Factors behind the lack of global Asian fashion brands

Author: Iloka Benneth Chiemelie
Published: 4th December 2018

Factors behind the lack of global Asian fashion brands

Looking at it from the first sight, it becomes sort of puzzling to see that East Asian Fashion (except for Japan) has been limitedly successful in the global scene irrespective of the favorable conditions that surrounds it. One of such issue is the rapid economic progress that the region has gained, which has increased the purchasing power of Asian consumers, and made it the largest market when it comes to luxury brands (KPGM, 2006). In any case, it does seem clear that this shouldn’t be the case for defending the shift as a number of other factors are behind the poor recognition. Such other factors is that historically, Asia has maintained an important presence when it comes to both garment production and the export of such materials. A number of Asian countries such as China and the Republic of Korea have been heavily involved in global apparel exports since the 1980s with other Asian countries following their footsteps over the years (Gereffi, 2002). It becomes obvious that one would easily predict this existing link to lead to a similar proliferation of Asian fashion brands in the Western Markets, but this has not been the case. The basic question now becomes, why is the Asian fashion houses not effectively competing with their Western counterparts? This research argues the reasons to be due to 1) over-reliance on low-cost mass-production techniques, and 2) the lack of support for fashion designers. These two argued factors will be further discussed below.

Over-reliance on low-cost mass-production techniques

Many of the Asian countries have relied on manufacturing and exportation of garments as a way of stimulating their economic development. Thus, apparel productions have often adopted price as a means of securing competitive advantage. In any case, production is always shifted to low-cost countries in the bid to ensure sustainability. As at 1980, the major, the major exporters of apparel products in Asia were China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taipei (Gereffi, 2002). By 1990, the production of apparel products began to be outsourced to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India and Pakistan on the large scale (Gereffi, 2002). 1998 witnessed the next wave of countries to include Bangladesh, Vietnam, Philippines, and Sri Lanka as the production costs in the original countries increased as a result of increase in economic development (Gereffi, 2002). As such, the need for development of new competitive advance became a reality due to increased level of industrialization in Asian countries, which no longer relied on low-cost as a means of gaining effective competitive strategy.

In this 1970s shift, the East Asian Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs) began triangle production (Jin, 2004). These countries were able to receive orders from original buyers in the Western nations through this process, as these original buyers requested for direct production from the factories of these lower-wage nations (Jin, 2004). This arrangements gave the chance for Asian NIC to develop its position in the buyer-driven commodity chain into that of a facilitator, and it further offered them the opportunity o moving beyond original equipment manufacturing (Jin and Moon, 2006).

In any case, it is still important to understand that this shift towards the role of facilitators is insufficient when it comes to the modern fashion industry. It has been acknowledged by researchers that it places the garment industry in a buyer-driven commodity chain instead of a producer-driven commodity chain (Gereffi, 1999; Jin, 2004). As such, it becomes very much likely that the brand name and ability to organize the production system would be the most vital asset when it comes to gaining competitive edge in the fashion industry or company.

In fashion specific discussions of the apparel industry as it is in the East Asian NICs, Jin (2004) noted that integrated system and brand agility as the apparel industry’s specific advantages. Jin (2004) also proceeded to synthesize these factors with NIC apparel company advantages of “triangle manufacturing and sourcing networks through social ties” to hint on competitive factors that will allow NICs to gain a strong foothold in the international fashion scene. These three factors comprises of global brand, agility and global sourcing. On that accord, it is important for Asian countries that have moved beyond low-cost garment manufacturing to develop new grounds for competitive advantage instead of over-reliance on arrangement of low-cost production. Additionally, countries must also make concerted efforts towards moving away from negative low-cost country image and seek more developments in quality.

Lack of support to the fashion industry

In Asian countries like Singapore and Hong Kong, successful establishment of strong base for fashion talents are hampered in three major ways. Firstly, the educational system generally focuses on examination with less emphasis being placed on creative and critical thinking, which are crucial prerequisite necessary for developing creative talent. On the second note, aspiring designers and entrepreneurs on that field are usually discouraged by their parents and their overriding culture when it comes to veering into fashion careers. Last but not the lead, even when these aspirants enter into the fashion industry, they are sometimes viewed and treated as instruments for satisfying consumers’ needs, instead of being offered the needed creative freedom allowed to their Western counterparts, thus pulling them back when it comes to creativity and innovation.

