The Facade of Fashion’s Working Culture

“They never used the word wellbeing” says Sarah Gresty - a BA Fashion Course Leader at Central Saint Martins and former knitwear designer for many luxury brands in the 90s including Kenzo, Chanel and Versace - when asked whether she got any support on mental health and wellbeing at her time in luxury fashion houses. Fashion is a fast-paced industry where long hours, unpaid work and the dismissal of mental health is the minimum price of entry. Comparing this to Gen Z’s vocal nature on wellbeing and priority of self leaves many questioning how they will survive in this working environment with these differing ideas. “There’s definitely a culture clash. Some Gen Z people can give up too easily but there’s also a flip side where millennials put themselves through so much trauma and by the end of it, their mental health is compromised” says Ayo Ojo, a fashion journalist and YouTube content creator on the differences in work ethic. 

 

Being a difficult industry to break into, employees have often had to tolerate unfairly long hours in order to feel like they were part of the romanticised fashion scene, even if it meant that they would have to endure the extreme fatigue that came from overworking. This was certainly true for Gresty as she says “I noticed that I specifically would get burnout - if I worked really, really full-on for nine months and earned a lot of money, it meant I couldn't work for the next six months because I was completely drained.” This has continued to be an ongoing problem in recent years as Ojo faced similar problems as a product development intern at Stella McCartney in 2019, saying “there’s definitely times we worked overtime - it’s just tiring. It’s like 08:00 to 20:00 - that happened all week.” 

 

They are far from alone in suffering from overwork as a survey in the UK by Glossy showed that 30% of fashion workers felt like they were doing the work of three people or more as well as 42% of workers claiming that they worked at least 50 hours a week, more than the legal 48 hours a week in the UK. 

 

The rise of cancel culture on social media has forced companies to start making promises on working conditions and offering benefits on job descriptions to avoid any backlash online. The infamous Kering, a luxury group with a rich history that spans over five decades, dubbed themselves as “Caring - for people and the planet” when pointing out the pronunciation of the company in the “Who We Are” section of their website, a statement that left Sarah Gresty and Ayo Ojo in laughter. “Brands need to stop deceiving people. At Stella McCartney, one of the attractions was that there was a gym which they did, but you could never use it because you’re always working, even at lunch breaks” said Ojo. 

 

When promises like these aren’t taken seriously, there is another big issue that employees must face: low income, a problem that has been part of the working culture in fashion for decades. As a newcomer trying to find a way into the industry, long and unpaid internships have been the only way to obtain credibility. All-important job references and first-hand experiences for a chance to move up in the fashion world have only been given to those who have chosen to neglect personal wellbeing. However, it may take some time after that for financial instability to be an afterthought as Payscale, a salary comparison website from the UK, estimates the average wage for an entry-level designer to be between £23,400 to £24,300. 

 

Gresty worries how her children will be able to afford to pay rent as designers she knows personally that have established and successful brands can only afford to pay their main studio manager an £18,000 to £21,000 salary. “To be a studio manager, you have to have experience, you have to have your wits about you, you have to be organised - earning that kind of money doesn't allow you to really have much of a lifestyle in London and I'm not even talking about having a gym membership or going on holiday, I'm literally just talking about rent.” This makes us question how young creatives will be able to strive efficiently in the competitive fashion scene as they carry the weight of fatigue from overworking simultaneously with the stress of sustaining a healthy lifestyle without financial trouble. 

 

In major cities, these numbers don’t equate to a living wage when considering the high cost of living that has only increased since the pandemic. Getting another job for extra cash is also out of the question, especially with many jobs in fashion requiring constant availability. “I suppose it’s just nonstop sometimes - you couldn’t take your foot off for one second - it’s this thing that you’re married to that company and fully committed” says Gresty. It doesn’t help that the fashion calendar has been increasing, evolving from two collections a year to six to eight, not to mention the 40 or so collections that are released by fast fashion brands yearly. “I feel as if it’s too fast right now, it’s fast luxury” said Traiceline Pratt, a MA Womenswear student at Central Saint Martins and former creative assistant at A-COLD-WALL*. “That’s too much greed for me - people suffer mentally, people suffer labourly and I feel as though luxury needs to slow down.”

 

The stress and mental strain that comes from a combination of long hours and low pay can be detrimental to a person both physically and mentally and in an environment where the sense of hierarchy is intense, employees don’t feel comfortable about speaking up on their issues which may lead to long-term effects such as depression and anxiety. “The work environment was positive until Jonathan came into the room,” says Hana Minowa, a Central Saint Martins graduate and former design intern at JW Anderson. “It really just changed the whole atmosphere, everyone would just stiffen up. We just had to stay silent,” While newcomers push for a positive, social change in the industry, older generations who have earned their place within luxury conglomerates struggle to understand and allow a shift in traditional ideals as Ojo says “just because you went through something toxic doesn’t mean other people have to.” Pratt agrees, believing that this is one of the main problems within many heritage brands’ outdated approach to fashion as he says “[brands] have diversity but they have diversity in the wrong places - there’s no change in mindset because they are deeply embedded in the company’s upbringing.”

 

However, the hierarchical working culture may start to shift as more young talents are slowly being appointed in executive positions and with that, are bringing their mindset and ideals to create a more productive, non-hierarchical working environment. “We were all in the same age category - we never felt as though (Samuel Ross) was like this boss, it was always more like an older brother figure” said Pratt on his experience at A-COLD-WALL* with Samuel Ross, who was 28 at the time. “Everybody would just disperse and do their own thing and then come together and create - it was basically a bunch of young, hungry adults who forced their way into the industry.”

 

Working conditions are also becoming more and more unacceptable in the eyes of the younger generation due to the importance they put on wellbeing and personal values. A recent study by Randstad, an industry leader in HR services, showed that two in four members of Gen Z would rather be unemployed than stuck in a job they’re unhappy in. The study also showed that 56% of Gen Z would leave their job if it affected their personal life and almost half of them wouldn’t accept a job if it didn’t align with their social and environmental values. As a result of this, companies face more difficulty than ever in keeping their workers as 70% of all employees are open to new job opportunities and within them, 49% believe that they could find another job quickly if they were fired or quit. These claims are definitely coming into effect as Sanjay Raja, a chief UK economist at Deutsche bank, found that the UK’s quit rate is the highest it's ever been since 2009 while the level of open vacancies is the highest on record, giving young creatives the upper hand in the job market. 

 

Because of the pandemic, luxury brands are also starting to adopt the idea of “less is more” as collections are being whittled down in size that is causing the pace of the fashion market to readapt. As Pratt previously mentioned, “luxury fashion is [progressing] too fast.” The leaders in this slow fashion movement include marquee designers such as Dries Van Noten and Giorgio Armani who have now shrunken down their seasonal offerings since COVID-19, the latter planning to reduce his collections by a third of his usual output. This news has been met with positive reactions by fashion employees as a slower approach to garment-making can be taken in order to maximise quality over quantity and offer more focused collections.