Profit Blog
Although every designer’s dream is to create a business with striking pieces, new fashion breakthroughs and have top celebrity icons showcase their work, none of this would be possible without Money. This weeks Fashion pillar is based on profit, the main goal for any company, whether fashion or not to enable the measure of success.
It’s difficult to say exactly the scale of the fashion industry based on the number of people not just in Europe but around the world, due to everyone being involved in fashion from the moment they purchase an item of clothing. However, if we look at it based on profit we are faced with striking statistics. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the fashion industry global revenue was estimated between $1.7 trillion and $2.5 trillion (McKinsey,2019) although then dropped hugely with most of the company’s profit coming from loungewear. As a result, sectors such as footwear or formal clothes which were not being purchased, declined due to lockdowns. In 2022, due to inflation rates and issues with supply chains the revenue of apparel in the UK was estimated to be just under 58.5 billion British pounds, but is projected to recover, eventually reaching 75 billion British pounds by 2026. (Smith, 2023)
Profit and how successful a brand is doing, especially in the modern day is down to how well the marketing of brands is done, and a lot is due to social media. However, to put the money into the branding for all the ‘crazy’ and latest trends, the profit must be coming from the classic and more original pieces. For example, Nike is a brand who targets all ages and Naomi Klein, 1999 quotes ‘We’ve come around to saying that Nike is a marketing-orientated company, and the product is our most important marketing tool’. (De Castro, 2021). According to the state of fashion ‘Casualwear, followed by sportswear and sneakers, are the highest-ranking categories
in terms of where executives see the greatest growth potential.’ Factors such as trade wars and access to raw materials can obstruct supply chains, across all the fashion sectors. (Mitterfellner,2023).
All companies will go through rocky phases especially in uncertain economic times however it is how they come back from it which is important for them not to drop of the market completely. YSL is a prime example. At the time there was little knowledge about consumers of tomorrow and that is why according to (Kapferer, 2008) it is essential to prevent ageing to avoid the decline of a brand’. They ended up building a multi-channel customer relationship, becoming the top 10 most mentioned companies on twitter, and placed in vogue magazines, (Cabigiosu,2020) all of which got them back on top.
How do we bridge the gap between creativity and commerce?
Elbaz was a luxury designer who stated that designers “start with dreams” and then became “creative directors” (Dacre,2015). In the fashion industry it is the role of the creative director who is essentially the one who balances money with creativity. Their main roles being Lead fashion designer, Brand visionary, Manager of multiple teams and brand Ambassador. (Mitterfellner,2023).
Refrences
Mitterfellner, Olga. Luxury Fashion Brand Management, 2023
The state of Fashion, 2023
UAL Powerpoint, De Castro, 2021