Tamsin Howells

The fashion industry is renowned for embracing new trends with the latest cuts, prints and styles to gain profit from customers. Although the fashion industry is one of the largest industries in the world. In 2022, the size of the fashion industry was estimated to be just under £58.5 billion. Shockingly, this is less than 2021, but the industry is predicted to reach over £75 billion by 2026. 

The luxury sector is currently expected to outperform the remaining sectors in the fashion industry. (Statista, 2023) In 2023, it amounts to 111.5 billion US dollars, forecasted to grow annually by 3.39%. This growth will continue to thrive as those with high disposable income will not be impacted by economic uncertainty, as customers are the target consumer group of the luxury sector. 

During uncertain economic times, brands have remained competitive by engaging with consumers through social media. (Hethorn J & Ulasewicz, 2015) Fast fashion brands like Zara and H&M have millions of followers on social media, where they post numerous times a day to communicate with customers. Followers are continuously bombarded with posts of new products as a strategic method to encourage them to buy more. By constantly seeing these posts, we are influenced into purchasing recent trends rather than the clothing we need. The purchasing of the products is also made easily accessible as we can now click the image to buy the product. 

The role of a creative director consists of advising designers on collection concepts and guiding the brand’s aesthetic vision. (Mitterfellner, O, 2023) Creative directors can bridge the gap between creativity and commerce by ensuring new collections generate enough revenue, which is how success is measured. If the brand’s success reports do not impress, the design will be exchanged for a new one. The creative director is responsible for having an artistic vision and designing collections from Haute Couture to pret-a-porter for several collections per year with very tight deadlines. In the 1980’s, there were up to two collections per year, but in 2020, 32 collections are now considered the norm. Collections must impress and be suitable for the catwalk to generate press and publicity.

References:

Hethorn, J., & Ulasewicz, C. (eds). (2015). Sustainable Fashion: What’s Next? A Conversation about Issues, Practices and Possibilities. New York: Bloomsbury

e-book: https://libsearch.arts.ac.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac- detail.plbiblionumber=1161923&query_desc=

Mitterfellner, O. (2023) Luxury Fashion Brand Management and sustainability: Unifying fashion with sustainability. New York: Routledge.

e-book: https://libsearch.arts.ac.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac- detail.pl?biblionumber=1546849&query_desc=kw%2Cwrdl%3A%20Mitterfellner

When referring to the fashion industry “People” are an important factor. This refers to different consumer groups within society such as those from different age brackets and people with different preferences. 

One consumer group that is frequently spoken about within the industry is Gen Z. This consumer group consists of 25.9% of the population with those that are born from 1995-2010. Their consumption patterns consist of garments with individuality and a sense of uniqueness. 

For a brand to attract Gen Z, (Francis & Hoefel, 2018) consumption should be looked at with a matter of ethical concern. Gen Z are known to be well educated about the companies they are purchasing from, if a brand is advertising diversity but fails to show this within their ranks it doesn’t go unnoticed. However, Gen Z is tolerant of brands when mistakes are made if an effort is made to correct them. (Moran G, 2022) 46.8% of Gen Z have claimed they have abandoned a purchase that did not align with their values, and 47.4% of Gen Z state they are willing to pay more for sustainable and ethically made garments in contrast to 40.7% in 2021. This shows that sustainability is an important factor to this generation as consumers are buying from brands who are trading ethically and are communicating this transparently with their customers. 

Victoria’s Secret has responded to its lack of diversity by rebranding its entire company to sit within society’s standards. Their goal is to change the company’s image and values by removing the traditional Victoria’s Secret angels and presenting more diverse models to be inclusive. The Victoria’s Secret World Tour 2023 showed these changes as the brand took a step away from the traditional fashion show by bringing in models of different sizes, races, gender expression and those with disabilities. 

For a fashion business to be successful, various people skills are required. Recently, fashion businesses have been looking for those who have technology skills from a fashion background as 90% of fashion executives have projected a skills shortage in their businesses. (Stolzoff, 2018) The five key people skills expected to be required in the industry are digital skills, programming skills, working with tools and techniques, technology skills and critical thinking. These skills will help fashion businesses to become more successful if they are to widen their workforce with a variety of skills the business can expand. This will lead to new ideas and a more diverse workforce.

References

The A to Z on gen Z (2023) McKinsey & Company. 

Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured- insights/themes/the-a-to-z-on-gen-z

Francis, T. and Hoefel, F., 2018. True Gen’: Generation Z and its implications for companies. McKinsey & Company, 12.

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/true-gen- generation-z-and-its-implications-for-companies

In relation to the fashion industry, the impact on the planet is an important factor. The fashion industry is one of the most harmful industries on the planet contributing to world pollution and climate change. 

The circular economy aim to tackle climate change and a variety of global challenges such as, biodiversity loss, waste and pollution. They achieve this by decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources. This is beneficial to the planet as reusing and recycling products would slow down the use of natural resources and the reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions, which will lead to the fashion industry having less of an impact on climate change in the future. Sustainability in relation to the fashion industry is the way in which brands create garments in an ethical way, this includes the process in which garments are made and the impact this will have on the environment, also the working conditions of the workers who are producing the clothing. 

(Gwilt, Alison 2016) mentions in the ‘Practical guide to sustainable fashion’ that information about the environmental and social impacts of fashion garments can be revealed by mapping the inputs and outputs in the life cycle of a garment. However, the accuracy of this information depends on whether the suppliers respond to questions truthfully and provide accurate data. 

Currently, the United Nations have 17 Sustainable Development Goals, these goals have been brought in as a universal call to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that everyone enjoys peace and prosperity. I believe that Responsible Consumption and Production is one of the Sustainable Development Goals with the most impact on the fashion industry. This is due to the fact that companies are overproducing garments in order to meet the demand of consumers. As a result of frequent evolving trends, fast fashion is bought and rarely worn due to trends changing at a rapid pace and will often end up in landfills.

One of the main factors of the fashion industry being one of the most wasteful industries on the planet is due to over production. (McKinsey & Company, 2018), state that clothing production has doubled between 2000 and 2014, this continues to rise each year. In New York it is estimated that 40% of all items produced by the sector are sold at markdown price, by tackling this level of overproduction the fashion industry could reduce carbon emissions by 158 million tonnes a year. It is also currently estimated that New Yorkers throw 200,000,000lbs of clothing into waste each year. This is the equivalent to 440 statues of Liberty. These statistics alone highlight how much waste is caused from the fashion industry each year. Furthermore, in Hong Kong 53% of 1000 people polled in Hong Kong revealed that they owned clothes that were still tagged, compared with 51% in mainland China, 46% in Italy, 41% in Germany and 40% in Taiwan. This continues to emphasise how severe over consumption within the fashion industry is as many people are purchasing clothing they do not need and likely end up not wearing. 

Reference List

Francis, T. and Hoefel, F., 2018. True Gen’: Generation Z and its implications for companies. McKinsey & Company, 12.

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/themes/the-a-to-z-on-gen-z

Gwilt, A. (2020). A Practical Guide to Sustainable Fashion. London: Fairchild Books. 

e-book: https://libsearch.arts.ac.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=1452042&query_desc=