International Fashion Futurum Forum took place on December 11 considering the following topic: “What is the future of independent fashion brands in post-COVID reality: cultural codes and business opportunities.” The Forum was attended by 74 speakers from 24 countries: Pascal Morand, Executive President, Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (France); Carlo Capasa, Chairman of Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (Italy); Pierre Rougier, Founder of PR Consulting (USA), which works with brands such as Dries Van Noten, LOEWE, Yeezy, Roman and Williams, SSENSE; Michaela Erlanger, Celebrity Stylist (USA), whose clients include Meryl Streep, Lupita Nyong’o, Diane Kruger; Paul Owens, Director of the World Cities Culture Forum, founder and director of BOP Consulting (UK); Danilo Venturi, Director of Polimoda (Italy); Jackie Andrews-Udall, Sustainability in Fashion and Textile Consultant, Lecturer at Central Saint Martins (UK); Burak Kakmak, Co-founder of The Digital Fashion Group (UK); Carrie Somers, Co-founder and Global Operations Director of Fashion Revolution (UK); Maeve Campbell, Deputy Editor, Euronews Living (UK); Mahoro Seward, Staff Editor for i-D Magazine (UK); Amber Jay Slooten, Сo-founder and Сreative Director of The Fabricant (Netherlands) and many others. The Fashion Futurum Forum was supported by the Moscow Department of Culture.
16 sessions were viewed a total by more than half a million times on all platforms: media websites, social networks, fashionfuturum.com, etc. The forum broadcasts in English aroused great international interest – the sessions were available live on social media, media websites, online platforms of showrooms and concept stores.
During the Forum, the results of 2020 were summed up and forecasts for 2021 were formed. The directions that have been developed this year will become key in the future: locality, digitalization, culture, sustainability, diversity, unification, visual art, communication, experiments. In general, experts assume that offline will not become obsolete, but will be inextricably linked with the online format. In the coming year, there will be more competition between designers and other creatives in the digital space. Honest and sincere brand strategies will win, and this approach will also help to gain the attention of celebrity stylists. The format for presenting content on social networks will become completely different, local brands can confidently focus on their target audience, thus in the future this will be a major step towards global recognition. Also, according to the forecasts of the forum speakers, many local events, thanks to the digital format, are transformed into international ones. Online media will work to develop their own niche in social networks, and thereby try to compete with independent industry experts who have already gathered a target audience around them.
The trend will also be the interaction of creative representatives of metropolises with the developing world. Fashion will become the engine of not only the cultural, but also the economic component of developing countries.