Cultural and economic trends, news, and discussions happening in the market.
How often, when you are shopping or have purchased clothing or shoes, do you come across a chemical smell? Who’s keeping score? Green America. Green America published The “Toxic Textiles” report that tells what companies are doing to address the use of toxic chemicals in their supply chains. The report found that top U.S. clothing […]
Read more
Technology is built on data; innovation is built on imagination and cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence.
Read more
It’s more brazen in brown and here’s why: The fashion industry is one of the largest polluters in the world. According to United Nations Climate Change, the industry contributes 10% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to its long supply chains and energy intensive production. Quantis reports that over 90% of emissions for apparel […]
Read more
Against the backdrop of unprecedented store closures, bankruptcy, and excessive inventory throughout the supply chain, is fashion week necessary? Mckinsey & Company suggest the global industry’s economic profit will fall by 93 percent in 2020 after rising 4 percent in 2019. In a worst case scenario, the industry won’t get back to 2019 levels until […]
Read more
We have to be unburdened by what has been to consider what can be. – Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States
Read more
Diminished, downsized, and discerning is the current normal of the fashion industry. Fashion companies will post approximately a 90 percent decline in economic profit in 2020, after a 4 percent rise in 2019. – BoF and Mckinsey & Company, The State of Fashion 2021 report
Read more
Is the industry doing that? Lady Gaga has said ‘fashion doesn’t need to go together; it just needs to be upsetting’. She was referencing her dismissal of wearing designer clothing from head to toe. That’s just one aspect of the control culture or out-of-control culture that the fashion industry emits.
Read more
The carnage of closures from the impact of COVID-19 throughout the supply chain is forcing the industry to pause and re-set. According to Mckinsey & Co., if stores remain closed for two months, 80 percent of publicly listed fashion companies in Europe and North America will be in financial distress. Revenues for the global fashion industry […]
Read more
For the first time sustainability was named the biggest opportunity in this study.
Read more
Four in five (79%) think clothing brands should provide information on their environmental commitments. Spanish and Italian consumers are more likely than average to think this.
Read more
Can the biggest players in the fashion industry unite to stop global warming? The United Nations thinks so.
Read more
The fashion industry continues to hover in a state of flux . . . and we predict that 2019 will be a year shaped by consumer shifts linked to technology, social causes and trust issues, alongside the potential disruption from geopolitical and macroeconomic events. Only those brands that accurately reflect the zeitgeist or have the […]
Read more
Join the movement! With the focus on fashion consumerism and the circular economy, Fashion for Good museum is the first interactive museum dedicated for sustainable fashion. Amsterdam — Fashion for Good, the global initiative for sustainable fashion, has opened the doors of its museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, today. The space aims to show visitors […]
Read more
It may have been a long time coming, but Eco-fashion is no longer a hippie pipe dream. Biker jackets made from pineapple leaves and leather tanned with olive extract rather than hugely polluting chemicals are now within reach, experts say. Read the article at Fashion United: The End of Plastic: Eco-fashion becomes catwalk reality
Read more
What does this mean for the fashion community? According to a report by Technopak, “in contrast to the increasingly aged populations in the West, Japan, and even China, India is expected to become the world’s youngest emerging economy by 2020, with around 64% of its population in the working age group” – median age 28 [compared to US 38, […]
Read more
The future is in the hands of the consumers with a power shift away from the retailers. Shoppers have more control over what, when, how, and how often they purchase fashion, leaving retailers (both online and brick and mortar) with many challenges not the least of which is ‘what to offer’. Plunkett Research, Ltd.’s Keys […]
Read more
SALE! SALE! SALE! Fast fashion made in mass is at a COST to the retailer, industry, and the planet. Retailers and the fashion industry WAKE-UP! Consumers are hungry for individualism and looking for up and coming brands with an innovative spirit and are conscious about the environment. Today we see the “SAME stuff, SAFE stuff, […]
Read more
Did you know as late as 1990, the United States apparel manufacturing industry employed nearly 939,000 people? In 1931, the Garment District in New York was home to the highest concentration of clothing manufacturers in the world. But as manufacturing has moved overseas the sector has since lost more than 85 percent of its workforce […]
Read more
The fashion industry—including retailers, manufacturers, designers and wholesalers—employs more than 1.8 million people in the United States. It relies on workers in a wide range of occupations, including fashion designers, market research analysts, graphic design artists, computer systems developers, patternmakers, sewing machine operators, retail sales workers, wholesale buyers, accountants and business operations specialists.The U.S. fashion […]
Read more
According to U.S. Congress JEC report, the U.S. apparel manufacturing industry currently runs a trade deficit. In 2014, U.S. apparel exports totaled roughly $6 billion, while imports were about $82 billion. Over one-third of U.S. apparel imports come from China (36 percent), with Vietnam (11 percent), Bangladesh (6 percent), Indonesia (6 percent), and Mexico (5 […]
Read more
Did you know Wikipedia list over 75 countries that produce fashion events? Here’s a little context of how big the fashion show industry is:
Read more
FashionUnited brings you this insight into the fashion industry: A senior designer, sitting in a sunlit midtown office, knows her interview is going well. She can feel it. Her portfolio is appealing to the interviewers who have pored over it. She has talked them through the highlights of her resume. She seems to be saying […]
Read more
The Trendstop team of FashionUnited brings you this exclusive insight into the consumer mindset. . .
