Or should I say how it's still changing? Fashion industry used to be one of those industries that never actually changed. Many things inside of it did of course, like trends, designers, fabrics and with the new digital era marketing but esetntialy it was a closed environment of shows during fashion weeks, models who wore them, buyers that bought collections for stores (online and real ones) and people who attended the shows (honestly this last category was the most changeable one). In the last couple of years there were couple of areas that were criticized, mainly the issue of how unsustainable the whole industry has become. Sure, there were some brands that had some sustainable lines still most people thought of them as a bandaid or even cleaver markething that didn't change much in the real world.
This year though everything changed and now we are looking into the future of fashion we've never seen before. First to go in the events of pandemic were the fashion weeks. Many people argued that it was the Milan fashion week that jumped the epidemic in Italy at the beginning of the Spring and although this might not be completely true it's for sure the last OG fashion week we've had. Since then things were going in the couple of interesting directions, with some deciding to still keep their fashion shows in some form (in the open and/or with distancing) while others opted for online shows. One thing is for sure, we won't be seeing regular fashion weeks with all designers participating for a while.
The other change came spontaneously and had to do with sustainability. Since we've all seen photos and videos of nature recovering during lockdown and inspired by the urges for eco friendly fashion I mentioned before, vintage and second hand clothes is becoming more popular. My word of wisdom here would be that the most sustainable clothes is the one that you already have. So go through your clothes before buying new clothes.
Recently websites like TheRealReal provided some insight on what they have been selling the most during pandemic and one category of products is interesting, it's more expensive goods like bags, jewelry and watches. The sales of these increased since March and there are couple of explanations why, one of them is that people have the need to invest in pieces they can later resell. It's no secret that certain designer bags have more investment value than real estate (meaning that their price remains the same or even increases at a higher rate than the price of real estate). Watches especially have increased in demand during the pandemic as well as jewelry. Other explanation is that with travel plans postponed and vacations canceled there's more disposable income to spend on higher priced items.
Another category of items that became popular is, of course, comfortable clothes and homeware like blankets and pillows. This is an obvious turn of events, everybody has been spending a lot of time at home so naturally we all felt the need to give a glow up to our home outfits. For the people who never really finished decorating their homes it was an opportunity to do so now. I replaced my living room and bedroom curtains and planted the flowers of my balcony during quarantine.
And finally one change we all expected, shopping was done mostly online during lockdown so most brands expect that to continue even when this pandemic is over. Although I am a fan of online shopping, the older I get the more I like to try things on before being them. So I guess nothing can really replace being clothes in real life and trying them on, but when there's no other choice I will settle for online shopping sprees.
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