The temporary closure of High Streets and malls throughout Europe and North America is causing financial hardship that some brands will never recover from. But the knock-on effect stretches far beyond Western shores. Arguably those hit hardest are the garment-factory workers in South Asia who are reporting $3.02 billion dollars of cancelled or suspended orders from retailers.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, Fashion Roundtable have been pursuing PPE solutions within the industry, ensuring industry workers are protected, lobbying for pay parity for fashion industry workers, and facilitating other initiatives.

Behind the scenes we have been busy lobbying for the fashion and textiles industry across a number of different issues and across several different Whitehall departments.

Updated Information on the Coronavirus Financial Support deployed by the Government. Including information on available Grants, Tax and Rates, Reimbursements and Loans.

As the fashion industry has been upended with lower volumes, idle workers and restless energy, brands have turned their efforts towards doing what they can to help tackle the Covid-19 pandemic. Here we take a look at the relief efforts across the world.

Currently we are working from home and around the clock to ensure support for the fashion industry and wider afield during the pandemic. While the lines between the days are becoming blurred, we are grateful for the strength amongst our community.

“Like many other fashion freelancers in the UK, this has been a nail-biting couple of weeks for me. Since Covid-19 hit the UK, all of my talks and workshops have been postponed, all freelance hours have been cut, leaving me with very little income until normality commences.”

We examine what are ‘essential and non-essential’ jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic by looking at the conflict between government’s call for “business to carry on” under social distancing guidelines and the British General Union’s concerns for warehouse workers in fashion.

Kate Hills, Founder, Make It British: “We are working on finding all of the UK manufacturers that can switch production to provide an end-to-end solution for PPE that is made locally. Whilst the government is currently concentrating on importing these products, this is a short term solution. Once these resources dry up, which they will do as global demand increases, we will need to tap into the manufacturing base that we have in the UK. We have had amazing support from a diverse range of manufacturers and I have every confidence that the UK textile industry is able to adapt and be agile enough to cope with the challenges ahead.”

A universal scheme which supports all is what is called for, not a scheme which supports those in paid employment and not those in self-employed work.

If it is true that Coronavirus will be a watershed moment in the way we do surveillance, the we must uphold the values of law and democracy. And we need to rethink privacy as a common good so that we can appreciate the collective value of our personal information.

“Knowing Warhol in the 1980s, I’ve finally had the chance to witness the best interpretation of his work since his death. It was as if I was discovering a brand new artist, seamlessly exciting and enticing a new audience to his work.”

When our lives are disrupted, particularly on the scale we’re seeing with COVID-19, the uncertainty generates unease.  Right now we are building new habits and if we take the time to build them on a strong foundation they will serve us well. We can use this time to think about what is important in our lives. Not what we should do or what we have had to do in the past. If we can carve a space for self-reflection in our day that will naturally lead us to feel more connected to our own emotions and help us to sit with our feelings.

The Coronavirus pandemic is forcing us to self-isolate, take stock and juggle the cold light of a new dawn, all under lockdown within our own homes. Tamara Cincik lays out the safeguards that must implemented to support fashion industry freelancers at this uncertain time, and how a fashion manufacturing network is aiming to create protective clothing for the NHS.

If freelancers and the self employed received 80% of their earnings based on last year's tax return and a stop on their rent and mortgage payments, plus utility bills, there would be a huge surge in confidence and a massive sense of relief. All of the sector are worried.

From the decline of fashion weeks to the acceleration of retail activity towards e-commerce, Selena Wu predicts how the coronavirus pandemic will affect the fashion industry going forward.

As a result of the fashion industry’s complex supply chains, consumers rely on the information that is provided by brands to make conscious decisions. Ecolabels serve to support and inform consumers in their attempt to make more conscious consumption choices.