Fashion is
technology, one of the oldest examples of it. In an anthropological sense,
making textiles by weaving materials together is a prehistoric technology,
which we have since built upon over thousands over years, as fashion
innovators continually future-gaze.
To enlighten us on what’s currently up ahead, Texworld assembled a panel
of experts to discuss technology’s influence on the changing nature of
ideation and design: Natasha Franck, CEO of Eon, Tia Nicolae, Marketing
Manager of Lectra; Andrew Wyatt, CEO of Cala, and Melissa Rusinek,
Consultant, Diverse Recycling Solutions.
New data of recycling
To give every product an identity, which she likens to a birth
certificate, was Franck’s mission when she created the CircularID Protocol
to manage the growing demands of a circular economy. Traditionally data is
attached to a product only up to the point of sale then the product is
lost. Information on origin, price, fabric composition evaporates. “Resale
currently operates quite ad hoc without the digital infrastructure to
adequately support it,” says Franck who has collaborated with H&M, Target,
PVH Corp, among others, to remedy this and support the life cycle extension
of products. “We specialize in getting that data on the product after sale
and beyond, and facilitate how it’s accessed or exchanged between
parties.”
The designer of the future
What will the field of design look like when today’s 15-year-olds, the
Snapchat, TikTok generation, are entering it? This is the type of question
which motivates Wyatt daily. He believes the technology to meet their
expectations for turning their creative vision into reality is very
different from what’s available right now. He founded Cala “to make it as
easy to set up a fashion brand infrastructure as it is to start an
Instagram account.” With this service which he calls “the world’s first
fashion house technology” he claims that anyone can start up a brand scaled
to their needs from their parent’s basement or a college dorm. Working with
over 60 different manufactures in 10 countries, 25 development and
financial partners, he promises to turn the digital into reality “whether
you’re a classically trained designer from Parsons or if you’ve never
designed before your life.”
Wyatt’s vision of the future looks not unlike Tinder: “Basically you’re
flipping back and forth between designs, powered by machine learning to get
closest to your vision, connected with a network of fully automated local
facilities or production centers––like Amazon’s fulfillment centers––you
post it on the gram, and if people start buying, it gets made close to
them. We’re not too far from that.”
Opportunities and limitations of 3D design
Despite the hype and rush to digitizing technology, Nicolae, says, “You
cannot design in 3D today. No tool exists to actually build a pattern in a
3D way. You have to have the 2D pattern built in order to render the 3D
version and to see how the fabric drapes and stretches.” Fit is of prime
importance, indeed even more than ever when addressing the need to cut down
on material waste and eliminate irresponsible sampling, both practices
associated with our industry’s past excesses. Lectra provides 2D
patternmaking technology for brands from Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton to
denim leaders such as Seven For All Mankind, focused on the idea of not
producing a product until it is ordered by the customer. Aside from fit, 3D
printing has also failed to take into consideration the importance of the
flow of fabric. The company Clo is currently leading the market in their
development of exceptional technology for rendering 3D fabric.
New technology must meet old craftsmanship
Says Nicolae, “The skill and labor behind how a garment is put together
and how patterns are developed creates the built-in quality of a garment
and is why it is not a disposable product. That has a lot of implications
for waste. Fast fashion does not have that quality built in.” The absence
of patternmaking skills in our industry which died off due to overseas
outsourcing is now being lamented by those at the forefront of the
technology field who see the future as a marriage of traditional design and
patterning with 3D innovations. Adds Wyatt, “Even on Clo you can download
the free trial, but you have to know how to create a pattern for it to be
be user-friendly and not a lot of designers know that anymore. Maybe it’s
to come in AR, maybe VR, but that full on-the-dress form experience in a
digital context is farther away than we would like.”
Designers want to design in 3D, says Wyatt, ” because it sexy. but while the new generation leave school expecting technology to be in place reality is quite different. no magic button that you can press go from an idea pattern a product ready says nicolae who fears disappearance of skills quality and fit associated with such reality. not sure we want that.>
Self-taught fashion designer Virgil Abloh reportedly shares initial
ideas on Whatsapp for his collaborators to add to, and we can’t help
wondering if this mash-up process is indicative of how future designers
will work. Wyatt caters to creatives with just such an anyone-can-do-it,
build-your-own-playlist attitude. “I want this shoe but instead of this
motif, I want that one” is a curation approach to design, but he explains
that Cala helps to clarify the vision with measurements, industry standard
comments and instructions.
The inevitable downside of these scenarios will likely include
intellectual property rights violations and legal concerns, as
Insta-creatives are tempted to post their memes right onto T-shirts.
Mass manufacturing and the future
The fashion industry has revolved 180 degrees. Where once there was the
grand designer who imparted his unique vision from on high and customers
clamored for a piece of it, now we have a wealth of data coming from the
consumer which informs which products are created. Says Nicolae, “The
traditional model of a fashion business which mass manufactures, investing
hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, to produce hundreds of
thousands of dollars of the same product, hoping that the demand would be
there once the product drops, that model is canceled.”
Mass production only makes sense for certain product lines nowadays, and
experts agree that when offsetting demand volatility best practice is to
shrink your supply chain. The Tesla model where you design your own car and
it arrives to your specifications is where fashion needs to be. “On-demand
is not only for small brands, start ups, or those who need to produce small
batches,” says Nicolae. “Companies which McKinsey hails as “super winners”
are doing it too.”
Adds Franck, “Instead of selling a product once but to the masses, now
we need to understand how that same product can sell four, five times. The
cheapest way to make money is to resell a product you’ve already made.”
Brands which resist investing in automation technology because they
think they don’t have enough volume, or those waiting for the volume to
return from China, are missing the point, believes Nicolae. “Volume isn’t
coming back. It’s not about competing with China on a mass level. It’s
about nimble production, quick replenishment, customized personalized
product. That’s the opportunity for manufacturing in North America. That’s
where the conversation needs to be. We’re not setting up mass production
facilities to compete with China.”
Fashion editor Jackie Mallon is also an educator and author of Silk
for the Feed Dogs, a novel set in the international fashion
industry.
Header image Texworld, other FashionUnited.
