Sales: the holy grail after Christmas. A blessed moment when the bank account is replenished by granny's checks and other vouchers from those who prefer not to venture to anticipate the tastes of their favorite nephews. Twice a year, they are THE perfect moment to "redo your wardrobe" and buy twice as much at the same price. But sales, by definition the fact of selling at a discount, represent a real effort for brands operating as close as possible to demand - offering the fairest possible price for quality products - as is the case at Hast.
This is why we wanted to tell you their story, talk to you about their advantages and their drawbacks, and explain to you, in complete transparency, what is pushing us to rethink their meaning.
Sales: a principle that makes sense
The principle of sales is French. It was supposedly invented in the 1830s by a fabric salesman named Simon Mannoury who seemed to come straight out of an Emile Zola novel. He thought of a revolutionary solution to sell his unsold items from past seasons at a lower price. The “grand déballages” were born. The goal? To empty stocks to make room for the next collections. Since the 1990s, the rise of fast fashion and mass production have made this type of discount all the more necessary, which allows unsold items to be sold and cleared rather than destroyed.
The fashion industry is particularly prone to these seasonal promotions, as it has long operated on a principle of produce, sell and destroy remaining stock.
Having sales therefore means managing to sell products that are sometimes sadly doomed to destruction!
On the consumer side, the sales period is more than expected. Yes, because it allows you to treat yourself to products that are normally unaffordable from certain brands. For many customers, sales are a special time to buy, a way to save money on essential goods or to afford that little cashmere sweater that would be inaccessible without those life-saving 40% off.
But fast fashion makes it dangerous
Selling cheaper is therefore, at first glance, a simple and effective solution for consumers and brands. But then why do we talk about the "drift" of sales? In the 90s, the textile industry began, under the influence of the giants of "fast-fashion" (this fashion in constant search of novelties), to produce more and more, and more and more cheaply. As a result, brands have massive stocks of unsold clothing, produced ultimately to be destroyed. This search for ever greater and more profitable production is coupled with a significant drop in product quality. Textiles are synthetic or produced from poor quality fibers, and the clothes are made in factories with more than questionable wage and working conditions.
We are entering a race for the lowest price, to the detriment of the final quality of the product. An easy way to sell off surplus production, sales become the symbol of a system of excessive production.
On a psychological level, they also seem to push the consumer to buy. Creating a kind of mental guilt feeling: "Can I really pass up such a deal? I'll wear it one day..."
So the sales seem, to a certain extent, to be part of this vicious circle of a fashion for constant novelty, of compulsive rather than reasoned buying. And beyond that, of a general decline in the quality of the products offered on the markets, always displayed at higher prices to be sold at a discount.
Grandpa's immortal wool sweater is swapped for a sad acrylic that pills after the first wash...
2021: the continuation of change
At Hast, we want to operate in the opposite direction of this principle. Produce clothes using the best possible raw material ( wool remains wool and not an ugly chemical substitute) and make them in carefully selected factories. This requirement makes the very principle of discounting almost impossible, because it would mean selling at a loss. And since we produce as close as possible to demand, this is not consistent with our practices.
More and more brands seem to understand these crucial issues for our planet and for this fashion industry that we love so much. Because it is obviously not about making it disappear, but about rethinking it in depth to make it virtuous, innovative and qualitative. In our opinion, this involves questioning the principle of sales, and returning to the primary values of this principle, allowing a brand to rebalance its stocks and finance its development healthily.
The anti-waste law recently passed by the government is a great step forward. It prohibits, by 2022, the destruction of unsold textiles. This law will in itself call into question the principle of overproduction in fashion as in other industries and push companies to find new solutions.
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A particular context
So sales are harmful when they justify this principle of overproduction and the general decline in quality of finished products sold at prices that no longer make sense. But they are sometimes a way for brands to breathe. The deep uncertainty of this period prevents brands from producing precisely, the closure of stores has created an accumulation of stocks. With the Covid crisis, we have decided to offer discounts.
Offering our customers a small discount is therefore a way of thanking them for their loyalty, of allowing them to buy cheaper in this complicated year, and for Hast, a way of looking ahead to the future (go read the interview with Hast co-founder Samy Ziani on this subject ). Made within the framework of a principle of fair and equitable production, they do not seem problematic to us.
Change is coming. 2020 was a crucial year full of challenges. 2021 will be, we very much hope, that of a more reasoned, more responsible and respectful fashion. In which, who knows? The very principle of sales could find a new meaning.