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Contents Page Contents Page ...................................................................................... 2 The Colour purple............................................................................... 3 Chapter 1 Introduction......................................................................................... 4 Physical Retail: A slippery slope ....................................................... 5 Fashion and tech: A Diamond in the rough.................................... 6 Catwalks and Runways: A Fashion No-Show.................................. 7 Customer retention on the line, but not online?............................. 8 Conclusion ........................................................................................... 9 Chapter 2 A New Normal ................................................................................... 10 A New Expression.............................................................................. 12 Self Involvment................................................................................... 14 16 Tradition through Innovation .......................................................... Chapter 3 Today, Preparing for Tomorrow ...................................................... 18 The Consumer .................................................................................... 20 The Need for Solitude........................................................................ 22
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The Colour Purple
The definition A colour intermediate between red and blue. A crimson dye obtained from some molluscs, formerly used for fabric worn by an emperor or senior magistrate in ancient Rome or Byzantium. The colour purple represents a royalty or higher self spiritally, associating with a better view and perspective on life. With the future of fashion being uncertain, focusing on the positives and using 2020 and the negatives within this year to predict the positives it can create.
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The Introduction
The world has progressed massively since the turn of the millennium, seeing the evolution of technology and the advantages of it. With the advancement of technology, the way we live and communicate on a daily basis has also changed a lot. With these changes, the fashion industry has had to change and adapt over time. Something that has accelerated this process has been the events that have happened in 2020, with the global pandemic and the much-needed human rights movements like Black Lives Matter and the Me-Too movement. The overall effect on the fashion industry will be long term and may see some traditions and values within the industry change completely. For example, with Covid-19 changing how we now communicate and work, how will physical retail change and adapt, the same applies for catwalks and runways, how will they change to survive in this new normal, will they survive?
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Physical Retail: A slippery slope?
Throughout my research I looked at the physical retail situation in particular as I believe that is where the biggest changes are happening, not only in terms of how we consume products but what the products are themselves… During my research, I gained information during the pandemic, but its also important to look at the trends before the pandemic started and something I went back and looked at, was the state of physical retail. One of the more interesting articles I found talked about how down almost every high street in Britain, there is a shop space up for rent or a closing down sale. (Clawson, 2019) This is not due to a lack of purchasing; I know this because 1/3 of consumer spending goes through the retail sector. According to RetailEconomics.co.uk, online sales in the UK retail sector have risen by 324% in the past ten years and over the course of 2019 the percentage of total purchases made online was 19%. (UK Retail Stats & Facts, 2019) One of the articles I found was about H&M’s physical retail plan and how they have planned closures for over 170 stores worldwide and are predicted to open fewer stores in the future (Milne, 2020). These closures had a multifaceted reasoning, including their growth online and their push to do this. A H&M representative said in an interview with BoF “The group intended to “Optimize it’s store portfolio, add new services online and keep offering clients the best shopping experience, through different channels.” (Reuters, 2020) As well as online growth, H&M have also become industry leaders in sustainable fashion. In an interview with Forbes, Anna Gedda (head of sustainability at H&M) had this to say about sustainability and H&M… “The H&M group has a long history of working with sustainability, dating back to the 90s. For us, it has always been important to act in a way that makes it possible not just for present, but also for future generations to enjoy fashion.” (Gedda, 2018) The quote above is something I found very interesting, how sustainability is for the betterment of future generations, not necessary the here and now and how this mindset can influence the growth and creation of trends, creating a new reality shall we say…
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Fashion and tech: A Diamond in the rough
