Michael Kors predicts fashion's future...
As you probably could have guessed, fashion guru Michael Kors has some pretty insightful things to say about the fashion and luxury industries. So we tuned in when he wrote an essay about the future of fashion for the Wall Street Journal’s 125th anniversary. Of course, he nailed it:
‘I love fashion because it's plugged into the zeitgeist, so it's always changing. Thirty years ago, I could never have predicted I'd be where I am today, so I know I don't know what's going to happen in the next five years or the next 20 years,’ he wrote.
‘I have my predictions - I'm sure technology will continue to have an impact on fashion, particularly the way people shop. I think quality will be increasingly important - we're moving away from a time of fast fashion.'
This may not seem like such a loaded statement, but what he wrote was actually rather revealing about the way the fashion industry has dramatically changed in the last 10-15 years.
Before smart phones and before the Internet, the fashion show was a very exclusive, closed event, reserved for big-time buyers and editors; and the collections wouldn’t hit stores or magazines until their designated season. SS would actually land in the Spring and AW in autumn.
Fast fashion has basically put the entire industry into hyper speed. Today, you can see a collection seconds after it's hit the catwalk via Twitter or Instagram and you can buy it, or high street versions of it in a matter of days. This has put the pedal to the metal in terms of garment production.
Fast fashion is a concern because we consume and throw away fashion at such a fast pace, and at such low prices, all that’s left are incomprehensible heaps of discarded goods that are no longer in style and are effecting our ecosystems.
Not only has this hit the luxury industry hard, it’s also taking a toll on our environment as well as putting questionable ethics into practice.To make up for it, designers are producing even more collections per year, forcing trends to turn into fads faster than you can say ‘Valentino Garavani’.
Kate Fletcher, coiner of the term ‘Slow Fashion,’ explained what the movement is all about in the Ecologist:
‘Slow fashion is about designing, producing, consuming and living better. Slow fashion is not time-based but quality-based (which has some time components). Slow is not the opposite of fast – there is no dualism – but a different approach in which designers, buyers, retailers and consumers are more aware of the impacts of products on workers, communities and ecosystems.’
Michael Kors also wrote, 'But really, the only constant in fashion is that you must keep moving forward, otherwise you'll be left behind.'
Is it time to jump on the slow-moving slow fashion bandwagon? Do you think Michael Kors’ prediction is correct? Tell us your thoughts in the comments box below…
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