Hi everyone, it's Justine.
My last Fashion Talk video was a while ago
about Fast Fashion, if you remember.
Well, today's video is also about that topic, I should say "burning topic,"
Because we're close to civil war in the fashion industry.
"See now, buy now." That's the business model saying, what you see in the show should be
available for purchase immediately afterwards. Seems to make sense.
Yet there are other brands that are categorically against it.
A few brands who are actually trying it and are called 'betrayers' by the others.
And a third group, that prefers to wait and see from afar, if the second group is going to make it.
To help you understand how we got to that situation,
I'd like to start a bit earlier in the story,
And I want to tell you about how the industry used to work in the past,
how it's working today,
And if you guys always wondered how come fashion week is now and then,
and when the collections come out and whatever
keep watching because that will be answered in that part.
Third one. What this "see now, buy now"  model wants to change
and what it's about
Fourth. Which brands are trying it? Are They succeeding or no?
And fifth. What happens next?
How the Industry used to work.
Gabrielle Chanel would invite
her best customers, all those women, to her atelier in Paris.
Show them a collection made and sewn in the atelier, and then
take orders directly from the customers, and each piece of clothing would be made to order.
That was a very easy world!
How the Industry works today.
In the last decades it has become "slightly" more complex than this. Let's take the example of the
collection for spring/summer 2017.
In September 2016 was Fashion Week.
In February 2017 retail starts: clothes are available everywhere.
From February to July 2017, clothes are sold at their regular price.
From July to September, the following summer fashion week, it's going to be sales time.
Everything at a discount.
In order to have Fashion Week in September,
We need to have had six months earlier all the fabric fairs,
what fabrics are available to purchase by brands
to prepare their collections.
It means that 6 months earlier than this, trend agencies have released
Fashion and fabric trend reports.
I summarise: You have Spring/Summer clothes going in to Winter in February
which is the middle of Winter.
And when the clothes hit the racks, the fashion industry has already been working on it for over 1 1/2 years.
If you think this timeline makes no sense,  you are right!
But the fashion industry works like this.
Everybody's used to having it this way.
The time between the show and the retail store is for buyers to decide, order, wait, and receive the pieces they have selected
for their stores.
For the brands, it's ordering and production time.
For the editors of Vogue and Elle, and everybody who's  sitting front row in all those shows,
It's time to think, reflect, find the trends, and shoot beautiful pictures for their magazines.
If you count backwards from retail start, you really do land in September 2015!
You realise that in that system
Fashion Week is the central point
Everything happens before or after it in the supply chain
based on those dates.
So if you're a brand
you're under huge pressure
to make the best impression during Fashion Week
So instead of inviting your customers
you're going to invite the buyers,
and the press who you need the reviews from.
Does it bother anyone that summer clothes are made available in February?
Which where I live is in the middle of the winter.
And also what about having to wait until February
for clothes that you know already exist since September?
So that's were the 'See Now, Buy Now" model comes in.
"See Now, Buy Now" and what it changes.
Fact. Since that thing called the Internet started
people are getting used to buying things they see immediately online.
They also see what happens at Fashion Week
and on the runways immediately afterwards.
Either on Instagram or even on live streams.
Information speed is also accelerating
the pace in the industry.
People say "Look, if you want to integrate the latest trends
into your collection, you can't start working on it
one and a half years ahead.
You're late.
By the time your collection comes out, people
will want something else."
Another point that's very different from the time of Chanel
is that now all the clothes are standard.
Nothing's tailor made anymore.
So you could very well pre-produce an entire collection.
So the business model of 'See Now, Buy Now'
actually says that brands should start showing
collections that can be purchased immediately.
You shouldn't wait six months before you can wear the dress you saw in that show.
And consumers get to see Summer clothes in Summer not in Winter.
From the consumer perspective
that makes total sense.
Who tried it? How is it going?
Burberry was the first big runway brand to go for it in September 2016.
The brand overall has a very positive attitude
towards technology and they are often the first one
to test new store concepts or innovate online.
They pushed online sales very early in time etc.
Seeing that Burberry was doing it, others raised their hand
like Diane von Fürstenberg, Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren.
They said "Yep, we're going for that business model as well."
Here is what it means though.
If you show your clothes for Summer only in February
and not six months earlier
the selling season starts right afterwards
so it means that you already have pre-produced everything
delivered it to all the retailers and to your online shops
so that right on the day after Fashion Week
everyone can start selling at full price
until the next discount season.
