Join us as we look back at Kingpins’ history, the iconic denim industry event. From the the first show, to the international expansion, events, partnerships and much more…

FIRST SHOW

The first Kingpins Show was held in 2004 in an art gallery on Mercer Street in New York’s SoHo neighbourhood. Andrew Olah, owner of textile marketing company Olah Inc., wanted to throw an intimate party to highlight the four textile collections of Olah’s Japanese supplier Kurabo: Kurabo Denim in Japan, Kurabo Piece Dyes in Japan, Kurabo Denim in China and Kurabo Piece Dyes in Thailand.

With advice from denim design maven Adriano Goldschmied, and help from Jane Ibarra (who was, at the time, with Gap Inc.), Olah invited other companies to join the exhibitor roster, including several Italian companies: Martelli (laundry), Cobra (hardware), Cadica (labels) and Olympias (piece-dyed fabric), as well as other suppliers from around the world, including Tunisia-based Sartex (now called Denim House), Portugal-based  A2 from Portugal, Brazil-based Suape, Hong Kong-based Asia United and Canada-based Western Glove Works.

Goldschmied’s other recommendation to help the show’s launch: a graphic designer working with several Los Angeles-based denim brands, Vivian Wang, who designed the Kingpins logo and the first invitation. She continued to work as a graphic designer for the company, as it quickly established itself as the go-to denim supply chain trade show — as well a venue to connect the denim community.

FIRST EXPANSION

Wang joined Kingpins full-time in 2006 to produce the first Los Angeles edition of the show. Although Wang had never produced a trade show before, Olah told her to think of it as throwing a party for family and friends, which is exactly what she did. That first show was at the Marvimon House, a modernist indoor-outdoor space north of Downtown LA.

For several years, the Los Angeles edition moved around several venues, including the Smog Shoppe in Culver City, Calif., a 100% solar-powered former smog-certificate station, as well as other industrial venues before settling into the penthouse of the Cooper Design Space.

Vivian Wang and Andrew Olah

NEW YORK MOVES

Like the Los Angeles show, Kingpins New York bounced around several venues and neighborhoods including loft studio spaces and the city’s famed former nightclub The Tunnel in Chelsea, before landing at its longtime home at Pier 36 NYC (Basketball City) in 2015.

New York 2011

INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION

Kingpins brought its concept overseas, beginning in 2009, with the launch of Kingpins Hong Kong, followed by shows in Delhi, India, and Shanghai, and then two more shows in India, in Bangalore, and Mumbai.

Delhi 2011

CONNECTING THE INDUSTRY

Early in the show’s history, Olah brought members of the supply chain together to discuss burgeoning issues for the denim industry, including cotton prices, supply chain transparency, sustainability and circularity. Originally dubbed Cotton Talks, these discussions became in 2014 the Kingpins Transformers, a summit series spotlighting environmental and socially responsible efforts at every stage of the jean supply chain.The series ultimately was spun off into the separate and independent Transformers Foundation in 2020.

REFLECT, REFOCUS, REINVENT

By the end of 2012, there were multiple Kingpins shows happening around the world in seven cities: New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Delhi and Bangalore. For each show, organizers wanted to recreate the distinctive atmosphere of a Kingpins show, while also exploring what made each city special. For example, the first Shanghai show was held in a converted 19th-century factory overlooking the Suzhou River.

A new show in a new city, Kingpins Dhaka, was in the works when Olah and Wang decided to rethink Kingpins’ growth strategy. Instead of being everywhere, all the time, they decided in 2013 to focus on just a few cities: New York, Hong Kong and one other.

That location was up for debate until Wang (with introductions from Michelle Branch) traveled to Amsterdam, where she met Adriana Galijasevic, Jeans School’s Mariette Hoitink and James Veenhoff, and marketing agency Wink. Those connections —and encouragement from local officials —convinced Olah and Wang to select Amsterdam as it’s newest city.

Shanghai 2011

A SECOND HOME IN AMSTERDAM

The first Kingpins Amsterdam debuted in 2014 at the Gashouder Westergasfabriek, a former 19th-century coal gas factory, which has been converted into an events venue with an unusual round space. It wasn’t just the floorplan that was distinctive. Kingpins Amsterdam also joined forces with Denim Days, a city-wide consumer-facing celebration of all things denim. Now the B2B trade show was followed by a B2C event spread across the city. Concurrently, the Global Denim Awards paired innovative denim designers with forward-looking denim mills and the resulting collections were presented in a runway show for the denim and fashion communities.

One of Kingpins’ proudest moments occurred in the days leading up to that first Amsterdam show, when the city’s Mayor, Eberhard van der Laan, hosted an event for our exhibitors at his home to show appreciation for Kingpins’ arrival and to thank exhibitors.

Denim Days NY 2019

EXPERIMENTATION & MEASURED GROWTH

As Kingpins consistently worked to curate the best, most innovative lineup for its shows in New York, Hong Kong and Amsterdam, organizers continued to test new markets and opportunities, including Why, a show for branding, featuring label, button and zipper suppliers, held in 2016 alongside Kingpins Amsterdam, as well as an introduction to the Latin American market in 2017 with Kingpins Miami.

ROAD SHOW

Kingpins headed further into mainland China in 2019 with the launch of the China City Tour, a traveling trade show that made stops in several key denim cities.

China City 2016

A PLACE FOR COMMUNITY

Early in the show’s history, it was clear that Kingpins was more than a place to exhibit products, it also became a meetingplace for the denim community to come together and share their knowledge and experiences. So it was only natural that Kingpins became the place to celebrate important milestones. In 2013, the show marked the 75th anniversary of Candiani with a party and a cake in the shape of a life-sized pair of jeans. To celebrate Cone’s 110th anniversary in 2015, there was a cake in the shape of a loom machine. Over the years, Kingpins celebrated many significant anniversaries — including Rudolf (100 years in 2022), Bossa (72 years in 2023) and Orta (70 years in 2023) and — at Kingpins events.

This year, as Kingpins marked its 20th year in business at Kingpins New York, Lycra joined in the festivities, celebrating its 20th year exhibiting at Kingpins. When Lenzing celebrated the 20th anniversary of Tencel in 2012, Andrew Olah and many members of the Kingpins community were on hand in Mobile, Ala., the site of the company’s Tencel production factory, to mark the occasion. This is one of the many traditions show organizers plan to carry into the future.

Vivian Wang and Andrew Olah

EXPLORING THE VIRTUAL MARKETPLACE

Kingpins began investigating the virtual marketplace with a partnership in 2020 Material Exchange, which allowed Kingpins exhibitors to present their products through Material Exchange’s digital platform, allowing buyers to source denim products year-round. A year later, Material Exchange acquired the textile agency portion of Kingpins’ parent Olah Inc. Today, Kingpins exhibitors and attendees can access Material Exchange offerings such as Deadstock Depot, a digital market of excess fabric inventory, and Frank, an AI sourcing assistant.

PARTNERING FOR BETTER DENIM & A BETTER WORLD

Sustainable development and social responsibility has been core to all Kingpins shows since the early days. In 2020, Kingpins was named an official partner of the Conscious Fashion Campaign, in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Partnerships, in support of the UN’s 2030 agenda, the global roadmap aimed at ending poverty, protecting the planet and tackling inequalities. As a partner, Kingpins committed to promoting and supporting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals within the denim industry at its events globally.

LA 2012

PANDEMIC-DRIVEN SHIFT

The COVID-19 pandemic slammed on the breaks for businesses around the world and Kingpins was no exception. With great sadness, organizers in 2020 made the tough decision to cancel shows — first Amsterdam, then New York and then China. While travel and in-person meetings were canceled, business went on and Kingpins organized and launched Kingpins24, a virtual event that included live and streaming content that kept the community connected, informed and at work.

Although Kingpins remained virtual for two years, the show continued to explore new markets by hosting special regional editions of Kingpins24 for Canada and Australia.

KP 24 virtual

BACK TO (IN-PERSON) BUSINESS

Post-pandemic, Kingpins returned to in-person exhibition in 2022 with shows in Amsterdam and New York.

For Amsterdam, the return meant a new location, SugarCity, a converted sugar refinery with a multi-level, industrial vibe. Now called Sugar Factory, it remains Kingpins’ home in Amsterdam, where the company will celebrate its 10th year in the city during its Oct. 23-24 run.

Amsterdam 2022

CONNECTING THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Show organizers continued to connect with denim communities around the world, starting in 2023 with an intimate event in Medellin, Colombia, followed by a pop-up event in Hong Kong, where attendees explored a mix of B2B and B2C activities and events.

Kingpins Medellin

NEW PARTNERSHIPS

Messe Frankfurt became a shareholder in Kingpins in 2023. Under the agreement with the 800-year-old trade show organizer, Kingpins continues to operate independently as a platform for the industry to meet, network and share information and insights — all with the same blueprint and atmosphere.

For the trade show giant, it meant the addition of the premiere, boutique denim supply chain show to Messe Frankfurt’s portfolio of 250 annual events. For Kingpins, it was an acknowledgement of the show’s success and an opportunity to connect with a wider audience in other industries.

BACK TO CHINA

After a four-year-hiatus, Kingpins returned to China in 2024 with a B2B and B2C format in Hangzhou.

Together with the article published in WeAr‘s most recent issue, WeAr asked ChatGPT to explain how AI impacts the fashion industry and ChatGPT in particular.
The below was written by the AI itself, no further editing happened:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already revolutionized various industries, and the fashion industry is no exception. From product design to marketing and sales, AI has the potential to streamline and optimize different aspects of the fashion industry, leading to increased efficiency, better customer experiences, and higher profitability.

Product design and development is one area where AI can have a significant impact. AI-powered software can analyze vast amounts of data on consumer preferences, market trends, and other factors to identify patterns and insights that can inform design decisions. This technology can also help designers generate multiple design options quickly and cost-effectively, reducing the time and resources needed to develop new products.

In the manufacturing process, AI can improve production efficiency by automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks. For example, AI-powered robots can help with cutting, sewing, and other processes, enabling faster and more accurate production while reducing labor costs.

AI can also enhance the customer experience by providing personalized recommendations based on individual preferences and shopping history. This technology can analyze vast amounts of data to create customer profiles and suggest products that match their style, size, and budget. AI can also assist with sizing and fit, reducing the number of returns and improving customer satisfaction.

ChatGPT, as a language model, can also play a crucial role in the fashion industry. For example, ChatGPT can be used to develop conversational AI-powered chatbots that can handle customer inquiries and provide personalized recommendations. This technology can improve customer engagement and reduce the workload on customer service teams, enabling them to focus on more complex issues.

ChatGPT can also be used to generate product descriptions and reviews automatically. By analyzing product features and customer feedback, ChatGPT can create compelling and accurate product descriptions that can help customers make informed purchase decisions. This technology can also generate reviews based on customer feedback, improving the credibility and authenticity of online reviews.

In conclusion, AI has the potential to revolutionize the fashion industry by improving efficiency, enhancing the customer experience, and driving profitability. ChatGPT, as a language model, can also contribute to this revolution by enabling conversational AI-powered chatbots, generating product descriptions and reviews, and providing other valuable insights and services to fashion companies.

WeAr global magazine’s Editorial Director asks Binita Bhuta, Vice President Marketing & Sustainability at CovationBio about its product Sorona®, the group’s future and their sustainability efforts.

What are Sorona®’s plans going forward after the acquisition?
Let me give you a brief intro of CovationBio and how Sorona® is part of newly launched CovationBio. Sorona® is part of CovationBio, a newly launched biomaterials company focused on making high-performance sustainable biomaterials accessible to all. CovationBio builds on Sorona®’s 20-years of experience delivering a successful, commercial business at a global scale.
As CovationBio continues to expand and diversify our business to displace fossil-based materials, we are finding ways to improve our environmental benefits while offering quality, value, and performance to our customers.

In addition to Sorona®, CovationBio has other biobased solutions to offer into the fashion industry such as Susterra®, and we continue to evaluate other scalable solutions to bring to market.

Scalability is fundamental to bringing a sustainable business model to our customers making a significant impact on the world. We are already operating at scale. Our success in scaling up the production of Sorona® is due to our close collaboration throughout the value chain.

Traceability and transparency are also fundamental to the work we do. We are working closely with our value chain partners to drive traceability through both our Common Thread Fabric Certification program and our Preferred Mill Network for Sorona®.

We recognize that moving the materials industry toward a more sustainable or circular production model is going to require a combination of bio-sourced and post-consumer recycled feedstocks as raw materials. Therefore, we do not limit ourselves to working in the bio-derived space only. For example, we are evaluating the state of technology and partners for recycled/ biobased and lower footprint options for our conventional raw materials.

Most recently, our focus has been on establishing our Common Thread certified fabrics—Sorona® Agile, Aura, Luxe, Profile, and Revive—and the global Preferred Mill Network. The Sorona® Common Thread Fabric Certification program enhances the transparency and traceability in the textile value chain and ensures quality products that customers deserve. The Preferred Mill Network is a global catalog of mills certified to offer the full collection of sustainable Sorona® subbranded fabrics.

In just our first year, we saw more than 43 million garments with Sorona® hangtags worldwide and more than 500 mills participated with Sorona® certified fabric to date. There is still more work to do and our team is expanding its reach into more regions and having conversations with apparel brands every day. We are excited for what is next as more brands integrate bio-based materials like Sorona® into their collections.

You mentioned lessening the impact on the environment. How is sustainability a core part of Sorona®? How does Sorona® in the future treat the topic of Sustainability?

As a biomaterials company, sustainability and product stewardship are core to who we are. Our Global Sustainability Leader Lauren Johnson ensures our program is science-based and focuses on the most relevant opportunities that will “move the needle” in advancing the materials industry toward a more sustainable state. CovationBio’s priorities are driven by data from life cycle assessments (LCAs) for our products, and our commitments naturally align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly the following four: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Climate Action, Circular Economy, and Life on Land.

Sorona® is 37% bio-based, derived from annually renewable crops. Using renewable bio-based feedstocks is important because bio-based products contribute to the defossilization of the global supply chain—decoupling materials production from fossil fuel extraction and reducing global reliance on fossil resources.

I am excited to share about our recent membership in an agriculture program called Truterra designed to provide visibility into the environmental impact data on 100% of the acres supplying this corn. The participating farms use cutting-edge technology to improve soil health, protect biodiversity, and potentially sequester carbon. Through this program, farmers receive insights into their crop yields and resource consumption and output including greenhouse gas emissions, soil health indicators, wind and water erosion rates, and more.

Our participation in Truterra actively promotes transparency about our supply chain and educates farmers using a science-based and data-driven approach to improving farming practices. Improvements in farming will lead to reduced footprints for the farm, our raw materials, and ultimately the apparel that is made using bio-based resources.

Are there any new product groups that will become relevant for Sorona®?

We have a rich pipeline of products that we are hoping to commercialize in the next couple of years. Our strength is providing a quality, sustainable alternative to traditional materials and we will continue to find creative ways to do this in apparel.

One segment where we are seeing success and growth is with footwear. The launch with Puma for a football (soccer) shoe made with a Sorona® upper along with Susterra® was our first entry into athletic footwear. Other brands like EcoAlf use Sorona® in footwear as well as apparel.

Because Sorona® offers many exciting performance attributes, we see it used across many different applications.

Within apparel, we have a broad range of growth opportunities. Brands like Stella McCartney and Maison Atia value the bio-based faux fur Sorona® made with Ecopel. Blauer USA uses Sorona for insulation, Lilly Pulitzer has incorporated Sorona® into tops for the soft handfeel and shape retention, and LIVE! in Brazil launched a capsule collection called LiveBIO! that’s entirely made with Sorona® Agile fabric. We look forward to strengthening these relationships, establishing new ones, and developing in areas where we can make an impact at scale.

We are focused on and committed to delivering on our promise for a sustainable alternative to traditional fibers like spandex and nylon. As you may know, Sorona® is proven to keep garments looking new for longer and can be used for spandex replacement. It offers outstanding comfort stretch, an ultra-soft hand feel, and dimensional stability. These qualities are meaningful for designers as they look to strengthen the sustainability standards of their collections, and we look forward to supporting them in their journey.

How will Sorona® continue to help educate the industry about general trends and also its own products?

It all starts with our team. We are transparent, honest communicators who understand what drives profits for our customers and genuinely care about our impact in the industry and on the world. This knowledge and openness allow us to be nimble and bold when we are innovating or addressing a challenge.

It is in our CovationBio culture to ask ourselves and others tough questions. We recognize that the topic of sustainability is a complex area and advances in one impact could have unintended consequences elsewhere. We make the time to be engaged and have exchanges with leaders and drivers in the textile and fashion industry via organizations such as Textile Exchange and Renewable Carbon Initiative (RCI).

We believe education is central to driving innovation and creativity. With that in mind, we are continuing our support of the Central Saint Martins’ first year students. We donate two types of fabrics made with Sorona® to create original pieces for their annual White Show. The results are breathtaking. It is the perfect place to start a conversation about source materials, quality, sustainability, and performance.

It is also so refreshing to meet up in-person again! We have enjoyed reuniting with our friends and colleagues at shows around the world this year. We will continue to have a presence both virtually and in-person at events including trade shows and speaking engagements.

We are committed to working through the value chain and offering our team as a resource for questions. We welcome questions about performance, sustainability, and distribution to better support your goals.

I believe with the momentum we are building for biobased materials through CovationBio brands— Sorona®, Susterra®, and Zemea® and our pipeline products —will be a catalyst for global change.

by: Shamin Vogel

WeAr interviews Martijn Hagman, CEO Tommy Hilfiger Global & PVH Europe on the potential of the metaverse, future of retail, brand strategies, crypto, sustainability, loyalty programs in the NFT world, and the phygital world.

What was your essential incentive to enter the metaverse in its early stage?
For a few years now, we have been at the forefront of exploring digital innovations. We are stepping into an inspiring and exciting new era of commerce that offers endless opportunities to connect with consumers in the digital and physical worlds. We stay strongly committed to our consumers by creating brand experiences that are authentic and unexpected, while encouraging them to express their individuality.

What is Tommy Hilfiger’s attitude towards digital fashion and NFTs?
Digital fashion is stronger and more appealing than ever — from 3D product development to the digitalization of the supply chain, to self-expression through an avatar. By increasing our investments in digital, we can enhance and improve our sustainability efforts in many ways. For instance, when it comes to the consumer, offering direct interactions and personalization, through to a complete virtual wardrobe experience. NFTs are a big part of this new digital space, which can add incredible value to the community and our brand. We see NFTs bringing the next iteration of brand access, membership, and loyalty, while also providing new opportunities for collaborations through projects, digital artists, and innovators in this space.

Can you explain how you will adapt your strategy to fit the current phygital trends?
There is an undeniable acceleration in the merger of digital and physical worlds. Web3 will continue to evolve, pushing brands to break barriers and lead the industry with new experiences that surprise and excite consumers. We are currently developing our metaverse strategy, which will be a clear indicator of how we continue to innovate in phygital brand experiences that add value to our business and bring us closer to consumers. At the same time, we are leveraging technology in our physical stores to enhance the omnichannel experience.

Will the metaverse help tap into a new consumer group that previously was not a prime target group for fashion companies?
The metaverse has opened the door for us to engage with new consumers we wouldn’t otherwise reach using traditional channels. It’s also allowing us to stay connected to our current fans in more inclusive, new, and exciting ways by offering virtual fashion that gives a whole new meaning to “universal” clothing. One of the great aspects of the metaverse is its inclusive nature, which connects to our brand values of “Welcoming All.”

As a pioneer in Web3, which lessons have you learned? What can be improved to achieve a holistic experience for consumers?
Over time, digital will become the leading sphere of everything we do and making sure we have a well-thought-out strategy is key to success. One key takeaway so far is not to get swept away with the fear of missing an opportunity. There are many new ways to connect with consumers on a whole new level, giving them access to the brand in experiential and personal ways. The key is to be strategic and considerate, to understand what they want, and deliver at the right moment.

How do you see the future of cryptocurrency and fashion intersecting?
It’s already happening — some brands are accepting cryptocurrency, others are offering digital wearable NFTs, and some are just observing. The e-commerce landscape will change, cryptocurrencies will be just another payment method available. Once blockchain protocols become more consumer-centric, shopping will become much simpler. Right now, the instability of crypto must be carefully considered when thinking of traditional retail.

Brands have started to issue NFTs together with roadmaps, tying them directly to brand loyalty. Will this be the ultimate future of using NFTs, or do you see other options for fashion companies, which live from one-off purchases thus far?
As we continue to seek innovative ways to connect with the community, NFTs can be powerful allies for membership and loyalty programs. The overall demand for NFTs is progressively increasing, presenting an opportunity for them to evolve from simple collectibles to utility assets – think of exclusive access to clubs, communities, and virtual or in-person experiences. By creating exciting NFTs that unlock exclusive brand experiences we can stay more connected with consumers in new and unforeseen ways. Looking ahead, NFTs could be the central digital touchpoint between brands and consumers – one that can be fully controlled by brands.

Looking to the future, will you create specific collections with different aesthetic approaches for the physical and the virtual stores?
We are already on this path – our recent Roblox collaboration presented exclusive virtual items that were very well received by the community. We will continue to explore partnerships that enable us to create these smaller digital capsules which allow us to interact with a new generation of consumers. Be it by collaborating with digital players, or developing our own collections, there are great opportunities when it comes to creating fully digital products that defy the laws of physics — customization can not only empower fans to celebrate their individuality, but also builds long-term loyalty.

What would the perfect phygital world look like?
I am passionate about the word “phygital” and what it represents – the heights we can reach are endless. Breaking boundaries and having an innovative mindset are critical to creating a phygital world. The shift to a digital-first mentality will become the norm and we are already seeing the integration of physical and digital becoming more and more realistic – digital activations in-store, virtual initiatives that deliver physical products to your door, and many others. We are committed to investing in innovations that will bridge the gap between online and offline in exciting ways, not only to our consumers, but also in upgrading internal processes and operations.

Congratulations on finding the QR Code to hopefully get one of the limited numbers of NFTs that Tommy Hilfiger and artist Gigi Gorlova made available to WeAr readers. Each supplied 71 NFTs, for WeAr issue 71, as a gift to our readers. Scan the QR Code and follow the instructions. Kindly understand that due to the limited number not everyone can get one of the NFTs.

by: Kristina Gligorovska

Iris van Herpen is a frontrunner in interweaving technology into fashion design. Everything she designs comprises innovation, mirroring the world we live in. For this edition of WeAr, she speaks about her vision of the future of fashion.

WeAr: How do you feel about experimenting with hybrid scenarios which seem to be the right formula for the fashion industry today?

I love thinking and creating in hybrid realities. The designs challenge our notion of reality, playing with the perception of the future and past. Haute Couture has an incredible history of craftsmanship, yet by entwining new technologies into them, the designs are showing a futuristic perspective of identity and materiality. I search for symbiotic relationships within my designs, exploring the hidden beauty at the intersection of the artificial and the organic, nature and technology, combining a thread and a needle with high-tech to symbiotically blend them. This philosophy of duality has interestingly been ground in all my designs. This philosophy of duality has interestingly been ground to all my designs from the beginning. So the current technological evolution into the metaverse is a natural one. In the digital designs, we can express this duality even further and the full vision of concept and inspiration is extended into the whole space around and beyond the body.

WeAr: Being a couturier, you fuse multi-disciplinary technologies with refined artisanal craftmanship, echoing immersive sensory experiences. Is it possible to transfer that notion to digital clothes?

Absolutely, in all the designs and shows, I’m exploring performance and metamorphoses. The designs transform through motion and often seem to defy the laws of our physical reality. Through my dance background, I learned that movement and transformation are our most powerful language of seduction. Designing digitally is so exciting because I can push the boundaries of surrealism, motion, and metamorphosis even more. Multiple realities can apply at the same time in one garment. And a garment becomes a story through time, like music. Through the mixed reality transition I’m working on, I want to create synaesthetic experiences. Synaesthesia is when our senses are mixed, you can feel sounds or taste colors, for example. I have a bit of synaesthesia as when I hear beautiful music, I start seeing patterns. This multi-sensorial experience is what I want to give people through my mixed reality experiences. Twelve years ago, I made my Synesthesia collection, dreaming of shifting the public sensorial reality. The time for such an emotional shift is becoming possible now.

WeAr: You connect with your clients on many levels when creating garments. How do you achieve a holistic experience for a customer in the metaverse?

Very good question. The metaverse is developing, and it is inspiring to bring the client’s journey into the metaverse in the near future and bring them even closer to the creative process, from sketch to final stitches. Currently, clients visit the atelier one, two or three times for fitting; at that moment, they have a glimpse of the process. In the future, they will be able to visit our metaverse atelier with their avatar, experiencing all the key moments of the process as they would during the physical fittings in the atelier in Amsterdam. They will experience our mixed reality show in Paris, seeing physical models and mixed reality performances with digital designs combined. This is an overwhelming experience that they will be able to experience again at home afterwards. Before we start our client’s custom design journey, the client visits the Iris van Herpen metaverse museum. They walk through all the archive pieces and experience performances and shows to fully dive into our DNA to be immersed in the creative vision and start imagining their new IVH design.

WeAr: Everything you design comprises technology and innovation, mirroring the world we live in. Your approach speaks at a great level to a younger generation – the early adopters of the metaverse. Do you plan to enter the metaverse/the NFT world?

Absolutely! We have been working on this for two years now. As a perfectionist, I want the metaverse designs and performances to be as wholesome and detailed as the physical Haute Couture. Part one will be unveiled in two months.

WeAr: You are a prominent voice for sustainability. In your opinion, does the metaverse hold solutions to the environmental problems created by the fashion industry?

Indeed, the big promise of the metaverse and digital designs is that brands will first release their collections digitally, their customers can respond, and the brand will know which designs are popular. This selection will then be produced physically. A major flaw in the traditional fashion system is the inexact matching of supply and demand. Between 30 and 40 percent of all the garments produced are never sold – take a moment to realize this. Creating the collections digitally first can tackle the entire overproduction.
We – IVH, only do Haute Couture, meaning we only create what is ordered by our clients and therefore have zero overproduction. With the metaverse blooming, this can become a reality for every brand. Their customers can try on the digital creations on their avatar and order the pieces they love, and only the loved looks are produced physically.

WeAr: We hear very often that we need to rethink the fashion system. What would be the right way to grasp the potential of technology to amplify progress?

The system is utterly broken. It is painful to know how badly it functions and it needs to transform radically. Three things need to change: production, materials, and behavior.
Production: as mentioned above, 30 to 40 percent of the annual 148 million tons (estimated) of garments produced end up in landfill before being worn. This can be avoided by having consumers choose their favorite designs in the metaverse, they can wear the looks they love, go out, share it online with their community, and brands can transparently monitor what needs to be produced physically.
Materials: all brands can create entirely from sustainable materials; full transparency is needed to change each brand’s behavior. The blockchain can create full transparency of all the materials used, and where they come from, to even how and where the individual yarns are produced: each part of the process becomes visible. The brands behind in their sustainable transition will become visible, criticized, and perhaps even fined if laws are tightened.
Behavior: the last transition needed is our buying behavior, which we all hold power to change. On average each garment will be worn seven times before getting tossed (WSJ 2019). We can all buy fewer clothes and wear and treasure them for many years. This last change has to come from within; technology cannot change this.

WeAr: What represents your greatest challenge moving forward, and could you depict the design of tomorrow?

My greatest challenge is to keep on evolving, meaning creatively and evolving my vision. This has always been my greatest challenge as fashion creates a dialogue between our insides and our outsides.Both art and fashion are linked to our deepest desires, moods, and most personal expressions. Each collection we make is a search to reach beyond my understanding of female form and today’s definition of a garment. My greatest challenge is this continuous exploration of new forms of identity and a more conscious approach to fashion for the future.
We spoke about the brokenness of fashion’s system; on a contrary note, I have to talk about the positive transition the fashion community is going through. It has become so much more intellectual, inclusive, and conscious in recent years. Even the fashion press goes beyond the superficial and expresses politics, sustainability, and inclusivity. Fashion’s intellectual community is growing, and the young designers start from a very different perspective, wanting to do it differently, and looking for a new system of creativity. Being part of this new perspective, and steering it, is what is most important to me.

Fashion’s tech-driven future is now our present. For brands, connecting to buyers using digital showrooms is crucial in the upcoming season as buyers may not be able to visit you in person. High-touch and sophisticated platforms such as WeAr DigiShows give buyers a look at collections, highlighting garment details while simulating a physical showroom visit. Investing in a digital showroom keeps brands connected to buyers, press and influencers. The same can be done for stores who want to virtually sell to their regular customers in a professional manner.

For retailers, implementing a video clienteling service allows customers to see collections and buy in real time. In Paris, Galeries Lafayette launched ‘Shopping à Distance’ which allows customers to use video calling to contract a personal shopper or brand representative for Alexander McQueen, Off-White, Loewe and Prada, among others.

Offering a ‘Click and Collect’ service should form part of your online strategy. According to Michael Burke, Director of Branded Apparel and Durables at Google, online data shows a three thousand percent increase in organic searches for ‘curtsied pickup’ in the last 12 months. Customers expect to be able to shop your entire assortment online, then visit your physical location in person to pick up their items. As shoppers stay close to home, adapting your existing physical retail space to accommodate and e-commerce fulfilment area will help you better serve online customers and avoid additional operational costs. An up-to-date inventory with detailed photos on your website will help customers understand the look and feel of your assortmement when they cannot browse in person. 

Increasingly, consumers use their mobile devices to shop. Sales transactions may end on your website, but customers could have discovered you on other platforms before making their purchase decisions. Enhance your presence on Instagram by using the Shopping feature to highlight a smaller range of products. When using other digital platforms, ensure a strong and consistent brand identity across platforms, as Burberry did when collaborating with Tencent on its interactive shop in Shenzhen, China, that allowed customers to explore the store using WeChat.

It’s important to know which of your customers are most likely to make a purchase in the near future so you know where to invest your time. E-commrce agencies like Paris-based The Other Store are specialised at working with mid-sized multi brand retailers to develop personalised online strategies for customer relationships management. By analysing your existing customer data, you can predict future shopping behaviour and plan your assortment. By analysing your data, you can develop the right strategy to maximise profitability from e-commerce.

This article is part of WeAr Magazine Issue 65.

WOMENSWEAR TREND: COUNTRY GETAWAY

[Left] Runway Look Dior [Right] Salvatore Ferragamo

Getting out into the country was a theme in multiple S/S 21 presentations. After months spent indoors, an emergence of such a sensibility seems almost unavoidable. Organic colors infused the collections, which used intricately detailed fabrics in simple silhouettes.

The Jacquemus collection, presented on a runway in a wheat field in the French countryside, used larger, looser silhouettes and unfussy tailoring. The collection was imbued with natural, muted colors like sage, ecru, black and clay. Flowing bias-cut dresses, oversized trousers and unstructured blazers recalled a simple country wedding, in designer Simon Porte Jacquemus own words.

The Dior Cruise 2021 collection, presented in the center of Lecce, Italy, was a spectacle that paid homage to the Italian countryside in the southern province of Puglia. With fringed skirts, headscarves and embroidered dresses, the collection featured a black gauzy material, warm whites and grays on intricately handwoven fabrics. Muted reds and greens rounded out the colors in the collection.

Salvatore Ferragamo used eco-friendly fabrics throughout an elegant and distilled collection comprising sleek silhouettes, clean lines and organic materials. Burnt orange, tan, beige and black infused a collection focused on sustainability with responsibly sourced materials like upcycled leather and cashmere, recycled nylon and organic cotton. Photographed in the countryside of Provence, France, the See by Chloé Resort 2021 collection imbued playful clothing designed for relaxing in with hues of sage, peach, burgundy and sand. And Ermanno Scervino Resort 2021, photographed in Tuscany, Italy, presented intricate knits and lace details, ruffled white dresses, and gauzy skirts with plissé inserts. Colors were whites, with a smattering of pastel pink, and pistachio green; perfect for getting lost in a field on a lazy summer afternoon.

MENSWEAR TREND: A LOVE LETTER TO NATURE

[Left] Etro [Middle] Ermenegildo Zegna [Right] Reese Cooper

“A moment like this can easily lead to a glorification of flawless precision of the machine but at Ermenegildo Zegna, with respect for a humanist tradition that is profoundly Italian, we believe that the human being always sits at the center, in harmony with nature.” This is how artistic director Alessandro Sartori explained the vision behind his S/S 21 collection that features soft and elegant knitwear with foliage-inspired patterns. The brand (which turns 110 this year) celebrates a strong connection with nature, seeing it not just as a provider of resources and raw materials but also recognizing the need to preserve its richness and diversity.

At Gucci, flower embroideries appear on a seventies-style sleeveless fur coat, a suit and a trench coat. Volumes are fluid like water at Etro, where shirts feature beautiful flower prints, too. Pebbles and stones seen in rivers have inspired a print in Reese Cooper’s accessories line; the models in the brand’s show walked barefoot through a brook in the wilderness, hinting at the need to reconnect with the Earth. His color palette comprised vivid green, orange and fruit colors.

THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF S/S 2021 DIGITAL FASHION WEEKS

As global travel restrictions disrupted the fashion calendar this year, designers and fashion brands had to creatively adapt to a new virtual presentation format. London Fashion Week Digital, Paris Fashion Week Online and Milan Digital Fashion Week were all presented online with some brands also incorporating offline components.

