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Fashion Tech Series
NEW AGE OF DESIGN
INTRO
ABOUT THIS SERIES Metaverse, NFTs, machine learning, blockchain…
What does it all mean? Change is happening fast. Not only are business realities in constant flux, but technological innovation is moving at an even more rapid pace. The time for digital transformation isn't the end of the decade—it is now. MMGNET has teamed up with the global forecasting agency Fashion Snoops to present this multi-part series that breaks down the latest and most relevant technologies and tells you exactly how they can be applied to the key areas of the fashion vertical: (1) Sourcing + Supply Chain, (2) Design, (3) Retail, and (4) Marketing. In each report, we demystify the latest technological developments shaping the year ahead, from artificial intelligence to Web3; define opportunities companies should consider; and highlight specific success stories from those already forging a new path forward. In addition, readers can find various resource lists outlining potential vendors, partners, and solutions providers to have on their radar. The preservation of the fashion industry is a product of interconnected functions, systems, individuals, and organizations that are all moving in different directions and at different speeds. At the most basic level, digital transformation can open up the parts of the whole to communicate faster and more fully, and even the smallest updates and tweaks internally can lead to profound benefits on the consumer end. Collectively, these changes can lay the groundwork for us all to step into the future.
SUPPLY CHAIN
TRANSFORMATION
NEW AGE OF DESIGN
THE EVOLUTION OF RETAIL
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MARKETING INNOVATIONS
INDEX
New Age of Design
Seemingly overnight, the future arrived, the boundaries between physical and digital worlds dissolving in an instant. With it has come a demand for new modes of
expression, such as fantastical digital skins that fashion metaverse avatars and IRL products that interact with online systems. In order to keep up, the design process, from concept to sampling, requires a significant shake-up, and new concepts like digital twins and AI image generators can supercharge creative workflows and push the imagination into uncharted territory.
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Avatars The canvas for personal expression expands into digital realms
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Digital Twins Digitization technologies streamline the sampling process
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XR Collaboration The metaverse unlocks new dimensions in design concepting and collaboration
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Smart Fashion Merging fashion and tech to push the product experience
AI-Aided Design Artificial intelligence augments the creative toolkit
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New Age of Design
Avatars The canvas for personal expression expands into digital realms
Avatars have long existed on the internet through platforms like the The Sims, Second Life, and IMVU, but as the lines between digital and physical blur, their prominence in everyday life is growing and influencing our concept of identity. The avatar is central to the vision of the metaverse, allowing individuals to have presence and navigate virtual worlds. As this realm expands, it will require new forms of digital self-expression, prompting opportunities for brands to explore product design in a purely digital space. A recent survey showed that 92% of respondents want to see “surreal” clothing options in the metaverse, more than any other styles. This desire for surrealism in digital fashion is an early manifestation of the future desire for vehicles of expression that go beyond the bounds of the physical world, whether they be technical, financial, or social. By carving out room in their design process for digital goods, brands can be in a prime position to answer these emerging consumer needs and define the next phases of digital identity and expression.
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New Age of Design
Avatars
Innovations + Applications
Example Luxury fragrance brand
DESIGN DIRECT-TO-AVATAR In virtual spaces, fashion will continue to play a key role in communicating consumers’ tastes, values, community allegiance, and cultural identity. With a growing roster of fashion brands partaking in the metaverse, the market for digital fashion is expected to reach 6.61 billion by 2026. The direct-to-avatar fashion model can provide an outlet for brands to quickly test out new concepts, gauge interest, and reach new customers who may not be able to afford physical price points.
Example
Byredo is collaborating
Idoru is a virtual
with Nike-acquired NFT
avatar-building
maker RTFKT Studios
platform aiming to
to create Alphameta, a
expand access to
digital perfume that
EXPAND THE LIMITS OF EXPRESSION
fashion through digital collections from brands like Phlemuns, thereby
The 2D interface of the internet has a limited capacity to express the full possibilities of human identities. The unbound nature of metaverse spaces enables the creation of an expansive range of expression vehicles that go beyond apparel. In the metaverse, brands have the opportunity to explore novel digital ‘products’ for their consumers, such as avatar skins, auras, and even sonic features.
creating a safe space for users to experiment with personal expression.
