Where Will Fashion Go Post the Pandemic?

A woman in a Chanel mask on her way to the Balmain show in Paris. Photograph: Pierre Suu/Getty Images

As we view the world through a new prism post the Corona pandemic what will be the impact on the fashion world?  We were already living in an era defined by growing concerns about global warming, over-consumption and the destructive impact of capitalism, but the impact of the Covid-19 virus will dwarf all these concerns in its immediate aftermath. Vogue Business reported that Covid-19 could cause a $40 billion decline in luxury sales for 2020, with a loss of up to $10 billion in profits and little chance of a return to normal trading conditions. How will the fashion world evolve and survive? 

At the end of 2019 Mary Portas, the retail guru with extensive experience of all levels of retail from the charity sector to luxury department stores, summarised the crisis of over consumption in the fashion industry when she stated: “What we’ve come to realise is that the tenets of  capitalism, that ‘more is better’ is not going to be better for us as people, or for our planet.”  Covid-19 has brought this truth home in a very stark manner and emphasised how man’s destruction of natural habitats has facilitated the movement of diseases from animals to humans with chilling implications for people and economies.  
 
With a growing backlash against fast fashion, the rise of recycling, upcycling and second-hand the consumer culture of the 20th century fashion was already slowly changing and evolving. Covid-19 will accelerate the disenchantment with consumerism which will hopefully, (as Portas believes), be replaced by the “Kindness Economy”  one based on values such as care, respect, compassion and understanding. Instead of the stark bottom line of yore which was solely based on profit, there will be a triple bottom line which includes people, planet and profit. Companies pivoting their manufacturing focus in the current crisis such as LVMH, L’Oreal and Prada making hand sanitiser and medical masks may become the blueprint for a new more altruistic version of fashion.   

​As humanity contemplates their own fragility, the mass extinction of numerous species and the destructions of natural habitats, fashion has moved very low in our priorities. Will it ever be able to recover? Will any of us have disposable income to spend on clothing for the foreseeable future with a severe despression/recession predicted? Observing the damage that fashion was doing to the environment through water and air pollution and harmful emissions that accelerated global warming, most people had already acknowledged that Fashion had “Fucked Up.” The question is can it change adequately to redeem itself in the next decade and post Covid-19, will we care? 
 
The excessive carbon footprint of fashion is undeniable – companies with foresight realised that sustainability needed to become a vital element of their strategy before the pandemic. A growing anti-fashion sentiment was articulated by movements like Extinction Rebellion, who targeted London Fashion Week as new clothes were re-classified as less than cool - a major problem for brands who traditionally used newness as the seasonal driver of sales.  Fast fashion was already an outdated model and fashion forecaster Geraldine Wharry identified that “Brands without some kind of sustainability strategy are in trouble.” Covid-19 has temporarily put considerations about sustainability aside but after the disease recedes, consumers will be more focused on the environment than ever.

Fashion for the past 20 years was an industry where supply exceeded demand culminating in multiple sales per annum,  a growing cohort of discount retailers and tons of discarded textiles. The popularity of Marie Kondo’s philosophy of de-cluttering was the clearest indicator of the level of fashion fatigue amongst consumers. There was too much stuff, consumers were feeling overwhelmed and had already started to reject fashion’s waste and excess. But where now post the pandemic?     

The fashion industry will need to evolve to meet the challenge of selling to a world with a different perspective on consuming clothing after Covid-19. Before this crisis there was already a  shift in sentiment reflected by major brands re-defining how they did business in anticipation of the “greening” of consumers. Retailers diversifying and adapting to meet consumer concerns included Net A Porter’s new Net Sustain platform selling sustainable fashion brands, Arket and Cos selling recycled cashmere and promoting organic cotton and Zara announcing they would use exclusively sustainable fabrics by 2025. With the new moral landscape will these gestures be enough or considered mere window-dressing? 

Pre Covid-19, 83% of consumers said they would pick a brand with a better sustainability record and 70% stated they were willing to pay more for products and services that helped protect the environment or that didn’t infringe human rights. Ethics will dominate as a major consideration when shopping post the pandemic and an emphasis on bio-degradable, compostable, cruelty free and made from recycled materials will flourish. Cruelty free beauty products,  recycled packaging, fair wages and safe working conditions will be as important to consumers as trends, styles and price-points. John Galliano defined the new mood succinctly when he recently told Elle France: “Today we don’t want a product, we want ethics, a firm that defends the values we admire.” 

Image: Indigo Collection from Four Threads S/S2020. The approach to producing a Four Threads item draws from the four aims of their ethos: inspired, handmade, quality and conscious. Photographer: Doreen Kilfeather.

Other industry trends including the rise of virtual collections that will offer consumers the opportunity to create a digital avatar who will buy virtual clothes to be worn online instead of in real life. Such innovations will satisfy humans’ desire for newness without the destructive impact of conventional fashion production. New Irish company Skmmp is already operating a virtual showroom model to offer fashion companies a solution to how they operate without a digital wholesale sales strategy and have received a major boost from the Corona crisis. Another potential development will be the rise of 3D printing and scanning to allow customers to create clothes in their own homes, specific to their own design amendments and measurements. This is symbolic of how the power structure of fashion has shifted in the past decade with the power gradually moving from designers, brands and fashion editors to the consumer. (See how innovative individuals have made visors and masks for health care workers, at home on 3D printers as an example).

In 2018 Norwegian clothing company Carling launched a totally digital collection.

Finally with the growing fusion of fashion and tech, there may also be a parallel revival of interest in craft and hand-made garments. In the past few years there has been a burgeoning appetite for customisation and craft techniques including embroidery, hand knits, naturally dyed  and printed fabrics and hand-embellishment. Jonathan Saunders at Loewe and Sarah Burton at McQueen have both championed craft techniques and skills as opposed to machine made as an antidote to mass manufacturing and its destructive impact. Things made by human hands will be increasingly desirable. According to industry veteran and trend forecaster supreme, Li Edelkoort, the world will change because people will suddenly realise what is truly valuable in life: from a feeling of greater common humanity to a burgeoning appreciation for slower, artisanal craft. 

Will we still be consuming fashion post the pandemic? I think yes but in a modified way. The model of consumption will continue to evolve and change – renting, borrowing, re-selling and virtual fashion will allow us to feed our desire for variety and newness via channels other than traditional shopping. Ownership won’t be of major concern as experiential fashion will triumph over acquisition and luxury will be defined by purpose and ethics rather than exclusivity and expense.  Fashion will remain a form of expression and escapism but it’s model of business will evolve to transform how we consume and celebrate clothing. People will be happier with less as the experience of the pandemic will shift people’s focus from consumption to conservation. Today, on World Earth Day, let us hope that the lessons learned during this pandemic won't be discarded with the face masks. 

A globe with a face mask left on the ground by the children who were playing with it in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China, 22 April2020. Word Earth Day is marked annually on 22 April to raise awareness of environmental protection.