The new fashion calendars

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Fashion: the new Calendars
(From Design point of view)
By Monisha Bandhu
"Logistically looking at the fashion-show construct, it makes very little sense now," says Vogue
editor Alexandra Shulman. "If you put a business consultant in to look at what the fashion
industry is doing, they would think it was insane." (1)
The fashion season started with two main seasons, spring/summer and autumn/winter, they
were the main seasons for a very long time and were practical due to the fact that they
coincided with the environmental seasons. The production was done in-house and the
garments were sold directly to the consumer through the stores. The designers would regularly
host small shows or presentations of their new collections to a select group of clientele. The
boutiques and their designers usually catered to the elite for couture or for bespoke tailored
clothing and hence stayed in direct contact with the client and catered to their needs when it
arises.
Then the brands started expanding and catering to customers from all over the world, who
would come for new designs every season, to find out what was in fashion and buy the same.
This is when the couture houses fixed the launch of their new collection on fixed dates every
season to cater to their clients in a very organized way. Designers like Paul Poiret in Paris and
Lady Duff-Gordon in London were displaying their clothing “in action”. (2)
With the rise of middle class came ready-to-wear brands and an increase in seasons. In
addition to spring/summer and autumn/winter, we added spring/summer men and
autumn/winter men, with a huge market in Florence, Italy. The “nouveau riche” started
travelling to hotter places during winters for vacations which gave rise to resort wear/ cruise
wear, and to bridge the gap between the two main seasons we added pre-fall and pre-fall men,
so in total we have seven seasons in addition to Spring Couture and Fall Couture which is
covered by Vogue and other major publications as well as buyers every year.

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In recent years globalization brought with it outsourcing of production and international buyers,
increase in number of clients and hence increase in quantities, which lead to increase in
production time and also number of looks per collection which became the part of the current
fashion cycle. In addition to these we also have Australian Resort and Spring Bridal and Fall
Bridal which is again covered by Vogue, other major publications, buyers from all around the
world every year (3)
. Earlier, we had the four major fashion capitals, Paris, Milan, London and
New York, now there is an addition to these major capitals, we have Tokyo, Madrid,
Copenhagen and others which are quickly becoming important in regards to fashion as well as
bringing in new designers. All of this together puts additional pressure on the brands and their
designers who have to cater to this ever increasing demand, which is affecting their health as
well as their creative abilities.
(4)

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Raf Simons at Dior did six shows a year. He stated that they are continuously creating with no
time to think and that he doesn’t want to do collections where he has no time to sit, think and
discuss ideas. He said “everything is done in three weeks, maximum five. You have no
incubation time for ideas, and incubation time is very important.”(5)
Riccardo Tisci is one of the
several designers who cited exhaustion as one of the reasons for departing Givenchy after a
twelve year tenure. Raf Simons of Dior, Alber Elbaz of Lanvin, Demna Gvasalia of Balenciaga
have questioned the fashion industry’s need for speed. Alber Elbaz left Lanvin after sixteen
years as its creative director, “I said, ‘I need more time.’ And I think everybody in fashion these
days needs just a little more time,” he said in his acceptance speech at the 2015 Fashion
Group International's Night of Stars event.(6)
Gucci decided to combine their men’s and
women’s collections together, Alessandro Michele the Creative Director of Gucci said it is the
way he sees the world and will bring a different approach to his storytelling. Marco Bizzari,
president and chief executive officer of Gucci said, “Maintaining two separate, disconnected
calendars has been a result of tradition rather than practicality.”(7)
Proenza Schouler has
combined their ready-to-wear and pre-collections into one and are making their clothing
available immediately the next day. Other brands like Burberry and Tom Ford are also selling
their clothes directly to consumers through see-now-buy-now model in their fashion shows.(8)
These different business models are helping brands cope with the ever increasing demands
and pressure of the fashion industry in an effective way.
The problem with fashion seasons is that with globalization buyers are coming from all over
the world with different seasonal weathers are different times of the year, so having specific
seasons is soon becoming an outdated trend, seeing as the wealthy young generation have a
penchant for travel and go vacationing to different countries at different times throughout the
year since working freelance or from home is also on the rise. They may go to cold places for
skiing in summer and warm places like beaches in winter. The ease of travel have made it
possible to follow different seasons around the world and thus making seasonal shopping
redundant at many places. Instead of adding more seasons and more varieties of similar
clothing and giving it different names, we should expand our clientele base in other ways. For
example apart from seasons there is also a trend originating in brand collaboration, capsule
collections and diffusion lines. Brand collaborations have worked well for many but diffusion
lines haven’t been successful for many brands. Many designers as well as brands have tried
expanding themselves with adding various sizes instead of restricting ourselves to few, created
niche collection for a selected group of customers like for sportswear, climbing, hiking, yoga,
swimming, collaborated with various designers, artists to expand the customer base as well
support each other to form a community.