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reinterprets the fragrance as a wearable aura for customers’ avatars in the metaverse, demonstrating a new, multisensory approach to digital expression.
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New Age of Design
POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND
Avatars
Resources
DressX Digital fashion marketplace specializing in virtual garments for use in augmented reality and on 3D avatars ●
As avatars go into wider use, the question of whether avatars should be more abstract or
Drest
realistic is being explored. Avatars that are too
Gaming company merging digital fashion, beauty, and lifestyle with gamified
abstract can result in less emotionally engaging
metaverse experiences
interactions, while avatars that are too realistic can result in negative reactions, as they dip into what is known as the “uncanny valley”—a
Hyperreal
psychological phenomenon in which human
Digital FX company that has created the Hypermodel avatar for brands,
representations that are just short of realistic
celebrities, and talent to partake in virtual appearances and virtual commerce
cause unsettling feelings.
Idoru Virtual avatar building platform aiming to provide a digital space for limitless
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expression for brands and users
With growing talks about the metaverse, many are concerned about fraud and impersonation in digital spaces, especially with the use of avatars. Tech companies in the metaverse space are
Ready Player Me
suggesting identity-verification solutions in various
Cross-platform, avatar-building platform allowing users to upload a photo
forms, from biometric technology to NFTs.
from their system and automatically generate their very own avatar
The Fabricant Studio Digital design studio focused on rendering high-end, realistic 3D garments
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New Age of Design
XR Collaboration The metaverse unlocks new dimensions in design concepting and collaboration
The move to remote work in recent years exposed the fashion industry’s over-reliance on physical spaces and traditional media. While digital technologies will never completely replace in-person and manual processes, the metaverse is opening up completely new realms of collaboration and creative workflows that has potential to revolutionize design for the better. Real-time, remote interaction and extended reality (XR) are central pillars of the metaverse. Its collaborative byproducts, such as cloud-based creative tools and telecommunication platforms, are making the design process more accessible and integrated. Meanwhile, VR and AR technologies are freeing design from traditional 2D mediums and challenging creatives to think in 3D and even 4D (i.e. objects engineered to change shape). Collectively, these tools can move fashion design forward in a more sustainable and agile direction.
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New Age of Design
XR Collaboration
Innovations + Applications
Example VR art tools are gaining
Example
importance in the industrial
Microsoft Teams
design sector and present
continues to introduce a
especially viable use cases
slew of tools aimed at
for footwear, accessories,
optimizing creative
and other hard goods.
collaboration, especially
Recently passing the 100k
in hybrid work
user mark, Gravity Sketch
CONCEPTING IN 3D As the virtual reality (VR) sector matures, its related applications and hardware are becoming more user-friendly and affordable, which should pave the way for wider adoption of the technology. VR enables action to move beyond the flat, 20-inch screen and into open space, which makes it an ideal tool for the concepting stage of design, where the canvas is limitless and a full range of expression is encouraged.
MULTIMODAL COLLABORATION
is hoping to becoming an industry standard by offering robust visual
Now that remote and hybrid work environments have become standard, collaboration tools are moving beyond video conferencing to supporting creative processes, from moodboard creation to concept design. New digital tools within this space are becoming indispensable, facilitating a rapid feedback loop, in addition to cutting down on the use of physical materials.
capabilities that run from quick sketching to detailed 3D modeling. In addition, they allow users to collaborate on modules together, and assets can easily import and export across devices and applications.
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environments. Notable developments include a revamped whiteboarding tool, an annotation feature, interactive AI-powered cameras, and Live Share, which will allow developers to make their apps instantly collaborative when shared in a Teams meeting.
