Australia Fashion Week goes trans-seasonal due to “climate change”

Australia Fashion Week (which finishes today) is now promoting itself as a “trans-seasonal” event as a result of climate change.  The event, held in Sydney, would normally be the autumn/winter edition (the opposite of the recent northern hemisphere weeks) the current edition however concentrates on collections more suitable to a milder climate year round. The move may actually be more about breaking old world fashion week conventions that were never relevent to southern hemisphere events in the first place (and a cunning PR move to cash in on climate change hysteria) however it raises interesting questions. With the fashion industry becoming more global how relevent is it to show seasonal collections fitting the climate of one specific place (London or Paris for example)? And is climate change something the fashion industry really needs to plan for seriously or is this just more eco-hype?

 ”We just don’t have a need to do it any more,” (Australia) Fashion Week founder Simon Lock told AFP.

Lock said the move was partly the result of climate change, and partly due to the fact Australia has always enjoyed warmer weather than the traditional northern hemisphere fashion capitals of Milan, Paris and New York.

But he said as global temperatures rise, fashion houses and department stores around the world would face heavy winter clothing sitting ignored on racks as summer weather stretches well into autumn.

“Clothes just sit there, no one is buying them,” Lock said. “These are things that dramatically affect business.”

He said the issue has become such an industry-wide headache that some brands have hired climate experts to advise on which fabrics to use — and on delivery schedules to get their clothing into stores at the right time.

“There’s a lot of cities where climate change has an impact on what’s now currently available in the stores,” he said.

AFP: Global warming puts winter fashion out in the cold