Fashion Changes Shape, In the Time of COVID_19 FBS C19 Issue 7: 19.06.20 It is entirely indicative of the times we live in, that the title and focus of this issue changed during forty-eight hours. As stated previously this is not a political newsletter, it’s a fashion focussed report to offer information both during full lockdown, and as lockdown shifts. Its horizons are global and also encompass the arts in general, as these often run parallel to fashion and style. So, what are we looking at specifically in this issue? The big brands, cultural style mistakes, celebrities & influencers, technology and local versus global are amongst the topics below, but why? Because things are changing, but not in one simple all embracing ‘easy to wrap’ package. ! "! ! ! Everything is shifting and being discussed, from the serious, with obviously COVID 19 and Black Lives Matter as the two prime examples, to the serious in relation to the fashion world. How will the coming seasons work, what will happen about about sales and price reductions, can we still support very cheap clothing made in terrible factory and worker conditions? ‘The death of the fashion show’, or simply the “hot item” of the week point us to think about these established components of the fashion construction. This is week seven of these reports, and everything we’ve included is factual, and the endless discussions posing unanswerable questions have been excluded. We do not know at this point the real facts of the future of fashion, simply because we are still inside the COVID 19 situation. Since doctors have still to find many answers, we are far to unsure of fresh outbreaks, or mutations of the virus, to predict a spring fashion season in 2021 exactly like the spring season of 2019 would be insane. We cannot make clear and final predictions or decisions. However, what we can be very clear about it, things are already changing. The distance between the statements issued regarding future planning by Gucci and Chanel is the perfect example of the earthquake which is creating huge cracks in the “system”. With seven weeks of these papers or reports we can clearly begin to see the key questions and the responses to the immediate fashion future. Ideology and wishful thinking would suggest that, make better and make less, local not global, fair wages and working conditions, and sustainability will rule the future. The truth is we don’t know, but we can hope. Tony Glenville Fashion Commentator https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/fashion-retail-business-bankrupt- stores/2020/06/12/463572b0-9c56-11ea-ac72-3841fcc9b35f_story.html 2 London Fashion Week & Others: What will we learn from this event? As the first of the four international fashion weeks to “go online” London Fashion Week has been a subject of huge scrutiny. One journalist described it as “a funny mix between the amateurish and the thought provoking. It was clearly a triumph that it happened at all, that the BFC were able to indeed shift from live events a an open to all platform which must have increased the global audience. If this is a future template for fashion weeks? Gender neutral London may have been, but in July Paris is keeping Haute Couture and Menswear firmly separated, plus it’s all still for the professionals with registration required by the federation being still mandatory. For the bodies like CFDA and BFC it is essential that they do something, we have been in lockdown in one for or another since basically the last day of the last season in March. Plus, stories of sickness and the physical effects of COVID 19 are not remote from the fashion business. After the final show by Louis Vuitton many left towns without completing orders, interviews or go sees of collections. The start of the COVID 19 times was already clear, and indeed many who attended a party at the end of Paris became sick, some extremely so. Sophia Neophitou-Apostolou stylist and founder of 10 magazines was in a medically induced coma for a month and is only slowly recovering. Being a key player at the very heart of the global fashion industry means that her story will influence many people regarding future plans. 3 It is important to realise that a fashion week is much more than the shows or the schedule, it’s the off schedule and the beginners, the first timers, and the discoveries. It’s the exchange of views and information, and yes, gossip. It’s how news travels, it’s how views are formed, it’s how just be watching the front row you can tell if it’s a fashion moment, or a fashion disaster. Glamour is the icing on the fashion week cake, the rest is relentless hard slog and a mind focussed only on work. It’s the speed of appointment after appointment, bumping into people after a seasons gap. It is live, it’s atmospheric and it’s the highs and lows; the favourite who lets you down and the unknown who lifts you up. I think the words I’m aiming for are – people and creativity. Hard to replicate online or the ‘new normal’? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/fashion/virus-london-fashion-week- digital.html?searchResultPosition=1 https://www.vogue.com/article/digital-fashion-weeks-2020 https://fashion.cloud/en/digital-fashion-week/ https://cfda.com/fashion-calendar/important-dates/upcoming https://www.pittimmagine.com/en/corporate/fairs/uomo/news/2019/pittiuomoexperience.html Global News: Eco Textile news ‘COPENHAGEN’ - The Global Fashion Agenda non-profit has released an agenda to guide fashion leaders in futureproofing their business models after the coronavirus pandemic by placing sustainability at the core of their operations. 4 Entitled the CEO Agenda 2020, written with contributions from global management consultants McKinsey & Company, it outlines opportunities for CEOs to rebuild the fashion industry with guidance for recovering profitability and embedding greater resilience by advancing sustainability. Based on in-depth consumer research, supplier research and interviews with industry leaders, it aims to help optimise fashion’s value chain in the short term, and to emerge on the other side with more resilient business models in the long term. Originally named a Global Pandemic, COVID 19 has been different in its intensity and timing across the world, just as every country has responded to the outbreaks in a different way. It is clear that from the fashion point of view we are looking at every single aspect of the journey a garment makes. Creative design studios, fabric sourcing, manufacturing, deliveries, magazines, retail, and everything that you can think of and name across the fashion business has been affected. Since early March COVID 19 has swept across the world, and the fashion business has been hard hit, it has had to stop and now it has to restart, but how. Manufacturing to retail it’s time to think, but it cannot be guesswork because this is business. Japan, America, Italy China, wherever we look there is information and as we gather it together, we can hope it will keep us informed and support our decisions. Below we glance at responses to different aspects of these effects in a range of countries. The number of jobs, the roles within the industry and how the chain, from the initial idea through to the customer, works involves so many people and so many skills. If students and those newly launched into the industry who are looking for help, reading and learning certainly doesn’t stop when you graduate. It’s not just about reading Vogue online it’s about a wide range of observers and platforms. Being well informed and having a breadth of knowledge is always essential, but right now it literally the only way to survive. Looking around us means you’re not isolated, and learning from others, both their successes and mistakes, is a great way to develop your power. Live blog: How the Coronavirus affects garment workers in supply chains. https://cleanclothes.org/news/2020/live-blog-on-how-the-coronavirus-influences-workers-in-supply- chains A broad range of viewpoints to read and digest from financial, business and fashion industry: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/06/09/2045523/0/en/Global-Fast-Fashion- Market-Report-2020-to-2030-COVID-19-Growth-and-Change.html https://shenglufashion.com/2020/06/05/covid-19-and-u-s-apparel-imports-updated-june-2020/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/04/10/business/coronavirus-japan-shoppers-buy- online/#.XudnlC_Raf0 https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/perspectives-for-north-americas-fashion- industry-in-a-time-of-crisis# https://www.elle.com/fashion/a31958030/fashion-companies-covid-19-relief/ https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/style/story/future-fashion-70749311 5 https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevendennis/2020/04/21/covid-19-and-fashion-and-luxury-retails- lost-season/#4943c78d707f https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_COVID-19_pandemic_on_the_fashion_industry Fashion has always known how to adapt to the world around it - and that's never been truer than right now. Face masks, once worn as fashion statements, have become indispensable amid the coronavirus pandemic. Big luxury groups and smaller outfits alike have repurposed their production lines to produce vital protective equipment. Covid-19 is forcing the world of fashion to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Who better to discuss these unprecedented times than Parisian designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac? He joins us on the show under lockdown. https://www.france24.com/en/culture/20200508-covid-19-and-the-future-of-fashion Marine Serre: Marine Serre is a French fashion designer who won the 2017 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers.