Discussions about the fashion industry thread

[crazn]

I increasingly think that fast fashion won't survive this. A week or two ago, Zara announced that they will be closing 1,000 to 1,200 of their stores worldwide. Their online sales currently make up 14% of their profits. They hope to make up for the shortfall in brick-and-mortar sales by boosting online sales to 25%.

Zara plans to close more than 1,000 stores to focus on e-commerce

The Spanish clothing retailer is shifting its focus to online shopping amid the coronavirus crisis.

www.today.com

But with such low margins and a high return rate, it's hard to see how they can switch to being an online retailer. Also, fast fashion depends on impulse purchases. You try something on in the store and think you look good in the store's environment. The item isn't too expensive, so you walk out with it.

At home, you get to mull over your purchase for thirty days. You may have a clearer sense of whether you like the item in the very non-glamorous environment that is your home. You also may be more likely to try and return something. With a high-end item, I assume the purchase is more considered. But with cheaper items, you'll probably add a bunch of stuff to your cart "just to try out."

I think in the beginning, people assumed that fast fashion would be one of the "winners" in this (or, at least, in one of the best positions relative to the rest of the fashion market). Logic is that as people earn less money, they'll be more frugal about price. But I'm starting to think they're in the worst position because of the reliance on brick-and-mortar.

(Although, I suppose there's ASOS, which is online. So maybe this is just the vulnerability of H&M and Zara)

1000 stores is nothing for Zara. if you go to spain, every decent sized small town has a Zara. Frankly I do think they are overexposed in Europe, Easily 400-500 stores will disappear in Europe alone. Too many stores to serve too little people. Some of these stores actually depend on the tourist crowd than the locals.

Uniqlo will start to hit saturation soon. There is only so much basics that one can buy and wear ad infinitum. And like you said, their clothes don't fall apart as easily. but that means less volume of purchases that they can keep pushing out. Everybody considers Uniqlo fast fashion. U don't get to change the definition because of your own whims and bias.

 

[Zamb]

yea, I remember went to some store in LES (japanese brand I forgot which), after I walk out I feel empty... and borderline suicide...

****.................LOL

 

[blacklight]

Have been taking the time to visit a number of retail destinations in NYC while getting my younger brother's back-to-school shopping out of the way and thought there might be some interest in what I saw on the ground this week. I have been getting around via a combination of walking from Brooklyn and hopping on the MTA in short bursts when necessary, and have seen about ~99% mask compliance on the trains, which had a healthy ridership around Union Square and Canal but were basically empty everywhere else.

Was heartened with the measures retailers have been going to protect customers and their employees. Hand sanitizer has been present and compulsory at every place I've visited, with the higher-end places offering replacement masks and gloves, and SAs being very firm enforcing compliance with safety measures. Even saw a pair of kids almost get thrown out of Foot Locker Herald Square for strolling in without masks while I was on my way to DSM.

Foot traffic was, of course, down everywhere with two notable exceptions – Kith (which doesn't have to change much given the security measures at streetwear hotspots) and C21, which still somehow had obscenely long lines.

The Oculus/World Trade Center and Brookfield Place were empty and looked straight out of the opening montages in some post-apocalyptic film or something. The non-essential stores at the Oculus are closed indefinitely with the exception of Apple, and the complex was deserted enough to the point a group of kids were practicing ollies on the upper deck. (The weirdest thing here is that the ad screens were still live for some reason?) Across the street most of the stores at Brookfield Place were open, but I don't know that I saw a single person inside any of the major stores (Burberry, BV, Gucci, LV) along the first floor despite a lot of security being present. The only slight foot traffic was from would-be visitors to the food court, where everything was closed saved for Umami Burger and one other place where I ended up paying $3.47 for a bottle of water (support industry amirite), and people going for drinks outside. From the look of camera placements and staff waiting around it seemed there was some sort of #SaveBrookfield campaign being filmed upstairs as well.

There's been some chatter about DSMNY likely emerging as the biggest winner of all this due to the dying off a lot of other boutiques and I have to say that sort of retail experience feels pretty shame-inducing right now, and it will be at least another few months before I think about returning, let alone spending money there. For most of the 30 minutes I spent browsing I was either the only person on the floor (sometimes with no SA present until I showed up) or one of a few on the more popular floors. Outside of tourism traffic being down I have to wonder whether a certain audience is staying home simply out of concern for drawing the wrong sort of attention, and I wouldn't blame them. I don't know how relevant online store is to DSM's business, but I've been hearing about pretty significant backups, and I can see them and other high-end destination retailers struggling if they can't figure out how to coax their crowds to come out in times this polarizing.

