Protective mask from Vietnamese designer Do Quyen Hoa. Canceled fashion weeks, closed boutiques, and disinfectants instead of expensive perfume – the Covid-19 pandemic has dealt a severe blow to the fashion industry and raised questions about the survival of many of its segments. The BBC Russian Service has investigated how the coronavirus is changing the world of fashion and how long these changes will last.
Fashion weeks, held regularly in fashion capitals around the world, are the result and quintessence of the multi-day work of hundreds of designers and major fashion houses. These weeks are where future trends are identified, where fashion editors, influencers and major buyers gather. For many observers around the world, these weeks are familiar beacons that help understand where fashion is headed. Today it can be said that these lighthouses have almost completely disappeared.
Fashion shows – always a bright and colorful phenomenon. But now the question is increasingly being asked: are these very expensive events really necessary in their current form? Covid-19 arrived in Italy just in time for Milan Fashion Week, one of the most important events in the fashion world. Designer Giorgio Armani presented his collection to an empty hall, while many others began canceling or postponing their scheduled events indefinitely. Gucci, Burberry, Prada and others have temporarily canceled shows of their so-called cruise or mid-season collections. Paris Men’s Fashion Week and Haute Couture Week, scheduled for the summer, have also been canceled. It is not impossible that all major events scheduled for the second half of the year will also be cancelled: even if the quarantine measures are lifted, participants and organizers will have little time to prepare.
One of the main questions industry insiders are asking during the quarantine period is: do we really need expensive fashion shows in their current form? In the industry, there is talk of a radical overhaul of the show format – a move to the so-called “Olympic Games model,” in which all events are held once a year in a select location (currently, fashion weeks are held at least twice a year in four major “fashionable” cities – New York, Paris, Milan and London).
It is possible that next season’s fashion outfits will look something like this. Discussions are underway regarding proposals for a complete transition of displays to virtual mode. At the end of March, Shanghai Fashion Week took place “in the cloud” for the first time in the industry’s history: 150 brands showed their collections via streaming platforms from their studios and homes. Instead of hiring professional models, which would have been difficult due to bans, many designers invited their friends and Instagram influencers. Around the same time, the first digital fashion week took place in Moscow.
Designer collections reflect the trend of the upcoming season, dictated by the fight against Covid-19. “This erases the boundaries of time and opens the door to a new reality,” Russian designer Irina Trubina writes on her Instagram. “Very soon we will see how brands will present virtual samples, show entire collections, and people who like the design will be able to order a real item.” But optimism about future virtual catwalks and cloud models is not shared by everyone. “Fashion shows play such an important role in the modern fashion industry that a radical rethinking of the system is unlikely, according to Vikram Kansarayu, an analyst at the Business of Fashion. Of course, this is assuming that the current crisis does not continue for at least another year.
The epidemic has particularly affected photographers, models, stylists and makeup artists. These are usually freelancers who live from contract to contract. “I returned from my last contract in Australia in mid-March and self-isolated in Moscow for two weeks – hoping that things would get better, but they only got worse,” says 20-year-old model Polina Shotova of the Direct Scouting agency. “In the end, I decided to go to my parents’ house in Kaliningrad to make it easier to endure the quarantine, as it is unclear how long it will last.”
Model Polina Shotova, like hundreds of others, remained unemployed due to the coronavirus epidemic. Polina is one of many who have lost their jobs. The epidemic has particularly affected photographers, models, stylists and makeup artists, who are usually freelancers living from contract to contract. “Lost their jobs and modeling agencies.” “Now that clients can no longer do photo shoots and models can no longer travel to work, orders have completely stopped,” says David Ratmoko, director of Metro Models. Some models try to promote clothes from home, but David considers this method inefficient due to the quality of the photos. Photographers are learning to work remotely with their models through Facetime-like applications. “You can connect with a person from any city and control the [shooting] process while being thousands of miles away,” says Moscow photographer Danil Golovkin.
Photographer Konstantin Chabalov: “People who have been in quarantine for a long time also need beauty.” “Facetime shooting is an interesting experience that shows how you can create something beautiful without lenses or editing,” says another Moscow photographer, Konstantin Chalabov. “And it provides an opportunity to make money.” On his “Instagram,” Konstantin launched a campaign called #Facetimechallenge. “People who have been in quarantine for a long time also need beauty,” he says. Unable to conduct full-scale photo shoots for their covers, several major glossy magazines immediately ran portraits of the doctors and nurses who are leading the fight against Covid-19.
