At the beginning of March, while Paris Fashion Week had just started, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) issued a document (see this link) that questions the status quo of the American market and examines the future of New York Fashion Week, an event that traditionally opens the season of global fashion events.
Unfortunately, the document doesn't highlight that fashion has got to change because creativity and originality are draining (even though it mentions designer creative burnout as a key challenge of the current fashion system), but mentions evolutions in technology, consumer behaviors and the role of retail as the main reasons for the transformations the industry is currently going through.
The document closes with no definitive solutions, since different fashion houses will apply different models: some will go for the "see now, buy now, wear now" approach, others will instead keep on following the usual schedule, showcasing a collection and making it available six months later.
In a nutshell, the future of fashion looks a bit like walking around on a very foggy day – imagine wondering around Brighton beach on a cold early morning and you get an idea – without being able to see the horizon.
Talking about Brighton, today I will be at the local university to speak to the fashion students and summarise for them the latest developments in the fashion industry, while attempting to suggest them ideas to escape some of the traps they may encounter in their careers.
I won't be alone, though, but PhD candidate Alessandro Esculapio will enlighten us about identity and a designer's genetic code, touching upon different approaches from Martin Margiela and Yohji Yamamoto to Slow and Steady Wins the Race and Minna Palmqvist.
Neither Mr Esculapio nor I are tarot readers, so we may not have the final and definitive answer to the future of the fashion industry, but maybe Zoltar at Brighton Pier may have clearer ideas than the CFDA – we'll check!
With many thanks to Lilia Yip, Fashion Designer and Senior Lecturer in Fashion at the School of Art, Design and Media, University of Brighton, for inviting me.
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