Fashion-less
Too Much of Everything Calls for a System Reboot
Fashion month is my favourite time of the season. Particularly Milano and Paris, they just do it better. It’s the ‘work perk’, considering debt inducing wages, long hours, and the ever exhausting battle of appeasing financial backers over visionnaire kreativ. In a time of too much everything, justifying productions that use so much resource means taking a hard look at the non essentials.
When social media exploded fashion magazines were scrambling to advise designers whilst trying to follow and understand the ‘new system’. Ironically the whole point of Mr. Condé Nast’s desire to own Vogue, Vanity Fair and the lot was in fact to lead society in the way they should go, not the latter.
We’re over producing, running our resources and teams ragged. Innovation appears low on the priority list as we continue to comply with countless ‘rules’ and regulations that restrict our writing, photo editorial and web content creation to whoever has the most Benjamins. The 1950s Creative Revolution system was built on advertising money and it was genius at the time. Since then, much has changed. An age of intelligence that lacks confidence in forward thinking over fear of loosing their jobs.
Let’s make collections smaller, let’s produce less. If every person was paid a debt free living wage, bought 20 items a season, plus accessories, parfum, cosmetics and skincare products, brands would still do well. A society that’s paid properly isn’t living to chase more money because what they have isn’t enough. They have enough. Happier, thus more willing to spend on the unnecessary items we promote.
The fact that pre-collections of 40+ exits still exist with runway shows is ridiculous. The ‘rules’ and calendar schedules are our creation. Are we incapable of innovation in pursuit of living better? Is this not the luxury industry that feeds into a fossil fuel fast fashion industry contributing billions to global economy and carbon emission climate disruption? We’re not rocket scientists, but there is a lot of money involved, a lot of people underpaid and a lot of waste created, so shouldn’t we expect more from ourselves?
Why not present the “pre-collections” in a re-see after the shows? Why pressure designers to over work? Speed eventually dismantles quality. Knowing brand mark ups are much higher than actual cost; do we need a 200% mark up or would a 75% mark up continue to afford your CEO’s yacht club expenses?
In France one man in luxury fashion owns a third of a country’s wealth. In New York City the cost of living debt free would require a minimum monthly net salary of 10k. The average industry worker’s pay check is a net 2500$ divided in two instalments.
I fail to see the urgency for 60 piece collections required to show and produce at rapid pace. Is the average consumer demand really so high that we need to over produce, over spend, over travel and over stress? All things opposite of sustainability.
Why not make runway inclusive to the people that work in our industry? Professionals who’s job depends on an up close look and understanding of the collections. To the design teams, editors and buyers. Not to be defined as ‘hierarchy’ because if you’re not a lawyer you wouldn’t be invited to a law convention. Would you then still feel the need to call them out on exclusivity? Does it really make a difference anymore inviting celebrities to fashion shows post instagram? How can you measure true worth via an exclusive idol figure seen all over the internet more times a day than anyone productively has time for?
Whenever we get to a post Corona world. We must remind ourselves of history. Like many post war time examples, eventually things start to move again. This is our chance at a post greed revolution within our creative culture leading industry. As editors I’d like to challenge us all to jump on the innovation train and direct consumerism into its next generation of consciousness. Influencing culture with humanitarian artistic motive. No longer condoning a capitalistic maximalist.
Tell a kid not to eat out of the cookie jar and they’re going to think about those cookies all day until finally devouring every last crumb. We know this works. Ages oldest marketing trick. Saying something is no longer available will promote interest. We can’t possibly still think inviting more people than the show space allows, creating chaos at the entrance is the best way? Aren’t these PR’s extra young and fresh millennials? Can we think of nothing new? What if the shows weren’t live and accessible to every person with an opinion? No more can we allow the consumer to fully dictate the business. It’s not sustainable. They’re not in it. They couldn’t possibly know everything that’s entailed. Nor should they have to. I don’t pretend to know just as much as my gynecologist when I go for a check up.
Again, how then do we measure value? At the expense of ourselves, it’s as if we’ve willingly turned on the pressure button. At some point we’ve all got to be tired of being sick and tired of the mess we’ve created.
It’s time to innovate. To reinvent. Recreate. It’s time to give back to our planet and ourselves. Integrity has to come before everything else. Success is inevitable, so let’s create jobs and environments that are logically conscious to each set of persons involved in the system. Considering the current global pandemic, Mother Nature has spoken. It’s time to reinvent.
