#covid19

Feb 11, 2021
2 min

Happy New Lunar Year 2021 of the Ox!

The Year of the Ox becomes an even more important shopping holiday in an increasingly globalized, intrapandemic world. From February 12 through the 26, the new year is celebrated by millions of consumers in China and all over the world as a time of cleansing, gift-giving, and good luck. This year, as New York Fashion Week continues to diminish in importance and China’s economic recovery surges ahead of the west post-covid, brands are prioritizing the APAC consumer. According

Dec 23, 2020
5 min

2020 Was Chaotic, but Some Things Need to Stay

If lockdown has taught us anything, it’s that comfort is key, self-expression is fun, mass-consumption needs to go, and caring is cool. In a year like no other, many of us have been made to look inwards at ourselves and the world around us. It’s been a year of reflection which has seen our habits, lifestyles, and thinking change — and that doesn’t have to be all bad. One of the biggest changes this year has been the way we consume. With the limitations of lockdowns and being

Dec 14, 2020
1 min

Doing the Impossible: Launching a New Product Line During the Holidays

In the latest WWD-produced webinar, Courtney Velasco, industry marketing lead at Oracle NetSuite, and Nathan Newman, cofounder and chief operating officer at Winky Lux, joined WWD executive editor Arthur Zaczkiewicz in discussing new challenges on the global supply chain, building an infrastructure to support sales, and launching a product line during the holidays. Since its conception, Winky Lux has stood out in the market with its joyful messaging, engaging a multigenerati

Dec 10, 2020
2 min

Prada Sales in China Surged 52% in Second Half of 2020

Despite a weaker first half of 2020 which saw Prada suffer a €515 million EUR loss (roughly $633 million USD), sales have rebounded in the latter half of last year, pushing the luxury fashion house to “a full recovery to 2019 levels.” The most significant contributor came from the Asia Pacific region and especially China, which saw a massive 52 percent growth in sales during H2. While Europe and Japan continued to underperform during the period due to lack of tourism, the Ame

Jul 22, 2020
10 min

“Back To School” Fashion in the Age of Online School

What if there is no going back-to-schools this fall? Retailers fret the potential impact on business, apparel sales in particular, and are being challenged like never before to manage their marketing, ordering and inventories in an economic climate of extreme uncertainty. Pressures are mounting in a season where coronavirus cases continue to spike in many states, unemployment remains high and politics are depressingly divisive. Kohl’s marketing promotes “heading back or loggi

Jul 15, 2020
2 min

London Fashion Week to Go Ahead With Physical Shows in September

The British Fashion Council (BFC) has announced that London Fashion Week will go ahead with physical shows in September. The official dates for the gender-neutral showcase have been announced as Thursday September 17 to Tuesday September 22. Taking to Instagram to share the news, the BFC outlined that social distancing measures will be in effect for the physical shows, and that there will also be a digital component. “The event will include both digital activations on londonf

Jul 8, 2020
6 min

Our Cash-Free Future Is Getting Closer

The pandemic is propelling a shift toward a cashless society in ways that no other single event has. Experts say that’s not necessarily a good thing. On a typical Sunday, patrons at Julien Cornu’s cheese shop used to load up on Camembert and chèvre for the week, with about half the customers digging into their pockets for euro notes and coins. But in the era of the coronavirus, cash is no longer à la mode at La Fromagerie, as social distancing requirements and concerns over h

Jul 8, 2020
5 min

Websites Used to be Secondary to Stores. That Dynamic is Shifting.

Investing in online is now no longer a choice for fashion. At a time when most stores have been closed to traditional shoppers, omnichannel services are burgeoning, prompting a mindset shift: websites don’t exist merely to supplement stores; stores, instead, support online sales. “There’s a shift in the balance of power toward digital,” says eMarketer principal analyst Andrew Lipsman, who adds that the pandemic has specifically accelerated omnichannel fulfilment. “While those

Jul 8, 2020
5 min

The Pandemic Is Rewriting the Rules of Retail

Retailers need to stop expecting business to return to “normal.” There’s no going back to how it was anytime soon. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic and economic crisis, brick-and-mortar retailers had been fighting a fierce battle against Amazon and other e-commerce players. Those challenges have now accelerated at staggering speed. The latest data from McKinsey shows that consumers are likely to keep the behaviors they’ve adopted amid stay-at-home orders, such as more onlin

Jul 1, 2020
5 min

Sustainable Sleepwear Brand Talks Antibacterial, Antiviral Fabrics

In the past, antibacterial and antiviral fabric treatments were merely an “add-on” feature — but according to Dagsmejan, a sustainable Swedish-Swiss sleepwear company, these technologies “have become a must-have” due to the coronavirus pandemic. Antibacterial fabrics have been around for many years, as they’ve been particularly useful for performance-oriented sportswear, the company said. “Traditionally, [antibacterial technology] has been a finishing applied to the knitted f

May 26, 2020
5 min

Department Stores Are Dying. Could Artificial Intelligence Replace Them?

