How price hike and inflation impacts the fashion industry

Issues on price hike and inflation has left a profound impact on the fashion industry.

With global supply chain disruptions, rising shipping costs and more - how are industry players manouvering their way across the rough patch?

FashionValet Group co-founder Vivy Yusof said: "We need to cut back on some projects, focus a bit more on what works and cut out things that aren’t working. It’s really to preserve all the cash.

Unfortunately, as other brands, with the cost rising, we try to cushion as much as we can to not increase the price too much but just a lil bit so we can also survive.

"Now is not the time to be aggressive. This is the not-sexy part that people don’t know about running a business. Obviously every business owner wants to do right by their customers with the best possible value.

"Even if we increase price, we try to give more value in other ways such as with our service, better quality to give our customers more value along with the price increase.

Vivy said customers are also smart - they know which brands they like and which they would spend more or less on. Brand owners would need to step up their game.

Having to deal with physical and online stores, Vivy also shared the struggle of tackling the rise of delivery prices.

“Delivery prices have gone up and the supply chain is affected. It is a challenge but we try to produce as much as we can in Malaysia and I think we are quite lucky because our inflation is not as bad as other countries,” said Vivy.

Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week founder Andrew Tan emphasised that designers should be conscious of the current inflation issue.

“Designers should rethink and look into their prices for affordability. Customers should be able to access designers that they like but with a price point that is affordable," he said.

Meanwhlie, Marion Caunter who is no stranger to the local fashion scene thinks that consumers need to really think about what they purchase, which is where sustainability plays a huge role.