Musical chairs, the future of fashion

Change excites me.

The fashion industry, which has been slightly stagnant for some time, whilst it was caught up with the ’booming’ years, is finally going through a transformation.

In the same way we need political parties to rotate in government in order to reconsider and reassess. We also need change in the ‘real world’ so we can rethink how things are done and maybe start improving, and changing them.

This may seem like a contradiction coming from the fashion world, where things apparently are changing all the time….but the structure, institutions, the media were settled in their ways for decades.

And then came the Internet.

It has changed everything.

Firstly we have bloggers becoming a voice for the people, democratising the information distribution (and yes… this is a whole other debate).

We have designers becoming bloggers to reach their customers

We have the publishers becoming retailers and.....

retailers becoming publishers. 

I don’t remember times being as exciting in the industry as they are now.

Fashion needs to be shaken, and I think the internet needs to be credited for a lot of what is happening.

As I was writing this post, I received a press release announcing Paula Reed has been appointed as Group Fashion Director for Harvey Nichols.

This is exactly the kind of change we need. No one knows the future, or how technology is changing the way we access information and buy. 

But in the meant time, I welcome the cross over between editorial and retail. It's not the first appointment and will certainly not be the last.

I think it’s a move that will benefit everyone.

Congratulations Paula Reed, and Harvey Nichols!