Global Warming Is Melting Fashion Seasons
Are weather-focused fashion seasons a thing of the past?
Image courtesy of Una Lote Andzane.
For most people, a new year commences in January. For fashion devotees, it is the seasonal switch from the summer to autumn wardrobe that marks the start of a new era. Chunky-knit jumpers, heeled boots, and warm flannels are just some of the essentials of the ultimate seasonal look. But what happens when the summery weather doesn’t show any signs of going away?
“When the weather doesn't correspond to what we have in store happened this September,” states Joanna Rafalik, store manager at Californian luxury fashion brand Vince. “The sales saw a dip, and traffic decreased in store – people were buying the more transitional pieces.”
Some customers used the merging of the seasons as an opportunity to stock up on essential wardrobe items. “Once a season change approaches - especially the main seasons – people tend to bulk buy t-shirts, for example,” Rafalik observes, while other customers are enticed by the window display and purchase an item for a particular occasion or simply see themselves using it every day, regardless of its season relevance.
Fashion seasonality forms the very basis of the way fashion retailers operate. “It is very important to categorise the shop floor rails into seasons from a visual merchandising point of view and for the customer's journey in the store,” says Rafalik. She notes that people’s buying habits are prone to be impulsive, therefore main season collections tend to sell better than transitional ones because the weather changes have a bigger impact on people’s day to day life. However, the lines become blurred when the season change is not clearly marked by the weather anymore.
Image courtesy of Una Lote Andzane.
“The fashion cycle should not exist even if there were normal seasons,” says Kaja Grujic, creative storyteller, climate advocate, and graduate of MA Fashion Futures at London College of Fashion. She believes it is a very antiquated way of looking at clothing, as it focuses on constantly generating new trends. “Even before the
climate was changing, that type of approach to selling and making clothing was flawed,” Grujic explains. “Wearing clothes by their season doesn't make sense anymore because you wear some of your summer pieces in October.”
The number of collections released by brands every year keeps increasing. Grujic notes that customers are tricked into thinking that these collections are dependent on seasons when reality is different: “They're dependent on production models that are trying to sell more clothes. So, the Pre-Fall or Cruise collections are packaged as if they’re for a specific season, but they’re not.”
Grujic points out how established brands would often fly their clients to warmer destinations purely because their base country isn’t warm enough. “It shows the absurdity of trying to find the season rather than making clothes fit the current model,” she notes.
Image courtesy of Una Lote Andzane.
Often the illusion of a multitude of seasons is created by fashion stylists flying all across the globe in order to capture the preferred weather. “Habitually, brands will fly you out to a country that has nicer weather or a beach because it's easier for them to shoot over there compared to the UK,” states Ismail Gul, third-year Fashion Styling and Production student at London College of Fashion.
During his time as an intern at a fashion magazine, he would often see stylists flying to places in Africa, Spain, Mexico, Cancun, and more to shoot summer collections because the weather in the UK was too cold. “Sometimes it's out of their hands, but for people like me or any other stylists starting out, instead of thinking, “oh, let's fly to this destination because it looks good for pictures,” you can be creative and use the resources around you,” Gul says.
Gul doesn’t base his styling work on seasonality and usually lets the shoot concept speak for itself. “I believe the more creative you are, the more beautiful your work is going to be – you get to express yourself more because everybody has their own aesthetic,” he describes how weather and season restrictions can be a catalyst for creativity.
Gul also points out that, for many designers, creativity cannot be translated into collections dedicated to a specific season. “I would prefer to see a collection for all year round: start off with summer and end with winter,” he says. Collections that
aren’t based on trend cycles are not only more relatable in terms of climate but have also proven to be demanded by customers.
At the Vince boutique, a separate rail is dedicated to the brand’s essentials range with items that can be worn all year round. “The rail has probably 35 styles, and on average it generates 20 to 30% of the business,” says Rafalik. “Overall, we have 12 or 13 rails installed, so if one rail alone can drive that amount of business every week, it’s a lot.” Their customers have become so fond of the range that they would even purchase things without trying them on.
However, the satisfaction with the essentials range also presents limitations for the business. “There's only so much money you can make from essentials - you would constantly need an influx of new customers that are being introduced to essentials to make money because the items will last you a couple of years,” explains Rafalik. As a consequence, season-focused pieces remain as the main revenue drivers because of the impulsive nature surrounding their purchase.
Image courtesy of Una Lote Andzane.
“I don't think seasonless collections will ever fully replace seasonal collections because if they were to fade out, that would massively impact the revenue of retail stores in a negative way,” Rafalik believes. Moving forward, she is certain that brands will have to reconsider when to launch their collections because the traditional schedule has simply become irrelevant.
Grujic believes that the whole cycle is built upon a very structured way of looking at climate and seasons which doesn't exist anymore. “I used to have my summer clothes, and then when autumn came, I would pack them away in the box in the back of my closet and take out my autumn clothes,” she reflects about the ritual of changing fashion seasons. For her, there’s something very meditative and nice about that, like closing and opening a chapter. But as the weather gets more and more abnormal, it might be time to look for new ones.