Sustainable Luxury in the Fashion Industry

The worldwide economic slowdown has definitely hit all industries including the luxury market. Although the wealthy have more money than the middle class and poor, even they have been cutting back on spending. The result has been the luxury markets have also seen a steep drop in sales.

So as the economy bottoms out and begins to rebound, what needs to happen for the fashion industry to return to growth and profitability? But more importantly, is the growth sustainable?

The Huffington Post did an article titled, “The New Face of Fashion: Sustainable Luxury” and discusses the past failures of the fashion industry and what they need to change to be successful. The “Rules of Retail” over the last 20 years include several obsolete practices including:

• Aggressively developing a network of branded stores even in questionable markets
• Building flagship locations that were unnecessarily large and existed only for their advertising value
• Creating stores intended to have a short life span, and then relocate or significantly renovate them within 5 years

As the fashion industry looks forward, some of the new strategies they need to follow include:

• Grow Organically
• Build Stores that Last
• Edit the Product
• Be Fun and Accessible

A good example of adapting to change is the focus on environmental sustainability in the fashion industry. Here’s a previous article on on EcoChic in Hong Kong.

The key to the fashion industry’s success is learn from your past mistakes, be flexible and adjust to the ever changing consumer demand. Read the full article – Click Here