New Sustainable Business Models – And Tech Nostalgia Meets Fashion Futurism at PFW

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Technology returns to SOURCING at MAGIC next month

Taking over the Las vegas Convention Centre from 13th to 15th February, as part of the latest season of the milestone MAGIC fashion event, SOURCING at MAGIC will bring together emerging entrepreneurs, established brands, global manufacturers, and a wide spectrum of technology providers to collectively redefine sourcing and help discover solutions to the industry’s biggest challenges.

Technology will be well-represented at the show, with solutions for everything from creative design and digital product creation, to ERP, sizing solutions, additive manufacturing, anti-counterfeiting tools, logistics and more. The Interline will be there to help present the technology perspective across dedicated presentations and panel discussions.

NRF 2024: through the technology lens

The Interline team were not on-site for the NRF “big show” earlier this month, but Mike Colarossi (VP of Innovation for product line management and sustainability in Avery Dennison’s Apparel Solutions division) provided us with some on-the-ground perspective on the presence of technology, traceability, and material innovation at the New York event:

“The focal points of this year’s NRF centred around elevating the shopping experience, using data to make better decisions, and communicating information to consumers digitally. There was a lot of excitement around revolutionising retail point of sale, particularly self-checkout, the latest ‘just walk out’ technology, and digital shelf-edge communication.

Not surprisingly, driving efficiencies was top of mind for attendees, with many interested in how to use their data (and technology such as AI and RFID) to make smarter supply chain decisions, reduce stock loss, and reduce waste. The recurring theme of transitioning to circular models echoed the sentiment expressed by John Furner, president and CEO of Walmart US, in his keynote: “Decisions made today matter more than ever.”

While sustainability was not prominently displayed at NRF this year, a big draw was Mara Hoffman’s ‘The Dress That Changes Everything,’ a luxury designer gown made from Circ® Lyocell, a filament lyocell derived from 50% recycled textile waste. The gown featured a sewn-in label that contained a QR code, allowing individuals to scan and access information about the garment’s creation, its waste footprint, and how it can be returned for recycling. This serves as a powerful example of how digital connectivity can drive progress in the circular economy.”

The Interline will be leading a discussion about the data infrastructure of the circular economy at Première Vision Paris early next month (more on those upcoming technology sessions in our announcement post from this week, linked below) but elsewhere at NRF, the scuttlebutt is that AI dominated – both with potentially valid use cases and with the expected amount of probably-unfounded hype. And, as luck would have it, the real applications of AI are something we’ll also be covering live at PV Paris, as well as in our upcoming AI Report.

Fashion tests sustainability through alternative business models

It may feel like 2024 has already been here for months, but believe it or not it remains early in a new year. And fashion has gone full steam ahead this month in putting new, alternative business models to the test as proving grounds for overdue sustainability and waste management strategies.

Coach is the latest brand to tap into the world of excess-materials-first design, with a separate sub-brand called Coachtopia. The initial collection (whose target customer is Gen Z, and which covers bags, accessories, and apparel) uses products that are made from material waste, with the intention of transforming the supply chain at the design level, and helping the company move toward a circular industry. According to an interview given to Vogue Business, Coachtopia products also use “removable screw-back hardware, detachable handles and straps, seam-out constructions and other design features that make it easier to repair or extend the life of the product.” All bags are equipped with a unique digital passport.

Luxury brand Hermès has also been experimenting with a different approach to creating and selling sustainable products with their Collection Hors-Série (French for ‘limited-edition’). The capsule collection is intended to be seasonless, is only released every two years, and uses deadstock fabrics and materials from previous seasons. These garments stand in stark contrast to fast fashion: meticulously crafted through intricate processes such as embroidery, lace making, weaving, beading, and passementerie. They embody a commitment to craftsmanship, heritage, as well as the modern imperative to upcycle.

Second-hand luxury fashion marketplace Vestiaire Collective is also deepening its commitment to the circular business model by trying something new, launching a crowdfunding campaign earlier this week to raise at least €1,00,000 ($1.09 million USD) from individual investors. The Kering-backed business aims to become profitable by year-end, and potentially to go public in 2025.

What’s driving the move (experimental or scale-up) towards these alternative business models?

First – following our analysis last week – there’s the ongoing fragility of the supply chain due to disruptions in the Suez and Panama Canals – both key global trade transit points. To give you an idea of just how “key”: in 2023, there were more than 14,000 vessel transits through the Panama Canal. Now, roughly 100 million tons of cargo (equal to about 35% of the cargo that traversed the canal in 2022) could be affected. The situation is still unfolding but many ships could divert to alternate routes, meaning extended trip durations and increased costs. McKinsey reminds us that when a container ship blocked the Suez Canal for six days in 2021, around $9.6 billion in trade was held up each day.

