Best Looks from 2020 for Summer 2021 by Editor-in-Chief of RUNWAY MAGAZINE Eleonora de Gray. This year was particularly different for the whole world. Difficulties related to Coronavirus made a special restrictions related to our social life, to the way we see things, the way we see our sociality and how we should develop. We probably no longer need long dresses, as there are no more events to wear them. But we didn’t postponed the life. Casual wear drew massive interest, and the shopping became the only social life happening. Although the big and small store owners were not ready for that. Basically the fashion industry from creators to retailers got a freeze and tried to hold the positions instead of moving forward.
I had an impression that no one wanted really to see the different possibilities or how big public would evaluate in these circumstances. No one wanted to move forward in American and European fashion industry. Everyone looked at these circumstances as if nothing is really happening, or some sort of temporary postpone. What I’ve heard and saw is a massive amount of complaints addressed to the governments, addressed to the ministries, demands of financial support, following by the principal “whiners are winners”. But it didn’t work this time. Even today big public only have left shopping as a social interaction, still big public left major interest to fashion very long time ago. And it’s not about mass production or fast fashion, it’s about distance and lost connection between fashion houses and big public.
“Do it yourself” it is a preferred method today by the fashion houses in communication and marketing. Public doesn’t follow. Buying fake followers or engaging vulgar influencers to present their product to small communities or horny males don’t help. Fashion Houses are no longer getting communication and marketing professionals to do it for them. The result – massive loss. Many big companies lost their turnover for more than 80%, many small companies are simply disappear.
What could be changed in 2021, a second year of social distancing, restrictions and a beginning of new social life? To start with – fashion houses need to be united, learn how to work together, understand all economical system, get knowledge how it all function, and see how all industries are united, the same way like ecological system. Cutting one industry off from engaging, communication and marketing professionals from fashion industry for example, will bring only financial loses, bankruptcy and disappearance. “I buy milk from you, you buy eggs from me” – the oldest “success formula” of human sociality. “I buy milk from you, but you refuse to buy eggs from me because you decided to grow chickens yourself without any idea how” only leads to multiple social failures. Separation and individualism is never a solution.
So today fashion exists like a “dreamland” abandoned by inhabitants. We have to face it – big public is no longer want to buy mass production or fast fashion, is no longer want to spent money on highly priced items with low quality, and no longer cares about the “brand”, as all big brands are no longer follow their ID and no longer capable to support the quality they known for. “Brand” is more and more losing its value. Many these big fashion houses lost 80% of their clients for these reasons. People buy today something unique, and look for quality and acceptable cost. So for example, to propose a synthetic coat of a for 700 euros is a failure. 2020 year showed that brands or more less known fashion designers kept this “habit” running. The result, let’s take saddest examples: Bloomingdale’s lost the business and closed doors in New York, filed for bankruptcy in January 2020, and announced that all of its stores would closed in 2021; Galerie La Fayette filled with massively discounted pieces of big and known fashion houses with the prices reduced to 95%.
The solution in 2021 is to bring economical system back to “I buy from you, you buy from me”, reduce the pricing system to the “real” cost, bring up the quality, and get united with the professionals from different industries (and not ask big public for marketing and communication advises, as a money laundry solution).
On that cheerful note I just drop looks here from the fashion houses, who are during “lockdown” imagined the fashion in 2021, and who I find creative, interesting, or simply worth mentioning being “fashionably” correct. Let’s say I’m going to make a style from many voices I’ve heard this year.