Fashion and beauty: How the world has turned in 2020

As seen at the beginning of this unfortunate year, the economy took a huge spin. The year 2020 started with the daunting news of the outbreak of COVID-19 which had spread throughout the world.

Now, as everyone is recovering from the disturbance caused by the virus, what has it left of the Fashion and Beauty industries?  Fashion, a $2.5 trillion global industry, and along with beauty being a $532 billion global industry, the economy of these worlds have turned. We require clothes to cover our bodies and products to care for our skins, but the way this pandemic has impacted everyone, it has changed the way we take care of ourselves now. Facing huge losses, these industries are willing to grow again and be at the top of the global economy.

While there are a number of ways to attract the public towards pulling up the said industries, the main focus will be the economic imbalance. Providing enormous discounts and offers to the public, is just another step towards the betterment from the disturbance in the economy. Fashion and Beauty, as we all know come under the same umbrella even then, there is a huge metric difference between the industries.

As we have seen that during the quarantine, fashion and beauty took a hit more than any other industry. There were no means to encourage the designers or the cosmetologists to look further at their already achieved status. People had to have patience as there was no room for anything other than restraining but now, with everything starting to open up, there are things that require certain attention. Fashion and Beauty covering the losses, are only now beginning to look towards a new arrangement that is “social distancing”.

The future within these industries faced difficulties with the uncertainty of the fashion weeks, as the travel restrictions might stay in place for a longer time than expected.  The biggest fashion meet of the year that is the MET Gala was canceled because of the situation. Having fashion shows and no journalists, photographers, or celebrities to cover it is not what the designers are looking for. With the change in the work environment, staying home wearing formals isn’t anybody’s cup of tea. Everyone finds comfort in their homes and definitely skinny jeans and high heels are not one of them. For the record, the online sales for pyjamas increased in April in the US, as per Adobe Analytics.

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Though some brands have decided to shut their retail outlets in some parts of the world, the brands are still hoping for some good news with the distribution of their goods. Although, opening the biggest store in Beijing recently, “Zara” being one of the biggest brands, might end up shutting up to 1,200 stores mostly in Asia and Europe. With the changes, fashion retailers are now looking forward to going big on online sales.

As mentioned above, the brands are going to keep the discounts and offers to attract as many buyers as possible, and now that won’t just be in the store but online as well. It is seen that up till now the top 50 brands might lose 35 billion dollars brand value.

The beauty sector has an impact on almost everyone. It is not just about cosmetics or makeup. It is about how we manage our skin and hair and our body daily. Beauty brings millions of jobs both directly and indirectly from the store worker to the influencers. It is an industry that gives $500 billion approx. sales per year.

As the year started moving, the risk of COVID 19 increased rather than decreasing. We started buying more sanitizers and room cleansers for our safety and everyone else around us. It is not just the pharmaceutical industry that brings these things into our lives, but also the beauty industry which, gives them the right amount of required knowledge in cosmetology. As said before, it is not just about makeup.

Our hair products, daily face washes, shaving creams, and whatnot are all part of this industry. With the pandemic, as fashion went down and faced loss, so did beauty. Wearing masks is a new aspect of our daily lives now. Though fashion is compensating with making the masks, in the opposite scenario beauty is still facing issues with makeup. As seen with girls wearing masks, the sales of lipsticks have gone down and the sales of eye makeup have risen. Similarly, the guys prefer being unshaved now more than before.

As the stores are opening now, the salespeople are making a surety of not putting out testers for any products. They are trying to avoid direct contact as much as possible and yet there are a few customers who want it another way. With the salons as well, there are customers who are scared of the tools and appliances not being well sanitized. The hairdressers are making it a point to use tools after sanitizing them in front of the customer.

They are taking proper precautions and safety measures at work like wearing Face Shields and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Kits and Gloves. Similarly, there are a lot of things that are happening around the world, all with safety measures and precautions.

People, even though the stores have started opening, prefer to order their requirements online. The stores for either, Fashion or Beauty are offering the best discounts and deals which are making the consumer want more of the product but also are keeping their safety in mind.

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With the second wave of the virus, many countries in Europe have commenced another lockdown for a few weeks to look forward to a better Christmas and New Year but how it will impact again on the industries now that the stores have started operating, no one can say.

The lives we have been living have completely changed and it will continue to change, but with this change, we need to act fast and have our game face on. What we have seen since the dawn of this year can only be won over by rapidly overcoming the losses faced by the economy of each industry.