Fashion Consort News Bytes

In this episode, “In Search of Fashion Leadership,” we consider the ways in which executive leadership must adapt to crises, and how this changes the way fashion companies hire.

The Covid-19 pandemic has tested the mettle of fashion executives worldwide. They have had to adapt quickly, shifting retail operations primarily online, reimagining their distribution and production, and moving their workforce to remote offices. In more dire cases, they have furloughed or fired employees, cancelled orders and closed stores.

The ripple effect across the supply chain is visible. According to the U.S. Fashion Industry Association, confidence in the fashion business has dropped more than 8% since 2019 and 95% of brands expect sales revenue decreases for the 2020 fiscal year.  

On top of this, civil unrest in the US and worldwide, has laid bare issues of systemic racism and gender pay inequality. And younger customers are quick to “cancel” brands that are not responding transparently with actionable change. 

In short, fashion executives have had to be more visible as consumers demand more transparency, in many ways changing the role of brand leadership and shifting how companies hire. According to Meghan Houle, a Senior Executive Recruiter at The Bowerman Group, fashion companies are taking this moment to be very picky in hiring new executives. 

[Meghan] It really is all about reputation. As the saying goes, ‘Your past can come back to haunt you.’ It is all about reputation.  

When it comes to leadership qualities needed during a crisis such as this, it’s all about “honesty, empathy and approachability.” she says. 

[Meghan] Honest with your communication strategies, empathetic to all situations. Everyone's going through a lot. And empathy, maybe compassion; we'll add that in there. I think it's just really important to teams overall. And to be approachable, really in creating environments where people feel seen and heard and valued. 

As fashion companies head into the fourth quarter and plan their budgets for 2021, they will be prioritizing key roles to ensure ongoing agility and the ability to pivot. So what does this mean for job seekers?

[Meghan] I would expect a slow, but steady, hiring pace, prioritizing key roles. So, I do believe interviews will continue. Offers may not come through until late end of 2020, rolling into the budgets of 2021, maybe early January 2021, unless it really is a critical position needed for the business to sustain and get through the season. Certainly, we're seeing brick and mortar store leadership openings that have been taking priority. There are a lot of companies out there that are just taking the approach of doing more with less for the time being. And you will certainly see a lot of department leaders internally stepping up, taking on new assignments to cover any potential openings that are out there until the right hire is made. And take a lot of vetting; I would very much be prepared, for anyone going through the interview process at any level, for a very strategic, precise hiring process that can maybe feel a little intense. And really as a candidate to make yourself visible, you have to be authentic, know your why, know your value, know what you can bring to an organization; a confident, but not cocky approach.

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When it comes to fashion retail during the Covid-19 pandemic, the conversation has centered mostly on the overall viability of a retailer and their strategies to overcome the decrease in brick and mortar shopping. And this makes sense, considering the onslaught of bankruptcies that were unleashed in the spring and the real concern these closings would have on employment and the overall economy. 

However, for those companies that were in a strong enough position to avoid bankruptcy, their focus became two-fold: energize their online sales and re-open brick and mortar. And while the latter was welcomed in theory, in practice it meant store line employees at fashion retailers were put at the forefront of a health crisis, making them more vulnerable to Covid-19 itself, as well as front and center in the mask debate.

Christopher Lacy, former Director of Customer Experience, Learning and Development at Barneys New York and now an Assistant Professor at Parsons School of Design points out that “Crises inform you the old system can no longer be maintained and that there is a need to change.” While the pandemic has certainly had an outsized negative effect on the retail industry, it could also serve as an opportunity for retailers to reset and refocus, beyond sales numbers. It’s a chance for them to rebuild trust between all constituents, the customers, the home office, and most specifically the store line employees who are central to the success of any retail business. 

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Understanding larger social and economic trends is an important part of the design process in fashion. These larger trends have a downstream effect on color, silhouette and texture from season to season. And so, fashion designers and merchandisers work with their teams, and with external agencies, often a full year out, to determine how these trends might integrate best with their brand vision. Because these teams are working so far in advance, planning for trends is an inexact science at best, albeit easier today with the help of algorithmic data. 

However, even this data couldn’t have predicted Covid-19 and it’s immediate effect on fashion trends, leaving brands to rethink their plans mid-stream for fall 2020 and spring 2021. In many cases, companies had to stop their processes altogether as studios and offices closed. And those that could, pivoted to making personal protective equipment, such as masks and shields, to take advantage of government contracts, thus keeping their employees at work, and supporting the needs of their communities. 