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Collaborations were so successful that vogue took out a list of the most successful
collaborations in this decade. (9)
Collaborations with H&M and luxury brands were the most
popular, even I had a jeans of a collaboration between Roberto Cavalli and H&M. Karl
Lagerfeld did a collection with H&M in 2004, so did Versace in 2011, Maison Margiela in 2012,
Alexander Wang in 2014, Lanvin in 2010. One of the most interesting collaborations is indeed
between apple watch and Hermes, who also collaborated with Coach and Fendi for various
colorful apple watch straps. Partnerships with celebrities like Rihanna’s Fenty deal with LVMH,
Kanye West and Adidas in 2015. The most bizarre collaboration would be between Crocs and
Chistopher Kane in 2017. The recent supreme and Louis Vuitton collaboration was a huge
success and created a lot of excitement for the customers. There was also the Demna
Gvasalia’s spring 2017 collection which was made entirely out of collaborations with Levi’s,
Juicy Couture, Champion, Eastpack, Dr. Martens, Canada goose, Manolo Blahnik, etc.
Fashion got ‘‘woke’’ too with Balenciaga’s collaboration with World Food Program, proceeds
from the sales would go to the United Nations in an effort to end world hunger. There is also a
huge trend of sports people and brand collaborations as with Serena Williams and off-white
and Nike. Then the recent collaboration between a size inclusive label Universal Standard that
does sizes 00 to 40 and Rodarte.
Croks x Christopher Kane Louis Vuitton x Supreme
World Food Program x Balenciaga Universal Standard x Rodarte

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The rise of globalization and internet have also helped individuals anywhere in the world to
have the whole world in the palm of their hands in the form of a mobile phone. They have
access to everything and anything, all the information in the world, anywhere in the world, of
the products as well as the experience. This is both a boon and a bane as this has also given
rise to information overload and short attention lifespan among the consumers, who are always
looking to re-invent themselves and find their identity among their peers. The identities are
presented through the brands they wear, therefore it is very important to the consumers for the
brand they buy and support to have the same values as them. These values are very significant
in building up brand loyalty which can lead up to cult like following as in the case of
Lululemon,(10)
the atheleisure brand and rise of Supreme as a fashion giant with huge loyal
following. There is not only cult following but also boycotting if the brand doesn’t follow their
values for example, the current statements by Extinction Rebellion for boycotting London
fashion week, also an article on Business Of Fashion stating ‘Louis Vuitton faces boycott threat
after Trump visits factory’.(11)(12)
Therefore, the brand and the designer have to not only design,
produce and sell fashion but also be vigilant about marketing and the image of the brand and
the designer, this causes even additional pressure on the Creative Director and hence there
have been so many firing and leaving of the Designers from the brands they help build up.

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This global exchange of information around the world have given rise to various independent
labels around the world, the biggest in the industry is Not Just A Label which covers all the
major and young independent brands around the world and give them a platform to sell. NJAL
have started an online platform as well for consumers to buy directly from their online shop
instead of going through the designer, they have also help build a bridge to eliminate the
demographic gap between the designers and consumers. The constant and quick reach to
information have made consumers become used to instant gratification, the fast fashion
industry saw that and used it to their advantage. Currently, fast fashion brands like Zara have
fifty two micro-seasons in a year and have delivery every two weeks, this helps them keep up
with the new trends and the ever changing demands of the consumer with their small batches
which sell out fast, with consumers always finding something new to shop for. (13)
The
customers don’t have to wait for the new collection to retail for three to six months like in the
case of major fashion brands. Some major brands like Burberry and Tom Ford are trying to
overcome this wait and satisfy their consumers with their see-now-buy-now model.
Burberry’s see-now-buy-now model (14)

