Just when we would normally be getting our summer outfits sorted, we are wondering whether we’ll be stuck in jogging bottoms all season. If COVID-19 is having this much influence on our personal wardrobe, what will it do to the fashion business as a whole?
Until now more than 80% of clothing purchases took place in physical shops, i.e. in commercial units which are shuttered and look likely to remain so. Though fashion addicts are still buying online, this will not make up for loss of business in high street retail, while widespread financial insecurity is also having a profoundly depressing effect on sales volumes across the world.
The decision to move London Fashion Week online, shows that the luxury market is having to re-think its entire existence. Meanwhile high end brands are trying to do the right thing…and gain recognition for having done so. Top of the league is Hermes which donated of 20 million Euros to a hospital. With the hashtag #ValentinoEmpathy, Valentino launched a million-Euro charity project in support of Spallanzi hospital. Fashion’s involvement in healthcare projects is bound to increase in the coming years.
There will also be a greater role for social media, taking over from mainstream media which now looks as outdated as old-style retail outlets. Launched on Instagram, Bella Hadid’s FaceTime spring/summer campaign, which she developed with the photographer Pierre-Ange Carlotti, is a prominent example.
Yves St Laurent already wanted to get out of the straitjacket of the fashion show calendar. Explaining the decision to pull out of Paris Fashion Week altogether, the brand’s artistic director, Anthony Vacallero said to WWD: “We have known for years that something has to change. The time is now. There is no good reason to follow a calendar developed years ago when everything was completely different.” Other brands are likely to follow suit.
The truth is that even before coronavirus the fashion business was becoming unsustainable. The effect of the pandemic has been to accelerate changes that were already overdue. Hopefully the fashion world will take the opportunity to re-arrange its relations with consumers and build back better than before.
