The effects of coronavirus on the fashion industry If China is on its knees, fashion is on its knees

As the death toll rises to 300 and quarantine measures become more stringent around the world, China and its economy are almost paralyzed. The area and the population currently subjected to lockdown by the authorities are as big as the whole of Italy, the health emergency is expanding throughout South-East Asia and the economic consequences are beginning to become heavy especially for the world of fashion. China's production capacity and the strong purchasing power of its audience have been key to fashion brands in recent years and the health emergency that erupted with the epidemic has caused that vast and complex mechanism to operate the luxury industry is now relying more and more. In particular, the postponement of Shanghai Fashion Week is the most alarming of the signs and, if the crisis were to extend to the second quarter of 2020, this year's industrial production roadmap could suffer serious delays.

In the midst of this crisis, Kering and LVMH decided to donate one and two million dollars respectively to the Red Cross, along with L'Oreal, Swarowski and Estèe Lauder. A commendable move on the humanitarian level, although undoubtedly driven by both advertising and commercial interests. However, while it is likely that the coronavirus will bring down the growth rate of the Chinese economy from 6.1% to 5.6%, Chinese insiders are optimistic. After the economic problems caused by SARS seventeen years ago, in fact, there was a sharp increase in consumption and in general epidemics of this kind have a short duration, the consequences of which can be muffled by the great resilience of the economy both monetary and fiscal policy.