Typically, the Singaporean educational system has focused on producing talents that excel in science and mathematics subjects (Smith, 1996; Math, 2006). There have been less focus put in place for development of creative industries like fashion design. For example, although fashion schools in Singapore offer numerous diploma and certificate courses, only a handful of degree courses are offered on the same field. This is also common factor for the Bangladesh society, where less emphasis are placed on fashion related courses. This is heavily in contrast with the high level of availability enjoyed in fashion degree courses that are offered in major Western cities like New York, Paris, and London. As Chan et al (2005) noted, the exam-oriented approach adopted in these Asian nations does hinder the late development o creativity and the right environment needed to excel in the fashion industry. Emphasis on fashion education does become a basic step when it comes to producing competent fashion talent and professional status that are conferred by degree courses as it could probably aid in elevating the position occupied by fashion designers in the society.

In the new developed Asian nations, the society does value materialism and income. Also, there are high level for parents in Asian societies to have significant influence when it comes to educational and career choices made by their wards (Chan et al, 2005). From a survey, Chang et al., (2005) discovered that majority of the designers interviewed in the survey have been originally discouraged from pursuing fashion as a career. The reason being that majority of the working-class and middle class parents don’t see fashion as a source for secured future. As a result of that, it is very common for fashion students to face pressures from parents to careers in fields like medicine or computer science. Thus, this pressure has the power to dissuade potential fashion talents from actually entering the field of fashion or even delaying their entry into the industry if the students are mandated to acquire respectable degree needed to pursue fashion and designing.

The lack of value that is being placed on fashion designers does have the potential of being perpetuated further in the industry. Take Hong Kong for instance, fashion designs were mainly celebrated as a result of the industry’s need to upgrade its production as a means of ensuring sustainable competitiveness. As such, fashion designers do occupy an insignificant position in corporations and are normally delegated works in relation to specifications set by the buyer, offered cramped working spaces and little support from the design team (Chan et al, 2005). As such, this low level that businesses assign designers does prove to be a hindrance to the growth of new product development. This attitude towards designers does deprive them of necessary freedom for creativity - which is very essential when it comes to spurring them into the global fashion scene as it aids in carving out new design identities and not just replying on past successes experienced in the design world (Skov, 2002).

As a summary, the main factors that deter the establishment of global Asian fashion brands can be linked to both cultural and structural factors. As such, it becomes necessary for newly industrialized nations to overcome their level of over-reliance on low cost manufacturing and the lack of support being offered to designers in order to develop a new competitive outlook in the global fashion industry.

The Bangladesh fashion and arts industry

As noted by Mary (2014), over 78% of Bangladesh exports come from earnings in the garment industry. This is because the ready-made garment (RMG) sector does possess higher potentials than other sectors when it comes to employment and foreign exchange earnings. The industry also aid to a higher extent in reducing poverty and making a positive contribution towards the growth of the national economy. In any case, the working conditions in this important sector is very poor. Mary (2014) went on to say that the sector does fall short of social compliance, which implies that they do not comply with labour practices guided towards ensuring social welfare of their employees.

This further falls in line with earlier discussions in this paper, in which it has been shown that the industry adopts low-cost manufacturing as a means of ensuring competitiveness. As such, staffs talents and abilities are neglected in order to meet the demands of customers and enrich the industry owners in the process.

Irrespective of the numerous debates being conducted on the potentials of international trade to act as an engine for growth, the role being played by Bangladesh’s export-oriented RMG sector when it comes to establishing link between trade and poverty alleviation is something that cannot be overemphasized. The highly labour intensive nature of the industry has been successful in increasing more jobs for a large number of the unskilled workers, especially the women, and this does have a direct influence on poverty alleviation.

From the above discussion, low level of motivation can be added as an additional factor that negatively influences the creativity and innovation factors in the Bangladesh textile industry. This is because the workers are normally subjected to treacherous working conditions and high level of depreciation – down to their basic rights (Abdur and Abu, 2007). This can reduce their level of motivation and overall productivity in the process. Thus, there is a need for the above factors to be considered in the process of rebuilding the Bangladesh textile industry.

As an addition to the motivation issue above, it also becomes clear from the Abdur and Abu (2007) case that over-reliance on low-cost manufacturing process and lack of necessary supports also form a negative bridge when it comes to ensuring sustainability of the Bangladesh fashion industry. This is because the scenario in the Bangladesh fashion industry does show that the industry relies heavily on export and low-cost production as a means of establishing competitive advantage, and designers are not provide with necessary support to excel in the industry.

