Perhaps the biggest change came from some of the biggest designers forgoing Fashion Week all together.
“We wanted to be respectful with what’s happening with everything around us,” said Tory Burch. It isn’t that the designer and her team aren’t working, but in March the chief creative officer of her namesake brand shut down her office and 300 stores worldwide.
“Quite honestly, we were fighting for every bit of business that we could get,” said Burch.
As the U.S. went on lockdown, clothing store sales plunged a record 79%. Retailers struggled to survive; some didn’t.
With work from home the norm for many, pajama sales spiked 133%, slippers at 75%. Hello sweatpants, goodbye jeans!
Correspondent Alina Cho asked, “Why would anyone want to buy a dress right now?”
“Our sport collection is performing really well,” Burch replied. “But so are our dresses. And people want to go and they want to feel that joy and optimism.”
Of course, during a pandemic, fashion may not seem like a priority to some, but it’s actually a $400-billion-a-year industry, and one, Burch said, that is too big to fail.