After one season of 'See Now, Buy Now'
Tom Ford said "That's it, I'm done. I'm leaving that
business model. It's not working for me.
I had my clothes ready one month before Fashion Week
Everything was sleeping in storage spaces.
I lost a whole month of turnover.
Not working for me. I don't think it worked at all.
I'm going back to the traditional business model."
Whoa!
Now let's talk about people who are against 'See Now, Buy Now'.
They are mostly brands who have been in business for years,
have always shown at Fashion Week,
have always sold through a network of retailers,
so they need the power of the buyers.
They have too many arguments against 'See Now, Buy Now'.
The first one is "We can't pre-produce the whole collection.
We don't know yet which pieces the buyers
are going to want
to sell in their stores and which not.
To that I say "Guys, you've been in business for years.
If you don't know that a plastic transparent dress
that is not machine washable is not going to sell
you don't know your customers.
You have to know your customers.
You're supposed to produce clothes that you think
people would like to wear."
And so here comes the 2nd argument of runway brands.
"If we only show pieces that people will really want to buy
then we can only show commercial pieces
and it's the end of creativity."
Guys, about 1/3 of a runway collection right now
is made of so-called 'show pieces'.
Things that are here just to impress the editors
that designers already know no one will want to buy.
Does that make sense?
Where is your consumer in all that thinking?
What's Going to Happen Next?
Right now you have a majority of the people in the industry saying
"Look, the See Now Buy Now thing is just not working.
The supply chain and the Fashion Week calendars will not work this way.
Proof? Tom Ford and all the others,
they tried. They failed. Let's just all forget about it."
And then you have a little group of people
including me
who think from a consumer perspective
and stick to saying "Look, if consumers see
the clothes on Instagram or in the blog posts
they don't want to wait six months until they can get their hands on it.
In six months they're going to want something else. Period."
So who's right?
Here is my opinion on this.
So far, the brands that tried only tried half.
Tom Ford failed because he had his production ready
and still waited for weeks for Fashion Week
so he could show his collection and then start selling it.
Why wait for Fashion Week?
Fashion Week is just an arbitrary date
decided by editors and buyers.
By the editors - it gives them time to think
reflect and shoot pretty pictures.
That was fine in the time of Gabrielle Chanel and Christian Dior
when Vogue was the filter, the first place where
you would see the new clothes
at the beginning of the season they were for.
But now you see the clothes six months before already
on instagram!
That's for the editors.
And then there is also the issue with the buyers.
They want six months time
to be able to see all the shows
and then afterwards decide what they want to buy,
place their order, wait to be delivered,
and then pay when the clothes arrive. So they don't care
how long it takes. They only pay anyway
when they get the clothes, when the season starts.
All the costs until then are for the designers and the brands
to carry.
But here's a thought.
Do we need those retailers?
We need retail. But do we need retailers?
Why be so dependent on a network and a supply chain
we have NO control over?
What about focusing more on online sales, for instance?
If you, as a brand, have an online shop
you control the lead times,
the assortment,
the whole supply chain,
the look and feel of everything you're presenting.
It's much better for you as a brand.
If you, as a brand, want to implement the 'See Now, Buy Now' model
it means you change the time line
you also must change the whole system and
the whole supply chain behind it.
Retailers are slow and reactive
they're not proactive.
They're not going to change their behaviour.
They always work like that.
You need to force the change onto them.
I strongly believe that the 'See Now, Buy Now' model
makes a lot more sense from the consumer perspective.
So the fashion industry will have to adapt and change -
the question is just how fast they're going to get it.
Brands can start looking for new distribution channels.
They can also simplify and shorten their supply chain
by producing locally.
If a brand can reach its customers directly
without needing the intermediary of the buyers and
the editors they made themselves dependent on
then we're back to how the industry used to work.
You have a brand talking directly to its customers.
One thing is sure.
H&M has shown their first 'See Now, Buy Now' collection
in February 2017 (last month)
and their supply chain is a lot faster, as we know.
So high-end brands will have to adapt now definitely.
Fast!
And I'm curious to see which new business models
are going to emerge in the coming years.
What do you think?
I hope you enjoyed this new Fashion Talk.
Thumbs up if now you've understood how Fashion Week works.
I have links on all the videos on this topic
in the description below if you want more.
I'll see you on Wednesday and on Sunday again.
Take care. Bye.
