Part 1: Summer Homework Findings - Fashion Forecasting and Narratives

Earth 2030...

Summer Homework Findings Fashion Forecasting and Narratives – AD5605

Heleena Houston – 1918689

Summer Homework Findings – 2000 Word Introduction Fashion Forecasting and Narratives – AD5605 Heleena Houston – 1918689

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The Coronavirus pandemic has undoubtedly taken over the past year for us and research suggests that we aren’t out of the tunnel yet. Entering a new decade; 2020 was a year that no one could have anticipated. With Coronavirus affecting anything and everything in its path, it’s safe to say the fashion industry has not been spared from this dark cloud. With predictions for 2020 being the continuation of growth amongst the digital marketing world, to customers expecting transparency (Zarina de Ruiter, 2019) and for brands to show more initiative in their approach in helping the planet regarding the current climate change crisis through sustainability, Coronavirus has really accelerated the processes and thinking time for brands. Thinking ahead in 10 years, what does 2030 hold for us now, how will consumer habits evolve and what can brands do to meet their needs? This fashion forecasting package is to convey our journey to 2030, researching, suggesting and concluding what the trend drivers will be in creating our future world, in the hope for inding comfort and reassurance over the stormy seas of 2020.

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Recent research conducted prior to this trend forecasting package for Earth: 2030 suggested that there are lots of areas being considered for the future, not just in fashion but in everyday life. With any journey, there are many routes we can take, it isn’t always going to be straightforward or how we planned it and having a spanner thrown into the works means we have to adapt quickly and eficiently, much like how we did in 2020. By splitting the future into two pieces we can consider what direction we will be going in, for example going ‘Left’ will mean we are going back to traditionalism consisting of make do and mend, craft and best of British, or we could turn ‘Right’ which indicates innovation, with elements such as artiicial intelligence, virtual reality, digital identities and new approaches that have never been seen or used before in the industry. However, it’s important to consider if these two paths will cross-over and in this introduction, I will highlight some of the research I undertook over summer using primary and secondary sources to show what is happening in 2020 that will inluence our Earth: 2030.

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LEFT

OR

RIGHT

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The Coronavirus pandemic has interfered with everything from physical environments, to digital environments and even the way we think and approach certain things in life. As mentioned before, the pandemic accelerated how brands had to think about their futures (Russ, 2020).

Thinking about pre-pandemic consumer values, we saw the increase in shopping sustainably and wanting to play our part in ighting climate change, by shopping consciously and discarding garments sensibly. On average, it is estimated that 1.14 million tonnes of clothing is supplied to the UK market each year, where 31% of used clothing equivalating to 350,000 tonnes of it going to landill in the UK every year (SCAP Extending the Life of Clothes Design Awards Design Brief | WRAP Cymru, 2013). It is with frightening statistics and visual evidence such as deforestation, overlowing landill sites and working conditions that encourages consumers to start relecting how they source their garments. Whereas, if we extended the average life of clothes by just three months of active use per item, it would result to a 5-10% decrease in each of the carbon, water and waste footprints (Extending the Life of Clothes | WRAP UK, 2015). Fast fashion plays a major part in the overproduction of garments which leads to the detrimental effects that we are becoming more aware of today. Because of this, consumers want to see and feel more transparency and authenticity between brand to consumer relationships and they want to be onboard with what their favourite brands are doing to tackle the negative consequences fashion is having on the environment.

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More so right now, consumer needs are changing at very fast speeds which means brands need to keep up. Consumer attitudes and shopping patterns are suggesting that people are buying to last. They don’t want something that is going to serve them for ive minutes or if worn once, they cannot wear it again – they want durability to help limit their spending on cheap items that end up in landill every year. Is ‘Luxury the new sustainable?’. Sustainability itself cannot be a trend that falls out of fashion in 10 years’ time, it needs to become integrated into all homes so that it is a daily practice. Reading BBCs article on ‘What does luxury mean now?’ suggests that people are moving away from being passive consumers because they understand the effects of cheap production and therefore now believe that ‘consumers increasingly view buying luxury fashion as a sustainable choice’ (Banks, 2018). However, can the luxury market be accessible for every household with varying disposable incomes? This is what well-established luxury brands and ones that emerge in the future need to consider.

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Luxury brands are known to have a lot of deadstock that builds up and is unused. A current conversation topic is what can they do with this to refrain for wasting large quantities of fabric? The usual demographic for luxury brands would be older generations and as for Generation – Z, they are starting to make a real imprint on the future of fashion. Known for driving passion and inding a way to do things and innovate, it is certain that Gen-Z will ind a way to access luxury goods despite not having huge amounts of disposable income.

