Covid-19 has provided a big setback to the fashion industry as a whole. With 40% of the apparel industry of America being handled by China. After the pandemic attack the supply chain has got dismantled. Another help can be taken up by Vietnam, but even for that purpose cloth is needed.Thus US market is discovering new ways to get rid of this situation.
The fashion industry is dependent on other countries in some or other ways. Due to lockdown in countries like India, Bangladesh where the labour is too cheap companies are finding it difficult to operate. 20% of the world is behind the barred locks and still struggling to meet up the condition. Italy, UK, France are totally under dark. Covid–19 has even stumbled the greatest names of fashion industry such as British Fashion Council, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Camera Nazionale della Moda and the Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode. Even their hands are tied up and are in need of great help from counsellors, designers, labours, supply chain and all the associated people.
As China is now stepping back to normal conditions still there is a lot of fear among the industries whether to include China in the supply chain and production or not.US factories do not have that potential to withstand with Asia’s market and they are thinking of taking help from Africa. Between all this SMEs are getting a hard hit ,especially the retail industry. As all the non-essential items have got a stretch in backward direction from the government.
Big brands such as Australia Fashion Week, Bridal Fashion Week, New York, Milan Fashion Week Fall 2020, Paris Men’s Fashion Week and Couture Week, Shoptalk Conference and other shows and conferences have either got cancelled or postponed. According to Dow Jones Industrial Average opening has seen a down of 20.3% which is 23,553.22 points on 12th February 2020.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) are requesting the government to stop the sailing boat of fashion industry by including $2 trillion in economic bill and making the industry busy in the production of masks. They also raised the concerns of joblessness of people such as of Make-up Artists, Tailors, Designers, Photographers, etc. These set of people are tensed for their job and salary decrement due to the losses companies are incurring.
According to an estimation done by Italy’s business lobby Confcommercio, the industry will bear a loss of £6.7 billion and a decrease of 11.3% in consumption in 2020. The CFDA and Vogue joined forces to launch A Common Thread, an initiative to repurpose the $700,000 originally meant to help emerging American design talents through the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. BFC has also put in £1 million to support the students and young designers.
All the fashion designers are seeking help of counsellors about how is the market going to react, what measures can be taken up to control all of this hustle, what do with logistics and supply chain. Everything is unpredictable at this stage and support from all around the world and government. Will online platforms be able to sail through this loss? Will focus on digital innovation help in boosting the industry…. Are the unsolved puzzles still stuck in the mind of counsellors and designers?