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New Age of Design
POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND
XR Collaboration
Resources
Apple Freeform Whiteboarding tool that integrates with FaceTime and Messages and gives users the ability to sketch, take notes, see, and share on one “infinite” canvas
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Brands that embrace 3D digital transformation can develop an early competitive advantage, as it
Arkio
is estimated that only 4% of fashion companies
A platform ideal for spatial design that allows collaborators to sketch and mark
currently have this level of digital maturity.
up designs via VR, AR, mobile, or desktop and then meet in the virtual space and explore ideas together in real time ●
Gravity Sketch
Given the low (although steady) adoption rate of the VR hardware needed to optimize 3D
Combines collaborative features with visual tools to take users from 3D ideation
experiences, it is recommended that chosen
to detailed modeling
platforms and tools still be scalable to 2D and web mediums.
Microsoft Teams The platform’s Live Share feature makes any enabled program instantly collaborative when shared within a Teams meeting ●
Watch the gaming world for future developments in this space. For example, the holographic AR
The Wild
tabletops developed by startups like Tilt Five and
Recently acquired by Autodesk, an AEC-focused XR platform that offers tools for
Mirrorscape could have interesting applications in
ideation, design review, and presentation
the future mixed reality design studio.
Zoom The leading conference platform is addressing visual collaboration with new tools like a revamped digital whiteboard and gesture recognition
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New Age of Design
Digital Twins Digitization technologies streamline the sampling process
Referring to any physical process, situation, or product that is replicated in virtual space, the concept of “digital twins” sits at the center of Industry 4.0 and Web3. In the context of the sampling and product development stage of fashion design, the digital transformation of fabrics and garments can streamline what has, up until now, been very time-consuming, wasteful workflows involving drafting and prototyping things by hand and shipping items back and forth across the globe. As sourcing disruptions give way to longer lead times, new technological innovations are looking to alleviate bottlenecks in this particularly inefficient part of the design process.
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New Age of Design
Digital Twins
Innovations + Applications
Example Example
Swiss company SO REAL is focused on creating
Partnering with chip
digital twins that go beyond
company E-Elements, tech
the surface level. Through a
startup Frontier has
combination of
unveiled the first MPoC
photogrammetry
(multiprocessor on a chip)
technology (i.e. creating a
VIRTUAL SAMPLING TOWARDS BETTER FIT A key use of digital twins is to quickly simulate manual processes to uncover better ways of doing things. By migrating much of the sampling process to virtual platforms and digitizing grading and other components of the sizing workflow, companies can amass the data and intelligence to rapidly test and revamp their approach to fit—without all of the costly manual work.
specifically made for
3D model out of 360°
digitizing textiles.
images) and CT scanning
DIGITIZING TEXTILES
(which allows you to see
The cyclical process of designing
inside of objects), an
a print, sourcing the right fabrics, ordering strike offs, and creating garment samples is both timeand resource-intensive. Much of print design already happens in virtual spaces, and by implementing realistic digitization and 3D technologies at the fabric level, companies can significantly shorten and streamline this process.
extremely accurate 3D rendering is generated, down to the stitch, which provides a solid starting point for technical designers to fine-tune fit and other details.
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Manufacturing facilities can install this “meta chip” into their systems to speed up and refine the digital rendering of scanned physical materials. Combined with Frontier’s AI technology, digitized fabrics can easily and realistically scale to any 3D form or application.
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New Age of Design
POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND
Digital Twins
Resources
Alvanon
Provides a comprehensive library of 3D body forms
Black Swan Textiles Offers virtualization software to replace old-fashioned product development tools
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Through virtual sampling, it is estimated that companies can reduce material waste by as
Browzwear
much as 70%.
Allows companies to create true-to-life virtual samples of garments and make changes to them in minutes ●
ClothingTech
Companies that have adopted digital transformation technologies report reductions of
Enables real-time design by automatically reading existing patterns and tech
two weeks or more in the sampling process.
packs and converting them into 3D digital garments
Frontier Focused on rapid digitization technologies for textiles
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An added benefit of digitizing garments and their components at an early stage is that they can
SO REAL
easily scale to uses beyond the design studio, such
Offers patented scanning and digital conversion technologies for products, as well
as presenting to buyers, e-commerce assets,
as visualization solutions
and marketing materials.
