EDITORIAL

I hope you are well, healthy and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel – not that of an oncoming train.

I have spent the past few months in Austria. Being a neighbor of Italy, we heard the saddest news every day about the terrible situation there. Terrifying – as in many other countries, too.

We in Austria have been pretty lucky. We are one of the countries that opened up again quickly and have hardly noticed the crisis. The situation is incomparable to that in big cities like New York.

Life is getting back to normal – of course on a smaller scale – but it is improving day by day.

One thing Covid-19 brought us, unfortunately, is an opportunity for some dishonest businesspeople to use bad excuses. Without pointing fingers at specific individual companies, a legal robbery has been taking place in the form of filing for Chapter 11. Have 70% of debt, employees, contracts and whatever else is inconvenient written off, then continue under the same brand as if nothing happened.

Nothing happened? A lot has happened, because other honest people are footing the bill for the ones who aren’t so honest.

What’s more, we have been hearing about irresponsible big brands not making or honoring their commitment to pay their suppliers and manufacturers, many of whom are located in developing countries that have been hit unbelievably hard by the pandemic.

We seem to be seeing the wrong kind of Darwinist ‘survival of the fittest’, where it turns into survival of the most reckless. Nothing to be proud of.

I suggest we all remember those who don’t pay us, play games and think they can get away with it. That’s the only way of stopping that kind of behavior. We don’t forgive and forget; we recover and remember.

Another thing we learned is that the possibilities of the Internet are huge, but not endless. As working from home, e-learning and online shopping were broadly accepted during the Covid-19 crisis, it also showed that online is not everything. Humans are social beings. They need each other. They like to speak, touch, feel and interact in person. They like to go shopping in physical stores, unless they need a simple thing that is easy to order online and will not need to be returned.

Physical shopping will never die; rather, online shopping complements bricks and mortar. The same applies to online fairs and events during the crisis. We watched them all; not a single one can be a full substitute to a physical event, although many are well done and can certainly enrich the physical experience. We have used the time to create something that might help the industry: WeAr DiGiShows – where we depict, in the usual WeAr quality, your showroom or store. You can then use this virtual space to conduct one-to-one sales via any video-calling platform. That way you can sell to your clients directly.

As I write these lines, life is getting back to normal, and so is business. The fittest and most hardworking are getting ahead; the weakest will die as there is no more room for unprofessionalism.

As a result, it is becoming clearer every day that you have to go global. The world is huge and the possibilities endless. You can find ‘the one’ importer, distributor or at least a good retailer that will change your business profile long term. Look now: the US is still suffering badly, the state of things in Europe is mediocre, but Asia is booming again. For instance, we have seen the highest number of new readers in China join us in the last weeks.

There is less and less room for unsustainable practices. In the post-pandemic world, sustainability stops being the concern of a niche group of eco-warriors and becomes a central topic for much larger swathes of the population. In this issue, we provide ideas on how to make your offer more ethical and environmentally friendly.

We at WeAr have been one of the few publishing companies to continue covering the fashion world despite Covid-19 – as if there had been no crisis – and despite the huge losses suffered by us and the industry in general. I felt you deserved this. Thank you to all those who supported us and helped us to continue to build the most important bridge in fashion from brands to buyers and fashionistas. Thanks to all our readers and those companies that have been brave enough to continue to advertise and ultimately make WeAr possible.

Stay safe and may your business thrive, Klaus Vogel, Publisher