A future by design
Fashion has been defined by moments of crisis. What will our generation’s reckoning mean for the industry’s future, and how can we make sure the chance for change doesn’t get away? By Alice Birrell.
retail signatories including Lane Crawford, Burberry, Proenza Schouler, Nordstrom and Selfridges, calling for the total realigment of seasons – clothes to drop instore during the season they’re designed for and delaying sales to decrease periods of discounting.
Many have been proponents of Van Noten’s model for years, reckoning that universal seasonality never made sense to a world split by hemispheres. Lots of designers are halting resort collections and instead extending prefall. Is fashion finally reaching for the ripcord on unchecked pace? Morton suggests a ‘drops model’ could prevail instead, with brands releasing pieces at will, for shifting needs. Saskia Hedrich, senior expert working alongside Magnus at McKinsey, says oversupply of unwanted product is a problem, but can be reduced by consumer-sensitive thinking. “Rather than placing bets by pushing their ideas to consumers, fashion companies need to be able to understand consumers’ needs on a deeper level and react more quickly while avoiding overproduction,” she says.
To many, a time for pause has crystallised what we already guiltily suspect. “How many people have realised they don’t use three quarters of what they have in their closet? Why did they get all of this stuff? And do they want to continue consuming that way?” says Golbin. It jibes with buyers and executives noticing a solid performance of long-wearing items during the crisis. “Fine jewellery has had a great response,” says Natalie Kingham, buying director at Matches Fashion. “People have been investing in timeless luxury pieces such as watches to treat themselves. In Australia, Lyst has seen a similar interest, as well as globally pre-owned Chanel bags enter the search platform’s list of most buzzed-about products, a consignment piece being a rare entry, notes Morton. “It may be a sign that classic styles are more appealing to shoppers at this time.”
Fashion was certainly heading that way: a return to classic dressing, a focus on things that get better with age, ‘continuity’ collections – core products that carry over across seasons. The crisis mightn’t be here to revolutionise, but accelerate: purpose, meaning, quality. Trends – with nowhere to wear them right now, no street style, or influencers on holidays to perpetuate them – drop away.
Elizabeth Kuzyk of New York outerwear label Kuzyk, sees a new pragmatic rhythm in progress. “I think people are waking up to the fact that we hold onto a small percentage in our wardrobe,” she says. Inspired by Patti Smith, James Dean and Lauren Hutton, people who “abandoned the rules of fashion”, she wants her pieces to be handed down. “When you adopt a worn-in jacket, you feel as though you are inheriting stories.” She sees them becoming part of each wearer’s style. “They become your security blanket. Your personal superhero cape, ready for that special occasion or simply tossed over pyjamas for that midnight ice-cream run.” What might change most is our understanding of what luxury is, defined by memory and meaning and how well a piece can capture these: how many stories do you live out in that coat or leather jacket?
“In the 1980s Calvin Klein Obsession perfume became one of the number-one hits,” says Golbin. “Then came the crash of 1987 that completely blew up the economy and then they came up with another perfume called Eternity … the tone changed from obsession to eternity.” A shift from consumerism to emotion is being paralleled now. In Vogue’s Global Conversations series, creative director of Off-White and Louis Vuitton men’s, Virgil Abloh, characterised it as “pure vanity, to humanity”. Pierpaolo Piccioli in the same series said: “The idea is not to deliver stuff, it’s not to deliver new clothes: it’s to deliver new dreams and new emotions for a new moment.” A sense that creativity is being given time to breathe is rising.
Thus form conditions ripe for collaboration and collective thinking. Out of pure necessity, competition is being cast aside in some corners – brands stuck with fabric they can’t put into production have been offering it up to others that can, like Dickies furnishing sellers on re-sale platform Depop with excess materials. Miuccia Prada made the portentous decision to invite Raf Simons to become cocreative director of her empire in late February this year, and the spirit has lived on in smaller-scale designers like Nicholas Daley, who is looking to his close community, instead of the world at large, to contribute poetry and music to his shows. Honest connection and raw communication is the new normal.
In a crisis, when the old ways don’t fit, independent voices can take up an important seat at the table. As Golbin points out, during the Gulf War of the 90s, the ostentatious designs of couture houses suddenly became gauche, making way for the refined Helmut Lang and the conceptual Maison Margiela. Who will these important, fresh voices be now?
For upstart local Indigenous designer Regina Jones of Ginny’s Girl Gang, who customises upcycled denim jackets with proud messages of Aboriginal identity, becoming part of the fashion conversation was crucial. “It’s been a roller-coaster. Just prior to the pandemic, my following was growing,” she says. She’s recently recovered from Covid-19 herself, and now faces the task, like other young labels facing financial pressures, of remaining part of the conversation on the other side, maintaining a diverse eco-system of thinkers. “I don’t want to imagine this space without us being represented: [we have] 60,000-plus years of culture that we can bring to this industry.”
It comes back to being a more human-centric fashion system, at the most basic level. Grace Forrest, co-founder and director of global anti-slavery organisation Walk Free, sees an opportunity for thinly veiled tokenism to be unmasked. “Times like these are a test of whether brands live up to the corporate social responsibility values that they so eagerly promote to consumers,” she says. “Those who turn away precisely when workers are most vulnerable should be held to account. We should vote with our dollars for companies that are aligned with the kind of world we want to live in.”
How soon a new fashion world will come about, and how drastic and longlasting change will actually be remains unknown, but the territory will be new. “Look at social media today, how many selfies do you see? All of a sudden [it’s] dogs and cats and food. People aren’t looking at themselves for once: it is a very introspective moment,” say Golbin. She is noticing green shoots of selfexpression, for the joy of it. “When you put on that jacket it takes you back to that party with your girlfriends, or that birthday. It’s like a magnet of truth, it brings you back emotionally,” she says. “We always need to differentiate ourselves and our individuality. That will once again play out, but how is the really big question.” And another: who will we be on the other side?
“People aren’t looking at themselves for once: it is a very introspective moment”