Fashion in the Age of Technology
The first thing one may think when they hear these two words is how completely uncorrelated they are, but the truth is these two have always had a symbiotic relationship.
Think about Blue jeans, an almost irreplaceable part of fashion these days. On your worst and your best days, they’ll still look good. Sweaters, hoodies, t-shirts, crop tops, and dress shirts? They’ll just about go together with anything.
Believe it or not, it was initially made for Genoese Navy sailors. It was later sold in America as practical workwear and their indigo colour was chosen so that it would better hide the dirt when worn by miners and labourers. it wasn’t until the 1950s that ‘Rebel Without a Cause and its star James Dean sparked their popularity and widespread adoption — a perfect example of the influential scope that technology and fashion possess when they converge.
We live in the ‘insta-age’ of technology where social media is changing how fashion is consumed and has trained customers to want instant access to the latest trends as soon as they hit the catwalks. At the same time, younger generations, who want to stand out from the crowd, seek products that can be tailored to their needs and preferences.
Fashion has always been at the forefront of innovation — from the invention of the sewing machine to the rise of e-commerce. Like tech, fashion is forward-looking and cyclical. As customers’ real lives’ become increasingly intertwined with the digital world, many designers and brands must embrace the latest technologies to push the limits of design, production, marketing and wearability.
Here, we will take a look into some of the ways technology is being sewn into fashion.
Automating Product Designing
A very important concept in this age of technology is the concept of ‘big data’. With everything being digitalized and connected to each other there is an enormous amount of data being produced every day. This includes data starting from your coffee machine to the data collected from your social media activities.
Big data then allows artificial intelligence to make use of this data to reshape brands’ approach to product design and development, with a focus on understanding and predicting what customers will want to wear next.
In 2018, Tommy Hilfiger announced a partnership with IBM and the Fashion Institute of Technology. The project, known as “Reimagine Retail,” used IBM AI tools to decipher real-time fashion industry trends, customer sentiment around Tommy Hilfiger products and runway images and resurfacing themes in trending patterns, silhouettes, colors, and styles
Knowledge from the AI system was then served back to human designers, who could use it to make informed design decisions for their next collection.
Hueritech, a US based analytics platform for fashion brands, uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to translate real-world images shared on social media into meaningful insights empowering fashion brands to forecast demand and trends more accurately, produce more sustainably, and achieve unprecedented competitive advantage.
Google in partnership with German fashion brand Zalando has also started project Muse. This project trains a neural network to understand colors, textures, style preferences, and other “aesthetic parameters,” derived from Google’s Fashion Trends Report as well as design and trend data sourced by Zalando. After that, the algorithm was used to create designs based on users’ interest and styles preferences recognized by the network.
The Tokyo-based design consultancy firm Synflux has also been using AI to come up with innovative designs in a project called Algorithmic Couture. The team, consisting of designers and software engineers, built a tool that creates customized clothing in a series of steps. First, the software 3D scans a body to capture its proportions. Then, machine learning algorithms analyze the collected data to come up with garment patterns intended to reduce fabric waste. In the last step, designers model these 2D patterns using computer-aided design (CAD) software and produce fashion patterns that can be used to sew clothing items.
The new era of fashion is all about personalization and prediction. With more and more data, algorithms will become more efficient at understanding, predicting, and designing what’s next in ways that have never been possible.
Sustainable Innovation
Genuine leather is not a very sustainable option but startups like Modern Meadow are combatting this by synthesizing leather in labs that does not involve harming animals. They ferment special types of yeast to grow collagen and then processes this protein to create a leather material and incorporate this in creating apparel.
In a very similar manner, Bolt threads use corn to extract proteins to mass-produce artificially created super-strong spider silk.
These alternatives are also called ‘Novel fabrics’ and are a way in which designers can set themselves apart and appeal as a sustainable option.
Aside from synthesized natural alternatives some companies are innovating products using recycled material.
Adidas through cooperation with ‘Parley for the Oceans’ has eco-innovated a collection of apparel made from plastic collected from the ocean. Another Global leader in sports apparel, nike, has come up with their ‘move to zero’ journey. Through this they too have created a collection made from at least 20% recycled content by weight. Simply by looking at these products innovated from recycled material, one would certainly think they were made from premium material!
Project Jacquard, out of Google’s ATAP lab (Advanced Technology and Projects) are working on colour-shifting clothing using Ebb, colour-changing fabric technology that could someday be programmed to change based on our mood or setting. The Ebb materials could even help us conduct many activities that we currently do on our phones using the colour signals instead. For example, when you receive an incoming call the colour of your cuff changes.
These innovative alternatives are the future of sustainability and will help fashion go a long way while still being eco-friendly. And the best part is there are still more and more companies coming up with innovative materials.
3D printing
3D printers allow printing of physical objects using three-dimensional digital models. Brands are exploring how 3D printing can help them produce goods on demand and create new avenues for customization, sustainability, and creativity.
Although the process of 3D printing takes hours it results in less wastage and is less labor intensive. It provides brands with the ability to combine different materials. Simply printing garments on demands reduces fabric waste by about 35%. This helps companies align with more sustainable, social, and environmental focus.
