WILL FASHION SURVIVE?
Names that seemed invulnerable are sinking fast — but on the other hand, a major brand has just opened a new boutique in Hong Kong, so no obituaries for the industry just yet, writes Lisa Armstrong
Online searches for what to wear for a Zoom party, which fashion nostalgia books to read and lists of the most glamorous fantasy dresses may be way up, but that’s not the same as buying. People look to fashion for escapism and practical tips about dyeing their own hair, but they’re retreating from the transactional side — understandably, given that people have been in lockdown and many are facing unemployment.
In New York, Anna Wintour and Tom Ford have launched A Common Thread, to raise money for the many US fashion businesses facing extinction. How many? “Look at the New York Fashion Week schedule,” said one senior figure there, “basically, most of them.”
That’s the shocking truth: this isn’t effectively only dinosaur names (of which there are many; think of the US’s dwindling, unloved shopping malls and stodgy, complacent department stores) but businesses that were previously doing all the “right” things. Wintour’s personal emails to her impressive address book of uber-wealthy contacts haven’t gone down well in all quarters. I saw the scathing response of one mogul she’d contacted, the gist of which was: who cares about pampered fashionistas?
The top line of fashion has always been frothy but beneath the foam (which can be delicious, by the way) lies an ocean of business and skills. In SA alone, thousands of people — most of them the opposite of pampered — work(ed) in fashion retail and manufacturing.
The ramifications are already being felt in manufacturing hubs such as Bangladesh where household global fashion brands, some of whom were very quick to publicise their charitable efforts in the fight against Covid-19 at home, were even faster to cancel this season’s orders, leaving many Bangladeshi garment workers penniless.
Yet because of the smoke and mirrors modus operandi of the fashion business — even the tiniest fashion “house” knows how to put on a glamorous front, it’s part of a designer’s genome — many have been shocked at the speed of collapse.
How can four weeks of hibernation effectively destroy established businesses? The answer partly lies in the brutal way the industry has always been weighted towards the biggest and the most powerful. Even a fledgling designer has to pay for fabric and production upfront, yet might not be paid by his wealthy retailers for months, if ever. Cash flow is always an issue in fashion.
Gap, a giant of global retail, just announced it may not have enough funds to get through the next 12 months.
Meanwhile, almost everything is on sale, the pile-up of unbought stock is unprecedented and don’t even think about fashion shows, which are unlikely to happen for the rest of this year — unless digitally. RIP trends for the foreseeable. That’s good news for the planet but bad for all the peripheral economies — hotels, restaurants, travel companies — that bank some of their biggest takings during fashion months around the world.
And there, in a nutshell, is the paradox. The fashion industry has known for years that it needs to change its profligate ways and clean up its environmental vandalism, just as it’s known that old, established names have been in trouble for years, in no small part thanks to inept, lumbering management. That won’t make the thousands of job losses any easier to bear.
Not everyone is suffering: sales of trainers, workout gear and lingerie are holding up and in some cases rising.
Meanwhile, Dolce & Gabbana has just opened — that’s right — a new boutique in Hong Kong. Recovery will be incredibly painful, but it will happen. — ©
How can four weeks of hibernation effectively destroy established businesses?