An interview with 3 professionals
The first half of 2020 marks a significant change for fashion as well as for the world. The Covid-19 episode brought many changes to the practices and organization of the fashion industry, extremely dependent on a globalized system. It remains to be seen whether these changes imposed by the crisis will be lasting, and whether the will to change, of industry players and consumers, will continue or fade. In any case, it appears that these last few months have brought to light an urgent need for transformations. It was until then underlying but with no real coordinated and global responses. Today, it is this urgency, added to a global awareness of the sector, which allows professionals to think and act for the fashion of tomorrow, to work for a reconstruction and rethink their mission. At the end of the confinement in France, we interviewed a few professionals who revealed to us the perspectives and challenges they see for the future of fashion.
The Covid-19 had the effect of overturning a good number of certainties, both in the lives of individuals and in those of businesses. A professional from the cosmetics sector with whom we spoke sees this episode as a key moment in the awareness of companies: “These last months have certainly been key for our industry, crucial for both business and image. On the one hand, we had to speed up the digitalization of our distribution and ensure our B2B customers that we were going to be able to support them in their own business during containment and reopening. On the other hand, we faced a real communication challenge: how to respect the consumer as a person who lives and feels, more than as a person who lives and consumes. Finally, we are probably witnessing a new way of consuming beauty: segments that were previously undervalued or underperforming (such as body care, cleaning, etc.) are becoming more important at a time when consumers want to both sanitize their environment and take care of it. We also realized that this industry had become, in recent years, far too dependent on a single region (in this case Asia) and that what had been until now a source of growth, could overnight become a source of instability.”
While the Covid-19 episode profoundly changed the directions taken by companies, the way of working has also been turned upside down. The overall containment of the population has obviously slowed down consumption and the factories have either closed their doors or temporarily converted their production lines to answer to the needs raised by the health crisis (masks, smocks, etc.). The fashion weeks have been cancelled or partially digitized, as have all of the trade shows. Fashion schools have closed to manage distance education, as have businesses that have switched to telework for the jobs that have been maintained. Sophie Abriat, freelance fashion journalist, shows us the extent of the reconfiguration of her work. If in her organization as a freelancer she was already used to teleworking, the content of the subjects treated were strongly reoriented : “During confinement, a sorting took place quickly between ‘essential things’ and ‘non-essential things’, and fashion, a subject deemed futile, was of course classified in the second category. I’m glad I wrote a story about the importance of fashion and beauty during confinement with historical reminders. Because fashion, despite its reputation, is far from futile. And this crisis was also an opportunity to recall the economic weight of the sector – often overlooked – and the millions of jobs (many today at risk) that it creates. Very quickly subjects emerged: how are young creators coping with the crisis? How do fashion school students envision the future in the industry? What happens to production companies used to organizing multi-million euro shows?"
During our interviews, two points emerged as key points for tomorrow's fashion. Two areas of focus that fashion can no longer ignore and which will transform both the ways of producing and consuming: technology and sustainable development, one ultimately serving the other to meet common objectives.
For cosmetics as for fashion, the challenges linked to technology are numerous. Our interlocutor from the cosmetics sector sees it as “a pervasive presence at all levels, with e-commerce on the front line. We often talk about O + O (online + offline), this famous multi-channel model which offers a seamless experience between the digital point of sale and the physical point of sale, but this episode has shown us that it is necessary at all costs that e-commerce can be independent. This does not call into question the coherence and complementarity between the two spaces.” He also underlines the need for “accurate online diagnostics. It’s a challenge we’ve had for several years now, and some brands have taken it on very well. We need to be able to diagnose a consumer's needs in a clear, precise and realistic manner from a distance, without it being too complicated for them. This is particularly true today as augmented reality and very beautiful solutions exist, but they remain very expensive and difficult to implement for smaller brands.” Finally, he draws attention to the essential nature of “testing products before purchase in a context where the customer cannot move. Again, augmented reality allows us to test make-up products, but it is the testing of care products that we have to crack (namely when the levers are texture, sensoriality and fragrance). It is actually a digital and logistical challenge. We can already set up sampling campaigns before purchase at certain e-retailers (ex: I order my free sample on Nocibé) but it is, to my knowledge, still little used.”
Thinking and making fashion from ubiquitous technology also means facing obstacles. Our interviewee indicates in particular some points of vigilance and risk zones to keep in mind: “For brands that have physical outlets, the risk is that experience in these places be relegated to the background. Obviously, the acceleration of digital goes beyond the Covid episode, and the share of purchases made online increases each year, but we know that the physical place remains a real lever of experience (if not of purchase). This risk is actually inherent with the growth of online transactions: everything is developed for “digital first” use and retail must reinvent itself to reuse these assets. This is actually counterproductive because the interaction between the customer and the image / product is not the same online and in store.”
As for sustainable development, there is no shortage of challenges and a need for inventiveness either. For Sophie Abriat, this involves “ensuring that the concept of ‘care’ increasingly used in brand communication is confirmed in deeds. How to re-humanize a fashion that speaks of ‘care’ in its marketing discourse, but which has lost its meaning?” Also, “the economic crisis, an inevitable corollary of this health crisis, invites us to create less but better. Sustainable development should no longer be a marketing argument but an obligation.” On this emerging notion of “obligation”, we can see how the “raison d’être” of fashion is taking a turn. There is call for the establishment of new business practices and, beyond, the imposition of a new vision for the sector.
Sabine Le Chatelier Saunier (independent design consultant & creative advisor) brings her enlightened view to the challenge of reorganizing the textile sector. A reorganization that it is important to question, in our opinion, on different scales. On the national scale, the challenge is that of “Holding out in the short term!” To do this “the enhancement of know-how and the proximity dimension are concepts that are understood and increasingly valued, but the lack of qualified labor and suitable professional training is a definite obstacle and poses a problem on the long term”. Today, therefore, it seems that massive reindustrialization on a national scale is difficult. For Sabine Le Chatelier Saunier, questioning a reorganization on a European scale turns out to be “more and more important and interesting”. For the consultant, “the coming months and years will be crucial. In this sense, European policies, European environmental standards will be decisive. Europe should be the leading geographical area for the future segment: qualitative, sustainable and general public products, social policies respectful of people, proximity which allows to keep a real human contact with the production.” But again, there are plenty of obstacles and challenges. Sabine Le Chatelier Saunier notably underlines for Europe the existence of “many challenges: poverty, inequalities and migration management”. Finally, on a global scale, the question of reorganization also arises, with the place of the large areas of current production and consumption, and those to come. Everyone's place is put into question, Asia, Africa, Middle East, North America, South America, Europe, every time with social, economic and environmental challenges.
Finally, for Sabine Le Chatelier Saunier, in this context of a globalized world, “the real challenge is: how to remain open to each other? Culturally speaking. This is a very complicated equation to solve because globalization, travel, tourism have brought this opening. The temptation to withdraw is to be combated, so we are on the razor's edge when it comes to relocations for example...” An equation that fashion and the world must face today.