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Today’s generation, specifically the ‘millennial’ are redefining luxury through experience.
Experience is not only considered as a form of luxury but also an investment, they are ready
and willing to pay more for personalization and customization. They like unique experiences,
private shows, personally catered to, something new and unknown. “Millennials are also ready
to pay more for personalized luxury items and services”, as stated by Forbes. (15)
The
consumers have started preferring uniqueness over craftsmanship, the uniqueness of the
prints of Gucci which were very different to the traditional prints we are used to seeing in a
luxury brand, even very different to the Gucci’s previous brand image under Tom Ford, helped
the brand become significant among the younger generation. It satisfied their thirst to stand
out from the crowd and be unique. Gucci became the epitome of new luxury with its relaxed,
unique, comfortable, loud and full of opinions personality.
Millennial are more likely to try something new provided it speaks to their personal values ad
passions. They are also more open to renting and sharing and using apps likes ‘rent the
runway’, because it is all about experience more than owning. Rent the Runway is reportedly
a one billion dollar company by an article published in business insider. (16)
According to an
article in Forbes “LVMH recently purchased luxury travel company Belmond with plans to make
traditional luxury travel less about opulent hotels and accommodations and more about one-
of-a-kind experiences. Modern consumers care more about creating an Instagram-able
memory than purchasing the hottest new product.” (17)
Now with social media no one wants to
repeat important outfits but also don’t want to create clutter or throw away and create trash in
the environment, thus renting and sharing sounds like a perfect option to the consumers.

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The rise of sustainable practices have made people more aware of their buying decisions and
also the after effects as shown in the movie ‘The True Cost’. (18)
The importance of quality
products and the brands’ stand on sustainability and ethical production has become one of the
most important issue, especially after The Rana Plaza Accident (19)
and the ‘who made your
clothes’ (20)
online rally which opened up discussion about the importance of production in
clothing and not just the glamorous parts of marketing. The consumer now asks for an open
communication with the brand.
fashionrevolution.org

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The relationship between garment and body is also changing with the influence of Japanese
designers, the top of which are Issey Miyaki, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto. They
changed how we wore garments with their asymmetric and structured forms away from the
body creating an asexual form that can be worn by any size, shape or gender. Fabric
innovations like Jersey and elastin have also given rise to clothing which takes the form of the
wearer thus can be gender fluid. The changing ideas of gender and gender based clothing and
lifestyle as well as global acceptance of gender fluidity by majority of people should be taken
into consideration by the fashion industry as well as the retail industry. Gender conformity was
part of 1950s, today the concept of men’s and women’s fashion is becoming redundant as
more and more women have joined the workforce and are in need for sturdy and formal
clothing for work and men like to display their wealth through their own clothing and
accessories since less men are getting married or are in relationships, also the concept of
displaying wealth earned by men to display on women have reached its saturation point long
back and the fashion industry sometimes feels like it has yet not taken any notice.

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The segregation of consumers is changing, not only due to globalization but also due to social
structures and cultural change. The concept of gender neutral clothing is taking form as we
can see from adaption of sports lux clothing, with their t-shirts, sneakers, hoodies, sweatshirts,
jeggings etc. which can be worn by both men and women alike and is adopted by the new
generation as their official form of clothing. We also see male heterosexual celebrities adopting
for more feminine styles like skirts and blouses. Gucci designed patterned pussy-bow blouses
for men under the Creative Direction of Alessandro Michele. Jaden Smith wore a skirt to Louis
Vuitton’s spring/summer 2017 campaign, because “wearing a skirt comes as naturally to him
as it would to a woman who, long ago, granted herself permission to wear a man’s trench or a
tuxedo,” Ghesquière commented. (21)
Gucci menswear collection, 2015
Harry Styles Jaden Smith

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In conclusion, the fashion calendars were introduced to showcase new designs directly to the
customers who were the consumers of the designs buy the brand, then with globalization the
customers changed from direct consumers to buyers who would retail the designs to the
consumer of the brand. It took three to six months to produce and sell the designs and market
it to the consumers but with internet age all that changed and now consumers see the designs
right when it is shown on the runways and do not want to wait for three to six months for the
designs to be available for purchase because by then there will be new designs and it soon
starts to feel stale. So, instead of adding new seasons we need to figure out how to make
designs available to our consumer at their speed and time.
The second part is about gender fluidity, our social constructs and cultural influences have
changed dramatically and the fashion world should be at the forefront of it instead of following
it at a glacial pace. In addition to the above statement, I would also like to point out that the
consumer nowadays wear mix and matched clothing from various brands, it can be an Armani
jacket with Levi’s jeans and locally sourced T-shirt, it is to inform that the segmentation of
consumers on the basis of income is also blurring since more and more consumer buy few
luxury pieces and few local brands and wear them together, earlier they would buy the whole
look but now they prefer to make their own styles and looks to highlight their individuality.
Hence, the concept of fashion shows can now be more than a way to display a collection, it
can be to market a brand and to display its value and maybe even a pre-design concept
showed in a way of an art form to make consumers excited about what is to come.