The reasons for the decline of the traditional fashion system have been found. In fact, this fashion system has existed since the emergence of high-definition fashion, that is, the fashion system with the concept of seasonal change has declined for a century and a half, and it has become very obvious from insignificant to now. The appearance of high-end ready-to-wear has been proved to be influenced by uselessness, but it has nothing to do with fashion, and is the product of division of labor under specific historical conditions.
Recently, the early autumn and early spring series, which contributes two-thirds of the total sales of the brand every year, is unstoppable, and seems to have affected the traditional fashion show twice a year. Let's take a look at the fashion invasion of fast fashion brands. 20 14 years, fast fashion brand Zara's revenue exceeded13.2 billion pounds, h&; M is 65.438+0.35 billion pounds, compared with 6.7 billion pounds of luxury brand Louis Vuitton.
In any case, from the perspective of earning wealth, there is indeed a problem in today's fashion industry. Let's take a look at the fashion industry that has been bleak in the past five years due to the departure of designers, mental breakdown and suicide. The death of Lee alexander mcqueen in February 20 10 and the resignation of john galliano in February 2010 have attracted great attention, but a series of serious earthquakes have followed, including Louis Vuitton, jil sander, Rosa and Balenciaga. The candidates for creative directors of Gucci, Lanvin, Donna Karan, Dior and Balenciaga have also changed this year.
The replacement of fashion rulers is nothing new, but now the replacement rate has indeed reached an alarming level. Previously, the sudden departure of Dior artistic director raf simons and Lanvin creative director alber elbaz in 10 was listed as one of the biggest fashion events of the year, which even described the speed of industry alternation contemptuously.
Last year 10, raf simons talked about christian dior's strong demand for huge machinery, and how he hired two creative teams to take charge of three of the six series that the brand displayed every year, even though some products were not included, and shuttled between the two teams to find some inspiration. It can be seen that it seems that every designer will inevitably encounter such a threshold of creative fatigue in the end, even though most media believe that their departure is due to personal reasons or differences with the company. The contradiction between business machines and creative design talents is constantly emerging. Can the fashion industry continue to develop healthily? This is really a big question mark.
Alber elbaz finished his curtain call show. A week later, he was interviewed by the media and patted the tape recorder and said helplessly, "We don't listen, we record." He then lamented the current fashion rhythm and people's dependence on digital technology. Last year, alber elbaz even said, "Will we become an entertainment industry?"
It is foolish to condemn an industry's efforts from aesthetic taste to actual out-of-season degradation. However, the layoffs in the past 12 months can also highlight the essence of fashion. In other words, fast fashion is no longer just a profit model, but also affects attitudes at all levels of the fashion industry.
Therefore, New York Fashion Week will challenge a fashion system with a "buy and wear" label, which can be updated and displayed all day. Thakoon is reorganizing its business and was acquired by the family of fashion tycoon Cao Qifeng in 65438+February last year; Rebecca Minkoff will present her 20 16 spring/summer collection in February, usually the autumn/winter collection, so that her customers can buy it immediately. Burbeery and Moschino also made some changes to let customers buy the clothes displayed at the fashion show immediately. Jean Monnier, head of luxury retailer MonnierFreres, said that 75% of Moschino's products and main accessories will be put on the shelves immediately after its release.
Diane von Furstenberg, president of American Fashion Designers Association, expressed her views on the popular seasonal design arrangement: "Some places are wrong. Everything needs to start again. " Rebecca Mincov, a designer, recently questioned the value of fashion shows. She believes that the works displayed in the fashion show will not reach the store until four to six months later. By that time, consumers have lost interest in styles, because they have seen too much on celebrities and social media, and they will not buy these goods again.
However, in the face of such great changes, can the acceleration of clothing supply really make them better or more worth looking forward to? Is the fashion world so obsessed with speed part of the problem rather than the solution? Mention Louis Vuitton as H & ampM at H& time and own Zara, La&; A series of high street brands such as Bear, MassimoDutti, Bershka and Inditex are also relatively new topics.
In fact, the former will face the challenge of the latter. Some retailers are now cutting their product lines to increase sales and avoid more products being copied by high street brands. Bruno pavlovsky, President of Chanel Fashion Department, said, "For us, this is six collections a year. Every two months is a new series for us. " Speaking of his customers, Dior CEO SidneyToledano added, "They always expect new things."
Paradoxically, however, when Michael Burke, CEO of Louis Vuitton, was interviewed by the media on the cliff side of Palm Springs in the holiday series LV 20 16 in May this year, he revealed a completely different view: unless you are a fashionista, the company will update its fashion brand every three or six months, which is a very tiring thing.
There is no doubt that the whole industry is confused, including designers and fashion journalists who pay attention to them. When the brand advocates luxury, breaks away from fashion, strives to create eternal but unpredictable things, and meets the needs of all consumers for new things, the great driving force of everything is fission.
However, fashion is first and foremost a business, and the combination of trade and innovation is a crucial factor. At present, this balance has been broken, which is also the fundamental problem of today's fashion industry. Designers are no longer regarded as people, but as machines that produce clothes, ideas and quotations; And the machine must be easy to open and close.
Raf simons called his resignation from Dior a heartless step, but others thought it was a lack of overall control. His authority is limited to women's wear, so he doesn't have to worry about shop design, advertising and huge beauty business. It is reported that alber elbaz had a conflict with Wang Xiaolan, the boss of Lanvin. After he was fired, he made a sharp personal statement, expressing the hope that Lanvin would "find the corporate vision he needed". According to AlberElbaz's friends, earlier, alber elbaz became increasingly dissatisfied with the management's decision.
I don't know whether 20 15 will be a disastrous year in the history of contemporary fashion, or just a precursor to a series of events. Although there are some mistakes in high fashion nowadays, the bubble has existed for a long time under the shiny surface, and it will be broken sooner or later in the last decade. Designers are no longer happy, retailers are restless, they no longer trust the clothes they buy, the international market is turbulent, and the fluctuation of brand profit and loss is equally worrying.
What remedial measures are there? I don't know. But what is certain is that we don't have to produce more clothes for the saturated market, and speeding up the fashion update is not necessarily the solution, although it can be regarded as a novel concept to fight against "consumption fatigue".
But what about the designer's fatigue? Or is it the fashion fatigue caused by clothes in the store, images on the screen, magazines and everything? Or maybe all of us, including designers, clients and journalists, may be tired of being stuffed with so many things at once? Maybe it's like a handbag with rough workmanship but sold out. Before this damn industry collapses, we all need some breathing space at this time.