The Yes is a shopping app that uses AI to give you all the variety of a department store with none of the headaches. Department stores have been on the decline for years, and now that the pandemic has emptied brick-and-mortar stores, they may die out entirely. But the concept of being able to easily browse different brands and products still resonates with many shoppers. A new app called The Yes is built to be a virtual department store. Julie Bornstein [Image: The Yes] The a

May 26, 2020
3 min

How Growth For Indie Retail Is Forecasted Post Covid-19

The COVID-19 crisis is forecasted to make major changes in the retail business, and, when the dust from the crisis settles, some of the entrepreneurs best positioned to start over and make a connection with consumers will be independent retailers, according to a handful of industry watchers. The crisis has changed people’s lives and their needs. They’ll be looking for retailers who will reflect their needs, said Paco Underhill. As founder of the market-research company Enviro

May 26, 2020
3 min

The Future of Luxury Is Freedom

Beyond goods, services and experiences, freedom will become the ultimate signifier of status. In essence, luxury is about status, playing to that fundamentally human need to communicate who you are and how you fit into the social hierarchy. Through the ages and across cultures, status has been expressed in a multitude of ways, from the tone of one’s complexion to the size of one’s kingdom. But fundamentally, signalling status has long been about possessing something that is w

May 26, 2020
3 min

Could Antiviral Fabrics Take Off With Luxury Shoppers?

A leading Italian manufacturer has perfected an antiviral fabric, one of the first of its kind. Vogue Business unpicks the potential. Can your clothing protect you from Covid-19? A leading Italian luxury manufacturer says it has developed an antiviral fabric that may, and major luxury brands are snapping it up. Albini Group, best known as a dress shirt fabric supplier to companies including Kering, Armani, Ermenegildo Zegna and Prada, has developed new ViroFormula fabrics, cr

May 26, 2020
5 min

What Comes After Legacy Mid-Market Retail

J.Crew, Neiman Marcus, JCPenney. In May, the whispered demise of some of America’s most storied retailers abruptly became a reality with a final push from Covid-19. With the coronavirus pandemic ravaging US apparel and accessories retail sales (in April revenues fell 88 per cent according to the US Census Bureau) and traditional bricks-and-mortar retail already struggling with too many stores, heavy debt loads and little digital presence, the future of the middle market is li

May 26, 2020
3 min

What Will Post Pandemic Progression Look Like?

There’s no denying the Covid-19 pandemic has caused huge disruption, devastation and uncertainty about our future. Daily routines have shifted as everyone and everything tries to adjust, but we wanted to know if this really is the dawn of something different or just a momentary blip before it all goes back to business as usual? So we asked our community, what are you really going to change? This report explores the long-term attitudes – not short term reactions – that brands

May 26, 2020
11 min

After Covid-19: What Changed For (the) Good?

Sales could fall up to 35% this year, but companies can still emerge stronger, more innovative, and more purposeful. From the earliest stages of the pandemic, the luxury industry has been highly attuned to the spread of the coronavirus—and its massive implications for the sector. Luxury brand owners felt the first rumblings of the storm when Covid-19 spread through China, the country whose citizens accounted for 90% of global luxury market growth in 2019. When the virus reach

May 21, 2020
1 min

Covid-19 & The Retail Industry: An Overview

MADE Trends introduces "Covid-19 & The Retail Industry". In this new report, MADE Trends explores a post-COVID future for retail, where brands and consumers alike will be forced to collaborate and evolve in creative new ways. After years of "retail apocalypse" predictions, the coronavirus pandemic has thrown the industry into truly uncharted waters where it feels like only the strongest will survive. But when the dust settles, we suggest there is an opportunity for a retail r

May 20, 2020
5 min

COVID-19 Could Usher in a New Normal, Sustainability, Social Purpose

In times of crisis, it is tempting to lose focus on initiatives that support longer-term business goals such as creating a more sustainable industry and contributing to the social good. And with the uncertainty COVID-19 has brought, it’s understandable that cash-strapped companies would view any programs that are not critical to their immediate survival as unnecessary right now. But we can’t afford to lose the momentum we’ve built in terms of raising awareness and taking acti

May 20, 2020
3 min

Does ‘Business Comfortable’ Have Staying Power?

The world of working remotely has given rise to a “business comfortable” dress code. While it is generally advised to keep some semblance of routine and to dress in something marginally work-appropriate, there is little reason to sacrifice comfort for style when, at most, you will be seen from the waist up in a virtual meeting. After all, why would anyone want to be uncomfortable in their own home? Even Anna Wintour posted a picture of herself at her computer, dressed in trac