Profit
At the heart of nearly every business in our society, profit is the most important aspect of succeeding and growing as a corporation. The fashion industry is one of the biggest industries present today, with equipping just under 450 million people with jobs globally (Common Objective. (n.d.). The rise of the fashion world comes with many positive aspects, for example, the extreme range of creativity that it shows to the world and the ability that the industry has in allowing people to express themselves, whether this be through designing, styling or even just wearing. The industry as a whole also brings a lot of negative effects to our society, due to the exploitation of workers and its effect on our environment. In other words, “Just as fashion has the power of transformation, it has the power of destruction” (Vilaça, 2022). Business of Fashion also address this topic through the idea that sustainability is not as important to consumers as some people may want it to be (Pucker, 2023). This article also speaks about the idea that in order for a significant change to happen, everyone within the industry must get involved and have the same end goals in mind, however clearly states, “companies prioritise profits over planetary welfare” (Pucker, 2023).
Since stores had to close down for extended periods of time due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the fashion industry suffered greatly from a drop in sales and due to this, the market’s revenue between 2019 and 2020 declined by 20% globally (Amed et al., 2021). This posed as a challenge especially to small businesses which faced the danger of having to close down permanently. However, Nike managed to bounce back after the pandemic due to the fact that more people were working out and working from home instead of going into the office, so their trainers experienced a rise in sales, stated Neil Saunders (Forrest, 2022). In order for other brands to remain competitive during these uncertain economic times, brands had to have a clear differentiation from other businesses in order to stand out to their consumers. One way in doing this is through collaborations, bringing two different audiences together.
Selfridges serves as an illustration of how creativity and commerce may be fused together by creatively displaying ready-to-wear clothes in an effort to veer away from a predominantly commercial portrayal. They achieve this through their creative shop window displays which are extremely famous all around the world, using basic items of clothing in an innovative way (Figure 1).
Reference List:
Common Objective. (n.d.). Faces and Figures: Who Makes Our Clothes? [online] Available at: https://www.commonobjective.co/article/faces-and-figures-who-makes-our-clothes#:~:text=The%20global%20workforce%20is%20estimated.
Forrest, F. (2022). Covid two years on: Expert analysis of top 10 global apparel companies. [online] Just Style. Available at: https://www.just-style.com/features/covid-two-years-on-expert-analysis-of-top-10-global-apparel-companies/?cf-view&cf-closed [Accessed 20 Oct. 2023].
Pucker, K. (2023). Brands Know How to Curb Their Climate Impact. Why Won’t They Do it? [online] The Business of Fashion. Available at: https://www.businessoffashion.com/opinions/sustainability/fashion-brands-curb-climate-impact-why-not-inaction/#:~:text=Their%20Climate%20Impact.- [Accessed 20 Oct. 2023].
Vilaça, J. (2022). Fashion Industry Statistics: The 4th Biggest Sector Is More Than Clothing. [online] Fashinnovation. Available at: https://fashinnovation.nyc/fashion-industry-statistics/.
www.selfridges.com. (2023). Material World – Windows | Content | Selfridges. [online] Available at: https://www.selfridges.com/GB/en/features/articles/content/material-world-windows/.