One of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world is technology and how it has become an essential in everyday life, helping us keep in contact with people, letting us share our life with the rest of the world and helping us shop via e-commerce. Brands and companies are always looking for new ways to innovate their shopping experience and offer something that no one else has done or can. In recent years this has come in many forms, examples of this would be: - Asos image search - The Videotree interactive selfie mirror TV in Footlocker - Burberry partnered with ARKit adding a function to its app that interacts with users’ camera feeds to digitally redecorate their surroundings with Burberry-inspired drawings by the artist Danny Sangra. - Many retailers now have a feature to take a picture with your phone camera and search the desired online store for similar items A particular aspect of technology that is on the up is Virtual reality, VR for short, and the many ways it can be implemented into not just physical retail but enhance the e-commerce experience. The Virtual reality market has grown and is suspected to grow ten-fold in the next 5 years, as this supporting graph shows. (Smith, 2020) Multiple companies like Sony and Microsoft have taken massive steps in advancing VR in recent years, with Microsoft looking at furthering it in fashion, publishing an article called “Imagining personalized, interactive wardrobes”. The article talks about digital human stylists, powered by Microsoft AI, the article states that they have “Have the potential to transform the entire ritual of getting dressed, with hue implications for the fashion industry” (Imagining personalized, interactive wardrobes, 2020)
They continue to talk about the advancement of this technology and how it can still be brought forward even further in years to come. Being able to scan garments and catered to the individual user, this can ultimately create more sustainable ways to view fashion and engage in purchasing or viewing clothing in the future. “Interacting and building trust with digital humans will have a huge impact on the way that we experience and consume fashion. These digital twins will allow for a far more immersive and meaningful connection, that will forever change the fashion and retail industries.” Matthew Drinkwater, Head of LCF Fashion Innovation Agency (Imagining personalized, interactive wardrobes, 2020)
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Catwalks and runways: A Fashion no-show?
This year has been full of surprises and has disrupted everyday life for almost everyone on the planet, including the stoppage of any events that contain more than a handful of people. Since the different countries went into lockdown, events such as Paris Fashion Week have been looked at specifically, looking at how they could have still done a smaller fashion show or a more coordinated event showing small numbers at a time. “It’s up to us, creatives and brands, to challenge the status quo. Everything is possible,” Felipe Oliveira in an interview with Vogue (Guilbault, 2020) Being able to adapt is important, especially in times such as these. Being able to think fast and bring old traditions forward in time to adapt and create something new is essential in fashion, finding that balance between something that pays homage to old ways but adds a new flair, a new dimension to help it move forward. Bureau Betak who are “dedicated to the design & production of fashion shows and special projects worldwide” are at the forefront of creating more sustainable and innovative fashion shows. Being the first significant agency worldwide in the luxury fashion sector to receive an ISO 2021 certification for sustainable event management. “ISO is an independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 165 national standards bodies.” Taken from the ISO website… This means they are innovating new ways to make their practices more sustainable, not just their events but the whole process of their planning of events. De Betak also promises to reduce cardon dioxide emissions by 25% by 2022 (Huber, 2020) Betak talked about the summer show he did with Jacquemus in 2020 and the opinions people had of the show, considering it was done and shot in the middle of a pandemic. This is what he said about the show, “Planning and doing the show, it was very important to understand and to listen to these opinions, but to also push our own. We personally believe that a fashion show is a communication tool for a brand, and in general for an industry. That industry has a great economic impact on millions, or tens of millions, of people’s lives.” (Ojo-Felix, 2020). This quote shows an appreciation for the wider perspective of the fashion industry and how even in uncertain times, we need some of these things, these events to keep the proverbial world turning. Fashion is and will always be one of the biggest industry’s in the world, and remembering the amount of lives it effects is important, millions of jobs are within the industry and finding new ways to keep those jobs and creating new ones is essential. The next ten years may see a shift in the jobs available, but the amount of work and people needed will grow. In an interview with Vogue, Benjamin Simmenahuer, a fashion theorist, said this about fashion shows “The format of smaller shows is more appropriate to our time than blockbusters, we may be going to bring back the human-sized shows that are staged in the salons of the maison or in the atelier, with an ultra-exclusive dimension.” (Guilbault, 2020) Something that is very important to take away from this quote is the use of “ultra-exclusive” and how this can be something that elevates the experience for the few, keeping the importance of actually attending a fashion show whilst maybe a lesser experience can be offered to a wider audience than before.
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Customer retention on the line, but not online?
