早前鬧得沸沸揚揚的時裝周改革，已經掀起革命性改變，除了Dries Van Noten、Thom Browne等設計師連署，業界媒體龍頭《Business of Fashion》亦以“Rewiring Fashion”為題，連同六十多個時裝品牌要求改變時裝周行程。Kering Group旗艦品牌Gucci及Saint Laurent更相繼宣布脫離現有時裝制度，保持自己的設計步伐。業界正踏入改革大時代，現有制度看來亦大勢已去，只是要分析如此轉變孰好孰壞前，還是要先清楚傳統制度何以運行多年而歷久不衰？又因何事舊制在新冠肺炎疫情期間造成業界大停頓？
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We were getting calls. I’m sure everyone was, writes BoF’s Tim Blanks. The coronavirus had hit fashion hard. There was a bush telegraph of nervous designers looking for any kind of reassurance against a growing tide of bad news. It was obvious that independent designers were going to be hit hardest. For those on a shoestring, it just got thinner. For those who were more established, querulous retailers and landlords were the challenge. Fashion has traditionally been an industry of secrets, but the virus made a nonsense of that. It was time for people to talk openly to each other. BoF facilitated a conversation, via Zoom, that brought dozens of independent designers and storeowners together. In bi-weekly digital gatherings over the past month – a whole patchwork of faces from all over the world – these designers and retailers hashed out a game plan for the future. In one way, it was purest logic. The fashion calendar – the showing, selling and shipping of clothes – divorced itself from common sense a long while ago. The rhythm of fashion’s seasons was surreally disconnected from the seasons as most of the world understood them. You’d go to buy a winter coat when the mercury dropped and all you’d find was bikinis. Irrational this was, but unquestioned, thanks in large part to the commercial might of American department stores whose tune the industry danced to. So, here were a few screens full of faces prepared to challenge the timetable, to create a new reality out of that old surreality, now turned to ashes by Covid-19. It hasn’t been easy. How could there be consensus with so many different wants and needs on the table? But, sure enough, a proposal on how to rewire the fashion calendar took shape. For me, says Blanks, the most important thing has been the communication. People who knew of each other but had never met are now talking across the globe. The future is collaboration not competition. That’s also how revolutions are made. Fashion needed one, and if it took a dreadful virus to create the conditions for change, that is surely just a measure of how great the need for revolution has been. Read the proposal at rewiringfashion.org #rewiringfashion
A post shared by @rewiringfashion on May 14, 2020 at 6:12am PDT
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4/6 • “That is why I decided to build a new path, away from deadlines that the industry consolidated and, above all, away from an excessive performativity that today really has no raison d’être. It’s a foundational act, audacious but necessary, that aims at building a new creative universe. A universe that essentialises itself in the subtraction of events and that oxygenates through the multiplication of sense.” @alessandro_michele writes in his diary, in an entry entitled ‘A New Creative Universe’ on May 2, 2020 in Rome. #AlessandroMichele Read the diary entries through link in bio.
A post shared by Gucci (@gucci) on May 23, 2020 at 8:50am PDT
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Conscient de la conjoncture actuelle et des changements radicaux qu’elle induit, Saint Laurent prend la décision de repenser son approche au temps et d’instaurer son propre calendrier. Aujourd’hui plus que jamais, la marque contrôlera sa périodicité et légitimera la valeur du temps, à son rythme, tout en privilégiant le rapport aux personnes et à leur quotidien. De ce fait, Saint Laurent ne présentera pas ses collections dans le cadre des calendriers officiels de l’année 2020. Saint Laurent décidera de son agenda et ses lancements suivront un plan optimisé et guidé par les besoins de la créativité.
