“I thought Jason’s show was a standout thanks to its seamless staging,” says fashion consultant Robert Burke. “It was smart of Jason to take this chance, and he really went for it creatively. It represents a new format for the shows, and the collection was right for the time.” Burke also cited Carolina Herrera in conversation with the house’s current creative director, Wes Gordon, as a thoughtful presentation. “What Carolina and Wes did gave you a glimpse into both of their worlds with this private intimate conversation inside Herrera’s townhouse,” says Burke. “People want to be a part of this, and it draws on the assets of the brand, highlighting Wes as the designer carrying the brand into the future.”

In the autumn of 2008, the financial crisis hit, and people stopped shopping. To get customers back in store, “Saks Fifth Avenue marked down early, slashing prices by 70 per cent long before the holiday shopping season,” Burke remembers. It worked: shoppers stampeded Saks’s New York flagship “like the running of the bulls”, a customer told The Wall Street Journal. Naturally, Saks’s competitors followed its lead and cut their prices, too. Sales surged. The following year, retailers wanted to repeat those gangbuster numbers, so they marked down early again. Suddenly, “The customer was trained to buy on sale in October,” says Burke. “And that’s when things got completely out of sync. Deliveries were earlier and earlier, and customers waited for sales. It became a vicious cycle. The system was broken.”

“Retailers will have to train their staff as thoroughly as flight attendants if they expect to help their customers feel secure in an insecure world,” says Burke.

“She’s in a position today to pull back and do what she believes,” said Robert Burke, whose luxury consultancy firm helped with Tibi’s rebrand years ago. “She probably will have a more profitable $10 million business than her old $30 million business.”

Robert Burke, chairman and chief executive officer at Robert Burke Associates examines the new reality for the retail industry due to the coronavirus pandemic and the challenges facing established brands. He speaks on “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

Fashion consultant Robert Burke predicts such innovations aren’t going anywhere. “Younger generations,” he says, “are looking for sustainability, non-mass-produced goods, and uniqueness,” so they probably won’t be giving up their Depop habit anytime soon.

“More emerging fashion brands will go out of business because the reality is that many of them live delivery by delivery,” says luxury advisor Robert Burke.

It’s important that designers feel comfortable to speak with their retail partners about not overextending the number of doors they’re in beyond their comfort zone, says Burke. “Many of them have sell-through agreements. They may do really well in a couple of key doors but then get dragged down by all the rest.”

“No one right now in the retail world wants to plan out their business five or six months in advance,” says Burke. “This idea of actual seasons for clothes is out of touch.”

Such partnerships are important, especially as big brands like Prada and LVMH-owned Dior are increasingly pulling back on wholesale accounts and focusing on their direct-to-consumer channels. “They realise they have the power to do that, so losing these brands leaves department stores and retailers in a particularly vulnerable position,” says Burke.

“It certainly seemed as if this deal was a strength in numbers for both sides,” said Robert Burke, founder of an eponymous luxury retail consulting firm. “But at the end of the day, Tiffany will be OK... it offers an image and a history that is kind of second to none and is highly attractive because of that.”

Robert Burke, a fashion industry consultant, said: “Fashion in the 1990s and early aughts had a class and society element, and it was white. Designers would socialize with their clients, be with them in the Hamptons and escort them to parties. What counted was who were the boldfaced names who wore your clothes.”

“He just may be the new template for how fashion is done, “ Mr. Burke said.

“Hermès has always had this unique ability to position themselves as the iconic brand it is, but also embrace newness and technology and remain relevant and modern,” said Robert Burke, chairman and CEO of Robert Burke Associates.“They are strategic in everything they approach and they were very strategic with their online over the years.”

“They have a different way of marketing,” said Burke. “They really rely on their own placement, through their website and social media like Instagram and they’re been very good. Other brands spend an enormous amount of money on advertising and PR events and they seem to kind of stay away from that from what I can see.”

“They are good at relating to the customer,” said Burke. “It stays fresh, it stays relevant, and they have ongoing videos. On their retail side, to keep it interesting, they’ve opened new store concepts like the one in the Meat Packing district in Manhattan, where they have unique products just for that store, whether that be the Hermès skateboards or limited edition products. And that, I think has been important.”

Part of Hermès’ success reckons Burke, particularly during the pandemic, is that consumers have had a great deal of time to research and look at potential purchases. “There’s an overall feeling that when you do spend money, you want something that has a sense of investment and longevity,” he said.