Although buying things to make them last longer can be seen as a positive change in consumer habits, what about making things or adapting existing garments? Lockdown saw a huge surge with the whole concept of make do and mend which went viral on social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. It was evident that making your own clothes was a trend driven by Gen-Z and was also gaining popularity pre-pandemic, however with more time at home, DIY fashion has really grown and using viral platforms such as TikTok can be a beneicial way and successful method in persuading people to do the same (Lucy Maguire, 2020). My question is, ‘how can luxury brands support the creative minds of younger generations which could help boost their brand for the better?’

Referring back to the understanding of deadstock, it could be seen that luxury brands start to make use of this by giving it to younger creators to make unique pieces that younger people can identify with. Luxury brands should start to attract new consumers and their loyal consumers now so that they can trust them in the future years to come, but how can they maintain their heritage through the ever-changing world of design and marketing?

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Another approach is to go into ‘resale’. A lot of luxury brands have avoided this in the past in fear of it affecting their image. However, Gucci is launching an online shop with consignment site The RealReal which could beneit from the growing amount of second hand shoppers (Deeley, 2020). The article suggests that if brands invest in this approach, it is an easy way for them to engage with the growing consumer interest of sustainability which is important, otherwise consumer’s will stop purchasing from these brands if they show no evidence in trying to play their part in creating a better and safer fashion future. It also encourages the consumer to join the circular fashion cycle and hand down to the next person. I think in 2030, people will want to seek comfort from what they purchase as they crave reassurance. If they can’t trust the world, they need to trust their clothing as it is one of the most intimate things we own as humans.

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Figure 1: screenshot retrieved from equilibrium.gucci.com

Figure 2: screenshot retrieved from therealreal.com

A constant thought of mine is that there is no innovation without traditionalism, meaning brands can’t move on without looking back and seeing what has worked in the past. Over the lockdown, this has put huge amounts of pressure on brands as it limited the ability to produce new content for their consumers due to social distancing measures. A way that some luxury brands have been communicating with their audiences is by taking a trip down memory lane due to keeping fashion creatives stuck at home.

A few brands started to republish old campaigns (Milner and Suen, 2020).

Burberry was among these to post advertising from the past to their social media in the help to boost the brand’s #BurberryHeritage campaign.

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Under strict lockdown measures being put in place during March 2020, many employees were asked to work from home if they had the facilities to do so or were placed on the furlough scheme. Masses of people were ordering laptops and computer’s so that they could start creating their ‘at home ofice’. With the closure of non-essential retailers, this forced clothing stores and many others to shut their doors with the uncertainty of themselves on when they would re-open. With brands having a foggy road ahead, how could they reassure their customers? Here we talk about engagement. With no physical shopping space, brand to consumer communication has never been more important.

During my research, I sent out a questionnaire and zooming in on ages 13-23 (Gen-Z), I asked if they felt they had lost some sense of purpose in their life. One comment stated: ‘I feel as though everything has been stripped back to basics, everyone is going through the same thing, I have no original story to tell from being in this lockdown and I feel the only way I could express myself was through clothing which I cannot do as we are stuck at home’. If our identities cannot be portrayed by what we wear physically, then how else can we express ourselves?

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Many brands are starting to hop on the bandwagon of creating ‘digital identities’ and are looking into gaming as a way of making this happen. (Alexander, 2020) suggests that as the gaming community becomes more mainstream, the fashion world is cashing in. Evidence of this comes from the Nintendo game ‘Animal Crossing’ which really excelled during lockdown. They collaborated with activewear brand Nook Street Market which allowed Animal Crossing players to create custom in-game clothing and accessories (Wei, 2020). For many, gaming is used as a method of escapism to focus on things other than the real world which is important in today’s current situation. With social distancing and the fear of contracting Covid-19, people can take their minds off what makes them anxious, and regarding social distancing, this innovative game allows you to visit other people’s islands, so rather than meeting up with friends physically, you can join them virtually. By being able to construct a new identity digitally, this adds a little fun to the process and there is less pressure on one’s physical self too. If more luxury brands could join in, then it would allow consumers to really experience this ‘try before you buy’ concept. They could even have outits saved to their virtual wardrobe that they can come back to later Bringing this element into the real world, could help with overproduction issues and by having virtual wardrobes and trying these on your digital characters, consumers could really experiment with shopping their digital selves. Also, brands could base their next season on what people have been saving to their digital wardrobes by creating physical garments from digital ones, further generating a buzz around that brand..

