Soo Lee

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Purpose

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“Purpose” is often misdefined. Especially so in fashion. Commonly confused with the concept of “result”, which in the context of a brand, would be money, “purpose” is a company’s “raison d’être”, the reason to be (Volkinburg, 2023).  

Purpose, also referred to as brand philosophy, is a brand’s mission, vision, and value proposition. This concept holds significance because of “differentiation”. With over 100 billion garments being produced annually according to the McKinsey & the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, standing out in the market is challenging. Having a well-defined brand philosophy is just what a brand might need to distinguish itself from competitors.  

A purpose that many brands and designers share is sustainability. Falling under the category of CSR, short for “Corporate Social Responsibility”, it is the concept of “companies taking responsibility for their impact on society” (Londrigan & Jenkins, 2018). CSR’s key components include being environmentally and socially sustainable, ethical business practices, and governance. Interest in CSR began in the 1950s with the discussion of the merits and values of responsible business practices. TOMS, a vegan shoe brand, for example, is a brand that has been considered an “industry model” for their CSR and philanthropic work (Londrigan & Jenkins, 2018). TOMS vows that “With every purchase, TOMS will help a person in need” (Londrigan & Jenkins, 2018), and has notable initiatives such as their “Shoes for Children” mission, clean water program, and more.  

Other brand philosophies in fashion include Patagonia’s “Build the Best Product, Cause No Unnecessary Harm, Use Business to Inspire and Implement Solutions to the Environmental Crisis”, which is centered around both environmental and social responsibility, and Dove’s “Real Beauty for All”, which revolves around promoting beauty and self-confidence. 

To many, the thought that companies needed to prioritize vision, mission, and values was often dismissed and thought of as “old hat”, or a “been there, done that” exercise (Mirvis et al., 2010). However, Gen Z has recently had a hand in changing this narrative. Although this trend of highlighting brand purpose has been seen with millennials over the years, Gen Z has certainly accelerated the process (Spagnuolo, 2020). With this emphasis on company values, brands are looking for new, innovative ways to communicate their purpose to Gen Z. One such way is to “move beyond being omnichannel and more to this concept of being omnipresent” (Spagnuolo, 2020). The idea of being “present everywhere” rather than being narrow in their approach to the market allows transparency and authenticity between the brand and the consumers, ideal for communicating their true purpose to the world.  

Citations:  

Londrigan, M. and Jenkins, J.M. (2018) Fashion Supply Chain Management. New York: Bloomsbury Academic & Professional. 

Mirvis, P., Googins, B. and Kinnicutt, S. (2010) ‘Vision, mission, values’, Organizational Dynamics, 39(4). Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Philip-Mirvis/publication/247141794_Vision_mission_values/links/5a43ce11aca272d2945c07b9/Vision-mission-values.pdf (Accessed: 23 October 2023). 

Global Fashion Industry Statistics (no date) FashionUnited. Available at: https://fashionunited.com/global-fashion-industry-statistics (Accessed: 25 October 2023).  

Rahilly, L., Finneman, B. and Spagnuolo, E. (2020) Meet Generation Z: Shaping the future of Shopping, McKinsey & Company. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/meet-generation-z-shaping-the-future-of-shopping (Accessed: 23 October 2023). 

Patagonia: Mission & values (2018) Will Gardner. Available at: https://willgardner.co/patagonia-mission-values/#:~:text=Founded%20by%20Yves%20Chouinard%20in,solutions%20to%20the%20environmental%20crisis’. (Accessed: 26 October 2023). 

Volkinburg, N.V. (2023) ‘Intro to Purpose’. London: UAL, 23 October. 

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Profit

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Fashion as an art form can be profitable when it balances creativity and commercial viability. For example, while many fashion products are designed for everyday wear, a parallel world exists where fashion is celebrated and held up to the highest standards as haute couture. Executed correctly, these two worlds complement each other and allow art and profit to coexist. To understand this concept, one must delve into the vast scope and economic influence the industry exerts. 

The fashion industry has made a significant comeback since COVID-19 with 1.53 trillion US dollars of revenue in 2022 and is expected to reach 1.7 trillion in 2023 (Smith, 2023). These numbers aren’t surprising when you consider the intricate workings of this industry. Although the biggest market in fashion is arguably women’s apparel, with a revenue of approximately 163 billion dollars in the US alone (Smith, 2023), the industry consists of other sectors, ranging from apparel and maternity wear to textile machinery and fashion media.  

Knowing just how multifaceted the fashion industry is, learning to manage each sector is crucial. For example, analyzing market trends is a significant step that proves to be arduous during uncertain economic times, as no one knows exactly how consumption patterns will develop under volatile circumstances (Berg, 2022). A skill that many brands utilize to combat issues like these is through “real partnerships and closer exchanges with brands” which “gives companies access to data and would therefore make things more predictable” (Berg, 2022).  

Apart from adaptability, another essential part of profit in fashion is the ability to navigate the delicate balance between creativity and commercial viability.  