TUNL Offers AI technology that allows brands to convert 2D product pictures into 3D wearable digital twins that are rigged and animated
Twinbru Holds a vast library of 3D fabric swatches catered to home and fashion that import easily to popular CAD programs
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New Age of Design
AI-Aided Design Artificial intelligence augments the creative toolkit
The data sets and language processing models that go into training artificial intelligence systems are growing larger and more sophisticated by the day. Developers are now turning their attention towards honing the visual capabilities of AI; and the result has been a number of image creation innovations, such as text-to-image generators and tools that automate steps of the CAD process like 2D to 3D conversion and background removal. Having the ability to create any result imaginable from just a few inputs from the user, AI imaging tools have the potential to advance human creativity by fast-tracking tedious processes, challenging our notions of reality, and creating a new point of inspiration that designers can build on. The industrial design sector has been an early adopter of generative tools—using them to optimize durability, material usage, and more—and they provide a template for more artistic and expressive uses of the technology in the fashion industry.
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New Age of Design
AI-Aided Design
Innovations + Applications
Example
Example
For speculative fashion
Levi’s has made waves for
laboratory Synflux,
the AI and machine
sustainability starts with
learning bootcamps they
smarter design at the very
GENERATING INITIAL CONCEPT DESIGN
beginning. The firm has developed an end-to-end
Each AI image generator offers its own artistic interpretation on instructions given by the user due to a number of variables, such as the image datasets ‘training’ it or design decisions made by the coder. One could almost look at each image synth as a different type of film stock or drafting tool. For example, known for dark, macabre imagery, Midjourney has become the go-to synth for video game concept artists. Similarly, these text-to-image or even text-to-color palette generators can provide a starting point for fashion design by automating the initial process of synthesizing inspiration.
bespoke solution that uses machine learning algorithms to visualize
VISUALIZING VARIATIONS For many designers, the bulk of the work comes from imagining and then prototyping one style in a variety of colors, fabrics, finishes, trims, etc. AI visual tools have the potential to shorten this tedious process, as well as generate even more variations than traditional workflows allow.
designs catered to specific client needs and preferences, while also making the most efficient use out of the fabric possible. Through this process, they are able to generate countless design options for clients quickly and sustainably.
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offer employees. Notably, one participant went on to build a neural network trained specifically to read design and construction details on digital garments and then render them with a range of surface inspiration, from Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ to David Hockney’s ‘Apple Tree.’ The experiment has gone on to become an important tool in the company’s concept design workflow.
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New Age of Design
POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND
AI-Aided Design
Resources
3M Visual Attention Software (VAS) Uses AI to create a photographic preview of the finished product while the designer is working in a CAD program, particularly useful for packaging design ●
There is still a legal gray area for AI images generated from original art and photography,
Craiyon
although there are several tools that only pull
Formerly known as the DALL-E Mini, a basic text-to-image generator that
images that are royalty free or under public
kick-started the AI fascination on social media
domain. For this reason, brands should err on the side of only using these tools for early design
Google AI
concept.
Offers several AI image tools, such as photorealistic generator Imagen and Mood Board Search, which allows users to train a computer to recognize abstract visual concepts and eventually serve up the right imagery based on text prompts
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54% of business leaders think that AI can lead to the creation of new products and services.
Midjourney A more advanced image generation tool distinguished by a dark, fantasy-like look
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Tech entrepreneur Fabian Stelzer believes that AI will do to photography what photography did to paintings—meaning that there will be room for all
MYTH AI
mediums and each will evolve in its own way.