Among the standout presentations were Prada, whose “Prada Multiple Views SS21” collection commissioned diverse global artists to make creative short films; Loewe, whose menswear S/S 2021 collection was a “Show-in-a-Box” that translated the collection into physical objects presented in a ten-pound archival dossier; Jacquemus whose physical runway show “L’Amour,” set in a wheat field in Us, France, was coupled with a robust social media campaign; “Phlegethon,” Rick Owens’ menswear S/S 2021 video presentation, filmed in Italy; and a lookbook from Gucci worn by the brand’s design team and presented with a 12-hour livestream video.

In spite of this creativity, overall critical reception was mixed. There was consensus that these first digital fashion forays were more prototype than finished product. Speaking to Women’s Wear Daily, Bruce Pask, menswear director of Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus, commented that there was not enough focus on product images. For buyers, it was difficult to grasp an idea of each collection from digital presentations which were more like mood boards than product catalogues, as Matchesfashion Men’s Style Director Simon Chilvers recently pointed out in an interview with La Conceria.

Clearly, these shows have been watched, by professionals as well as end consumers, which boosted engagement and awareness. But they did not automatically translate into wholesale sales. The digital buying process is new to everyone. Although it has certain advantages – for instance, it offers a quicker overview of product range and simplifies the selection of key outfits as well as digital archiving – it doesn’t flow naturally.

“Without the real-life interaction, it feels rushed. It’s hard to make decisions over large investments digitally,” a German buyer told WeAr. With so much at stake in an economically uncertain time, the unfamiliar environment makes the selection process much harder. Ramon Ehlen, co-owner of Labels in Sittard, the Netherlands said: “[Digital appointments] were okay, but not as nice as a normal showroom visit. It is important to feel the vibe of the showroom. In the next season, I hope we can go to the physical showroom”. And Peek & Cloppenburg KG, Düsseldorf told us: “Our buyers were positively surprised how smoothly the ordering process can run even on this changed path. Nevertheless, the digital offer cannot replace the ‘look & feel’ [of the real]. The feel of the fabrics and materials is essential for our work.”

Of the all the digital events, Milan Digital Fashion Week ranked first among digital fashion weeks with 58% (6.24M EUR) of the total combined Earned Media Value (10.74M EUR) of the events, according to DMR Group, a media monitoring firm for the luxury market. Milan Digital Fashion Week launched an ambitious online platform that with presentations from 42 fashion houses and a collection of 73 online showrooms representing 457 brands. The event also featured Together for Tomorrow, a collection of 11 new designers, and International Fashion Hub Market, with 10 international menswear brands. Brands such as Alberta Ferretti, Ermenegildo Zegna, Marni, Moschino and Prada participated along with showrooms such as Spazio38, Showroom Marcona3, and Slam Jam.

In Munich and Düsseldorf, real life showrooms, which operated under strict security measures, were well frequented. While companies like Zalando imposed a complete travel ban, other stores, like Breuninger, allowed their buyers to travel at least nationally. Whilst it is possible to order online with systems like JOOR, buying is still mainly a people’s business: buyers need to understand the brand’s emotions, and a sales person will still be required to respond to a customer’s individual wishes. As Peek & Cloppenburg put it: “For the future, a combination of process-supporting digitalisation with conventional sample parts would be desirable. We see an advantage for short-term procurement needs in the expanded offerings in the area of 3D simulations.”

Despite the challenges adapting to the new digital format, a hybrid digital and physical buying experience could offer a more efficient and innovative experience for brands and buyers alike.

For this special issue, WeAr asks top denim professionals – including Designers, CEOS, Manufacturers, Fabric and Fiber Specialists: WHAT WILL BE THE CRUCIAL INNOVATIONS THAT FINALLY POSITION DENIM AS A SUSTAINABLE CATEGORY?

Ani Wells, Founder, Simply Suzette

The denim industry has been working tirelessly to come up with solutions to producing this resource intensive garment. But, it seems, the collaborative efforts and knowledge shared within the denim community has put us ahead of the fashion industry in general.

Traditionally, synthetic indigo requires petroleum, formaldehyde and cyanide, as well as other toxic substances, to turn the powdered form into a liquid dye. However, the newest innovation is bio-engineered indigo, which genetically engineers bacteria to mirror the way Polygonum Tinctorium makes and holds its color. This, paired with regenerative / carbon positive farming methods and chemically recycling cotton textiles, will help position denim as a ‘sustainable’ category.

Maurizio Donadi, Founder, Atelier & Repairs

While innovation is about technical experimentation and may take time, the first innovative step to make denim a more sustainable garment is to produce less of it.

In fact, the vast majority of issues with denim lie in design flaws and the extraordinary overproduction of jeans, compromising the health of people and the environment.

Here I suggest a few steps toward a more sustainable and responsible approach to denim:
1. Design for circularity and commit to producing long-lasting goods.
2. Reduce production.
3. ‘Re-imagine’ / re-design so as to reduce the extraordinarily high obsolete global inventory of finished product and textile.
4. Invest in textile technology and testing in order to create the friendliest products for people and the environment.
5. Publicly and transparently share the way your brand works.

In the end, it comes down to a simple concept: be content with your company being smaller in size, higher in quality, equally profitable for investors and workers and, most importantly, honest.

Paul Dillinger, Vice President of Global Product Innovation, Levi Strauss & Co.

We’ve got a great-looking pair of Levi’s in our archive that are about 134 years old: a beautiful shade of indigo and a stunning authentic finish. The fit is wearable and relevant, and would look great on the streets of Tokyo, Paris – or even Paris, Texas. The relative environmental impact from making a jean in 1884 is nearly negligible when amortized over 134 years. We’ve made ‘sustainable jeans’.

We can refine and improve the technical industrial cycle – exploring advanced man-made cellulosic fibers made from post-consumer garment waste to replace virgin cotton. We can use newly re-formulated synthetic dye types that save water, eliminate effluent and reduce the carbon footprint of denim production. Alternatively, we can work to revive a more natural industrial cycle – eliminating synthetic material and chemical inputs through the use of organic cotton, hemp and indigo alternatives.

The best expression to this multidisciplinary ‘systems-based’ approach is our new Levi’s WELLTHREAD jeans made with Circulose from ReNewcell– a new recycling technology that turns old jeans into a new, high-quality viscose alternative.

Following strict standards for circular production, we sent samples of these new jeans made from old jeans back to ReNewcell and confirmed that they can be put back into their circular system for a potential 3rd generation of material value. This approach to holistic design for circular systems will be the ‘deciding innovation’ that ensures a sustainable future for our industry.

Adriano Goldschmied, Founder, Genius Group

Sustainability in denim business involves farming, indigo dye production, chemistry, textile machine makers, spinning, weaving, indigo dye systems, fabric finishing, garment design, pattern making, cutting and sewing, garment finishing, creating energy, transportations and many other elements. Clearly, there isn’t a ‘secret weapon’ that could improve them all at once. Only a combination of initiatives in every area can transform denim from the second most polluting industry to a sustainable one.

Lately, there has been a lot of discussions around garment finishing. The introduction of new machines like Ozone and Laser, as well as water recycling and new methods and wash formulas, brought a dramatic improvement. But all the other steps involved in making a jean require the same attention.
Luckily, change is underway. Take, for instance, the inventions by HUUE: through a biological process, they plan to produce indigo dye from sugar cane, eschewing the toxic method we use today.
In the end, the most game-changing innovation is collective awareness of the importance of sustainability.

Iu Franquesa, Founder, Companion Denim

For the biggest portion of denim, where the jeans are pre-washed and distressed, the key factors in sustainability will be the reduction of water consumption, and using fewer and more environmentally friendly chemicals, along with reducing the carbon footprint by shortening the production distances between the suppliers to the warehouses and the shops.
Sustainability should be taken as a holistic concept that is implemented across each and every detail, be it the product itself, the labeling, the packaging or even the shipping method.

Laura Vicaria, CSR Manager, MUD Jeans

Currently, cotton is one of the most environmentally expensive steps in the production of jeans. This is true even when you use organic cotton. Therefore, further reducing or eliminating our dependency on this raw material could have a significant positive impact. MUD Jeans is currently working on a project called the Road to 100. In collaboration with Circle Economy, Saxion University, and Recover, the objective is to create a pair of jeans that is 100% made from post-consumer recycled cotton. Through this project, we aim to tackle the short fiber issue: standard mechanical recycling blends recycled cotton into yarn that is used to make new jeans, but the cotton is shredded in such a way that the resulting fibers are too short. We are resolving this by mixing two recycling techniques: molecular and mechanical. Through this combination, we aim to maintain the look and feel of jeans while eliminating the use of virgin organic cotton entirely.

Martin Höfeler, CEO, ARMEDANGELS

We all love our denims, but denim is a dirty business. With us, no harmful chemicals are used to treat our denims. We use modern techniques such as laser or ozone treatment. You will hardly spot a difference to conventional bleaching, except that we use 85% fewer chemicals. And for the rest, we make sure it meets the GOTS criteria. A few more nice figures: laser saves 62% energy and 67% water. With our ‘detox denim’, we are taking a big step forward towards a more sustainable fashion industry.

Uwe Kippschnieder, Denim Developer, CLOSED

Today there are great opportunities for all three aspects of denim:

The yarns: I believe reducing the amount of fresh cotton is key on the mill’s side.
This could be by using modern cellulose fibers such as Tencel Refibra or by expanding the recycled content of a denim.

The dye: There are revolutionary techniques, such as Kitotex, Smart Indigo, vegetable sizing agents or dyeing methods using nitrogen. Each one of them is drastically reducing the use of chemicals, water and energy, and some of them can be combined for even greater results.

The wash: Italian laundries such as Everest or I.T.A.C. have been putting all their efforts into ‘greener’ washes for many years. Thanks to their steady R&D, we are now able to create perfect vintage images but on a super-low impact base.

High-definition laser, ozone treatments, artificial instead of pumice stones, foam and nebula applications: all these techniques lead us to more sustainable washings.

Angel Nokonoko, Founder, NokNok Denim

If we are talking about having close to 100% sustainable products, then we have to innovate and invest in different areas; in the way we source the raw materials, using recycled or organic fibers, and making trimmings like buttons, zippers or rivets using chemical-free products. Another key point is the washing process: laundries need to invest in innovative technologies that will help achieve sustainable washes with machines like Ozone, Eflow or Laser, among others, which will substitute bleaches and other harmful chemicals. In addition, innovation in new ETP plant technologies will reduce water and electricity usage.

But the most important and decisive innovations are awareness, information and responsibility – and that the consumer understands this industry and that the industry is transparent and ethical in its practices.

Andrea Venier, Managing Director, OFFICINA+39

A big change is happening in the denim industry, and personally I like the challenge. And for a chemical company like us, this means huge R&D investments to replace old practices with better and greener ones.

Products like potassium permanganate alternatives are really innovating our denim industry.
But in the end, the big innovation for the denim sector is to transform the fashion industry into a transparent, responsible and sustainable system that celebrates the stories, the people and the resources behind each pair of jeans.

Tricia Carey, Director Global Business Development Denim, Lenzing

There isn’t just one innovation that will allow us to make a sustainable garment; it takes all the innovations to collide in a scalable way – only then will we have a sustainable garment. It is about looking at best in class for each component. Utilizing fibers with a low environmental footprint, like Tencel Lyocell fibers or circularity with Refibra technology, as a starting point. A reduction in water, chemical and energy use in indigo dyeing and utilizing laser and ozone technology for finishing with fair labor standards. Redefining value to mean a best in class product while considering people and the planet.

Stéphane Jaspar, Chief Marketing Officer, Scotch & Soda

The use of organic cotton is one of the key agents of change to achieve sustainability, although there are still efforts to be made. Denim has been at the core of Scotch & Soda since the brand’s inception in 1985, and it is important to us to be part of the solution as well, so the increasing use of organic cotton in our collections is key.

Another important factor is the growing use of recycled fibers from either pre- or post-consumer waste, which is otherwise often destined for landfill. This procedure reduces the need to create newly manufactured fibers, consequently saving energy, dyes and chemicals, which in turn also reduces pollution.

But one of the most crucial practices that recent technology is allowing us to carry out is the ability to save water in a significant way. With our denim, we are aiming to reduce the amount of the precious element used in the manufacture process by 50% within the next two years.

Kim Hyldahl, CEO and founder, MOS MOSH and MOS MOSH Gallery

MOS MOSH has been working with the same denim manufactures in Turkey from its beginning in 2010. We have seen a dramatic change in the industry, making it a place where almost anything is possible in terms of sustainability. At the same time, the complexity of denim from the point of view of fibers, wash, treatments and trim makes it really challenging to define what a sustainable pair of jeans might look like. For us, the main focus going forward is reducing the amount of water use to zero.

It feels like these last years of focus on sustainability are now paying off, with a variety of fabrics made from post-consumer fibers, recycled or organic. Most recently we have been experimenting with recycled elastane. In the end of the day sustainability is also about creating beautiful product with high durability.

Paul Marciano, Chief Creative Officer, GUESS?, Inc.

The innovations exist to make denim more sustainable – there is waterless and chemical-free
technology, and innovative and more natural dye processes. But what we lack is the expertise,
the resources to have each and every vendor invest in and learn this technology, and the new trends and culture to support the effort. This is starting to change, and it starts with leadership. GUESS is proud to be part of Jeans Redesign, which is a comprehensive guide for 100% circular, recyclable and sustainable denim. By working toward a common goal within the denim industry, we will collectively redesign and communicate sustainable denim in a common way. This will help to make people less confused about sustainability and form a better understanding and expectation for sustainable denim. I believe this is what was missing and will make a huge impact to drive the change we need to more rapidly drive widespread adoption of sustainable innovation in denim.

GUESS is quickly growing our ‘Smart GUESS’ collection, which uses 20%-100% smart materials that are better for the environment. We are focused on sustainable materials because over half of a product’s environmental impact comes from the fabric!

For denim specifically, in addition to the Jeans Redesign program, GUESS is also working to use less
water through waterless technology and developing denim with innovative materials such as our zero
cotton denim which will be available next year.

Magdalena and Markus Budim, Founders, The Budims

Of course, technical highlights and improved materials are essential in order to be able to achieve the highest level of sustainability in all areas. From our point of view, however, it is not only the innovations mentioned above that lead to the final positioning of a sustainable product, but effective communication about it is crucial – especially if it is a long-standing product. What good is the exemplary effort if the added value is overlooked by consumers? We know from our retail experience that the majority of consumers do not yet even know how “dirty” denim can be.

In order to achieve an effective and unshakable breakthrough, ignorance must first be tackled through radical and overt explanations and transparency. That will cause an enormous shock, but it will also raise awareness, we are sure of that.

John Rossell, Head of Creative & Marketing, AG Jeans

Sustainability in denim won’t necessarily come from a silver bullet in innovation, but instead will come with an economy of scale. As production increases and becomes more widespread, costs will become less prohibitive for the general denim industry to adopt. That will only happen when leaders commit to sustainability early on, shouldering the heavy costs of developing resources and processes, and setting a course for others to follow. Brands like AG continue to invest more into sustainability, such as our water recycling technology we launched in 2019, or our exploration into of sustainable fabrics like hemp and Tencel, or creating a garment recycling program to encourage responsible disposal or even circularity; it’s these early efforts at the forefront that will be the deciding factor in creating a sustainable denim industry.

Jason Denham, CCO and Founder, Denham

There has been an incredible transition during the last decade by every component that makes up a jean. The type of cotton we use, the dye stuff, the weaving methods, the waste-less technology and the efforts to preserve and recycle water. Not only fabric but also laundry, manufacturing, packaging and even PCR (post-consumer recycling). I have also said many times that denim jeans are the most sustainable and hard-wearing product on the planet. Jeans last a very long time and often have a second and third life, being passed on to friends, family or thrift stores. Denim gets better the more you wear it and it doesn’t need washing every time you wear it; denim lovers love their jeans and they love to save water!

Reinhard Haase, CEO, True Religion Brand Jeans Germany GmbH and UNIFA Gruppe

Our manufacturing company for denims has invested in new machines, so we have our own cleansing system in-house. The used water will be cleaned up and used directly for the next production, so we are reducing water consumption.

We are also looking into recycled denim for the future.

Garments made with natural fibers like cotton, hemp, linen, wool and some semi-synthetic fibers, specifically Tencel and Modal, are good sustainable choices here. We are looking for a kind of natural dyeing, which is not a very common practice in the fashion industry. Clothing dyed with natural materials like indigo is better for you and the environment.

Sean Gormley, Global Concept Director, Wrangler

We have recently launched a breakthrough technology: Indigood, a sustainable indigo dye that uses foam to replace vat dyeing. Eco-tech finishing throughout our ranges achieves the popular washed and distressed looks of denim with a fraction of the water, energy and chemicals used in conventional processes. Many innovations are available in dyeing and finishing. But the deciding area where innovation is required to position denim as truly sustainable is cotton.

Cotton will continue to play a dominant role in denim. Yes, there are great alternatives to virgin cotton such as hemp, cellulosic fiber and mechanical recycled cotton, which can and should be blended to lessen the need for new virgin cotton. However, it’s important that across the globe farmers adopt new and innovative farming techniques that are proven to greatly reduce the environmental impact of growing cotton and improve soil health.

Donna Ida, Owner, Donna Ida

We are in the process of working with our factory to add Environmental Impact Measuring scores to our products. This means that you can see the impact of certain washes (some have more impact than others). For example, our Blackest and Milk styles are made with fabrics that contain Tencel and have a Low Impact EIM score.

Blue denim can be high impact due to the amount of washing that goes into creating different shades. The Blackest and Milk fabrics are not washed, which ensures they are super low impact.

Martijn Hagman, Chief Executive Officer, Tommy Hilfiger Global & PVH Europe

With denim, the key to unlocking innovation is through strong partnerships with vendors and denim industry leaders that are committed to creating more sustainable products.

Together, we have aligned on low impact processes and established key sustainability metrics that we must all measure ourselves against, including the circularity of the design process, durability of the end product, resources used, and how we manage waste. To facilitate these goals, we created the Denim Lab – part of our Product Innovation Center – which develops sustainable finishing techniques that reduce water and chemical consumption by up to 70%. Currently, more than two million pieces have been finished using lower impact methods, and by the end of 2020, one million pieces will be made using post-consumer recycled cotton.

Vincent Qin, Chief Marketing Officer, Envoy Textiles

If there is a deciding innovation that will position denim as a sustainable garment, it would be innovation in dyeing technology. If there’s any dyeing technology that can achieve satisfactory color without excessive dyeing, that means less dyeing product used, less water used and less energy used; consequently, the laundry process will become easier, less time consuming and, in a word, more sustainable.

Deborah Turner, Marketing Manager, Vicunha Europe

There will always be a market for cotton, but we will need to demonstrate sustainable water use and provide complete transparency. This is not to say that it is wrong to have looked at alternative fibers, but we need to be realistic about their ability to replace cotton and, in particular, their scalability.

The biggest single step would be a commitment to selling garments with a minimum combined recycled content of 25%. This could have a huge impact on the overall business, not to mention landfill, and it’s something that the customer could clearly understand. Vicunha have articles that use no virgin cotton at all but a combination of pre- and post-consumer recycled cotton with Refibra and Tencel, so an average of 25% seems manageable. If this were the normal basic requirement alongside complete transparency, it would put an end to throwaway fashion.

Özge Özsoy, Marketing Chief, Bossa

We adopted the following procedures aimed at reducing our environmental impact: sustainable materials, energy efficiency, water saving, process engineering, certification, social responsibility, re-usage, collaboration and co-creation.

Recycling, reducing and saving are critical. We need a stable and sustainable system in which natural resources are renewed and waste never accumulates: a closed loop. At Bossa, we are developing a zero-waste life cycle to close the loop.

Transparency is just as important. In our D-CHRONICLES concept, we have partnered with FibreTrace to provide trust and traceability.

For this issue, WeAr asked experts across the industry from fiber manufacturers to academics, authors to retailers, how the fashion industry can use the Covid-19 crisis to establish more sustainable practices and attitudes. The responses touch upon a vast range of important topics. Some of the key themes that have emerged are new consumer mindsets; the idea of ‘less is more’; slowing down; rethinking the fashion calendar; reinventing raw materials; recalibrating the supply chain; and, of course, a circular paradigm both in production and consumption.

Stephanie Joy Benedetto, CEO & Co-Founder, Queen of Raw

Fast fashion has driven a drastic increase in textile production. Global per capita textile production has increased from 5.9 kg to 13 kg per year over the period 1975 – 2018 and is projected to continue growing. Up to 15% of that fabric is wasted.

This waste is occurring now more than ever and it is polluting our drinking water. One tee shirt takes 700 gallons of water to produce. If we continue at the current pace of textile production, by 2025, two-thirds of the entire world’s population will face shortages of freshwater and be exposed to hazardous chemicals from textile production alone. So we are not talking about 100 years from now, or even 50 years from now. We are talking about today and on our shores.

We are in a period of massive disruption, requiring us to digitally innovate our way out of crisis. For supply chains to be resilient and agile, this means cutting costs while sustainably securing the materials needed across supply lines in real time. Unused textiles can still fill orders on demand and away from areas impacted by disruption, while supporting commitments to sustainability.

We have already saved over 1 billion gallons of water. That’s enough clean water for 1.43 million people to drink around the world for three years.

Stefaan Vandist, Author of We, Myself & A.I. and Pretopia

A sustainable fashion revolution awaits … thanks to biotechnology
When we look at fashion from a materials angles, clothing always has a petrochemical, vegetable or animal origin. All of them have their own sustainability issues. However, nature’s bacteria, algae and fungi can bring a sustainable revolution.
Covid-19 caused upheaval in the fashion economy – companies already struggling might disappear. But why invest to keep a sputtering economy alive, when you can also invest in a new system?
Biotech start-ups bring climate-positive, biological, non-toxic and regenerative processes to produce textiles, plastic and artificial leather faster, cheaper, safer and more sustainable.

Covid-19 made it clear that our society can react extremely fast and change course. And innovative and agile companies will benefit from changing fashion production processes. This sustainable change is coming … from biotechnology. Changing one of the most polluting industry into a (more) sustainable one.
Luxury and sports brands are taking the lead. Eco-pioneer Algix (Mississippi, USA) grows algae with polluted water and CO₂ as main raw materials. Together with brands such as Vivabarefoot, H&M, Billabong and Clarks, they will have the capacity to produce 500 million pairs of shoes per year from their climate-positive material ‘bloom foam’. Other promising gamechangers are Ginkgo Bioworks, Algiknit, Ecovative, Colorifix and Modern Meadow.

Paul Marciano, Chief Creative Officer, GUESS?, Inc.

While the Covid-19 crisis has turned the world upside down, it is also helping us to see what is most important in life. While luxury is nice, what is most important right now is family and essential needs.

We are all becoming more mindful, including about what we wear. Customers want the brands they love to align with their values. At GUESS, already prior to the pandemic, we were focused on making high quality products that are versatile, durable and sustainable. We use organic, recycled and responsibly sourced materials that are better for the environment, and are working with our factories to increase awareness and take action on environmental issues. This effort is all about transparency. We are asking our factories to share with us what they are doing, which we take into consideration when selecting vendors, and we are working our way to then be more transparent with the customer on where and how our products are made. Transparency, quality and sustainability are the way forward for our industry.

Dana Thomas, author of Fashionopolis and Deluxe

The Covid-19 period, with lockdown throughout the world, has allowed the fashion industry to step back and reassess everything from supply chain to retail, and many brands have done so. We’ve seen the shifting of delivery schedules to be more in sync with seasons, the reduction of the number of collections produced each year, and the transformation of fashion weeks into digital platforms, which is less polluting than the physical editions. But we also saw some horrors: mainly, that brands didn’t pay for or collect finished orders in sourcing countries like Bangladesh, with clothes sitting in containers on docks, and workers unable to pay their bills, even starving. This is an industry-wide embarrassment that must be rectified. Brands insist that they source in these poor countries because they want to lift their citizens out of poverty. That has been proven to be wholly untrue. It is time for brands to pay their workers a living wage, and not one dime less. Until then, fashion will be seen as ugly.

Franc’ Pairon, Founder of La Cambre Mode and IFM MA Design Paris

Fashion is ill. This phenomenon is not new: frantic pace of creative production, pirating of ideas, surplus production, shifting of seasons, anachronistic sales …
The entire system needed to be reviewed. Several voices were raised to denounce these dysfunctions, but the cogs were too well oiled to be stopped! It took a planetary health crisis, Covid-19, to impose a period of reflection … mandatory and perhaps beneficial.

The rhythm of always new collections had something inhuman about it. This mandate to create collection after collection put the studios in constant turmoil. Journalists barely had time to decipher the novelties, and retailers were lost in the multitude of offers. At all levels, the unease was noticeable.
Can we believe in more sustainable practices? There will now be a dark period in our fashion landscape: layoffs, restructurings, bankruptcies. Will it be bad for good? Consumers have been living in confinement and were confronted with their living space … with often overflowing wardrobes!
Covid-19 will inevitably change the buying behavior. A new fashion effervescence has yet to be found.

Sonja Noël, Owner, Stijl Brussels

Covid-19 has fuelled people’s awareness to “buy locally”: local production (e.g. in Europe) means less transport, less pollution in the production chain and better working conditions.

Covid-19 also inspired consumers to “buy less”. Less but better: beautiful pieces that become a part of oneself and which one can enjoy for years.
This may cost the consumer (slightly) more, but “paying a higher price is an added value”: it will help to keep the entire industry alive and counter the impossible-to-follow (from a retailer point of view) discounting. This “race to the bottom”, to be the first to sell at a discount prices, eventually caused the current overproduction.

This “fashion with added value” – local creation and manufacturing, no production (and discount) rat-race. Fashion with value is made manually and has an artisanal production process. Made in small quantities, it becomes the new exclusivity.

Dana Davis, Vice President of Sustainability, Product and Business Strategy, Mara Hoffman

Sustainability has been inherent to us since we transitioned into a more aware, responsible and accountable business model back in 2015. Covid-19 hasn’t changed that for us. Before we faced the pandemic, we were thinking about the next evolution of our brand and this moment in time has forced us to make these changes abruptly, which affected our structure and production times.

To us, the future means breaking away from the traditional fashion calendar, producing less, and working with existing fabrics and products to create something new. We will continue to push innovation within circular systems and create new business models to support that work. When we were first getting started in our shift, we looked to other brands who were leaders in this space long before us for guidance. Collaboration will be extremely important if we want to change the industry as a whole, not just within brands, but also with retailers, manufacturers, vendors, etc.

Anastasia Podolskaya, Founder, Sane Fashion Philosophy

The first thing all fashion companies should pay attention to is the supply chain. Responsible choice and close relationships with the producers of raw materials, suppliers and factories is a path not only to sustainable development, but also to reducing many risks associated with a pandemic.

Openness and transparency in communications become a new necessity. Customers pay more attention to the ethical side of companies. They want to make sure that people involved in the production of clothing are socially protected and do not suffer from discrimination or any kind of violence. And the guarantee of this is the maximum traceability of the supply chain, as well as the open publication of information such as addresses, phone numbers and photos of factories, mentions of suppliers, certificates, and the company’s environmental and social initiatives.

It is worth noting that transparency is integral to an ethical and sustainable business. And the crisis very clearly highlighted the failure of the majority on this very issue.

Martijn Hagman, Chief Executive Officer, Tommy Hilfiger Global and PVH Europe

Covid-19 has only accelerated how we’re approaching sustainability. The pandemic has forced us all to think differently – to let go of traditional ways of working and seek innovation that furthers our vision in the context of this new world. Now is the time to drive real change throughout the fashion industry by rethinking current business models and practices. In our own value chain, we’ve implemented new solutions to promote environmental and social sustainability, all aligned to our mission of making it possible to be a fashion company that Wastes Nothing and Welcomes All.

Amy Hall, VP, Social Consciousness, Eileen Fisher, Inc.

As Eileen always says, there is opportunity inside every crisis. The pandemic gives us the rare opportunity to reinvent all facets of the industry, starting with the fashion calendar. Anyone who has been working from home these past six months now knows: we only need a fraction of our clothes. Why design into quarterly, monthly or even weekly deliveries? Can the industry slow down and use this time to reduce, refine, refocus? The consumer will follow our lead. We will then be able to design properly, with the end in mind. Is each garment reusable and – ultimately – compostable? Is the supply chain as tight as possible while providing meaningful livelihoods for its workers? Is every component thoughtfully and responsibly sourced? If not, we have the time and obligation to course-correct now. The trees, the water, the people and the ecosystem will thank us later.

Vincent Djen, Director, Cheng Kung Garments

I am seeing new developments, such as chemically recycled cotton textile waste fabric entering the market. Secondhand and reselling, too, continue to gain market shares. Covid-19 has pushed the digitalization of collection development – such as using 3D design tools and 3D virtual cutworks.
Covid-19 has also raised public awareness on which brands really walk the walk in terms of business ethics, treating their suppliers correctly by paying their orders in full and on time – a feat that many a worker’s livelihood heavily depends on. But I think the most important impact is that Covid-19 seems to lead people to spend money more rationally and truly observe the importance and power of Mother Nature. I hope this is the beginning of a consumer mega trend towards total well-being and sustainable living.

Mimi Sewalski, Managing Director, Avocado Store

The Covid-19 crisis is causing many consumers to rethink how they shop. The fashion brands that will emerge victorious from this crisis will be those that impress with their transparency, authenticity and good ‘story doing’ – and that show that instead of twelve collections a year, we need fashion that boasts fair and eco-friendly production, longevity, quality and a truly fair price. Then consumers will get on board too and perhaps start consuming less but better.

Renee Henze, Global Marketing and Commercial Development Director, DuPont Biomaterials

My fervent hope is that the change will manifest itself in a collective acceleration towards greater sustainability and transparency practices across markets, geographies and products. For the fashion industry, we’re starting to see hints of how this may transpire. At the beginning of the supply chain, we’re seeing an even more rapid increase in interest for new, sustainable materials. Coupled with that interest, our brand partners are seeing validation from the market for products that incorporate the best performance with the most efficient, sustainable feedstocks. The forced slowdown has given mills and brands the chance to re-evaluate their sourcing strategies, with a piqued interest in new materials that adhere to the principles of the circular economy and a heightened insistence on transparency. We’re seeing a rapidly emerging consumer preference for well-being, assurance, trust and comfort directly translate back into our fashion supply chain. In addition to producing higher quality, durable products that are less disposable, I believe that both beginning and end-of-life solutions for textiles will become mandatory – if not by regulation, then by brand policy or consumer insistence.

Thimo Schwenzfeier, Show Director, Neonyt

What we all felt in our personal lives, as well as on the business side, is that the people’s sentiment towards sustainability has changed and that there is a deeper engagement with the issue. I think that was a long overdue and very important step towards a more sustainable textile industry; consumers are changing their behavior, which results in more pressure on companies to change their way of manufacturing. And in order to become fully sustainable, we need to map the entire value chain and thus identify opportunities to limit the negative environmental and social impacts of the textile industry and, at the same time, put a spotlight on accountability and transparency.

Jose Pinto, CEO, Lemon Jelly

The tendency for simpler, minimalist and versatile products that also reflect a care for the Earth’s resources is not only a request from consumers but also a necessity for more functional products, facilitating its recyclable facet. There is a need for products with style but mostly purpose. And it’s time to make a difference, to investigate and create new raw materials that bring less impact to the environment, and to reduce waste from production.

And although digital has never been so strong, the same is also true of our awareness that the people behind each brand and cause are the key to pump energy, creativity and innovation into the future. It’s time to come closer than ever to our suppliers and customers, to work in unison, to act together to achieve something meaningful.

With this in mind, we have developed a new biobased material and continue to take action with our Wasteless Act and Closing the Loop initiative, where our waste is taken into account and our products are able to reintegrate the production of new shoes.

Bernd Hausmann, Founder & CEO, Glore

The fast fashion industry unmasked itself once again during the Covid-19 shutdown. It was shocking to see that companies canceled orders in production countries and put textile workers into existential hardship. In our communication, we should always work out what makes sustainable fashion different. Our values are based on human rights and sustainability, and not on pure profit maximization. Every brand can immediately switch to sustainable materials, but no multinational corporation can manage to operate sustainably and act out of inner conviction.

Ruth Farrell, Global Marketing Director, Textiles, Eastman

Even before Covid-19, we were seeing a trend toward brands wanting a more sustainable fabric. Today, it is even more important. Now womenswear designers and manufacturers are clamoring for sustainable fabrics to meet the demand of discerning customers, who care about the materials in their clothes. Naia cellulosic fiber is at the nexus of comfort and luxury because it renders soft, skin-friendly fabrics in rich, vibrant colors with a sumptuous drape.
In the fashion industry, we have to take a conscious look at the big issues we are facing and collectively come up with solutions to solve them, waste being one of them. We have all got to play a role in diverting waste from landfills, and the Naia team is excited to be launching Naia Renew this autumn, which is sourced from 40% recycled plastic waste.

