Runway Report FW20: How Luxury Fashion Shopping Habits Have Shifted in the Midst of a Global Pandemic

The past few weeks and months have presented incredible anxieties and challenges to thousands of families, workers, and businesses across the globe. Moda Operandi’s family of employees and customers have not been immune to those anxieties and challenges, and we have had to adapt our own business in numerous ways large and small to cope with this crisis. Nevertheless, we have done our best to stay positive and productive as a company during this difficult time, while bringing small moments of joy and inspiration to our customers through our daily communications. We have also tried to galvanize our community to support others in need. Thanks to our customers, we’re proud to be donating a percentage of net profits from full-priced sales — totaling $100,000 — to organizations in the collective fight against COVID-19. We are incredibly proud of the entire fashion industry — our own brand partners, emerging designers everywhere, retailers online and offline, manufacturers and suppliers — who continue to persevere amidst the economic uncertainty. We are in this together.

Often, the pressures of a crisis can lead to experimentation, innovation, creativity and resourcefulness. At Moda, our private client advisors are now conducting digital one-on-one appointments. Our studio team members have set up mobile product shoots at their homes, with makeshift lighting, photography, and on-model figures. Where possible, our designers are shipping products directly to our customers. We are using digital channels like Slack to communicate, stay close, recognize small wins, and generally keep our morale up. Beyond experimentation, crises can also lead to generosity of spirit, such as with our Moda Operandi van operators, who in lieu of their daily New York City deliveries, have volunteered their time to deliver meals to the city’s most vulnerable.

We have also adjusted this report, which typically analyzes data from early transactions made by the luxury fashion consumer to predict next season’s fashion trends. This edition — our third — will examine how fundamental shifts in home life, leisure, and work caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted luxury fashion and the products that people are shopping for.

This year’s report will examine how fundamental shifts in home life, leisure, and work caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic have impacted luxury fashion and the products that people are shopping for.

For the first time, we are also offering qualitative research alongside our findings that shed light on consumers’ current attitudes and behaviors when it comes to investing in higher-quality fashion. We commissioned The Harris Poll in January 2020 to conduct an online survey among 1500 US women ages 18–60 on their perception and attitudes toward wardrobe purchases, specifically as it relates to investment pieces, and found the majority of women — 73 percent — prefer to have higher-quality pieces, rather than higher quantity, in their wardrobe.

While the fashion industry adjusts to a new normal, we hope that by lifting the curtain on our data and consumer research, we’re able to add some value back into the fashion ecosystem, including to our designer partners, fellow retailers, and consumers.

We hope you find this season’s report engaging and informative, and wish you the best of health and happiness. You can read the report here.

Ganesh Srivats, CEO