“The feeling of quick and disposable fashion has not been successful during this time period… Hermès has year round product ranges, they have classic styles, many things are limited editions, and so there was a demand for their sales, and the reality is they have a variety of price points. It’s a luxury experience in a time when many of the other competitors are not providing a luxury experience.”

“With Hermès, they are measured in everything they do,” said Burke. “They’re not reactionary. They are not one to be reactionary, and so I think that they are taking in what they have learned over this period with their online business and I would imagine that they will capitalise on it but only in the most strategic way.”

“I don’t think you are going to see a blast of new product on the Hermès’ website, part of their allure has always, always been that its limited. And scarce. And that’s like giving candy to a baby in the luxury industry to the luxury consumer,” he added. “They have always been, even more so now, in an enviable position compared to the other luxury brands and brands in general. In many ways they are the antithesis of commercial. And I think that really works for them.”

“Many of the flagships, they really got caught into this concept of bigger is better, and that’s not really the case,” said Robert Burke, CEO of his eponymous retail brokerage. “While it might have been the trend, five years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, it is not what is motivating the consumer today.”

“Many of the flagships, they really got caught into this concept of bigger is better, and that’s not really the case.” — Robert Burke, Robert Burke Associates

“There’s an immediate strategy for the retailers on Fifth Avenue, which is really just survival mode — get out of their lease, or get rent abatement,” said retail consultant Robert Burke. “It used to be that business was guaranteed by the sheer number of people passing by. Obviously that’s not the case anymore.”

“The fashion industry, for as creative as it is, is a creature of habit. These brands were caught very off guard even though everyone was saying the fashion shows were no longer working,” says Robert Burke, founder and CEO of retail and fashion consultancy Robert Burke Associates, whose clients include Marc Jacobs, Chloe and Nordstrom. Still, he says that brands are eager to learn from creatives who have the agility and tech know-how to take more risks.

“Fashion brands tried just streaming a runway show, and it didn't work. So now they're faced with these new ways of using technology to appeal to the customer,” Burke says. “Shows have evolved to where it wasn’t just about selling items or looks. It was about creating an experience. All of the big houses had been able to travel to destinations. To do that today — needless to say, that's not going to happen. So how do they replicate that? It's an interesting question. The brands are really struggling with it”.

When Burke was SVP of fashion and public relations for Bergdorf Goodman, brands initially wanted to ban beauty bloggers from the store, wanting to maintain control over their narratives. They eventually came around, and he predicts that they’ll do the same for digital experiences — perhaps, he suggests, by curating VIP VR experiences for couture customers that foster emotional connections. “The successful brands have realised during this time, if they've created a personal experience or already have a good relationship, this VIP private shopping type of technique is what has paid off. There's a lot of opportunity in how they could appeal to their top clients,” he says.

“The tech world is built around testing and putting it out there when it’s not perfect, and that is a different philosophy than fashion shows have,” Burke says. “There's great insecurity because you're judged on your ability to be creative in a seven- to nine-minute show.”

Patience is key, experts agree. The fashion industry will learn from this, Burke says, and will improve over time. “I don't think they've thrown in the towel because we don't know how long this is going to last, and will it ever go back? There's going to be a real opportunity for people who can help educate the brands on the possibilities.”

“[Personal shopping is] a critical element for survival,” said retail consultant Robert Burke, adding, “I think retail therapy for that consumer is probably at a high.”

“A lot of brands used to feel that the designer or proprietor or founder shouldn't ever show too much about their personal life or their interests or expose themselves," luxury retail consultant Robert Burke explains. "Then it kind of became expectation that if a brand wasn't doing that, they weren't being real or being honest with the consumer. Therefore, the customer couldn’t connect to the designer."

"The idea of playing it safe is probably, in the end, today, not attractive to the new consumer. They want authenticity; they want realness. Even if they don't agree with it, I think they want to see it," Burke says. "We're not going to go back to a time where it's less transparent. The expectation of transparency is absolutely not going to go away."

"In some ways, the founders or the designers are becoming almost bigger than the brand and creating more loyalty than the brand," notes Burke. "This ultimately creates some fear in the owners of the company."

The brand can be greatly judged or solely judged by the person's actions — today, even their political views," says Burke, who describes having a public-facing founder as being either "the biggest blessing or the biggest curse." He notes that industry watchdogs like Diet Prada have had a major impact with this.

Burke points to Marc Jacobs as someone who's very "outspoken" and open: "The consumer responds to that and responds generally positively." He also says this shows up in the way designers are hired for top roles at big brands.