Adidas has partnered with Carbon to create 3D-printed soles for its Futurecraft sneakers, bypassing the need for traditional models and prototypes. Adidas unveiled STRUNG, a prototype for a new 3D-printed running shoe that can be customized to fit an individual athlete’s foot and are promoted as being more eco-friendly. Adidas plans to develop a range of STRUNG sneakers for various sports, with a launch date scheduled for 2022.
New Balance and Rebook have also already started initiatives to start their own lines of 3D printed shoes.
The 3D printed dress Anouk Wipprecht’s incredible Spider Dress has mechanical arms which shift depending on the closeness of other people. This demonstrates the versatility of this technology.
3D printing is a very robust technology that allows customization of garments to extents, with ease, which we have never seen before. With this technology the choice is limited simply by the creator’s imagination.
Mobile Commerce
Smartphones are getting smarter with every new release. One can now do almost anything with a simple tap on your phone. Mobile commerce, which simply entails buying products using your phone, is one of the largest sectors in eCommerce.
It is the simplicity with which one can buy products from the comfort of your house at any time that helps sell mobile commerce. In addition, digital wallets are making it easier to use our phones for basically the purchase of anything. Even in Bhutan, most people have taken to using payment methods such as M-bob, E-teeru and M-pay.
The trend of mobile commerce was only further strengthened by the lockdowns imposed due to the pandemic. This caused a surge in the number of mobile commerce users that have remained even after the lockdowns were lifted.
Social media also only helps boost sales with the shopping features on the platforms. This can help brands be present in customers favourite channels giving more visibility and opportunities to make sales.
Apart from simply buying products mobile commerce also allows for buying and selling of pre-owned clothes between customers such as E-bay and gumtree. And recently there are companies such as rent the runway and Y closet that allows customers to rent clothes and accessories.
Its clear to see that physical stores are becoming less popular. E-commerce is the future and the revolution has already begun.
Virtual Reality and Augmented reality
Virtual Reality or VR is a simulated experience in the third dimension that can be similar to or completely different from the real world and is created using computer technology.
Augmented reality (AR) on the other hand is an enhanced version of the real physical world that is achieved using digital visual elements, sound, or other sensory stimuli delivered via technology. The main difference between AR and VR is that AR uses the real-world environment whereas VR uses a digital environment.
AR and VR has added one of the most exciting features in digital commerce, that is the ability to try on outfits virtually. This provides greater accuracy thanks to customized measurement functionality and helps the customer feel like they have tried on the clothes even as they simply sit at home.
OBSESS is a platform that allows brands and retailers to create and serve 3D virtual shopping experiences on their websites, mobile apps and social channels via a 3D Commerce Cloud. OBSESS worked together with Tommy Hilfiger in 2019 to create a virtual version of a store.
There are AR mirrors that help customers see how clothes may look on them without having to get physically undressed. TopShop uses AR mirrors. Uniqlo‘s uses magic mirrors which is basically an AR mirror that let customers see how the apparel they try on the in-store look in different colours. Amazon patented AR mirrors for virtual at home try-ons which uses a mirror allowing customers to see how apparel would look on them in different locations shown in the mirror such as shorts at the beach or dresses at balls.
In footwear, Converse has an AR-powered sampler that allows customers to see how any shoe would look on their feet simply by pointing their phone at their feet.
VR and ARs applicability is not simply restricted to the gaming industry but rather, as we can see from the examples, has utility in a lot of other sectors as well. It is even being used in office environments for learning purposes.
Wearable Tech
When they first started out designing wearable tech, it was big and looked inelegant such as the Walkman created in 1979. But since then, we’ve come a long way. We now have fashionable wearable tech that has almost become an integral part of creating a stylish look with devices such as the apple watch, fit bit, Google glass and air pods.
Smartwatches can track several of the wearers vitals making it very useful to keep check of your health. This feature is being further improved on and now is being compressed into rings. A company called Oura makes smartwatches that serve this very purpose.
Amazon also released its Echo loop smart ring which has allows users to make use of Alexa through voice functions by simply speaking to a ring on their finger.
Samsung is also developing a smart suit with not only sensors that help track your vitals, but also gesture-controlled, app-connected cufflinks.
Apart from the mainstream wearables some other creative forms of wearable tech are Owlets smart socks for babies that monitor their oxygen level and heart rate, Babuaxs phone charging jackets, Ralph Laurens app-controlled heating parkas, and a self-ventilating garment from MIT researchers.
On the footwear side, Nike has created adapt sneakers that allow wearers to change the fit of their shoelaces and shoe lighting using an app on your phone. Underarmours HOVR sneakers allow wearers to track their activities.
Wearable technology has come a long way in improving its aesthetics as well as its usability in a very convenient form. But this isn’t the end of it, we will keep seeing better versions and more innovative forms of it every year.
Conclusion
Humanity is advancing technologically at a very fast rate and with this a plethora of useful and innovative solutions. Here we’ve seen some of the ways in which technology has been woven with fashion to create not only fashionable but also very practical apparel. The best part? this doesn’t even cover half of the ways in which technology is advancing with fashion.
Technology is also being integrated in other ways such as manufacturing processes, production, distribution channels, and inventory management. What this means for us is that fashion will continuously adapt becoming more responsive, providing customers with hyper-personalized products and experiences.
