Economic DownTurn
Customs & Religion

Less spending when times are bad.

Times of economic downturns slow fashion consumption and evolution. Depression, recessions, and global unrest reduce consumers buying power and have a severe impact on risks consumers are able and willing to take with fashion.

At this moment in time as we are living through the 2020 global Corona Virus pandemic and fashion businesses are suffering the most. Mountains of unsold inventory forced discounting outside the retail calendar, and a catastrophic drop in sales make it difficult for many to stay afloat in a business that is expensive to operate and depended heavily on debt. Issuance of Stay at Home orders in March 2020 created a major slow down in fashion consumption that many established fashion brands and department stores have been unable to withstand.

Here is a list of the stores and brands that have gone out of business this year. This, along with the reduction in buying power by the consumers has caused a severe decrease in demand for fashion.

Bestsellers in 2020, along with masks, are T-shirts, loungewear, and sock.

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Cultural Customs

Habits and customs can often have a slowing effect on fashion adaptation and consumption. Most customers don't take great risks with fashion and long for the familiar, that is why some styles might remain in consumption simply because of custom. The custom of shirt button placement, on the left for women and on the right for men, is leftover from the days when fashionable ladies were dressed by maids, and gentlemen needed to draw weapons. Until the 1940's it was not customary for women to wear trousers and it has been a long standing custom that white should not be worn after labor day. This custom is no longer followed, but it affected fashion demand for a long time.

Religion

Religion has always had a big impact on fashion demand through issuances of moral codes, affecting the type of fashion that was acceptable to wear and for whom.

Sumptuary laws were first created to regulate conspicuous consumption by the rich, later evolved to include moral dress ‘police’, and in some forms remain with us today. Through the middle ages, these laws controlled necklines, the width of a sleeve, and types of lace or fur on one's gown. In large part these laws were also aimed at keeping a social hierarchy so that a commoner could not pass for a lord by dressing above his station, thus rules about the type of clothing one were allowed to don based on one ‘station’. Stories like “The Prince and that Pauper” where a wealthy prince switched places with a poor boy by switching clothes carries with it a much deeper meaning.

In Medieval Florence sumptuary laws were mainly aimed at women and enforced through the “Office of Women,” whose officers were charged with finding and fining any woman breaking such laws. Fashionable Florentine women, however, were often well versed in these laws and made them difficult to enforce. In the article, “Legally fashionable”, Margo Lestz shares the following incidents from the historic record:

There was a woman wearing a hood with an extravagant fringe. The deputy said, “It’s forbidden to wear a hood like that. What’s your name? I have to report to you.” The lady refused to give her name. She lifted off the fringed ornament and said, “Look, this is just a wreath and I’m not wearing it now.”

He saw another wearing forbidden buttons. He said, “Signora, you are not allowed to wear those buttons, there are too many and they are too expensive.” She replied, “Of course, I can wear these. The law applies only to buttons and these are not real buttons. See, there are no buttonholes.”

Sumptuary laws remain with us still, though they are must less invasive. They regulate the types of materials our clothing must be made from. Children’s pajamas for example must be made from fire retardant fabrics. Regulation of fashion through the means of sumptuary laws may slow, but doesn’t stop, fashion demand.

In the 1920s and 30’s bathing suit police would measure women's skirts to ensure they were not indecent and immoral. Immorality at this time measured in skirt heights of more than six inches above the knee. Scandalous.

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