Fashion: how the industry is dealing with the COVID-19 crisis<

Decrease in clothing expenses, production and limited distribution circuits, Fashion Weeks canceled, etc.: fashion is hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.Approaching the deconfination, many uncertainties remain for the sector.The crisis imposes on its actors a large -scale reorganization and leads them to imagine solutions which in depth transform many aspects and practices of the “fashion system”.

The crisis is cut in several times, notes Lucien Pagès, founder of the eponymous press office and reference of the sector.First, the shock of the announcement of confinement, with the closure of physical shops, and fashion and luxury brands to stop urgently campaigns and events.“In a few days everything was turned upside down.My priority was to make sure to protect the teams and the company, and to organize us to support our customers who needed information and advice, ”he recalls.“In a crisis situation, you have to learn to communicate step by step.Messages are built day by day and ask to be empathy and pragmatism. ”

Once the amazement has passed, the challenge for fashion brands is to reassess their actions and rethink their communication with an audience particularly attentive to these speeches.Waiting for them to show their responsibility in times of crisis, the public celebrates those - which act to respond to health and social emergencies.

“The crisis returns marks to their raison d'être.It acts as a revealer by way they have translated their values into commitments ”, analyzes Lucien Pagès.Those who have failed to clarify their usefulness to the public could be more difficult to bounce back after crisis.

Emergence of new relationships between brands and their communities on digital

With the explosion of time spent online, the crisis leads brands to develop their digital interactions and rethink their content to maintain their link with their communities.In fact, the pandemic has strengthened the weight of digital influence strategies, although their approaches, focused on values rather than commercial, are necessarily different in times of health crisis.With a strong growth engagement on social media -up +61% according to Kantar -, influencers have seen their role evolve with fashion and luxury brands but have not lost all utility, despite the fallsponsored posts.

“Some had predicted the disappearance of influencers.For the moment, this is not the case.Directly connected to their communities, those who have a real audience and who have been able to rotate have gone from a product placement role to that of promoting values.Faced with the difficulties of brands in producing content during this period, they offer them access to quality content to engage their audience in these uncertain times, ”says Lucien Pagès.

This is confirmed by a tagwalk survey - fashion search engine - carried out during the month of April with 58,000 subscribers on Instagram.Despite the upheavals induced by the pandemic, influencers remain important to connect fashion brands to their audience.The investigation also stresses that authenticity is at the heart of the feeling of confidence of subscribers.The ability of an influencer to embody a reality and human values by his profession or his passions arouses more confidence than the size of his network.And 74% of respondents claim to favor micro influencers to those with a large number of subscribers.

On social networks, the context of crisis gives birth to new forms of conversation between brands and their communities. Previously devolved to the positioning of products, these platforms become collaboration spaces where fashion brands share their know-how and encourage creativity, strengthen the feeling of belonging to their community: Webinars, cooking lessons, parties and digital evenings , and stylistic challenges, ... To engage their audience, fashion brands take risks that they might not have taken before. Some thus transform social networks into virtual co-creation spaces. Like the collective "New Utopias" formed by five independent creators who bring together their communities around a stylistic competition. Or the Coperni brand, which, after having offered its subscribers to make masks to redistribute them, offers them to imagine a digital version of IT BAG.

Digital transformation also affects certain major fashion events that reinvent themselves in virtual format and open up to a large audience.Thus, the #Metgalachallenge launched by Vogue and singer Billy Porter, invited Internet users to recreate one of the outfits of this emblematic event, postponed due to pandemic.On Twitter, young enthusiasts have organized their own independently, entirely virtual and accessible to all (@Hfmetgala).

Faced with the impossibility of the teams to move, the houses are also open to new ways to operate to carry out their campaigns.Digital platforms become places of creation, as with Simon Porte Jacquemus whose spring-burning campaign representing Bella Hadid and Barbie Ferreira was carried out by photographing these muses at their home thanks to FaceTime.

I Once Had to YouTube How To Start A Weed Whacker and It Still Took Me About 20 minutes 😭 https://t.co/cm1xittumt

— Simply TC Wed May 27 10:50:51 +0000 2020

The calendar and the format of fashion weekends questioned

Still, the main impact of the pandemic for the sector is the organization of Fashion Weeks.Following the cancellation of those in June, and that of September in suspense, should we expect the calendar and the format of the parades to be sustainably upset?

Completely digital fashion feeks have emerged, like that of Shanghai in March, which brought together 150 creators and brands for a presentation broadcast in Livestream on Tmall, the Ali Baba e-commerce platform.In London, the British Fashion Council has chosen to organize a only digital fashion week merging the men and women's collections on the same platform.Similar devices are implemented in other countries, such as in Italy, where Ermenegildo Zegna's Spring/Summer Parade will consist of a "phygital" Livestream presentation broadcast thanks to CGI technology.

Could these digital alternatives impose themselves as the new format of presentation of the parades?For Lucien Pagès, in this area "digital experience is only valid if it is as physical.The interest caused by a parade is not only due to the collection but also to all that surrounds the presentation.People want to know what's going on at the Row Front, behind the scenes, who are models, hairdressers, stylists ... The part of theatricalization and the role of the public are important ”.

In addition to the format of the parades, it is also the timetable for Fashion Weeks, already controversial before the pandemic, which is questioned.Several large voices in industry, such as Giorgio Armani, have called to slow down.In France, Saint Laurent made a more radical decision by announcing to withdraw from the fashion weekly calendar to follow his own agenda.Justified by the current situation, this decision was also motivated by the wish of the house to "control its periodicity and legitimize the value of time, at its own pace, while favoring the relationship to people and their daily lives".

Orientations which, according to the Tagwalk survey, correspond to the expectations of the fashion public.91% of the panel judges that the pace should be slowed down by merging men and women parades and limiting the calendar to two fashion weeks per year.And for 80% of respondents, young creators should not organize parades and present their collections in other formats.

“We were in a frantic pace, with an overproduction in everything and a crazy race for communication.Does the crisis point out that you have to do less and better? ”Questions Lucien Pages.While noting that new models are permanently established in industry if they are adopted by all major players.The attempt- abandoned since- by a few houses in 2016 to impose the model NOW, BUY NOW- consisting in making the parts available in stores when they were presented- illustrates the difficulty of unilaterally imposing new standards on the industry.

“The crisis serves as a trend accelerator.When you are later, it will be interesting to see if the current behaviors will be installed over time.It is likely that industry will experience deep transformations.Many uncertainties remain however and it is too early to draw up perspectives.It is also up to us that it is up to drawing the future "advances Lucien Pagès.

If there are questions remain unanswered, a certainty is essential: with the adoption of new practices and lifestyles via technology during containment, the fashion industry saw its digital maturity strongly progress in a few weeks onmany markets.To which all of his ecosystem must prepare.

<<< À lire également : Comment La Crise Consacre Le Modèle De L’Abonnement >>>