We're Back! So What Did We Miss?
Hello and welcome to the 35th issue of moderated, a newsletter created to dive into insights and phenomenons of the Fashion Industry. It also has a curation and summary of the most talked about last week’s events of the industry, offering further readings for more details.
If you are new here, welcome! I hope I can somehow help you to keep up with the fast-paced Fashion Industry.
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We’re Back!
Happy New Year moderators! As this newsletter is a one-person thing, I gave myself a short vacation, mainly because my access to the internet was limited for a while, but also because after this year we all needed a break from the madness. But here I am back in this New Year that we all hope will be a bit better for our injured fashion industry.
Since I was away for a while, this week I am bringing you a summary of everything that happened in December and during the first week of January, and then, next week, we are back with the articles. So let’s go because the fashion industry finished 2020 with the same intensity it had during the whole year - and we have a lot to look into.
So What Did We Miss?
The Fashion Legend Pierre Cardin Passed at 98
2020 took from us great designers such as Kenzo Takada and Kansai Yamamoto. At the very end of the year, another fashion legend passed. The visionary designer Pierre Cardin died on the 29 December in Neuilly-sur-Seine, just outside Paris. Cardin was 98 years old and had a career that lasted more than three-quarters of a century. Cardin once said:
“Fashion is not enough, I don’t want to be just a designer.”
And he wasn’t. Cardin was a pioneer of the fashion industry. He wore the elites and famous, but he also was an avant-garde on licensing of product accessible to the general public. He had his name in luxurious dresses, fragrances, automobiles, towels, and even pickle jars. He turned around the traditional Parisian couture by successfully introducing fashion to the masses with ready-to-wear collections. During the late 50s, Cardin was already an international name. He brought his designs to Moscow, Tokyo, and Beijing, doing more to expand his brand around the globe than any other designer at the time. At the peak of his career, Pierre Cardin had around 800 licensees in more than 140 countries on five continents.
Cardin, who had a futurist touch to his pieces, became known for shaping fashion’s Space Age, which bloomed during the early 60s. He was even invited by NASA to design his own version of the spacesuit. Pierre Cardin is definitely a name that will be remembered by the fashion industry, from the clothes to the pickles jars.
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US Suspended Planned Tariffs on French Luxury Goods
Last year, the US threatened to impose tariffs of 25% on French luxury goods in retaliation to France’s 3% tax on certain revenue from big technology companies. The US understood the French tax unfairly targeted its businesses and announced the tariffs on luxury as an answer. However, US importers and retailers criticised this measure, stating it was protecting one industry at the expense of the other and hurting US consumers. Also, there are increasing demands from other countries for giant tech companies to pay more taxes. Thus, the US government suspended the planned tariffs on French luxury goods that suppose to start taking effect on the 6 of January.
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China Almost Doubled Its Overall Share of the Global Luxury Goods Market in 2020
According to Bain & Co and Tmall, the Chinese luxury market is believed to have grown 48% this year, reaching 346 billion yuan (US$53 billion). This growth, in contrast with the 23% shrinking of the sector globally, made China’s share of the global luxury spending go from 11% in 2019 to 20% in 2020. There are many reasons why China managed to double this data, but some of them are the reported contingency of the virus in the country (avoiding lockdowns) and the advanced e-commerce culture and infrastructure China has.
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Bottega Veneta Left Social Media
On the 5th of January, the Italian luxury brand Bottega Veneta deleted its accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The decision came after the exclusive presentation Bottega Veneta had in December for its Spring 2021 collection. The event called “Salon 01 London” had a guest list featuring only high-profile celebrities. Fashion relies heavily on social media, especially during a pandemic that is highlighting the importance of online presence. That is why the Italian brand’s decision of quitting social media and going against the norm of becoming more digital was so commented.
But hear me out - Bottega Veneta was for most of its existence considered quiet luxury. The Italian label never cast celebrities for its campaigns, nor uses logos, being only recognized by those who know its design codes. However, during the last year or so, Bottega Veneta became the fashionista’s favourite label and could be seen everywhere. Being the hype brand is good for a while, but as fast as things go up, they can come down, people can get tired of seeing it too much. Could the decision of leaving social media be a way to slow down the hype of the brand, so Bottega Veneta does not loose its discrete luxury status? Let’s see…
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Fur Prices Skyrocketing As Mink Cull Faces Shortage
Denmark’s coronavirus stream from minks had a large impact on the fur market. After the new strain of the coronavirus was identified in mink farms around the country, the government decided to cull more than 17 million minks in an attempt to stop the virus from spreading. However, as Denmark was the world’s largest producer of mink fur, the fur industry started to face a shortage of the material. Due to that, prices of mink fur went up as much as 30% in Asia. The search for fox and chinchilla furs, which are being seen as options to fill the mink gap, also increased. Fashion houses such as Fendi, Dior, and Louis Vuitton are some that are considering using other furs to replace mink.
“The real shortage could come from 2022, but by then we are hoping mink farmers in Canada, Poland, America and Greece will increase production to replace Danish output,” Explained IFF head Mark Oaten.
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Keeping Track of Covid-19 Financial Crisis Impact
UK retail footfall fell by 43.4% in 2020, according to the British Retail Consortium.
Bird, the multi-brand retailer that established the Brooklyn look during the 2000s, announced its 21 years of business are coming to an end due to the pandemic impact.
Macy’s to close 45 stores in 2021 as part of a three-year plan to close one-fifth of its stores, which counts for 125 locations, so the retailer can focus on its most productive outlets.
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2021 First Round of Fashion Weeks Is Starting to Be Defined
While most of Europe is back to lockdown, some fashion weeks’ organisers are still optimistic that they will be able to hold physical events for this first season of 2021. So what do we know so far about the upcoming fashion weeks?
So, Milan Menswear Fashion Week already announced it will have five physical shows and the rest will be held digitally, all from the 15 to 19 of January. The Florence-based trade show Pitti Uomo, which has become extremely relevant in the menswear segment, will also feature digital-physical hybrid events. However, the Pitti Uomo has changed its dates to February 21-23, while in January the event will only have a digital opening on the 12 and 14 of January.
In Paris, organisers are also convinced that some physical events will be viable. Paris Men’s Fashion Week (from 19 to 24 of January) and Haute Couture Fashion Week (from 25 to 28 of January) are also expected to have a physical-digital mix format.
But not everyone is insisting on physical events. Copenhagen Fashion Week already announced its event that will be from 2 to 4 of February will be 100% digital due to the recent lockdown measures implemented in Denmark.
Thanks for reading this week’s moderated and next Tuesday I will be back with more.
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Bye-bye and see you next week!
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