One way in which this is completed is through dual leadership. For example, the collaboration of Italian designer Valentino Garavani and his ex-partner Giancarlo Gimmetti, who helped the designer capitalize on his fame in the 1960s by organizing fashion shows, conceiving advertising spreads, pioneering international licensing, and more (Overdiek, 2016). The concept of dual leadership, sartorially, refers to how the “modern ‘maison’ of fashion” can be ruled by both a designer and a business partner (Paris, 2010), creating a bridge between the two worlds. Another concept with appliances in the fashion industry is ambidextrous organizing, the balance of contradictory approaches to business; exploration, and exploitation (Overdiek, 2016). Exploration sartorially includes conceptualizing new designs, attuning to market trends, and collaborations with other designers, while exploitation is production and distribution, retail strategy, and brand development. The “quantifiable and efficiency-driven” side of exploitation and the “intangible and creativity-driven” (Overdiek, 2016) side of exploration bridge the gap that exists between creativity and commerce.  

Citations: 

Berg, A. and Fusaro, R. (2022) ‘How current global trends are disrupting the fashion industry’, McKinsey & Company.  

Caroline Stevenson, C. (2023) ‘Fashion Art and Commerce’. London: UAL, 16 October.  

Overdiek, A. (2016) ‘Fashion designers and their business partners: Juggling Creativity and Commerce’, International Journal of Fashion Studies, 3(1), pp. 27–46. doi:10.1386/infs.3.1.27_1.  

Smith, P. (2023) Topic: Apparel market worldwide, Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/topics/5091/apparel-market-worldwide/#topicOverview (Accessed: 19 October 2023). 

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People

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People. The stitches that bind innovation and creativity together to form the fashion industry. While fashion is often colloquially dubbed an “art form” (Castro, 2023), in its roots, it’s a business. Because successful businesses rely on people to function, understanding all those involved is a key part of what drives the fashion industry. This foundational pillar of “people” dovetails with the contemporary landscape where Gen Z consumers have taken to the main stage.  

Gen Z, short for Generation Z, are people born between 1996 and 2010. Transparency, sustainability, and a brand’s unique narrative are amongst the top things Gen Z value in companies, as they look “beyond tangible products” and attempt to understand “what makes the company tick” (Finneman, 2020). For them, not only garments direct their spending, but the journey leading up to the shelves as well. 9/10 surveyors on a McKinsey study believed that companies had a responsibility to address environmental and social issues, and 73% of Gen Z reported trying to purchase from companies they consider ethical (McKinsey, 2023). And for companies that meet these standards, Gen Z consumers are “willing to pay a premium for sustainable garments” (Rahilly, 2020).  

Although transparency amongst companies has become a luxury, as the “rarest thing in fashion today is 100% traceability” (Castro, 2023), many brands have begun sharing their “cost-breakdown of products and manufacturing processes” (Kim et al., 2020) to meet this demand. For example, Everlane, an American retailer, started engaging in “Radical Transparency”, breaking down components of production costs, publishing chronicles detailing field visits, relationships with vendors, and more (Kim et al., 2020). With this initiative, Everlane saw a $150 million increase in revenue over a span of 3 years. Similarly, outerwear brand Patagonia’s “Footprint Chronicles” shared information about its supply chain, featuring clips of their textile mills and fabric companies, and was recognized as the “UN Champion of Earth”, the UN’s top environmental honor (Kim et al., 2020).  

Transparency isn’t the only “people” skill needed for success in fashion. Caryn Franklin highlights “authenticity” as another factor, as “bias is learned, but authenticity is who you are separate from the learning” (Franklin, 2023). Linking this to Gen Z consumers, one-way authenticity can be discerned is through what Becker-Olsen and Potucek describes as ‘greenwashing,’ which refers to the “practice of falsely promoting an organization’s environmental efforts or spending more resources to promote the organization as green than are spent to actually engage in environmentally sound practices” (Adamkiewicz, J. et al., 2022). This phenomenon acts as a litmus test, distinguishing genuinely authentic brands from those adopting sustainability merely in response to market pressures.  

Citations:  

(2023) What is Gen Z? [Preprint]. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/featured%20insights/mckinsey%20explainers/what%20is%20gen%20z/what-is-gen-z.pdf (Accessed: 10 October 2023).  

Adamkiewicz, J. et al. (2022) ‘Greenwashing and Sustainable Fashion Industry’, Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry, 38, p. 100710. doi:10.1016/j.cogsc.2022.100710.  

Castro, O.D. (2023) ‘The Z to A of Happiness: A Gen Z Guide’. London: UAL , 9 October.  

Franklin, C. (2023) ‘Diversity, inclusion culture and equality’. London: UAL, 9 October.  

Kim, N.L., Kim, G. and Rothenberg, L. (2020) ‘Is honesty the best policy? examining the role of price and Production Transparency In Fashion Marketing’, Sustainability, 12(17), p. 6800. doi:10.3390/su12176800.

Rahilly, L., Finneman, B. and Spagnuolo, E. (2020) Meet Generation Z: Shaping the future of Shopping, McKinsey & Company. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/meet-generation-z-shaping-the-future-of-shopping (Accessed: 09 October 2023). 

