When Fashion Loses Its Wheels

I have recently written a piece in Romanian about the retail collapse and its domino effect upon designers. In my original piece I made a parallel with the Romanian market, one you wouldn’t necessarily consider to be affected by the crash of big retailers such as Farfetch, SSENSE or Yoox, but in fact, it touches us, the Balkans, too. Because who’s a better entry price-point buyer than a Balkan blood, whose ego is directly proportional to the logo on his chest?

In a society governed by social media, superficial standards, and a constant decline in attention span, consumerism thrives on quick doses of dopamine that condition our behaviors and transform desires into immediate needs. And one of the major industries that either benefits from, or on the contrary is harmed by, this phenomenon is fashion. Why both? Because at this moment the fashion world is split between fast fashion, which feeds off our need to complete a new look for every social appearance, believing that new clothes can cover all the insecurities behind the scenes, and so many fall into the trap of compulsive shopping because it still fits the budget, and high-end fashion, which suffers in a way that I hope is not entirely irreparable when it comes to sustaining its future collections. When I say “high-end,” I don’t necessarily mean Prada, Gucci, or any of the fashion giants, even though they also have a role in this article. I’m referring more to brands that, regardless of their price point, base their creative values not on fame but on the joy of dressing people in superior quality pieces that can withstand the test of time.

Recently I came across this so-called “bombshell news” on social media about SSENSE having filed for bankruptcy. Yet the announcement didn’t come as a shock. In case you didn’t know, SSENSE is a Canadian multi-brand retailer specializing in high-end and streetwear clothing, famous for its Instagram memes about the very clothes it sold, a stroke of pure marketing genius.

A few years ago the same fate befell Farfetch, and according to the most recent reports, Yoox also seems to be in crisis, after laying off over 200 employees without respecting the notice period. A disruption like this in the industry is the equivalent of losing a wheel on a car, and the domino effect hits designers the hardest, not just consumers.

Let me explain why, from my perspective as a fashion designer. In the ecosystem of a brand, the biotope, meaning the environment and resources needed for survival, is retail. Once you create a collection, its first point of contact is with the buyers. After their selection, once they place an order and pay a deposit, the brand can finance production. Then, once the pieces arrive in stores, the remaining balance gets paid. The decline of retail stores in recent years has first led to delays in payments to designers and later to bankruptcies.

Stores are not just sales channels, they are spaces of validation, visibility, and direct contact with the public. When these spaces disappear, or when payments are delayed, the chain breaks: productions can no longer be financed, future collections get postponed, and the brand risks losing relevance. With the closure of physical retail, designers risk losing their chance of being discovered organically. They are forced to compete exclusively in the digital realm, where large marketing budgets often make the difference between visibility and invisibility. In an industry that changes rapidly, retail is no longer just about sales, it is about survival, and about how fashion continues to inspire.

In the Romanian version I tied this problem back to us by highlighting the fact that Romanians, still not educated in the realm of fashion and buying, shop most of the time from big brands, because it is still “a thing” to show off labels rather than good taste. This is yet another piece of the domino. When you dress to impress, and the "impress” part comes from big logos as a primary factor instead of good quality or wearability, you push money into the big giants, the 1% of brands that lead the global industry. Now, by saying this I’m not trying to trash those brands. We love them, they are an inspiration to all of us, fashion victims included. But one should take a step back and invest in their wardrobe the same way they invest in their diet. If your food has to be all bio and locally produced, the same rule should apply to the way you dress. There are outstanding brands all over the world that have conscious values, high quality, and unique designs that won’t make you look like a replica in Duomo surrounded by tourists.

I like to call this the “McDonald’s Effect.” You know when you’re traveling to a new country, you reach there hungry as fuck, and while you’re surrounded with all these local restaurants, out of hunger and lack of trust your first meal ends up being McDonald’s, because it’s something you already know, it feels safe. Same thing for clothes. You end up getting dressed from the same chains you feel comfortable with, instead of finding local gems that can become a souvenir of that place or that experience.

This “all aesthetics” disease has overshadowed the fact that clothes are also meant to hold memories, not just make you look cool for that one insta post you’re trying to hook people with.

The Domino Effect of Retail Collapse

Carved Emotions