By Conor McGinn
During the COVID-19 Pandemic, many businesses were shut down for a duration of time to ensure safety amongst people during the outbreaks. According to research conducted by McKinsey & Company, the Fashion Industry took a 90% drop in profits in the year of 2020 alone. To say that Covid screwed the Fashion Industry big time is an understatement. However, one of the few bright spots that came from Covid happened to be an increase in clean air and energy across the world with the mass reduction of business, improving air quality from various cities, reducing GHG emissions, lessening water pollution, and reducing air pressure on tourist destinations. In addition, to the world as a whole, the Fashion Industry began to make major changes in an effort to improve sustainability. Consumers also began to make these changes as well. According to Anna Kranskog and Libbi Lee from McKinsey & Company, more than two-third of surveyed consumers of fashion stated that it was most important to limit impacts on climate change.
Additionally, about 88% of correspondents should be paid to reduce pollution in the future. Compared to awareness of the matters in years before the Pandemic, the change is enormous. Nonetheless, it seems that now in the year 2023 that consumers are now aware of the toll their clothing apparel may be taking on the environment than they were before. This change is important because growth in consumer push for sustainability directly relates to that of sustainability goals pushed for by the Fashion Industry, and could hopefully lead to an expansion in awareness to consumers in other areas of business that may change their agendas as well. Consumers drive the producers. And with Consumers starting to change toward sustainable fashion products, so will the changes.
Sources:
The Impact on Fashion Industry due to COVID-19. Zhao Jiawen
Survey on Consumer Sentiment on Sustainability in Fashion. Anna Granskog, Libbi Lee, Karl Hendrik-Magnus, and Corinne Sawers