How the coronavirus is affecting global fashion production, from high street brands to luxury labels
- Companies and designers with factories in China are facing huge disruption to their supply chains as people are unable to return to work
- Brands such as Burberry, LVMH, Kering and Victoria Beckham – all of whom manufacture partly in China – could struggle to release summer collections
Politics have been the bogeyman of European fashion for a few years now.
From the continued uncertainty around Brexit to French strikes and Trump’s arbitrary new tariff system for goods made in the EU, European brands manufacturing at home have been plagued by bad news. In an unexpected plot twist, though, it is the onslaught of the coronavirus that is hitting any fashion company with a supply chain wholly or partly in China with unexpected force.
The loss of human life is, of course, the biggest tragedy of the coronavirus. However, as fashion brands such as Burberry and Moncler, and entire conglomerates like Kering, are coming to terms with what will amount to months of disruption, the industry is bracing itself for serious long-term complications.
The National Chamber for Italian Fashion has said that their “optimistic” estimate is that Italian exports will fall by at least €100 million (US$109 million) in the first quarter for the year and €230 million “in the event of a prolonged crisis”. Burberry has stated that it expects the impact of the virus to be far more severe than the Hong Kong protests.
Gerhard Flatz, the Austrian managing director at high-end performance-wear specialist KTC, says entire brands and even factories are in jeopardy.