"In the past, it was very important to these bigger brands to hire someone who had good press coverage and recognition and been nominated for awards," Burke explains. "Today though, they want to know how many followers that designer or person has." It's also something investors are now taking into consideration, he adds: "It's very attractive to them when it works, it's their biggest nightmare when it doesn't."

While bankruptcy isn’t always a death sentence, the companies that will struggle to emerge are the ones that don’t have a strong strategy, says Robert Burke, founder of consulting firm Robert Burke Associates. “In order to succeed there has to be a new strategy; you can’t just say, ‘we have less debt now and therefore we are going to be successful.’”

Worryingly, it could be smaller, albeit healthy brands next, Burke warns, as their wholesale accounts and department store orders are cut back. “Many brands that have filed for Chapter 11 are bigger and frankly have quite a lot of debt,” he says. The smaller brands that could be hit next are “important to the ecosystem of fashion” but are operating on just enough margin to get by.

“A lot of this will happen not even by choice, but by necessity,” said retail consultant Robert Burke.

“It takes a lot of courage but it also takes a lot of strategy,” said Burke of Vince.

“It’s really [about] creating a total brand through image communication and owning their own distribution,” Burke said, pointing to the success of brands like LoveShackFancy, Ganni and Reformation.

“The customer is really the one in control, not the retailers and editors. And that’s been a big recent shift, and one that’s been very reluctantly recognized within the fashion world,” says Robert Burke, founder and CEO of retail and fashion consultancy Robert Burke Associates, which works on brand development with clients including Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, and Dunhill. “It’s really all about access. The brands that are smart are giving the customer control and providing them with the information and knowledge they crave”

“What’s really key is that the consumer doesn’t want to be hard sold, acting like the only product that exists is [from one brand]. They expect to get a glimpse into what that personality of a brand and its creative director is, and it goes far beyond just branded products,” says Burke, who adds that brands should take it even further.

“The consumer today has more discretion and higher standards than they have ever had, and rightfully so. The brands have been veiled by the press or lack of transparency, or were never really held accountable for diversity, workplace treatment, factory, sustainability. The smart brands are going to communicate with their customer and discuss these things in a very straightforward and direct way, whether that be with Black Lives Matter, MeToo, discrimination in the workplace — if they can communicate directly with their customer, they can gain their respect.”

“The last few years, everyone has said, ‘the system is broken’, but nobody has had the conviction to change it, but because of the pandemic it’s been a forced hard stop. Brands are going to take control because they are very shaken by what happened and realize how delicate the wholesale relationship is. You’ll see even small brands go after their direct-to-consumer business. They can control their own message, they can control their own sales and pricing and get products out there. They can have a relationship with the customer. The pandemic has shown us that if you have a good relationship with your customer, you’ll end up ahead.”

“The customer today is so discriminating, they want a brand that represents their values. It’s extremely important. All of this has caught the brands, editors and magazines off guard. The exposure that’s happened, especially in the last few weeks, has been enormous. I think that’s a good thing and it’s very important. Today, you can’t separate fashion from society or politics.”

Brooks Brothers said in its Wednesday email that it expected to complete the sale “within the next few months,” and noted that it was “critical that any potential buyer aligns with our core values, culture and ambitions.” Otherwise, said Robert Burke, the founder of an eponymous consultancy, “this signifies the possible end of the first American brand specialized in men’s clothing.”

“The most important thing for a buyer would be having the capability to elevate the brand and reinvent the brands image for the future,” Mr. Burke said. “A big risk would be if the brand just competes on price or becomes a discount or outlet brand, which would be a real shame to see.”

“The luxury online shopping market has become much more diverse and has gained momentum over the past few years,” retail consultant Robert Burke says of the industry. “Online sales grew by double digits in 2019 and by 2025, e-commerce will account for 30 per cent of the luxury goods market [according to management consultancy firm Bain].” In fact, the market has now grown so much that many retail experts, including Burke, believe that it is overcrowded and consequently “more fragmented”.

“The customer is now more educated than ever before because of these online players,” Burke adds. “They have become more conscious about spending money and online retailers must offer unique customer experiences to differentiate them from their competition. Having a clear point of view and not offering ‘everything to everyone’ has been the trend and important evolution of online fashion.”

“Down the road, experiences and technology will be the key to success for luxury,” Burke says. “This also includes physical retail and providing seamless experiences both online and offline. The smart companies will take the approach of personal shopping – each experience should be more personalised and targeted.”