In the wake of Giorgio Armani, the most important fashion brands are trying to make their contribution in rewriting the rules of the fashion industry so strongly affected by the crisis, whose real impact is still unknown, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that is affecting many sectors.
A group of companies in the sector, insiders and retailers have signed an open letter to the fashion industry that tries to draw a sort of new vademecum on which to build a different approach now necessary.

According to The Business of Fashion, Dries Van Noten, Marine Serre, Mattias Magnusson and Craig Green are among the supporters of the initiative, which would involve a drastic increase in sustainability, new and different scheduling of the fashion calendar and a rethinking of seasonality and discounts. Thom Browne, Jil Sander and Burberry, as well as retail companies like Antonioli and Selfridges, have also joined this call.

The co-signatories of the letter request that the Fall/Winter collections remain in stores from the end of August to January while the Spring/Summer collections from February to July and that discounts and sales are applied only at the end of the seasons. At the same time, they are committed and ask everyone to do the same, to make the production and presentation system of the collections more sustainable with digital showrooms and a total reorganization of the fashion show calendar.

One striking thing is that, among the signatures who signed the letter, there is a lack of major fashion corporations such as Kering (Gucci, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta) and LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Celine and Givenchy) and fast fashion chains such as H&M, Zara and Primark.

“I’m not so naïve to believe that we are going to impact how Zara and Primark are going to work, we’re not just competitors, we’re also colleagues.”

These are the words that Van Noten said to BoF and which represent an outstretched hand, a desire for communion of intent that, at this moment, would certainly make a difference.