As the pandemic wore on, and masks were required in many places, demand rose for more PPE--no longer as simple protective gear, but as a fashion statement. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House in the United States Congress became an overnight sensation with her coordinated suits and masks. Masks also made their way to the runway in the spring 2021 shows and are predicted to make an appearance in future collections according to Keanan Duffty, fashion designer and director of the Fashion Management graduate program at Parsons School of Design:

[Keanan] During flu season, face masks were the polite society norm in Asia. Now, most of the rest of the world has accepted face masks and therefore they will become a seasonal fashion trend in order to combat flu and seasonal allergies. 

As with many fashion trends, what once served a utility, such as a jacket lapel, a riveted pocket or an upturned shirt collar, is now simply a preferred style without connection to function. And customers certainly don’t require brands to educate them on these histories . However, it’s an altogether different thing when PPE is serving a real health service in addition to being stylish, which becomes a unique balancing act for a brand. Here’s Keanan again: 

[Keanan] Subjectively, brands look like they are cashing in. For example, Spandau Ballet ‘True’ facemask. Perhaps facemasks are becoming the new slogan tee-shirt?

A tee-shirt with a real purpose beyond the logo or slogan itself, at least for now.  

And so, the question then becomes whether or not there is a place for luxury brands to provide customers with pandemic-related accessories, such as Louis Vuitton’s almost $1,000 face shield and Burberry’s $100+ face masks. 

[Keanan] The luxury sector has begun to appropriate streetwear ideas including sneakers and tracksuits, so luxury versions of pandemic-related accessories were the obvious next step. They provide ‘Status based protection” for the luxury consumer and are the new “it” bag.

After all, it wasn’t more than 25 years ago that fashion apparel companies began including handbags as part of their collections, and leather goods companies became purveyors of ready-to-wear. Perhaps in 25 years time, when the pandemic is a historical footnote, customers will still be wearing masks and shields without any real connection to how they saved lives in 2020. And brands will consider PPE accessories as an essential part of their offering.

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Hello, I’m Joshua Williams, host of Fashion Consort NewsBytes. As a professor and consultant, I am often asked to speak at events worldwide as well as appear on news broadcasts to share my expertise on current issues in the fashion industry and fashion higher education.  I began this unique, short-format podcast in early 2020, as a way to extend my voice and share it with a wider audience interested in the inner workings of fashion. And I chose the modality of podcasting, not only because it’s highly shareable, but because it offers a more personal and intimate way to connect with an audience, more so than a written article.  The choice to focus on an audio format felt especially prescient only a month later, as the world began to shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and our interactions became largely digital. For many, podcasting became a new and exciting way to connect with the news, beyond staring at a computer screen. And now, less than a year later, I am excited to announce that News Bytes is being distributed in partnership with FashionUnited, your trusted global network for fashion news, business intelligence and jobs. This partnership truly expands our international reach, and we can’t wait to interact with you, our listener, in a more expansive way. We have so many exciting plans in the pipeline! So thank you, to those of you have joined us along the way, and to those of you will come. We hope you’ll show your support by subscribing to the podcast wherever you are listening. We are now available directly at FashionUnited.com, as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio and much more. And be sure to rate us and share your comments; it helps make the podcast more visible to others searching for fashion industry news. Finally, visit FCPNewsBytes.com, that’s Bytes with a “Y” for more information, including full transcripts.  Until our next episode, be well! Visit: FashionUnited.com Learn More: FCNewsBytes.com

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By its very nature, modern fashion is not essential. It’s built on a model of planned obsolescence, wherein customers are expected to buy and replace as often as possible. And yet, this hasn’t stopped the fashion industry from marketing goods as essential, whether it’s the proclamation: “must have warm coat for the winter” or “the only shoes that give you the support you need while running.” Whole categories of clothes, including activewear, are built on this mostly false premise. It’s not to say that these products don’t have utility, but rather, that they will be replaced within a few short months with newer, cooler models. This is especially true with swimwear, a category of clothing that has no utility at all, beyond social constructs around modesty, unless you’re in a search of a garment that makes you feel clammy and ensures beach sand comes home with you. So, it should come as no surprise that fashion is completely enamored with an all-together new essential product category, personal protective equipment, or PPE for short. And while it’s true that masks and perhaps shields, to a lesser degree, are essential during the Covid-19 pandemic, fashion will certainly find a way to ensure we buy more than we need, so that we don’t get caught wearing the same mask twice! Already, luxury brands such as Burberry and Louis Vuitton have gotten in on the game, with hyper-expensive masks and shields, a new entry-level price point that puts their logo front and center—right on the customer’s face. But irony aside, behind all of this, is a very real business decision that brands are making. Because, if a brand makes and sells PPE in their stores, they can be classified by many local governments as essential retailers. Said differently, this means that with new lockdowns now happening due to the second wave, these retailers will not have to close down a second time, because they are selling PPE. It’s a workaround that alleviates the need for mass furloughs of store line employees and mitigates issues around store leases. In reality, fashion brands see PPE whether its face masks, shields, gloves, or even scrubs, as essential to the viability of their business. fashionconsort.com @fashionconsortagency