Considering the e-commerce side of fashion is as big as its ever been and always growing, I still find on a daily basis, people that have never and will never really shop online. Some retailers have gone to great extents to keep their physical customers, during the pandemic, like Saks for example. “At Saks, one of the most popular new services during the pandemic was a concierge email, where customers could ask representatives for help navigating how to shop in the strange new pandemic era.” (Baskin, 2020) Something people love is routine, something they are familiar with and can rely on. Saks creating an experience as close to pre pandemic as they could was important. Saks made it so employees could call customers and talk them through an online purchase and set up in person collections outside their local Saks stores for the orders. This made customers feel better and at ease about the process, like I say, feel a normality, a routine. “The ability to phone someone up and talk to someone seems to be one of the key things,” Sinclair in an interview with BoF (Baskin, 2020)
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Conclusion
Overall, the changes within the industry will be massive and very impactful. The move to more digitalised and virtual content will be very important but will also make physical events and experiences all the more important, finding a balance of these two will be the turning point and will see a new normal form, a new routine or tradition, that in time, will no doubt be revolutionised again. With newer generations growing up around more and more technology, the industry will only grow and continue to develop to accommodate and create a new lifestyle.
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A new Normal
One of the biggest topics in the world is technology and the uses for it are endless. The inventions, creations, and adaptations of it can lead us to places like a digital world, space and even back in time. My trend explores the possibilities of technology and how this year has changed the way we will use technology forever. The name of my trend is Solitude, with the purpose being to discover a more isolated physical world whilst working, communicating, and socializing within a bigger digital world. We have all spent the majority of 2020 doing these things online via platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft teams, but where and when does this stop? The answer in short is that it will not. A new normal is being molded this year and the realization that evolution on traditional ways is needed, online environments and their time has come, with the pandemic it has started as in 2020, Zoom was the 4th most downloaded application, raising 219 spots from its previous position last year, (Hutchinson, 2020). But what does this mean? And how does this change the course of the fashion industry? If you think of fashion today, you think of attending fashion weeks, going shopping, trying clothes on, or buying a copy of Vogue. All of these physical activities that are consider a more traditional approach but what if you could experience all of these without leaving your home? In Solitude?
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In the introduction I covered a small amount of progress taken in the VR sector and how that could be the future of fashion in terms of creating a more advanced experience of fashion that people could have whilst staying at home. But why is it important or why do we need something like this? This technology is important on a multitude of levels, such as: - Giving a new generation a different way to express themselves and creating a new platform for new opportunities. - Creating a potentially safer space for fashion, with the pandemic and current stretch on social distancing, how will this affect us in 10 years’ time? - Helping carry traditions and evolving them to match the new normal
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A new Expression
Fashion magazines and lookbooks are a great way of articulating a trend or a collection, but what if we could create something as simple but more effective, adding moving images or creating a space in which you can experience an image from many different angles. There are already some creators doing this, someone who I am highlighting is Cat Taylor and her work on the Institute of Digital fashion, “The institute of digital fashion: bespoke world-class digitalisation The Institution of Digital Fashion is here to work with brands, makers and institutions to innovate and build a more inclusive digitisation of the fashion universe. They are the go-to for talent and innovation, representing fairly their networks, working ‘for’ and ‘with ‘them never ‘selling’ them.” This is the mission for them, and they do this via digital creation. Within this new platform they are looking at working with the younger generations (Millenials and Gen Z) and pushing inclusivity and equal opportunity. Currently, they are working on creating equality within the industry, referencing the BLM movement within their press package, this is not the only way they are running a modern practice. Also taken from their press package is this... “The digital fashion products that we create are far greater than just simple 3D models. Not only do we have the craftsmanship to visually imitate garments, but we also have the expertise to produce digital products that actually function, respond and behave as they would in physical spaces.” The IoDF is a good project to look at because they are working ahead of their time and will be a growing institute in the next decade. Looking towards 2030 can be difficult in terms of an ever-changing world but finding the platforms of tomorrow is important I think IoDF will be a massive part of that, through their digital creation as well as their work towards a more equal fashion industry. Looking at being better in multiple areas of the industry such as sustainability, ethical practices and educating people on how best to consume fashion. A lot of companies currently don’t act on all of these points whereas IoDF have made a point of acknowledging these by saying… “Let’s sell creativity, not more clothes. We need to change the system. Be brave and reimagine it; change the marketing language, change the influences, the positioning, the press stories, the education. Change the fashion calendar agenda so that as an industry, we are motivated to buy, be, act and become more sustainable and build a new democratic vision.” In 2030, there will be a larger scale of this, and it will be approached more often by commercial outfits, the idea of creating virtual spaces that offer a hyper-realistic value as well as acting as a selling point for the products also. Thus, adding to the whole idea of the landscape of e-commerce changing and adapting to some more than just a website or a social media shopfront. 2030 will see more of an experience within the fashion industry, giving newer generations a chance to create their own mark.
