Dressmakers and designers have become more circumspect about sourcing supplies for their haute couture creations, the 2021 Fashion Industry Benchmarking Survey has found.
The development stems from sourcing reliability being narrowed down, out of necessity, due to the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on supply diversity.
However, finding out who can and who can’t deliver, especially at a time of crisis, has been a trend since at least 2019.
Then, at least 57.1% of the 31 fashion industry execs that participated in the survey said they sourced material from 10 or more countries.
Come 2020, and that figure fell to 42.1%.
Now it’s at 36.7%.
In addition, it’s been found that larger companies, with 1000 employees or more, appear to be especially concerned about clipping away at their source base, ruthlessly cutting fickle suppliers out of the picture while sticking with fastidious dependables.
Delving deeper, the study found that 20% of respondents consciously sought to strengthen relationships with certain suppliers, with 83% of these citing the pandemic as a matter of concern and necessitating continued supply-line certainty.
