Fashion industry evolves, as virus forces a rethink

The pandemic has torn a multibillion-dollar bite from the fabric of Europe's fashion industry, stopped runway shows and forced brands to show their designs digitally instead.

Now, amid hopes of a return to near-normality by the year’s end, the industry is asking what fashion will look like as it dusts itself off and struggles to its well-heeled feet again.

Answers vary. Some think the style Week format, used because the 1940s, will be radically rethought. Others believe Asia will consolidate its huge gains in influence. Many see brands seeking greater sustainability to court a younger clientele.

“The impact of the pandemic will be unquestionably to increase the importance and influence of Asia on fashion,” said Gildas Minvielle, economist at the Institut Francais de la Mode in Paris.

“Luxury in Europe has recently rebounded but it’s only because it’s globalized, only due to Asian buyers," Minvielle said. "They allocated to European brands.”

Asian buyers remain considered a largely untapped market, yet their wealth has tipped over that of Westerners. China, specifically, had been considered the worldwide engine of growth in the blissful luxury industry prior to the pandemic. Its quicker containment of the virus will leave it in an even stronger position.

“In the next 50 years money will come from the East since it has been (coming) within the last 50 years from the West,” said Long Nguyen, chief fashion critic of The Impression.

This could visit a designer aesthetic that panders more to Chinese tastes.

Another trend which has been strengthened during the pandemic may be the decision to forgo the frenetic pace of runway calendar shows.

As the virus tore around the world from East to West, these morphed overnight from a live, in-person, sensory experience to a pre-taped digital display released online. Many predicted devastation for the industry, but houses have proved surprisingly resilient. That's since the system had been overdue a shift.

Because the advent of social media, brands have become much less reliant on traditional advertising outlets such as for example magazines. Now, they create their own online channels, circumventing the glossies, to get their designs out.

“Each brand is a media entity unto itself,” Nguyen said, calling what sort of industry operates “obsolete.”

Moreover, as buyers themselves move online, houses have necessarily become significantly less dependent on traditional sales outlets such as for example department stores.

Some houses did much better than expected with the new digital format. Smaller brands, specifically, have welcomed the break from staging runway shows that could be astronomically expensive - for relatively little return.

Paris couture designer Julien Fournie said the virus has led him to question “whether fashion shows were really necessary” to begin with.

The virus saw many brands, including Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen and Bottega Veneta of French luxury giant Kering, tearing up the traditional calendar showing their new collections when it suits them - both creatively and financially. Saint Laurent started the trend this past year, drawing headlines for quitting Paris Fashion Week to “take control of its pace.”

The benefit for these brands is to create dates by themselves terms, with collections that don't contend with others for attention as well. Yet many nostalgic critics, buyers and consumers argue that nothing can replace the physical runway experience.

“Brands have already been deciding an increasing number of when their optimal time to show is... They would like to control their business more and that's their right,” Pascal Morand, Paris fashion federation Executive President.

“But this is simply not the finish to Fashion Week. Whatever people say all of them are awaiting a return to the runway and to come back to the physical experience.”

Stella McCartney, who unveiled her fall collection off-schedule last month, said that the industry has been seriously questioning the relevance of seasons “even before COVID,” as climate change has sadly highlighted how absurd it really is.

“There was a moment at the start of lockdown - in the sky there were no airplanes, you could hear birds," McCartney said. "Individuals were talking about nature reclaiming its rightful place,” she added, expressing frustration with the industry’s lifestyle that requires a large number of kilometers of travel each year.

McCartney said that over the industry there is a sense that brands must embrace sustainability “to be able to survive,” especially to attract the young, more environmentally conscious consumer.

One of these of such eco-thinking is in reducing waste in collections. Luxury giants have already been criticized during the past for burning unused or unsold luxury goods.

And McCartney also doesn’t seem to feel that this will be the end of the runway show.

“I don’t think we will dispose of where we are today and I don’t think we’ll dismiss where we were yesterday," she said. "It took me some time, but I miss the energy towards the end of the show, the engagement with my community, I miss seeing clothes in true to life and moving, expressions of the models, the sound. This is the art.”