Christina Dean, Founder/Chair, Redress; Founder/CEO, The R Collective

We will see an increase in collaboration across the industry and within companies themselves in order to find ways to reduce textile waste. Covid-19 let fashion’s previously rather hidden waste story out of the bag. As we witnessed consumption and sales come to an abrupt halt, so too did we see textile materials stranded all over the world; from shop floors, design studios, warehouses to factories. This enormous waste hangover will require collaboration – across the supply chain and also within businesses’ various departments – from finance, design, retail and logistics. Waste – which used to be quietly handled by small inner teams, including finance, at large companies – is now an issue that broader management teams must collaboratively solve to protect their bottom lines.

Hans Martin Galliker, Ecopreneur-In-Residence, Huadao Ecovillage

Does it matter whether or not you are a conscious industrialist?
If you don’t care the polar bears and workers in Bangladesh – then at least do it for yourself. No more yo-yo diets, expensive psychiatrists and false friends. Swap your superficial facade with becoming an original style icon. It’s simple: slow down your life. The upgrade to becoming healthy, beloved, stylishly unique and wise requires you to shift gears.

“Less is More” gives yourself a break, buys you freedom, skips the noise so that you finally hear your heart.

“Quality first” will make you care and others who care too will mind the difference.

“Sharing” will lead to family fun during clothes swaps, making new friends while mending together clothes in a hip repair cafe or cycle superfluous samples to second hand markets.

The slowness virus will enlighten you and your beloved ones, colleagues and business partners. Before you can say “mindful” will your new-found inner peace and healthy lifestyle expand your horizons and guide you towards more sustainability-minded business decisions.

THE NEW NORMAL OF BUYING?

Esther Stein / Jana Melkumova-Reynolds

WITH NO TRAVEL, SHOWS, TRADE FAIRS OR SHOWROOMS, THIS SUMMER RETAILERS WILL HAVE TO FIND OTHER WAYS TO ORDER FASHION COLLECTIONS. WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS?

This summer’s (physical) editions of Berlin’s Premium and Neonyt have been cancelled, Pitti Uomo has cancelled its summer event alltogether after moving it first, Düsseldorf’s Gallery Fashion and Showroom Concept will now start on August 30, and this year’s CPD – now rebranded DFD, for Düsseldorf Fashion Days – will begin on August 8. The fashion calendar has been thrown into disarray, and most trade shows are going digital.

London Fashion Week has followed Shanghai and Moscow’s lead and will be hosting its upcoming editions online. The next LFW, planned for June 12-14, will be a digital, dual-gender platform aimed at industry professionals and end consumers. The schedule will include interviews, podcasts, webinars and digital showrooms, where designers can showcase their S/S collections to retailers and their current lines to the public.

A similar platform is in the offing with Pitti Connect in Florence, which retailers should be able to use from June onwards. After initial cancellations, the Milan and Paris menswear shows are now set to go ahead in digital format: Paris Fashion Week Online will run from July 9 to 13, followed by Milano Digital Fashion Week from July 14 to 17. Both events plan to stick to their original show calendar, with each brand given a slot to present using videos and photos. Parisian trade show Tranoi is launching a digital platform in June that will host e-meetings and e-presentations. The sustainable trade show Neonyt is planning a virtual presence, too. And Premium Exhibitions is working on a ‘Blended Fashion Event’ that will combine the strengths of live events with the possibilities of the digital marketplace.

The same trend is palpable in Asia. “In March, we decided to use Tencent Meeting and Ding Talk to establish a communication and trading platform for exhibitors and buyers, CHIC ONLINE, and hold online match-making and seminars,” Chen Dapeng, President at China National Garment Association, tells WeAr.

The sector is divided as to whether industry professionals will be taken by virtual fashion shows and trade fairs. Anita Tillmann, Managing Partner at Premium, is wary of hasty reactions: “Although there is plenty that can be done digitally nowadays, it’s no substitute for people actually coming together.” Until some sort of normality returns, she recommends the wholesale platform Joor, which connects around 8,600 brands from 53 categories with 190,000 stores in 144 countries. Since March, Joor has also been offering 360-degree images in partnership with ORDRE, the technology provider. Videos are in the works to meet buyers’ needs. For retailers familiar with or already stocking the brands on offer, Joor might be the right port of call.

The first Digital Fashion Week held by B2B platform Fashion Cloud aims to virtually recreate the trade show experience. The digital fashion show is set to include shared livestreams and individual brand sessions where labels can present their collections to a select audience. During and after the trade show, retailers can view videos of the live events at digital ‘stands’, while 3D images and additional information allow them to gain an overview of the brand’s offering. The three-day event takes place from July 14 and is free for retailers.

For those who want the online experience to be as close as possible to a real-life showroom, B2B digital wholesale platform BrandLab Fashion has developed a technology to recreate brand showrooms using virtual reality. Unlike some other platforms that are essentially brand directories with e-commerce style product listings, BrandLab designs replicas of brands’ physical spaces in a 3D digital format with the use of immersive technology and provides integrated real-time voice or video communication linked to live ordering facilities to keep and build those important personal relationships. 360-degree imagery and catwalk videos are complemented with a seamless user experience design that allows for multibrand buying with one click.

A few showrooms are setting up one-to-one showcases via video chat, perfect for fielding any queries about the items. Others are offering retailers private on-site visits – following hygiene guidelines, of course – as many will want to see and feel the styles up close. All these solutions obviously can’t replace the hustle and bustle of a trade show – but it’s unlikely to be the only change we’ll have to adapt to this year.

ROUND TABLE: EMBRACING CHANGE

For this issue, WeAr has spoken to over 40 experts, including retailers, trade shows, showrooms, brands, suppliers and academics, about what the future holds. Here they offer their views on the possible scenario where of S/S20 collections being packed away and stored until S/S21, discuss potential shifts in the fashion calendar, and share not only advice but their own pandemic survival strategies.

The questions asked were as follows:

1. Due to the pandemic, the sales of SS20 collections are very slow throughout the industry across the world. Some experts have proposed that SS20 collections should be packed and stored until next summer. What do you think about the idea of selling what was originally meant to be SS20 collections next year, in SS21? Which items/product categories do you think would be best to hold back to next year, and which items do you feel can get sold  this summer despite the pandemic?
2. What do you think the current outbreak will do for the future of the fashion calendar? Will the amount of fashion events around the world go back to normal once the crisis is over, or will it shrink and become more focused (e. g., by conflating Men’s and Women’s shows)? If the latter, when and where do you expect the key events to happen?
3. What are your business’ key coping mechanisms during the pandemic? What are you doing to retain and incentivise your customers and to maintain your company’s financial health?

To ease your understanding the following categories were created:

Professor Jennifer Bentivegna, Fashion Business Management Department, Fashion Institute of Technology

1 Jennifer Bentivegna: I believe that some product can be packed up and stored for next summer and those items would be denim shorts that are more on the basic side as well as solid colored tops that are basic silhouettes. Some swim silhouettes can also be held back as long as they are not too trendy.  Retailers will need to be careful with re-releasing Spring 2020 prints as the consumer may see them as old and dated. We have to remember that prior to the pandemic the consumer was out shopping for spring break and vacations; therefore they have already seen a lot of what was predicted to be big trends for spring/summer 2020.  More fashion forward silhouettes and trendy washes and finishes will need to be sold this year as they run the risk of being out of style come next year.  If people are going to be home more this summer there will be a need for more lounge driven styles. I do not foresee consumers refreshing their entire wardrobe at this time. However, I do see individuals wanting to upgrade from the clothes they have been bumming around the house in over the past two months and looking to move on to fresh styles and brighter colors.

2 Jennifer Bentivegna: The fashion calendar will shift due to the coronavirus, and I think that it’s a welcome shift. We need to slow down fashion and return to aligning product in store with the season we are actually in. We have gotten in to the habit of releasing fall in July and by the time the consumer is actually ready to purchase that product in September or October it is already marked down. Slower fashion can help to reduce markdowns if we are able to successful tighten collections and revert back to seasonal collections.

Fashion events will always be important but I believe they will shrink post covid. You will still have fall and spring fashion weeks but they may not all be live in person events, virtual fashion shows will be more dominant as the industry navigates a post pandemic world.  We should expect to see Men’s and Women’s fashion shows combined and a designer showcasing their entire collection at once instead of having two separate shows.

3 Jennifer Bentivegna: As we navigate this new world it’s a great opportunity to start thinking innovatively. Ecommerce will become even more important and retailers that already have strong ecommerce presence like Nordstrom will prevail. Buy Online Pickup in Store may not be possible for all locations right now but curbside and contactless pickup is. Contactless checkout and customer service should be key areas to focus on. Providing a more focused and secure experience will help a retailer maintain their customer base. Consumers will want to feel appreciated by retailers, therefore now is the time to ramp up CRM programs and personalized messaging

Melissa Moylan, VP/Creative Head of Womenswear, Fashion Snoops

1 Melissa Moylan: I’m not too keen on storing and selling SS20 collections a full year later than they were intended, mainly because both brands and retailers need cashflow now to survive. While brick and mortar stores may remain closed, every retailer should use this time to ramp up their online platforms as both a way to sell but also, connect with customers. Even if they’re not buying right now, it is almost more important than ever to have a connection with customers. It’s imperative to not come off as pushing product. In light of the pandemic, many brands are speaking to customers from a lifestyle perspective and offering things such as wellness tips, recipes or workout classes. It’s important to understand that every person is processing this individually, and consumers will respond to shopping differently now, and as we recover from COVID-19. Many people have cleaned out their closets while staying home, which may bring light to a new wave of conscious consumerism. We anticipate that consumers will shift from disposable fashion to more considered wardrobe staples that are built to last and encourage building upon, from season to season. Emotional maximalism will be another key aspect of shopping – the joy of an exciting color, sensuous material or print for the way it makes you feel. In terms of product categories, the notion of dressing from the waist up (for video calls) will lead to tops being a key classification. Of course we can not ignore the fact that many of us are living in loungewear, and the notion of bed-to-street will continue to be important. There is something about knitwear and sweaters that give a sense of comfort, and we will see those classifications continue to grow. Dresses will be a harder classification with foreseeably less occasions, however consider something like a slinky slip dress that could be styled in more casual ways (think grunge layers).

2 Melissa Moylan: Unfortunately we do not have all the answers yet, however I will say that womenswear is in a beneficial position, with the next runway season starting several months from now. That allows us to assess and improve what works and what doesn’t in men’s digital fashion weeks. I imagine we will see the rise of digital platforms for fashion weeks however there is something special about fashion shows and I hope we find a way to continue to do them eventually – whether that means behind closed doors or in front of a limited audience. Seasonality is something that should also be discussed. The pandemic is in a way, forcing us to re-think the way we do everything. We know there were issues with the old way of doing things and this is forcing us to let go and come up with a better process. The notion of pre-collections has also led to abundance and an oversaturation of product in the market, so maybe we will return primarily to Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer collections. Dries Van Noten and other leaders have proposed to align real-world seasons with product deliveries, because really, it never made sense to buy a winter coat in the summer. The notion of buy-now, wear-now may finally become a key strategy.

3 Melissa Moylan: At Fashion Snoops, since we’re a digital trend agency, we’ve been able to pivot quickly in the midst of the pandemic. We introduced our Fear to Fuel webinar series the week of March 23rd and have kept it going nearly everyday for the past 8 weeks. We decided to open our doors to both clients and the world because right now everyone needs support. We’ve successfully brought together global tradeshow leaders for conversations, because right now joining forces will lead to industry solutions. We now host our Show + Tell meetings with our team as a webinar to talk about new and inspiring things that often underscore our forecasts or lead to new cultural shifts. We’ve also introduced Thrive Guide reports for our clients, which identify opportunities and strategies for change in our industry. We truly believe that we could all come out of this stronger than before.

Vincent Quan, Associate Professor, Fashion Institute of Technology

1 Vincent Quan: Social distancing rules and lockdowns will put a severe crimp on apparel sales during the balance of this year, if not longer, since these items are not as essential as food and shelter concerns. However, the consumer will be seeking basic items which offer comfort as well. Athleisure sales will continue during this time since this category meets the need to work comfortably from home. Due to the acceleration of virtual calls and meetings, consumers will be focused on the torso and up since this is the portion of the body most visible during the new normal of digital communication / virtual calls. In summary, brands need to make a concerted effort to sell as much of their SS20 collections to raise cash and cover expenses.

2 Vincent Quan: The fashion cycle experienced a “hiccup” for the first time which could happen again. The complexity of global supply chain interdependencies including raw materials and trim were exposed. With the cancellation of numerous fashion week events, the push to go virtual has accelerated. As brands went virtual, there was the realization that physical, in some ways could be replaced by digital – fashion shows included. Combining both Men’s and Women’s physical shows will happen. The unification of both will save on the costs to run separate events while promoting a singular brand message. With September just around the corner and the threat of another Covid-19 outbreak during the fall influenza season, the integration into one singular show will not occur until early 2021 for just a handful of brands who have the ability to re-engineer both the Men’s and Women’s line development calendars to run in parallel. The new normal for the fashion industry and its calendars will be a combination of physical and digital with a focus on growing digital much like e-commerce has done for the retail industry.

3 Vincent Quan: We are challenged today with two major safety issues. The first, which had been taken for granted prior to the pandemic, is health safety. Today, the health safety concern is paramount for fashion brands to not only address but to send a clear message to their stakeholders that this is the company’s top priority. These stakeholders include customers and employees alike. The brand message must deliver on health safety with full clarity and no ambiguity. Trust is non-negotiable. The second issue is financial safety. With the subsequent shutdowns due to the pandemic, sales dried up overnight. The number of small businesses suffering from the loss of revenue before and after the lockdowns eased is astronomical. Within the United States, small businesses account for nearly seventy percent of all job creation versus corporations which comprise the balance. Having an online business which could function during the lockdowns was a competitive advantage which must be leveraged to not only drive sales but customer engagement and goodwill. For those brands re-opening their physical space, a concerted effort must be undertaken to drive traffic back to brick and mortar provided that all safety concerns have been addressed. A laser focus on expense mitigation must also be fostered to balance the shortfall of revenue. Today, it is critical for fashion brands to deliver the message of HOPE: Health, Optimism, Positivity and Empathy to their customers.

Dr. Constantinos Tsikkos, fashion analyst/consultant, FashionAnthropologist.com

1 Constantinos Tsikkos: The concept of packing and storing current stock to sell it next year is disruptive if not revolutionary. It implies that fashion does not need a seasonal update or that fashion creations can have a longer lifespan. It allows an opportunity to rethink not only fast-fashion but also instant gratification some fashion brands have been promoting. If we accept that this is possible, then inevitably we will need to rethink fashion show calendars, trade shows, and even retail deliveries. Why for example should one keep stock and present it next year, when this same stock can stay full price until September, in some cases until October, when colder weather actually kicks in, and when life hopefully goes back to some sort of pre-corona “normality”. Does it really make sense discounting summer product in June? “Classic” non-trend driven product can remain part of stock to re-introduce next year. In addition, accessories and footwear are categories that are currently experiencing a bigger down-turn and might have better luck next year. However, tops, loungewear, and sportswear can still be promoted and sell right now.

2 Constantinos Tsikkos: As mentioned above, I believe this experience is an opportunity to revolutionise the redundant fashion calendar. New ideas are needed to combat the Covid-19 disruption but most importantly to address the changing consumer needs. Show and marketing budgets (fashion shows, trade shows, advertising) will reduce and brands will need to find new ways to stay relevant. For B2C, Social Media communication will increase, and digital presentations continue. For B2B, trade shows will try digital formats, fashion-shows turn back into presentation appointments, a format reminiscent by fashion buyers. Product will have to me more considerate and the buying process less rushed and more thought-through. The virus lock-down has shown us that brands and retailers who are exposed to longer production lead-times and wholesale models took a bigger hit. Their stock was ready in advance and had to be delivered to full stockrooms. Whereas, retailers with 6-8 weeks production lead-times, managed to cancel stock due for delivery in April, May and June. Going forward, a closer-to-season design and speed-to-market production is optimal. It allows quick reaction to consumer needs and allows marketing to remain relevant to current affairs. Fashion calendar should follow the same closer-to-season calendar.

Daria Yadernaya, curator of the joint MBA programs at MGIMO and British High School of Design in Moscow

1 Daria Yadernava: I would recommend trying to maximize the realization of more trendy positions in the current season. Since we have a large country (Russia) with different climatic and temperature zones, and for some, spring collections are still relevant, especially if you offer a sufficient discount so that if you don’t earn it, at least get it out of these products liquidity. The basic assortment may well be moved both in the AW 20/21 season and the next SS 21, the main thing is that the depth and width of the assortment are preserved. Summer products are most likely to be sold in sufficient quantities the of customers` desire to go out to relax in the summer for at least a short period of time and even with a limited budget is likely to continue.

2 Daria Yadernava: Firstly, we will definitely see an active transition of some exhibitions and showrooms online, this is already happening with such large Paris exhibitions as Tranoi and Who’s Next. If before the main emphasis was on physical events in Paris, now it is shifting to the online side to select and order collections. The offline format will probably remain but in a limited format of fewer days; more networking and educational content including in blended format. Exhibitions and showrooms will become a place for negotiations and communication as well as initial acquaintance with brands and commercial transactions are likely to go online. Secondly, impressions will definitely be reduced,  pre-collections most likely will be the first to suffer although from a commercial point of view this is not very promising. Perhaps we will also see a decrease in the number of days of impressions and brands represented some of the impressions will probably also go online.

3 Daria Yadernava: First of all it is very important to show empathy to customers and employees. It is not easy for everyone: both financially and emotionally. The support from the company and the feeling “I understand you”, “we are together in this” are priceless for the industry. It is obvious that retail is suffering heavy losses as physical stores are closed which is 90% of sales. Attempts to impose a purchase on a client now will not be completely successful it’s more important to try to understand what he might objectively need — a new home suit, something comfortable and “working” for online conferences, maybe accessories to make your face look brighter on the screen. Or maybe tracksuits to finally go in for sports? Understanding the client and letting him feel that we understand him is now a key factor.

The same thing is with employees. If we begin to oppress them the first to leave are the best  who are always hunted and who always have an alternative even in times of crisis. The most important thing now is to maintain a comfortable psychological environment, give tools for effective work “at random” and prepare for the new season which will inevitably come after the pandemic.

Zemira XU, Managing Director, TUBE SHOWROOM

1. Zemira Xu: Regarding the SS20 collections, since China started lockdown very early this year, which was the very beginning of spring season, cold weather clothing sales, such as knit, jacket, etc., slowed drastically for most stores. And from their feedback, most of them will keep this until AW20.
2. Zemira Xu: It’s a bit difficult to forecast, and depends on whether everything can turn over better in the coming months. But we can see from the China market that, after the crisis, brands are starting to explore the different formats of fashion events, like an online new collection launch, a livestream show, etc.  I think if the situation is under control, brands will start to plan launch events in October for SS21.
3. Zemira Xu: We have a diversified service range for our brands, including PR, content marketing, digital and wholesale, etc.  With the challenging situation, we need to have a better PR and digital marketing strategy, in particular, to help our brands have a good business turnout. Meanwhile, we are planning to help the brands start strategy and product planning for next season to improve their financial situation.

MeiMei Ding, CEO, DFO International

1 MeiMei Ding: In our current experience, we are helping brands liquidate their SS20 as quickly as we could.  With our brands, stocking them until SS21 is not a suitable solution, unless they offer mostly signature and carryover styles, because SS20 collations have been published and buyers and consumers would recognise them as such.  If we waited to sell them in SS21, they would be seen as past season inventory.

2 MeiMei Ding: With or without the current outbreak, I share the sentiment with many brands that the traditional fashion calendar does not fully reflect what’s really going on in fashion anymore.  Drops, stories, see-now-buy-now fit much more today’s digital media environment as well as consumer behaviour.  The largest fashion events such as fashion week events in Milan, Paris, London, and New York will surely stay, but I think the current situation opens up many fresh ways of approaching the market for brands that are not fully pegged on traditional fashion events.

Denis Erkhov and Sasha Krymova, founders, Dear Progress agency

1 Denis Erkhoy and Sasha Krymova: Dear Progress works with young brands and allows you to create a distribution network from 0 stores to fifty in a short time. Therefore, all our brands are relatively small and do not have the same flow, which would allow to replace positions or potentially use them in SS21 collections. Due to the specifics of working with young players, two unfavorable scenarios are possible: if buyers see the same things or conceptually similar tricks, then the brand may create an impression of crisis and loss of interest, and therefore potentially reduce the likelihood of an order or its volume. The second scenario is for brands using the Direct-to-consumer model: since the decline in purchasing opportunities around the world is predicted, it is important to maintain loyal customers, and exclude the possibility of interpreting product repetitions as a fraud of the customer. It is important to note that if a brand presents a lookbook or shows, the collection is accessible to a wide range of viewers and remembered by professionals and customers. As a result, it is very easy to inflict reputation damage to the brand and undermine credibility in the market. Accessories and glass brands can use some positions from SS20 that were not released publicly or were in development, but in this case, it is not necessary to observe seasonality and wait for the spring/summer 2021.

2 Denis Erkhoy and Sasha Krymova:  In our opinion, the trend towards the unification of male and female shows was formed long before the pandemic. We saw examples of brands that presented both men’s and women’s looks at shows, and buyers of men’s collections come during Women’s Fashion Week and vice versa. The fashion community more and more understands that there is a market oversaturation, chaos and fictitious inflation of the fashion market due to investments from third-party spheres, while purchasing power is falling and even large retailers have quarterly losses. Many people talk about the shiting of purchases online, which is also not a new thing, and we worked with buyers remotely, who placed orders without coming for a fashion week. In this case, it is important to understand how convincing your product is. It is necessary to adequately estimate the specifics of regional markets, such as the USA, Japan, China, to deepen the distribution to represent the brand there, and therefore it is worth getting attached to major events from the calendar. Presumably, this will be relevant in 2021, when there will be a battle for customers after a major cleaning of the brand environment.

3 Denis Erkhoy and Sasha Krymova:  Now we try to approach the businesses with which we work on two sides: crisis management and developing a strategy to manage the effects of the pandemic. We work strictly on the business plane and are subject to changes only from retailers and their purchases. In our opinion, the main thing for brands during the pandemic is to build correct and clear communication with customers, be as sincere as possible, and not put profit/earnings as a priority. The information flow is full, and a loyal audience is the most important asset that a brand has. So after the pandemic, lots of work will begin to attract and capture new customers.

Renzo Braglia, CEO, Brama showroom

1 Renzo Braglia: This situation is really hard and uncontrollable on the market. In our product category, denim, the CORE (that counts for around the 40% of our turnover) is timeless and can stay for a quite long time on the point of sales, being not tied to a specific season. As regarding the seasonal SS 20 product, it will be inevitably devalued and there’s not much to do about it. Sales for Q2 of 2020 will cause huge remainders in the retailers, and they will be very hardly resaleable in 2021. I believe it could happen a product shift as regarding the PreFall collections that could move from the traditional sales period June/August to a later period (July/September) joining the Fall collections. Moreover most of brands have cut the production of Fall collections because the order time of fabrics for these was coincident with the beginning of the pandemic.

2 Renzo Braglia: I  don’t think that the dates of the fashion calendar can change because they are tied to the production cycle. What will change will be the communication and the sale processes: events, fairs, fashion shows and showrooms sales. They will have huge changes and a more digital approach than physical initiatives. I think all the fashion events for 2020 are compromised unfortunately. Every initiative to try to make them run is a palliative solution.

3 Renzo Braglia:  We are a loop in the supply chain. Despite our will to keep the machine alive and working we had to slow down and adapt to the market around us. We have kept the Company always open to mantain the minimum of necessary services and operations. With the retailers closed, we have not been able  to give much service to them but we have concentrated our efforts to be close to the brands in terms of planning and management of production for PreFall and Fall.

Angelo Fumarola, Berwich

1 Angelo Fumarola: We as a company also are doing our efforts to meet our clients’ need to reduce SS20 ordrers and relieving their budgets storing part of their orders in our warehouse until next season SS21 with the promise of the clients to pick-them up next year.  Of course, the best sellers of this SS20 will be lighter items, having completely lost the Spring season, therefore linen fabrics, shorts for our kind of merchandise. Long cotton and fresh wool trousers will be for sure the ones stored til next SS1.

2 Angelo Fumarola: For sure, the fashion calendar has been changing a lot after this outbreak with events cancellation , with the hope they will be back once the situation will be normal again. We are now reinventing our way to work, we’ll prefer the old stile sales instead of exhibitions, that is one to one meetings with the clients to their shops, as well as video calls and digital contents for those unreachable.

3 Angelo Fumarola: We do want to be our first clients’ supporters in these economic hard times. we’re offering them discounts and payment deferments with the hope to mantain with them a strong and long-term relationship.

Katharina Hovman, Founder, Katharina Hovman

1 Katharina Hoyman: I saw my customers, mostly designer boutiques, during the shutdown who were very creative and busy!  They used Instagram, built up small online shops in a super short time, organized bring services, etc. This works, because they have a very good relationship with their costumers (of course not as good as a normal business!).

I think they need new inspiration for next summer!

But as always, they should keep the timeless design! Not in the sale, to keep the value, and bring it back in a fresh context next season!

2 Katharina Hoyman: I could feel already the last seasons in Paris ( March, September) that the big fashion events came down, like Tranoi….or Premium in Berlin.

The buyers prefer to go to independent showrooms, to be more focused and closer to the product. I think men’s and women’s shows could be together like rewiringfashion.org suggest. Need Paris really 3 dates in the future (men’s, pre- and fashion week)? For the international market, Paris, Milan will be still the key markets. (But what’s happening with all the smaller events in other countries (Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Düsseldorf, …). If buy local, will be more the value for the future? Maybe the change will take a bit of time, because we all have to learn to think differently and this will be a process!

Over the years we had the same schedule, designers, suppliers, and retailers.

3 Katharina Hoyman: My team had contact with every customer by phone or e-mail. The customer where so thankful and deeply impressed with my accommodation.

We have to stay together, we are all a part of it!

Håkan Ström, CEO, Mini Rodini

1 Hâkan Ström: Corona has hit us all hard. We really feel it, especially in our own retail, while our e-commerce actually has a fantastic development. We are in dialogue with our wholesale accounts around the globe, most of them have been hit by the pandemic just like retail overall. However, there seems to be a difference between men’s and women’s fashion and children’s clothing, which is our core business. If you as a company are in wholesale, it is difficult to freeze a collection for next year as you are not in control of your wholesale accounts business. Each individual retailer has their own business to take care of and the biggest part of our SS20 main collection was sold prior to the Corona pandemic hit most of the markets in which we are operating. Mini Rodini as a brand is long-term and puts sustainability in the first room, so we work continuously to ensure that our clothes have a long lifetime. That´s been a part of our DNA since the very beginning.

2 Hâkan Ström: I both believe and hope for a change. We ourselves will relinquish trade fairs now and in the future. We have decided not to go back to traditional sales like before. We also do not think that all customers will want it. During this period, it has worked well to work more digitally, no trips etc. We will continue to do so in the greatest extent possible, which is also in line with our overall sustainability focus. In the long term, it will also be possible to generate savings that can be invested in developing even more sustainable materials and working methods. How this may affect seasons is still too early to say. A dream would be if the seasons could be evened out more and be more fluid with less discounts and campaigns like Black Friday etc. We all need to value each garment more. If we are to produce sustainably, there is less room for the eternal campaign. Of course, our highest wish for all categories is that consumers, wholesale accounts and brands prioritize sustainable consumption and responsibility. This is the most important issue in the entire industry.

3 Hâkan Ström: The pandemic has put pressure on us as a company, management and the individual employee. It has developed into a form of stress test where we get to choose to focus on what is really important. Apart from the natural measures such as following the health authority’s recommendations, curbing costs, prioritizing projects, maximizing the support packages issued by the government, renegotiating rental terms and other major supplier agreements, reducing risks; for example, we have reduced the production of garments for autumn winter season. We have also chosen to invest even more in our own e-commerce business and have increased the activity level, which does not only mean price activities. We have also increased our investments in digital marketing. The measures taken have all together had a very good effect. Dialogue with our wholesale accounts is important. Here one must try to be responsive. Leadership is being tested as most employees work from home. We have therefore chosen to work with more short-term goals. Each manager must be really close to his or her team with follow-ups and on a weekly basis. As CEO, I have written weekly e-mail’s to all employees with an update on the current situation, about the challenges we are facing but perhaps mainly about good initiatives and positive things happening in the company. In moments like these, it is really required that everyone in the team is helping out and being engaged. Overall, we have all made some really important key learnings that will help us in the future too.

Daniel Grieder, CEO, Tommy Hilfiger Global and PvH Europe

1 Daniel Grieder: We are looking to increase product shelf life in-store, by selling Fall collections into November and strategically rationalizing drops and styles. Our highest priority is ensuring our upcoming seasons are fully optimized, without compromising quality or options for consumers.

2 Daniel Grieder: Our “See Now, Buy Now” experiential events, which premiered both men and women’s collections together, already pushed the boundaries of expectations. Today’s unprecedented situation has forced us to stop, reflect and think critically about which other parts of the old way of operating are worth returning to. It’s an opportunity to become even more consumer-centric in our approach. In our new normal, fashion events and experiences will transform into innovative digital formats. Without the constraints of physical production, we can push the democratization of fashion even further, immersing the consumer into our brand world more than ever before.

3 Daniel Grieder: Our consumers have never spent so much time online, so we’ve refocused our resources towards our online platforms, from own e-commerce site to third-party players. It’s about meeting the consumer where they are. We have continued to uphold our ‘Product is King’ philosophy to deliver premium quality products at the right price-to-value ratio. Our brand is known for our premium smart/casual looks – a style which is finding all new relevance in today’s working from home lifestyle. As stores gradually re-open around the world, we are balancing strict Health & Safety measures while creating the best possible in-store brand experience.

Marco Lanowy, Managing Director, Alberto

1 Marco Lanowy: Articles: Masks are the new sneaker. And hybrid sport pants – We will focus on the Alberto Hybrid Sport product range, made of 2 technical materials: for sailing, golf, hiking, camping, climbing and of course biking.

I believe in supporting the retailer and definitely not discounting the merchandise. We have a 1 1/2 year lead at Alberto and so we have frozen our bestsellers – these items will then be added to the order at 20%. Therefore we don’t have to go into the production process and the buyer already has a good pre-order for next season. It’s all about the longevity of the product and it’s basically a continuation of our bestselling management. 50% of our business is handled via warehouse sales anyway, so we can help the retailer in this situation in an optimal way.

2) Marco Lanowy: I believe that there will be fewer shows and direct communication will become more important. Of course there will also be digital solutions, but these will only be supplementary and will not replace personal contact. We will continue to focus a lot on showrooms and we are lucky that we have established good relationships with our agents and they have developed their markets so well.

3) Marco Lanowy: It is to our advantage that we are a specialist. As such you can work out differently and offer special products that the customer really wants. Our product is durable, with a fair price point and well positioned. When we reopened our store, it was soon clear that the clientele that had normally planned a trip to New York was now focusing on cycling, golf, hiking and going to the beer garden. They need clothes for this and the cost of 6 pairs of new trousers is still much less than the flight to New York.

Thomas Bungardt, CEO, Lieblingsstück

1 Thomas Bungardt: Against the background of a fashionable outfit provider, the storage of entire product groups is certainly not recommendable, since the following year they no longer correspond to the trend and could lead to poor sales.

In the basic area, that’s probably something else, here you could store certain product groups such as T-shirts, tops, blouses, knits, etc., as long as there is capacity for them and they don’t have to be created cost-effectively.Since we have been preparing for the “Ready to Wear” idea for the sake of our end users for some time, the summer does not start until April and lasts until September.We at LIEBLINGSSTÜCK firmly believe that our customers are now extremely looking forward to being able to go out again, to enjoy the summer, to spend their vacation in their home country or surroundings, and thus to offer support to our dealers in their own country. Since the holiday experience and distant trips are likely to be canceled this year, the shopping experience in your own country will hopefully be all the more enjoyable.Of course, we also tried to react in time and extremely punished the summer deliveries, so that our trading partners do not suffocate from the pressure of goods. However, as already mentioned, we do not consider that summer to be completely canceled to promote sales.

2 Thomas Bungardt: We at LIEBLINGSSTÜCK believe in a promising time after COVID – 19. We do not believe that old proven successfully revised structures are now experiencing a revival. However, we are convinced that we have to face up to the challenges of 2020, such as rethinking order and delivery dates, collection sizes, volume of goods, permanent availability, etc. Together with our trading partners we want to arouse a new kind of desire. Maybe sell-out notifications will create desires instead of permanent availability due to high stock levels!

We love this industry and we believe in qualified retail. This retail has always existed and will always exist. If we act as a good partner, we will again exploit all the opportunities that this great industry has to offer.

3 Thomas Bungardt: We are a medium-sized, family-run company with almost 100 employees – created by visions, passion and a lot of hard work. At the beginning of the crisis, we immediately reacted in partnership to relieve our trading partners of the upcoming goods pressure. The upcoming deliveries were postponed, streamlined or even canceled in the interests of our partners and at our expense. We fought for many weeks to maintain the brand because there were no suitable financial solutions for small and medium-sized businesses for a long time. Politically yes, the practices and approaches of banks, however, have completely separate laws. LIEBLINGSSTÜCK is not a large corporation, not a large donor – we have developed everything ourselves. We have neither high storage capacities nor large outlets in which we can sell enormous returns. We are an emotional label and not a mass product and we continue to rely on it: quality, emotionality, humanity and sustainability combined with an even closer feeling of home like MADE IN EUROPE. This situation is a great opportunity that we would like to use to bring the actual idea of ​​our textile world back into balance.

