What Doing Business In a “NEW” Economy will mean.
There are a few other considerations besides the chaos in our global economy that has resulted in the downturn and lack of sales in the world fashion. Today’s trend in fashion is all about buying interesting contemporary items to add to existing clothing items that are already hanging in closets. Most of us have enough jeans and other basic clothing to dress up or down, so this new trend I feel was already evolving before the economic turmoil. It is a product of today’s casual life style that has resulted in confusion for the retail buyers as to know what in fact a “trend” is.
Retailers such as Zara and Forever 21 changed their methods of production and buying habits a couple of years back. They produce small lots and replenished weekly. This was in motion before the truth about corporate greed and insecure investments came to light.
Contemporary fashion demands speed to market that often means domestic production, which due to most sewing contractors losing their production to off-shore competition, good compliant domestic production it is hard to find. We now need to support speed to market by building and supporting more infrastructure for sewing contractors and apparel manufacturers. In order to achieve this, we need to help them with, financial investment and education to support changes from old production methods to newer “fast fashions”. They will need to retool and regear to accommodate smaller production runs. This method is called “modular” production, a word I think we will be seeing more and more in the future.
It is important that we restore faith for investors both in the US and around the world. Our free market is the foundation of the US financial system. Restoring that faith is one of the first steps on the road to economic recovery. The new evolving economy will need investment in new technology, infrastructure and also to embrace modern methods of manufacturing. I feel there is light at the end of the tunnel, but the recovery will not be soon or rapid. Step one is recognizing our problems and finding a solution and acting ASAP, “Speed to Market” has to be our new global chant for a new economy.
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