Fashion Week Or Fashions Weak?
There has been a growing conversation, it started as a murmur, whispered between industry people that’s growing and growing, it's becoming a chant, what has happened to London's fashion weeks?
London is the home of the most creative and diverse fashion weeks for men and women but in the last few years that's been under pressure. The events are beginning to be discussed as slipping in importance and relevance, they've become a conversation about are they serving the industry they are meant to support or are they damaging the industry?
Why do you think that you may ask, well let me explain. There are a few key pointers, where are the buyers, what is the return for designers and labels that choose to show and pivotal to those, is awareness really creating revenue? At its heart London Fashion Week whether the male or female version is meant to be a commercial operation, deals are struck, coverage is gained, and all focused to making its shows and presentations create sales, but is it doing that?
First off, where are the buyers, I talk to a lot of designers, a journalist is only as good as their contact book, and as a writer and fashion editor I've entered into conversations that started occasional and have become frequent, all based around designers telling me off the record that they rarely meet a buyer at the various weeks now. Evidence of this can be found in the amount of labels that show at London but have started also appearing across the globe at other weeks in the hope of the elusive purchasing deals. In fact sitting and writing this I can already think of many labels that have abandoned London altogether in search of fresh chances to meet with buyers.
Yes, the world of e-commerce has changed the game, but getting product into stores is still key, online shop fronts connected to a labels website aren't enough to significantly move the profit needle. The first challenge is how does the BFC and the wider industry get the buyers back, I don't have that answer, but I know where it can be found, ask the buyers why they aren't coming, it'll be painful to hear why they aren't but you can't fix a problem you don't understand. Only by listening can the solutions be found. Unless we get those prestigious order books back into showrooms the game may well be up.
Secondly the labels themselves need to think about what they do, is the show or presentation worth it, these events are very expensive labels need to think about cost versus return. Is the event worth it, or is what London really needs a proper trade show sitting alongside the glitz and glam? Collaborative hosting may well support sales, the BFC isn't providing that with its show rooms right now. I'm a veteran of 14 women's and 8 men's seasons already and my personal feeling is I'm increasingly being invited to vanity projects of various forms. I will say that I firmly believe that we aren't at a tipping point yet, but each season that I've watched another couple added to the number. Yes full shows looks like success but if nobody does anything to help sales then it's just about looking good. The sum on this is really simple, if my show costs £5000, and my average profit on each sale is £100, I need to sell an ADDITIONAL 50 products on top of what I would anyway to just break even, will this do it for me.
A good PR will make sure that not only do they get great coverage but the right kind, they'll see it as a way to build revenue for their client. They'll know how to maximise the opportunity off the back of it, if I could pass on one piece of advice it would be get a good PR company. At men's week I saw some horrific treatment of clients, the one buyer I did meet asked me if I was the contact at a stand, the PR was barely there all the way through, a potential deal lost because they couldn't be bothered to have someone on the stand they'd got for their collective clients, they were almost never there all week.
This segways nicely into the third big question that most mythically dangerous beasts of all in business, awareness.
A good PR will know who to invite, who will be there in a capacity to either create sales or meaningful awareness. They'll talk a designer out of a presentation where you can't actually see the collection, I couldn't feature a designer recently because the event was so obtuse I couldn't see the models. Last year I was invited to another where they only had one piece on display from the whole collection, hidden away at the back past the DJ's, dance floor and free bar. They'll also sort the invite list to make sure the seats have the right people on them first and foremost. They'll get their buying contacts front and centre, they'll make sure that the media attending are right, that the pages the show will be seen on will be read by the people who will buy the clothes.
The influencers invited will have been scrutinised to make sure they actually have audiences that are real (fake followers is a whole article on it's own) and that those audiences will buy into the label. They'll be profiled to suit the show content rather than just there due to numbers, after all what's the use of a million followers if none will buy, size isn't everything, it's about the conversion to cash that an audience will bring, they could have 1000 followers that will look to buy and that will beat any number an influencer has that won't. I'm stopping short of naming those that I see doing selfies mid-show without even mentioning the show here.
And don't think I'm letting the press off here, over the years we have added the cult of personality to fashion week as much as anyone else, we're just as guilty, paragraph after paragraph about who was front row at a show. We need to think carefully about our readerships, who should we be reporting on, rather than who is the most sort after invite, or has the most fun presentation. We need to get back to it being about fashion and designers. If we don't, are we really serving the communities that trust us to bring them the best of what they want?
However, it's not all doom and gloom and the fact that these conversations have started fills me with hope, we can save our fashion week. We can give our amazing creative & brilliant designers reason to stay and prosper here. We simply need to think about what has happened and the way we can get back to London Fashion Week being the most sought after place for business in the world. Without a shadow of a doubt London is the best week on this big old planet and will be for a long time yet, but let's do the hard thing and put the fun aside to make the choices that will preserve it and make it prosper. It's the most incredible place to be, I can't tell you how much I love it, and how proud I am of the conveyer belt of world class designers we have showing, but we need to help and support them, I'll end by ripping of JFK, ask not what fashion week can do for me, but what can I do for fashion week.