Will the fashion industry change forever?

Fashion is one of the largest industries in the world, also the second most polluting according to the UN, and it is obviously affected by pandemic like the rest of the global industries. Fashion faces not only economic problems, but it has seen the need to reevaluate its production processes and even the calendar of the seasons in which brands launch new collections.

Javier Goyeneche, founder of Ecoalf, a Spanish sustainable clothing brand, proposes to change sales strategies in the sector. In an open letter he announces the rejection of massive discounts and encourages modifying the fashion calendar to avoid fast fashion.

The Spanish businessman is not alone, since one of the most emblematic designers and pioneers of Italian fashion has also declared that he will modify the production cycles of his brand, Armani. "We are evaluating the omission or reduction of pre-fall collections" which are exhibited before autumn, he said in the interview he gave to the US media WWD, where he declares: "there is definitely a lot of offer in proportion to the real needs" while assuring his collections will be reduced in their samples from now on.

Goyeneche and Armani agree on the final point of their declarations: united, we will succeed. While the Italian designer assures that "we have to stay together and operate in unison, perhaps this is the most important lesson we can learn from this crisis", the Spanish designer reflects that "we must work for a planet beyond the following season "

Also read: Marcos Mundstock highlights with Les Luthiers

New strategies in Latin America

Just as fashion weeks are celebrated in Milan, Paris, New York and London, Mexico City is in charge of bringing together different Latin designers, in the midst of confinement, to showcase their proposals for this year's autumn-winter season and social distancing is not an impediment.

Since April 24, the Mexican fashion week took place virtually through their social networks and YouTube channel, with different and creative formats, the collections can be viewed digitally for the first time.

“It is not a matter of money, but of turning a crisis into a creative opportunity. Necessity shapes strategy, ” says Cory Crespo, who is an important part of organizing the first week of digital fashion.

The event was open to the public and the audiovisual content was prerecorded and included celebrities and some locations in Mexico City; some brands even decided to adopt a reggaeton music video style.

Crespo confessed to the Nueva Mujer website that "there are designers who are parading their own clothes at home because they were locked up with their collection," she revealed that the biggest challenge designers faced was finding solutions within confinement.

The new format also included the participation of a chef's cooking class, a live DJ party and a stand-up comedy. All the content is available in what the Mexican fashion week calls its "new headquarters": YouTube. Thus, fashion weeks do not go out of style so quickly, as they are documented beyond the dates they take place and the public can attend whenever they want.

Will this event be the first of many? Will fashion weeks return to what we have seen in the last 20 years? How will consumption affect them? Although they are questions that still have no answer, the start of the future of fashion shows that creativity, as always, will be an important element for the industry.