Virtual Showrooms & Sustainable Fashion Choices
This post was first published on April 13, 2020.
With the current Fashion Industry in the desperate need for a reshape, sustainable and innovative solutions like virtual showrooms are becoming true statements. In a previous article, I wrote more about digital strategy in general. In this post, I wanted to focus on virtual showrooms and their impact on sustainability and innovation in the Fashion Industry.
Sustainability - Is Going Back To “Normality” Even An Option?
Even after seeing RiverBlue and The True Cost years ago, I was somewhat shocked to find out the fashion industry pollutes the planet more than international flights and maritime shipping combined. Take a moment. Read this phrase again. Destructure it. Now read it again. In that light, is it farfetch to think that a return to normality is unthinkable?
In an industry where you can miss a whole shipment because of the lack of one 80 cent zipper, what will happen to supply chains if Chinese factories go on lockdowns? By the way, retailers can apparently refuse to pay if they don’t receive the order from a designer’s collection in x amount of days. Is taking a step back from globalisation and one towards localisation the new innovative model for the fashion supply chain?
In a NowFashion article, a group of Tokyo-based designers recently provided valuable insight. Ayano Ichige from NONTokyo feels that value itself is “gradually being re-evaluated through sustainable action”. Costume designer Satoshi Ogawa from ForSomeone believes that a type of crisis like this will happen again near the future. Their aim is to rebuild their business model “in a way it can survive such an emergency situation.”
The Boom Of Virtual Showrooms & Runways
A few weeks back, I listened to a Business of Fashion podcast with Doug Stephens and Imran Amed around how the current situation is likely to affect consumer behaviour. According to Stephens, a “brush with mortality” situation has spiked sales in the past, changing the way consumers shop. A truly delicate subject, especially when putting the terms “brush with mortality” and “shopping” in the same sentence. Many tried-and-true marketing techniques that have worked in the past and paved the way now come off as tone-deaf. But as Derek Gleason stated in CXL:
“An article on growth and marketing in the middle of a crisis—the current one or any other—can seem tone deaf. But nothing gets better if we stand still.”
From an analysis of a Harvard Business Review Study, he surveys what has been done in the past to survive and thrive after a crisis. As it turns out, a post-crisis era strategy is just as important once you’ve survived - but this could be a subject of another article perhaps.
Now back to the current situation and how innovation has been born out of chaos ...When searching for content for this post innovation wise, it’s no wonder most of the articles I stumbled upon revolved around the Asian market. Shanghai Fashion Week and Tmall (B2C) decided to organise a fully digital and livestreamed fashion week. Even though my Instagram feed is full of stories from the same shows by different influencers, I agree that they basically altered the very core of around which fashion weeks revolve - a physical space.
Meimei Ding, co-founder of DFO, the 360-degree market development group, stated that the rise of online showroom popularity dates back to the pre-crisis era. After that, they had tested out online streaming during Paris Fashion Week (sidenote: I guess this is the fine blurry line between pre-crisis and crisis era). Client interest more than doubled when compared to the previous season - SS20.
In less than two weeks, the Italian brand Pinko managed to organise a “See Now Buy Now” runway show during Shanghai Fashion Week with 25 looks and a virtual backdrop. As a brand that values experimentation and innovation, this seemed more than logical. With the awareness of young Chinese customers, a brand stepping up its online tactics is more than necessary.
“The garments were designed with confident and determined modern women in mind – those who were “ready to take life always by the horns, even in difficult times like these.
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Outside of China, Tokyo based designer Mari Odaka mentioned the ease of presenting a show via livestream, which she finds to be a refreshing alternative plan, providing an ability to carefully focus on what they wanted to express on the runway show. She adds that a fashion film could also be a good way of expressing what cannot be explored live. She definitely wants to explore more methods of announcing a new collection according to each season’s theme.
One more example from Tokyo is Meanswhile designer Naohiro Fujisaki. He believes that the fashion industry had already reached a point in which change was needed - even before the crisis. Their goal is to provide a showroom-like environment in which they can accurately represent their brand instead of just selling. They ultimately want to eliminate their dependence on dealers which would allow them to better serve the customer.
The growth in online presence could pose a threat to emerging designers. Enter Labelhood - a retailer focusing specifically on young Chinese brands that are very likely to struggle. From livestreams and sharing digital assets with buyers. When talking about prioritisation, medium-sized companies are also the ones in which the future of fashion is seen. According to Michael Halpern, the pro-medium sized brands argument is also the fact that a medium size company is not small enough to shut down completely, yet they don’t have “mountains of cash stocked up” to weather the storm til the end.
Even though this video premiered in May 2019, could this be a part of the revolution featuring virtual showrooms & new sustainable fashion choices?
This post was first published on April 13, 2020.