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Fresh from covering the creative side of fashion at NZ Fashion Week, Timothy Holmberg gets down to business at the Fashion Without Borders 2010 FINZ Conference to report on industry issues and global developments.

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The world of fashion is filled with many contrasts, often unseen from the outside, and this does not solely mean leather and lace or oversized tops and skinnies. The fun, frivolous parties and runways that appear to epitomise the industry for outsiders are merely the tip of the multi-billion-dollar iceberg.

The global fashion industry is one of the most important sectors of any country’s economy in terms of investment potential, revenue, trade and employment creation. This may seem like a great position to be in but the apparel industry also faces tremendous product variety, often unpredictable demand, short product and range life cycles and a myriad of intricate and lengthy supply processes.

In what seemed like perfect timing, after the celebration of the creative side of the business at NZFW, came the FINZ Fashion Without Borders conference last week which focused on the issues and global developments that retailers, designers and manufacturers are currently facing.

Along with many best practice examples the guest speakers touched on what the industry needs to do to keep up with the burgeoning online market and how to align themselves with consumers’ shopping experience expectations.

Robert Buckingham – The Future Laboratory

Keynote speaker, Robert Buckingham, is a consultant for London’s premiere trend forecasting studio, The Future Laboratory, and a preeminent figure in Australian design, retail and creative strategy. Buckingham used his knowledge of the creative industry to educate attendees on the future developments of the retail and fashion markets.

One of the key factors stressed was that retail should be experiential. Consumers want connections with people and communities and increasingly desire shopping to be an enriching experience.

Retailers should be exploring the three Cs: Conversation between brand and audience; Creation of new ways to encounter the brand; and utilising potential artistic Collaboration. A local example would be The Department Store, where multiple luxury brands, salons and cafés come together under one artistically curated roof.

Discovering inventive and unique ways to interact with potential consumers in-store will help maintain foot traffic in an increasingly online and globalised market. One aspect of this changing environment is the ROPO (research online/purchase offline) effect, where the public investigates potential purchases online and then heads in-store to purchase. Ensuring that the in-store experience is special and worth the added time is essential to help stave off the online shopping phenomenon from taking over bricks-and-mortar outlets.

Donna Bradley – WGSN

Donna Bradley of WGSN - an online fashion, style and commerce forecaster - discussed the trends and issues that face the fashion industry.

These included: evolution vs. revolution; sustainability; emotional connection and the importance of conversations. Her focus was particularly on the ‘Power of Change’ and that coming through the recession the industry is pushed for growth to match the increased reception to shopping once again.

The current word at the top of consumers’ minds is sustainability. Creative companies need to alter their processes to acknowledge this desire to express ethical and environmental choices through product purchases. The fashion industry’s close proximity to the consumer places heavy responsibility, with equal opportunities, to remain sustainable: from the use and commercialization of organic fabrics to bringing the principle into small actions such as combining retail with artisan exhibition spaces.

Moving along the lines of Robert’s discussion, Donna highlighted the idea of forming an emotional connection with the consumer. Creating communication through packaging, advertising, thoughtful customer service and in-store details creates an intrinsic emotion value for the product – for example a clothes hanger that touts “You Look Good In That”. A brand should also portray a story through all of its actions, with a great example of this being Missoni’s ‘family photo’ style advertising campaign for their SS 2010 collection, which instilled an emotional connection in print.

The Future of NZ Manufacturing – Panel Discussion

The most heated debate of the conference surrounded the issue of New Zealand clothing manufacturing led by a panel discussion that included leaders in local design and production.

The domestic manufacturing infrastructure has been a critical issue for more than a decade and conversation focused on rethinking attitudes and reviewing what is currently on offer.

The benefits of on-shore production are numerous but these seem to be losing their appeal for many local designers. Utilising local manufacturers aids the retention of New Zealand’s creative skill base and also helps with quick turnarounds, reduces minimum levels and enables the brand to be responsive to changing consumer demand and opinions.

One of the most interesting points voiced during the discussion was that as off-shore nations develop and grow industrially they will eventually change their cost structures to semi-match those of the local market, driving up costs and minimum requirements. However, if this does happen and manufacturing starts moving back to New Zealand there will be some difficulty as there is no longer the infrastructure in place to handle the increased load. The panel came up the idea that we need to be perceived as a boutique nation on an international scale – that our locally made goods can stand beside luxury labels globally.

Unfortunately, this is somewhat of a 'Catch 22' due to the difficulty in finding the right skill level needed for complex garments at local manufacturers. A certain standard of value needs to be instilled into the on-shore market before this ideal can take hold. Potentially, education and training needs to be investigated to prepare these skill bases in new recruits to the industry.

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Part Two coming soon: A focus on digital practices in retail and fashion.