This was published 3 years ago
The shops have reopened but for many, the pain is only beginning
Australia's first live fashion runway in more than eight months took place this week in a cactus garden. The show, part of a condensed, mostly digital Melbourne Fashion Week, was designed to reignite interest in and sales of fashion in the city's centre. Models in pretty lace dresses and pastel suits slowly traversed through the Arid Garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens in a perfect metaphor for the state of the Australian fashion industry as we near the end of 2020: there are signs of regrowth – but watch for spikes.
Like most industries besieged by coronavirus, fashion faces a long road to recovery. For many brands, the pain began in March, when lockdown cleared the country's social calendar in one fell swoop. Ominously, it was midway through the Melbourne Fashion Festival that the city went into shutdown. Still, the reverberations were felt nationwide. In Sydney, the March wedding season was thrown into disarray. Department stores cancelled orders en masse. Australian Fashion Week, set for May, was cancelled. And spring racing, the lifeblood of many fashion labels, was in doubt.
Thorny issues ... Melbourne Fashion Week played host to Australia's first catwalk in eight months.Credit: Justin McManus
In April, the same month clothing sales dipped to their lowest level in 25 years, the Australian Fashion Council (AFC) surveyed its members about the impact of COVID-19. It found takings were down on average 80 per cent; "negative" sales days, when more stock was returned than bought, became commonplace as people retreated indoors. Suddenly, there was nowhere to go, and no need to get dressed.
"Apocalyptic", is how AFC boss Leila Naji Hibri, who only took over in February, describes the situation at the start of COVID-19. Nine months on, to her great relief, some brands have done better than expected, and not just those making tracksuits. "There's still a big shakeup that’s going to happen," she says. "It was already happening. Every few months we had someone going into administration."
The stark reality is that not every business will survive. This week, Thurley ceased trading after 15 years, following a string of brands entering voluntary administration including Alice McCall, Seafolly, Bardot, Jeanswest and Jets. Some, such as swimwear brand Tigerlily, have found new owners and structures, while others have quietly exited fashion's stage.
Closing down ... Thurley is the latest casualty.Credit: Simon Schluter
Richard Poulson, the Perth-based founder of womenswear brand Morrison who organised virtual roundtables for fashion brands during COVID, believes the end of JobKeeper in March will "flush out" the industry. "It’s terribly sad when you see brands going into administration and you wonder what you could have done to help," he says.
Alice McCall (right) has appointed administrators for her 16-year-old business.Credit: SMH
Take the case of McCall, who upon announcing her voluntary administration sent shockwaves through industry circles. "But she was flying," one magazine editor commented. In the COVID-19 retail climate, no one was safe.
Leap to lounge
While McCall's speciality in party frocks put her in the crosshairs during coronavirus, Vanessa Rochman, whose brand Primness makes "seasonless" basics and layering pieces, considers herself among the lucky ones. Early on in the pandemic, she started making face masks, sensing they were about to become more prolific (and, in the case of Victoria, mandated).
Primness designer Vanessa Rochman.Credit: Simon Schluter
"We had a great capsule in winter that was loungewear that we designed a year prior, so we were first to market for that category," she says. Manufacturing locally also gave Rochman an edge over brands that were plagued by shipping delays and quadrupling freight costs.
Still, for the most part, face masks and tracksuit pants alone can't save a business. But for many brands, they helped keep the lights on.
Tracksuits 'saved my life': Atoir's Cynthia Farchione.Credit: Simon Schluter
Nowhere was the need to pirouette more pressing than in the event-dressing category. Cynthia Farchione, of Atoir, felt the strain as early as January, as COVID took root in China, where she manufactures. "We had a couple of hundred thousands of dollars of sales from the US immediately put on hold when COVID hit – that really hurts your cash flow," she says.
Atoir was set to launch a collection of dresses with influencer Rozalia Russian when coronavirus hit Australia. Fortunately, Farchione was able to halt production and switch the range to loungewear. The collections sold out within hours. "I received emails from smaller boutiques in some country towns saying, 'Wow, I am pretty sure my business would be closed if not for the Rozalia [collaboration]," she says.