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Planet

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Amidst the glitz and glamour of the fashion industry, planet, one of the three pillars of sustainability, has made its long overdue ascend into the spotlight.  

Clothing has evolved since preindustrial times, when specialized techniques and scarce fabrics made the process artisanal. With industrialization came the mass production of clothing, the rise of synthetic dyes, and manufactured fabrics. In the post-modern world, where lower-priced products designed for shorter lifecycles (Saha & LeHew, 2018) are having destructive consequences on the planet, the concept of a circular economy emerges as a promising path for a more sustainable future in fashion.   

The circular economy, sartorially, refers to keeping resources in use for as long as possible. Resources include materials, textiles, labor, machinery, and the garments themselves. There are 3 main parts to a circular economy as written by Alison Gwilt in “A Practical Guide to Sustainable Fashion”; designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems. To sustain the perpetuation of a circular economy within the fashion industry, not only is an understanding of the “product lifecycle” (Heim & Hopper, 2022) required, but it is also vital to accept the challenges this industry brings.   

The fashion industry is far more damaging than many realize. According to the UNEP, the fashion industry was responsible for 8-10% of humanity’s carbon emissions in 2018, which is more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined, and in 2019, consumed more energy than the aviation and shipping industry combined (Rimarcikova, 2023). The ramifications of garment production are not just a matter of simple environmental concern, but instead, hold significance to broader sustainability objectives.   

(The environmental effects of fashion)

For example, a Sustainable Development Goal that holds clear relevance to fashion and the planet is Goal 12; responsible consumption and production. Tying together not only a company’s supply chain but the consumers as well, Goal 12 successfully puts into perspective all perpetrators of the cycle, where overproduction has become an inevitability. 120 billion garments are produced annually, producing 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 from textile production (Rimarcikova, 2023). Overconsumption is equally destructive, with approximately 300,000 tonnes of clothing thrown away each year, despite 95% of discarded garments being able to be recycled or upcycled (Lench, 2020). Surprisingly, to support Goal 12, countermeasures prove to be quite straightforward. In 2017, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation reported that “if the number of times a garment is worn was doubled, the greenhouse gas emissions over its lifetime would be 44% lower”. Other suggestions include functional designs, such as trans-seasonal or modular garments that could increase the wear of each clothing and bring sustainability in consumption. (Saha & LeHew, 2018).   

Citations:  

Gwilt, A. (2020) Practical guide to sustainable fashion. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts. 

Heim, H. and Hopper, C. (2022) ‘Dress code: The Digital Transformation of the circular fashion supply chain’, International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education, 15(2), pp. 233–244. doi:10.1080/17543266.2021.2013956. 

Hethorn, J. and Ulasewicz, C. (2015) Sustainable fashion: What’s next?: A conversation about issues, practices and possibilities. New York  i pozostałe: Bloomsbury, Fairchild Books, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc. 

Lench, A. (2020) Intro to Fashion Sustainability & the Sustainable Development Goals. Available at: https://ual.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=effd1f14- 22ac-4415-8b35-ac5800fa26d9 (Accessed: 30 September 2023).  

Rimarcikova, K. (2023) Planet Earth & Fashion. (Accessed: 02 October 2023).  

Saha, K. and LeHew20, M.L.A. (2018) Durable fashion apparel: A potential sustainability solution? Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328517777_Durable_Fashion_Apparel_A_Potential_Sustainability_Solution (Accessed: 05 October 2023). 

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My Favourite Brand

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Prada

Founded in 1913 by Mr Mario Prada, the Italian luxury brand first began as a store located in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. Prada started out by selling trunks, bags, and other accessories to a wealthy public, which played a role in helping the brand to obtain the title of Official Supplier of the Italian Royal House. Despite Mario Prada’s patriarchal ways, his daughter Luisa took over the brand and ran it for twenty years as his successor. Miuccia Prada joined the family business in 1970, designing bags and trunks, including the nylon “Vela” bag.  

In 1979, the brand expanded their collection with women’s footwear. With the success of this line, Prada was able to market their stores all over the world, with boutiques in Milan, London, Tokyo, Paris, and Madrid. With her new partner Patrizio Bertelli, who owned his own leather goods business, Prada’s global success pushed the two into the introduction of a womenswear line, and the brand’s first catwalk in 1988. Distinguishing themselves with their luxurious fabrics, clean lines, and distinct colors, Prada settled in as one of the most coveted fashion brands in the early 1990s.   

Prada today stands as a multibillion-dollar business, and one of the top luxury fashion brands in the world. Iconic pieces from the brand include their nylon backpacks, a particular fabric choice as leather had been the go-to material for luxury bags, the flaming stiletto, a rather controversial and eccentric runway piece that debuted in 2012, and the Prada tie, black and straightforward with Prada’s signature triangle logo from its menswear collection.  

Prada began by making a name for themselves with their rather luxurious and slim-cut line of clothing with emphasis on the waist and solid colors. They then transitioned into bold and fun colors with varying patterns, settling into a much more “kitsch” look. More recently, Prada has appealed to androgenous fashion with their launches of accessories and clothing.  

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