Artificial intelligence-based pattern design tool
Playform Allows users to train their own AI with as few as 30 images, without any code needed
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New Age of Design
Smart Fashion Merging fashion and tech to push the product experience
Past high-profile collaborations between fashion and tech companies have mostly been regarded as publicity stunts, the resulting products failing to gain traction in either market or lead to sustained efforts. However, the popularity of tech wearables in recent years, driven by growing concerns around health and wellness, shows that this market opportunity is still open, with plenty of room for growth and improvement. As digital and physical worlds merge and issues like climate change and digital privacy come to the fore, solutions-oriented design and experiential products that combine style and high-tech functionality will become a necessity, not just a gimmick. In addition, as consumers look to reduce their environmental footprint and trend towards buying less, they will expect the products that they do buy to do more. New partnerships and products in this space reveal the potential for fashion and tech to come together to tackle consumer needs in thoughtful and innovative ways, while addressing the concerns of tomorrow.
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New Age of Design
Smart Fashion
Innovations + Applications
Example Smart glasses are a
Example
category of wearables that
Jacquard by Google offers
have struggled to take off,
a suite of tools that allows
although recent
brands to easily add
collaborations like
connectivity to apparel,
Ray-Ban x Meta show
INTUITIVE FUNCTIONALITY
some promise. Aether is a brand that has completely
DESIGNING AROUND EXPERIENCES While wearables have mainly addressed pure utility, like enabling augmented reality or providing device charging, there is an opportunity for style-led products to go beyond function, and use technology to create experiences. Think of ways that technology can push familiar objects into new realms that indulge the senses, speak to the emotions, and expand creative expression.
reimagined the concept of
Nearly every category of home appliances is now equipped with connectivity, allowing users to monitor their use, control them remotely, and have them ‘speak’ to one another. We are looking at a future reality where other product categories, including apparel, will follow this model. When designing these technologies, think of how wearers interact with their clothes and accessories and then how those items interact with the environment in order to find natural areas of opportunity to add connectivity.
multifunctional glasses, creating a whole experience that combines stylish eyewear with audio capabilities that sit right behind the ear. The result is a subtle audio enhancement that still allows the wearer to stay in tune with their surroundings.
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footwear, and everyday accessories. At its core is a discreet smart tag that product makers can embed into a sleeve, a seam, or even the sole of a shoe and then pair with a variety of functions and interactions, such as taking a picture with the tap of shoulder strap or receiving haptic feedback on your jacket cuff if you forgot your phone.
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New Age of Design
POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND
Smart Fashion
Resources
D-Air Lab Develops innovative products that enhance wearer safety and comfort; has collaborated with Dior on a variety of protective concept clothes ●
Properly positioning and marketing
Jacquard by Google
fashion-forward wearables still poses a big
Offers a tech platform and hardware that can equip everyday garments with digital
challenge. Brands have seen more success when
abilities and experiences; has collaborated with Samsonite, Adidas, and Levi’s
downplaying or demystifying the tech aspects and focusing on style.
LOOMIA Designs soft, flexible circuitry that is ideal for use in textile goods ●
Ministry of Supply
At the most basic level, there is an opportunity to embed products with smart RFID and NFC chips
Tech-driven apparel company that regularly collaborates with other brands, as well
that can lead to many applications, from product
as organizations like NASA and MIT
authentication to activating digital experiences.
Oura Maker of the popular smart ring that recently collaborated with Gucci
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While there is significant consumer interest in smart clothing, some hurdles to adoption include
Temera
perceived high prices and difficulties in
Provider of IoT solutions specific to the fashion industry
discarding and replacing tech-enabled items.
Wearable X Company that combines fashion and technology into wellness-related products, such as smart yoga pants equipped with sensors that guide the body and connect movements to their proprietary app
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Fashion Tech Series Explore the rest of the series
SUPPLY CHAIN TRANSFORMATION
From blockchain-backed sourcing to logistics automation, discover the innovations that are driving a more efficient and sustainable supply chain.
THE EVOLUTION OF RETAIL
Explore the innovations that are
MARKETING INNOVATIONS
From Web3 to the metaverse,
enabling businesses to meet
learn about some of the hottest
customers where they are,
tech topics and what they mean
whether it’s in store, hybrid
for the future of consumer
environments, or digital worlds.
engagement.
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