Shaken, heckled, but released, fashion is already reinvented<

The scene is worthy of a film by Stanley Kubrick, between Barry Lyndonet Eyes Wide Shut.A sort of 2020: the fashion odyssey.With a touch of joyful madness as in Jean-Paul Goude's clips.During the night of April 28 in Amsterdam, while a boat slides on the water with a creature dressed in white lace on board, models appear at the windows of the fortress of the hotel of Europe.Dressed in sewing dresses, they wear masks and brandish a white flag.

The performance is signed by creator Ronald van der Kemp.To mark the end of confinement in the Netherlands, this cantor of sustainable creation organized this happening without prior announcement.The idea?Deliver a note of hope while wondering about the future of fashion."Before the world returns to the world before, that of overproduction, disposable clothes and hypertrophy of collections, reconsider practices," he insists.

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An unprecedented shock

After amazement, questions, upheavals linked to the coronavirus pandemic, fashion rolls up its sleeves.How are the next days looming?Difficult to say but one thing is certain: they will no longer be the same.If messages for a better fashion and a reconsideration of the sector multiply in all its actors - from Ronald van der Kemp in Giorgio Armani, who, in an open letter addressed in April to the magazinewwd, said he was ready to end the systemCurrent -, Fashion Sphere is unanimous on one point: it has experienced a shock and the tests to be overcome will not be easy.

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Fashion designers had to adapt, manage, react quickly to the cancellation of orders and closure of factories.They had to be agility to imagine their future collections with their work teams in dispersed rows.Everyone we interviewed during this period say: they danced on the brink, then took a time to reflect to better go back to the ring.But not just how.Because, for the first time in their career, they also slowed down their pace of life and was able to wonder about the future of their profession.From New York to Paris, passing through Milan, these creatives who all parade in the Calendar of Fashion Weeksapportects reflection tracks that will (perhaps) find a culmination in the coming months.

@Nottheworstmom i’ve used it often.How to tile a shower, How to tune a piano, How to fix a dryer.

— Chris Breen Thu Jun 25 00:37:12 +0000 2020

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Free fall sales

For the first time also in its history, the whole sector - major brands with luxury houses, designers to craftsmen, from studios to production sites - has been stopped."This crisis is unprecedented by its magnitude - it affects the whole world - and its stopping power, analyzes Serge Carreira, luxury specialist and lecturer at Sciences Po Paris.This was never the case during the two World Wars of the XXth century.Some houses had closed, but others had remained active and the woolen factories even turned at full speed to dress the army.And even if some production sites for large houses or other textile companies have converted during confinement in the manufacture of masks, it will take an average of 7.5 months in the sector to find a normal level of activity (1).

How will this luxury industry come out of this unprecedented confinement?The negative impact of the coronavirus on sales of the fashion sector in France is edifying: -53 % in March and -85, 5 % in April, online sales included (2). Fin mars, le cabinet Bain & Company présageait aussi un recul de 25 à 30 % des ventes au premier trimestre pour l’ensemble du secteur du luxe."Economic shock, even if it is important in major fashion claws, will be easier to manage for them than for young creation," says Serge Carreira, because they handle all of their production chains, have their ownstore networks and can therefore adjust their stock and command levels depending on the events.»»»»

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Parades in digital mode

As for the next male fashion weekends that were to be held this month, they will take place, but on a screen.In Paris, the Federation of Haute Couture and Modeling will a digital platform of free expressions - parades, performances, interviews, films - from July 9 to 13.London (from June 12) and Milan (from July 14 to 17) will also have their dedicated platforms, merging for the occasion Male ready-to-wear and women's pre-collections.

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What about haute couture which traditionally radiates the city of light in January and July?“It will take place online, from July 6 to 8, specifies Pascal Morand, executive president of the federation of haute couture and fashion, with a principle identical to that of male fashion week, but with a specific accent on knowledge-Faire inherent in haute couture.It is a great first and a real challenge that we will all succeed together.»»»»

Towards a new seasonality?

There are still big unknowns: which houses will participate in this digital calendar and that will become the following fashion weekends?Saint Laurent has already announced to decide on his own agenda in 2020.Alessandro Michele also announced on Instagram a radical change in the Gucci calendar, qualifying the existing seasons of overwhelmed, and the rhythm of constant new features, tyrannical.His new tempo?Two parades per year only.We have also seen a post-confinement flower of the manifests or open letters of independent creators, CEOs and buyers of department stores calling the sector to a lasting change and a new temporality of the seasons.Another question: if the digitalization of the podiums accelerates, how to transcribe the emotion of a physical parade?We bet that the fashion sector, still in advance of a season, will be able to answer these burning questions.

(1) According to 28 senior managers of major luxury brands interviewed by the analyst firm Bernstein and the consulting company Boston Consulting Group

(2) Figures from the French Fashion Institute

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