The Future of Technological Innovation in Fashion
NFT'S, CRYPTO, BLOCKCHAIN, THE METAVERSE, & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WITHIN THE FASHION INDUSTRY
Technology within the fashion industry is not as developed as it could be. This industry may be good at keeping up with trends in style, but less so with the trends of the high-tech world.
Traditional brands in every industry struggle to adapt. They are built to deliver consistent quality, so it is tough for them to suddenly reinvent e.g., luxury brands insisting on face-to-face interaction. Partnerships with young innovators falter when the larger company subsumes them.
I want to approach things differently and have always been drawn to the fashion industry. For example, if we look at what's being sold, there are a lot of new materials out there, from Ralph Lauren's recycled bottle T-shirts, to cactus and mushroom leathers and algae flip flops. Some brands are exploring NFTs e.g., Tiffany's, or BNV selling accessories in the metaverse.
How do we reach customers who consume content and purchase in very different ways? If brands knew consumers well, they might be more successful in building loyalty. Is it awareness of my sizes or that I only want to buy sustainable fashion? Or is price my biggest sensitivity? It's also important to know where consumers are in digital terms. Many brands didn't adopt mobile technology quick enough and fell behind. The same may happen with the meta verse. As people swap worlds and "skins", what does that mean for the next line of clothing, next fashion show, next workshop etc.?
Behind the scenes, brands could use Artificial Intelligence to forecast trends and predict an individual's wants; crypto for payments, loyalty and blockchain for product history.
Many of these topics emerged relatively recently and challenge the status quo, requiring people to rethink problems previously "solved" as new alternatives now exist or the world they were solved for has changed. This makes every aspect of the industry ripe for reinvention and that excites me.
By Tia Rüst