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Our purses are emptier. That we can be certain of. The credit crunch has well and truly taken hold of British shoppers, with this years Christmas spending forecast estimated at 17.8 per cent less than last year according to moneysupermarket.com. However, it is not just the content of our clutches which has been influenced by the current financial climate, but their design itself. Fashion, like any other industry, has been hit hard in recent times, and has been whipping out marketing strategies left right and centre in order to sashay through them. And given its usual flighty, transient and whimsical nature, an ideology which holds little sway during times of recession; it has had to work even harder than most.

Fashion has therefore taken a turn for the financial: the press is flooded with concepts of ‘investment’, ‘staples’ and ‘lifetime pieces.’ High fashion houses have led the way, and instead of focusing on quick turnover from short-lived seasonal pieces, we are seeing more and more emphasis placed on ‘It’ items; luxury goods of classic design that are to be bought as a long term investment that will pay out in terms of style for years to come. Article after article is being reeled off with advice on how to create a ‘capsule wardrobe’ to avoid unnecessary purchases, and every editor’s forward letter has a touch of lamentation to its tone. After all, which woman ever wants to curb her shopping habits?

This hard line and hard times approach is equally apparent within campaign advertising, with major fashion houses looking to the big names in modelling in order to present a clear and orderly direction for consumers lost in their accounting this season. Classic icons of beauty such as Elle Macpherson and Cindy Crawford are now being favoured over the youthful faces of new generation of models, and Yves Saint Laurent have even turned to the ever tumultuous Naomi Campbell to promote their Autumn/Winter 2008 collection. Customers need direction: they trust these women as pinnacles of style; they might not be splashing their cash, but they would rather trust what they do spend into Crawford’s hands than into those of a young Yugoslavian fresh faced fancy. Rather similar to our financial investment patterns- would you buy a £5000 ‘It Bag’ off an unknown Icelandic filly? Probably not. Designers are however accustomed to following financial trends; just as social frivolity has always been toned down during hard times, as has fashion design. Even Coco Chanel’s classic string pearls, now a synonym for style, emerged out of a need for a single, simple and staple piece of jewellery that could exude chic in post war times.

Interestingly, in modern times it is in fact the accessories market that has boomed thanks to cinched budgets. Consumers may be demonstrating more discretion in major fashion buys, but as is natural within such an indulgent industry, there has to be something fabulous that we can secretly enjoy whilst we pretend to be grown ups. Jewellery design has therefore scampered off into the fantastical: flowers, creatures, fairies and frolic have inspired this year’s collections. This season’s most extreme example of whimsical accessories is quite possibly Tach’s ‘Cute at the table’ hand bag accessory, a small device that attaches your handbag safely to the table, whilst glittering in its platinum and gem dripping glory. Who would have thought such intricate design could be deemed suitable for what is essentially a glorified bike lock? And yet Sebastian Maines, Selfridge’s Director of accessories, recently justified this craze to British Vogue, explaining that during tough times it is the accessories market that allows us to explore our dreams. Perhaps it is due to their versatility; however perhaps it is simply due to the skills of sparkling things in distracting us from real life. This notion is backed up by the recent focus of two of the leading glossy fashion magazines, both British Vogue and Harpers Bizarre, which dedicated their winter issues not only to accessories and icons, but a recurring theme of fantasy and escapism.

            It seems therefore that fashion has indeed bowed its head to the current financial climate, although one must evaluate whether these tactics of buying less yet more luxuriously will ultimately make being fashionable any more manageable for the British public. And when combined with the temptation of rebellion into such imaginative accessories that allow us to retain our fanciful fetishes, will we really end up spending less on looking good? Perhaps it is more a question of knowing how much to spend on what; and possibly learning how to customise Halford’s most stylish security solutions.  

Charlie Byrne.

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