250,000 fashion jobs are predicted to be lost this year, so what's the future of working in the industry?

In Tokyo, an eerily human-like robot called Aiko Chihira wears a colourful kimono and greets shoppers at the entrance of a glossy department store. At the nearby Uniqlo warehouse, AI machines have now replaced 90 percent of human staff and work day and night. When we thought of mass job losses in the fashion industry, we pictured a robotic future like this one, which – until March – felt years away from a British reality. However, the pandemic has accelerated a move towards automation that could otherwise have taken decade, with the British Fashion Council suggesting a quarter of a million industry jobs might be lost. Debenhams axed 2,500 on Tuesday after the 4,000 cuts the group made in April, while Burberry recently announced plans to cut 500 jobs worldwide, and M&S 950.