فرصت هایی برای خرده فروشی لوازم مد روز در فروشگاه های موقت Opportunities for slow fashion retail in temporary stores

Introduction One effect of the economic crisis and changing consumer behavior in the Global North during the last nine years has been the huge availability of retail space. In high streets, shopping centers and derelict industrial spaces, this has led to opportunities for creative and cultural start-ups to experiment with new retail concepts. Real estate owners let their property for low price to pop-up initiatives, to guarantee (or raise) real estate value as well as local public liveliness and safety. With the western economies recovering, this situation is changing. Predominantly in global cities such as London, Paris and Amsterdam, real estate prices and rents are rising quickly and small businesses are crowded out (Hubbard, 2017). However, this does not apply to smaller towns. Whereas the Amsterdam city center knew a 3.6 percent vacant retail space in 2016, the national average was still 10 percent (Teulings et al., 2017). Due to the ongoing online disruption, retail real estate acts more and more volatile with huge spaces in luxury main streets of New York and Düsseldorf currently unused (Kapalschinski and Kolf, 2017). There is and will be a lot of temporary vacant space and city councils ready to experiment with new forms of value creation in urban retailing. This situation creates opportunities for micro entrepreneurs and a lot of independent designers and starting retailers of slow fashion have grabbed these, often experimenting with local concept or vintage stores to create new value propositions and develop their retail business models (Alexander and Bain, 2016; Cataldi et al., 2010; Clark, 2008; Fletcher, 2010; Pomodoro, 2013; Ziehl and Osswald, 2015). Rather than closely defined, slow fashion retailing is understood here as the retailing of designed clothing and lifestyle products being locally produced or re-used. This links to aspects of transparency about working conditions, fair wages and a reduced carbon footprint (Henninger et al., 2016; Pookulangara and Shephard, 2013). As part of a broader “slow movement,” slow fashion retailing does not refer to time so much as to a mindful consumption and disposal of products (Kant Hvass, 2014) and to a philosophy of attentiveness which includes sustainable and sensorial fashion products (Clark, 2008). Vintage, because of its longevity and individual garment’s story, is thus an important part of slow fashion.