The state of fashion: why it’s time to seize the day in 2019

As always, the annual State of Fashion report, authored by the Business of Fashion together with McKinsey & Company, made for an interesting read. It predicts “a year of awakening” and “a time for looking at opportunities, not just challenges” in 2019. This industry forecast ties in with my own belief that this is the time to seize every opportunity that presents itself.

With the new year ahead of us, I would like to take a moment to reflect on everything that 2018 brought us; what went well, what didn’t and what are the implications for 2019?

This time last year…

Last year’s State of Fashion report predicted 2018 would be a “water-shed year” in fashion and a time for Asia to emerge as a leading region. It speculated that the industry would face unprecedented disruption and change as a result of consumers’ continuously changing demands and with sustainability, innovation and diversity taking centre stage. 2018 was expected to be a year with clear winners and losers, the difference being in the level of boldness, ambition and courage. This final point particularly struck a chord with me! 

At Tommy Hilfiger, Asia was really a focus point last year. We presented our Fall 2018 collection at our TOMMYNOW “See Now, Buy Now” experiential runway event in Shanghai, supported by a high-profile partnership with popular online shopping outlet Tmall, and a dedicated TOKYO ICONS event in Japan. The strategy delivered one of our most commercially successful seasons to date. I plan to return to the topic of Asia here in the near future.

2018 was also a period of global uncertainty and continuous change. From Brexit and trade wars, to the growth swing from West to East and the globalization of the U.S. retail decline, with major changes in Europe, such as the acquisition of House of Fraser in the U.K. The rapid shift towards digitalization and e-tail also continued to meet the demands of digitally-savvy consumers. In all these ways and more, the disruption and change that was predicted became reality.

Change is not bad; it’s just different

The key to surviving and staying one step ahead during these challenging times is the ability and willingness to embrace constant change; to be agile and innovative. Change is not bad, it is just different, providing us with new and exciting opportunities. I am proud that at Tommy Hilfiger we continue to push boundaries in this demanding environment, from enhancing our speed to market to elevating brand experience across the entire consumer journey.

Innovate to win

In a difficult environment, sticking to what you know is too risky. Only by continuing to innovate can businesses thrive and stay relevant. This continues to be true for 2019. The future of the hotel industry is about personalized experiences, not simply renting rooms. The future of the automotive industry is about transforming human mobility, not just selling cars. It is the same for us: to shape the future of the fashion industry, we need to think bigger, bolder and outside of the box. Adopting and maintaining a start-up mentality and looking to new technologies to constantly reinvent across our business has allowed us to “make the impossible, possible” and ensure we continue to do so in 2019.

And now for 2019…

Looking at the year ahead, a key focus area in our industry will be to improve the consumer experience, creating a seamless consumer journey and omnichannel approach – whether it is in-store or online. As one way to achieve this, brands will find new ways to collaborate with big online retail platforms like Amazon. At Tommy Hilfiger, we recently launched a new program with Zalando in Germany: a shared order system, whereby consumers buy online at Zalando and we deliver from our stores on the same day.

Online will continue to blend with and complement offline – for example, Alibaba is partnering with brands to open retail stores, while Amazon is launching pop-ups. We are also looking at ways to take partnerships to deeper levels. I took note of an interesting example recently - the announcement from Farfetch of their multi-year global innovation partnership with Chanel. Working with partners within and outside of our industry, such as Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, to share digital and logistical expertise in order to improve consumer experience both offline and online will be an essential step in setting us up for the future.

Last but not least, sustainability is no longer a nice to have. It needs to be a fundamental and integrated part of brand purpose. I’ve shared my thoughts on this topic before (see my article from last July) and will return to it in more depth 2019. 

Whatever 2019 brings, embrace change

When it comes to predictions and speculation for 2019, I am going to stay open-minded. We are already actively involved in each of the future trends that I have mentioned here, and will passionately take on all of this year’s changes and challenges to ensure the TOMMY HILFIGER brand continues to lead.

I hope you will also seize the opportunities out there, and I wish you every success in what you set out to do.

Happy New Year!