All information taken from the Institute of Digital Fashion’s website
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Self Involvement 2020 has seen the astronomical rise in people staying home and potentially spending more time alone than ever before. Even with Zoom calls and facetiming, we still face the daunting task of talking to friends, working, and seeing family members on a screen within the four walls of our home. Many of these actions have formed a massive learning curve for many involved and has show us that we need to, as a collective, innovate and create more ways and better ways to communicate online. This communication will come in many different ways, from seeing friends and family, to advertising and even the recreation of physical activities. With VR becoming an ever-growing technology, and technology becoming a seemingly bigger and bigger influence on fashion, the combination of the two will happen and its only a matter of time till it takes a firm grip in the industry somehow. With online shopping becoming more and more popular and the numbers showing this (refer to my introduction), the focus will turn from physical retail to e-commerce and this will only be boosted by the amount of technology that will become available and as it becomes more advanced, it will become more affordable for it to be in many households. With this, the ability to ‘walk around a shop’ all though VR will be possible, from your own living room. With Microsoft working on a digital wardrobe already, the technology for trying clothes on via a touch of a button will change the way we consume products forever, meaning we do not have to leave the house to experience the high street, we can have a wedding dress consultation via VR or simply just try outfits for a night out, without leaving the home, or without having to go sieving through our wardrobes. The pandemic has had a big effect on physical retail, including how many people can go into a shop at once, plastic screening where possible, social distanced queues and mandatory rules to wear a mask. With the evidence to support COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic in our lifetime... “New diseases pop-up in the human population probably three to four times per year,” Prof Fevre said. “It’s not just in Asia or Africa, but in Europe and the US as well.” Matthew Baylis added that this ongoing surveillance for new disease is increasingly important. “We’ve created almost a perfect storm here for the emergence of pandemics,” he told BBC News. Prof Fevre agreed. “This kind of event is likely to happen again and again,” he said… (Gill, 2020) I believe the trend of a more virtual reality-based industry will see us go through more adaptions to how we consume fashion at home, in the comfort of our own space, via a 3D technology that allows us to experience the world of fashion, but at a safe distance from it. Micro trends will be experienced without having to leave your home and the sharing aspect will be massive as not only the online retail sector is growing but interactive media, like gaming has grown larger than music and film combined in recent years… “Leading online games services and platforms are seeing a surge of activity and the latest estimates indicate that the global games market will generate revenues of $159.3 billion in 2020 from 2.7 billion gamers around the world keeping the video game business larger than both the movie and music industries combined!” (The Gaming Industry is bigger than the movie and music industries combined, 2020) When stats like this are provided, the idea of fashion adapting and using gaming technology is not so left field and would make sense in terms of appealing to not only the fashion community but the gaming communities also?
