Covid-19 and the fashion system

The Coronavirus emergency has changed our daily lives, forced us to reconsider certainties and redesign priorities. The fashion system has also suffered with inevitable repercussions on habits and consumption. Fashion is one of the pillars of the Italian economy and has a strong anthropological component, sometimes becoming a means of communication and recognition. During the lockdown, the textile companies converted their production to make masks and gowns. From large chains to small neighborhood shops, everything - or almost everything - has moved to digital, ensuring continuity of service for citizens and businesses. From February to today, online purchases have gone from 27 to 29 million.

May 18 marked the reopening of the shops: distancing, quota entrances, sanitation of goods and surfaces, much has changed and everyone's efforts are great in the attempt to establish a new normality. According to the estimates of the Italian Fashion Federation, the fashion market is worth about 97 billion euros but in 2020 a loss of over 50% is expected. Closed shops and a collapse in demand have brought small shopkeepers and producers to their knees, but also big names in the sector, especially those of the so-called “fast fashion”, whose production is highly globalized. A change of course is urgently needed: a new business model with a sustainable production and distribution system, quality management of the human resources involved, greater consistency between what is communicated with marketing and what is actually done. Will this global emergency be able to restructure the modus operandi of the fashion system?

Elisa D'Adamo

from NP October 2020