Social isolation has given us all time to reevaluate many things – not least our consumer habits, and the impact our purchases have on the planet and on humanity. We’ve seen – and celebrated – the return of dolphins in Sardinia’s ports. We’re horrified to hear that some brands aren’t paying their bills in Bangladesh, and that garment workers are being sent home with no pay. We are realising that we have the power of the purse – that we not only drive style trends, but also social trends, as well as business trends. (And, through social media pressure, can make businesses #PayUp.) But will we change our behaviours for good?
Let’s start with the now: social isolation. Pyjamas bottoms have become a go-to look. (I have heard more than one Zoom conference attendee in the last couple of weeks admit that while the top we see on screen is chic, the bottoms off-screen are PJs.) Comfort is what we hunger for, and what we need. Yes, we’re still shopping online – some brands report up to an 80 per cent increase on normal sales. But what we are buying reflects this new reality. “There’s a feeling of sensuality, and pampering ourselves,” Soho retailer Alex Eagle reports of the purchases made from the e-tailing arm of her eponymous Lexington Street shop. Customers are ordering her handmade pyjamas, cashmere socks, and beauty products by Gucci Westman. “Things that create a sense of cosiness, or of well-being,” she said.
Natalie Kingham, fashion buying director at Matchesfashion.com, concurs. The e-tailer has seen an uptick in “relaxed luxury activewear and effortless pieces that are comfortable to wear around the house, from loose pants and sweats to knits and slides that are easy to slip on,” she says. If fashion truly is about capturing and reflecting the zeitgeist, then our clothing choices right now are spot on.
But what about when we come out of confinement? Will we pick up the sort of shopping habits that we did before – the sort of shopping that has driven us to purchase 80 billion garments a year? Or will that I-need-a-new-dress-for-Friday-night thing, the shopping-for-entertainment thing, the idea of an “It” bag or a “must have” feel frivolous, unimportant, and unnecessary?
Kingham believes consumers will make “considered purchases” in the future, buying pieces that honour “craftsmanship and artisanal values”. That was in full evidence when China eased stay-at-home restrictions earlier this month. Hermès, a top luxury brand famously committed to craftsmanship, rang up $2.7 million (£2.2 million) in sales in one day in its Guangzhou flagship, according to WWD. Shoppers snapped up handmade bags, such as a diamond-studded Himalayan crocodile Birkin. It was said to be the largest single-day tally for a boutique in China ever. This reminded me of a story that Robert Chavez, president and CEO of Hermès’s American subsidiary in New York, recounted to me for my first book, Deluxe. The terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 in the United States caused one of the worst retail years in history – as with Covid-19, people stopped shopping. But for Hermès, sales went up. “After September 11, a lot of people came in to buy that one special scarf or tie or bag,” he said. “They’d say, ‘I just want to have that one special thing.’”
“Investment items will be paramount, whether a great coat, a pair of timeless boots or a piece of fine jewellery,” Kingham says. Already at Browns, Ida Petersson, the womenswear and menswear buying director, says she has seen a rise in the purchase of fine jewellery, “as there are customers wanting to purchase investment pieces.”
We’ll also look more for sustainably-made items, with the help of retailers. Matchesfashion.com, for example, recently launched its “Responsible Edit”, to guide shoppers toward brands which work in myriad sustainable ways. At Browns, Petersson says, “We were already seeing a shift in customers pivoting towards being more conscious in the way they shop. I think this will continue to grow.”
It makes sense. “People have had access to excess,” says Cameron Silver, the owner of Decades, a “pre-loved luxury” boutique in Los Angeles. After confinement, “it’s going to be about access to beauty, longevity, integrity – things that are meaningful.”
But how to invest in better fashion with tighter budgets? After all, the economic slowdown is going to affect all of our wallets. As Silver likes to say (and the Duchess of Cambridge regularly proves): “It’s chic to repeat!” With all this time on our hands, we can survey what we own, and put it back into circulation – in our lives, or someone else’s life. To facilitate this, Silver has put together a Wardrobe Edit Guide, so we can smartly whittle down what we have, keep what we cherish, and consign what we are ready to part with. “The opposite of disposable, the notion of wearing something only once or twice is old-fashioned, and hopefully it’s clear now in peoples’ consciousnesses that their purchases should have a longer life.”
“Fashion can bring us pleasure, but it shouldn’t be a fleeting moment of pleasure,” Silver continues. “The treasures in your closet continue to bring you joy season to season because of the memories they carry – the memories we create by wearing them. Maybe it’s time to make more memories in the things we own.”
