Fashion week has finally been back on track. We all know that today fashion capitals are Paris, Milan, New York and London…but how did they manage to become the “Big Four” of the luxury world? Paris Paris has often claimed to be the epicentre of fashion and the homeland of tremendously good taste. Its reputation is built on a very powerful image of heritage and elegance. The forerunners of fashion as we intend it nowadays were, in fact, Charles Worth – the father of Haute Couture – and Paul Poiret – the inventor of sumptuous parades that have become a reference model for contemporary shows. By the 1920s and 1930s,…

The preventative measures imposed during lockdowns have influenced the fashion industry in several ways since the beginning of 2020. For instance, social distancing and travel impediments diverted shopping traffic online, resulting in increased eCommerce sales and advancements in digital marketing and contactless order fulfillment. Now, as countries open their borders and restrictions weaken, how will fashion retailers adapt? More importantly, how will they compete effectively in the new post-COVID environment? Rewinding, from March 2020 to April 2020, BigCommerce merchants saw online traffic increase by about 63 percent, consequently leading to higher sales. In particular, Central and Eastern Europe saw an increase in eCommerce retail sales by 29.1 percent since the…

On September 28, 2021, California passed a nation-leading law known as the Garment Worker Protection Act, SB 62, which introduces an unprecedented type of accountability in the industry. When we hear the word “sweatshops” we immediately think of third-world countries, widespread poverty and lack of fundamental labour and human rights. However, many people don’t know that sweatshops exist in well-developed and modern Western countries as well, both in Europe and in the United States. In particular, California has the highest concentration of garment industry workers in the U.S. and employs an estimated 45,000 workers in Los Angeles County, most of them being undocumented immigrant women from Asia and South America. A…

Vogue. This word is synonymous of fashion, prestige, status, timeless elegance, charm, and many other terms that could be used to describe the glamour of this historical magazine. However, is Vogue just a fashion magazine? The answer is no. Vogue is much more, it is a beacon of hope for those seeking in art, culture, and fashion a way of life. It is a keepsake, an abstract venerable entity that has tracked the path of fashion of the latest two centuries. To put it in economic terms and give an idea of what Vogue represents for the fashion industry, it is an actual global brand internationally recognized and it is…

The Met Gala is undoubtedly the equivalent of the Oscars or the Olympics of the fashion world. On the first Monday of May, the world’s hottest celebrities convene to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a fundraising gala to celebrate the opening-night of the Costume Institute’s exhibition. This year, however, the event was postponed to September due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Each Met Gala is characterised by a theme for the museum exhibition, which is also applied as dress code for the party – this year, the theme was “American Independence”. Vogue’s historical link with the Met Gala originates from Anna Wintour’s predecessor, Diana Vreeland – who became a consultant…

On May 25th, 2020, the death of George Floyd came as a “wake up call” for the whole world and, particularly, the fashion and luxury industry: it was apparent that, even in 2020, issues of race were not just a “thing of the past”. The fashion industry has long been subject to public allegations regarding its lack of diversity: many companies send mostly white models down the runway and the few BAME women that are cast have to deal with make-up artists and stylists who aren’t trained to work with darker skin tones and non-Eurocentric hair types. All of this seemed to change with the George Floyd incident. The September…

Streetwear is not a brand-new style – it has actually been around for four decades now. Nonetheless, only a few years ago this humble aesthetic entered the higher levels of fashion, imposing itself as a force to be reckoned with. Thus, a question arises spontaneously: how what began as a subversive movement succeeded in influencing the whole fashion industry, from the high-street to the luxury market? Simply put, streetwear consists in fashionable casual clothes: T-shirts, hoodies, jeans and sneakers. However, this definition of streetwear minimizes a model that upset the traditional fashion system by redefining its main concept: exclusivity. While luxury brands derive their exclusivity from a long-lasting quality and high prices, streetwear’s exclusivity is based on ‘know-how’ – it is impossible to acquire, unless you belong to a specific subculture. In particular, especially at the early stages of streetwear, very few consumers knew what to buy and even fewer knew where to buy it.  What was once a subcultural…

The fashion brand Jacquemus was recently cited as one of the leaders among the 20 next-generation brands in an analysis by industry experts compiled by Lyst. The founder, Simon Porte Jacquemus was just 19 years of age when he launched the independent label in 2009. The company now has over 60 employees and boasts a revenue of more than $20 million along with a multitude of high-profile celebrity clients. The brand’s explosive growth has intrigued and excited many observes in the luxury fashion industry and many have been left in awe by the brand’s strength at Paris Fashion Weeks alongside French luxury giants in particular. Jacquemus did not follow the…

Let’s face it: We all love a battle between the giants.  In the COVID era, after spending all of our time watching ugly remakes on Netflix and scrolling through not-even-funny memes on Instagram, we could actually call legal battles “poetic cinema”. So please, take a seat and don’t hold your breath.  It all started in 2017 (on this note, take me back to being eighteen and clueless, please!), when Huawei sought approval from the EUIPO (EU Intellectual Property Office) to register its computer hardware trademark. Huawei probably thought it was going to be a simple one-two-three procedure. Turns out the tech giant was actually clueless as to what was going…

Introduction In recent months, due to the huge surge in the price of cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology has attracted the attention of the media and some highly influential individuals, including Tesla’s Elon Musk. This article aims at analysing the possible applications of blockchain technology in the context of the fashion industry. Firstly, it is crucial to define blockchain and its functioning. Blockchain is a shared, immutable, and digital ledger where information is stored, duplicated and distributed safely across the entire network of computer systems composing the blockchain. In other words, it is an information-recording system that complicates or totally prevents information mutation. Being distributed, participants can monitor all the information present…