December is here and with it the balance sheets for the year, the resolutions for the next and the suffocating feeling that everything has to be done before the calendar shows the 31st. You feel it, the fashion industry too. This week Lyst released its Year in Fashion report, based on online searches from 200 million users.
Miu Miu (-Prada company) is the brand of the year, which shows that no matter how imitable a style is, the original will always prevail; Loewe’s logo has been the most searched for in the last twelve months, which proves how well Jonathan Anderson, its creative director, manages the balance between the avant-garde and the commercial; and the Adidas Samba sneakers, the most desired footwear, evidence that regardless of how many new things we see every day we always end up wanting to wear what others are wearing.
Business of Fashion has also shared its annual report in collaboration with McKinsey
The conclusions? Nobody knows what is going to happen, and since nobody knows what is going to happen, the majority hopes to find answers in what they do not know: artificial intelligence. This technology may or may not be the solution to many of the industry’s problems, but the interest it arouses is certainly an opportunity for all those people who want to work in it.
The 23rd – a year in which China has grown more slowly than expected, in which the Israel-Hamas war has complicated consumption in the Middle East and in which consumer spending intentions on clothing have fallen by 16% in all markets -, says goodbye without meeting sales expectations and with a forecast increase of between 2 and 4% in the 24th.
How to get people to stores in this uncertain landscape? Bershka, which has an advantage because it has an innovation center, is committed to the emotional bond with its (young) consumer and social purchasing. In addition to having an on-demand collection of garments that “unblock” Instagram filters, the Inditex group firm has inaugurated this week a digital fitting room in its store on Preciados Street in Madrid in which the user can experiment with reality technology increased.
It is crucial that at the point of sale the customer has experiences, Dimas Gimeno, former president of El Corte Inglés and current executive president of Wow Concept, also knows this, which has just added a second location to the one on Gran Vía 18 at Serrano 52 in the building that El Corte Inglés occupied in the past. With this seven-story space, which moves away from the idea of ??the traditional department store due to its offer (on the ground floor there is an ephemeral selection of brands, so that at Wow there will always be the brands of the moment as long as they are the brands of the moment) , its layout (it blurs the line that divides the departments) and its decoration (it aims to end the disorientation effect of the visitor by allowing the outside to be seen from the inside) tries to attract a different customer from that of Gran Vía: the tourist who includes on his visit to the Salamanca neighborhood and who, therefore, is more willing to spend.
Back to The State of Fashion 2024 report: sustainability is a concern for the industry, but not because it is doing some soul-searching. Extreme weather events resulting from climate change are affecting supply chains (factories that disappear, production that does not arrive, etc.) and could put $65 billion in clothing exports at risk in 2030.
At a billion more, by the way, the value of one of the least sustainable fashion companies in the world, Shein, is estimated, which this week was the subject of comment when it was made public in the Fashion Accountability Report of the Re/Make organization that Savage X Fenty, Rihanna’s lingerie brand, is below Shein in its ranking of ethical practices. More discussed has been the beginning of the procedures to go public in the United States of the Chinese company based in Singapore founded by Sky Xu, which for the moment is keeping secret the placement prospectus that could reveal its great mysteries: sales volume and geographical distribution of them, profitability, salary of their workers…
Farfetch could disappear from the New York Stock Exchange, whose creator José Neves believes he has found in privatization the remedy to the erratic evolution of the price of its shares since they went public in 2018. On Tuesday, when they deflated to a minimum of $1.63, the company announced that it would not make its results public at an event planned for the following day: “Farfetch Limited, the leading global platform for the luxury fashion industry, will not announce its financial results for the third quarter of 2023 , and will not hold its linked conference call, previously scheduled for Wednesday, November 29, 2023” in a statement that also noted that “it will not provide any forecast or guidance at this time” and that “any forecast should no longer be relied upon or previous orientation.”
What cannot be trusted is the materialization of the two-stage sale agreement that had been reached in August with the Richemont group (owner of Cartier, Chloé and Montblanc, among others), by which the latter would be freed from the burden that Yoox Net-A-Porter assumes and the first would become the absolute leader of an online luxury retailer that for some reason is not profitable.
The end of the year also seems like a good time to reorganize, although according to Reuters information, Gucci design employees did not like the Kering group’s decision to transfer 153 of its 219 workers from Rome to Milan, the city where it develops. most of its operations. The firm has suffered the first strike in its 102-year history, a four-hour stoppage of activity that included banners that read “Gucci cuts, but does not sew.” Just because the 31st is near doesn’t mean there isn’t time to experience new things.