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Tradition through Innovation
Something that can be lost through technology and new ways of communicating is traditional values, and the foundations of the previous decades of fashion. But traditional crafts, techniques, events, and experiences can be adapted to digital spaces and I believe will be a massive part of my trend. At first glance, the negatives outweigh the positives but after closer inspection, the idea of recreating tradition values in a digital landscape help grow and extend the industry instead of taking away from the industry or making it smaller. One of the biggest impacts on the fashion industry in 2020, due to the pandemic, is the lack of fashion shows and events being able to have been held. Some of the biggest fashion houses have abstained from them because of the safety of said events and this has reinforced the stir of change within the industry. Bringing forward the potential change in fashion shows and runway events. With more technology comes more access to more people, a digital space would offer a much wider audience the chance to experience something that was previous a more exclusive and prestigious event. Imagine attending a show, but instead of leaving the house, you go to your living room, place a headset on and load up the program and you are in Paris, or some sort of dystopian world displaying the latest collections from Louis Vuitton or Hermes. Something that virtual reality gives us is the access to create things that would not have previously been possible. Creation and articulation are very important to fashion and there are natural steps that should be taken in order to grow the industry. But this access does not have to be given to everyone, some brands like to keep exclusivity, as that is how they retain consumers and keep people interested, making it a social status owning something or attending something by a brand. Organisations can sell tickets or give out tickets to certain individuals or brands, because as much as it can be good for a wider audience to be involved, once that bubble of exclusivity is burst, it can be hard to retain that audience back if it does not offer the exclusivity it did before. Something virtual reality offers, is an experience. That experience can be anything from entertainment, to physical exercise, to educational. One of the reasons Haute Couture carries as much weight in the industry as it does is because of the craftsmanship in each garment. Via a digital landscape, designers could create anything and cross the boundaries of physics to create designs and images never before seen, but it could also be used in an educational sense. People could be taught how to sow, or how to create garments through virtual reality, this would see less material wasted and a more efficient work environment being created.
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Today, preparing for tomorrow
People consume on a more for less scheme in modern society, with people buying more products for less and throwing away on a more consistent basis. On the flipside of this coin is the idea of being more eco-friendly and focusing on that word ‘sustainability’. But how can a digital landscape/ marketplace improve on both of these levels? The gaming industry in 2018 was worth $134.9bn (Batchelor, 2018), and rose up to $152.1bn (Wijman, 2019) in 2019 and then is expected to be valued at $159bn at the end of 2020. This growing trend will only continue, and the advancement of technology only supports this. But how will this support the fashion industry? Something that is also growing, and the proof is the work that IoDF are doing and the London College of Fashion, is technology in fashion and the parallels between the two industries are there and unlike normal parallels, I believe they will collide, creating a more diverse, creative, and sustainable fashion future. With the sub trends I have looked at to do with, the want and need for a new landscape is there and the idea for people to able to express themselves in more ways through fashion without potentially having to leave their comfort zone is real. But how would it work? Creating a platform via a virtual reality interface, through Microsoft or Sony, then allowing consumers to shop their favourite brands like Louis Vuitton or Nike, being able to virtually try on products or walk through a virtual shopfloor, picking up and inspecting products as you go. With microtransactions already being implemented in most video games, implementation of payment or transactions in a traditional manner or of a more unconventional way. Brands or stores could create their own application or platform to run on these devices creating a more advanced version of the shopping apps we have today. But a step further would be to elevate social media and look at how the platform may look by 2030, creating a virtual wardrobe, not owning the physical product but the right to wear it to virtual meetings or virtual gatherings. A common occurrence today would be to purchase a shirt or dress for night out, wear it once then put it on a reselling website or simply throw it out. But with virtual clothing this would not be the case. With virtual clothing, there would be cost of the platform and running the program, servers etc, but no physical product, meaning no physical manufacturing or non-eco-friendly transport of said product can mean a more sustainable route for the fashion industry. One of the big factors is how we would envisage this; how would this be widespread enough for everyone to use. Mobile phones are the key to making a trend like this work, looking at the average per month phone bill in the UK, the average spend was £45 per month in 2018 (Henderson, 2018), even if this has not risen in 2 years, that still works out to over £500 on year spent on phone contracts, this shows the intent a lot of people have on keeping up to date on socials communication and the consumption of media. There seems no reason why fashion consumption cannot be added to that list. Something important to note is housing and space in general, with an ever-growing population and cities growing etc, living space has become more sparce and expensive, for examples you could look at Japanese culture and their ideas when it comes to apartment layouts and how enclosed they have to live. Creating virtual landscapes can revert negative space into positive space, making your wardrobe an escapism almost.