I did however notice a fairly large crowd of those young rich looking kids at MUJI SoHo; I would be surprised if they did not try to keep at least a couple stores open.

 

[dieworkwear]

1000 stores is nothing for Zara.

It's about 50% of their stores

(Also, in before "closing 50% of your stores is no big deal")

Home

Inditex is committed to empower every individual to express their own identity with the purpose of leveraging the power of fashion to make positive change in the world

www.inditex.com

 

[clee1982]

****.................LOL

and I wasn't the only one, my wife feels the same way, it's one of those ultra white interior, you feel like those suicidal scene in anime...

edit: it felt empty and depressing, seriously...

 

[crazn]

It's about 50% of their stores

(Also, in before "closing 50% of your stores is no big deal")

Home

Inditex is committed to empower every individual to express their own identity with the purpose of leveraging the power of fashion to make positive change in the world

www.inditex.com

View attachment 1429751

You need to read your own links closely... Zara and Inditex are used interchangeably but it is Inditex ( the entire group ) that is closing 1000-1200 out of 7000+ ( from their own Inditex group website) stores, which means about 300+ should come from Zara. massimo Dutti about 200 etc. Pull and Bear about 100... bershka Stradivarius etc if u go by proportion. For somebody who dabbles in economics related consultancy, ur a little too hasty to pronounce doom without delving through the finer differences.

oops... did u see that coming?

By the way the reports by Inditex were hyperlinked in that article u linked... I didn’t need to do much more than tap a touchscreen and read...

 

[clee1982]

looks like this is the original announcement

Home

Inditex is committed to empower every individual to express their own identity with the purpose of leveraging the power of fashion to make positive change in the world

www.inditex.com

looks like the original 1,000 is a bit poor reporting (edit: by basically everyone, like today/yahoo etc, everyone just says Zara closing 1,000 stores), so more like

7,412 (so the whole inditex rather than just Zara) goes to 6,700 to 6,900, so 500~700 less, and based on the read it's more like
take out 1,000 to 1,200 then
adding 450

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ultimately, Inditex plans to to have a total network of between 6,700 and 6,900 stores, from 7,412 today, which will involve opening 450 new stores fitted with all the latest sales integration technology and absorbing between 1,000 and 1,200 smaller-sized stores, which account for 5% to 6% of total sales and are less well positioned to offer the new customer experiences. Most of these smaller stores are older stores belonging to brands other than Zara.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[crazn]

and to belabour the point. H&M and Zara/massimo Dutti sell basics as well. The usual bland solid Color tees polos and chinos. You call them fast fashion companies. Uniqlo has a division selling collaborative design T-shirts called UT that keeps changing every few weeks, hires fashion directors to put out seasonal collections and had historically collaborated with designers to push out limited items ( exactly the same modus Operandi as H&M ) and they are not considered a fast fashion company? Gosh. How amazingly different.

 

[cb200]

yea, I remember went to some store in LES (japanese brand I forgot which), after I walk out I feel empty... and borderline suicide...

Did it looks like this inside?

 

[clee1982]

View attachment 1429770
Did it looks like this inside?

way worse, completely white, not off white, like shining white, and floor is white too, all smooth, like in a void

edit: the only thing not white are
1. mirror...
2. SA...

but the SA looks all about to jump tomorrow as well, this was in 2012? I don't think they're around anymore, or I never want to step around there ever...

 

[nyarkies]

View attachment 1429770
Did it looks like this inside?

I think by now, one should already know that they died.

 

[Mulan]

View attachment 1429770
Did it looks like this inside?

Interesting premise, terrible ending in the manga.

 

[cb200]

One thing I've been watching in terms of the apparel world business is Nike. They are a massive brand (Friday understatement) and they have been telling the world that they are moving to more DTC for the last couple of years.

CV-19 looks tohave sped that up. There's not allot of details but news says they are now planing layoff costs that will be $200-$240 million range. What's the saying?... "never waste a good crisis".

 

[crazn]

One thing I've been watching in terms of the apparel world business is Nike. They are a massive brand (Friday understatement) and they have been telling the world that they are moving to more DTC for the last couple of years.

CV-19 looks tohave sped that up. There's not allot of details but news says they are now planing layoff costs that will be $200-$240 million range. What's the saying?... "never waste a good crisis".

Why pay rent? Or the middleman?

 

[cb200]

Story in today's NYT on Everlane doesn't seem to pull any punches on the business.

“It’s a tech company that took the concept of fast fashion and made it an iota better — just one notch better — to try to appeal to a kind of San Francisco liberal consciousness,” Mr. Foor said..

Everlane’s Promise of ‘Radical Transparency’ Unravels

Employees past and present are challenging management, saying the company’s ethical image was an illusion.

www.nytimes.com