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Almost two weeks ago, Milan recorded the hottest October day ever or at least since 1736, the year in which the Brera Meteorological Observatory began taking note of temperatures. In fact, on Sunday 9 October the thermometer reached 30.9°C, exceeding the average for the period by 13 degrees. An event that is in the news today, but which is destined to become normality: according to Jim Skea, the Scottish physicist who chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an arm of the United Nations that studies the climate emergency, around 2030 the world will experience an increase in temperatures of 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial period. And even the duration of the seasons, as we have always known them, will change: according to a study that processed data collected between 1952 and 2011 and published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters, in the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere by 2100 l summer could last almost six months, and winter less than two.
The impact of climate change on fashion
In this context, fashion is grappling with a series of issues: creative, distributional, commercial. To stem on the one hand the idiosyncrasy that sees, for months, coats displayed in shop windows and passers-by in short sleeves, and on the other an uphill start to seasonal sales. And if the solutions on the table are different – from work on materials and collections (see the article alongside) to rethinking distribution times – the most widespread reaction is, at the moment, to reduce prices to encourage customers to ‘purchase. «The beginning of October was tragic in terms of sales with takings that fell by an average of 25-30% compared to the same period in 2022, thanks to the heat, inflation and the war between Israel and Hamas which broke out precisely in those days”, explains Giulio Felloni, textile entrepreneur and president of Federmoda. The first seasonal discounts timidly started purchases again, anticipated by about three months compared to the canonical sales at the beginning of January and, this year, also to those of Black Friday traditionally on the third Friday of November. «This continuous rise and fall in prices only disorientates customers – explains Felloni -, also because it is often unclear which products or brands they apply to. Transparency and consumer protection, however, must remain the priority, as must the idea that price should not guide purchasing choices.” Yet between notices in the window (in large chains) and newsletters in the inbox of registered customers (also for the sites of luxury boutiques, such as Biffi or Tiziana Fausti, and some high-end brands such as Ralph Lauren), the mid-season sales they seem to be the only strategy chosen to boost sales.
The mid-season boom rises
The “wild west” of discounts this year started already in August, shortly after the arrival of the winter collections, and especially on the Internet: «Some of our competitors began to offer promotions already at the end of the summer – explains Vincenzo Troia, general manager of Giglio.com -. We activated a mid-season promotion in October only online and in fact it marked the start of the more winter purchases”. Despite this, the manager specifies «Giglio.com is not yet pushing on the typical categories of the winter season, also because it is hot in countries like the United States and Asia: in Korea, for example, many strong brands in coats and jackets have been experiencing difficulties in selling these categories since last year.” Troia explains how, even on the buying front, things are slowly changing: «We choose garments suited to the new needs of customers, but it is the companies that have already begun to focus on less seasonal garments for some time».
There are discounts of 20 and 30% also on the six floors of the Rinascente store in Piazza Fiume in Rome, completely renovated and just inaugurated after two years of work, even if it is a promotion designed to coincide with the event. «Of course, the adaptation of the offer to climate change is a process that we are all experiencing, but it is very adaptive, it is not a sudden revolution – explains Giuseppe D’Amato, purchasing and merchandising manager at Rinascente -. We are seeing, for example, an extension of pre-collections which embrace an extension of the seasons and which also involve a change in weights. For autumn-winter there are “lighter” proposals, such as the 100 gram down jacket which is definitely making a comeback, and the predisposition for layering is confirmed (i.e. the superposition of different layers for dressing, ed.). However, having nine shops in eight different cities, from Palermo to Cagliari, from Milan to Turin, we try to always offer an offer suited to the different climate zones. Tourists, on the other hand, continue to make purchases regardless of the weather.”
In the paper version of this article published on 20/10 Vincenzo Troia is incorrectly indicated as general manager of Giglio Group and not of Giglio.com. We apologize to readers and interested parties