In this issue

It’s now a year since Covid-19 started to spread across the world. Country lockdowns, factory shutdowns, travel bans, labour and raw material shortages, soaring logistics costs, retailer and supplier bankruptcies and a surge in online demand have fractured supply chains and forced brands and retailers to take a stark look at the way they operate.

In this issue of just-style magazine we unpick the impact the pandemic has had on the apparel sector and how it is likely to redefine the industry into the future. How can businesses be better prepared for the next crisis? What’s the impact on the buyer-supplier relationship? And how can companies reset with sustainability in mind? All are questions that we tackle on the following pages.

There’s also a role to be played by new technologies. Uptake of 3D, customisation, on-demand, microfactories, enhanced PLM, made-to-measure, and digital try-on has soared over the past 12 months, helping speed up time-to-market, reduce costs and waste, and improve efficiency.

Aligned with these wider changes is the need for more realistic online displays to help reduce product returns as increasing numbers of shoppers head online. And as the industry becomes ever more data-driven, fashion education must also be reset to provide the necessary skillsets to stay relevant.

Leonie Barrie, editor