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The Consumer The younger generations have grown up around technology all their life, Gen Zer’s and Alpha’s have taken to e-commerce and digital platforms mores than any generation previously, the difference with 2030 is these generations will have more control over the creation and designs of the platforms. This is proven by researching characteristics of these generations to find descriptions like ‘known for being ever-present messaging, on the internet, on social networks and on mobile systems – they are truly the “Digital-ites”’. Another characteristic is the dependency on technology for generation Zer’s, the fluency in technology for millennials turned in to dependency for them. The common phrase that occurs is that their mobile device is considered an ‘extension of themselves’, another interesting take is that of communication and how these younger generations prefer the likes of Snapchat and Facetime to calling or texting, asking, and wanting for a more immediate and intimate way of communicating. (Who is Gen Z and how will they impact the workplace?, 2019) These characteristics make predicting the landscape of the industry clearer in terms of the place for technology in it and how with more resources and access, the younger generations will allow and push for more technology and digital innovation within the workplace, their lifestyle, and the industry in general. What about sustainability? What does this mean for the sustainability side of fashion for our future generations? Sustainability is a big part of Gen Z’s retail consumption, stating that in 2015, up to 73% of millennials were willing to pay extra for sustainable goods, with this number also being matched at a Gen Z level. The different ways of sustainability are being explored by the younger generations with upcycling (Petro, 2020), resale and simply peer to peer marketplaces are being used, this creating a sustainability pathway for many different types of consumers. For Gen Z’s who are more technology based, they can use peer to peer marketplaces, like Instagram or Facebook which have services in place to make transactions safe. Utilising these characteristics, the digital landscape via virtual wardrobing can offer and tick a lot of these boxes. Through a virtual wardrobe, the average Gen Z’er can heed that technology need whilst also keeping a reduced carbon footprint because of the product being virtual and will not need delivering or they will not need to travel outside their home to get it. This also has a knock-on effect of physical retail, as of course, for people who do not consume technology or the older generations will still need physical retail, this retail experience will have less of an adverse effect on the environment, with less manufacturing taking place and less waste produced as this was also a massive factor in 2020 and 2019, the amount of waste that fashion produced. An article on waste within the luxury sector stated… “It was revealed that Burberry, one of the worlds most recognisable luxury brands, had burned a big pile of unsold stock. £28.6 million (US$37 million) worth of clothes, accessories and perfumes went up in flames.” (Brown, 2019) This is a perfect example of why there needs to be change, not just in manufacturing, but in how we consume fashion and clothing, especially at a higher market level. But it is the exclusivity aspect that stops these luxury brands from ‘doing the right thing’. Brands like Burberry, Prada, Cartier, want to be able to remain exclusive and keep that status symbol, so with the virtual landscape, has to be an access gate or a monetary barrier like a subscription or the same higher prices that they have now. Meaning that access for access for the clothing would be more widespread but the access to said luxury clothing would not be easier to obtain. Speaking of market level and the access to the luxury market, with Gen Z’s and Alpha’s, they will soon be the biggest spenders in the fashion market thus, however they consume will be the way to push and move forward. We have seen department stores for baby boomer and X generations, we are currently going through a growing e-commerce phase for millennials and Gen Z’s but now it’s time to think for the generations buying in a decade time and I believe that to via a digital, wider-spread and more creative landscape.
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The Need for Solitude
Creating a space for everyone is difficult, but creating opportunity? Not so. Creating platform that can be used for creativity, business, communication, and sharing is important and will be crucial in moving the industry in which it needs to go. With the trends within other industries, gaming being virtual reality, automotive being self-driving cars and AI programming, this can even carry over in-to the hospitality sector when looking at AI service and products. Being able to create a more sustainable and considerate industry whilst evolving is the goal and can be achieved. To potentially advance, especially after the pandemic may be to take a step to being more alone physically to be able to communicate to more people around the world, Zoom and Teams will not be going anywhere, anytime soon so the natural path is to evolve what we have and create something new. That next step to be in a virtual room, consuming and communicating via 3D rooms and people. Also creating a platform that is inherently more sustainable that its predecessors is important, being able to communicate this and promote this will be important as well as that is what the younger generations and markets want. With there being many issues in the world at the moment, with global warming, the fight for rights within many communities all over the world and the pandemic disrupting life for almost everyone on the planet, the future has to be able to accommodate for these, supporting diversity and being more inclusive, being more sustainable and eco-friendlier, and lastly, being able to accommodate our new normal.
Living life more independently and alone. A way to express ourselves. Creating a virtual escape. In Solitude.
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