Introduction

As every industry struggled under the weight of this contagious virus Covid-19, one of the industries which fought back was the textile. As the impact of the virus lightened people’s demand of buying apparels increased at good a pace, in that too demand related to kid’s apparels was more compared to that of previous year 2019. As work from home is going all over the world, the same is the situation with the kids as they have to attend their classes online. The situation affected the buying preference of the parents from the ethnic wear to party wear it changed to comfortable wears like t-shirts, shirts, dungaree and joggers.

Current & Expected market size

Effects of Pandemic on Kids Fashion

This pandemic showed a decline phase in terms of growth for the fashion industry for a certain period of a time. Experts also predicted that fashion industry won’t show a sudden growth but slowly and gradually will rise. But the situation was exact the opposite for the kids segment specially as the sale of kids apparels showed a big boom both in online as well as offline. As the policies on lockdown were liberated by the Indian government and transitioned to the ‘Unlock’ stage, apparel retailers became more hopeful about the potential this segment holds, which was also witnessed as kids wear collections registered an overwhelming rise in the demand approximating to about 50% just in the past couple of months compared to the year 2019.

Reason being pandemic can stop the growth of the large business but it can’t stop the growth of kids. Parents were in a rush to replace the wardrobe for infants and toddlers who outgrew their garments during the period of the lockdown. Also, companies saw the demand of kid’s wear collections go up by three times as compared to the pre-lockdown period. Meanwhile, several small retailers and brands for kids were turning over their stocked inventory into products more suitable for the situation.

Another reason that helped kids segment to grow is the start of online schooling and classes those entitled students to dress up for their online classes, a trend that is going to become a new normal as UNESCO reported over 60 % of the global student population were out of lessons as home-schooling and online learning are the new normal. Although sales were there in both the manners of online and offline, emphasize has been more on online e-commerce channels, reason being compare to crowded marketplaces and malls in e-commerce products are delivered to the doorsteps considering all safety measures.

As per several domestic manufacturers and retailers, new trends and assortments offered will be a lot lower for the coming seasons and the assortment will go more towards comfort in wear ability for children staying at home and along with precautionary technical fabrics and features with having season-based aesthetics such as bright motifs and colors suiting for the 2021 season. Mainly the demand has shifted over comfort wear which includes shirt, t-shirts, joggers and dungarees having various cartoon characters printed on them.

Pandemic changed the buying pattern of Parents

With parents getting to spend more time at home with kids owing to their WFH status, now they have become more conscious about their child’s clothing needs. Alongside the general kidswear clothing, the surge in newborn population all across the lockdown months has pushed forward the babieswear segment too.

This pandemic made parents more conscious about the products, preferences and choices of their products. As this pandemic signaled to the global health crisis it led consumer demanding for products associated with trust, well-being and collective good. Parents never take a chance while electing the products for their kids but this change of events made them more conscious in terms of selecting the apparels for their kids.

With quality in mind, parents are also focusing on one more factor which is price tag of the product. Parents do not want to buy on a steep price tag and that is why they are looking for options that suffice both quality and the price. Value is getting more worth in 2020 courtesy the pandemic as compared to anything else

How manufacturers are dealing with the change?

This pandemic showed the great emphasize on the safety products and this led manufacturers to produce masks with other apparel wears. For kids, companies produced face masks with shields re imagined with playful colors and prints to convince the kids to wear masks. As it is difficult to convince the kids to wear masks retailers are coming up with new silhouettes such as scarves and snoods and even bandanas extending from the neck to the nose, or simply extended cowl necks with cord ties to cover the face while wearing a garment.

As this virus showed us that the global supply chain is highly fragile and fundamentally susceptible to disruptions. The weaker links in the supply chain can pose a great threat to the entire ecosystem on which the textile business sustains itself. The industry across its supply chain needs reorientation and restructuring towards a more sustainable and resistant web.Pre-COVID-19, manufacturers were planning to adopt the fast fashion method in upcoming years but this pandemic made them realize the importance of fast fashion as demand for the kids wear increased at a good pace.

Compare to situation of travelling before pandemic and after, travel has held a back seat and hence heightened interest in shopping locally. This had led towards a new-found respect for the treasure cove of our own heritage goodness of the indigenous products after long following fads and aping the west. This has led towards consumers increasingly lean towards buying locally manufactured products and supporting homegrown companies.

Upcoming trends of Kid’s fashion

One of the children's clothing trends in this period will be oversize clothes that have always been trendy in the fashion industry. Wide armholes, minimalist designs, layered use of colors and patterns, and geometric cuts are indispensable for oversize clothing. Warm neutral tones and pastel combinations will be the trend in sportswear. The effects of the rise of technology and the digital age on fashion, especially sportswear, will continue. In this parallel, futuristic touches will be popular as in the previous period. The trends will be seen especially in metallic colors, elastic textures, neon details in the Spring-Summer season.In shorts, which are indispensable in summer, comfort will come to the fore by combining with everyday aesthetics. Trends will mostly see shorts made of woven fabrics, elastic waist, gathered drawstring, and soft colors.

Conclusion

As the year 2020 made it difficult for the textile industry, kids section showed a good hike in sales in both online as well as offline mediums. Also, this pandemic changed the buying preference of the parents which were mainly emphasizing quality earlier started to focus on price factor also. Also, this pandemic made manufacturers to stand on their toes as in lockdown down period all operations were shut down and once the restrictions were lifted manufacturers other than apparels started to produce safety products like printed masks which attract kids to wear the same. Upcoming year 2021 will show a good growth in sales if the situation improved and the kids garment sector will grow faster than the men’s and woman’s sector.