilibrium. And at some point, any system like that breaks.
What’s happening today is that it’s breaking on an unprecedented scale, and unfortunately there will be many who suffer – not only from coronavirus, but from a business point of view. It’s the price we have to pay. We needed so badly to rebalance the industry and overall system. The problem is, on one side we have fast-fashion brands with a business model that is completely unsustainable, based on exploitation of labour and depletion of natural resources.On the other, you have a luxury fashion system with price points that are completely unrealistic. Then in the middle you have lots of small, independent designers and lovely brands, some artisanal, some operating on small productions, trying to compete in this market.
Unfortunately, a crisis is never gentle. This pandemic has brought the veil down. In the fast-fashion sector, orders are being cancelled with brands refusing to pay and millions of garment workers are being hung out to dry.
You can finally see the fashion industry having the serious conversations that it should have had for a long time, and going from ‘Should we change? How do you change?’ to ‘Oh gosh, we have to change’ and that is incredibly exciting. I also love how some brands have come together like never before, and how others immediately transformed their factories to produce PPE. This unity is what it should be all the time.
You can only protect your business when you protect the people, resources and raw materials that make your business possible. You have to relook at your system and supply chain. I strongly believe that the future will be about craftmanship and small, emerging or independent brands, because people will realise this is what we really want. This is the true essence of fashion, brands that work in partnership with their producers. In fact, it’s the only way forward.
Being stuck at home is making us rediscover values we’ve lost and reassess our priorities. Have we been missing the clothes that we bought just to throw away? No. What we’ve been missing is the people we haven’t hugged, friends, going to the cinema and theatre. We’re not missing buying crap. In fact, we are all realising how we can survive without that. So, we’re becoming really, really creative. This has given us an opportunity for transformation that we needed.
The mantra for the next phase should be: slow down. We’ve been forced to, now appreciate it. And when we come out of the lockdown, don’t start running again. Things will beautifully take a new form and shape. Sustainability is not a challenge, it is the only way out.
Q: IS THIS THE END OF FASHION WEEK?
Caroline Rush, CEO of the British Fashion Council, says quite the opposite...
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In normal circumstances, we’d be gearing up for June’s London Fashion Week Men’s shows by now. But this year, we definitely can’t have a physical event. We don’t know if we’ll be out of lockdown and, even if we are, people aren’t going to want to rush back to large-scale events. On top of that, a lot of the designers can’t get access to samples; mills are closed and design studios are empty.
That’s why, this season, we’re going digital and gender neutral for the first time. It’s an enormously challenging time for brands so the idea is to have a platform that can tell the stories of what’s going on behind the scenes and celebrate creativity, which is what the industry is all about. This is about engaging with designer businesses, understanding who they are, what they stand for, where their inspiration comes from and, for those that have it, the product that results from that. It’s about storytelling.
I don’t think we will have ‘normal’ fashion weeks until next year. That’s because travel may still be restricted and budgets will have been cut massively, but also because we will have got used to doing things virtually. That said, I do think there will be – presuming we are out of lockdown – some physical events in September. But those will be incredibly considered and focused on product, creativity, brand DNA, taking a lead from the storytelling in June and taking that into September. In the past, bigger was better. It was showing the power, the influence. Now it’s going to be about creativity, authenticity and a focus on audiences.
It’s important to keep London Fashion Weeks going, whatever they look like. Showing businesses side by side is a great way to benchmark against peers and inform editorial and buying decisions. We know the value of it as a global platform. In other markets you have a significant number of global fashion brands with advertising budgets that have the power and resources to reach global audiences without a collective platform. In London, we do have our own global fashion brands, but equally we have a large number of small to medium- sized, highly creative businesses that influence the global fashion scene but just don’t have the resources to reach those international audiences in the same way.
The digital platform will allow designers to connect with their consumers more than ever. We recognise that the consumer is king so excluding them from one of the biggest events of the year doesn’t make any sense. Being able to engage with everybody is very exciting. We want everyone to feel included.
This isn’t the end of the fashion show. One of the incredible things about fashion weeks is that an audience is going into an arena to see fantastic creativity and it’s their chance to see a vision of a designer’s business and creative team delivered. There’s a fantastic alchemy that comes around the collection, the music, the environment, that leave not only a memory of the collection but actually quite an emotive memory of that moment in time. That’s why I don’t think fashion shows are over. No way.
London Fashion Week’s digital edition will launch 12 June at londonfashionweek.co.uk
Q: WILL INFLUENCERS STILL EXIST?
Yes – we all want to see fashion back on its feet and influencers are vital in driving sales. But just like other factions of the industry, the influencer economy will also have to adapt. Here’s what to expect next:
Greater authenticity
Instagram, in particular, thrives on glossy perfectionism. But we’re beginning to see a kick-back. During this period, we’ve enjoyed seeing people (even, you know, celebrities) in their sweats and without make-up; it’s relatable, and has helped foster a sense of unity. When we’re all allowed back outside again you can expect this type of #NoFilter content to keep resonating.
Experiential content
We’re all getting creative now: gardening, baking, cocktail shaking. Online, this translates to an interest in practical skills and useful content, rather than simply looking pretty (see how brands such as Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen and Jimmy Choo are using this time to put out inspirational, community-driven content). Expect to see feeds full of things to do, rather than things to buy. In other words: fewer #OOTDs, more cook-a-longs.
TikTok
The teens’ favourite video app has come into its own, with people passing time perfecting Drake dance routines and recreating their favourite scenes from Friends. Its appeal? TikTok is not about being ‘perfect’, it’s about having fun. Expect to see brands tap into its potential, hoping to woo a younger (or not) audience.
The privilege check
Sure, Instagram is about escapism. But do you really want to see someone living it up on a private jet/in a fortressed mansion/on a £10k-per-night island right now? Thought not. To thrive in a post-coronavirus era, influencers will have to offer aspiration, yes, but make sure they don’t look out of touch.
The pivot
This has been a great period for fitness influencers (shout out to Joe Wicks) who have been working up a sweat to provide content from home on Instagram Live and YouTube. If their fashion counterparts want to survive, they’ll also have to switch up their content strategy.
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