Fashion Weeks

Info pack Ethical Fashion Hackathon 6th May 2020 Fashion Weeks

Introduction

Fashion weeks expose the enormous flaw at the heart of the fashion industry business model: the cost to people and the planet. In the last 12 months, the fashion show circuit (NY, London, Milan, Paris) emitted 241,000 tonnes of CO2. The equivalent of lighting up Times Square for 58 years. In 2020, is this still justifiable? Huge swathes of our industry flying across the world to view a 12 minute runaway show featuring collections that will mostly be displayed and sold online?

These events are moments of both celebration of beauty and art as well as commercial platforms to feed a hungry business model, structured in an organisational form that pays no attention to sustainability. They run one after the other, forcing industry staff to travel frantically from here to there (via land, sea and air), while producers work in emergency-like conditions to have products ready for the shows, causing an imbalance in personal health and mental well being. In the meantime, consumers are bombarded by a mountain of images and faces of influencers, very few of whom acknowledge how these goods are made or their impact on people’s lives and on the natural world. All this while our planet risks extinction.

Asks

● For editors and buyers being present in the physical space of a live show is “the experience”. The multisensory journey to see, touch and feel the collections and interacting with designers is paramount. Can digital, AR and VR replace this “experience”? Is it only a generational issue or does it go deeper? ● How could we recreate the “buzz” of fashion weeks --the exclusivity, celebrity, networking i.e. the aspirational ‘scene’--to many channels (not just being physically present)? ● Is there a way to alleviate the pressure and stress on designers and producers to have collections ready for Fashion Weeks? ● Can we align fashion with Art and Culture in another format? How has this issue been affected by COVID 19?

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen high mortality rates and infections around the world, has led to the disruption of everyday life, with local governments enacting strict measures to contain the virus’ spread. Major cities have made such orders to prohibit large gatherings, including closures of restaurants, gyms, salons and other businesses. These measures have affected a myriad of fashion and beauty businesses, many of which are now closing their doors for an indefinite period of time.

COVID-19 hit Italy in the midst of Milan Fashion Week in late February, causing a number of designers — including Giorgio Armani, who barred a public audience to view his fall 2020 runway show — to rethink their show formats.

The virus has since caused many design houses and fashion weeks to cancel - New York Resort Week, New York Men’s Week, Paris Men’s Week and Paris Couture Week. Milan Men’s Week was consolidated with the women’s collections in September. Resort 2021 shows, including Armani, Dior, Gucci, Hermès, Max Mara, Prada, Chanel and Versace, Ralph Lauren’s and Burberry’s fall 2020 to name a few were postponed. Chanel’s Métiers d’Art show was restaged. At Paris Fashion Week, Chanel, LV, Dries van Noten and Paco Rabanne’s shows went on – though the former two brands banned US staff from attending, and the latter two offered guests protective masks. The smaller independents Rosie Assoulin, Agnès B and APC did not show, and nor did the jewellery Maison Cartier, who stopped its Cartier Creations presentation.

New York Bridal Week, which was scheduled for April 16 to 20 went virtual, with designers encouraged to use Zoom and Join.me platforms to present their collections.Several upcoming fashion weeks have since been canceled.

For many brands, COVID 19 has been the catalyst to a long overdue system change. Cancellations may lead to questions about the format itself in the long term.

“In a time of crisis, we have to think about a radical reset,” said Vogue editor Anna Wintour ​ on the issue.

The virus might force designers to question whether they really need to do a fashion show to sell their products and build their brand at all. Undoubtedly, there will always be brands that insist on shows—ironically, the kind of existential questioning that the sustainability movement has been begging the industry to take seriously over the past year.

What are the problems within the challenge?

Carbon Footprint: with large numbers of editors, buyers, bookers, models and celebrity agents all flying into host cities to attend global fashion weeks, an excessive amount of CO2 emissions are emitted and the environmental impact felt. Job Loss / Redundancy: if the physical format of fashion weeks were to change, this ​ would lead to job losses, reduced tourism and income that cities have relied upon with the increased visitor numbers around fashion weeks. Employee Stress: mental and physical health of staff at fashion houses attempting to meet fashion week deadlines. Media access to collections: without physically seeing garments, how can fashion critics ​ give collection reviews and critique tangible items? Photographers: a huge amount of work is generated for photographers during fashion weeks. How will they sustain the gap in business? What will take the place of images previously featuring runway shows and BTS, street style? Advertising: currently, advertising campaigns time with the reveal of collections at fashion week. How will this change if the show calendar is no longer relied upon? Buyers: Designers do not hold presentations merely to show clothing, but to sell it. ​ However, designers are discovering they can still make sales without person-to-person appointments, using digital platforms like Joor to sell their goods instead. Others reportedly use PDFs to make sales. Undoubtedly, a number of high-touch, visionary merchants will struggle to place orders for clothing that they are not able to feel, but wholesalers are already thinking about how they might solve that over the next season. Model work: without runway shows, what will become of traditional runway models? Will ​ this have a knock on effect on model agencies? Production timeline disruptions: COVID-19 has impacted production timelines and the ​ availability of goods. This has produced uncertainties around manufacturing and delivery times. Celebrity engagement: fashion shows provide a place for VIP/celebrity influencers to be ​ seen and for brands to showcase their connections, sometimes introducing new campaign stars on the front row of their shows.

Who are the stakeholders involved in this challenge? Who are all the people we want to consider and positively impact?