Franco Catania, CEO, Giada s.p.a

1) Franco Catania: It is now established that the fashion sector is among those most damaged by the ongoing pandemic. In February, we had delivered a good part of the SS20 collection, which following the total blockage of activities, remained in the warehouses of our customers, who are reopening their stores only these days, when most of the season has been compromised. While confident that, between the application of hygiene rules and common sense, as well as the desire to return to normal normality, the market will be able to start again, if we are aware that, inevitably, we will face possible repercussions; based on these considerations, in consultation with our partners, we are evaluating all the options, including the possibility of re-proposing part of the SS20 collection in the SS21, also from an eco-sustainable point of view. At the same time, our company is already working on the new collection and it is creating – in addition to the current spring / summer collection – capsules based on what will be the trends and above all our best sellers, therefore our iconic garments which are represented by the five pockets in comfortable and light fabrics and jogging trousers.2) Franco Catania: The pandemic is calling into question what has so far been thought to be the most appropriate solution for the sector. The fashion calendar will certainly undergo a slowdown in rhythms and also a slight delay, so as to bring the sales of the collections back to their natural seasonality. It is probable that the trend of all brands will be to manage events for men / women on a single date, which Giada already implemented, but, even, we believe that we will orient ourselves in reducing the number of exits by avoiding the presentations of the pre- collections. As some great names of Italian fashion have already thought, bringing the most important fashion shows to Italy will be a common trend, both to contain costs and to reduce the environmental impact as well as because our cities already offer an artistic and unique naturalistic.

3) Franco Catania:
Although in different ways, anyone of us has changed their lifestyle. Our company, which is very attentive to the needs of its employees, has immediately implemented everything necessary for their protection, both through the application of a clear and rigorous protocol containing a whole series of sanitary hygiene rules, both above all – and this is what makes the difference and which has always distinguished Giada – through the direct and, we can also say familiar, interpersonal relationship between all workers, as well as between them and managers, who care about the well-being of all. The same attention was paid to our customers, whom we managed with the usual attention and responding to their needs, understanding the problems dictated by this moment of extreme difficulty.

Suzanne Lerner, President, Michael Stars

1 Suzanne Lerner: We have been working on a strategy to reflect the new reality of our world and business. While we follow trends, our brand focuses on modern contemporary pieces, which allows us the ability to keep essential styles and sell them next spring. We had an early transition group of acid-washed cotton voile and we moved the entire group to Spring 21.  We are currently selling lots of masks, tie dye t-shirts and sweats, gauze and linen as wear-now products.

2 Suzanne Lerner: We are hoping the fashion calendar will reflect more of the consumer’s needs as to when they want to buy product. For example, we should be selling Fall 21 during Fall 20 and have goods on the floor when people want them. It’s tough to ship fall in mid-July as more and more customers are savvy and wait until it goes on sale or for when they need it.  I do think fashion trade shows will change and be on much smaller scales, so we plan on using our showrooms more and work by appt.

3 Suzanne Lerner: We immediately got on board with the mayor of Los Angeles’ #LAProtects initiative a few months ago.  We started using our sample sewers’ time to devote to making non-medical masks for healthcare facilities. It has created a lot of brand buzz which in turn fueled a surge that tripled our ECOM business. People were rediscovering us every day.

The PPE initiative also allowed us to offset some of the loss we saw due to our specialty store business closures. These stores are the backbone of our company and to help propel them forward we have created new financial incentives for them.

Jason Denham, Founder and CEO, Denham

1 Jason Denham: The pandemic has had a huge impact on all of us and your question is very relevant for many reasons. These being; cashflow, discounting, customer support and waste – (sustainability). We have taken all these points in to consideration and we decided to slide our seasons and sell the goods until the year end by creating a very small capsule for winter instead of building a full collection. Our business model runs on the four seasons spring, summer, fall and winter with in-between pop collections. Spring sell thru has been incredibly challenging, we suspended 60 stores in Holland, Germany, Japan and China however we are now re-opened and see positive traction in our stores. We delayed summer and fall to compensate for sell thru periods. We don’t have any plans to hold goods for 1 year.

2 Jason Denham: We don’t believe in the message ‘go back to normal’, we think the world has changed forever. I’m an eternal optimist but also a realist. I do think that a lot of positives will come out of this pandemic experience. ‘Yes’ the fashion calendars will change, ‘yes’ the shows will change but in the end we are all responsible as business leaders and consumers to make this happen.

3 Jason Denham: When the virus started in China in early January we made short and mid term plans (long term is not realistic in these times) how to manage the situation. Then the spread became a pandemic and this affected our Japanese and European business so we ripped up the plans 3 times are rewrote the strategy. The first and foremost responsibility has always been our employees and our customers. We closed our global offices and stores and quickly adapted to Microsoft teams, Zoom, Wechat, etc etc. in order to keep our business moving. We retain our customers with positive social feeds and ‘do the right thing’ mentality. Our financial health has been very challenging however we have always supported our network and they support us. We have a very close group of wholesale customers & vendors and we work and support each other to keep the business moving.

José Pinto, CEO, Lemon Jelly

1 José Pinto: I believe that there is not a direct answer for this, every brand, every market, every retailer has its own context with different levels of impact from the pandemic, so this must be analysed case by case. One thing is certain, the pandemic didn’t reduce production and distribution costs therefore we believe that we should all avoid depreciating the market with big discounts. Accordingly, holding some inventory could be part of the solution, retaining the value of products which can be sold in the next summer season and prioritizing selling the most specific seasonal and trendy products.

2 José Pinto: In the short term I think the number of events will reduce drastically, but in one or two years we’ll all be back to “normal”. The industry evolved this way for a reason where specific segments, with relevant dimension, required specific events to create momentum and to amplify their message. Maybe in a given moment we reached an excess of shows and events, and some might never return, but the ones that do return will probably suffer significant changes with the introduction of new digital tools, for example, expanding the physical borders of the events.

3 José Pinto: I think that probably the most positive thing this pandemic brought us all was the clear message that we do not exist alone, we are all interdependent, and this impacted us in two very important ways. The first was the realization that to overcome this period we would need to support and be supported by our stakeholders, both up and downstream, and this made us closer than ever to our suppliers and customers, in the best way possible, finding common ground of agreement that can be truly positive to both sides.The second is that we all need to act now in the protection of our  planet. If one virus had this level of impact around the entire world imagine what a global environmental crisis could have. This made us more determined than ever to continue our WASTELESS Act initiative, retrieving old shoes to recycle and create new ones, truly closing the loop. This initiative started in AW20 and we are already preparing new developments that can help us scale it around the globe, but now with a more collaborative approach, that we believe will be the way of the future. Stay tuned!

Santi Pons-Quintana Palliser, CEO and Creative Director, Pons Quintana

1 Santi Pons-Quitana Palliser: Everybody in our business knows that we are in front of very strange seasons, not just this SS20, FW21 and SS21 are on the stake. Sales of the next two months will mark the evolution of collections, and agility in developing them it´s basic to adapt the business to this new era. For us, we work mainly with multi-brand stores, the option of storing product it´s not in our hands, we think that we must face this situation offering product, offering new options. Acting as if this year doesn´t exist it´s not an option, and storing can damage more if possible the financial health of a lot of business. This said, we know that SS21 we are obliged for responsibility to our multi-brand costumers to continue the lines of this season in a part of the collection, following patterns and introducing colors and shapes that can complete the offer of the unintended stock that they must have. We also will introduce new trends, because the market cannot stop, and the target of our team now it´s to offer a balance between continuity and creativity.

2 Santi Pons-Quitana Palliser: Events have experienced lots of changes in the last years, and the actual situation just have accelerated changes in this format. We must assume that the financial situation of a lot of business will have a direct impact in the profit of this events and this can make them shrink. We think that the calendar will continue similar in the next 2 seasons for the big shows, but we can expect changes in the whole system in the mid-term.

3 Santi Pons-Quitana Palliser: We are trying to help our multi-brand costumers in payment terms and assuming part of the potential lose in our own margin. We have to have in mind also the providers that  are also in the same boat. The cycle comprehends from the leather provider to the last shop of the chain, and we are trying to put all our effort, to make possible that the cycle continues.

Enrico Roselli, CEO, La Martina

1 Enrico Roselli: This postponement of SS20 to SS21 is something we also heard in the market, but we don’t believe it is a right decision: it makes sense from a cost-effective viewpoint, but a brand has to tell a story, convey values and we don’t believe this move will be perceived as authentic and relevant. It’s not just the question that Fashion should be always upfront and innovative, which wouldn’t be the case of re-proposing SS20 next year: in this case lifestyle brands like ours could feel safer to do so; but also lifestyle brands should be consistent and relevant to their target consumers and we feel that the world changed during this pandemic: offering the same wouldn’t reflect this. We think we all went back or reconsidered our families and friends, personal relationships came back as one of the most important strengths and values, and we as a brand have always believed in this. We think that this pandemic should be also used as an opportunity to bring back fashion timing to the real seasons timing and to review also the sales period, to possibly sell less but healthier in terms of timing and margins for all the involved parties.

2 Enrico Roselli: We expect some changes came to stay, not just because of the impact of the lockdown (which hopefully will be overcome soon) but especially in terms of the acceleration given to trends which were already in place: digital communication, video calls, digital meetings, but also place orders online or through video calls: the need to use these tools broke a sort of barrier based on habits and now it is making it easier to really evaluate what works best in each occasion, instead of just doing what we are used to. Moreover, we think that this global crisis has shown that the way forward is collaboration, it’s not just competition and conflict and we hope that this is what also Fashion chambers and related associations will apply in the coming time, to make something bigger together instead of fighting each other and struggling to get enough brands and audience; there might be even a rotation

3 Enrico Roselli: This is the most critical situation, cause we as a brand are just in between of many effects. From a B2B perspective, we are focusing on granting a better and easier experience to our customers, allowing them to receive and see more and better content on our brand, the collection, the capsules composing the collection, the products and the storytelling of each capsule collection. We implemented our B2B platform to allow a more satisfactory and engaging experience, we are promoting more and more the connection to our company platforms, both to share multimedia contents and material (e.g for their own e-commerce platforms) and to allow infinite warehouse solutions between their physical shops and our central warehouse, etc. Digital is of absolute importance to make business more effective, to save money, to create the best offer of products and services without any friction between on and offline, and between brands and retailers, everything focused towards the best experience for the consumer.

Nobuo Arakawa, President & CEO, Laforet Harajuku Co., ltd.

1 Nobuo Arakawa: Laforet Harajuku is a fashion building housing different fashion brands, so there are a variety of opinions and ways of thinking. It is necessary to make a comprehensive assessment of the freshness, sense of season/era, prioritizing the selling of excess products, environmental considerations, etc., but I think that forward-looking genres will be limited. As genres, standard items and iconic products may be easy to carry over. Since restrictions will be placed on leaving the home this summer, I think that items that allow people to spend time at home comfortably are the right thing to sell. In addition, as there will be an increase in online communication, we can expect an increase in demand for items that look attractive on a monitor.

2 Nobuo Arakawa:I think the way that events are thought about and carried out will change toward avoiding measures that bring a lot of people together at the same time. I think we will see an an increase in events created on new standards and values, such as virtual events or those that connect the Internet and the real world.

3 Nobuo Arakawa:I have been thinking that securing the safety of employees and customers and creating an environment where people can shop with peace of mind will be an element in attracting customers and an added value. I also want to continue to communicate the fun and fabulousness of Harajuku fashion to lots of customers.

Simon Sun, Nick Chiu, Kimberley Sun and Ben Chiu, founders, Double Double store

1 Simon Sun, Nick Chiu, Kimberley Sun, and Ben Chiu: We think it could potentially be a great idea. But with brands and retailers relying on cashflow, this would be a hard decision to make. Most of the designers we have spoken with have edited their collections to a more precise and lean offering. I think this is a smart way to proceed with caution. We think the world has embraced the “work from home” mentality. Therefore anything that is suited for the home would be easiest to sell. Products catering to a large gatherings would be worth holding back such as formal wear, suiting etc

2 Simon Sun, Nick Chiu, Kimberley Sun, and Ben Chiu: Most fshion weeks have cancelled due to the outbreak and that’s a good idea. Until the world can overcome this pandemic, it might have to stay cancelled and move into digital. We believe it will go back to normal after this crisis but maybe on a smaller scale. A lot of designers are re-evaluating Fashion Week and how much they want to put into it.  If the latter, when and where do you expect the key events to happen?

3 Simon Sun, Nick Chiu, Kimberley Sun, and Ben Chiu: We’ve ad to re-look at our orders for FW20 collections and make adjustments. We’ve edited what we could and have worked out a strategy to keep our running costs low as there will be a decline in the retail landscape. Keeping staff safe and employed was a major factor in our decision making early in this pandemic. We are a small family business and have a very loyal and supportive customer base. Keeping shipping prices competitive has retained our customers that don’t want to shop physically in the sotre. Moving forward, we are looking to expand our selection on lifestyle and homewares.

Jacqui Morton and Julie Leonard, Directors, Bitter Lemon boutiques

1 Jacqui Morton and Julie Leonard: We do not see a problem with selling SS20 collections in 2021. Bitter Lemon would be able to do this as we are about investing in your wardrobe rather than disposable fashion. The majority of our stock is seasonless so we will continue with our marketing strategy throughout the year. We think resortwear could be held back until SS21 because of the travel restrictions imposed. Dresses along with leisurewear will continue to be a big seller as we come out of lockdown and the summer months approach.

2 Jacqui Morton and Julie Leonard: We believe there will be a reduction of many events in the fashion calendar due to social distancing and the lack of investment however with the wonder of technology, they can be presented digitally.

3 Jacqui Morton and Julie Leonard: Our key coping mechanism is that we have appointed Platform Creative to build our profile. We understand our collection has been well received by the fashion media and we will be featuring in magazines over the forthcoming months. We are continuing to market actively through social media platforms during this time with a view to promoting our unique sustainable brands created by local designers and artisans in Greece. We are currently offering free shipping and considering a “giveaway” promotion to incentivise our customers. We also may need to consider reducing our prices further down the line if sales are not increased with our media exposure to enable us to go forward with our business plan. From a financial perspective, it is difficult to forecast. We launched in July last year and our focus has been to invest in and build our profile. We remain positive with Platform Creative on board and believe we have brought some innovative brands to the UK.

Miriam Anlauf, Head of Purchasing, Ladies’ Items, Peek & Cloppenburg KG, Düsseldorf

1 Miriam Anlauf: Depending on the federal states, our department stores were allowed to gradually reopen over the entire area in May. Since last Friday, the last of the P&C stores has been inviting people to shop on the entire sales area. The first experiences show that the frequencies in the shopping streets and the desire to buy are significantly lower. Predicting future shopping habits is of course difficult, but we still expect customers to be cautious. After such a long time at home, people will not immediately start all activities again. However, we are confident that many will look forward to a stroll through the city again and that the fun in fashion will increase again with the loosening of the contact blocks. However, the lockdown does not make up for lost business. In the case of recurring or timeless product groups in particular, we are currently reviewing articles for the entire size range from the current collections and offering them in the coming year.

2 Miriam Anlauf: A sustainable shift in the fashion calendar is conceivable. The equalization of sales cycles would take the pressure off the industry and avoid quick discounts. The goods could stay on the surfaces longer and be sold at a regular price, since the upcoming collection would not be waiting in the starting blocks.

3 Miriam Anlauf: In times of crisis such as the corona pandemic, events often roll over. At such a speed, flexibility and the ability to make quick decisions help. Now it is more important than ever to be able to put yourself in the customer’s shoes and to adapt to your needs and fears, for example with regard to hygiene, fashion affinity and fashion level. Here it is helpful to ask yourself what we currently want from the communication of companies and brands.

Ruoyi Jiang, Founder and Director, Chop Suey Club store

1 Ruoyi Jiang: I already think it makes no sense to discount clothes so heavily just because a new season of items are coming out. Are the previous season clothes not good anymore? If Fashion’s tactic is to make people always want the newest thing by depreciating the old, then there’s something wrong with Fashion, don’t you think? Isn’t that why Fashion is the biggest polluter on Earth? I think there’s absolutely no problem selling SS20 in SS21 (or even in SS23) as long as your cash flow permits. I think SS fashion will always be easier to sell than FW fashion, after all, single SKU pricing is way lower and there’s a higher general demand. Before the pandemic hit, we were planning to produce more visuals for the SS20 collection, now we don’t have quite enough material to promote, also we lost the store traffic which accounts to a significant portion of our sales, so I anticipate the SS20 sales will be somewhat bleak. But that’s mostly higher price range clothing items, tees, eyewear, swimwear and other home goods are still gonna be good sales.

2 Ruoyi Jiang: The fashion world will try to go back to normal as soon as they can. The Men’s & Women’s conflation is already in motion, that’s going to be the future. For New York, we anticipate by October events can start happening again with more measurements for safety. Fashion Week in September will be mostly private viewing and online streaming, unless a vaccine or treatment comes out before then. At the moment, we are planning our first event to take place on October 1 and it’s on a boat (lol), so let’s see how things will pan out.

3 Ruoyi Jiang: This pandemic pushed us to focus on improving our existing issues. Like everyone else, we have to cut our costs while trying as hard as you can to make online sales. Improving our e-commerce is the biggest priority now. We were too reliant on the store sales, failed to pay enough attention to e-commerce which is really dumb but that’s what happened. Also since we are not restocking as fast, we have to get creative at selling slower moving stock. It means our online marketing would have to get creative, refocus our customers on existing products instead of new products.

Renee Henze, Global Marketing and Commercial Development Director, DuPont Biomaterials

1  Renee Henze: If it’s possible for brands to sell their collections next season, that’s a strong sustainability move. Often the alternative is incineration or bringing garments to market at a lower value to the end consumer, which promotes a more disposable supply chain.

As brands and designers navigate this decision, it’s a great time to consider innovation in material selection for more enduring styles. Whether collections are introduced in 2020 or 2021, selecting quality, sustainable fabrics means garments will perform better over time. We’re doing our part to support designers and brands through our new Common Thread Fabric Certification Program. Mills with this certificate assure fabrics have the unique molecular footprint of partially plant-based Sorona polymer and meet the quality standards Sorona is known for, including unparalleled softness, performance and durability. As an example, one of our five branded fabric collections is Sorona Agile, a long-lasting stretch fabric option that provides better resistance to heat, UV rays and chlorine. It’s an ideal alternative in any garment where spandex-free stretch is needed. And, unlike spandex, Sorona® is recyclable.

Fabric selection can be a key driver in sustainability both upstream and downstream, all leading to a more circular economy. I believe the future is centered on circularity and brands that can adopt practices will earn and maintain the lasting trust of their customers and the respect of the industry. We’re helping brands tell that story.

3  Renee Henze We know end consumers are scrutinizing their spending now more than ever. When they’re ready to make a purchase, they’re choosing brands that align with their values. To keep the end consumers engaged and devoted to a brand, transparency and trust is essential. We’re helping brands build that bridge. Our new Common Thread Fabric Certification Program is built on a clear chain of custody. By providing this link between mills, designers, and brands, we’re supporting the industry in the current climate and helping it prepare for the future.

Tricia Carey, Director of Global Business Development – Denim, Lenzing

1 Tricia Carey:  Many brands and retailers cannot hold inventory due to the liability and still pay their suppliers.  There has always been the issue of the financing of fashion which is just amplified now. Seasonless styles like knit tees, underwear, and basic denim can be carried over to the next season or re-merchandised to within collections.

2 Tricia Carey: There will be a reset to the fashion calendar including trade shows and store deliveries as the consumer consumption levels change. Designers and executives are already suggesting this transformation in the „rewriting“ proposal. The digital connections instead of physical events will continue and there will be a consolidation of shows. The pandemic is accelerating the change we needed to have in the industry.

3 Tricia Carey: Lenzing has kept a focus on health and safety while servicing customers. Hygiene Austria, a newly-established company which is a  joint venture of Lenzing AG and Palmers Textil AG,  produces protective masks. Collaboration is the key mechanism during this pandemic to understand how we all progress forward afterwards.

Ruth Farrell, Global Marketing Director, Textiles, Eastman

1 Ruth Farrell:  Even before the pandemic, we saw shoppers becoming more aware and concerned with making more informed,  eco-conscious purchasing decisions. The current pandemic showed the  slowdown of consumerism and the positive impact that this can have on the environment. Working from home is more commonplace and comfortable clothing has become the norm.  More and more brands are adopting strategies to review their  sourcing strategies, collections planning to cater those needs too. Storing clothes for 12 months will avoid waste and this can only be a positive.

2 Ruth Farrell: We see industry events, trade shows being postponed from spring, summer to autumn 2020 such as Copenhagen Fashion Summit, Premiere Vision New York and others. It is an opportunity to rethink and innovate in digital space to have even stronger fashion events in future.

3 Ruth Farrell: Naia™ is proud to be part of the Eastman community, which is supporting customers and local communities during the pandemic. Eastman is providing materials to help make critical items needed for medical, health and hygiene products that are in short supply. So far, Eastman has made the following contributions:

• 10,000 face shields for hospitals in Massachusetts, thanks to a collaboration with SMC Ltd.;
• Donated copolyester resins to PRP Creationas part of an effort by cosmetics companies to produce 475,000 bottles of hand sanitizer for health organizations in France;
• Distributed window film to Harlow College to produce 300 additional face shields for hospital workersin the United Kingdom;
• Collaborated with the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and universitiesto help produce 10,000 face shields;
• Donated copolyesters to companies in Brazilto manufacture 20,000 face shields for hospitals; and,
• Donated critical PPE including 180 N95 masks and 4,400 nitrile gloves to first responders in Massachusetts.

We continue to support our customers on their sustainability objectives and we have programs ongoing with our partners on new sustainable fabric collections. We are also using this time to help continue our awareness and education program with our mill partners on the importance of sustainability.

Boris Provost, President, Tranoi

1 Boris Provost: For sure, the global sales of SS20 will be down and many retailers and brands will have products in stock at the end of the SS sales period.

Regarding the collections of SS21, from what we know from our exhibitors, they will make a mix between pieces from SS20, refresh with new items… The SS21 collections would be smaller with a mix of basic/neutral items and very creative products…they will link to the desire also of the consumers.

2 Boris Provost: For September Paris FW, if we are able to make it happen in real (fingers crossed), the trade shows will present men and women collections. The sales period will be concentrated in SEPT & OCT. We are still hoping to organize our next event from 2d to 5^th of October. But from June, we will launch a digital platform that allows designers to present their collections, organize meetings and presentations of collections. We have no 100% guarantee to set up an event for next semester, that’s why digital services are more important.

3 Boris Provost: We did several surveys, webinars, InstaLive… to support the brands, to well understand their needs, and to adapt our offer of services. We learned that we could be efficient, creative, and agile at distance so find solutions and recreate our concept. Even if we are physically far from our clients, we have never been so close to the concerns and worries.

Chen Dapeng, President, China National Garment Association and President, CHIC

1 Chen Dapeng: Warehousing for SS21 is only possible to a limited extent because firstly there are storage costs and secondly the warehousing is a loss of liquidity. Basics can easily be stored for SS21 and certainly also classic high-quality fashion. Reductions cannot be avoided because liquidity comes before profitability. However, there is an agreement in the industry that large discount campaigns should not take place. Solidarity is required.

2 Chen Dapeng: In fact, the season shift now envisaged by at least four weeks could also apply to the future. The speed of fashion will no longer be the future. The trade fairs can make corresponding contributions by setting the order dates later. If the fabric fair in Italy takes place in September instead of June, this will have consequences for the overall rhythm. The previous early rhythm is counterproductive for sales, because who wants to buy winter coats in June / July and linen clothing in December … With the dates in March and September, CHIC is already in time with a possible seasonal rhythm of the European ones postponed by one month fashion fairs and gives participants the opportunity to serve the Chinese market fairly during the sales times. CHIC encompasses all fashion segments, a concept that is successful for the Chinese market.

3 Chen Dapeng: After the outbreak of the Coronavirus, we are considering two situations of CHIC: postponement or cancellation and we made different plans for these two possibilities. When we saw the complexity of the epidemic at the end of February, we began to seriously consider what we should do for exhibitors and buyers if the exhibition was canceled. Although the number of customers in most offline stores was greatly reduced at the time, the epidemic always ended, and many people will resume offline shopping. Even if the exhibition cannot be held, we must establish a new communication and trading platform for brands and buyers. We discussed many alternatives. In March, we decided to use Tencent Meeting and Ding Talk to establish a communication and trading platform for exhibitors and buyers, CHIC ONLINE, and hold online match-making and seminars. At the same time, we continue to hold online match-making on CHIC APP. All these activities are free. The fair took place from April 22 to 24 and run successfully. But digital activities can only be a good supplement to a physical meeting, not a substitute. We think online will not replace offline, just like everyone was talking about whether e-commerce will replace physical business ten years ago. The internet will further facilitate offline exhibitions in the future, with more efficiency and lower costs, but it will never replace barrier-free communication and exchange between people at offline exhibitions.

Anita Tillmann, Managing Partner, Premium Exhibitions

1 Anita Tillmann: For some brands, there are certainly various options for redistributing collection parts. Others, on the other hand, may find it difficult. This mainly depends on the trend level of the collections, the positioning and the product group. So-called classics or basics of a collection are usually season-independent anyway and small, unknown brands are much more flexible than well-known and globally distributed brands. There is no solution for all market participants.

2 Anita Tillmann:  The worst thing that can happen to us is to get out of this crisis and to learn nothing from it and not to have taken advantage of the opportunities to improve. Based on many conversations with our customers and the international network, I am currently assuming and I hope that you will be able to focus more, at all levels. The topic of merging women’s and men’s shows also affects trade fairs. As a PREMIUM GROUP, we have a clear international advantage here. We started back in 2003 with the aim of redefining classic trade fairs and transforming them. This also included curating women’s and men’s brands with the associated segments and presenting the industry with a new, unique concept. I am convinced that this is an essential component of our success. I am also very grateful for our partners – that they treated us with openness and gave us the chance to implement and establish our concepts.3 Anita Tillmann: On the subject of digital events, we are currently working on bringing together the best of the digital and the physical world. So not to strive for an either-or solution, but to be able to present our customers with both-and-offers. We are positioning ourselves to something completely new, the ‘Blended Fashion Event’. What does that mean? We combine the strengths and advantages of our ‘live events’, PREMIUM and SEEK, with the possibilities of the ‘virtual events’, the digital marketplace. Ideally, this means digital transformation and networking for all brands and retailers. Information, inspiration and trade can be accessed from anywhere at any time, the worlds merge. In our business, you have to be flexible, need-based, efficient and sustainable. This requires new approaches and solutions, which we will present for the first time in July with our partner JOOR.

Olaf Schmidt, Vice President Textiles & Textile Technologies, Messe Frankfurt

1 Olaf Schmidt:  First of all, unfortunately, you have to state that the current season is a bit of a lost season. In this respect, the proposal to push the SS20 collection into the next year is quite innovative. But you only push the real problem in front of you. The current situation shows us drastically that there is far too many goods in circulation. We have to start now for the future. If you think in product categories, it will, unfortunately, be difficult for the occasion wear. Whereas athleisure wear and casual wear, in general, will still work. I am also convinced that sustainable fashion continues to set the agenda in all possible facets.

2 Olaf Schmidt:  I think the fashion calendar will be more business-oriented. On the one hand, this leads to a strengthening of the large fashion events, i.e. less regionality, and on the other hand, the focus is also on the large markets. And then the German market, and with it the Fashion Week, plays an important role. But of course, the dates are now confused and customers also question the authorization of the previous dates. We will respond if necessary, but we will always coordinate with the other players.3 Olaf Schmidt: For us as Messe Frankfurt, it is an extremely challenging time. We have not been able to hold any notable events since the end of February. In our textile portfolio, this means a cancellation or postponement of around 20 textile fairs worldwide. It is particularly important to us nowadays to be in close contact with our customers and partners. For this we use in particular our social media channels, through which a lot of dialogue exchange takes place, as well as our newsletter. We have also participated in some webinars in the past few weeks. And reporting in the trade press about short interviews and statements is also extremely important. We are planning a virtual presence for Neonyt in the summer, although we still have to define the exact general data here. An important learning in recent times: Even today, a physical trade fair cannot simply be replaced by a digital event, quite the opposite. I am convinced that the anticipation for the events after the crisis will be greater than ever.

Siro Badon, President, theMICAM

1 Siro Badon: The pandemic is constantly evolving and it isn’t easy to make predictions like that because you risk being proven wrong. Naturally, every firm will evaluate and choose the financial measures it considers best suited to tackling the crisis. It might prove advantageous for our sector to follow the example of the automotive industry, and revisit their 2020 models for next year’s collection. The ideal would be for our footwear manufacturers to make the 2021 model year, as they are doing in the auto industry i.e. to revisit some of their 2020 models to reflect 2021 fashion trends.  Clearly, there will be few radical changes, although the lines should keep evolving.

2 Siro Badon: Our sector differs slightly from the fashion world. In fact, on our catwalks we tend to show the overall trends for the season, rather than focusing on individual brands. One thing is certain. Footwear companies are keen to get restarted, and they see the big trade-fairs as key to relaunching their business. Amongst these events, Micam represents a unique business opportunity. Not surprisingly, a GRS survey on the needs of the industry at this difficult time, commissioned by the International Footwear Fair, showed that a large number of companies (75% of those surveyed) consider Micam to be an unmissable event. A result backed up by the numerous companies that chose to keep the same size stand as they had in previous editions (a preference expressed by over 75% of those interviewed).

3  Siro Badon: During the pandemic our businesses were in total lockdown since, unlike the textile industry, no-one was able to reconvert any of their production lines. During this phase, we focused heavily on digitalization and the web, seeing as the restrictions imposed by the various government decrees meant that all shoe and clothes shops were temporarily closed. In collaboration with Brandsdistribution, we launched BDroppy: a digital platform that allows our Made-in-Italy brands to sell their products directly all over the world and maximise their advertising and marketing investments. A technological resource that can help dispose of the excess stock that has accumulated particularly in this period.

Tom Nastos, Chief Commercial Officer, Informa Markets

1 Tom Nastos:  Basic & Replenishment items can be held but Fashion items will need to be updated for 2021. Social, wellness and environmental themes will drive consumer spending the balance of the year & 2021.

2 Tom Nastos: Fashion events around the world will have to convene the market and drive Commerce & Brand amplification.  The timing of the events will reflect the changes in consumer spending and the ability of our industry to a See Now, Buy Now calendar.

3 Tom Nastos: Communicating, sharing information, and education through webinars are key to coping with the current situation.

Agostino Poletto, General Manager, Pitti Immagine

1 Agostino Poletto: Many countries have already exited or are coming out of the most acute phase of the pandemic and, in their department stores and shops, the 2020 summer collections are or will soon be available for purchase, even if a little later than usual. With some delay still, companies are starting to present to their customers the new collections that they have set up in recent months. It would be a shame if they didn’t. It would also be a problem of no small importance if they had to differentiate the stylistic research results and the efforts they made according to the uneven evolution of the health situation of their different international markets. The new collections will certainly be smaller, but they will still be there. The problem will be less accentuated for the basics, those with lower fashion content.

2 Agostino Poletto: Before the crisis, there was already widespread dissatisfaction with the excessive advance of the collection dates and the somewhat anarchic multiplication of events due to the commercial strategies of the strongest brands. The drop in travel from one continent to another in the coming months will undoubtedly contribute to reducing this trend. And the general decline in tourism towards big international cities-fashion destinations and the related fashion purchases that have been one of the original drivers of the acceleration of collections and their seasonal offset will also be of influence. The co-ed shows – chosen but even abandoned by some brands – may represent a temporary response, dictated by practical needs; however, the two sectors still have different characteristics and dynamics. There will obviously be many more digital presentations and events, and the new normal will increasingly and in progressively more sophisticated ways include these technologies. However, these presentations will have to be able to respond to the prevalence of a more reflective mood, more attentive to long-lasting quality and the ethical and environmental sustainability of fashion consumption.

3 Agostino Poletto: Already before the health crisis, we were working on a new digital platform for our trade shows. We were the first ones, about ten years ago already, to believe in the integration between the physical and virtual dimensions, in the world of trade shows too. Today, we are launching Pitti Connect, a platform that will help us manage a difficult moment and that will provide in new and advantageous ways a fundamental service for all our customers, those who will be present in Florence next September and those who will not be there but will be able to do business, make contacts, and keep up to date regardless, starting from the end of June already (and until the end of September), when Pitti Connect will be operational. Pitti Connect will extend, simplify and make features more empathic in terms of presentation of the collections, commercial relationships between exhibitors and buyers, and promotion and communication between them and all journalists and professionals. We will also use it to enhance the physical events that we will organize during the September trade show, which we obviously want to keep in a limited number.