A post shared by SAINT LAURENT (@ysl) on Apr 27, 2020 at 11:18am PDT
春夏、秋冬時裝周：預告變即賣 Gucci二〇二〇秋冬時裝騷
Saint Laurent宣告退出今年九月舉行的巴黎時裝周，改為自行定下時裝騷日期，擺脫傳統框架。
四大時裝周人所共知，是二、三月舉辦的秋冬季，以及九、十月舉辦的春夏季「大騷」，分別於紐約、倫敦、巴黎、米蘭舉行。一般品牌在時裝周發布的是來季趨勢和服飾造型，騷後六個月才會在店舖有售。亦因如此，以往業界才視時裝周為「潮流預告」，能夠預先知道下一季時裝設計重點的只有業內人士以及時裝記者；惟如此傳統時裝制度早被網絡改變，時裝周的資訊不僅變得大眾化，同時更促成所謂“See-now-buy-now”的營運模式，即品牌發布新季服裝當日，客人即可預訂台上服飾，由發布至客人收到服裝，可能只需要短短一個月時間，季度界線早已模糊不清。
度假和早秋系列：補漏拾遺變負擔 Chanel二〇二〇度假系列
「發明」Cruise/Resort系列的是Coco Chanel，將其發揚光大的卻是Karl Lagerfeld，他甚至是將時裝週期推至一年八個騷的始作俑者。
而在春夏和秋冬兩季之間，時裝界還有度假系列（Cruise/Resort）及早秋系列（Pre-fall），原意便是在季與季中增添新衣裳，希望能夠刺激上流社會名媛們的購買慾。開創此風氣的是鼎鼎大名的Coco Chanel，但真正將度假系列發揚光大的，卻是Karl Lagerfeld。近年Chanel的獨家系列，猶如環遊世界般在七大洲各個城市大撒金錢，除了他鍾愛的巴黎大皇宮，古巴、杜拜、洛杉磯、首爾等亦曾經是其度假系列的舞台。由於度假和早秋系列需要比主要系列更早發售，在現代時裝週期看來其實像見縫插針，甚至連顧客也未必了解，度假和早秋與主要季度的分別。
春夏、秋冬季高級訂製：精細工藝的最後陣地 Dior二〇二〇年春夏高級訂製時裝騷
Viktor & Rolf是其中一個宣布專注高級訂製服的設計師品牌。
而高級訂製服的時裝周，則超然於春夏秋冬與度假、早秋等成衣系列之外，於每年的一月及七月舉行。說這場騷是時裝界最後的精細工藝陣地絕對不為過，全因並非每個品牌都能「聲稱」自己是Couture House，它們必須得到法國Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture認可，符合嚴格條件才能得到資格。而且，能夠參加高級訂製服時裝周的品牌亦分成三種，包括「正式會員」（如Chanel、Dior、Giambattista Valli等法國老牌）、「外國會員」（如Giorgio Armani、Versace、Fendi、Valentino等法國以外的奢侈品牌），以及「客席會員」（如郭培、Iris Van Herpen等較新的訂製服品牌）。而早在目前有關時裝制度的討論興起前，Couture時裝騷被視為「逃離時裝週期」的避難所，Jean Paul Gaultier、Viktor & Rolf等都曾經宣布，往後專注高級訂製服的創作，擺脫大眾市場和潮流的限制。
設計師Dries Van Noten
關乎傳統時裝制度和天橋騷的週期，從二十年代至今已演變成密密麻麻的流水作業，如今因疫情衝擊製衣業造成環球時裝市場崩盤，想來也是「差遲早」的事情；如今不同品牌、設計師以及買手等業界持份者，均希望季度週期能夠延長，從而回歸創意和質素。至於有部分聲音指，Dries Van Noten等人提倡的「時裝新秩序」與現實中追求快、新、齊的消費模式不接軌，則又是雞與雞蛋的問題：時裝應為投消費者所好而設計，還是應教育消費者接受新的美學、以至哲學？關乎時裝史上成功的設計師與品牌案例，大概各位心目中早有答案。既然如此，改革又怎會像他人所說般如此難以想像？
時裝界的營運制度會否有翻天覆地的改變？依然值得我們拭目以待。
「我們因為美學、工藝和創意加入時裝界，但長久以來業界的步伐一直加速，讓獨立品牌瀕臨崩潰。如今的時裝週期實在太快，我們需要慢下來，尋回我們當初的創作初心，同時與當初吸引我們的美藝再度連接。」其實，《BOF》提倡的#RewiringFashion，已然說出大部分業界人的心聲。
