COVID Alert: Know All About It's Hit On The Fashion & Beauty Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the fashion industry worth $2.5 trillion, which has further led people to a standstill along with millions of jobs put at stake. The deadly impact of COVID has decimated the fashion world, leaving the fashion market vulnerable or rudderless across the board. The planning and strategies for 2020 collections have gone in vain, an entire spring-summer collection is dead. The fashion leaders tried best to control the fall-out from what is being described in some quarters as "the ultimate Black Swan event." There is no single sector of fashion or beauty that has not been impacted by this outbreak, from the fashion media to factory workers everyone is at an equally miserable position right now. The pandemic has caused 2,05,686 deaths and 29,66,488 positive cases, although in terms of the market the ultimate severity of the pandemic remains unknown, it's quite clear that the fashion world is just at the beginning of its struggle. The store closures due to lockdown measures are already having disastrous consequences. After demonetization, this is the second time that India is facing such financial distress, it's speculated that a large number of Indian and global fashion companies will go bankrupt in the next 15-17 months. The fact that wealthy consumers will stop traveling will lead the revenues for the global fashion and beauty industry contract up to 30 percent in 2020 year-on-year. The interconnectedness of the fashion industry is majorly causing it to suffer, wage cuts and staff layoffs have become a reality, orders have been canceled, leaving garment workers in the developing world out of work. Read on further to know how COVID is impacting the industry, famous fashion designers, workers and weavers, and how the consumer behavior will change post-COVID.

Can Fashion Tourism Be The New Branch Of The Indian Tourism Industry?

Tourism to promote fashion and culture is not a new practice, Vietnam’s craft villages are one such example, these craft villages are a big reason behind the tourist attraction. 

India is a diversified country, be it culture, indigenous fashion, craft, or artisans. The country has several gems to recover from the losses. Several buyers have initiated to explore other countries for supplies in fashion, India is being reconsidered, they are looking out for Human resources here to overlook their model and supply chains.  But as the tour and travel industry continues to witness a major downfall due to the lockdown, innovative ways to represent the Indian fashion and textile industry can be focused upon at present.

There are mainly two types of fashion tourists- one drawn by the curiosity to explore while the second majorly travels to learn fashion and its roots. The exports of Indian textiles and apparels were speculated to increase to USD 82 billion by 2021, but in this lieu of pandemic, there will be a definite drop in the exports. As the current crisis has shifted the focus of many from other countries as apparel and manufacturers to India, it might turn out to be the best time to introduce fashion tourism in the country and have sectors like Education industry, events, and trade shows, exporters and manufacturers, travel and tourism benefit from it.

To read about how these sectors will be benefitted and what are the different  ways that India can prove to be a hotspot for fashion tourism in the coming future, click on the link- https://bit.ly/2VZC1Eb

Luxury Market Pre And Post COVID-19!

The world is shaken with the outbreak of Coronavirus, as it's something that generations have never experienced before. The Coronavirus has turned into a global pandemic that has impacted people from all walks of life. Coming to business the pandemic has transformed the consumers' willingness to spend money or to be more specific their perception of spending money on luxury apparel has been impacted majorly. People are looking for their finances in a controlling way, which is severely impacting the luxury market.

From serving high society women in the 80s with couture clothing to haute couture runways today, the luxury fashion has reframed the definition of the fashion world. India’s luxury fashion designers such as Manish Malhotra, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Shantanu & Nikhil, TarunTahiliani, and others have also played an essential role in the past to spread the luxury market in the country.

The crisis has given a deserted look to the world, and this will further lead to a severe change in the luxury shopping decisions of consumers. The luxury market sales in India alone are speculated to go down anywhere between 60%-80% in the first quarter of the year 2020-21. This crisis requires luxury brands to take to action and plan for the recovery post COVID. The fashion industry is united and Indian luxury designers like Sabyasachi Mukherjee made donations along with that the Fashion Design Council Of India is planning with long term strategic questions to ensure the survival of their businesses. 

To find answers to the questions like when exactly did luxury fashion was introduced in the country, how COVID-19 hit the luxury market and what does the future of luxury look like, click on the link- https://bit.ly/2VDJM3v

Impact On Psychology Of Fashion After COVID-19 

To combat COVID-19 the Indian government has initiated a countrywide lockdown, and it has led to a profound impact on the global economy as well as the Indian fashion industry. Countrywide people have been locked down at their homes looking for ways to respond. Like every other industry right now the fashion industry is also shaken but the fashion designers understand their job and are looking for innovative ways to invent the future of fashion culture in accordance to the consumer behavior which is drastically changing during the lockdown and is speculated to change even more post-COVID, due to the fear of the virus.  

In this uncertain scenario, nobody knows what exactly the future holds, and what’s going to happen, if this will be the new normal or if things are ever going 

back to as they were in the past. 

There is no denial in the fact that lockdown is not easy, but one should never make the situation worse with the negative thought of fear. The Coronavirus has brought the world to a halt, our minds are still longing for a return to normality, and all these factors together are going to severely transform the dynamics of the fashion world, it’s speculated that even after the lockdown will be lifted, the consumers are going to restrict themselves from shopping due to monetary as well as requirement reasons. The fashion designers are dealing with the crisis not just as humans but also as a marketer, shopping is one of the dealings visible behavior change in the COVID-19 crisis.  

The question is would consumers prefer fashion over necessity? Will the crisis turn the industry to be more mindful? Click on the link, to find answers to all your queries- https://bit.ly/2S9yYIB

How Is The Indian Beauty Industry Responding To COVID-19? 

Coming to the beauty industry, from the past few years the requirement of skincare and haircare has created a lot of audiences to pursue beauty as a career. The social media is full of beauty influencers giving glowing skin tips or professionals flaunting their offline and online services, the beauty industry has created various employment opportunities, but the pandemic has brought the industry to a standstill. 

The beauty industry of India before COVID was flourishing at a rapid rate, with an amazingly bright future. There was an emergence of sustainable beauty and haircare products, fulfilling the growing consumer requirements. Before the outbreak it was speculated that the beauty industry of India would be touching 20 billion dollars by 2025 with 15-20% of annual growth, the Indian beauty market was growing twice as fast as that of the United States and Europe. 

Before the outbreak, the country's demand for women's beauty products was growing as the desire among female consumers to look physically appropriate and the ratio of working women went on increasing. It was also speculated that the market for women's cosmetic products in the country was aimed to grow at a CAGR of 16% during 2015-2020. But with the pandemic, the graphs have been drastically changed.

The most important question that pops up in our head every time we think about it is how much loss has the beauty industry borne in the situation and how long will it take for the industry to grow and recover? To find out answers to these questions and their future innovative methods to promote products and services, click on the link- https://bit.ly/2VFIC7M

IKF Desk (Conclusion) 

The fashion world is well aware of the fact that a return to normal consumer behavior will take time and the pandemic could lead to a major shift towards online shopping. Thousands of fashion businesses have been taken online since lockdown. The Coronavirus has upended the whole world, but the fashion world is feeling the effects hard. No matter the fashion brands are shut down but, it's good to witness how the industry and designers are taking this time and utilizing it in making new strategies and plans for the future of fashion and beauty. It's clearly visible how the future of fashion and beauty is digital, there are chances that the world will now be moving towards sustainable fashion and organic & cruelty-free beauty.  

I Knock Fashion appreciates your views, what do you think will COVID-19 impact consumer and designers psychology towards fashion? Will fashion tourism become the new branch of the Indian tourism industry? 

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