Changing circumstances and new opportunities for Bangladesh fashion industry

With the key issues for failure of the Asian fashion industry already discussed in general above in the view of the global fashion industry, it is now the time to demonstrate that their no permanence in this failure. In actuality, a number of changes are emerging as key revolutions for the future. In line with these changes, this section of the paper aims to first show that fashion is evolutionary across culture and time as a matter of nature. Additionally, it will be argued that as a result of 1) changes in consumers’ behavior and tastes, 2) proliferation of the internet, 3) development of global sourcing aids, and 4) climate change, the time might be right now for Bangladesh and other South Asian countries to take center stage in the new global fashion industry.

The world fashion: an evolution on its own

Taking a look at past events in the global fashion industry, it can be seen that the American and French fashion industries have flourished across the globe as a result of favorable circumstances during that time. Traditionally, the French are viewed as the inventors of fashion following the launce of the first haute couture fashion brands in the 17^th century by Charles Fredrick Worth (Krick, 2000). The ability of American designers to enter the international scene followed the World War II as it was difficult for European designs to reach American easily and majority of the European couture houses closed down due to the war (Eubank and Tortora, 2005).

The 1980s also witnessed Japan experiencing rapid development in electronics ad automobile production, and it pushed the country to become a global economic power. During the same period, fashion designers in Japan opened couture and ready-to-wear houses in major fashion cities across the world (Eubank and Tortora, 2005). During the 1983 fashion show in Paris, a number of Japanese designers were present and their designs where considerably different from what is obtainable, which attracted the interest of other global designers and brought global attention to Japan. As a result of that, Japan started rising in upcoming major fashion center across the globe.

In the global ranking of top fashion cities across the world in 2007, three Asian cities – Tokyo in 6^th, Hong Kong in 8^th, and Singapore in 10^th – made the top 10 positions (GLM, 2007). In recent years, these three major cities are increasingly being recognized as fashion hubs throughout the world. As newly industrialized cities such as Singapore and Hong Kong start to take advantage of changing circumstances to penetrate the global fashion, new opportunities are being created for other South Asian countries such as Bangladesh to follow their footsteps and establish themselves as global fashion brands. Some of these changing circumstances and how they can be utilized are discussed below.

Changes in consumers’ needs

Globally, consumers are increasingly becoming sophisticated in terms of what they want and how they satisfy these wants. The elimination of boundaries across the globe as a result of advancement in information and communication technologies has presented consumers across the globe with vast alternatives they can choice from when it comes to deciding on purchasing a particular product against the other.

Thus, the penetration of Asian fashion and style is being aided by this sophistication as customers from other parts of the world want to look different from their counterparts and dressing in foreign (Asian) fashions is one of the ways to look that different. This creates huge opportunity for the Asian fashion industry to establish themselves globally by supply these customers with their fashion style and sense.

Proliferation of the internet

The internet still remains one of the success stories when it comes to global penetration of information and communication technologies. This is because it has single-handedly changes the overall face of the global communication industry. It allows for virtually doing all that were done conventionally. For instance, businesses can establish great online stores and generate more from their online business than they can actually generate conventionally. One of such success stories is Tesco, which is now globally renowned as the online-shopping mall.

In the face of the Bangladesh fashion and arts industry, this is a great opportunity for companies and designers. This is because it does provide them with huge access to vast customers across the globe. Thus, this is a great opportunity for the Bangladesh fashion and arts industry as they can effectively compete against the established global brand via the internet by establishing quality online presence and sourcing for customers across the globe through the internet.

Advancement of global sourcing

The advancement of global sourcing also provides a way for establishing huge brand success for the Asian fashion brands. For instance, it is now very common for global brands to outsource their production process in the developing countries like Bangladesh where cheap labour is obtainable. Through this means, they are able to reduce production cost and increase overall profit obtainable from such products.

Thus, the South Asian fashion houses can also take advantage of this advancement in global sourcing by establishing outlets in the western world where their fully Asian products can be made available to the western market. Additionally, they can also produce majority of the product features with their cheap labor force, and apply finishing touches in the western countries in order to attach the names of the country to these products – for instance “Made in France”. This will allow them the opportunity of effectively compering with other products that are fully produced in these western countries at a relatively higher price.

Conclusion

From the above discussions, it is now evident that the Asian fashion industries – especially for the newly industrializing nations like Bangladesh – has been suffering as a result of over-reliance on low cost production as a means of maintaining competitiveness, and lack of support to the designers. However, these issues can be easily resolved and new realm of success paved for the Asian fashion industry some of these new opportunities as discussed above are critically studied and implemented as necessary.

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