• Designers • Stylists ​ • Photographers ​ • Media ​ • Buyers ​ • Producers ​ • Retailers ​ • Manufacturers ​ • Influencers

• Models

Inspiration for solutions

Shanghai Fashion Week Turns Digital Shanghai fashion week was the first to turn to completely digital, beginning 24 March. Its organisers enlisted the help of Chinese e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba to provide a platform for the shows on its Tmall live-streaming channel, with many of the clothes available to buy straight off the runway.

Their online shift has drastically altered the very core on which fashion weeks have been built — a physical space for buyers to preview new collections. 150 designers and brands use live-streaming to present over 1,000 products from their current and upcoming collections. Moreover, the core consumer focus catering to a potential 800 million active users might have far-reaching implications on who future fashion weeks cater to. Shanghai’s online makeover could offer hope to an already jaded fashion week system challenged by the emergence of COVID-19 globally and increasing environmental pressures most notably in travel. Saint Laurent Cancels all 2020 Shows

The French couture fashion house Yves Saint Laurent has announced it will not be participating in Fashion Week for the rest of the year due to COVID-19 concerns. The move is seen by many as a rebellion against the frenetic fashion calendar. Designer Anthony Vaccarello said that the brand was taking back "ownership of its calendar" and would "launch its collections... driven by creativity.”

“Conscious of the current circumstance and its waves of radical change, Saint Laurent has decided to take control of its pace and reshape its schedule," the Belgian-born creator said in an Instagram post, with the Eiffel Tower, the traditional backdrop to its shows, in the background.

London Fashion Week goes Digital

The British Fashion Council announced Men's fashion week in June will be both digital and gender neutral, showing womenswear alongside menswear online. During the month in which London Fashion Week Men’s would have occurred - week beginning June 12 - a digital London Fashion Week will instead take place, hosted on londonfashionweek.co.uk, with both menswear and womenswear designers showcasing.

Caroline Rush said: “The other side of this crisis, we hope, will be about sustainability, creativity and products that you value, respect, cherish. By creating a cultural fashion week platform, we are adapting digital innovation to best fit our needs today and something to build on as a global showcase for the future.”

Perspectives

McKinsey

‘With fashion shows and seasons completely wiped from the first half of the 2020 calendar and the September shows still hanging in the balance, the fashion cycle may also experience a long-overdue cadence shift. Fashion Week has been a growing pain point for the industry from a sustainability and investment standpoint with many viewing it as an antiquated resource vacuum. Resource-intensive destination cruise and resort shows need to be re-evaluated, as well as the idea of multiple fashion weeks in multiple cities throughout the year.’ ‘The necessity for fashion to ‘skip a season’ also offers an opportunity to sell products in-season, instead of bringing in deliveries earlier and earlier, so that winter clothes are selling in July. It will be up to bigger players to rethink the fashion cycle and catalyse real change by adopting new digital formats and setting an example for the rest of the industry’. ‘Organizers of Shanghai Fashion Week -who called off their physical event this season-have also pivoted to live stream, not only for fashion presentations but also by teaming up with Alibaba to allow brands to sell current season stock through the tech giant’s Tmall platform. Showrooms that hold wholesale designer brands during Shanghai fashion week are now largely being conducted via live streaming, video conference appointments and online ordering in a test of just how much the fashion industry can be digitised, a B2B experiment that will be watched closely by industry peers around the world.’ Giorgio Armani

‘This crisis is also an opportunity to restore value to authenticity: enough with fashion as pure communication, enough with cruise shows around the world to present mild ideas and entertain with grandiose shows that today seem a bit inappropriate, and even a tad vulgar — enormous but ultimately meaningless wastes of money. Special events should happen for special occasions, not as a routine.’ Extinction Rebellion

‘It’s hard to imagine fashion week disappearing, but who knows? This season’s shows have already prompted questions about how we should engage with fashion, with designers staging major, celebrity-studded events in lieu of runway shows or stepping away from the catwalk entirely. ‘During fashion month, the industry travels to global destinations to parade, see, and buy fashion, [and] it creates the desire that results in the consumption of fast fashion and beyond.’ The Financial Times

‘Was all the all-digital SFW a suitable replacement for real shows? For the industry members – designers, buyers and editors – who tuned in, the answer was: not yet. While an impressive first effort, SFW’s live streams were beset with technical glitches, and even the pre-recorded videos were too low resolution to get a sense of the fabric and the quality of the construction.’ ‘Technology aside, there is the human factor to consider. Fashion weeks aren’t just about shows. Equally, if not more, important are the interactions that take place away from the catwalk: the meetings between designers and editors, where concepts and construction can be discussed in detail; and the private appointments between showrooms and store buyers, where orders are placed and young designers often discovered’.

Literature and links

● Giorgio Armani Pens Open Letter to WWD ● It’s time to rewire the fashion system: State of Fashion coronavirus update ● Fashion industry during--and after--the coronavirus crisis ● Five actions retail supply chains can take to navigate the coronavirus pandemic ● Forced cancellations jumpstart virtual fashion technology ● Forget digital versus physical: The future is programmable ● How to go live ● Extinction Rebellion’s Climate Change Protests at London Fashion Week - Photos ● Can digital fashion weeks replace the real deal? ● Shanghai Fashion Week 2020: The show must go on, but how? ● Opportunities in crisis: Will online runway shows become new trend? ● Shanghai Fashion Week: The first entirely digital fashion week ● What Shanghai's First Digital Fashion Week Meant for Brands and Designers

News (links)

The Ethical Fashion Hackathon is an initiative of the International Trade Centre’s Ethical Fashion Initiative and CommonVC, in close partnership with the European Union. This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of ITC Ethical Fashion Initiative and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.