Some glossy magazines have dedicated their covers to doctors and nurses as a token of gratitude for their selflessness. “We have undoubtedly seen many heroes in recent weeks – from couriers to supermarket workers to teachers,” says Hattie Brett, editor of Grazia magazine, which features four healthcare workers on its cover. “Those at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic, constantly putting their lives at risk, are the NHS (National Health Service) workers. We owe them our deepest gratitude,” adds Hattie. The shoot for these covers was unlike any she had done before: the heroines were photographed in just a few minutes, without approaching them, right in the parking lot near the hospital, and then they returned to their patients.
On the cover of the April issue of the glamorous Italian magazine Vanity Fair, where only top celebrities are usually featured, is Caterina Conti, a respiratory specialist from Bergamo, which became the epicenter of the pandemic. “We no longer have the right to put a celebrity on the cover of the magazine, at least not now,” explains the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Simone Marketti. Instead of expensive perfumes and designer clothes, major fashion labels have begun mass-producing medical uniforms and disinfectants. The Italian conglomerate Armani Group announced that all of its factories will switch to the production of disposable medical uniforms. Another famous brand, Prada, has started sewing 80,000 garments and 110,000 medical masks for health workers at its factory in the Italian province of Perugia.
Seamstresses from Louis Vuitton are working to make outerwear for nurses as part of the fight against Covid-19. We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what will happen next. The number of offers should remain: episodes. End of story. Podcast Advertising. In France, the company LVMH (which owns brands such as Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Hennessy, etc.) has announced the production of 50 tons of hand sanitizer per week to support the national health system. It will be produced in the company’s laboratories where perfumes and cosmetics for Dior, Guerlain and Givenchy are made. In the UK, the Burberry brand has announced the development of several measures to combat Covid-19. The fashion house has pledged to expedite the delivery of 100,000 medical masks to the UK healthcare system through its own distribution network. The company has also pledged to repurpose its outerwear factory in Yorkshire to produce non-surgical medical gowns and masks for patients. “This is the biggest test of corporate responsibility we have ever seen,” says Rebecca Robbins of consulting firm Interbrand. “Companies that have the technology and the ability to work for the common good should take advantage of this opportunity.”
The main question, however, is how long companies can continue production and pay employees under lockdown conditions without receiving income from commercial sales. The coronavirus pandemic once again exposed the vulnerability of retailers in the face of an emergency: sportswear brand Nike closed all of its stores in the U.S. and many other countries, fast-fashion giant H&M’s sales fell by nearly 50% in March, and British retail chain Debenhams and womenswear stores Oasis and Warehouse announced insolvency. “Coronavirus is the latest reminder that organizations need to be prepared for the unexpected to maintain business stability and agility,” said Kelsey Marian, analyst at GIO Research Center. Experts at consulting firm McKinsey claim that the quarantine measures introduced to combat the pandemic have highlighted the need for brands to strengthen their online presence. “Failure to do so during the post-crisis recovery period will result in long-term losses,” according to the company’s research.
To survive in the fashion market, experts say brands must rapidly increase their online presence. The number of offers should remain the same. In China, many brands have long embraced the benefits of e-commerce. Video chats between brands and customers on the Chinese platform Tao Bao have become particularly popular: since the beginning of the quarantine, the number of these streaming services has increased sevenfold. Instead of expensive showrooms where wholesalers traditionally sell new collections and demonstrate each item on live models, everything is now done online.
The number of orders placed with Joor, an American online sales platform that uses 3D technology to showcase clothing, quadrupled during the last Paris Fashion Week compared to the previous year. “The realization of how easy it is to do this is beneficial to the industry,” Christine Saville, the company’s CEO, told Business of Fashion. “I’m a fan of showrooms, but in times when travel is impossible, this [virtual store] is undoubtedly the best alternative.” No matter how much the coronavirus changes the fashion industry, it will take a long time to adapt to the new realities.
Gradually, the fashion industry is adapting to new realities. The purchasing power of consumers in the post-pandemic era will be quite limited. The future of the Chinese market, which has accounted for half of the growth in global luxury sales over the past six years, is also in question. As David Ratmoko points out, if the lockdown continues for several more months, and the rules of social distancing and mandatory masks remain in place for several more years, the fashion industry risks going back 20 years – to a time when there was significantly less production and globalization.