Navigating between a new generation of consumers with very specific desires, the climate emergency, and the need for creative renewal, the fashion industry has never been as dynamic as it is today.
Next to the entry "Mutation, feminine noun", the Larousse writes: "Radical change, conversion, profound evolution." This is pretty much what the fashion industry has been experiencing for several seasons, shaken by social, political, and environmental changes that punctuate current events, as well as by the emergence of new consumption patterns. "It's completely cyclical, the sum of various things," confirms Lucie Jeannot, fashion project manager at Première Vision, an international event for industry professionals. "Digital technology has created new information and consumption habits, new ecological standards have led to consumer awareness, and therefore to a consumption crisis. In light of these demands, fashion, both luxury and mass-market, has had to adapt." A year and a half earlier, the Première Vision teams had already predicted that the theme for Spring-Summer 2025 would be mutation. "We were asking ourselves many questions about the future of fashion, about commerce; we felt that everything was changing, and that it would take time. It was also the moment when all the environmental laws were being put in place. Today, we are precisely in this in-between, this moment of transformation where we know where we come from without knowing exactly where we are going. A freeze-frame, the moment when the butterfly emerges from the chrysalis."
Historically, however, the fashion industry is not on its first metamorphosis. In 1858, the garment manufacturing system experienced its first upheavals with the birth of haute couture, whose standard-bearer was none other than the British (based in France) Charles Frederick Worth. Under his impetus, the couturier was no longer a mere executor, but a full-fledged creator, who created his own silhouettes instead of responding to the demands of his wealthy clients. Then came the birth of ready-to-wear, almost a century later, which disrupted the established order of fashion. At the end of the 1990s, the birth of large luxury groups reshuffled the cards of the fashion industry, which then had to face the boom of fast fashion... In 2003, Gilles Lipovetsky and Elyette Roux already noted in Le Luxe éternel (Gallimard): "For more than a decade, the luxury sector has been undergoing a real organizational mutation, with the small independent and semi-artisanal companies of yesteryear giving way to international conglomerates, to multi-brand groups applying, though not exclusively, methods and strategies that have proven their worth in mass markets."
"The difference with this transformation compared to its predecessors is that it is now full of paradoxes," explains Morgane Pouillot, project manager for foresight and creative strategies at the Leherpeur Paris trend consultancy. "What really stands out is that the system increasingly operates like an hourglass: we are facing an increasingly expensive luxury industry, but paradoxically, it uses mass communication and therefore loses what made it rare. On the consumer side, duality is just as present, with both a need for rationality and more reasoned consumption, which contrasts with a very strong demand for imagination and storytelling. Beyond the product, consumers are now looking for an experience."
Morgane Pouillot also points out that "one of the key points of this mutation is that the fashion system can no longer function as before, precisely because the consumer is now part of the system. They are no longer just passive; they themselves drive change. It is because they express all their new needs and desires that brands are obliged to adapt." What are the answers to this demand for novelty? Firstly, the success of a new generation of designers, embodied by the Belgian Nicolas Di Felice at Courrèges or the French duo Arnaud Vaillant and Sébastien Meyer at Coperni. Where the former adapts his silhouettes to the behaviors and movements of a new, highly connected generation (his jackets and coats with slit sleeves from Autumn-Winter 2023 freed up arms to facilitate phone use), the latter jump headfirst into new technologies, imagining a spray-on dress or a bag made of 99% air. In response to the demands of aficionados of more responsible fashion (more and more of whom prioritize second-hand), other designers, such as the French Marine Serre and the Swedish Ellen Hodakova Larsson, have made upcycling (the reuse of various and varied materials and objects) their battleground.
In order to seduce a consumer who is tired, a victim of what experts now call "luxury fatigue", this sector has completely overturned its organizational chart. The fashion merry-go-round, which in 2024 saw more than twenty departures and enthronements follow one another at a dizzying pace, is not yet over. One of the major consequences of this game of musical chairs: the highlighting of artistic directors, champions of conceptual (though wearable) and more creative fashion, showcasing art and craftsmanship. Like Matthieu Blazy, who moved from Bottega Veneta to Chanel, or Jonathan Anderson, currently at Loewe, but whom rumors place at other prestigious houses.
But the most representative symptom of this major phase of mutation is actually happening on the materials side."We are currently in a somewhat embryonic zone, where each brand is testing things, without knowing exactly what the outcome will be,"notes Lucie Jeannot."The term transformation was seen this season through very organic, somewhat fluid looks. On the materials side, this translates into the predominance of linen, silk, knitwear, gauze, and even a jersey so loose that it is almost translucent. We also note the emergence of so-called changing fabrics, which create strange reflections and illusions."
Materials that echo the upheavals the sector is undergoing, particularly impacted by global warming."This is a huge topic for our industry,"confirms the Première Vision expert."It will change the way we dress, and therefore the fabrics from which our clothes are cut."This explains, on the Spring-Summer 2025 runways, the omnipresence of transparency, light dresses, and more globally, summery, airy, or breathable materials, allowing the body to breathe."Material is now at the heart of all issues,"confirms Morgane Pouillot."And this is because it is intrinsically linked to the question of resources, of raw materials, which are exhaustible, and which can sometimes diminish living things. This will lead manufacturers and brands to propose new ones." Far from being over, this transformation of the fashion industry has, according to our specialist, an advantage:"All these constraints ultimately allow creation and its expressions to mutate, and to propose another language."
