The fashion industry needed a shake-up. A pandemic has forced it to look in the mirror

The fashion industry has successfully avoided facing many of its demons for a long time, but now external circumstances are forcing the point. Sophie Benson looks at the impact of Covid-19 on the future of fashion

(Photo by REX (10416770s))

Fashion month is about to get into full swing; New York Fashion week began on Friday 11 September, followed by London a week later, then Paris and Milan. But the season will not be as we know it.  As the coronavirus pandemic, and local lockdown restrictions, continue to limit gatherings and present a potential health risk to visitors, the industry has had to adapt. Now September’s spring/summer 2021 shows will be presented across a range of different physical and digital formats with films, digital presentations and appointment-only showings dominating the schedule.

Any traditional runway shows going ahead are salon-style shows, limited to small audiences, doing away with the usual fashion circus that has become part and parcel of the month. Queues of chauffeured cars, international flights from one capital to the next, and crowds of influencers and editors drawing equally large numbers of street style photographers snapping outfits, a ritual which has become as much a part of the coverage as the shows themselves. But does fashion week really need all the extras?

“To take street style as an example, I think there are other ways of covering [that] fashion than posting pictures of people in samples outside fashion shows,” says Emma Hope Allwood, head of fashion for Dazed Digital, who isn’t planning on going to any physical shows this season. “I’m more excited by what teens are wearing on TikTok. I think it’s going to be interesting to see whether our audience feels that it’s a great loss not having fashion week – do they miss the shows? Or does the idea of a fashion week feel dated or alienating to them?”

The relevance of fashion week in its existing guise has been up for debate for some time, particularly as legitimate concerns about environmental sustainability, overconsumption, burnout, garment workers’ rights, carbon emissions and pollution, and wealth disparity have finally fought their way into the mainstream conversation. But, as a multi-billion dollar industry (the UK industry alone is worth £26bn) and employees over 800,000 people directly or indirectly, trying to stop the wheels once they were in motion was like trying to stop a high-speed train. It wasn’t going to derail without collateral damage.

Then 2020 arrived, forcing us to turn the tables on life as we know it. And giving pause to many industries - not just fashion - like office work, which has long been cited as outdated but never faced complete eradication, in part due to the scale of the task. But the pandemic has forced everything to be reconsidered, even the things we took as assumed.

“[The pandemic] has given everyone the time needed to reflect on how out of control fashion seasons had got and the need to slow things down for the wellbeing of both us and our planet,” says CEO of Lone Design Club (LDC), an ethical and independent immersive shopping experience, Rebecca Morter. LDC’s London Fashion Week Offering will exhibit data from 2018’s fashion week to analyse the changes that have happened around sustainability and diversity and, importantly, what changes still need to happen.

Fashion designer Patrick McDowell agrees the fashion industry is ripe for change. “It was quite evident that there were huge flaws in the fashion system, but the hamster wheel was turning so quickly” says the designer,  based in east London, who created an entirely digital show for Helsinki Fashion Week in August. The pandemic, he says, has given people within the industry the chance to “hop off” and rethink the way they operate.

A shift away from the traditional confines of the big four fashion weeks has been on the cards for a while. Over the last few years, labels including Vetements, J.W. Anderson, Alexander Wang and Gucci have broken with the traditional schedule, while an open letter calling on the industry to adjust the “seasonality and flow” of shows was signed by the likes of Dries Van Noten, Craig Green and Grace Wales Bonner. But progress has been slow. Now the pandemic has forced the industry to accelerate.

“It’s been quite remarkable really how fast the fashion industry reacted to how things have gone this year,” says McDowell. For example, much of New York Fashion Week will take place on the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s (CFDA) new platform, Runway360. Anyone with an internet connection and an interest in fashion can watch ‘digital activations’ by the likes of Tom Ford and Cynthia Rowley, no invitation required. Giorgio Armani’s Milan show will even be shown on national television in Italy, the ultimate democratisation of the fashion show.

As the armchair replaces the front row, not only does fashion week reach a wider audience that may have typically been excluded in the past, but it cuts out the need for transport to each location, something which is increasingly coming under fire as we’re confronted with the effects of climate change. 

“I don’t think the need for international travel in the fashion industry is something that’s going to change, realistically,” says Allwood. “But I think we will all be more mindful of it and be seeking to cut down on flights or for companies to offset the carbon of those we do take. I’ve flown to other countries for meetings before – will that still happen in the age of Zoom?”

Whether we can ever make fashion week an entirely digital entity is doubtful. It’s difficult to match experiencing clothes in person, and an online showroom doesn’t give buyers the chance to see and feel the true quality and detail of each garment. But showroom appointments and intimate salon shows, a format chosen by both Victoria Beckham and Molly Goddard for London Fashion Week, can answer that need for key people without necessitating thousands descending on one city.

But a format change isn’t all we’re getting from the spring/summer 2021 shows. In New York, many of the big names are notably missing from the schedule. Brands including Proenza Schouler and Prabal Gurung have postponed their shows, while Michael Kors will present its spring/summer collection “sometime between mid-October and mid-November” and autumn/winter collection will be presented “sometime between mid-March and mid-April”, perhaps suggesting a more permanent move.

Off-White by Virgil Abloh is going completely off the fashion grid, forgoing the slot at Paris Fashion Week in favour of producing the spring/summer collection for retail release in February. After that, the New York Times reports, “the collections will be organised by monthly instalments and will satisfy any commercial need, leaving Virgil Abloh all the creative space he needs.”

It’s bold and could signal a more concrete move away from seasonality, something which has been mooted for years but has mainly just translated to boots and turtlenecks being shown in spring/summer collections or autumn/winter offerings peppered with lightweight dresses and shorter sleeves.

Cancelled orders piled up in factories highlighted the industry’s problematic insistence on producing something new to answer each season and trend, while being unable to live life as normal forced us all to confront how much we own. Against that backdrop, a rigid schedule of creating new just because that’s what we’re used to feels crude and outdated and a moment of reflection provides the chance to break the mould, creatively and strategically.

“I hope this period has encouraged people to think differently about the ways they wish to exist within (or outside of) the fashion industry,” says Allwood. “Regular fashion shows – especially for big luxury brands – are not going anywhere, but showing on schedule, or showing seasonally, or even having a show at all might not be right for every designer."