Farchione thinks the pandemic has altered the way Australians dress for the foreseeable future. This week, she and Russian launched a second collection, which is less "loungey" but still nothing like the party dresses Atoir was known for. "Even if events come back, I don't know if people are ready to come back to the full-on party dress," she says. "I never thought I would be developing tracksuits. And here we are – they saved my life."
A broken system?
Many agree the experience of the past nine months presents a prime opportunity for the Australian fashion industry to reform itself, taking its cues from global leaders. In May, an international coalition headed by Belgian designer Dries van Noten co-signed an "Open letter to the Fashion Industry", which demanded less product, fewer seasons, a retail calendar that better reflects customers' needs, less travel and less discounting. After all, how is selling coats in summer, swimwear in winter and marking down the whole lot every six weeks to make way for more stuff good business practice? Put simply, it isn't.
Rewriting the rules ... Maggie Marilyn's Maggie Hewitt. Credit: Angela Datre
Clare Press, author and host of the Wardrobe Crisis podcast, says one positive is consumers are finally heeding the "buy less, buy well" message she and other sustainability advocates have been championing for years. It's just a shame it took a pandemic for it to happen.
"When it comes to sustainability we want people who are active ... and care about an industry that lives more lightly on the planet. But this isn't the way I'd like it to happen," she says. "Sustainability means social sustainability as well as environmental sustainably and part of that social piece is having businesses that can continue and thrive."
How brands respond to the challenge to disrupt the system will vary based on their category and target customer. Last month, New Zealand label Maggie Marilyn made the bold decision to stop selling wholesale, cutting off supply to more than 30 retailers including Net-a-Porter. In a video explaining the change, designer Maggie Hewitt says: "This will be our last 'season' ... We need change that’s faster, stronger, and bolder … Our decisions will no longer be dictated by seasons or someone else’s rules."
Removing the guesswork
Anthony Bianco, managing director of Tony Bianco shoes, says the brand has gone through some of its hardest times in its 48-year history. As lockdown hit, orders were cancelled, leaving the company with 40,000 excess pairs of shoes. It had no choice but to enter a three-month period of steady discounting, something Bianco never wants to do again. Sadly, the company had to make 30 people redundant, while most other staff were reduced to two days.
"[Those were] some of the hardest decisions we have had to make, telling your uncle who’s worked for you for 37 years he no longer has a job," Bianco says. "We really didn't know if we were going to survive it."
But the business is using the nightmare of 2020 to make big changes, including closing more underperforming stores and shifting more styles to a pre-order model. The goal is driving consumer desire early in the season, less guess work, more full-price sales and less waste. Bianco says the business is now firmly "digital first", increasing the share of online sales from 40 per cent pre-COVID to 70 per cent.
Still, for most businesses, the turnaround will be slow and challenging. Global consultancy firm McKinsey & Company, in its upcoming State of Fashion Report, reportedly estimates profits are down 93 per cent end-to-end across the fashion and luxury sectors. And for all the optimism about a bounce back in time for Christmas, Poulson, the founder of Morrison, warns of "more carnage to come", as Australia feels the full impact of a global economic downturn.
"The only way we will get through it is strength in numbers," he says. "Shopping local, supporting Australian brands and being more conscious and more sustainable and more circular."
Hibri agrees the industry needs to get more consumers excited about wearing Australian and not just "when overseas people get excited about it". The AFC is also seeking Federal Government grants to help with business support services that could extend to financial advice and mental health.
The way sustainable fashion expert Press sees it, there will be pain as retail models "adapt and falter" – but the future is bright.
"We have such incredible talent and vision but this is that 'fork in the road' moment when the old gets swept away – and if it was already broken it’s going to fall apart," she says. "Some legacy brands will continue but I think there will be a shift in attention to new ideas. And that’s nothing to be scared about."
Rochman, whose Melbourne flagship reopened when restrictions lifted four weeks ago, is feeling optimistic about Christmas. "I think it will all bounce back, I think people quickly forget and want to live their life as it was before," she says.
Nonetheless, she agrees recovery will take years, and there's still that JobKeeper "cliff" to get past. Still, she can't help marvel that her next collection, done in lockdown with "zero compromises", is her strongest yet. "Instead of doing something by half because we weren't sure, we have gone all in," she says.
Now, it's up to her customers to decide what happens next.