The old fashion calendar. Pre-Collina Strada F/W18. I’m 7 months pregnant waiting for the runway to start.

In last week’s Fashion Friday we talked about what I dubbed The Jerry Maguire Manifesto of the fashion world.  It calls for a revamp to the fashion calendar.  Instead of moving at light speed and producing 6 collections per year, designers would just produce two.

Gucci is the first brand to confirm their participation.  Saint Laurent will also release collections on “their own calendar” forgoing traditional fashion weeks.

What does this mean?

It’s starting.

Many fashion journalists have argued that a revamp to the fashion world has been in the making for several years.  Unfortunately, it took a global pandemic to tip the scale.

Because Gucci and Saint Laurent are part of a fashion conglomerate (Kering), this is a significant development.  Hopefully it will create a trickle-down effect and other conglomerate brands and indie designers will follow suit.

The benefits of a slowdown are plentiful.  Less impact on the environment, less importance placed on “consume, consume, consume” and more time for designers to actually… design.

But how will consumers respond to this slowdown?  Will the lack of fresh inventory cause consumers to lose interest and subsequently hurt brands?  If it isn’t “new” will it be less appealing to the consumer?

This quote epitomizes my take on the situation.

“Just as a Picasso painting is not thrown away because it’s old, why should a fashion design be discarded after one or two seasons?  The product is an expression of the creative soul, just as it is for an artist.”

— Alessandro Maria Ferreri (CEO of The Style Gate)

The fashion die-hards understand.  We’ll adjust.  The fast-fashion brands will scramble.  With fewer collections to copy, what will they produce?  Fashion Nova, one of the largest fast-fashion companies around, produces 1000 new styles per week.  Per week.

With the big fashion houses slowing down, will the rest of the fashion world follow suit?

One can only hope.