Fashion Week At Crossroads

In June 15th, the US brand Michael Kors issued a statement to withdraw from the 2020 New York fashion week. Instead, it launched its own exhibition activities in accordance with the progress of the brand from 10 to mid November. In addition, the pre season series will be abolished to streamline the two shows in spring, summer, autumn and winter to cope with the backlog problem caused by the epidemic.

However, Michael Kors is not the first brand to announce the withdrawal from fashion week since the outbreak. As early as the epidemic swept across the world, many fashion brands have voted with their feet to abandon the show. The long-standing Fashion Week "Dashan" has quietly become a "stumbling block" which hinders the flexible development of the industry from the "stepping stone" of the brand display itself. Therefore, after reassessing the positioning and value of fashion shows, more fashion brands have joined the fashion reform camp this year, and are committed to exploring new product release plans that are more suitable for their own development needs.

Fashion is more and more like a "perpetual motion machine" with 365 days unending. IC photo

There are many problems with perpetual motion machine.

For a long time, fashion has become more and more like a "perpetual motion machine" which has been in constant demand for 365 days. The product season is oversupplied, and the attention and influence of the main spring, summer, autumn and winter series of fashion week are diluted. The design team of "continuous rotation" lacks originality, and the designer whose brand is limited is dragged down by the show. The bloated and too fast schedule weakens the meaning of the traditional fashion week. 。

In terms of production and retail, clothing sales are usually sold only four to six months after the end of the fashion show. Since half a century ago, the fashion show held regular "autumn winter series" from 2 to March, and the "spring summer series" was held from 9 to October. In order to clear out the stock and place new products, retailers sometimes have to compress their profit margins and frequently sell the existing clothing in advance. In addition, most brands believe that long wait can increase consumers' expectations. Therefore, although the fashion show has seen the heart stirring style, it still has to wait for several months to get customers. The interval between exhibition and sale is even enough to provide a time lag for copycat design. The disconnection between publishing and selling has always made retailers and brands "suffering".

In view of the above problems, the call for fashion agenda reform has been increasing in recent years. In 2016, the "watch buying" model, which caused widespread controversy inside and outside the industry, became the hottest concept in fashion week topics. However, because this mode involves a large number of production and marketing links, the brand giant, which controls the discourse power of the industrial chain, is cautious about this attitude. Despite the sporadic testing of several famous fashion brands such as Burberry, Rebecca Minkoff and Tory Burch, the traditional fashion model has not yet been shaken.

Opportunities for Industry reset

The most appropriate opportunity emerged during the outbreak. The fashion week around the world has suddenly stopped. The slow down brand just has time to reflect on the shortcomings of the old model. Even with an unprecedented solidarity gesture, it has triggered a wide discussion on how the whole industry will become more flexible, low cost and sustainable for the future fashion agenda.

In mid May this year, Belgian designer Dries Van Noten shared an open letter with 40 fashion industry leaders and retailers. In response to the long-standing issue in the fashion industry that new products are out of season, retailers are advancing frequently or promotions frequently, the appeal for Industry rectification is put forward. Data show that when the buyer and the goods are synchronized, the frequency of shopping is higher. Therefore, they suggested that from autumn and winter 2020, retailers will sell autumn and winter fashions from August to January of each year, and sell spring and summer costumes from February to July every year. They believe that the time of brand adjustment of commodity shelves corresponds to the actual season and postpones the discount period, which can allow enough time to encourage the sale of goods at a positive price, and also effectively avoid the derogation of brand value caused by frequent price cuts. At the same time, synchronous sales with the season can make customers more sensible consumption, avoid buying too much seasonal clothes, thereby promoting the rational production of the brand, improving the utilization rate of cloth and storage space, and making the operation of the fashion industry chain more reasonable.

Just a few days later, a few days later, the British Fashion Association (BFC) and the American Fashion Designers Association (CFDA) jointly published an open letter entitled "resetting the fashion industry", suggesting that the industry might slow down and reexamine and change the current irrational business models and schedules. The letter recommends that brands should focus on more than two series of fashion shows every year, which will help to alleviate the pressure of designers while giving them the time needed for creative and tailoring processes. In addition, the two associations also advocate the return of the essence of costume design. Creation should focus on the brand's own characteristics instead of blindly pursuing the trend. After the epidemic was brought under control, fashion activities returned to normal. They suggested that all kinds of fashion show should be returned to the exhibition hall in various transitional seasons. Other major seasonal fashion shows suggested that the four fashion houses in Paris, Milan, New York and London should be selected to reduce the carbon footprint of the audience.

Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello and chief executive Francesca Bellettini said in an interview with WWD: "for many years, we all know that these things will change someday. That's it now. We have no reason to follow the agenda of more than 70 years ago to carry out the fashion show, which is completely different from what it is now. " They emphasize that slower pace of work can also avoid people's aesthetic weariness and make fashion more durable.

Someone walks, someone stays.

Earlier this year, Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani and Valentino have announced their withdrawal from the fashion week September fashion schedule. Although the Saint Laurent fashion show is likely to be held this year, the brand will not follow the schedule specified by fashion week, but will follow the brand's own rhythm in a more closely integrated mode with consumers. Just a few days after the above-mentioned letter of initiative, Gucci quickly joined the camp of reformists. Creative director Alessandro Michele announced through Instagram that Gucci will discard the traditional way of season distribution and reduce the annual show activities to two. He said in a statement: "I will discard the old-fashioned seasonal publication and the form of walking, seeking a new rhythm to suit my personal expressive power. I will no longer follow the brand's past themes: early spring, early autumn, spring, summer, autumn and winter. These labels have become cliches and lost meaning. In early June, Chao brand Off-White also announced its withdrawal from the fashion week in September. It will launch a new model and a new 2021 spring series in January next year, and the new product will also be on sale in February. The new generation of fashion distribution that keeps pace with the season and is closely integrated with the show shows that the "watching buy" mode 2 does not prohibit people from expecting.

Changing the fashion week and the retail agenda once there is a consensus in the industry, coupled with the positive response of luxury head brands, the transformation of events is often beyond imagination. However, not all brands agree and accept such radical reforms. LVMH group board member and Berluti brand CEO Antoine Arnault told French television Quotidien that for Fashion Week hosts such as Paris, New York and Tokyo, fashion week has brought local restaurants, hotels and other businesses to a certain extent, and has brought considerable revenue. He said: "we can not think that fashion week is an outdated thing, give up to give up, in this regard, we need to think deeply."

Milan fashion week organizers and Carlo Capasa, chairman of the Italy National Fashion Association, insist that traditional fashion schedules should be continued. "I totally disagree with the idea of holding fashion shows before starting a real sale. Fashion shows become a business plan, not a creative display. He said: "we believe that it is very important for the media to have enough time to shoot and present new trends and convey them to customers and give consumers enough time to digest these ideas." He stressed that fashion should not be a marketing attraction, but a "dream making".

No matter whether the contradiction between rigid fashion week schedule and brand autonomy is regarded as a flood, or who wants to stick to tradition and tide over the crisis, who will become the ultimate winner is still unknown. But since we have already paid too much price for greedy and quick greedy, this time, let's wake up the fashion industry slowly and think twice before we get really fast.