[Insert Fashion Here] #5, 2020

Good Morning!

I hope you are safe at home, taking all the precautions you can, and keeping in good spirits! I know that's not easy — trust me, my freelancer's bank account isn't smiling with me and I'm now actively avoiding the sad and frustrating news — but I hope you're hopeful anyway. Talking to friends the past few days, I've realised even the most disciplined among us are feeling completely upside down and don't know what to do about it. Acceptance and grace, friends. Don't blame your body or your mind for their response to something none of us can quite wrap our heads around. Be even kinder to yourself than usual, take it all one day/one hour/one task at a time, and remember that even this has to end — Talya Goldberg's words on impermanence and my dad saying "this too shall pass" on every check in call remind me of that.

If you haven't read the last newsletter, I highly recommend checking it out before all the deadlines pass. If you have, then on to today's stories! I stuck with bite-sized updates on action, change and opportunity across fashion for this edition.

The Cut put together a solid list of how the world's biggest fashion brands are supporting efforts to combat the pandemic. Looking at all of it at once is heartwarming. They did miss one: pictured above, Dior repoened its Baby Dior Atelier to manufacture surgical masks, at the voluntary request of the atelier's workers — literal angels, imho. In beauty, business partners Coty Inc and Kylie Jenner are making hand sanitiser. Kylie's also donating $1 million.

In one of several amazing local initiatives, Good Good Good & Max Bagels have teamed up with Food Flow, a food security pandemic response. Food flow supports farmers whose sales have suffered due to restaurant closures by purchasing their food, and supports poor communities struggling with food security because of the lockdown by getting that food to them. The t-shirt above is a Good Good Good collaboration product that supports Food Flow with its profits. Read more in this Two Point Oh interview.

BoF is hosting regular Instagram live sessions — meditation sessions with specialists featured at their VOICES conference, career sessions, and check ins with everyone from Alexi Lubomirski to Omoyemi Akerele. Check out the full calendar here.

They are also currently offering a 30-day run of the full BoF Professional suite, including short courses and certifications, for $1. Right now, that's around R20. Ignore this if you had no interest before; I'm quite wary of everyone feeling pressured to add to their never-ending list of things to accomplish and giving themselves the unknown end of this global slow down as a deadline. If, however, you were already considering a trial or wanted to do one of the courses (all easily completed in under 30 days/evenings), I highly recommend signing up. [Note: Their Coronavirus Live Blog tracking industry impact remains open to all, in front of the paywall]

Li Edelkoort built on her converstation with Dezeen, mentioned in the last newsletter, in this BoF podcast interview discussing how the pandemic could change fashion education, how it should change retail, and how it's ushering in what she's calling 'the age of the amateur.'

There's no ideal time for a lockdown, but the timing is particularly unfortunate for Edcon. CEO Grant Pattison was just starting to turn things around, and now Edgars is looking at hundreds of millions of rands in revenue losses. Pattison is thankfully prioritising salaries, but the group will need help to pay its bills, help I think they will get from the government - between Edgars, Jet & CNA, Edcon represents too many jobs to let it go under without a fight. Pattison's sad interview with 702's Bruce Whitfield is under this article.
[I read the piece but could not listen to the interview audio — avoid it if you think you will find a CEO & money expert crying about possible bankruptcy overwhelming.]

Lagos Fashion Week's Woven Threads digital showcase starts today, and runs up until the 26th of April. Originally conceived as a series on traditional craft and responsible production in partnership with Fashion Revolution, Lagos Fashion Week organisers have redesigned it to accomodate replacement experiences for presentations, talks and workshops that can't happen live for the next season (including the work of their 5 Fashion Focus talent scouting program finalists) as Nigeria faces more COVID-19 cases and social gatherings become higher risk. Keep up with the full series at @LagosFashionWeekOfficial on Instagram.

Also from Lagos Fashion Week, the new Fashion Focus Fund supported by Sunlight is receiving entries from young women designers in Nigeria who will compete for 6 million Naira (a little over R300,000) in grant funding, split across 3 winners. There's a week left to enter, so if you know a Nigerian designer who should, send this to her!

The Assembly is a support platform & network for fashion designers, creative professionals and entrepreneurs in Lagos. They're offering free virtual clinics for business owners and freelancers looking for guidance on dealing with current pandemic challenges or planning for after it. I wish I'd found them sooner, because consultations end on the 5th — sign up ASAP.

Photo by Charisse Kenion on Unsplash

This is a critical time for print magazines, here & abroad. This BoF piece, another on Fashionista concerning W magazine, and another on The Cut discuss what fashion's print arm is going through globally.

Tim & Heidi are back, with a new fashion talent tv show. Making The Cut is an Amazon Prime original that, in my view, represents Amazon's largest investment in fashion to date between the cost of production, the sales commitment (you can shop each episode's winner immediately after premiere) and the $1 million prize, offering emerging designers a surprising amount more than the US & UK Vogue-affiliated fashion funds and the LVMH Prize. For designers outside a network of powerful contacts and wealthy & willing investors, competitions like Making The Cut & Netflix's Next In Fashion offer new side doors to access much needed investment & distribution.

The H&M Foundation's Global Change Awards may have had to cancel their annual ceremony, but they're still crowning winners. These businesses address sustainability at different points in fashion's value chain and they do it with exciting futureproof innovation that has caught the foundation's eye and investment. Meet 2020's winners in these fun explanatory videos:

Incredible cotton by GALY

Airwear by Fairbrics

Zero Sludge by SeaChange Technologies

Tracing Threads by TextileGenesis

Feature Fibres by Werewool

Photo by Matthew Waring on Unsplash

A benefit of being (and staying, God-willing) behind the curve on COVID-19 is being able to use knowledge passed on by scientists and doctors whose countries are further ahead in the fight. Another is the encouragement gained from watching them recover. BoF has just published one of the first reports on fashion retail recovery in China as restrictions are lifted more and more each day. It's not just comforting proof that this will pass, it's also an early preview of how this may change us, as a society and as consumers.

And that is it for today. Lean back, breathe, and have the weekend you need to have. Chat soon. 💖