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My Lockdown Transformation: Shopaholic to Conscious Consumer
My shopaholic realisation: Forty-three days ago, when all of this madness began, I, like most girls my age, was a self-confessed shopaholic. My daily hobbies consisted of scrolling through online shops for hours at a time and eagerly waiting for those glorious parcels to arrive at my door. So, as you can imagine, when news of lockdown broke out, I was delighted to have all the time in the world to be doing my favourite pastime completely guilt-free. Before long, I had overloading baskets sprawled across different sites ready for me to buy. “But what was I actually buying these clothes for?” I thought to myself. I had ‘going out…
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Fashion, Suppliers & the Global Crisis
The role of mainstream media during the Covid-19 global pandemic The media is undoubtably an incredible tool which allows news to be presented on a variety of platforms to the entire nation and beyond. Despite its positive implications, the delivery of news through media outlets can often cause negative emotions and provoke panic. This is something that we, as a nation, have experienced throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. There have been criticisms surrounding how Covid-19 news updates have been presented by the media. The focus has heavily been on the negative aspects of the pandemic, without a healthy balance. The positive aspects, such as communities coming together and showing a united…
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COVID-19: Consumer Behaviour and Sustainable Fashion
On the 23rd of March, Boris Johnson ordered a nationwide lockdown due to the growing rate of coronavirus cases in the UK. This lockdown demanded that for the foreseeable future, any non-essential businesses were to be closed to the public, and any non-essential workers now needed to work from home. While supermarkets have continued to serve the public and are struggling to keep up with panic buying demand, other businesses such as those in the fashion industry are struggling to stay afloat in the new climate. The pandemic has led to an estimated 40% drop in average market capitalization from the beginning of January to the end of March, and…
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Sustainability out the Window? Corona is the new Trend
How coronavirus is pushing sustainability to the side Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 back in January 2020, sustainability was becoming a major talking point among fashion retailers, but now Coronavirus has taken over every aspect of our lives. Consumers were becoming hungry for information from their favourite brands in relation to how garments were being created in the fast paced environment. But has COVID-19 caused consumers to forget about sustainability? Post-pandemic The fashion world prior to the outbreak was ready for a change, with big brands focusing on how they can incorporate more sustainable and environmentally friendly practices into their production and supply chain processes. This has come as…
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COVID-19: An Opportunity for Change?
How is the global crisis affecting consumer behaviours towards fashion? It seems an increasingly difficult question. Will the drastic changes we have seen in the short-term result in long-term positive change for the fashion industry? The complexity of our buying habits may need more than a month of lockdown to untangle the skein of consumerism. The complexities of aspirational culture: In an article on luxury fashion in China, the Journal of Retailer and Consumer Services looked at the relationship between the culture of aspiration which drives the luxury goods market and the economic reality behind its incessant growth. They look at fashion as a symbol and how this affects what…
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Covid-19: the Impact on Garment Workers
Covid-19 has instilled panic in so many of us and has impacted a multitude of aspects in our daily lives. The days of shopping until you drop seem like a distant memory as strict lockdown measures keep our high-street stores closed until further notice. Most of us in the Western world have now come to accept our newfound lives. Days filled with online shopping and baking banana bread every chance we get have become the new normal. However, it’s important that we don’t forget about the impact that these changes are having on the people behind our brand-new tie dye sweatshirt. I’m talking about those people who work tirelessly and…
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The COVID-19 Consequences
On December 21st 2019, the first case of an unknown pneumonia surfaced in China. In such a crucial date in the calendar, nobody would have suspected the impact to be encountered 5 months on. The world as we know it has come to a standstill for one disease, COVID-19. Nation to nation, critical measures are put in place to reduce the spread of the disease. Limiting social contact, furloughing millions of employees and the closure of businesses worldwide has led to the current state; lockdown. When will it all end? The answer everybody wants to know, but no one does know. Frustration is on the minds of the world’s population,…
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Social Media Has its Own Pandemic
Imagine you are in quarantine, it shouldn’t be hard as you most likely are. Now imagine you are quarantining in one of the most affected parts of the UK. On top of that, add the fact that six other people are quarantined with you, including your parents. OK, good so far? One more thing: your mother is asthematic and diabetic, vulnerable. The picture you should have in your head right now is a perfect illustration of my situation. Yep, I’m homebound in the city of Sunderland with a mother who is too frightened to even walk out into the garden. So, believe me, I, more than anyone, eagerly consume the…
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Mainstream Media: the Global Crisis and Fashion
It has been two months since Covid-19 became classed as a pandemic by the World Health Organisation. Since then, nearly everything in mainstream media has had the common thread of being associated with the global crisis; and if I am to be truly honest, most of the information has been negative. However, how can it not be? The world is currently facing a situation that can be compared to the Spanish Flu, which happened a century ago. We still are unsure of how it happened, as well as how long we’re going to be living this “new normal” that we’ve had to adopt. For over a month, we have been…
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The global impact of COVID-19 on the fashion industry
As the COVID-19 global crisis unfolded, I watched in horror as many of the major fashion brands and retailers, without warning, cancelled orders and delayed payments to their suppliers and factories. This was because of the slowdown in consumption of their clothing, due to the closure of their retail stores. In many cases, this meant that the factories could not pay their workers for work that they had already carried out. Over 1 million garment workers in Bangladesh have lost their jobs or been temporarily suspended from work, due to these order cancellations and the failure of buyers to pay for cancelled orders. Many of these workers have been sent home…
