Low-Despicable
During the past weeks the only thing that has been on everyone’s lips more than coronavirus is surgical face masks. As we noticed from PFW, from Chanel and Fendi to Off-white and Supreme, they were the ultimate street style fashion trend. But is it fair to turn something that could save lives into something useless but “cool”? Sometimes the line between fashion and speculation becomes blurred. As if the greatest problem of the moment was to choose between double-C and double-G to protect themselves.
The mood at the Autumn/Winter 2020 shows, already low-key in New York and London, descended a little bit more with the decisions of Giorgio Armani and Laura Biagiotti to hold their shows in live streaming from empty theaters. This reached its worst point with show cancellations from Chinese designers including Angel Chen, Ricostru and Hui. But the show must go on and ‘If people will not come to the runway, then the runway must go to them”. So, God Save the streaming and for the last two days do not miss McQueen, MIU MIU, Louis Vuitton and other PFW pillars.
How quickly can luxury rebound from Covid-19? The epidemic could cost the luxury market as much as $43 billion in sales, according to a new report from Bernstein. It expects luxury sales to suffer for around six months, before quickly returning to pre-crisis levels with few mitigating actions needed by luxury brands. However, although might eventually go back to normal levels, the first quarter of 2020 will still be a lost period for brands heavily exposed to China, as Adidas and Burberry. Unfortunately, only time will tell, in the meantime we can just hope for the best.
High-Brilliant
Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the newest co-creative director of them all? In Prada’s realm, it is Raf Simons. After his experiences with Jil Sander, Christian Dior and Calvin Klein, Simons has been running his own designer brand since 1985, demonstrating an innate ability for influencing fashion with fresh and innovative designs. Something he will now do alongside with Miuccia. Could two be actually better than one? Only September will tell.
Looks like green is the new black, and Zalando knows it well! This season, it made its debut as a partner to Neonyt, one of the largest sustainable fashion events. For those interested, it will take place in Berlin, which is a great opportunity for the site” to connect with great brands and to show its sustainability efforts”. (K.Heiny, Zalando’s director of corporate responsibility ). We hope this path to sustainability will bring successful results on the road!
On a bad period for all retail stocks, Farfetch shines bright. The London-based online luxury marketplace posted a revenue increase of 69% to $1.2 billion, with more than 2 million active customers. But what is really making the platform resilient to the negative impact of the Covid-19 outbreak? According to CEO José Neves, the key is given by online positioning, distributed supply chain and a third-party marketplace model. We are impressed.
By Giuliana Madonia