Read more
The U.S. fashion industry has changed dramatically since the early part of the 20th century when its main focus was manufacturing. In 1931, the Garment District in New York was home to the highest concentration of clothing manufacturers in the world. – The New Economy of Fashion | Joint Economic Committee, United States Congress […]
Read more
There are strong signs of a bright future for sectors of the fashion industry—primarily in design and high tech manufacturing. Fashion is a multi-trillion dollar global industry, encompassing everything from textile and apparel brands to wholesalers, importers and retailers. Over a trillion dollars is spent annually on apparel and footwear around the globe, with nearly […]
Read more
Are diversity and difference recognized from a new generation from what was formerly known as the British Fashion Awards? The ceremony awards those for their contribution to the fashion industry. From i-D, Anders Christian Madsen, tells us his perspective in his piece, 2016: the year the gvasalias conquered fashion:
Read more
We spend an enormous amount of money and energy to stage an event that creates excitement too far in advance of when the collection is available to the consumer. –Tom Ford, WWD Are Fashion Week runway events still relevant? Is this model in crisis mode and what role does it really play in the […]
Read more
EDGE brings you this feature on Fashion + Film: The New Frontier by Gabriel C. Salazar . . . The phrase ‘fashion film’ . . . an artistic expression through the use of digital media and fashion as the main vehicle of the film. As technology progressively becomes more advanced, many creatives are turning to […]
Read more
Dubai – beyond its endless luxury shopping malls and over-the-top conspicuous consumption culture – is paying attention to creative emerging talent. Emerging local designers and international brands are making a go at tapping into this mega fashion retail capital. Dubai is building a fashion ecosystem, developing an infrastructure that not only supports the retail climate, […]
Read more
I love to wear both women’s and men’s clothes, and have met several like minded people who think the removal of gender labels on clothes would change the idea of dressing in general. – Brendan M Combs, designer.
Read more
Out of Africa comes an emerging fashion market which plays an important role in this global enterprise. This market is true to the African culture and the consumers are responding to the newness that African designers present against the sea of sameness so prevalent in the industry. Redefine your perception of Africa. With the growth […]
Read more
The industry needs fresh blood. Armani is tired. Galliano is trying to resuscitate himself. McQueen is gone. Gucci is failing to reinvigorate and Prada needs a new creative team. It’s time for the big fashion investors to start looking to Africa. Not appropriating our themes, but taking on our design talent. – Johannesburg designer David […]
Read more
Opportunity knocks in Asia for those brave and progressive U.S. emerging designers [EDGE]. Do you have a global business strategy that taps into the East’s demand for fashion from the West? Here are a few tidbits of what’s going on in the Asia market: The Chinese are still the biggest buyers of luxury goods globally, […]
Read more
There’s always a hunger for the next thing, a need to start a new movement. That’s true of media and “brand” created fashion trends, where trends are dictated for commercial reasons. Dressing normal is the Fall 2014 Gap campaign and many of you have heard of the “normcore” trend. Personally I think this “normal” trend […]
Read more
Chinese consumers hold foreign brands in high esteem. “In the 1950s and 1960s the world economy was transformed by the emergence of the American consumer. Now China seems poised to become the next consumption superpower. In all likelihood, it has just overtaken Japan to become the world’s second-biggest consumer economy. Its roughly $3.3 trillion in […]
Read more
E D G E 