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In 2015, as part of Li Edelkoort’s Anti-Fashion Manifesto, she called out fashion schools to rethink how they were educating students to be part of fashion’s future. She provided many suggestions including a return to materiality and craft, as well as a shift away from the smoke and mirrors of marketing. It was a wake-up call for many schools that had, for many years, relied on the coattail effect of Project Runway, influencer culture and fast fashion. Since then, many fashion schools have grappled with their role in the fashion system and have tried to update their application processes and curriculum. However, with the onset of Covid-19 and the political and social unrest that followed, many of these schools found themselves still woefully behind, not fully up to speed on new technologies, and still very much based in a Western approach to history and design, despite a more diverse student body. And while institutions must take responsibility for this, they are very much a reflection of the fashion industry itself. For example, even though schools can’t guarantee a job post-graduation--that isn’t their purview--they certainly highlight graduates who obtain high-profile positions, because potential students judge schools on their successful alumni. And leadership positions in fashion are still primarily held by white men, so they get most of the focus. The numbers are even lower when accounting for Bipoc or LGBTQ+ representation. According to Mckinsey, over 50% of fashion employees don’t feel their leadership is diverse or represents them. And yet, according to a 2019 Fashion United article, author Marjorie van Elven points out that 80% of fashion students are women, and 75% of the fashion workforce is women. It could be construed that over time, because women represent the majority of fashion graduates, executive jobs will increasingly be filled by women. But this has been the case for quite some time and hasn’t produced immediate results without any real policy change. Nor does it account for other diversity issues. There are deep rooted systemic issues at work, where the interplay between school and company is very real. But the cycle needs to be stopped. Fashion schools must do more to promote their graduates, building on a more inclusive curriculum and a diversity of ideas and lived experiences, perhaps even more aggressively and against the fashion industry status quo. This may mean eschewing financial partnerships with brands that aren’t willing to change or who haven’t taken meaningful action. And students must demand change from fashion institutions, to be more inclusive in their application processes, to offer more opportunities and scholarships for less-represented groups of people and then better represent the diverse student body they graduate. What’s more, students are also consumers--both of the schools they pay for their education and of the brands they want to work for. Demanding change “with your wallet” can be an effective change agent in both cases. Finally, fashion companies need to be ready and willing to learn from graduates, their new employees, to provide space where they can innovate and bring to bear the concepts they studied in school. Too often companies quash new employee ideas and force them into old ways of doing things; it’s easier that way. It’s no wonder that many fashion students choose to create their own businesses where they feel they can effectuate change more immediately.  fashionconsort.com @fashionconsortagency

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It’s no secret that the fashion system thrives on creating and selling new products—constantly. In fact, the fashion industry is very adept at built-in obsolescence, with an especially short lifecycle, wherein the very item that was heralded as the “must have” in September is no longer even desirable or cool in February. Because the fashion system is built on seasons—fashion brands must deliver something completely new at least every six months—spring and fall—to replace the old. And in some cases, brands are delivering specialty seasons such as holiday and resort on top of that, or simply forgoing seasons altogether and dropping new styles on a weekly or monthly basis. While tech companies are often “called out” and even sued for supposedly building in obsolescence, consumers rarely make the connection to the same techniques fashion companies have been engaged in for decades.

So, it’s time to start really asking why we, as customers, continue to support brands that have no real impetus to change, no matter their storied histories. It’s time to start putting our money where our mouth is. If we want change, then things must actually change and that may mean letting go of nostalgia, so that fashion brands will be forced to adapt, or make way for more innovative brands that don’t trade on built-in obsolescence.  