The greatest help, pandemic or not, always remains never to fail to select the highest quality. And to apply the same criterion to the things we offer ourselves. Starting with all the services, digital and not only, but that can also make the work of companies more comfortable and profitable before, during, and after the trade show. And that, especially in a situation like the one we are going through, in addition to the objective of maximum safety can also contribute to reducing the trade show participation costs with more convenient set-up formulas, hospitality support through agreements with hotels, and direct promotions for the most important buyers from the most important markets.

Will Broome, Founder and CEO, Ubamarket

Despite the havoc that is being caused by the outbreak of the Coronavirus, I believe that the crisis is bringing into focus a number of pre-existing problems with the way in which we shop. Ever-changing store layouts, outdated queues and checkouts, and the lack of communication between retailers and their customers are just some of the issues that COVID-19 has made very clear. Now, the question facing retailers is not ‘when will things go back to normal’ but rather ‘how can we adapt our offering to make sure we are aligned with the changing trends and new retail landscape?’ The implementation of retail technology holds the key to building the future of retail that supports our new shopping habits whilst also helping retailers to safeguard themselves against future cases of irregular consumer behaviour. After Coronavirus, the world won’t go back to how was – people will be more hygienic and convenience-conscious, and retailers will be looking for ways to adapt to the shift in consumer behaviour and protect themselves against future shortages. Retail tech offers an all-encompassing solution; in Ubamarket’s case in the form of a simple app; which can put consumers in control, doing away with the need for time-consuming queues, unhygienic checkouts, and confusion about where products are and whether they are in stock.

I for one am extremely interested to see how the retail landscape in the UK will emerge from the Coronavirus crisis, but if one thing is certain, it is the capability of retail technology to help us build the future of retail that we would like to see.

Debbie Cartwright, Managing Director, IPR London 

1 Debbie Cartwright: It is a nice idea in theory, particularly from a sustainable and socially responsible angle. But this would be very hard to execute in real terms with retail stores from across the globe.

Most stores would have paid in advance for collections so it wouldn’t be financially viable to wait 12 months to make back the money. Most fashion brands are currently selling to key global accounts and adapting to different pressures and logistics. I have learnt, some retail stores will immediately need to liquidate the stock to keep the cash flowing where possible. Some are already having to go into markdown and other stores will need to follow to remain competitive. Discounting is also, now so visible with e-commerce platforms, that it is de-valuing fashion brands across the board from designer, high-street to establish and emerging independent brands.

2 Debbie Cartwright: More are more brands are talking about favouring a more sensible calendar that would deliver clothing to stores in the season, when it can be worn and reduce the frequency of discounted sale periods. Fashion brands including some of the bigger luxury conglomerates have lost a lot of money during the lock-down period, That it will reduce their future marketing spends but their campaigns will need to still cut through the noise. So Marketing and PR managers have their work cut out now, on how to appeal and attract customers in creative ways, on a less budget. Also, so many fashion and lifestyle brands are arranging face-to-face appointments over fashion shows and looking at ways to use smart technologies such as Ai and VR, to present collections and activate launches. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more brands were experimenting with digital activations and marketing comms. I believe any elaborate event pencilled in for this year will not happen, as it is not in tune with the current climate and it just won’t feel right. Though this could change if we find a vaccine. One good thing is that brands will have to be more resourceful and sustainable in how they approach events going forward.

3 Debbie Cartwright: During the pandemic, most of our clients have had charitable initiatives that we’ve been able to communicate to the media landscape. We advised our client’s it was more important than ever to be active and engaging with its consumers. Informing them of their charitable endeavours and brand values, rather than trying to sell a dress, to somebody who is having financial anxiety, while sat at home unable to go anywhere to wear that dress…It would just seem a bit crass to be pushing ‘fashion’ unless it was promoting active or loungewear items and wellbeing products. Some of our clients have felt uncertain about their next steps and confirmed that they need to focus on the digital side of the business and divert budgets to influencer marketing and SEO, to promote in-season and high summer collections. The team and I have also been monitoring shopping patterns in countries that were first to go into lockdown, such as China and Italy. Observing the initial spending slump to watching the rise of E-commerce and WeChat sales, in particular with the luxury goods market and use this knowledge to guide our comms. It is the teams and I job to make sure we continue to tell each client’s brand story to their target consumer to continue to stay at the forefront of their minds.

VIRTUAL MARKETPLACES: CHINA

Virtual Flash Sale, Shanghai Chic, Rumble in the Jumble Beijing… There’s a new sheriff in retail town and his name is WeChat Virtual.

In the past decade, China has witnessed a transition from the traditional brick-and-mortar and market shopping experience to watching live-streamers take one million RMB in sales in one hour. As Taobao (a platform dealing in everything including clothes), Meituan (food delivery), and their digital peers took over the nation’s online sales infrastructure, Chinese consumer preferences nowadays veer towards having most of their (daily) products delivered.

With this in mind and the onslaught Covid-19, a handful of Shanghai-based brand operators came up with the idea of an online marketplace that would help their fellow designers clear out some stock. Unsurprisingly, their platform of choice was the ever-popular WeChat (微信 in Chinese), a multi-purpose messaging, social media and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. In China, most people only communicate through WeChat when messaging, making calls, or organizing groups: when you meet someone, you ask them for their WeChat.

However, the app is proving useful to international companies, too.You do not need to be in China to use WeChat. If you don’t read Chinese, you can get the international version.

Brands can use WeChat to build a community and gain loyal customers by releasing consistent useful or inspiring content via an official brand account or affiliated WeChat groups. Unlike on Taobao, on WeChat brands are able to track touchpoints and other data, and in many cases it’s significantly cheaper.

The WeChat Virtual Experience

Designer, Creative Director and Virtual Market Instigator Miranda Mullett tells WeAr: “In late April, we launched our first digital sample sale on WeChat. Together with 11 other designers, we were able to connect a network of over 700 people across two WeChat groups –– WeChat groups feature a maximum of 500 contacts per group. Each designer was given a one-hour timeslot to briefly introduce themselves and their brand and share their product information.” Interested parties could then proceed by connecting with the designer directly or scan their official account QR code for more. A Virtual Market was born.

Jewelry designer Fernanda Sung was part of this first virtual experience and has since participated in two more such WeChat markets. “All the participating designers made a big effort to advertise [across their networks], and we ended up with a big following,” she says.

To Market, To Market, YOU Go!

Brands and vendors come together to create a group chat, preferably guided by the experienced hand of Mullet and her fellow visionaries. They then move onto inviting friends and customers into the group. Subsequently, everybody promotes the upcoming virtual market via their own WeChat channels to increase traction even further. When the day finally arrives, each participating vendor gets a designated timeslot to sell their products, for example, by sharing up to 12 photos and/ or videos.

Though the markets may officially run from 9AM until 6PM, the brands keep taking requests until midnight. Product photos stay on the group chat, so pretty much everyone in that chat eventually will get to scroll through all brands involved.

What’s the price? Nawt. Nada. Niente. Participating vendors do not need to pay any “entrance” fee, but they are kindly requested to add people to groups, essentially crowdsourcing a sales channel for everybody to share. Thus, the two-day Shanghai Chic Market (May 5-6) which saw a total of 48 vendors and 452 of their “closest contacts” participate in sales.

Past, Present and Future?

The invention of Virtual WeChat Markets has tested to be enormously successful. Brands reach 1000 to 2000 new customers, and customers are introduced to ten or twenty  new brands. The discounts on offer – valid on market day only – definitely help drive immediate sales.

As far as the future goes, the WeChat Virtual Market sales are slated for another chapter. Or two. Tapping into different themes, Mullet assures WeAr that the markets will become more differentiated and hone in on one theme at a time in the future, such as “Home”, “Accessories”, “Wellness” or, of course, “Fashion”.

Enter the Devil’s Advocate

Virtual WeChat Markets have been scoring off the charts, arguably because they are novel. Once the number of markets goes up, will they still be able to bring in enough fresh blood to continuously pique people’s interest or will they see their notifications muted altogether? With the brand/vendor waitlist currently at 400, our bets are on the former.

In our newest issue 63 of WeAr, we spoke to over 40 experts including retailers, showrooms, brands, suppliers, academics and trade shows, about what the future holds. Here we filter the voices of trade show representatives who offer their views on the possible scenario where S/S20 collections could be packed away and stored until S/S21, discuss potential shifts in the fashion calendar, and share not only advice but their own pandemic survival strategies.

Agostino Poletto, General Manager, Pitti Immagine

1) WeAr Magazine: Due to the pandemic, the sales of SS20 collections are very slow throughout the industry across the world. Some experts have proposed that SS20 collections should be packed and stored until next summer. What do you think about the idea of selling what was originally meant to be SS20 collections next year, in SS21? Which items/product categories do you think would be best to hold back to next year, and which items do you feel can get sold this summer despite the pandemic? Agostino Poletto: Many countries have already exited or are coming out of the most acute phase of the pandemic and, in their department stores and shops, the 2020 summer collections are or will soon be available for purchase, even if a little later than usual. With some delay still, companies are starting to present to their customers the new collections that they have set up in recent months. It would be a shame if they didn’t. It would also be a problem of no small importance if they had to differentiate the stylistic research results and the efforts they made according to the uneven evolution of the health situation of their different international markets. The new collections will certainly be smaller, but they will still be there. The problem will be less accentuated for the basics, those with a lower fashion content.

2) WeAr Magazine: What do you think the current outbreak will do for the future of the fashion calendar? Will the amount of fashion events around the world go back to normal once the crisis is over, or will it shrink and become more focused (e. g., by conflating Men’s and Women’s shows)? If the latter, when and where do you expect the key events to happen? Agostino Poletto: Before the crisis, there was already a widespread dissatisfaction with the excessive advance of the collection dates and the somewhat anarchic multiplication of events due to the commercial strategies of the strongest brands. The drop in travel from one continent to another in the coming months will undoubtedly contribute to reducing this trend. And the general decline in tourism towards big international cities-fashion destinations and the related fashion purchases that have been one of the original drivers of the acceleration of collections and their seasonal offset will also be of influence. The co-ed shows – chosen but even abandoned by some brands – may represent a temporary response, dictated by practical needs; however, the two sectors still have different characteristics and dynamics. There will obviously be many more digital presentations and events, and the new normal will increasingly and in progressively more sophisticated ways include these technologies. However, these presentations will have to be able to respond to the prevalence of a more reflective mood, more attentive to long-lasting quality and the ethical and environmental sustainability of fashion consumption.

3) WeAr Magazine: What are your business’ key coping mechanisms during the pandemic? What are you doing to retain and incentivise your customers and to maintain your company’s financial health? Agostino Poletto: Already before the health crisis, we were working on a new digital platform for our trade shows. We were the first ones, about ten years ago already, to believe in the integration between the physical and virtual dimensions, in the world of trade shows too. Today, we are launching Pitti Connect, a platform that will help us manage a difficult moment and that will provide in new and advantageous ways a fundamental service for all our customers, those who will be present in Florence next September and those who will not be there but will be able to do business, make contacts, and keep up to date regardless, starting from the end of June already (and until the end of September), when Pitti Connect will be operational. Pitti Connect will extend, simplify and make features more empathic in terms of presentation of the collections, commercial relationships between exhibitors and buyers, and promotion and communication between them and all journalists and professionals. We will also use it to enhance the physical events that we will organize during the September trade show, which we obviously want to keep in a limited number.

4) WeAr Magazine: What are you doing to help brands who work with you? Agostino Poletto: The greatest help, pandemic or not, always remains never to fail to select the highest quality. And to apply the same criterion to the things we offer ourselves. Starting with all the services, digital and not only, that can make the work of companies more comfortable and profitable before, during, and after the trade show. And that, especially in a situation like the one we are going through, in addition to the objective of maximum safety can also contribute to reducing the trade show participation costs with more convenient set-up formulas, hospitality support through agreements with hotels, and direct promotions for the most important buyers from the most important markets. 

https://www.pittimmagine.com/

Boris Provost, President, TRANOÏ

1) WeAr Magazine: Due to the pandemic, the sales of SS20 collections are very slow throughout the industry across the world. Some experts have proposed that SS20 collections should be packed and stored until next summer. What do you think about the idea of selling what was originally meant to be SS20 collections next year, in SS21? Which items/product categories do you think would be best to hold back to next year, and which items do you feel can get sold  this summer despite the pandemic? Boris Provost: For sure, the global sales of SS20 will be down and many retailers and brands will have products in stock at the end of the SS sales period. Regarding the collections of SS21, from what we know from our exhibitors, will make a mix between pieces from SS20, refresh with new items… The SS21 collections would be smaller with a miw of basic/neutral items and very creative products…link to the desire also of the consumers.

2) WeAr Magazine: What do you think the current outbreak will do for the future of the fashion calendar? Will the amount of fashion events around the world go back to normal once the crisis is over, or will it shrink and become more focused (e.g. by conflating Men’s and Women’s shows)? If the latter, when and where do you expect the key events to happen? Boris Provost: For September Paris FW, if we are able to make in happen in real (fingers crossed), the trade shows will present men and women collections. The sales period will be concentrated in SEPT & OCT. We are still hoping to organize our next event from 2- 5 of October. But from June, we will launch a digital platform which allow designers to present their collections, organize emeetings and epresentations of collections. We have no 100% guarantee to set up an event for next semester, that’s why digital services are more important.

3) WeAr Magazine: What are your business’ key coping mechanisms during the pandemic? What are you doing to help brands who work with you? Boris Provost: We did several surveys, webminars, instaliv… to support the brands, to well understand their needs and to adapt our offer of services. We learned that we could be efficient, creative and agiles at distance so find solutions and recreate our concept. Even if we are physically fare from our clients, we have never been so close of the concerns and worries.

https://www.tranoi.com

Siro Badon, President, ASSOCALZATURIFICI (MICAM)

1) WeAr Magazine: Due to the pandemic, the sales of SS20 collections are very slow throughout the industry across the world. Some experts have proposed that SS20 collections should be packed and stored until next summer. What do you think about the idea of selling what was originally meant to be SS20 collections next year, in SS21? Which items/product categories do you think would be best to hold back to next year, and which items do you feel can get sold this summer despite the pandemic? Siro Badon: The pandemic is constantly evolving and it isn’t easy to make predictions like that because you risk being proven wrong. Naturally, every firm will evaluate and choose the financial measures it considers best suited to tackling the crisis. It might prove advantageous for our sector to follow the example of the automotive industry, and revisit their 2020 models for next year’s collection. The ideal would be for our footwear manufacturers to make the 2021 model year, as they are doing in the auto industry i.e. to revisit some of their 2020 models to reflect 2021 fashion trends.  Clearly, there will be few radical changes, although the lines should keep evolving. 

2) WeAr Magazine: What do you think the current outbreak will do for the future of the fashion calendar? Will the amount of fashion events around the world go back to normal once the crisis is over, or will it shrink and become more focused (e.g. by conflating Men’s and Women’s shows)? If the latter, when and where do you expect the key events to happen? Siro Badon: Our sector differs slightly from the fashion world. In fact, on our catwalks we tend to show the overall trends for the season, rather than focusing on individual brands. One thing is certain. Footwear companies are keen to get restarted, and they see the big trade-fairs as key to relaunching their business. Amongst these events, Micam represents a unique business opportunity. Not surprisingly, a GRS survey on the needs of the industry at this difficult time, commissioned by the International Footwear Fair, showed that a large number of companies (75% of those surveyed) consider Micam to be an unmissable event. A result backed up by the numerous companies that chose to keep the same size stand as they had in previous editions (a preference expressed by over 75% of those interviewed).

3) WeAr Magazine: What are your business’ key coping mechanisms during the pandemic? What are you doing to help brands who work with you? Siro Badon: During the pandemic our businesses were in total lockdown since, unlike the textile industry, no-one was able to reconvert any of their production lines. During this phase, we focused heavily on digitalization and the web, seeing as the restrictions imposed by the various government decrees meant that all shoe and clothes shops were temporarily closed. In collaboration with Brandsdistribution, we launched BDroppy: a digital platform that allows our Made-in-Italy brands to sell their products directly all over the world and maximise their advertising and marketing investments.A technological resource that can help dispose of the excess stock that has accumulated particularly in this period.

https://www.milano.themicam.com

Olaf Schmidt, Vice President Textiles & Textile Technologies, Messe Frankfurt

1) WeAr Magazine: Due to the pandemic, sales of SS20 collections are very slow throughout the industry worldwide Some experts have suggested packing and storing SS20 collections until next summer. What do you think about the idea of selling the collections originally called SS20 collections in SS21 next year? Which items / product categories do you think are best to hold back for next year, and which items do you think can be sold this summer despite the pandemic? Olaf Schmidt: First of all, unfortunately, we have to state that the current season is a bit of a lost season? In this respect, the proposal to push the SS20 collection into next year is quite innovative. But the real problem is just being put off. The current situation drastically reminds us that there is far too much merchandise in circulation. We have to plan for the future now. If you think in terms of product categories, the occasional fashion will unfortunately have a hard time. Whereas athleisure wear and casual wear in general will still do. I am also convinced that sustainable fashion will continue to dominate the agenda, in all possible facets.

2) WeAr Magazine: What do you think the current outbreak will mean for the future of the fashion calendar? Will the number of fashion events around the world return to normal after the end of the crisis or will it shrink and become more focused (e.g. by merging men’s and women’s shows)? If the latter, when and where do you expect the most important events to happen? Olaf Schmidt: I think the fashion calendar will again be more business oriented. On the one hand, this will lead to a strengthening of the big fashion events, i.e. less regionality, and on the other hand, it will also focus on the big markets. And then the German market, and thus Fashion Week, will play a major role. But of course, the dates are confused for the time being and customers are also questioning the justification of the previous dates. We will react if necessary, but always coordinate with the other players.

3) WeAr Magazine: What are the main coping mechanisms of your company during the pandemic? What are you doing to support your brand partners and visitors? Olaf Schmidt: This is an extremely challenging time for us as Messe Frankfurt. We have not been able to hold any events worth mentioning since the end of February. With our textile portfolio, this means that around 20 textile fairs worldwide have been cancelled or postponed. It is particularly important for us at this time to be in close contact with our customers and partners. To this end, we make particular use of our social media channels, through which a great deal of dialogue takes place, and our newsletters. We have also taken part in several webinars in recent weeks. And reporting in the trade press about short interviews and statements is also immensely important. We are planning a virtual presence for Neonyt in the summer, although we still have to define the exact framework data here. An important recent learning: even today, a physical trade fair cannot simply be replaced by a digital event, quite the contrary. I am convinced that the anticipation of the events after the crisis will be greater than ever before.

https://www.messefrankfurt.com

Chen Dapeng, President, China National Garment Association and President CHIC

https://www.emmar.chifair.com

Tom Nastos, Chief Commercial Officer, Informa Markets

1) WeAr Magazine: Due to the pandemic, the sales of SS20 collections are very slow throughout the industry across the world. Some experts have proposed that SS20 collections should be packed and stored until next summer. What do you think about the idea of selling what was originally meant to be SS20 collections next year, in SS21? Which items/product categories do you think would be best to hold back to next year, and which items do you feel can get sold  this summer despite the pandemic? Tom Nastos: Basic & Replenishment items can be held but Fashion items will need to be updated for 2021. Social , Wellness and Environmental Themes will drive consumer spending the balance of the year & 2021.

2) WeAr Magazine: What do you think the current outbreak will do for the future of the fashion calendar? Will the amount of fashion events around the world go back to normal once the crisis is over, or will it shrink and become more focused (e.g. by conflating Men’s and Women’s shows)? If the latter, when and where do you expect the key events to happen? Tom Nastos: Fashion Events around the world will have to convene the market and drive Commerce & Brand amplification.  The timing of the events will reflect the changes in consumer spending and the ability of our industry to a See Now , Buy Now calendar.

3) WeAr Magazine: What are your business’ key coping mechanisms during the pandemic? What are you doing to help brands who work with you? Tom Nastos: Communicating , Sharing information and  Education thru Webinars are key to coping with the current situation.

www.informamarkets.com

Anita Tillmann, Managing Partner at Premium Exhibitions

1) WeAr Magazine: Due to the pandemic, sales of SS20 collections are very slow throughout the industry worldwide Some experts have suggested packing and storing SS20 collections until next summer. What do you think about the idea of selling the collections originally called SS20 collections in SS21 next year? Which items / product categories do you think are best to hold back for next year, and which items do you think can be sold this summer despite the pandemic? Anita Tillmann: For some brands, there are certainly various ways to redistribute collection items. Others, on the other hand, are likely to find it difficult. That depends mainly on the trend level of the collections, the positioning and the product group. So-called classics or basics of a collection are usually season-independent anyway and small, unknown brands are much more flexible than well-known and globally distributed brands. There is no solution for all market participants.

2) WeAr Magazine: What do you think the current outbreak will mean for the future of the fashion calendar? Will the number of fashion events around the world return to normal after the end of the crisis or will it shrink and become more focused (e.g. by merging men’s and women’s shows)? If the latter, when and where do you expect the most important events? What is your position on digital events? Anita Tillmann: The worst thing that can happen to us is to come out of this crisis and not to have learned anything from it and not to have used the opportunities for improvement. On the basis of many discussions with our customers and the international network, I currently assume and hope that there will be more focus again and that this will be at all levels. The topic of merging ladies’ and gentlemen’s shows also affects trade fairs. Here we as PREMIUM GROUP have a clear advantage in an international comparison. We started back in 2003 with the aim of redefining classic trade fairs and transforming them. This included curating women’s and men’s brands with their associated segments and presenting the industry with a new, unique concept. I am convinced that this is an essential component of our success. I am also very grateful for our partners – for the openness with which they approached us and gave us the opportunity to implement and establish our concepts. On the subject of digital events, we are currently working on bringing together the best from the digital and physical worlds. In other words, not to strive for an either-or solution, but to be able to present our customers with a both-and offer. In doing so, we are positioning ourselves for something completely new, the ‘blended fashion event’. What does that mean? We combine the strengths and advantages of our ‘live events’, PREMIUM and SEEK, with the possibilities of ‘virtual events’, the digital marketplace. This ideally means digital transformation and networking for all brands and retailers. Information, inspiration and trade can be accessed from anywhere at any time, the worlds merge together. In our business you have to be flexible, demand-oriented, efficient and sustainable. This requires new approaches and solutions, which we will present for the first time in July with our partner JOOR.”

3) WeAr Magazine: What are the most important coping mechanisms of your company during the pandemic? What are you doing to support your brand partners and visitors? Anita Tillmann: Values and standards are very important to us. We believe that it is worthwhile to invest in long-term and partnership-based relationships. At the beginning of the pandemic, we actively approached our exhibitors and promised to release them from the signed contracts and to fully refund the space already paid for. Of course, everyone was delighted about this. We are also in contact with our customers by telephone, inquiring how they are doing and whether and how we can support them. We then did the same with our retailers. We know and appreciate most of our network for many years. We experienced the same support and encouragement in return when we had to cancel all of our events due to federal and state Covid-19 regulations. Our maxim: alone you can reach your goal quickly, together you can go much further.

www.premium-group.com

Now more than ever, it is time to focus on how to use tools to digitalise your store. Here are three providers that can help your store to function better.

FITOM
Online shopping is ridden with customer uncertainty about whether an item will fit. Fitom mitigates this by displaying garments worn by a variety of people. It encourages users who have access to a retailer’s garments to try them on, photograph themselves and post their picture on the app; every post brings them points that can be exchanged for discounts. Users who don’t have access to the physical store, on the other hand, can get an idea of how garments look on real people by looking at these photos. The application is launching with the famous Japanese retailer United Arrows as its first partner and plans to expand to other brands towards the end of 2019.
www.fitom.jp

INVENTORUM
POS, merchandise management, accounting and an online shop all in a single app: that is Inventorum. The app, available in German and English, runs on iPad, allowing retailers to complete the selling process with the customer anywhere in the store – a physical cash register is only needed to give change. The system is browser-based, which means the accountancy features, including a daily closing balance and electronic cash ledger, can also be accessed on a PC. With a click, you can add new products, check your inventory, introduce discounts and view customer history. The app is especially useful for sole proprietors, who can save time and money by digitizing their business processes. Fees can be paid either monthly or annually, and a two-week trial is offered free of charge.
inventorum.com/en/

SARAFAN
Sarafan recognizes fashion products in photos and videos and finds similar items in online stores. Here is how it works: the app enters into partnerships with influencers and media outlets, on the one hand, and online retailers on the other. Affiliate influencers receive a code script to embed into their website/feed, which enables Sarafan’s algorithms to scan their images and detect items analogous to those offered by its affiliate stores. The app then places a link next to the post, inviting the viewer to shop and redirecting them straight to the retailer. The influencer/media receives commission from every transaction, the app gets paid for every transfer, and the store gets new custom. At present, over 150 retailers are using Sarafan.
https://sarafan.tech/en

In the APP-DATE section of WeAr reviews the best apps and software platforms used by retailers and brands. Some of them are available to all stores and markets; others are exclusive to one retailer or territory but will hopefully inspire others and help them keep abreast of changes in the digital fashion landscape.

Due to Covid-19 stores have to close and shoppers are in no buying mood, not even online. It is simply not fun to shop and not be able to wear something new outside your home. It is also not fun to hear of the dire situation and meanwhile go on a shopping spree. However, every crises offers chances. 

We at WeAr spoke to countless retailers and brands and came to the following suggestion:

1) All delivered spring /summer items will be packed and stored for March/April 2021

We simply skip S/S 2020. Brands can still produce some “key-pieces”, but the bulk gets packed and stored and used for spring 2021. 

The advantage of this scenario will  be that retailers are not forced to heavily discount or even write-off merchandise, but can sell it to the regular price. Whatever won’t sell now, will be sold in a year.

Brands will lose one season of sales, but save a lot of their clients from dire financial situation and potentially bankruptcy, which ultimately will result in the client not being able to pay its brand-partners. All retailers have to pay for, is the interest and storage fees for 12 months.

Autumn winter could run as usual and losses would be minimized.To now force retailers to quickly get rid of stock with heavy discounts, will flood the market and not generate profit.

2) Shifting Sales Season

Trying to make the best out of the tragic situation should also trigger a new way seasons are currently handled by all participants from trade-shows, producers, brands to buyers.

It makes no sense to discount a pullover in the best time of winter, when consumers need warm clothing most. Instead, these items need to be discounted at the end of the winter, if at all. 

3) Delivery of merchandise and shifts of Order Rounds

The entire system has to get re-booted. Winter should get delivered 6 weeks ahead of winter, not in summer, as we sometimes do. The same applies of course for spring/summer. Subsequently: Order Rounds should start for autumn/winter in February and March and for spring/summer early September. 

If we would implement this mechanism, which used to be standard in the industry, merchandise can be sold quicker, cash-flow would be quicker, write-offs will be less. Win, win, win. This way the impact of Corona would be minimzed and offset by better bsuiness in the years to come.

Please let us know your thoughts  and suggestions, as it’s time for a change.

Stay healthy and all the very best,
Yours WeAr Global Magazine team.

JOOP!

WOMENSWEAR LAUNCH

The lifestyle brand JOOP! reported yet another significant double-digit increase in sales in the first quarter of 2019. After the successful development of the JOOP! Menswear and the reintroduction of the casual line JOOP! JEANS, we are now seeing the launch of JOOP! Women.

“We feel the desirability of the label among end consumers and the trust of retailers in the JOOP! brand.

This is why the launch of JOOP! Women now for the natural further development of the brand. We see enormous growth potential here. The new collection is eagerly awaited and our retail partners have already shown keen interest,” says Thorsten Stiebing, the Managing Brand Director

JOOP! Women will present a new sexiness based on the brand’s DNA: feminine, urban and self-confident with a clear focus on high quality. The forerunners of this can already be seen in JOOP! Bags, which are among the most successful models on the market. In addition, JOOP! Jewellery and JOOP! Watches were successfully launched this year, and JOOP! Bodywear will follow in Fall 2019. The launch of JOOPI Women is planned for autumn / winter 2020/21 and will be accompanied by extensive marketing measures.

Anke Ratzsch will be the Brand Director of the JOOP! Womenswear from fall / winter 2020. She is not new to The Holy Fashion Group: after several management positions at internationally known premium Brands like Hugo Boss and Akris, Ratzch worked as a brand director for windsor since 2014. “With Anke Ratzsch, I am convinced JOOP! will be able to win women. With  her many years of successful sales and management work, Ms Ratzsch not only brings experience but also foresight necessary to make JOOP! an international lifestyle brand. The successor for the sales management at windsor women has already been arranged and the new structure will be announced in a timely manner”, says Marcel Braun, CEO of the Holy Fashion Group. In the course of the realignment at JOOP! Women, the design team will also be reorganized. The first focus is on premium wholesale in the D / A / CH market as well as international trade, and JOOP! Women is also sold through its own stores and through the JOOP! Online shop.

The Paul & Shark Autumn Winter 2020 collection expresses the brand’s authentic spirit through advanced technologies, materials of the highest quality and a highly topical design, to achieve unmatched performance.

The same technical expertise and strategic vision that give victories at sea are reflected in the quality of the materials and the expert techniques used by Paul & Shark to offer garments with a functional and refined style.

The brand expresses its loyalty to the pivotal element of its imagination, the sea, through a collection with an eco-sustainable approach, aimed at respecting the environment and reducing the impact on planet. The ambitious goal was to produce at least 50% of the collection with recycled and environmental friendly materials; the challenge has been met.

SAVE THE SEA TYPHOON: performance and sustainability

The raw material of the fabrics engineered by Paul & Shark is derived from recycled elements including post-consumer plastic bottles that pollute the seas. The result is a

fabric that guarantees thermal insulation, waterproof insulation and protection from the wind, comfort and lightness, while also limiting negative impacts on the environment.

ECO WOOL

The iconic Peacoat has been made from recycled wool for the first time. The Eco Wool reduces CO2 emissions, toxic emissions from incinerators, intensive exploitation of sheep and of the land used for grazing. The Peacoat is also treated with BIONIC-FINISH technology.

7 DEN X 1000 FP

These materials are among the most innovative: the 7 denier microfiber in 100% nylon meets the goose down 1000 power fill, the warmest available today. Nylon and goose down are the perfect union to maintain body heat and ensure isolation from water and cold.

GOOSE DOWN SECOND LIFE

Outerwear in the collection is filled with recycled feathers. A “new life” of the raw material leaves its softness and technical characteristics intact.

TASMANIAN 120’S CRUELTY-FREE WOOL

This all the wool knitwear and outerwear collection uses certified Cruelty Free fabrics from Tasmania. Paul & Shark has selected the Beaufront estate for wool sourcing, one of the best producers in the world that guarantees the high quality and traceability of its fibers.

Tommy Hilfiger, which is owned by PVH Corp., announces that it will sponsor the 2020 Hahnenkamm Ski Races in Kitzbühel, Austria. The globally recognized, premium lifestyle brand’s Official Fashion Partnership will launch in time for the Hahnenkamm Ski Races’ 80th anniversary.
“I have always loved collaborating with inspiring sporting events and athletes,” said Tommy Hilfiger. “The drive, dedication and passion embodied by sports remains at the core of our brand heritage. Knowing that the annual Hahnenkamm Ski Races represent the same values, I’m excited to have the great sport of skiing further etched into our brand history through this partnership.”
TOMMY HILFIGER has also collaborated with French brand Rossignol, a world leader in winter sports, on three premium winter collections featuring technical functionalities for varsity-inspired designs. The latest TommyXRossignol capsule collection for men and women will be on display at the 2020 Hahnenkamm Races.
“Our partnership with the Hahnenkamm Ski Races is a celebration of our shared commitment to excellence in sportsmanship, and bringing people together to celebrate athletic achievements in style,” said Daniel Grieder, CEO Tommy Hilfiger Global and PVH Europe. “We take pride in collaborating with best-in-class events, and featuring one of the most exhilarating downhill slopes in the world, the Hahnenkamm Ski Races truly represent this for winter sports. We look forward to bringing our TOMMY HILFIGER style both on and off the slopes as we continue to introduce our brand to new audiences.”

As the Official Fashion Partner, TOMMY HILFIGER will contribute to the event’s iconic social calendar, putting the brand’s unique twist on all three days with a diverse program of activations and events. Adding a bold TOMMY HILFIGER touch to the slopes, all racing flags along the famous downhill race will feature the brand’s iconic red, white and blue logo. A TOMMY HILFIGER pop-up located at the race track’s Trade Village will showcase the TommyXRossignol collection, including a unique sweatshirt designed for the event, as well as a curated selection of Winter Pre-Spring 2020 TOMMY HILFIGER Sportswear styles for men and women. The TOMMY HILFIGER store in central Kitzbühel will feature a dedicated window celebrating the partnership with the Hahnenkamm Races and the TommyXRossignol capsule.
“Here, two brands fit together perfectly,” said Philipp Radel, CEO of the sports business agency, WWP- Group, the exclusive marketing force behind the Hahnenkamm Races. “Every year, it is our goal to take the fascination of the Streif and the ensuing get-together of sports businesses and celebrities at the KI TZ-R A CE-Club up to a new level. T OMM Y HILFIGER is a trailblazer in the fashion industry , shaping it to a significant degree. We are proud to be able to welcome TOMMY HILFIGER into our team!”

The Hahnenkamm Ski Races are considered the highlight of alpine skiing and pinnacle of winter sportsmanship. The races began in 1930 and have been part of the FIS Ski World Cup since 1967. The legendary competition is famously known as home to “The Streif,” one of the world’s most exciting runs, with its piste reaching a downhill angle of 85%, 80-meter jumps and speeds of up to 140 kilometers per hour. The annual event’s intense attraction and high-energy reputation draws over 80,000 guests per year.

