(The past two months have been quite the game changer for the fashion industry — Saint Laurent, Gucci and Michael Kors made headlines as they decided to forego traditional fashion week schedules, while Belgian designer Dries Van Noten released an open letter to the fashion industry calling for a fundamental reassessment of its operations. With a collective renouncing of the worn-out fashion calendar, it was only time that seasonless style was brought to the forefront.
While the pandemic may have been responsible for creating a conversation around fashion’s antiquated system, this wasn’t the only time designers tried to tweak traditions. In 2016, Tommy Hilfiger showcased his collection with the integration of ‘see now buy now’ a novel concept at the time which made clothes readily available for sale as soon as they were shown on the runway. The idea was first adopted by Burberry earlier that year but is popularly associated with Hilfiger as the brand continues to utilise that model even today. Traditionally, fashion weeks showcased collections a season in advance and were only made available for purchase when the season in question realistically began. This gave designers, magazines and celebrity stylists an opportunity to create aspirational desire for the product. While this system worked well two decades ago, today our Instagram feeds are inundated with images and the want is created instantly.
“Fashion shows are staged too far ahead of product deliveries, short-circuiting desire for collections when they finally hit the store,” claims ‘rewiring fashion’ a proposal facilitated by the Business of Fashion, that’s banding together an independent group of designers, executives and retailers from around the world who wish to resolve this among many other issues at a grassroots level. When you come to think of it, our wardrobes aren’t really defined by trends as we generally make purchases based on needs and styles that personally appeal to us. So, ideally the thought of ‘seasonless’ style makes sense for the industry — rather than being governed by spring and fall seasons, designers can showcase collections when convenient which allows them to slow down the constant creation cycle, hereby creating less waste with pieces that offer purpose and longevity that don’t dilute the brand’s voice as compared to being controlled by short-lived trends.
Published by: Vibhuti Vazirani/ 2020-06-16