It’s needless to say that the global pandemic has left many industries stagnant and crippled. Amongst the hardest-hit industries is the fashion sector. The world has come to an unimaginable halt and while that may not be looked at as a blessing, surely the abundance of time that came along with it is a blessing in disguise. Utilising that blessing are some of the biggest names in the fashion industry that are striving to make a change. A change that will slowly but surely benefit the corona-free world. Taking into account the effect of fashion on planet earth, many luxury giants have now shifted to a rather better fashion calendar. Namely Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, and Emporio Armani. The latest to join that list is Michael Kors.
The American fashion designer is of the opinion that the seasonal fashion calendar is exhaustive and needed an urgent change. He said
It’s exciting for me to see the open dialogue within the fashion community about the calendar—from Giorgio Armani to Dries Van Noten to Gucci to YSL to major retailers around the globe—about ways in which we can slow down the process and improve the way we work. We’ve all had time to reflect and analyze things, and I think many agree that it’s time for a new approach for a new era.
Michael Kors will no longer be showcasing four times a year. It will drop only two collections every year—Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. The brand will also not present at New York Fashion Week in September this year. However, with the Spring/Summer 2021 line in progress, the luxury giant will showcase that collection in mid-October and mid-November.
In a series of astonishing news, the brand also announced on how they plan on dropping the collections in their stores. Depending on the consumer shopping behaviour, the deliveries will be done in an incremental way so as to not inundate the consumer with options.
It is imperative that we give the consumer time to absorb the fall deliveries, which will just be arriving in September, and not confuse them with an overabundance of additional ideas, new seasons, products and images,
The designer says that it only makes sense to drop collections at the time of their consumption because we live in the age of social media and everything is consumed and forgotten quickly.
Prior to the late 1990s, the New York Spring collections were shown from late October to the beginning of November, after the Paris collections. That calendar was in place for many decades and worked quite smoothly, and particularly in this age with the speed of social media, showing the collection closer to when it will be delivered makes logical sense to me.
Additionally, the brand has also announced that it will first be selling their products to retailers before revealing it to the public. According to Kors, this will give the supply chain enough time to produce accessories and clothing.
What are your thoughts on this? Let me know in the comments below!
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