The TOMMY HILFIGER brand heritage is closely linked to working with and embracing sports icons and events. In 2002, TOMMY HILFIGER became the official sponsor of the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team. In 2018, the brand announced that it formed a multi-year strategic partnership with six-time Formula OneTM World Champions Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, becoming their Official Apparel Partner starting in the 2018 season. Tommy Hilfiger’s history with Formula One began with the sponsorship of the Lotus team between 1991 and 1994. In 1998, TOMMY HILFIGER became the first non-automotive brand to sponsor Ferrari, with the iconic American designer creating the uniforms for the team, which included seven-time Formula OneTM World Champion Michael Schumacher and British racing driver Eddie Irvine. In recent years, Tommy Hilfiger established inspiring sports partnerships with six-time FIA Formula OneTM World Drivers’ Champion, Lewis Hamilton, and international tennis champion, Rafael Nadal.

Sustainability is key for today’s businesses’ success. The end consumers want it and the Earth requires it. However, it is a topic that is difficult to understand and even harder to tackle. WeAr has asked experts across the industry, from fiber manufacturers to retailers to activists, to shed some light on this topic. We have grouped their discussion points into several key topics. These are the complete answers and summarised in WeAr’s issue 60.

CINDY MCNAULL, GLOBAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, CORDURA
A driver for Invista’s Cordura brand fabric is in providing solutions that are durable and long-lasting in order to help minimize waste and reduce water and energy consumption. We believe in responsible manufacturing to use resources effectively and ultimately that ‘Sustainability Begins With Products That Last’. Consumer education to understand sustainable choices will be key to the long term success of brands.
www.cordura.com

GORDON GIERS, CEO, CLOSED
I don’t think there is sustainable fashion really because clothing and the consumption of clothing as such is not a really sustainable and ecological act.

But we’re doing the best we can to make it as sustainable as we can. We’re trying to be very respectful with our environment. We’re using less water when we wash our clothes, when we are developing environmentally friendly washing techniques and dying techniques. We replaced down with Ecodown from Thremore, which is made out of PET bottles. And it is important I think to be on the case the entire time and to chase new techniques and to follow that idea the entire time.

We’re moving our production closer to our main markets. So we are trying to reduce our carbon footprint where we can.

And we’ve always had a very long-term strategy with everything we did really, with product development and also with relationships we’ve built with our partners. And working with many of our long-term suppliers still after more than 20 years is our probably most sustainable achievement.

I think it’s our general approach to things. We do want to make things as good as possible. We want to make them cool and spot-on trend. But we also want to make sure that we do something that is environmentally friendly and, as we call it today, sustainable.

I think what also needs to be looked at is everything around the product, packaging. How do we ship stuff from A to B? And do we fly it? Do we put it on a boat? What’s better? We’re currently replacing our packaging to recycled paper, and any plastic to biodegradable. It’s important to apply the concept not only onto production but the entire supply chain.
www.closed.com

SAFIA MINNEY, MBE, Founder, PEOPLE TREE, advisor & author of ‘Slow Fashion’ and ‘Slave To Fashion’
“The fashion industry is responsible for 7% CO2 global emissions, more than the aviation and shipping industries combined. Fashion and textiles need to become zero carbon by 2030, ideally 2025. It means producing and buying LESS new clothes. We will be buying second hand, renting and swapping clothes, repairing and making our own. When we do by new we will want clothes produced ethically & sustainably  – ideally, they will be handcrafted, through Fair Trade, and made from 100% natural and organic materials, to ensuring that fashion promotes better livelihoods for farmers, artisans and workers. People Tree & other sustainable brands show that another way is possible. Fast fashion, is a 40 year blip in history, that put profit before social and environmental justice – it’s a missed opportunity to make fashion a powerful tool to lift people out of poverty – instead we lift glasses of micro-fibre filled water to our lips and toast our failing capitalist system – I think we all hope for better? Shopping ethically and less new stuff isn’t enough, we need to get political too and build a new system. “
www.peopletree.co.uk

RENEE HENZE, GLOBAL MARKETING DIRECTOR DUPONT BIOMATERIALS
In the sustainable fashion industry, emphasis is often placed on the responsible sourcing and composition of materials. Although highly important, other critical factors must also be taken into consideration to maximize eco-efficiency. Garments should have strong performance benefits, including stretch recovery, durability, color retention and softness, so that consumers don’t toss them out after a few wears. Businesses should take note that sustainability and performance do not need to be mutually exclusive – on the contrary, they can co-exist and ultimately elevate each other.”

PAOLO BODO, CEO, Nipi ITALIA
In general, we believe we are putting a strain on our planet. Fashion, in particular, is a highly polluting sector and involves strong consumption of resources.

For us at THINDOWN®, the world’s first and only 100% natural down fabric, entirely produced in Italy by NIPI (Natural Insulation Products Inc), a conscious utilisation of raw materials is key. From the beginning we have paid the utmost attention to transparency and sustainability. THINDOWN® has been RDS certified: Responsible Down Standard which guarantees the traceability of the whole production chain and STANDARD 100 certified by OEKO-TEX® in its highest class, Class I.

Constant research, quality, innovation, technology, are the founding elements of the brand, resulting in our latest product development: the first 100% post consumer regenerated down fabric, THINDOWN® Recycled. A clean version of THINDOWN® offering equal performance and features, but planet friendly. Down has a longer lifecycle than garments and duvets, offering chances to a circular management of raw materials.

Nowadays the real luxury in fashion is represented by sustainability and, with the environmental emergency we are experiencing, sustainability must be an urgent call and the starting point of the whole creative process. The sustainability paradigm should be leading the entire supply chain: from the choice of raw materials, to producing process, distribution, up to the way it is sold and finally disposed from final consumers.

VICENTE CASTELLANO, Executive Chairman NORTH SAILS
As far as north sails is concerned, we are using recycled plastic in our outerware, as much as we can, and we have now reached more than 70% of production. At the same time we have eliminated all the plastic from our ecomm packaging and replaced it with cotton bags to be reused in daily life. Starting from next season, we are introducing new fabrics such as bamboo, viscose and seacell, that are much more sustainable options than normal oil-derived fabrics. Customers have the right to know more and to choose from better alternatives.

These are just few examples: it is a long process, and we are just at the beginning of it, but we strongly believe that it’s essential  for the future of our planet

The most important aspect of sustainability is knowledge. Only when people are informed and have options to choose from, then we can say we have reached our objective. We are investing most of our marketing budget into awareness on plastic pollution creating sustainability relataed communication campaigns, we are devolving 1% of our revenues to ocean family foundation to support ocean protection and yarn sourcing is becoming a very important task within the company. We are at the beginning of a long journey but we do believe in this commitment
It’s a new business model and we are satisfied with it.

KRISTINA SZASZ, CHIEF PRODUCT & MARKETING OFFICER, S.OLIVER
Sustainability is more important than ever for the s.Oliver Group. As a family business, it comes naturally for s.Oliver to take responsibility for social concerns, manufacturing processes and safe products. Until recently, these measures have largely run in the background and have not been actively communicated. We are now experiencing a rapid increase in the awareness and interest of our consumers in the subject of sustainability, which is also shown by the requests to our customer service. That’s why we’re going to be more communicative here.

To further strengthen this issue, the Group has its own s.Oliver Corporate Responsibility Board, which is based on top management level. This board has set up the WE CARE program, which bundles all sustainability activities across the Group. In this committee we have also developed a new product strategy and set ourselves binding targets for the procurement of sustainable materials across all divisions.

When it comes to cotton, for example, we at s.Oliver have been working closely with the sustainable cotton standard Cotton made in Africa for many years and have also been a member of the Better Cotton Initiative since this year. We have already almost achieved the target set for 2019 with a volume in the seven-digit range. Another important component is the production of denim, in which we are increasingly focusing on environmentally friendly finishing techniques with significantly reduced use of water and chemicals.The first products will be available from 2020.

We will also introduce our own WE CARE label in 2020. This label will be applied to all products that have been developed and manufactured according to strict criteria with a special focus on sustainability.

ALESSANDRO BIASOTTI OOF
We experience the consequences of climate change firsthand every day and we believe it is our duty now to reconsider the relationship between man and planet. The fashion industry can no longer have a passive approach to the topic. This is why we are trying year after year to offer our consumers not only an increasingly fashionable but also more sustainable product.

Usually you choose a garment only by looking at it but you fall in love with it by touching it with your hands, feeling it and experiencing its consistency. Only a very important detail cannot be perceived in first person: the sustainability of the raw materials used.

For the stuffing of our garments we have chosen for several seasons the Sorona Eco wadding certified by DuPont which offers a reduced dependence on fossil fuels and a limited environmental impact. The fibers of this wadding are 60% degradable and guarantee comfort, elasticity and softness to clothing.

Moreover, for our most fashionable garments we use an eco leather and an eco fur that give a brighter look to the outerwear and accessories, confirming once again more and more animal friendly.

Today it is however difficult to be able to totally control the origin of the garments producing without waste, for this reason we are working more and more in the search for new materials totally and / or partially recycled.

Sustainability for a brand is definitely a complex objective that includes various actions of responsibility by different parties but is certainly achievable.”

BECKY WILLAN, Given London
The McKinsey, State of Fashion Report, found 66% of consumers were willing to spend more on sustainable brands, however sustainable fashion represents just 1% of the entire industry. Fashion brands should make repairing easier than rebuying and increase resale opportunities. A more holistic approach in the value chain is needed to drive positive change, an inhouse team dedicated to sustainability would help this. The beauty industry, L’Oréal ties in sustainability and sales targets and offers a performance related bonus for managers on sustainable products.
www.givenlondon.com

Heiko Wunder, CEO Wunderwerk
The fashion industry is one of the largest polluting industries, with many ranking second after the oil industry.
In short, sustainability means thinking beyond this moment and taking humans, nature and the environment into account with the consequences of people’s actions.

So, it is obvious that something has to change. This applies to the clothing itself, but especially to the manufacturing processes, the dyeings, washes and finishes and packaging. If one imagines that e.g. If you can easily use more than 100 liters of water on a pair of jeans and 1 kg of chemicals can be used to make just a single pair of jeans, then you can easily imagine what the consequences are if in Germany alone about 110 million jeans are sold a year. The water and especially the chemical consumption of (raw) cotton before that process is not even included in that calculation. On top, at least for the transport, each piece is packaged into a plastic bag (“polybag”).

Most brands do not react until they realize that the end consumer has moved on. And that happens right now. Sustainability has arrived, not as a short trend, but long term because consumers now know that things can not go on like this. This is generally about sustainable cultivation and production methods, about the plastic and packaging consumption and also about the respectful treatment of humans, nature and animals.

At Wunderwerk, we use organic cotton right from the beginning and exclude toxic chemicals completely, which means that we do not even put them into circulation and therefore don’t have to filter them out afterwards. This also has the huge advantage that nature, rivers and workers do not even come into contact with these poisons, hazardous waste.
For our jeans, no toxic chemicals such as potassium permanganate or chlorine are used, we work extremely water and resource saving, so we generally have no Jaans with a water consumption of more than ten liters. Since one year we even have decresed our water consumption of dark washings from three to 0.70 liters, and the water is now completely recycled, so that the water is no longer consumed but needed – that is an enormous step that only works if brands and producers work very closely and have the same goals.

Wunderwerk was the first fashion brand to use the fiber “Modal Edelweiss” from Lenzing, Austria, because besides the very sustainable production, it is also made from “domestic” beech wood, ie even considered “regional”, while cotton and also regenerated fibers made of eucalyptus wood, the raw materials are procured from far away. Of course, regionality is also an important aspect, which is why the focus on manufacturing within the EU (approx. 70%) is miraculous.
Since 2010, I have looked into alternative packaging and so, since the first deliveries in 2013, we have been supplying all of our jeans unpacked but with an organic cotton tape and, since 2015, most of our T-shirts, sweatshirts and pullovers with a compostable cellulose film which is also resistant to water and heat. This is very important for the transport from the producer countries, even if though for Wunderwerk these are not the Far East countries but mostly countries such as Greece, Italy or Portugal.

ROBIN YATES, NOBIS
The environmental impact of fashion industry cannot be overlooked. It has been reported that the fashion industry accounts for 10% of the carbon emissions globally. Brands have the power, and the responsibility, to choose materials and products that have been manufactured in factories that control their carbon footprint. We all need to take responsibility of how garments are made and how long they last. We also need to think about what happens after we stop wearing them. We should not forget that there is still a lot of work to be done to improve the living and working conditions of garment workers. Issues related to labor conditions are persistent and brands need to be more diligent when it comes to creating humane, fair and safe working environments.

If brands won’t make the choice, the consumer will. Many consumers are choosing sustainable products and demand to know where and how the products are made. It has become pivotal for brands to build socially and environmentally responsible business models. We all need to do our part to drive a much-needed change in the fashion industry.

DAVID KARSTAD, Vice President Marketing + Creative Director POLARTEC, LLC.
For the fashion industry to truly address sustainability means taking the closed loop model to heart. Improved manufacturing efficiency, more attention to waste caused by over production, and lowering the footprint of our retail cycles are all key pieces to long term, systemic change for the better.

At Polartec, we’ve adopted this ‘whole system approach’ to sustainability that combines production methods, recycled inputs, and distribution efficiencies. This way we work towards a Triple Bottom Line objective for our products: use recycled or natural inputs; create durable and/or re-purposable products to extend lifecycle; develop full biodegradability for a product’s end of life.

As an industry, we must change what we mean by ‘natural resource.’ Natural fiber versus authentic fiber isn’t as clear of a choice as it seems, as the cost in resource (especially water) can outweigh the benefits of natural fibers, while synthetics have the greatest promise in regards to durability and recyclability. Balance, of course, is key. However, there’s a lot of new science being created with the potential to radically alter how we solve one the planets greatest challenges: the preponderance of post consumer/industrial plastic. This intractable problem of too much plastic may actually turn out to be what stimulates innovation of fibers, fabrics, and fashion itself.

As our society demands greater and greater accountability in how we use our resources, sustainability may well be the only viable go-forward business model for the fashion industry. Evolve or die. Literally.

Deborah Turner
Sustainability is an overused word, especially in marketing, it infers a lot and can mean so little. For example a mill can state that it has reduced its water consumption by 30%, but the question is what is the figure that it is 30% less than? And is that water coming from a sustainable source ? It would be more accurate to measure water consumption in litres used to make 1 metre of fabric and it would be better to have transparency of water use throughout the chain. Sustainability should be about ensuring we can sustain the infrastructure of life including plants animals and people without harming the environment in a fair and conscious manner I fear not all companies claiming sustainability are meeting this criteria.

The most important aspect is undoubtedly water, this planet needs it and it will run out if we as humans do not make some real changes. The industry has a major part to play in this and we need to look below the surface detail, the first step is to look at the source, where it is coming from and is it sustainable.  One aspect of water we rarely talk about is ‘grey water’ the fresh water we need to use to dilute the effluent before returning it to its natural state, this needs to be taken into the overall calculation of water use. At Vicunha we created a water project that identifies the use of water throughout the entire production chain, this has allowed us to focus our attention on areas where we can improve on water use. Of course reducing , re-using and recycling makes economic sense, they all go towards creating greater production efficiency.

ALBERTO
In the food sector, we have orientation labels or seals, so that the customer can make a well-considered purchase decision. But in the fashion industry there are so many aspects – how does the end consumer orient himself? The biggest sustainability aspect in our society is that everyone wants everything at the lowest price. But there are no sustainable jeans for 19EUR. Of course, there has to be a rethinking of society, but communication must be honest and authentic. Product recall is also an issue, because sustainability starts with purchasing and thus the right conditions have to be set between industry and commerce. Sustainability starts on a small scale: how much paper do I use, how much water – there is no end goal, but sustainability is a permanent process.
https://alberto-pants-usa.com

Patrick Duffy, FOUNDER, GLOBAL FASHION EXCHANGE
We are in a Climate Crisis caused in large part by the fashion industry so it should be strictly required that it protect the people and environment that power it.  The Fashion industry is complex and has many moving parts, all powered by people, most of whom live below the poverty line. Poverty and environmental issues go hand in hand, as environmental damage leads to decreased food production, improper human waste disposal and shortages of vital resources. Shifting the paradigm and creating an infrastructure that focuses on economic security and empowerment of people so that they can live healthy lives, support families, build communities, get access to tools that help them live in a healthy environment as well as survive increasing environmental disasters, will provide the foundation necessary to building a healthy supply/value chain and create a healthy business model for all.
http://www.globalfashionxchange.org

ENRICO ROSELLI, CEO, LA MARTINA
Actually sustainability is an issue that every one individual, company or government has to urgently address: many are saying that we are putting at risk our home planet, The Earth, but this is a misrepresentation because in fact we are putting at risk the conditions on this planet which make it possible for human beings to live on. It shouldn’t be regarded as a noble aspiration but rather an an urgent subject, related to our own survival.

When we hear the word “sustainability” we tend to think of renewable fuel sources, reducing carbon emissions, protecting environments, but it is in general the evaluation on how we can keep the delicate ecosystems of our planet in balance. In short, sustainability concerns how we can protect our natural environment, human and ecological health, while driving innovation and not compromising our way of life.

Also the fashion industry then should address this issue and in particular with respect to the negative effects caused by

–        Materials non eco-friendly

–        Treatments and dyeing processes

–        Transportation

–        Disposal of the products, production waste, etc

Actually I don’t think our business is one of the most serious causes non-sustainability or pollution, but as said everyone has to do something and thus fashion too. Moreover fashion has also a high capability of influencing people and this can lead to a faster pace to address this subject. For all these reasons, although we can’t be considered as a sustainable company, we are taking into consideration these matters.

It is good and bad at the same time that now this cause has attracted so much interest, since -being trendy to be enviromental friedly – companies are pushed to express or show that sensitivity, but sometimes it is very clear that it is just a facade and activities in this respect are done just to attract consumers’ attention (and consumption) but then empty in the substance.

Also, I must say that it is impossible today to be fully sustainable: but this shouldn’t be regarded as a reason not to start, each company has to start from something and then implement every day something more.

Another good thing is that sustainability sometime overlaps with being more efficient, reducing waste (of time, energy, material, etc), which is something that every company should seek besides or beyond their environment sensitivity.

In the end, then, our agenda provides:

–        Sourcing strategy which favors closer factories vs far and cheap ones (which gives us a better knowledge of their processes, quality but also shorter shipments)

–        Higher control over the factories we work with in order to use more and better those who prove to be more sustainable

–        Ongoing research on material and processes to impact less and less on the enviroment (however we are using 90% cotton which is per se eco compatible, but we have to deepen our knowledge on the origin of the same)

–        Development of more and more digital tools and interconnections among the different areas in the company to improve efficiency (avoid digital silos, implementing analytics, datasharing, AI)

Finally, all these subjects have actually an impact over the business models, but not just in terms of the communication and story telling (which represent also part of the strategy of a company), but also (with many negative effects in the short term) dis-intermediating many activities, creating a more direct contact between the company and the consumers, which also gives rise to a stronger feeling of social responsability (our fairplay campaign).

In this last respect we are quite active and this is not absolutely unrelated to the concept of sustainability, defined also as “the process of people maintaining change in a balanced environment, in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development and institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations”. As you can appreciate this doesn’t relate just to the effects on the environment but to the final aim that the changes and innovation be done keeping our main values and conditions as human being.

We consider that the respect towards the other, fairness, loyalty are all values which are fundamental to preserve the mentioned harmony and balance, but also to ground an authentic respect of the environment

Tricia Carey, DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, DENIM, LENZING:
The fashion industry needs to address sustainability. What does it mean exactly? What are the most important aspects of sustainability and why, and how can addressing them enhance a business model?

The apparel industry is looking at sustainability in a holistic way from fiber to finished garment to consumer use with consideration to environmental and social aspects.  Supply chain partners are developing collaborations supporting innovations to reduce environmental impact.  Starting with the right ingredients which reduce the impact on the environment, through waste reduction in supply chain to reduced environmental impact of consumer use and finally end of use options. Reduce, recycle, reuse is not just a clever phrase, but a way that apparel industry is evolving.

A great example of addressing sustainability are programs related to circularity, like TENCEL™ x REFIBRA™ Lyocell.  Brands like Kings of Indigo, Closed, DL1961, Boyish, Country Road, Levi’s and others are using TENCEL™ x REFIBRA™ Lyocell to bring textile to textile recycling to market.  TENCEL™ x REFIBRA, which is derived from cotton scraps to make a new lyocell fiber,  maintains the strength and aesthetics of original TENCEL™ Lyocell, as well as a fiber identification for transparency.

MARINA TESTINO, CREATIVE ENTREPRENEUR
The fashion industry needs to address sustainability – but what does it mean exactly? In your opinion, what are the most important aspects of sustainability and why, and how can addressing them enhance a business model?

Addressing sustainability requires rethinking the whole system of fashion, that is, fashion’s social, cultural, ecological and financial areas. For that, I understand all fashion’s stakeholders – i.e. citizens, public and private sectors – would have to reach an agreement on what sustainability implies. As of today, there is no governmental definition of sustainable fashion. Generally, it is regarded as an ethereal word, similar to a hotchpotch. Does it refer to ecological integrity? Alternative fashion systems? Sustainably made products? Social justice? Actually, it comprises all of these. We just need to sit down and find the checks and balances between all the fashion industry’s areas. To me, sustainability is a balancing act. Following the United Nations 87’s Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, “sustainable development meets the needs of the present without comprising the well-being of future generations”. With this in mind, I would say that to address sustainability in the fashion industry we shall rethink its system and make it more balanced.

In order to rethink the fashion industry’s systems we require structural and transparent modifications, starting with consumer’s education and information. Consumers need education to make informed choices while purchasing new clothes. Once this is tackled, the industry itself would need to reassess its production practices in terms of social justice, products, systems, productivity, ecological integrity, waste management, textiles, financial processes, but most importantly, liabilities. Governments’ push the industry with their regulations but no one is telling consumers, actual leaders of the industry’s practices, what to do or choose. If the demand of clothes increases, the industry’s offer will also increase to cover those requests (requests, that of course, imply economic opportunities for manufacturers, brands, etc.). We need to reserve that. Start again. Or in other words, be able to properly address sustainable fashion not as a trend but as business model that sustainable in all its aspects: social, cultural, ecological and financial.

Choosing which aspects of sustainability are most relevant represents a dilemma for the industry, consumers and even myself. What is more important and/or urgent, for instance, addressing social justice and ethical production practices or the industry’s water consumption, carbon footprint or waste management? The answer to this, again, seems linked to finding the checks and balances between all areas: creating an industry able to provide sustainably produced products, ethically made, being economically-sustainable and profitable. How? That’s even more complicated as we cannot start from scratch. Therefore? The implementation of strategic and structural modifications on the industry’s current business models is key. I believe the most relevant aspects regarding sustainability integration into business models include, among others, consumers and organisations’ values, investment in R+D and new technologies, internationalisation processes and, most importantly, binding corporate and social responsibility rules. To reach a consensus on how to integrate all these aspects naturally, we require a social agreement between all drivers influencing sustainability: governments, regulatory and markets pressures, value creation and innovation, equity, authenticity, functionality, localism and exclusivity.

At this point is when I ask myself: can the fashion industry ever really be sustainable? If all parties involved have a clear call to action, the answer should be YES. Here is where, again, all industries stakeholders’ have to play their parts. New generations (GZs particularly) are currently demanding for those changes. And consumers are always right, no? That’s why we are starting to see new trends promoting sustainable resource management, design for sustainability, cleaner production and resource efficiency, sustainable transport, eco-labelling, sustainable procurement, sustainable marketing, sustainable lifestyle, waste management, etc. But that’s not enough. The fashion industry can no longer wait for consumers’ shifts, the change needs to be brought from the inside to be real. I believe there is hope if all start making changes. Of course, this is my personal opinion but what’s clear to me is that neither ‘fashion victims’ nor polluting our planet shall ever be in fashion.

#WeSeaThrough!

ANDREAS BREIFELD
Just the idea of writing a sentence including the words fashion and sustainability seems like a contradiction within itself. Yes indeed, sustainability has become fashionable but sustainable fashion? Could supporting a fair produced,  ecological piece “spark more  joy” – as cleaning expert Marie Kondo would say – than a less sustainable counterpart? My answer is yes, if you are part of the process. Our industry has been trying way to long to match the foodprint of the direct retailing giants, turning pieces, in between collections etc have been an desperate  approach to persuade an widely oversaturated consumer to take again a little bit more. We need to explain the consumer, why we do what we do and make them part of the process. Look at our heritage and connect to the future. If necessary adapt your sources, rise your prices and provide an open calculation. But Most of all, communicate, share your thoughts and be honest with the consumer. They realize anyway when you try to greenwash, and they will turn away. Therefore make them part of the journey, explain your choices and most important, get into a dialogue if you want to stay.

ASOS – JANINA
Textile is not sustainable. No matter how hard we try, it is a dirty business. The textile industry has a huge impact on the environment and climate: according to a study, it was responsible for 5 to 10 percent of global pollution in 2016- and about 8 percent of global climate impacts. Let’s not fool ourselves. It is most sustainable NOT to consume.

Precisely for this reason, we as one industry must consider how we can become more sustainable and how we set common standards that at least go in the right direction.

We should try the burden on the environment, animals and humans as low as possible. Together we have to push this as industry and the big player first.

Not only the costumer has to demand or ask for it, that we have to change, we also have to change by ourselves and communicate the importance of the topic to the costumer.

We have to look at the production and its conditions for the human being. In addition, the environmental impact and pollution is an massiv issue but also the use of resources.

I see faster renewable materials that consume less water in focus, such as Tencil and Hemp.

Organic Cotton and similar are not an option in the long term. For 1kg of cotton, an average of around 11.000 liters of water is needed worldwide! That’s 256 km3 of water every year. This amount is enough to supply all people with 120 liters of fresh water per day. Organic cotton needs less but still very and permanently too much, apart from the huge plantation fields that are needed and for wich the forest are cleared.

When we look at synthetic fibers, many of those are made of oil as raw material. Even water- based PU’s , that are called as environment friendly, still consume a large amount of water.

So one thing is to see how we handle the resources and the processing and production to keep the pollution load down.

Then, of course, an elementary aspect is the working and living conditions of the people in the producing countries, as well as the impact on their health. The desire for abundance and dumping in the Western World has had and still has devastating consequences.

With generation Now we are faced with a new challenge. This generation is used to get everything it sees and wants immediately. So how do we fulfill this need and remain relevant to the customer without inciting the ever-shrinking cycle of a product and thus the waste and mass consumption.

So if we produce products with lower impact, the water and CO2 balance as well as the chemical pollution of groundwater and soil will be driven upwards by the increased amount of consumption.

Thirty years ago, you bought a product of the same category 1-2 times a year. Today, the customer wants a new outfit for every new weekend party.

I am convinced that there is a lot of potential in product sharing and product leasing. In big cities, car sharing and Co are already a thing since years and can no longer be imagined. Many do not need and do not want their own car, their entire costs, but in the same time, always have one available, when they need it.

This can and will be transferred to other products. The resell scene in streetwear, but also with luxury brands in Gen Now is growing and growing and enjoying increasing popularity. You have a coveted product, wear it 2-3 month and than you are bored and want something new. To afford this, you (need to) sell the old.

The products hardly lose value because they are on the market in small quantities, are well maintained and have good quality. We should take advantage of these trends. To offer the customer the cycle and thereby also take away the trouble of trading by yourself.

We already have platforms like Stock X and Klekt. New platforms for leasing products are also emerging. Here I see the future. You have a virtual wardrobe that is filled with new items and you can lease those for a month. Or you pay a monthly fee ( membership etc) and serve you from the wardrobe no matter what article.

One one hand, products are worn longer and used, it thus longer in circulation and less quantity must be in the market. In addition, then the brands are required to make a product more durable and higher quality. If these are than more environmentally friendly and produced with full transparency, we are on the right path.

JAMIE MARGOLIN, FOUNDER, ZEROHOUR
The most important aspect of sustainability is stopping the mindset of constant consumption. You can make a product as “eco-friendly” as possible but if you market it with the same consumeristic “you need to BUY MORE MORE MORE” you are still causing damage to the earth. The truth is the most sustainable fashion is simply not buying anything that you don’t need. The new business model for sustainable fashion needs to NOT be based on constant growth and a constant increase in profit at all times. The culture of constantly “needing” new clothes when we don’t actually NEED it needs to end, no matter what material the clothes are made out of
thisiszerohour.org

STAMO, MBA FRSA, Founder, Ecoluxe London
Our legacy to our children is a  paradise destroyed by previous generations.

Part of the problem is the second most polluting industry after oil (WTO, 2018) : The fashion industry where a piece of fabric produced in Africa is shipped to Asia for processing and sold all over the world.

The work sustainability exists as a term since the late 80’s (sustainable growth) and ethical and later sustainable fashion since mid-90’s.

Fashion is all about design and Ecoluxe London has defined sustainable fashion as  the  creation  of a  fashionable  item,  always   taking  into  consideration  the  most  appropriate  combination   of  social,  environmental  and  financial  parameters at  any  given  time.

In simple words,  Sustainable   fashion  is  all  about  People  –  Planet  – Profit

Minimal  carbon  footprint,  renewable  sources,  respect of  traditional crafts  & customs,  reinforcement  of  local  economy: we believe in a clear ‘corporate consciousness’  and a responsible approach to the whole supply chain, where a company  considers  all the above parameters per product and the end users their consumption and product life cycle: A win-win situation for our planet.

ISKO
Our strategy of continuous improvement relies on a holistic, mindful approach to Responsible Innovation™, which is based on three pillars – creativity, competence and citizenship – and extends to our culture and systems.

We look at water consumption as well as chemicals, dyestuffs, and eco-toxicity measures and we have an Environmental Management System in place, certified to an international standard. We have obtained Life-Cycle Assessments (LCAs) for all our 25,000+ denim products and certified Environmental Product Declarations (EPD®s). These allow our customers to make responsible sourcing choices and led to the creation of independently devised Product Category Rules (PCR).

ISKO Earth Fit™ is our top-end denim collection, the only one worldwide awarded both EU Ecolabel and Nordic Swan Ecolabel. We have also developed a recycling strategy, recently implemented with the launch of the R-TWO™ platform, which includes fabrics with a mix or blend of reused cotton from production loss and recycled polyester from PET bottles.
https://iskodenim.com

SARAH DITTY, POLICY DIRECTORY, FASHION REVOLUTION
In practice this means considering the way clothing is designed; what materials are used; how those materials are sourced; how clothing is manufactured; who is involved in these processes and what economic and working conditions they are facing; how products are transported across the world; how quickly we are consuming and discarding our clothes; how we look after our clothes; what happens when we dispose of them; what resources and chemicals are used or emitted in these processes and so much more.

The science is clear. We have very few years to mitigate the most disastrous consequences of climate breakdown. Therefore it’s a business imperative to address sustainability. It’s literally about future survival of the industry and ourselves.

FRIEDERIKE VON WEDEL-PARLOW, FOUNDER, BENEFICIAL DESIGN INSTITUTE, BERLIN
Sustainability for me, is about enriching and embellishing the world and not only about efficiency and sufficiency. Fashion is an incredibly powerful tool – every 6th person worldwide is working in fashion and textiles including all stages from field to retail. If we would turn all these jobs into fruitful and supportive ones, imagine how we could change the lives of all these people and their communities for the better. The fashion industry today is one of the biggest climate-killers. Instead, fashion could contribute positively to the biosphere by using clean and healthy ingredients, energy and processes.

Let’s envision fashion to be the result of intelligent and healthy circular systems and beneficial design that profits everyone and everything involved. A system that creates positive effects for people and environment with responsible growth for all businesses which are part of this transformative change.

LIA KES CARMI BERMAN, FOUNDER, KES
At KES, sustainability means being mindful of the impact we have on the earth. We utilize eco-friendly practices in our manufacturing by recycling garments, using biodegradable materials, and partnering with local plant-based dyers. Our clothes are meant to reflect a lifestyle – not just the latest trend. Each of our pieces can be worn confidently in different locations and circumstances. By creating clothes that are both eco-friendly and timeless, we embed sustainability into the very core of our collection, and encourage thoughtful consumerism. Our mindful production enables us to provide women with clothes that will serve them well and can be worn with pride. KES offers a collection that unites style with spirituality, creating pieces that our clients can connect to on a deeper level. By revolutionizing how women relate to our brand, we ultimately enhance our business. Women who wear KES create a measurable change within our world.
https://kesnyc.com

Yana Chervinska, Founder of the clothing brand Yana Chervinska and the first platform of conscious fashion in Ukraine Sustainable Fashion Pad
The fashion industry needs to address sustainability, but what does it mean exactly? What are the most important aspects of sustainability and why, and how can addressing them enhance a business model?

