5 Technology Trends Transforming the Fashion Industry | Fashion GPS By Anish Singh, CTO, Fashion GPS The innovations taking place at the intersection of fashion and technology are profoundly amazing and transformative. In many respects, the fashion industry today bears little resemblance to that of a decade ago—and will change even more in the decade ahead. Legendary businessman Peter Drucker famously said, ”Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.” I am, however, going to energize your imagination with five trends that will help create that unpredictable future—trends that are taking shape right now, that Fashion GPS is tracking closely, and with which all of us in the fashion industry will need to grapple in the years ahead. 1. What it’s about: The most obvious examples of wearable technology today are Google Glass and a variety of smartwatches—but these are rudimentary first steps into the realm of wearable tech. 2. 4. 5.
Fashion’s big brands follow the money to join the wearable tech revolution | Technology We’ve all been there. You rush out of the house to catch the train to work, elbow your way into a seat and immediately reach for your smartphone. But it isn’t there. Cue sense of panic as you contemplate a day (an hour!) It might sound like the stuff of sci-fi, but clothes that double up as smartphones aren’t as far away as you might think. From its studio in Shoreditch in east London, Rosella and her team have been fusing technology with clothing for a decade and have a reputation for coming up with some of the most innovative stuff. Britain – and London especially – has long been seen as a trendsetter in smart clothing. One big brand name that’s keen to talk about wearables is Ralph Lauren. “The technology has evolved to a point where it can now be synthesised with clothing. There will be outfits for our children that will tell us if they’re getting enough exercise, and jackets warning us if our blood pressure is too high. But why now?
Brexit: what does it mean for online retailers? | Guardian Small Business Network Whether it’s selling to a customer in France or importing supplies from Italy, Europe plays an instrumental role for many of the UK’s online retailers. The EU is Britain’s largest trading partner, while western European markets account for more than 50% of the export market for online businesses, according to Volo, the community of multichannel sellers. Now online retailers – like many businesses, politicians and the rest of society – are grappling to understand what the decision to leave the EU might mean for their future. “Right from the minute we arrived in Portugal this month and received €22 euros for £25 pounds at a currency exchange desk for our taxi from the airport, to the increased cost of producing our latest collection out there, the negative effect of Brexit in terms of currency fluctuations is very real,” says designer Thomas Cridland, owner of sustainable fashion brand Tom Cridland, which sees 30% of its sales come from Europe.
London fashion week: why technology is in fashion | Media Network | The Guardian At London fashion week the multibillion dollar worlds of tech and fashion are colliding like never before. For many, the launch of Apple’s new watch, announced this week with impeccable timing to coincide with the global fashion weeks, will mark an important turning point for fashion tech, a new sector with huge potential for growth. While Apple’s entry into the market is almost guaranteed to boost the industry’s profile, in reality the fashion industry has been driving fashion tech for years. Fashion tech is much more than just tech inside a timepiece, and nowhere is this more apparent than in London. In 2010, London Fashion Week was the first in the world to grant access to the masses by live streaming the runways. Now, everyone has their smartphone camera primed, ready to make their contribution to the zeitgeist. The next generation of high tech fashionistas are already emerging. Two rising stars from this growing trend are Kate Unsworth and Roberta Lucca.
Smartphones Make Catwalks Instantly Shoppable - BoF - The Business of Fashion NEW YORK, United States — Fashionistas who want the latest looks from New York’s Fashion Week no longer need an invite to the exclusive event. A group of tech savvy women are making designs from the catwalk instantly shoppable for deep-pocketed consumers thousands of miles away. Only the invitees used to be privy to the runway collections before they graced the pages of Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar weeks later. Even then, those designs wouldn’t reach the hands of well-heeled consumers for half a year, through the highest-end department stores or the fashion houses themselves. A crowd of chic geeks at start ups including RewardStyle and Refinery29 have now infiltrated the $250 billion luxury clothing and accessories market, armed with little more than smartphones. What customers want is to get their hands on Azria’s designs as soon as their Instagram feeds are inundated with photos from the week’s shows, she said. Fashion Accessibility Here’s how LikeToKnow:It works. Advance Production
The Tech of Fashion: 10 Ways Technology Drives Tomorrow's Fashion View in gallery Like any other art, the long-term trends in fashion are often driven by advancements in technology. New materials merge with the old and new needs drive innovation while fashion slowly evolves. Which of today’s trends are driving the wearables of tomorrow? Protection in Fashion: Armor and Information When we enter dangerous endeavors, from biking through the city to fighting fires, the clothes we wear can help keep us safe. Protection in Fashion Gallery Recycling in Fashion As fresh materials become harder to come by and/or less sustainable, the need to recycle existing fabrics becomes more important. Recycling in Fashion Gallery Kinetic Energy in Fashion When we walk, run or dance, our movement can be converted into electrical energy. Kinetic Energy in Fashion Gallery Solar Power Fashion Where a surface meets the sun, solar energy can be captured. Solar Power Fashion Gallery Environmentally Responsive Fashion Environmentally Responsive Fashion Gallery 3D Printed Fashion
Amazon (AMZN) is developing a 3D modeling system to solve online clothes shopping's biggest problem — Quartz In the 19th century, a hirsute aboriginal woman from Mexico named Julia Pastrana was billed on the freak-show circuit as “The Ugliest Woman in the World.” Brought to Europe, she performed according to Victorian norms: singing and dancing, speaking in foreign languages, undergoing public medical examinations, and other spectacle entertainments. Both in her lifetime and posthumously, she was labelled “ugly.” This word has medieval Norse roots meaning “to be feared or dreaded.” The Japanese concept of wabi-sabi values imperfection and impermanence, qualities that might be deemed “ugly” in another culture. “Ugly” is usually meant to slander, but in recent decades, aesthetic categories have been treated with growing suspicion. In different times and places, any one of us might have been considered ugly: from the red-haired to the blue-eyed, left-handed to hook-nosed. In ancient Greece, synonyms of ugliness connoted evil, disgrace and handicap. Art holds up a mirror to shifting attitudes.
CES 2016: The Best of Wearable Technology – WWD LAS VEGAS — By now, the concept of wearable technology isn’t totally foreign. That’s thanks, in part, to high-profile entrants like Apple Watch (a success?) and Google Glass (not so much). And then there’s the upcoming theme of this year’s Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute exhibition, “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology,” which is set to explore handmade and machine-made fashion. Fittingly, at this year’s CES, two divergent themes emerged from the category of wearable technology: There were the functional “wearables” and their more fashion-forward comrades — some prefer to call them “fashtech.” In other words, although there is considerable overlap, tech-powered clothing and accessories trended toward either gadgets that perform a function (often tracking or notifications) or those that were designed to experiment with form (think LED lights or 3-D printing). To be sure, wristwear (smartwatches, smart bracelets and fitness trackers) enjoyed a number of upgrades.