Then there are the changes in consumer behaviour resulting from the long (extremely long) tail of the COVID-19 pandemic, the various geopolitical crises that rightly occupy the headlines, and the ongoing pendulum swing of inflation and the regionalised cost-of-living crisis. Capgemini’s Consumer Report, published this week, revealed that 52% of consumers globally say they are “extremely concerned” about their personal financial situations, while 70% of consumers also say they are making fewer impulse purchases, and 66% are cutting back on non-essential items. Brands and retailers have now fully realised this and are trying to meet the demand for durable, essential, sustainable products with their new business models.

The third driving factor in fashion’s deeper play in alternative business models is the rise of “social commerce”; which is mentioned in Capgenini’s Report. This phenomenon, led largely by Gen Z, sees consumers purchasing more and more through social media platforms including Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube – on top of the sustained role of social influencers in tastemaking. Directly or indirectly, this trend is also likely to be playing a factor in the success of platforms like Vestiaire Collective and Vinted; peer-to-peer influence creating the preconditions for peer-to-peer selling, and thereby supporting a thriving marketplace for secondhand fashion.

Tech Nostalgia and Fashion Futurism at Paris Fashion Week 2024

However compelling those secondary markets become, though, fashion weeks seem determined to keep an eye on their own particular brand of newness. And the usual late-January-early-february Fashion Week madness gave us two particularly captivating pieces from haute couture house Schiaparelli this week – both steeped in tech nostalgia and futurism. The first, a life-size robot toddler (source of some confused looks across The Interline’s internal communications channels, which was probably exactly its aim), and the other a glittering dress. Both were made from discarded pre-2007 tech, including batteries, old flip phones, electronic chips, wires, CDs, and motherboards.

Designer Daniel Roseberry seemingly had trouble exhuming the electronic waste, saying in show notes that “the technology I grew up with is so antiquated that it’s almost as difficult to source as certain vintage fabrics and embellishments.” Roseberry also commented that he drew on his memories for inspiration in an era of AI-generated remixing of his collections. “A lot of people on TikTok have been taking AI and turning my collections into digital collections and seeing who wore it best, so I was thinking, the only card I have to play now is really my memories.”

Also per the show notes, the collection is a “study in contradiction” – particularly that between the old and new worlds. Not unlike Hermès with their Collection Hors-Série, Schiaparelli combines “over-embroidered guipure laces, velvet and lace appliqués, and hand cut and embroidered chenille fringe with new world shapes, patterns, and references such as a motherboard-and-strasse microchip dress encrusted with pre-2007 technological artefacts.”

This idea connects back to the Schiaparelli family’s fascination with space and the possibility of life existing beyond our planet. Italian founder Elsa Schiaparelli’s uncle, Giovanni, was the director of the Brera Observatory in Milan, discovered a series of channels on the surface of Mars, and coined the term “martian”. In 2024, Roseberry runs with this fascination; blending motherboards and microchips with couture craftsmanship, sending both his and the house’s sentiments around technology. The pieces are a fusion of humanity and object, symbolising a connection between the past and a cautionary vision of the future. There’s a subtle commentary on the potential dehumanising impact of a future where technology is ubiquitous, and a longing for the relative technological simplicity of the 2000s.

In contrast to the most recent display of technology on Coperni’s runway last season, here, technology is a token of amusement, a message in art form to be interpreted by the viewer,  rather than a practical application. Whether this playful emphasis will continue into 2024 remains to be seen, especially with the impending release of Apple’s Vision Pro in the US in early February potentially reframing the way we think about the everyday utility of tech. Until then, we should savour a refreshing, and joyfully nostalgic, take on technology.

The best from The Interline:

Kicking off this week was Clo Virtual Fashion’s Founder on his belief that the next step in the 3D / DPC journey is to bring brands and their supply chain partners closer together.

Camilla Mjelde of Trimco Group asks why 2024 will be the year to separate the must-haves from the nice-to-haves (and the don’t-bother-havings!) in climate technology.

Now that the dust has settled on fashion’s big swings towards digital, Aasia D’Vaz Sterling asks how those strategies are standing up to the scrutiny of ROI analysis? And where the industry goes from here?

The CEO of HappyFinish weighs in on the evolving, strategic role of technology and service partners in scaling digital product creation – and the future of integration, interoperability, and maximising the value of DPC investments.

Next month (from 6th to 8th February 2024) The Interline will again be curating and hosting the technology content programme at Première Vision Paris, as part of the extended European partnership between The Interline and PV teams. Join us to dissect circularity, upstream transformation, digital product creation, and AI – live in Paris.