Sustainable development issues need to be addressed not only to the fashion industry, but also to any business, organization, social movement or festival – this is the future. Many brands, from fast and affordable fashion to luxury conglomerates, are starting to launch special areas of sustainability and open information about the production and logistics to consumers. The flow is no longer possible to stop. For me, the most important moment of sustainability begins with work with the consumer and his/her education. By bringing to consumers information about the dangers of production and the disposal of cheap and low-quality clothes that wear out quickly, we will change the very approach to the consumption. The sustainability factor is becoming increasingly important for business. Here, I will quote The Blueprint “Fastcompany.com website gives optimistic figures: 75% of buyers in five countries (USA, Great Britain, China, France and Brazil) called sustainability a major factor for fashion apparel manufacturers. (The Nosto online sales platform report shows that if 52% of American and British users talk about the importance of ethical fashion, only 29% are ready to buy eco-friendly clothing)“

Olga Johnston Antonova, sustainable fashion consultant, educator and journalist. Founder of Circular Fashion Russia and Ecostyle360, co-creator of SustainYourStyle, board member of Global Sustainble Fashion Week.
To understand sustainability in fashion you need to think of a garment not as a product but as a process and consider its full life cycle and how it affects people and environment at every stage: from sourcing raw materials to manufacturing, transportation, retail, user–  and “end of use” stages. Ideally, every step must be carried out ethically and ecologically – in harmony with people and nature – and produce economic and social prosperity.

For retail it means to:

– stock sustainable and ethical brands

– reduce the amount of plastic and packaging material

– use and reuse eco friendly packaging

– use “green” transport and energy

– introduce size–measuring technologies for perfect fit

– use wardrobe inventory technologies to help customer upgrade their wardrobe

– introduce clothes takeback for resale, upcycling and recycling

– provide mending and repair

– stock ecofriendly care and laundry products

– enable customers to design own clothes

– sell virtual outfits

– become a place where “shoppers” consume experiences, create and connect IRL

Seth Ellison, EVP and President of Europe Levi’s
As consumers become more conscious, corporate responsibility and sustainability have to be at the top of our agenda. Our ‘Waterless’ products and our new ‘Future Finish’ laser technology are great examples from a much longer list. Fit innovation will always be critical, just as it was from the beginning of our company. The high-rise ‘Ribcage Jean’ has been a real hit for women, as well as a platform to reach young, fashion-forward consumers
https://www.levi.com/

Denim continues to be one of fashion’s key markets, even though it has faced multiple struggles in recent years. For this special issue, WeAr has asked some of the world’s key denim insiders, including both young and established brands, fabric and fiber manufacturers, finishing specialists, denim retailers and trade show executives, what the industry could do in order to return denim to its former glory. Some answers were so detailed and fascinating that we have created a special page on our website to reflect the richness of ideas proposed by our interviewees.

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FRANÇOIS GIRBAUD, CO-FOUNDER AND OWNER, MARITHE + FRANÇOIS GIRBAUD

Aside from the above, I have also been asked these questions for decades:
-What will replace the denim industry?
-What will replace jeans in our everyday lives in the coming years?

Jeans are the most popular item of clothing in the modern history of fashion: 6 billion pairs are produced annually worldwide. It takes 5,678 litres of water to grow the cotton to make a single pair of jeans + 70 litres to wash each pair. Let’s not forget the insecticides of the worldwide production is used by cotton growers, or the chemicals used to wash and artificially age the jeans some of the most toxic that exist. I’ve been speaking about these facts and figures for years now, most of the industry will know them off by heart now.

We all know that petroleum derivatives, among other things, are not biodegradable. Do we want to create a continent of plastic floating on the ever-rising tides or add to the mountains of indestructible throwaway clothing? So, what are the alternatives? What resources will replace cotton or can be integrated into the existing supply chain: beans, stones, nuts, plants, stones, minerals, plants?

How are we going to be able to clothe the inhabitants of our planet and which country and workforce are we going exploit next to improve profits?

We keep going back to cotton, which, for all its faults, inspires us. It tells great stories about adventures in the open air, bikers, campers, guitars and Cadillacs… everything we’ve always wanted.

We can continue to believe that the solution is to use buzzwords such as recycling, organic, circular economy, transparency and traceability to ease our consciences. But we know all too well that we don’t have much time left and that the next generations will have to deal with the mess we leave behind!

As designers, brands, an industry, we have to accept responsibility for what we do and the message we communicate. There are no excuses today, everyone has to be held to account. The creative possibilities of jeans as a product are enormous, but I can’t envisage any real change coming from an industry in full transformation. The big fashion houses are all eager to embrace street culture and the youth market. Sneakers and jeans are part of this package, but not innovation.

Jeans have been endlessly transformed, from workwear to streetwear to luxury wear. I believe my responsibility as a designer is to create garments with long-lasting appeal that will stand the test of time and endless successions of short-lived trends. To this end, I’m working on re-establishing the practice of constructing garments to flatter the body through innovative and precise cuts, and the development of a new generation of sustainable fabrics. I’ve developed environmentally friendly methods such as the Watt Wash to reduce the negative impact of the production of jeans on the planet and the people working in the denim treatment industry. We now have revolutionary laser technology to allow us to endlessly transform denim without destroying the planet; the only limitation is our creativity.

Modern techniques made by hand still applies to our work and we should never forget that the forefront of technology is the human touch. Our clothes are made with love for life. I don’t know about denim’s glory days, but I would like to come full circle and make workwear for today, adapted to our urban lifestyles. Jeans are no longer indicators of social class, generation, or signs of protest, they’ve become a uniform for all, from baby boomers to Generation Z.
www.girbaud.com

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MARK WERTS, FOUNDER, CEO, AMERICAN RAG CIE

Decline in denim.  Many years ago, I shared what I thought to be a brilliant entrepreneurial idea with a multi-millionaire, a used clothing dealer called Jim Johnson, based in Brownsville, Texas. Jim always had a toothpick in his mouth. I explained my idea to this extremely successful man, and he was skeptical but pondered a bit and then replied to me in a strong Texan drawl: “Ah shit Mark, anything’s good if ya do it good.”

Denim is fine. There is no decline. Here at American Rag Cie, we’re experiencing robust sales of denim and denim-related products. Anyone that isn’t “doing it good” is in decline. Denim is a white canvas that depends on the artist who is painting on it. Paint beautifully. “DO IT GOOD!” F**k decline.

P.S. I just checked our denim sales, both men’s and women’s. We are single digit in both categories. We have experienced ZERO decline in 2019. I don’t buy into self-fulfilling prophecies.
https://americanrag.com

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RUDY BUDHDEO, CEO, SON OF A STAG, LONDON

We are still doing extremely well with denim probably because our choice is much greater than other retailers and we have a huge selection covering all style wishes to the widest choices in sizes & lengths up to 41″ inside leg. It is important to give the very best choice in the market place & show total confidence when buying and presenting. Our staff are dedicated to having the best product knowledge because the consumer is now much more aware about manufacturing processes & we are able to offer strong knowledge how the fabric will evolve, shrink and fade.

We offer free of charge shortening on the original chain stitch machine on the spot and can even make other denim tailoring adjustments including taking in the waist, moving pockets, tapering from inseam with top stitch and meaning the selvedge is unaffected. We also have a huge choice of denim shirts and jackets in additions to the jeans category. We study our customers’ wishes and make the impossible possible. A lot of customers know that we have unique fittings on much of the stock we carry so that the same model they buy from us will fit differently if they try it at another retailers somewhere else in the world – we often have the styles recreated with adjustments in particular with the rise of the jeans and taper gradings. This means that we have to do bigger minimum orders and pay extra to our suppliers, but we have learnt it is much better to have the perfect product. It is great to also have brands which have very select distribution that include Smith-Sato-Suzuki and our own brand Soldier Blue London. This way our customers are super loyal.
www.sonofastag.com
www.soldieblue.co.uk

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JEFFREY RUDES, CO-FOUNDER, J BRAND AND CEO L’AGENCE

Why a downturn in denim? We are missing newness. New fabrics, finishes and fits are what are needed. Regarding style, I wouldn’t change a 5-pocket classic to a fashion jean. I think the consumer always identifies with a 5-pocket. It’s familiar, reliable and she trusts them. Denim jeans are soft right now although color, print and coated finishes are doing extremely well. Today you need to be innovative and create new treatments and textures. L’Agence has everything that is working, which is why our denim business is substantially ahead of plan and why we are a leading brand in premium denim.
www.lagencefashion.com

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ADRIANO GOLDSCHMIED, PRESIDENT, HOUSE OF GOLD

I totally feel that if denim is not cool right now is almost entirely our responsibility as we have made important strategic mistakes. For many years we have been fighting for sustainability, for changes within the production cycle, from cotton to indigo, to the dyeing system and obviously the finishing. We have been pushing the envelope to the limit with innovation and technology and we honestly achieved substantial and remarkable results. The fact is that we totally forgot about and underestimated the value of design, creativity and new communication ideas. This is what makes jeans an object of desire. We should be learning from sneakers, bring back new ideas and creativity and be brave!
www.houseofgold.la

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SEBASTIAN KLINDER, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND OWNER, MUNICH FABRIC START EXHIBITIONS GMBH

Driven by the disruptive millennium, we will soon see an evolution in denim which will be similar to what we have seen recently in sneakers, athletic gear and urbanwear among others. This will require the involvement of technological discoveries, starting with alternative raw materials new fibers mostly of sustainable origin; or high-performance innovations, such as carbon or conductive end uses. Denim is becoming inherently more performance-oriented, with garments offering climate control features, or worn as protective items for urban mobility. Designers are already embracing new practices and techniques which make jeans smarter and more wearable. Automation will play an essential role in the jeans manufacturing process.

Combined with new ethics and environmental rules, which demand more responsible means of production and manufacturing, we will see an increase in the range of treatments created with almost zero impact. We are about to experience a brand new, brave blue world let’s enjoy it.
www.munichfabricstart.com

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FATIH DOGAN, GENERAL MANAGER, CALIK DENIM

We are currently in a price-oriented market for denim due to the sector receiving significant investment, resulting in surplus capacity and subsequently high costs and prices. The strategies we believe to be key to reinvigorating the denim market and moving away from this price-led approach are as follows.

Firstly, we need to focus on product differentiation, including value-added and sustainable products, as well as prioritizing investment in research and development. For product differentiation, it’s vital to expand the uses for denim beyond the fashion industry. In terms of production and distribution strategies, sustainability is hugely important to move denim into the future, responding to the changing demands of the consumers and the planet itself.

Then, in terms of communication strategies, we believe in the power of collaboration, both within and outside the sector; providing the power to act and communicate together, to help drive change and create a wider impact both within and beyond the denim industry by working with universities, brands and developing non-profit initiatives.
http://calikdenim.com

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ENRIQUE SILLA, CEO, JEANOLOGIA

I wouldn’t say that denim is living difficult times. It is true that we are facing overproduction, but consumers still love authentic blue jeans. To build a brighter future, and to sustain the blue jean legend, in Jeanologia we are working hard on 3 concepts:

-A complete elimination of water and toxic chemistry on 100% of global jeans production. Our aim is to dehydrate and detox the global jeans production by 2025. If as an industry we achieve this goal, the new generation will understand that we are still rebels and will be proud to wear jeans.

-Making mass customization a reality on blue jeans through laser technologies.

-Introducing a new sourcing model that combines production in low-cost labor, duty-free zones and finishing near the consumer in America, Europe, China and Japan. All of this is already possible thanks to technologies.

For the first time in history we have the necessary technology that allows us to make short and fast series, making it possible to produce what sells instead of selling what is produced.
www.jeanologia.com

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GUGLIELMO OLEARO, DIRECTOR, DENIM PREMIÈRE VISION

Despite the macro analysis showing a continuous growth in the denim market, the contingent situation is difficult for most of the actors. The market is more fluid than ever and the needs of the customers are evolving faster than in the past. On the other hand, denim clearly has an incredible appeal, considering its presence in almost all the [fashion] collections, the growing amount of new denim brands and the fact that is considered a pioneer element in the sustainable textile improvement.

The big challenge is to transfer to the new generations of denim lovers all the values behind the denim brand. We need to focus on the PRODUCT and re-build knowledge around it. Collaboration within the value chain is paramount, along with a comprehensive and transparent vision. This is one of the key targets of Denim Premiere Vision too: we focus on responsible fashion collaborations and on share of knowledge.

Actions:
-connect and collaborate to analyze, define and share best practices in order to improve the quality along all the value chain.
-increase the standard of true responsibility in all the segments of the value chain.
www.denimpremierevision.com

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TRACEY TAN, CO-OWNER, QUEEN’S COUTURE / THE DENIM STORE, SINGAPORE

We have seen the denim business go through a challenging period in the past couple of years. We also see many brands digging back in their archives and reproducing exact replicas of the past. It is not a bad thing to look back to get inspiration. However, as a retailer and in order to get customers excited again, we hope to see new silhouettes with vintage fabrics, details, construction, etc.; or past silhouettes with a modern take on fabric and other innovations to suit the modern lifestyle.
https://thedenimstore.com.sg

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GORDON GIERS, CEO, CLOSED

Denim currently has big chances in terms of ecological improvements as there are innovations strong enough to really make a big step forward in terms of more sustainable jeans. At Closed we started our Eco Denim line ‘A Better Blue’ three seasons ago. By now, many of our denim competitors are also using sustainable fabric developments from Candiani or other mills. But we’re doing the entire process, 360 degrees [in a sustainable way]. We are using fabrics from Candiani that are recycled or at least organic cotton. We’re sewing the line in Italy. And we are washing it, obviously, in Italy, with our long-term partner Everest. We’ve developed washing techniques that are outstanding and, I think, very unique. ‘A Better Blue jeans probably have the lowest possible impact on the environment.

We wanted to create a sustainable product that has the same aesthetic as the conventional jeans in our collection. So we tried really to get at least the same result in terms of the washings, in terms of the fabrics. They look the same but are so much more sustainable.
www.closed.com

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FABRIZIO CONSOLI, FOUNDER AND CEO, BLUE OF A KIND

My impression is that a certain change the denim industry has suffered is here to stay. A market polarization is underway: on one side we are flooded by mass products meant to last a season or two; on the other, denim is increasingly becoming a premium item, what vinyl represents for music as a big player in the industry told me recently.

Technology is definitely key to instigating a change from a sustainability standpoint, nowadays an indispensable attribute. Nonetheless, we all feel the cultural clash in using science and progress to produce antique visual effects and finishes.

So now more than ever a change in perspective is needed. We must flip the way people relate to jeans, bringing back the love story consumers once had with them. We need to narrate the product to highlight the uniqueness every pair gains with time, in a one-to-one relationship with its owner.
www.blueofakind.com

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JASON DENHAM, FOUNDER, DENHAM

Denim has always been great, and it will stand the test of time because there is no cloth like it. Denim’s roots are in quality: it is hard-wearing, versatile, durable and since the 1850s this cloth has evolved to become the highest performance, most technical and sustainable fabric you can wear.

We are in a new era of communication, product life cycle and consumer habits. The denim industry is still as dynamic as it always was. There are more players now from the high street, the big online channels, the brands and the catwalk, and everyone is doing denim in their own way. Production, distribution and communication have never stopped evolving over the last 50 years and right now we are in a peak of change. Sustainability is at the core of every denim manufacturer’s priorities list, and rightly so. Online sales have transformed the distribution landscape and communication is digital. Embrace it; never stand still.
www.denhamthejeanmaker.com

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MENNO VAN MEURS, CEO, TENUE DE NÎMES

The first and most important thing we need to do to get denim back on top of the game is to quickly step away from the idea that denim can be something cheap, or worse; something disposable. Let’s put denim back where it belongs: the strong and durable center point of our wardrobe. The future of fashion is about consuming less but better. Well-made jeans should be considered the bright future of our industry. Denim is the only thing we actually appreciate becoming older. Jeans are the sexiest, most versatile and personal garment out there. Let’s consider jeans as workwear again: 21st century workwear. Anyone should choose one pair, invest in it, wear it, love it, repair it and love it even more. To me, well-made and honestly produced jeans are the perfect start of a new paradigm in clothing: buy less and pay more! Wear jeans!
https://tenuedenimes.com

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FATIH KONUKOGLU, CEO, ISKO DIVISION

Isko we don’t feel that denim is having a difficult time right now.

This is perhaps because two of our core brand pillars are innovation and citizenship. Our Research and Development center is the heartbeat of Isko, located at our headquarters. Here, a team of physicists, chemists, biologists, mathematicians and textile engineers work to solve real consumer problems and needs, in order to impact people’s lives in a positive way. As a result of this, we are continuously bringing new products onto the market, keeping our offer fresh and exciting.

An example is our Isko Vulcano finish. This is a new laser friendly finish that delivers natural, denimy, clear effects in laser applications. It eliminates the need for dry and chemical processing, making production faster and more efficient in terms of energy used. So, we can safely say that ISKO Vulcano is both beautiful and responsible.
https://iskodenim.com

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JORDAN NODARSE, FOUNDER AND CREATIVE DIRECTOR, BOYISH JEANS

I believe denim is having a re-birth actually. Manufacturers, brands, and even consumers are now opening their eyes to the extensive supply chain behind denim and its impact on humans and mother earth. I think the most change that needs to happen is within brands though. Manufacturers have had the technology for a more sustainable supply chain for a long time but the brands are too focused on reducing their costs for a higher profit margin because they know that they cannot sell all their goods at full price. That is a ridiculously backwards way of thinking.

If brands look at their impact and deliver a clear message of true transparency all the way to the farms that produce the fiber that goes into their fabrics, they will see that their consumers care more about their products and put a higher value on them. After all, 60% of a jeans impact comes from the fabric, 30% from laundry and CMT, then 10% to the remaining trim and other items on it. So, the most impact one can make is with their fabrics.

However, just make sure you certify and audit your supply chain with professionals. There are a lot of lies going on out there. For instance, only 0.5% of the worlds cotton is actually truly organic. Oh, and stop using recycled plastic in every day garments that get washed and dyed extensively. Micro fiber shedding is a real thing and a huge problem. These microplastics are ending up inside our stomachs and there is already eight billion tons of it in the oceans. So, if you’re a brand, stop trying to take short cuts by putting abnormal amounts of recycled polyester or nylon into your garments. Even if you take ocean plastic and make it into recycle fiber, thats not a solution. The plastic is still ending up back in the ocean but this time it’s more damaging!
https://boyish-jeans.com

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TSUYOSHI NOGUCHI, DIRECTOR, MINEDENIM

In recent years the Japanese denim industry has been quite saturated. MINEDENIM which launched during the A/W 16 season thinks of itself not as a denim brand but rather a brand where standard and innovation coexist. We tend to limit the details and focus on the beauty of silhouettes. One of our strengths is that we own our factory in Okayama prefecture, a place internationally renowned for denim manufacturing. Thus we can guarantee the quality of the fabric, finishing and techniques. Naturally, the price point is higher compared to China and Vietnam; however, we believe that the price is justified for the quality. We’ve been collaborating with fabric mills to reduce the environmental impact during the washing process. By honing our production process and schedule we have managed to limit their waste as well.
https://minedenim.jp

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DEBORAH TURNER, MARKETING AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, VICUNHA

The denim industry needs to keep pushing for more transparency throughout the whole production chain and bring more information to the customer about the products they are buying. This market is driven primarily by price, but sustainability needs to be seen as equally important. I am always astonished how little the end consumer actually knows about the sustainability of the products they buy, I think we can improve greatly on this with better, clearer marketing.

We will always refer back to the heritage of denim but we need to look forward to a new era. There is always a cycle of fashion and denim has its highs and lows, it has however over time broadened in category and now comes is many more guises.

We need to move forward and face the challenges of change, embrace new yarns, technologies and production methods to meet the needs and wants of the future consumer.
www.vicunha.com.br

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DANIEL GRIEDER, CEO, TOMMY HILFIGER GLOBAL AND PVH EUROPE

Tommy first got into fashion by selling bell-bottoms from the back of an old VW van when he was 16, so denim has been a timeless staple at the core of our classic American cool DNA from the start. But we are always evolving, and our strength has come from experimenting with innovation, sustainability and customization techniques that consumers are looking for and that are essential to the future of our industry.

We all share a responsibility to manufacture products in a more thoughtful way. At our Product Innovation Center in Amsterdam we are setting new standards for producing denim styles using techniques that can reduce water, energy and chemical consumption by up to 70%. We work with best-in-class partners and state-of-the-art equipment on-site to refine our processes and further push the boundaries of our denim collections. The Center also allows us to experiment with innovative fabric and finishing techniques in real time without needing to send samples back and forth between vendors. Only by continuing to fuel this important discussion through transparency and the sharing of best practices can we drive our industry forward for good.
www.tommy.com

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REINHARD HAASE, CEO, UNIFA GROUP

In the past, retailers looked out for new denim products and developments in trade shows, but today, fairs are no longer visited as much as showrooms, and even there retailers only really look at brands with which they have pre-scheduled appointments. Take True Religion: multiple retailers still associate the brand with thick seams and therefore categorically reject it [even though the brand has moved on]. Buyers have to travel more and become curious again. As someone who has been in the business for so long and has worked as a retailer with Jades, as well as a producer, distributor and agent, I can also say that denim has cycles and we are now at a stage where the customer wants new qualities. But that’s not unusual; we’ve gone through these stages several times. That’s called a trend. We sell denim well, more for women than men, because there are too few good men’s retailers, but the hype for the blue fabric is missing it must be pushed again.
https://unifa-fashion.com

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MARCO LANOWY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, ALBERTO

Denim works through new brands or those that are always reinventing themselves. Just a new wash is no longer the core business of denim. We have success with our Premium Business Jeans, but they are often not displayed adequately on the retail floor. Why is there hardly a super denim world in retail? Most denim floors in stores look the same throughout the year and do not create any new impulses.
https://www.alberto-pants.com

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AGOSTINO POLETTO, GENERAL MANAGER, PITTI IMMAGINE

The jeans industry is showing clear signs of dynamism and positive evolutions that we will see more and more in the coming seasons. We are following with great attention the new phenomena involving the denim world: big brands and denim players are undoubtedly demonstrating their stylistic strengths, a series of innovative efforts in terms of marketing and communication, and all these movement are creating a lot of new buzz towards denim and revamping sales, also among young generations. In fact, I see that younger consumers are crucial in leading the most prominent changes in these field. Among the drivers of the evolution I see fashion collaborations – which are becoming a strategic tool to target new consumers and create new interest around a brand and its style. And another strong current is related to high-tech customisation options: features that could enlarge the possibilities for the consumers and the occasions for them to be dressed in denim. Actually, we have in mind denim-focused projects for the next editions of Pitti Uomo: we all love denim and in fact it is one of the most versatile and fashionable fabric, able to add a very contemporary and fresh attitude to your style.
www.pittimmagine.com

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FRANCO CATANIA, CEO, GIADA S.P.A.

Giada has always adopted a certified, eco-sustainable policy for the realization of its products, from denim dyeing, which occurs with natural indigo color, to washes that employ reduced quantities of pumice stone and water, which is later recycled. In addition to this, Giada has developed the ˜Ice Finishing system a few years ago: an eco-friendly washing process carried out with the use of ice. The Bronte plant is our success story. All energy is self-produced, and 60% of total water is recycled through water purifiers. All this allows our jeans to have a lower business impact. With Hand Picked we also try to develop intelligent sample sets, avoiding warehouse overloads with goods to be disposed of.
www.giadafc.it
www.handpicked.it

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KRIS PARK, CEO, SIWY DENIM

When you are facing a slower growth in your industry, do not panic. Denim is like life, it has its ups and downs¦ but it is also timeless, and everyone always comes back to it.

In those difficult times, the most important decision to make is to never compromise on the quality of the product you are offering to your customers. Always search for the best fabrics, develop the best washes, techniques etc.

It is also fundamental to constantly offer novelties and fashion pieces to your customers, to remind everyone that denim is not only a basic outfit that you keep in your closet forever, but also a strong fashion item that adapt to the trends and sometime create them. You must take risks; however, you shall always follow your initial DNA. That is what we do at Siwy, and this year we are celebrating our 15^th Anniversary.

Finally, living in a world of competition, where denim (among other apparel products) is offered in many places at very low prices, It is essential to communicate directly with your customers, and to educate them about your product, Its origin, Its manufacturing process..

Why your denim is different? Where is it from? how is it made, the quality of the fit, the work, the efforts, the ethics, and the people behind your product. Those are the values that it is imperative to share with the world.
www.siwydenim.com

WeAr has been covering sustainable developments in fashion for years. To celebrate the magazine’s 60^th issue, we have revisited our archives and selected some key articles that feature green projects from the last 26 issues. 

WeAr No. 34

HAIKURE: SMART ECO-PANTS
Italian eco-fashion brand Haikure is experiencing rapid growth. Sales have jumped 50%, export markets now include five countries and 150 stores, and the collection sellout rate is up to 85%. The label offers premium denim and glam pants with original washes and Made-in-Italy details, proving that fashion trends and sustainability can coexist. Collections for men and women are made of sustainable materials using energy saving processes. Founder Federico Corneli uses high-tech denim fabric specialist Isko’s Recall in Shape technology for the label’s special stretch jeans.
https://haikure.com/

ARTISTIC MILLINERS: SUSTAINABLE DENIM MANUFACTURING
The newest factory of denim fabric and garment producer Artistic Milliners, the eco-friendly AMG-4, raises the bar for the entire industry in giving back to the environment and the community. Omer Ahmed, Director of Artistic Milliners, emphasizes that the facility will be a LEED certified green building, a rare achievement. Artistic Milliners is aiming for a Platinum LEED rating, which requires the highest energy and environmental standards. The AMG-4 factory will excel in the categories of water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, indoor environmental quality, and innovation and design process. Community is another important aspect of the rating; Artistic Milliners already employs an exceptionally high proportion of female workers (70%) its garmenting facilities as well as 150 individuals with disabilities in its finishing departments. The company keeps all of its processes—cutting, stitching, washing, drying and finishing—at the cutting edge by using state-of-the-art machinery and holding special workshops and training sessions. The combination of working with one of Italy’s top washing facilities and creating an environmentally—and community—friendly manufacturing facility sets the company on a sure path to success.
www.artisticmilliners.com

WeAr No. 35

PROJECT PIOLA: RAW RUBBER SNEAKERS
Project Piola is a fair trade footwear label collaborating with 33 rubber producers from Peru. Through a fundraising initiative Piola raised money to educate these Peruvian producers on how to diversify their revenue sources. To celebrate the success of the initiative a limited edition of 150 pairs of Madre de Dios will be launched, featuring a special thank you message on the sole.
www.piola.fr

MUD JEANS: LEASE A JEANS
The Dutch sustainable brand Mud Jeans introduced a new way of recycling fashion with its Lease a Jeans concept. After signing an agreement the customer gets a pair of jeans for 5 euros a month plus a join-up fee of 20 euros. The denim is made from organic cotton and is recycled into a new pair after the initial lease period of the client is up. Three different washes are available for both men and women.
www.mudjeans.nl

WeAr No. 45

ECO PRK: SUSTAINABLE TECHNIQUES
Eco-friendly denim laundry ECO PRK is promoting its dedication to creating sustainable production processes. As the first eco-friendly laundry of its kind, it develops washes for private labels and its own premium brand-Tortoise Denim. Aware of the environmental impact involved in the traditional indigo wash processes, the team has created a process that eliminates the use of toxic chemicals. The garments are washed in the ECO PRK headquarters in Paramount, California, using its patent-pending #61698554 “Wiser Wash” technology. This method uses natural and biodegradable additives along with Ozone, eliminating the need for corrosive chemicals, using little water and still bringing that true vintage look.
www.ecoprk.com

WeAr No. 50

BONAVERI: THE FIRST ECO-MANNEQUIN
Bonaveri presents the first display mannequin manufactured from bio-degradable material. The figures are formed from bioplastics derived from sugarcane and painted with a paint made from renewable raw materials – this was developed in four short years as a result of research carried out jointly by the traditional Italian company and the Polytechnic University of Milan. The resulting mannequins have the same lifespan as those made from synthetics or fiberglass; yet, unlike these versions, the bioplastic version will subsequently degrade without a trace. The famous, elegant ‘Schläppi 2200’ model costs around 1,800 EUR for the eco-friendly version.
www.bonaveri.com

WeAr No. 51

RAINFOREST-FREE FASHION: SUSTAINABLE VISCOSE
Following cotton, it is now viscose’s turn to get eco-friendly. Its production can cause huge environmental damage due to heavy use of wood. This is why GOTS, the organic textile standard, now only certifies clothes made of fiber mixes containing no more than 10% viscose or modal (the more eco-friendly lyocell can make up 30% of the blend). Several conservation groups are campaigning against viscose sourced from tropical forests. In a global ranking of leading cellulose fiber producers, the Canopy Planet Society has named the Lenzing Group number one in sustainable wood sourcing. Lenzing produces Tencel, a lyocell fiber.

WeAr No. 52

WOMENSWEAR LABELS TO WATCH: GILBERTO CALZOLARI
A son of a fabrics salesman and a high-end boutique manager, Milan-born Gilberto Calzolari has lived and breathed fashion since childhood. He graduated from Brera Academy of Fine Arts and began his career working for Italian powerhouses such as Marni, Alberta Ferretti, Valentino, Miu Miu and Giorgio Armani. In 2015 he founded his eponymous label. The brand’s logo – two ginkgo leaves intertwined around the initials “GC” – combines Japanese and art nouveau references and symbolizes a brand rooted in the Milanese luxury traditions but drawing inspiration from world cultures. Floral prints, embroidery and appliqué details and refined sartorial silhouettes position Calzolari’s collections between prêt-à-porter and couture. His first A/W 17-18 collection, produced in Marche region, was inspired by Arctic glaciers. White, light blue and wisteria colors light up the natural precious mikado and duchesse silk, wool crêpe and kidassia eco-fur used for the jackets. An eco-conscious designer, Calzolari supports Polar Bears International, a non-profit that aims to safeguard polar bears and their habitats. The brand is represented by Spring-Up showroom in Milan and shows during Milan Fashion Week.
www.gilbertocalzolari.com

WeAr No. 56

1WOR: CHINESE ECO-PLATFORM
Founders of textile group Bobaolon – Weixiong Chen and Nana Chen – created the platform 1WOR to promote upcoming Chinese and international designers. While the Chinese apparel industry is focusing on expanding production with foreign design, 1WOR rather concentrates on sustainable designers. With more than 100 stores in China, they are now looking to bring their fashion to Europe as well creating partnerships with designers worldwide to be presented on the Chinese market. Therefore they will have a showroom at Shanghai Design Week.
https://www.totemfashion.com/1wor/

M-ODE: FOUNDATION FOR TALENTS IN FASHION
The new Dutch foundation M-ODE is a coaching hub for talented fashion designers, developers and entrepreneurs. The platform provides experience based tools and guidelines for start-ups, in order to become sustainable and responsible companies in the international industry. With special events, workshops, seminars and master classes they bring together necessary expertise and opportunities on various aspects within the fashion chain. Visibility and press, production and sales, network and collaborations are included in the support, all with a strong focus on sustainability.
http://m-ode.net/dev

ACCESSORIES REPORT: Poppy Lissiman
The Australian accessories designer Poppy Lissiman is another brand to embrace the skinny sunglasses trend. Passionate about future-oriented silhouettes and her visits to Art Basel, Lissiman creates retro-maximalist eccentric and colorful sunnies that have, since last year, become an Instagram force to be reckoned with. One of the label’s iconic styles, ‘Le Skinny’, is a sleek cat-eye acetate frame with lenses of a matching color that comes in a rainbow of pop-art hues, including mandarin orange, lilac, strawberry and pink. All products are handcrafted from ethically sourced materials and have a reasonable price point, usually retailing at under EUR 100.
https://poppylissiman.com

WeAr No. 59

NEXT GENERATION: BETHANY WILLIAMS
The young Brit showcased her final year collection in January 2016 – and just this February, Bethany Williams received the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design and was shortlisted for the LVMH Prize. A graduate of the London College of Fashion, Williams takes an extremely radical approach to design: she believes the future of high fashion lies in recycling and upcycling.

Williams tries to put sustainability at the heart of as many aspects of her streetwear collections as possible; her work is focused on tackling social, ethical and ecological issues. Each of her gender-neutral looks is produced using 100% recycled or sustainable materials. She employs homeless men and women, former female inmates and drug addicts to help turn organic cotton, discarded paper, recycled plastic and other waste materials into typical streetwear styles, such as wide-legged jeans, oversized shirts, boxy jackets and casual tops for both women and men.

Her latest collection for A/W 2019, ‘Adelaide House’, was produced in collaboration with a women’s shelter in Liverpool, which will receive 20% of the profits. Vivid primary colors in a patchwork design and patterns consisting of large handmade screen prints define the looks; the abstract graphics that feature are the work of artist Giorgia Chiarion. Hand-knitted pullovers made out of thick wool, jeans and jackets crafted from organic denim, tops cut out of recycled tents, handwoven coats made from colorful strips of waste newspaper: as the producers involved in the complex manufacturing process are paid a fair wage, T-shirts retail at around 200-400 EUR; a pair of jeans costs upward of 1,100 EUR. Bethany Williams’ styles are available at retailers such as Galeries Lafayette in Paris, Nid in Tokyo as well as online at Farfetch and odd92.
www.bethany-williams.com

This article is an extended version of the same which appears in the WeAr Magazine Denim Special, out June 2015.

