Special report “The new rhythms of fashion”: Pierre Mahéo The 10 November 2020 - Première Vision Paris

“The whole question of the rhythm of fashion
leads straight to the issue of fashion shows and collections. Given the pandemic, I think it’s important first of all to salute the role played by Paris, which has retained its position as the capital of fashion. We saw it with the Fashion Week in July, and all the houses, large and small, which managed to show their collections. This proved
that we can cope with such a challenging situation.
Of course, we all missed the traditional fashion week – the work with the teams, the production, the music, etc. But the biggest frustration was not being able to show, physically, the clothes, the fabrics. You can make films, photos, videos; but nothing can replace the experience, the feel of a fabric. To remedy this, we created fabric books that
we sent to our customers in different countries. Yet the importance of the fashion shows doesn’t address the issue of the number of collections and the time spent producing each one. Karl Lagerfeld used to say, “You have to wait nine months to make a child. I don’t see why people would come to a fashion show and want the garment immediately.” You have to respect the time frame of all the various industry players. We show the
collection, then we sell it, then we produce it.
There was a big debate three years ago around
the whole “see now, buy now” phenomenon. The idea sounded like a revolution, but the impact on sales was very minimal. “I want it now” is something my 11-year-old daughter would say. If we’re any older than that, I think we can wait. The level of desire for certain items can be enormous, waiting is always a very good thing.”