Coronavirus VS Fashion
London, United Kingdom
The impact of the Corona Virus on British fashion cannot be underestimated. The British Fashion Council has predicted that half of the entire industry could cease to exist by the end of 2020, whilst 35% of young and upcoming designers will be unable to continue their businesses past the summer. Beyond the designers seamstresses, pattern cutters, stylists and the myriad other freelancers who depend upon the fashion industry for work are suffering, particularly those who don’t qualify for government PAYE schemes. Young designers in particular are struggling. Many have unsold stock, excess material and overheads like studio rent which they are unable to afford. The lack of demand for clothes brought about by the crisis has left them unable to produce new collections and robbed them of income they need to survive. The shift to more e-commerce is also problematic for new designers as most online fashion marketplaces are inaccessible to new fashion companies and heavily geared towards established brands. Moreover, the cancellation or postponement of the entire late spring/early summer slate of fashion shows, expos and events has affected not only the designers scheduled to show at them but also freelancers (set designers, make up artists, models etc.) whose business rely on them to survive.
But it is not just young designers and small businesses being hit, the collapse in demand for new clothes has left circa £10 billion worth of high street fashion piling up in warehouses in the UK. This in turn has meant that major firms including Primark and Arcadia have stopped taking new deliveries as they have simply run out of space to hold it all. Meanwhile, McKinsey have predicted fashion sales to fall by 30% in 2020 with a 40% drop in the luxury market. They also predict that if stores remain shut for two months, 80% of fashion companies listed in Europe and North America will be in financial distress. This has also knocked investor confidence which has seen the market value of fashion companies drop by almost 30% in the first quarter of 2020. This collapse in the western fashion industry is not just being felt in the west as retailers have cancelled £1.4 billion worth of orders and suspended an additional £1 billion in Bangladesh alone, according to date from the Bangladeshi and Garment Exporters Association, £1.3 billion of which were already in production or had been completed. This has led to more than a quarter of the country's 4 million garment workers losing their jobs. India has also been hit as overseas buyers have either canceled or postponed confirmed orders leading to 65% of apparel exporters payments amounting to $2 billion being stuck with foreign buyers, according to the Apparel Export Promotion council.
“The British Fashion Council has meanwhile launched a coronavirus crisis fund worth £1,000,000 to help fashion businesses’ struggling during the crisis”
In all the doom and gloom it is important to note that whilst Corona’s impact on fashion has been almost cataclysmic, many fashion brands have stepped up to help the effort to defeat it. Burberry is making protective gowns for NHS workers, LVMH has repurposed its fragrance factories to make 12 tonnes of hand sanitiser for 39 French Hospitals and is obtaining 40 million medical-grade face masks to distribute to French health authorities. Prada is producing 80,000 overalls and 110,000 face masks for Italian medical personnel. Christian Soriano has turned his factory house into a mask factory solely for medical staff. The H&M Group is rearranging its supply chain to produce protective equipment for hospitals and healthcare professionals. Gucci has pledged to produce more than a million face masks and Zara has pledged to donate and distribute 2 million face masks across Spain. Meanwhile, Nike is beginning to produce and distribute face shields and lenses for air-purifying respirators across hospitals in Oregon and Ralph Lauren has donated $10 million to corona related causes. The British Fashion Council has meanwhile launched a coronavirus crisis fund worth £1,000,000 to help fashion businesses’ struggling during the crisis. For once fashion, much maligned for its lack of social consciousness, is stepping up and rising to the challenge of the day.
By Samson Royston, April 2020