Words: Monica Fossati

In the beginning, the denim and jeans industry was green, since pesticides and GMOs didn’t exist at that point. Nevertheless, producing green clothes has always been a fashion trend, for a brand, a designer, a niche or a season. Over the past 15 years, the denim and jeans industry has made significant efforts to reduce its environmental impacts. Preserving water for denim’s treatment has been one of the main targets. François Girbaud, who launched the stone wash technique in 1965, which consumes lots of water, answered the first one in 2003, with his laser technique Wattwash. Many other waterless initiatives have been born since then. This is due to the growing awareness of the need to answer to the warnings of NGOs and governments, because the issues are real threats today: pollution, depletion of resources and working conditions.

Producing eco-denim is not that difficult, as it relies mainly on the material, the dye, the water and energy consumption and the treatments. First, the material: as organic cotton is rare and original treatments are key trends for denim. So imagination and research have been able to bring about new materials recycles from water bottles, linen or paper yarns. Meanwhile, textile waste, recycled materials, natural fibers and artificial fibers such as Tencel mixed together can provide many possibilities for eco-fabrics.

Dye remains natural in authentic denim, as indigo is a plant. The best eco-dyestuff is recognized thanks to labels like OEKO-TEX from Germany, which indicates the additional benefits of tested safety for skin-friendly clothing and other textiles to interested end users. It approves that a product is harmless for the environment, but also healthier for the wearer. The eco-design approach also analyses the whole lifecycle of a product. That means the whole way of production, so aside from less-water technologies, sewage treatments awareness and renewable energy developments are taking place into mills in developing countries.

A major impact on climate is transportation, so local sourcing as much as possible and greener, slower and optimized distribution help to reduce CO2 emissions that affect our climate. Plus, thinking ahead to the garment’s ending, the easy disassembling of the materials (textiles, metals) has to be anticipated, therefore some brands use stitches instead of metal rivets, and so on.

The fabric itself can be eco-designed, for example Kassim Denim does so with an environmental management system. But a pair of jeans includes other stages of manufacturing; it is a complete ‘lifecycle’. Levi’s made the first eco-designed jeans in 2006, with a 100% organic cotton denim, a coconut shell button on the waist and stitches instead of rivets. The indigo finish came from potato starch, mimosa flower and Marseille soap. The best eco-jeans rely on the whole chain: the store contributes to the global impact of the product, and the wearer as well, with the washing and the choice of ending waste.

Producing the best eco-denim for the industry is a mixture of all these ideas, aiming to reduce all environmental impacts as much as possible. Today, most denim manufacturers – the first witnesses of the whole jeans’ lifecycle – propose very smart products, such as ISKO, BOSSA and US Denim Mills. The good news is that whether you are a designer, a wearer, a buyer, or a manufacturer, every time you touch a denim, you can participate to make it greener at this stage of its life, with your choices and behaviour.

Thomas Thompson

For years we were kept in the dark. The predicted return of multibrand stores in China never really came, but then, like most things over here, it happened almost overnight – and according to all the market players, we are looking at yet another bubble in the near future.

However, the long-awaited awakening is showing maybe even more potential than what could have been hoped for. “Only the stores with a strong marketing platform and a unique perspective on buying will survive,” predicts Ritchie Chan, Founder of Triple Major (three multibrand stores in Shanghai, Beijing, and Chengdu). Roy Xu, Founder and Chairman of the P+ Group (sixty P+ shoes and accessories multibrand stores; 200+ other multibrand and distributed brand stores), agrees: “it is an absolute necessity for multibrand stores to become brands in their own right, with a long-term vision and the ability to provide complete customer experiences.” But isn’t this what any brand wants?

The key difference between China and mature markets from the West is its fast-evolving consumer base. Unlike stores in Paris or London, which have a strong and stable identity, Chinese retailers constantly need to reinvent themselves to retain consumers. “In China, there is no mercy when it comes to loyalty,” continues Richie, who knows that the strong following he has built up since 2009 will disappear overnight if he is no longer perceived as their go-to fashion retail store. As a consequence, 30% of his range is new every season – and that’s an opportunity everyone can take advantage of.

The operator of ten different multibrand concepts, including Maria Luisa, which it purchased last year, P+ is in a position to push this logic even further. Pure product buying is not the most important part of its business model. Instead, the stores serve as brand incubators to create a customer following and, once potential has been detected, the group will invest heavily in developing a brand in China or Asia-Pacific, as they are doing right now with Neil Barrett.

At the other end of the spectrum, Ring Cao, Head Buyer for MyPlay (founded in 2010; twelve stores by the end of 2014), demands a lot of support from her brands. “The market is moving quickly, especially for men who are more and more fashion conscious but need guidance and lots of advice. There is huge demand for fresh brands with the right balance of design, quality, and price point, but the consumer also needs to be reassured that they are making the right choice.” This is why she will favor brands that are reactive in constantly providing PR and marketing material, and that can quickly deliver on a mid-season reorder. “The fact that more European brands now propose three to four collections a year is a huge plus for us, as it helps us retain consumers through constant novelty, especially in the growing segment that feels that fast fashion does not meet its needs in terms of guidance and shopping experience.”

In short, multibrand stores in China are progressively becoming the entry point that foreign brands always hoped they would be. Many will come and go, but by identifying the serious players, both small and medium-sized brands now have a perfect point of entry. That being said, getting orders in is just the first step, and providing guidance and marketing support to a range of buyers – ranging from very mature through to high-potential beginners – is key to long-term development.

Close monitoring of sales and customer feedback will be the cornerstone of successful market entry, whether directly managed or prepared in conjunction with these new-found partners.

Triple Major – Richie Chan, Founder

The 3 Triple Major stores (SH/BJ/CD) are just a window into the Triple Major platform, complemented and backed up by an in-house brand and a creative/branding studio and agency.

The core value and goal is to reinvent popular culture.

Triple Major aims at trying to broaden the definition of what a multibrand store can do, increasing value by organizing many events and non-apparel brand installations, live design studio events where VIP clients can watch designers at work, and redecorating and changing around the store layout and contents, and providing interesting concepts from the start (TCM dispensary concept in BJ, Center for Panda Studies in CD)

The fact that Triple Major host an in-house brand along with other designers is not an issue as its sole purpose is to complement the brand mix, focusing mostly on footwear and also trying to broaden the scope to compensate for the fact that some emerging designers that Triple Major supports only have very few SKUs per collection.
Unlike I.T., Triple Major is not doing the same but cheaper, the major differentiation is product type not price point. The lines are story-oriented and non-seasonal.

Triple Major has a different view of what a multibrand concept is supposed to be, and started its own path in 2009.

There is a feeling in the market that multibrand as a concept is going through a bubble, with little evaluation of viability and sustainability.

In Europe multibrands have existed for a very long time, but let’s look back also at how the Chinese market was back in the early 90s: it was also all small-scale multibrand stores, so the system has existed for a long time already – it’s the entry of major monobrands that changed the rules of the game.

There is a huge supply of independent designers in China, more than people are looking for and the market ready to absorb.

The whole system right now is prosperous on the surface, but one should expect a major reshuffle in about 2 years. Only those with a strong marketing platform and a unique perspective on buying will survive. This comment is also valid for designers who need to work in a more structured and sustainable way.

BUT there are still lots of good signals.

One of the key points of sustainability of “mature” markets is that the clientele is more static, with stable and predictable taste which enables the established multibrands to have a strong identity they can maintain without having to change too much or too quick. There is almost a certain conservatism when you go season after season to the key stores in Paris for example.
There are a couple big differences which characterize the China market:
– Unexpectability : even the consumers are lost and don’t know exactly what fits them, they sometimes might have a label of preference but barely (as a consequence there needs to be a few key opinion leaders for the model to become successful)
– Relatability : the consumers need to identify themselves to a store, to feel they will always find something that fits them there. It is indispensable to be distinct from others, to have a very personal, non-replicable style. A concern to the multibrand model as it is right now is that not so many people are aware of this critical requirement.

How about the United Arrows model in Japan?

There are a few obstacles and differences with China.

In Japan, a consumer follows a brand or given style pretty much from birth to grave, but in China they drop you the second you’re not cool anymore. “No mercy for loyalty”. This is why in Triple Major 30% of the buying focuses on new brands every season.

Uniqueness is key, cannot give a feeling of uniformizing everything and everyone. “Other people can dress like you but they will never be you”.

It is absolutely necessary to make your success abroad known and visible to the Chinese consumer. They will value this and see it as a safe sign they are making the right choice.

Take Opening Ceremony: they would need to take their successes in Tokyo, New York and replicate them here, taking their signature strengths as they are and localizing them just a little. They are for example very active on Facebook and Instagram, but these platforms are either blocked or not so followed in China so they need to switch the medium, but not the content.
Cool people like Jay-Z and Rihanna wear their clothes, they throw crazy warehouse parties as signature events — just need to do the same here!

Working with local KOLs that fit your style and using the media that the Chinese follow all the while staying true to yourself is the recipe for success.

As a buyer, Richie feels that browsing the internet can be even more efficient than going to trade shows to find new brands because the product is only a part of what a brand is. The shootings’ art direction, VI/CI are more ‘3D’, more complete in terms of branding compared to a clothing rack.

Regarding the delayed design and production cycles in China, 80% of the sales of most independent designers are still within their home market so more time is better to prepare and adjust a collection. The shift will happen but it will be gradual until they catch up on the cycles from the international market.
Uma Wang is a good example that this is possible as she is already showing in Milan although selling a lot in China. Designers will start pushing their processes and make sure that at least part of the collection is ready for international buying cycles.

P+ Group – Roy Xu, Chairman

Roy has been in the retail industry for 20 years, and started the P+ shoe multibrand chain in 2006, and then carried on to Maria Luisa last year, acquiring or creating a total of 10 multibrand concepts along the way.

P+ Group is getting ready to acquire a men’s multibrand concept, 6 to 7 of which are already planned to open from 600 to 1000sqm each. Also just signed with Bonini to bring the whole concept into China.

The true necessity to a successful market entry is the right knowledge and a strong platform to push the product through.

There is real potential and a great future for multibrands, but those who will truly succeed won’t be so numerous. Small local stores will come and go for lack of a long-term vision.

P+ is about to acquire a new format mobile APP in order to add value and points of contact with its customer base. A completely new model, different from VIP.com or Glamour Sales that will rely heavily on A-list celebrities endorsement.

There is an absolute necessity for multibrand stores to become real brands, with a strong follower base and all the marketing and PR support that a stand-alone brand would require.

Everybody keeps talking about O2O but the true meaning of this has never been implemented yet. The actual product part of the story is still disconnected from the rest.

Strength of multibrand concepts in Europe vs. mono-brand stores?

20 years ago, China was all about buyer stores. The first wave of established brands to come in (Pierre Cardin, etc.) started establishing a monobrand logic that didn’t exist until then, and that was consolidated by the massive entry of luxury brands.
In the past 2-3 years we have seen a return of the multibrand concept.
But at the end of the day, mono or multibrand is not so relevant, because we can see easily that P+ for example is a brand of itself. And at the same time is serves as an incubator: if a brand sells well its shoes in P+, and has a complete range of product, then this will call for a deeper collaboration and the opening of monobranded stores to capitalize on the brand’s potential. As a brand, opening one’s own stores is still an absolute necessity in China.

Maria Luisa is also a good example of how to implement a multibrand concept in a new way. Flagships in Beijing and Shanghai are opened already, with many more in the pipeline. But only with two stores in existence P+ Group already created a relative in-house brand called Maria Luisa Studio to better learn from the brand incubator that multibrand stores have become.

If you look closely at Lane Crawford, at the end of the day their success is not so big. The store is respected and selling well in Hong Kong, but overall the success of the model is still limited.
10 Corso Como in Shanghai is the same, but only relying on the content instead of capitalizing on the name for itself.

An in-house brand is an absolute necessity.

I.T. Already has 25 years history. Their business model of own in-house brands resembling a lot their buying brands can have an influence and be a problem for mid-market brands represented by them, whereas it is a huge opportunity for the bigger names: customers become hooked-up through the i.t. concept, and some of them will then turn into loyal I.T. clients.
When it comes to the A-list, people don’t want copies or something similar, they want the real product and full experience.
Overall, I.T. pushes the brands and solidifies the name, and i.t. makes the bulk of sales. i.t. will become a brand of itself and they are for sure getting ready for it.

The world is just one big interconnected network, at the end of the day even the biggest most famous brands also rely on smaller up-comers’ designs to feed their own collections with. People look down on China for this, but from New York to Paris everybody uses this development mode!

When P+ acquired Maria Luisa, the first move was to create the related in-house brand with its own dedicated design team in order to progressively create a brand with its own DNA.

Re/ Distribution and partner choices

Many many brands come knock at the door. The first step will be to run them through the buying and merchandising teams to evaluate the potential and relevance within the existing portfolio. Second step if the 1st one is successful, is to look into the possible operations modes and business model, and to run a detailed sales projection.
P+ as a group will not just buy products anymore, they will carefully select high-potential brands, and become real partners that will invest heavily in them.

Traditional distribution models have been dead in China for 5-6 years already, and P+ does not open the door to this model except for very rare exceptions like Neil Barrett, but in return will obtain the full APAC region instead of just China.

License opportunities are still big in China, P+ even has a whole team solely dedicated to licensing brands as an incubator. The M&A team is also very active, and helps better define the best fitting collaboration mode, from license to JV or full Asia representation.

MyPlay – Ring Cao, Head Buyer

How do you look for new brands?

Media and online platforms quite important to get double feedback.
Collaboration with showrooms also very deep in order to play on the safe side as you know them well already, and can rely on their designer choices.
Celebrity collaborations also important: celebrity friends like some brands and will tell MyPlay about them to help pushing the product.
Fashion weeks, international trade shows and personal travels are also a very important part of this in order to get a more direct, personal connection with the market. Trade shows are an interesting one-stop solution because they are curated and bring many brands under the same roof.

Price is very important when it comes to a new brand. The Chinese consumer is hungry for new things, but for them you need more than something that looks good: the balance between design, quality and price is key to the decision.

How to attract your attention as a new brand?

The brand support and reactivity is key to collaboration. Whenever something is needed must get immediate reaction and feedback.

Many European brands’ production cycles are very long, vs. a shorter and shorter cycle for many Asian brands which can deliver within 4 to 5 months from design to production delivery into the stores.

The market changes are very fast right now in China, so it is necessary to have partners and point of contact that are very quick and supportive.

Do you plan to make changes to your buying or make it evolve?

Most Euro brands only have 2 collections a year, but more and more will get out 3 to 4 collections. This helps a lot adjust the buying on a safer basis.

MyPlay’s background is very street and cool fashion style. But there are more and more male customers in MyPlay who request more brands that correspond to what they want. They don’t feel that fast-fashion brands can answer their needs and really want more options and support.

How do you see the future of the menswear segment in China?

The market is huge, and the demand is very high. High-level, rich or evolved guys will always find what they need. The focus has to be on slightly less complex men who have high needs in terms of support and advice. They don’t need very complex pieces, it’s a matter of finding basics with a twist that will make them feel both safe and fashionable at the same time.
The level of fashion understanding is increasing very quickly in China, so it is necessary to accompany their evolving.
They are beginning to have more and more precise requests and tastes, which is why it is important to stay close enough to them to be able to anticipate the needs.

Is the answer with local brands or international cool stuff?

Classic menswear is very strong in China, but fashionable, cool things are still mostly coming from abroad. It thus remains key to keep bringing in more and more brands that can answer these needs.

Any plans to create an own brand?

Thinking about it, but it is still too early. Need to gather more feedback and better understanding.

The market potential is very big, so this can be a way of attracting more purchasing power.

MyPlay would most likely create lifestyle brands – accessories, coffee shops, etc. – not necessarily apparel lines. The idea is to bring a more complete experience to the consumer and provide a more 360 degrees

If a brand is doing so good with you would you distribute?

This could be considered, but at this stage the focus goes on building up the MyPlay brand as itself in order to not jeopardize the original platform’s strength.
Need first to see which brand would be so strong that this could be justified but until now no candidate has emerged.

The way P+ operates is very safe because you first create a strong brand following before taking it one step further in its development.

The most successful brands in MyPlay are those that have been sold for the longest time like Boy London (UK), Glad News (JP), 5Preview , Ground Zero .

Eleven Paris still needs more time. It will be a specially promoted brand for 2015 hope the results will be good – for now going through Hong Kong to get product. The big attention Eleven gives to final consumer price by making the right steps in controlling the price for the consumer is very important and should yield good results in the longer term.

With Scoop International just around the corner, WeAr interviews the show's founder and director, Karen Radley, to find out about the next event.

Scoop Internation takes place in London's Saatchi Gallery from February 1st to 3rd 2015.

Q&A with Karen Radley, founder and director of Scoop

WeAr: What are you excited about for the next edition of Scoop?

KR: I'm excited about the show being a very busy one.  The collections showcased at the next Scoop are extremely strong from established designers but also we will be having a strong focus on emerging talent.

WeAr: Why should buyers visit the show, how does it stand out?

KR: Buyers should visit show because of the wide range of collections that Scoop offers.  As well as showcasing womenswear designer collections, Scoop offers footwear, accessories and apparel.  Scoop is a one stop shop for any buyer, but more importantly a wonderful experience to seek out new and upcoming designers.  It stands out from other shows due to the aesthetic of the show being held within an art gallery – The Saatchi Gallery.

WeAr: Is there anything new for this edition?

KR: For this season we have added extra space within the Saatchi Gallery to accommodate more exhibitors!

WeAr: Are there any brands you’re keeping your eye on as ones to watch?

KR: Cultuli Cult (scarves), Majo Lab, Mr.Mrs.Shirt, Schiesser Revival, Bobbl Hats, Rosso35, Amelie Allure, Empathie, Natalie & Alanna, Bruta Shirts…. I could go on, but there are too many to mention – thats why a visit to Scoop International is so important!

WeAr: Where should visitors go after the show in London?

KR: The Beaumont Hotel and the London Edition Hotel

WeAr: Finally, what can we expect from the newly added edition of Scoop in September?

From this summer onwards an exciting new concept will see  two Scoop shows taking place each season at the Saatchi Gallery. The popularity of Scoop has seen a profuse number of brands wanting to join the family and now with this year’s schedule extending to August and September with plans to host four shows a season, an even richer selection of designers will have the opportunity to exhibit in London.The timetable has been devised to cater for overseas labels and their production agendas as well as the high-end collections and young British designers who expressed an interest In Scoop running alongside London Fashion Week. The fact that Scoop London will be taking place during London Fashion Week will also make it easier for international buyers to come to the show, as many of the key stores from Europe, the US and further afield only make it to London once each season. The first edition of this new show, Scoop London, will run at the Saatchi Gallery this year on 20-22 September 2015. 

TROPICAL MOOD. PARADISE ON YOUR BACK
Distant worlds, dream worlds to wear: from Acapulco with its 1950s glamour to the Amalfi Coast
and its unforgettable shades of blue. On the beach, at the pool, in a boat or on a surfboard,
underwater or just floating – it’s beachwear, beachwear, and more beachwear. Prints will take
us to luxuriant places, to other latitudes closer to the sun we waited for during too-long winter.
Next summer, the contemporary man’s vacation wardrobe will be more sophisticated, reflecting
tastes that have evolved and are open to the new. Miami, with its unique energy, blue swimming
pools and lush tropical vegetation is at the center of the season’s imagery. Denim-look palm
trees and hibiscus blossoms are the patterns on unlined jackets and on shirts. It is a sunny look
that blends into natural tones and textures in collections pervaded by the relaxed mood of island
life. Tropical garden print shirts are made to be worn over sun-bleached pastel shorts or
distressed jeans embellished with embroideries or pictorial touches. But those jeans go just as
well with washed t-shirts and accessories with waves, green palms and raffia on the linings.
Bright shades of mandarin orange, blue and pink enliven “organic” shapes – corals, tropical fish
and geometric rocky landscapes on totally fresh swim shorts. The beach couture picks up on
crossover suggestions: from the early surfing repertoire to traditional African motifs all the way
to limited edition original photo prints.

URBAN TAILORING: SARTORIAL, TECH and SLIM FIT
The avant-garde man’s outfit interprets a passion for design in an unusual combination of
sportswear and new-generation tailoring: meticulous attention to cut and detail go hand-in-hand
with research on materials, and innovative textures embellished with digital prints. Slim fit urban
tailoring is meant for an elegant, cosmopolitan man: it uses tech-fabrics and deconstructs the
lines and proportions of classic menswear. And the contemporary dandy’s uniform? The tailored
jersey suit, the hand-sewn Neapolitan style shirt, and micro-patterned Bermudas in tech fabrics
– all meant to be worn with super-light fiber scarves and hats, crafted nappa and soft suede
slip-ons and leather-and-canvas espadrilles.

BAGS FOR THE ENDLESS SUMMER
Style, line and function come together in a harmony of fine materials and masterful
craftsmanship in collections of one day bags created to meet the needs of today’s
professionals. Ethnic hints for a new way of travelling: roomy bags combine leather, canvas,
and wood but with extremely clean lines making them as perfect for the city as they are for the
beach. Summer presents a world of accessories of no-compromise quality and timeless,
minimalist styling: fine craftsmanship, top quality hides such as Italian vacchetta and 100%
cotton canvas with the fewest possible metal fittings that would make them vulnerable to
weather. The favorite styles? The evergreen messenger and tote bags, the 24 hour bag, and
the increasingly trendy rucksack – all made to use all the time: from business meetings to the
gym to the weekend getaway.

THE OUTFIT FOR THE URBAN JUNGLE IS SPORTY-CHIC
The new metro look turns to sportswear, freely mixing heritage and tech materials, taking
sports-based elements out of context and using them together with urban wear classics. The
result is a sporty-chic DNA that generates items embellished with mesh details, bonded and
pierced fabrics, printed knits and high-tech, matelassé effect sweatshirts. The palette creates
fascinating contrasts on fabrics and in the prints: bold color blocking, floral patterns and pop
highlights. The raincoat is now perfect for all occasions and meets all needs: from the eskimo
with a protective hood to the short, high-performance vintage parka. Simple, squared lines,
inside pockets and plastic zippers stand out on fabrics that breathe. The season’s must-haves:
the water repellent, super-comfortable, thermal microfiber over jacket with ergonomic sleeves.
This is a world where jersey shorts are naturals for summer evenings, while shirts and jackets
with updated lines are made of stretch fabrics and enhanced with full-color graphics.

VOYAGE VOYAGE
Here is a wardrobe that evolves in its travels through the seasons: different weights, and
performance levels that can face any changes in weather. “Voyage” also means function and
comfort and we see it in clothes with utility details and stretch fabrics that are pleasing to the
touch. The docking point? A composite look suited to getting around in the city, with a new take
on sailing, or with biker-inspired items. In spring, windproof, water-resistant stretch fabrics take
the lead in field jackets, shirts, polos and pants, along with a contemporary traveller pack in
shape-memory fabric for blazers, coats and trench coats with functional pockets, while military
cotton is the preferred choice for pea coats and eskimo jackets. The summer turns the
spotlights on super-light fabrics like ottoman micro-cotton and a sophisticated look with lively
prints on everything – from field jackets to swim shorts.

INDIGO SHADES
Denim, in every possible shade and finish: from raw to sartorial to the environmentally
sustainable, from light wash to cold over-dyed, from check prints to monochrome floral patterns
on shirts and pants. This is true research and it extends to styles and combinations: cargo
pants, bermudas, capsule shirt collections all the way to the denim jacket – including the 5-
pocket version – making for a 100% denim look…and of course there is always stretch denim
and indigo fleece with novelty print details.

THE WORLD OF T-SHIRTS: DIGITAL PASSION
The kids on the streets of Tokyo and London with their apparently improved, exuberant look are
the inspiration for the item that dictates trends more than any other. Always more customized,
daring and colorful, the T-shirt is a whole generation’s ID. When it’s embellished with edgy
photo prints it speaks to a fashion-conscious allure, but it is also the vehicle for stories of
rebellion and artistic passions. As a manifesto of style, it blazes the path for excessive, amusing
and unpredictable looks as it mixes animal prints, geometric patterns and multicolor flowers,
rock graphics and extreme wash processes. In the eye of this perfect storm – the t-shirt with 3D
digital prints, underground icons and bright vitamin colors. And…t-shirts that speak to surfing
paradises, designed for dreaming of a summer oasis in the midst of a frenetic, always-rushing
city.

THE NEW GENTLEMAN’S DRESS CODE: WHISPERED ELEGANCE
Sartorial tradition plus innovation equals summer elegance for the new gentleman. Outfits that
are extraordinarily light in weight and feel, but also in tones and looks. Bold patterns move over
and make way for sophisticated simplicity in suits and jackets: mock-solids and barely
perceptible micro-patterns, elegant jacquard effects that become clear on a closer look just like
the subdued ton-sur-ton Prince of Wales and other checks. The cool, almost impalpable fabrics
are the result of long and meticulous studies. Soft, lightweight cotton-and-silk, cotton-and-linen,
and pure cotton are present in subtle, textured weaves or enhanced by soft, overall floral or
necktie prints on the outside, on the linings or under the collar. Knitted looks, with a vintage air
and very fine textures create soft, three-dimensional surface effects. Young and updated
double-breasted and two button jackets with wide lapels play leading roles. As for accessories,
the vest is an established must-have be it patterned or printed, contrasting with the jacket, it
enlivens the look and trims the silhouette combining practicality, comfort and sophistication.

BLUE IS THE NEW BLACK
The season’s undisputed star is blue and not just as the key to elegance. With its infinite range
of shades – especially bluette, electric blue and Mediterranean blue – it is the perfect solution
for formal and informal, for classic and sportswear, for ready-to-wear and accessories. Denims
from carbon paper blue to aviator tones bring “old” and “new” together in shirts for every
occasion – from casual to under a tuxedo. British heritage royal blue dresses up ties and light
summer scarves with a Real Ancient Madder printing. Indigo with white evokes the sea, on hats
inspired by the Amalfi Cost, on délavé tailor-made trousers or on swimwear with photographic
prints. And it’s still blue – ton sur ton on faux-solid vests, micro-prints and sophisticated jacquard
effects on very understated suits and jackets. Last but not least, there is navy – traditional and
central to summer – with an innovative twist of vertical and horizontal strips for a modern sailor
look with skinny pants, structured blazers, herringbone sweats and glasses with colored lenses.
Color blocking sets the pace for the season with shades of blue, from ultramarine to cobalt and
steel paired with acid yellow and asphalt black.

SUPER-CHIC SHOES WALK IN DESIGNER FOOTPRINTS
Classic footwear becomes über chic. On dress shoes, hand-buffing creates colors and nuances
on natural split cowhide uppers . Laser-cut patterns – holes, outlined flowers and swallowtails –
lend an exclusive touch when used alongside of stitching. Easy, yet bold lines, rounded toes
and two-tone combinations in warm colors for oxfords, derby boots and double-buckle shoes
punctuate summer for the contemporary gentleman with a touch of elegance for every occasion.
The slip-on is practically a single product, a total success in every possible version: from suede
to buffed crocodile, from mini-geometric natural cotton and raffia weaves, to calf and nappa
combinations all the way to calfskin with a waxed patina. Right there, next to bold blues, reds
and greens are shades that recall natures own colors: sage, dark brown and sand. The suedeand-
canvas combo informs the City Running project: light natural colors light up the upper over
a rubber bottom stock with leather inserts.

For three seasons now IMG has been organizing the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Istanbul. 

In a country where so many cultures, religions and histories get together it is not surprising that also the creativity in fashion is a given. Turkey excels since years now in its manufacturing, famous for its fine leatherworks and denim.  

It has been for many years a destination for European brands to manufacture their clothes and many Russian retailers constantly go to Turkey to buy their fashion as well as other Balkan states. 

So whilst Turkey is a relevant fashion destination it is still very passive on the international market and it is easily forgotten that there are very creative but most importantly sellable designers in Turkey. 

During Istanbul Fashion Week these designers showed their collections and whilst there is upwards potential in their brand building skills, the collections themselves seem very promising. 

Azur Kaprol, one of the most established couture designers who is established internationally anyway, presented her Fall/ Winter collection which included interesting prints, fine silk blouses with lots of refined details and not to forget amazing gowns which are breathtakingly beautiful and most importantly: extraordinary. Something which guarantees that a woman will be the only one in the room wearing it. 

Moreover, Utopian by Studio Kaprol showed its first collection consisting of mens- and womenswear. Young, rebellious and with lots of energy this collection wants to target the more commercial end-consumer. Very wearable designs partnered with affordable prices will make sure that this brand could be very successful in Europe but also the UK and the US. The brand is special in so far that it is designed by a team of 14 young designers not only from the field of fashion design but also architecture, music and film. 

Most to look out for is its denim collection, which is backed by Denimvillage. This will ensure the quality of the product as well as a strong partner behind the collection. 

A young designers, fresh out of university which seemed very promising was Ece Gözen very talented in prints but also showed shirts and dresses with architectonical details. 

Nihan Peker produced elegant clothing mostly colored in old-rosé with elegant over the knee skirts and dresses.

Other designers which are to-watch are DB Berdan,Özlem Ahiakin for womenswear and Özem Kaya as well as Hakan Akkaya for menswear and Simay Bülbül who works a lot with leather. 

NOVOMANIA, THE TRADESHOW WHICH BRINGS INTERNATIONAL FASHION TO CHINA, HAD ITS START TODAY.
READ THIS INTERVIEW WITH GUILHERME FARIA, GENERAL MANAGER OF NOVOMANIA, CONDUCTED ON THE SHOW NOT ONLY TO GET AN IDEA ABOUT THE SHOW BUT ABOUT SHANGHAI AND ITS FASHION SCENE IN GENERAL.

(for store addresses, scroll down)

In no other industry are old things so in-demand at the moment as they are in fashion.

Shamin Vogel

Designers draw their inspiration from vintage, savvy fashionistas set trends, and people use them to define their identities. Vintage can be ordered at fashion trade shows and there are websites devoted entirely to buying and selling second-hand treasures. Brands experience a revival when their once forgotten garments are worn again, and the best fashion stores today offer both current fashion and beautiful vintage pieces.

What is it about vintage that makes it so desirable? Maxfield in Los Angeles is probably one of the most successful stores worldwide when it comes to selling expensive vintage designer clothing and accessories. Luxury vintage pieces fill the impeccably curated concept store along with a selection of coveted contemporary designers. The store uncovers some of the most spectacular rare finds, like old Hermès suitcases and Chanel bags, and it is not uncommon for the pieces to go for upwards of 20,000 dollars. Deidre Wheaton and Sarah Stewart of Maxfield shed some light on the phenomenon: “They are pieces reflecting original ideas, special and reflective of the particular time period. Vintage uses fabrics, prints and techniques that may no longer be in production.” For Jeff Rudes, the CEO of US label J Brand, vintage sparks the creative process and can determine the direction of a collection for the season. Also aboard the vintage bandwagon is Luc Bierme, the manager of Who’s Next Paris, which includes a vintage market at each of the shows. He believes that it is important to give buyers the option of selling vintage. For a customer, it’s about finding that one special piece just for you. The huge variety of timeless pieces passed down from generation to generation serves as a source of inspiration for everyone.

Many retailers already combine vintage with the latest fashion and have found the approach to be very successful. According to Bierme, “These days everything in a multi-brand boutique must be for sale, even the decorations and furniture. Clients seek out these unique pieces as much as they seek out an accessory or a ready-to-wear piece.” A clothing store that also sells vintage presents customers with a contrasting point of view and helps them create a more individual look. The world’s first-ever vintage department store Blitz in London agrees. In general, reports David McKelvey, there’s a heavy demand for vintage concessions right now. The massive three-story space, with an in-store café, sells on-trend vintage fashion alongside home furnishings, books, records and accessories. Everything is organized by style and everything is for sale. But the last thing you think of upon entering is a thrift shop. Maxfield buyers Wheaton and Steward also emphasize that it’s not only the luxury quality of an old vintage gem, but also the familiarity of the designer that sells.

www.maxfieldla.com

www.blitzlondon.co.uk

Vintage Store Tips: 

besides Maxfield Los Angeles and Blitz in London, our experts gave us the following stores to go to find the best vintage:

Kili Watch
64 rue Tiquetonne
75002 Paris
Open Mon 2-7pm; Tue-Sat 11am-7pm

http://espacekiliwatch.fr

Hippy Market

has various stores throughout Paris, check here: www.hippy-market.fr/boutiques/

Kilo Shop

also has various shops throughout Paris, check here: http://kilo-shop.fr/boutiques

Most important is at:
125 Bld St Germain
75006 Paris
Open Sun,Mon: 1:30pm-8:15pm, Tue,Wed: 11:30am-8:15pm, Thu, Fri,Sat: 11:30am, 8:45pm

Episode

has various stores throughout Europe, check here: www.episode.eu

Most recommended is at:

Waterlooplein 1
1011 NV Amsterdam
Open Mon-Sun: 10am-6pm
Resurrection
has stores in New York and Los Angeles, check here:
http://www.resurrectionvintage.com/index.php?contact

Decades
8214 Melrose Avenue
90046 Los Angeles
Open Mon-Sat: 11am-6pm, Su: 12pm-5pm
www.decadesinc.com

One of a Kind
259 Portobello Road
Notting Hill W11 1LR, London
Open Mon-Sun:10am-6pm
www.1kind.co.uk/