Baby's first recession: what will happen to fast fashion?
Who wins when things get hard? Luxury, fast fashion, or no one at all? The answer won't surprise you.
I can’t find a straight answer on whether or not we’re in a recession but I do think it’s intriguing that this will be our first recession with social media influencers and ultra-fast fashion. The Great Recession in 2008 had such a long lasting impacting on the design of the following 10 years. Everything became simplified: head-to-toe beige outfits, comfortable footwear, the T-shirt was God, and everything was white and written in Sans-Serif.
This economic downturn always gave way to fast fashion. I guess there wasn’t a better time to overproduce, cheaply made clothing when the zeitgeist was knit tanks and joggers. Social media and the spread of information made it easier for Zara, H&M and BooHoo to offer low-cost alternatives to designer items. Influencers made bargain dressing appealing.
The logomania and excessive exuberance of the McBling and 2000s era was at it’s best tacky, and at it’s worst grossly insensitive when so many people were suffering. There were rumours of rich people hiding their Barney shopping bags and Hermes purses in inconspicious brown bags. Luxury logos became smaller, if not disappearing altogether.
“The recession has led wealthy consumers to adopt more subdued designs that reflect taste rather than signal status.” - Conspicuous Consumption in a Recession: Toning it Down or Turning it Up? By Joseph C. Nunes, Xavier Drèze and Young Jee Han (2013)
If there’s anything rich people have learnt from the French Revolution it’s that eating brioche while people are starving will see your head roll.
Right now, TikTok is filled with predictions about a repeat of this, deeming it Recession Core. The lack of jewellery and accessories in recent red carpets has been taken as a sign that celebrities are growing aware of changing attitudes. Even their embarassing behaviour at the height of the pandemic can add to this - all those patronising attempts to be just like us, trapped inside even though inside for them meant servants, infinity pools and savings to fall back on. And now ‘quiet luxury’ is all abuzz, wih minimalist designers like The Row at the forefront. Dior’s latest ready-to-wear collection echoes this mood: sensible, muted, inconspicous.
As George Orwell wrote in 1937, "the girl who leaves school and gets a dead-end job can still look like a fashion-plate for a pittance. You may have pennies in your pocket and not a prospect in the world, and only the corner of a leaky bedroom to go home to; but in your new clothes, you can stand on a street corner, indulging in a private daydream of yourself as Marlene Dietrich."
But the Great Depression, the Great Recession and any of the economic downturns in between didn’t have TikTok, or influencers, or corporations releasing 5000 products a day at R58 a piece. Stealth wealth might be the name of the game, but the online world (moreso than the real world before it) is filled with inconspicious conspicious rich people cosplay.
I think of those old-money aesthetic videos everyone won’t stop arguing about and how much of online culture is this intense study of rich people and doing your best to imitate it. And where rich/elite people often seek to distinguish and differntiate themselves from the lower-classes, Recession Core tells us that’s the opposite of what the want to do right now. (Also, even the wealthiest of influencers and celebrities succumb to a cheque from Shein and H&M, the only difference between you and them being that they’re wearing polyester on a private beach, and you’re fretting about a debit order.)
And I think about how economic uncertainty plays out in a place like South Africa. We watched politicians and businessmen during a LITERAL global crisis line their pockets with aid and funds intended to help the suffering. Countries with high levels of corruption, where bribery is so commonplace, often see luxury spending used to disguise criminal dealings. I can only imagine the looting hiding behind the transactions at Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Versace in Sandton’s Diamond Walk.
Slowdowns also make identity vulnerable and status an object of desire. When everyone’s getting poorer and poorer, we’re naturally inclined to at least feel and look richer. It’s why I initially thought this Schrodinger’s recession would be great for Shein. If are our media is preoccupied with the lives of the rich and famous, and if the corrupt climate gives away to a culture of commodity fetishm and materialism, then everyone would find retail therapy without breaking the bank.
But now I’m not so sure. The Business of Fashion recently published a piece about Shein’s decline after years of ‘explosive growth’. I’d like to think this is about growing concerns over unethical labour practices and environmental harm, but considering how calling fast fashion bad will have you labelled as a classist who believes poor people should wear rags, that can’t be all of it. I’m more inclined to think the novelty’s worn off, as the article states, and, more importantly, that the business model isn’t sustainable in the long-run. And not sustainable as in green but that if that organisation wants to continue growing, without possibly being beat out by copycat competitors, it means changing their business model.
You see a similar thing happening at H&M, Zara and BooHoo. Two of which have been vocal about conscious collections and plans to reduce carbon emissions at some imaginary date. Last year, Cotton On opened a South African distribution centre filled with all the greenwashing bells and whistles: indigenous plants, grey water systems, and solar power. Weren’t there just rumours about Pretty Little Thing gearing to shut its doors, or begin layoffs and scale back production?
Where the previous recession made fast fashion, I suspect this one’s going to break it. Or, rather, alter it significantly. My only trend prediction is that we’re going to see these fast fashion giants attempting to become or look more conscious. With the cost of living and rising inflation, it makes more sense to take luxury’s route and charge more, produce less. And the best way to disguise this is pretending to suddenly care about people and planet methinks.
In the mean time, can someone just answer if we’re in a recession - yes or no???
You know you love me, xoxo
Khensani