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When it comes to fashion retail during the Covid-19 pandemic, the conversation has centered mostly on the overall viability of a retailer and their strategies to overcome the decrease in brick and mortar shopping. And this makes sense, considering the onslaught of bankruptcies that were unleashed in the spring and the real concern these closings would have on employment and the overall economy. 

However, for those companies that were in a strong enough position to avoid bankruptcy, their focus became two-fold: energize their online sales and re-open brick and mortar. And while the latter was welcomed in theory, in practice it meant store line employees at fashion retailers were put at the forefront of a health crisis, making them more vulnerable to Covid-19 itself, as well as front and center in the mask debate.

Here’s Christopher Lacy, former Director of Customer Experience, Learning and Development at Barneys New York and now an Assistant Professor at Parsons School of Design:

[Christopher] Prior to COVID-19. We were already seeing a peak of customer entitlement and how associates were treated in stores. Now that entitlement has an additional layer of not wanting to be told to wear a mask, not being told to socially distance; a myriad of other things, where you have a customer that is living in a stressful situation, a customer that's stressed about their proximity to another customer, a heightened sense of wanting to transact quickly. And retailers forgot that associates are also under the stress of remaining healthy, needing to work and also needing to provide exceptional service. So, retailers must be cognizant that the storeline employees are the internal customer. And corporate partners and by corporate partners, I mean head office, they're part of this retail ecosystem.

Additionally, in the rush to reopen, retailers didn’t really fully consider the operational shifts necessary, especially in relation to storeline employees, to ensure adequate customer service levels. 

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[Christopher] The implementation of most operations was set up to just get the store back on track and to get the store to generate sales. The problem is that most POS systems still require contact between customers and the payment solution generally used by retailers. You still have customers that are coming into contact with POS systems. You still have associates that are still trying to facilitate processing. 

Christopher also points out that with new services such as curbside pick-up came other issues, such as fraud, that retailers were not prepared to deal with. And so with these changes that can have a real impact on business, it’s more important than ever for executives to be on the front line with their employees.

[Christopher] Now, during a pandemic, it isn't just about receiving feedback from storyline employees. At this point, if you have a store that's open, or you have multiple stores that are open, then every member of the executive team needs to commit to working in the store alongside the store team. Because feedback on his own during this time doesn't mean much, if you're not also experiencing what your team is experiencing. And it doesn't mean you're there every day. But at least two days out of a week, head office executives, including the buying team, including HR, need to be there in the store. They have to be, because you can't expect for your store associates and store line employees to go into the store, risk their health, generate sales, and you're working from home. That is unacceptable. And it is unacceptable to think you know what's happening in the business and apply principles from what happened previously to what's going on now. And the only way they will understand it is actually taking the time to be there alongside those store associates, looking at the operational processes, looking at how the customers are engaging with the associates, engaging with the product and moving forward.

And most importantly, Christopher says that executive teams and HR departments need to remember that this is “not business as usual,” and that the employee experience “evolves along with the customer experience.” 

[Christopher] Yes, the company lost money, but so did the associate population. They are stressed about numbers. They're stressed about their sales. They're stressed about how to outreach to clients in an economically challenging situation. So, at that point, it's the responsibility of head office to be understanding and provide tools that can assist associates and stores during this time and not try to push for increases day over day, but rather taking a step back and looking at it from the month. 

He adds this bit of advice to retail leadership:

[Christopher] Partner with store managers on how to protect the downside and making sure those store managers are looking farther out. We can't manage to the day like that anymore. We've really got to take a bird's eye view and go, what are we doing for the month? And that means there can't be the belittling emails asking why their business is trending behind or why they had a rough Friday. 

Christopher points out that “Crises inform you the old system can no longer be maintained and that there is a need to change.”  While the pandemic has certainly had an outsized negative effect on the retail industry, it could also serve as an opportunity for retailers to reset and refocus, beyond sales numbers. It’s a chance for them to rebuild trust between all constituents, the customers, the home office, and most specifically the store line employees who are central to the success of any retail business. 