Figure 3: Animal Crossing New Horizons retrieved from polygon.com

Figure 4: Animal Crossing wardrobe retrieved from reddit.com

Figure 5: Animal Crossing New Horizons retrieved from gamesradar.com

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Initially, a post-pandemic looks quite dystopian-like, a world-wide depression, economic breakdown, political tension, riots and protests, how do people’s identities change? The protests in response to George Floyd’s killing has had worldwide affects and it was expected for brands to show that they were acknowledging what was happening. White people felt guilt more than ever and had to come to terms with their white-privileged lives. The Black Lives Matter movement saw masses of people coming together to support and acknowledge the same issue that enough is enough, and inequality has to stop, racial discrimination has to stop, especially institutional racism. This forced white people to make personal challenges for themselves, and how they could educate themselves on becoming an anti-racist ally. This huge movement saw a surge in people purchasing from black owned businesses, but for actual change to happen, the fashion industry must fulill their declaration of inclusivity in making sure they put in the same amount of effort into supporting upcoming labels as they do with established heritage brands (Bonilla, 2020). This cannot be a trend though, brands need to show continuous support to these people and in 2030 it is hoped that the level of inclusivity will be balanced, black people will be seen as equal and their identity will be celebrated not targeted.

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Figure 7: screenshot retrieved from harpersbazaar.com Figure 6: screenshot retrieved from instagram.com

Figure 8: screenshot retrieved from instagram.com

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Relecting on negative elements of this harsh reality, whether it be race, climate change or political decisions to shut down the economy, a new light must be shone on the future. It needs to bring vibrancy to the lives of people in the world and the generations yet to be born. A worldwide pandemic cannot take over the world in the years to come and it is a question of how we can turn this experience into a positive outlook for Earth: 2030 and predict the main trend drivers for this traditional and transformative future.

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EARTH 2030?

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List of References...

Alexander, E. (2020, March 24). It’s time to get on board with fashion gaming. Harper’s BAZAAR. https:// www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/fashion/a29649089/how-gaming-became-fashionable/ Banks, L. (2018, December 11). What does luxury mean now? https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20181210what-does-luxury-mean-now Bonilla, C. (2020, September 1). Black-Owned Businesses Kept Up That Same Energy. Did You? https://www. reinery29.com/en-gb/2020/09/9999273/supporting-black-owned-businesses-trend Daphne Milner and Zoe Suen. (2020, May 12). Why Brands Are Revisiting Old Advertising Campaigns | News & Analy sis | BoF. https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/why-brands-arerevisiting-old-fashion-campaigns Extending the Life of Clothes | WRAP UK. (2015, December 2). https://wrap.org.uk/content/extending-lifeclothes Lucy Maguire. (2020, May 4). With Gen Z under lockdown, DIY fashion takes off. Vogue Business. https:// www.voguebusiness.com/fashion/with-gen-z-under-lockdown-diy-fashion-takes-off Rachel Deeley. (2020, October 5). Why Gucci Is Getting Into Resale | News & Analysis, BoF Professional | BoF. https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/professional/gucci-resale-the-realreal-levis-luxurygen-z Russ, B. (2020, May 7). Social disruption and how it impacts the past, present and future of fashion. https:// fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/social-disruption-and-how-it-impacts-the-past-present-and-future-offashion/2020050748820 SCAP Extending the Life of Clothes Design Awards design brief | WRAP Cymru. (2013, June 3). http://www. wrapcymru.org.uk/content/design-brief Wei Alexander. (2020, September 11). More Luxury Fashion and Beauty Brands Should Dive Into Games.

Here’s Why. https://luxurysociety.com/articles/2020/09/more-luxury-fashion-and-beauty-brandsshould-dive-into-games-heres-why

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Zarina de Ruiter. (2019, December). 10 digital marketing predictions for 2020. Think with Google. https:// www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-gb/future-of-marketing/machine-learning/10-digital-marketingpredictions-2020/

List of Image References...

Figure 1: https://equilibrium.gucci.com/the-real-real/ Figure 2: https://www.therealreal.com/lash_sales/the-realreal-x-gucci-6520 Figure 3: https://www.polygon.com/2020/7/13/21322730/animal-crossing-new-horizons-acnh-the-path-pattern-code-dirt-fairy-cobblestone-nintendo-switch Figure 4: https://www.reddit.com/r/ACQR/comments/g0tdoa/pink_and_green_loral_stall_designs_for_my/ Figure 5: https://www.gamesradar.com/animal-crossing-new-horizons-island-ideas/ Figure 6: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGzy1OOgMN7/ (https://www.instagram.com/oficialmillennialblack/) Figure 7: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/fashion/what-to-wear/g32740781/black-designers-fashionbrands/ Figure 8: https://www.instagram.com/p/CA7hcbCAPlJ/ (https://www.instagram.com/oficialmillennialblack/)

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EARTH 2030...