Fashion disruption speeds up

Earlier this week we visited two trade events - International Jewellery London at Olympia and London Edge in Islington.

What’s quite clear is that the fashion industry is changing very fast. This change is occurring in technology, manufacturing, multi-sales channels and also through widespread cultural/societal change. This makes the fashion industry much more challenging, yet at the same time offers up some strong opportunities and new routes to market.

We attended a talk at London Edge by Fiona Cartledge, one of the ‘unsung heroes of British fashion’ who is heralded as the creator of the acid house style. What did she have to say? You can read our in-depth blog here, but one key point was this:

The old expensive days of fashion PRs, A list celebrities and key fashion magazines is on the way out. It’s dying. Instead it’s a new world of Snapchat, Instagram, closed social media groups, young influencers with millions of followers, and cool emerging music acts being sponsored by fashion brands.

This is opening up the fashion industry to smaller brands who might not have the huge budgets to afford expensive PR agencies or 96 sheet billboards. The old magazine gatekeepers of cool are no longer the key influencers.

In short, the fashion industry is becoming more 'democratic' and as Cartledge pointed out, she sees the same level of disruption that occurred in the music industry now appearing in fashion.