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Fashion week and all of its attendant traditions have been largely upended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While some designers have chosen to show in person, with limited attendance, much of the focus has been on digital variations of the fashion show. So far, these have included everything from artistic, pre-recorded videos, to livestreams on Twitch, and even augmented reality. Technology, in many ways, has made it possible for fashion week to go on—and precipitate a shift towards more synchronous, inclusive events. However, one particular designer chose a very different path, a nod to fashion’s past with an emphasis on handicraft. American designer, Jeffrey Scott, is known for his kitschy, pop-culture inspired designs both for his eponymous line and for the Italian house, Moschino. In the past, his shows have been exuberant, colorful celebrations of the excesses of fashion, as much attended by “club kids” as the fashion intelligentsia. And yet, for Spring 2020, Scott went decidedly lo-fi. He enlisted the Jim Henson Creature Shop to create one-of-a-kind marionettes to display the latest Moschino collection. Each piece was created “in miniature” of the full sample size—and featured highly tailored pieces with decadent trims and visible corsetry. According to Scott, the looks were inspired by the Théâtre de la Mode, miniature “fashion dolls” that traveled the globe post-World War II in an effort to reinvigorate a decimated fashion industry. But Scott went one step further, creating puppet versions of the fashion regulars who weren’t able to attend this season’s show in person. He included Vogue editors, Anna Wintour and Edward Enningful, among others, in their own custom Moschino looks. During the show, as Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film” played as the soundtrack, the VIP guests even reacted and spoke one with another! Scott’s magical production immediately went viral on social media; the irony of this not lost on anyone! And that was most certainly the goal. But Scott had an opportunity to share a piece of history that goes beyond the Théâtre de la Mode, all the way back to the 16th century, when European royal families would commission “fashion dolls” as a way to see, then copy, the dresses being worn in the French court. They were known as Pandora dolls beginning in the mid-1600s. In the 1700s, they became common to seamstresses, milliners and all kinds of fashion merchants, including Rose Bertin, seamstress to Marie Antoinette. They largely fell out of favor in the late 1800s when the first illustrated fashion magazines such as Cabinet des Modes, took their place. And now in 2020, Scott’s Moschino collection is a reminder of fashion’s storied past; it’s a chance to focus again on the handcrafted details, the minutiae of design so easily overlooked or forgotten, as our attention moves so quickly from one show to another. It manages to capture—and hold—our attention. . fashionconsort.com @fashionconsortagency

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New York Fashion Week has ended, and the baton has been passed to Milan, London and Paris. With a shortened schedule, and a move largely to digital platforms, New York Fashion Week hardly resembles fashion weeks of the past. And like everything else in the industry, change already happening around fashion show presentations was precipitated by the pandemic. Ever since the birth of haute couture, developed and codified by Charles Frederick Worth in the late 1800s, VIP customers would be invited to see next season’s collection and place their orders. Select press attaches were also invited, as a way to garner interest in the collection once it became more widely available to the public. This worked well in a small centralized country like France but became unwieldy for couturiers in the United States. Thus, Fashion Week was devised by Eleanor Lambert as a weeklong event in New York City, that customers and press could all participate in twice a year. This concentrated event was such a success that it was soon copied in France, as the perfect way to extend their reach to customers and press in other countries. Soon, the tradition spread to Italy, England and beyond. Fashion weeks also correlated with buying seasons, providing the perfect opportunity for store buyers to choose the looks that would end up in their stores six months later. This also provided a safeguard to designers, as it gave them a chance to test their styles in the market before going into full production. Fast forward to today, and fashion week is now primarily a consumer-focused event, largely due to social media and the ability to share information instantaneously, direct to the general public, an audience that is not even invited to attend the physical shows!  This means that the press can no longer time their coverage to the season, which essentially puts the system completely out of balance. What’s more, buyers are much more likely to be working one-on-one with brands to develop exclusive styles for their stores, long before fashion week, which means that buyers are primarily showing up to support what they’ve already bought. On top of this, as customers become more value-based in how they shop, brands have to contend with issues of sustainability and transparency. Holding big expensive shows with celebrities feels out of touch. Many brands have been toying with solutions to these problems in an effort to rebalance the system, including “see now, buy now” collections to combat fast fashion copies, livestream shows on Pinterest and Twitch to alleviate travel, and augmented reality shows with avatar models to alleviate costs. But these solutions have never really fully taken root or upended the system. But now that has all changed, in a time where physical gatherings are difficult at best, and digital is leading the way. And so, the Spring 2021 shows held this September have largely been used as tests by brands searching for the best way to engage buyers, press and customers. It’s forcing them to think much more individually, while still considering the benefit of scale that a bi-annual fashion event provides. When the fall shows come around in February, we’re likely to see a much more hybrid approach to fashion week with brands approaching their presentations more personally and confidently...no matter if the pandemic persists. fashionconsort.com @fashionconsortagency

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