4 TRENDS THAT WILL REVOLUTIONATE THE FASHION INDUSTRY FROM 2020
The twenty promise to be, as they already were in the last century, a decade full of great changes. In the history of fashion they marked a before and after thanks to a social context of openness that allowed to say goodbye forever to the restrictive corset. This was possible thanks to the fact that the woman, after her active role in the war, gained levels of freedom. It is the time of flapper girls, who with their short dresses and night dances scandalized the most conservative minds. It is also the time when Dadaism, an artistic movement born to subvert conventional arts, leaves the world stunned. In this scenario of great transformations a key figure bursts onto the scene: Coco Chanel, who literally put the pants on women. Adopting ideas of sportswear, sailors' clothing and men's wardrobe, Chanel sought above all comfort for women who wanted to enjoy greater freedom of movement.
A century later, we are again immersed in a cyclone of changes and micro-revolutions. We review four trends that promise to change the future of fashion and industry.
1.Fashion beyond the physical
At the beginning of December Vogue Business echoed the revolutionary project of the emerging firm Carlings, a collection of white t-shirts that are printed with augmented reality filters. The brand, which has already started to mark a promising new path for the fashion industry last year - when it launched a collection of virtual garments - has surprised again. This time it is a shirt with a small logo that can be decorated to suit the consumer with various designs using augmented reality filters for Instagram.
Although it is not the first brand that uses these filters for branding, it has done so for example Gucci with face filters, it is the first that applies the technology to clothing and with an intention that goes far beyond gamification . All this has been possible thanks to the new functionality of “Targeting Tracking” that allows extending the characteristics of augmented reality beyond the face: to the body and to the garments. With this first proposal, what Carlings is doing is opening a new scenario for the future: “It is a new indication, I think, of the potential of augmented reality, which will lead us to a new type of clothing (…). We are entering a new one in which the “wardrobe update” understands a new meaning, ”explained Matthew Drinkwater, head of the Fashion Innovation Agency at London College of Fashion.
The proposal also has a clear sustainable vocation: with a white garment, the user can then have multiple items on their social networks. In fact, the previous project of digital garments of Carlings emerged in response to a statistic that reflected that more and more people buy clothes only for the photo: “Following the introduction of social networks, the production of clothing It has increased massively. Everything is about a “false reality” - we have to understand that people are buying pieces to wear them only once for the photo. They will never wear these clothes again, ”Carlings founder Ronny Mikalsen explained to Evening Standard. On the Carlings FAQS page, they launch the key question: “With this project, we want to challenge ourselves and the entire industry to take the next step. We believe that it is really a very interesting topic to discuss: is it necessary that all clothes have to be physical? ”
They are not alone, the company The Fabricant, which is defined as "Digital Fashion House", has proposed "to raise humans to the next level of existence." Specialized in fashion design and animation in three dimensions, for the moment its main offer is to offer ultraperfect (and much more profitable) renderings of clothing, with the aim of freeing online stores from the slavery of photography in product. They are currently working for example with Tommy Hilfiger to digitize their entire catalog.
They also made an interesting installation with the I.T store in Hong Kong where they drew an exciting scenario for the retail industry. But they also make unique and tailored digital pieces, like the one they sold at auction for nothing more and nothing less than $ 9,500 and that the press has dubbed as the first digital couture garment. And to help understand what all this is, they offer free and open source downloads of some of their digital garments. The last file is nothing more and nothing less than a padded jacket from Marques d’Almeida.
2.Fashion a social animal
We were already told by the branding expert, Andy Stalman that rule number 1 for brands would like to succeed - and survive - in the profound digital transformation in which we are immersed was to change the “Me” to the “We”: “The new me , is the "we", explained in this interesting video of 2013. For Stalman brands can not avoid social networks, but must embrace and use them with expertise, since the bulk of their customers are there and for a long time: " We are all there and we all have the need to share. We tweet, refuel, upload a post… There is space and space for everyone. ” And if there is an industry that has led the use of social networks, this has been that of fashion. In his prophetic last parade in life, in October 2009, the English designer Alexander McQueen turned the space into a great set to broadcast what was happening on the catwalk in real time. A decade later, brands have become powerful communication platforms with their followers.
The influencers, meanwhile, a figure that was born around 2007, have emerged as new intermediaries between brands and the final public, competing directly with traditional magazines and publications. His prescription work, which began with simple photographs of complete looks wearing the garments of his favorite firms, has become increasingly complex. "Now we are all editors," he explained - not without some melancholy in his words - the one who was one of the most important editors of the twentieth century, André Leon Talley when he visited Barcelona a couple of years ago. The new generations of influencers face the great challenge of telling unique and relevant stories. It is no longer enough to master technology, now, its multidisciplinary role, a hybrid between model-ambassador-art director and editor, requires creating a unique character, that makes a difference and is able to spin a narrative powerful enough to engage and fidelity With the environmental challenge as top priority and an unstable political and economic climate, influencers will have to position themselves and take a more active role. There is Greta Thunberg, the great influencer of 2019. Person of the year according to Time magazine, which has appeared on the covers of Vogue England, Teen Vogue, Glamor, I-D Magazine and Wired. Covers in which the least was how she was dressed.
The spirit of the WE is also having a profound impact on the way fashion is conceived. The collaborations are on the agenda: it is only necessary to see the impact that has been the union of the creator of the urban cult firm Stussy, Shawn Stussy with Dior. The union of designers with pull, something that started H&M with its media collaborations more than a decade ago and that is the day to day of the streetwear brands, has become a very interesting formula to generate media noise. In fact, the most influential fashion firm of the past decade, Vetements, was born as a collective. His way of understanding fashion, from the date and the meme and with an eye on social networks, has marked the path to follow.
3.Fashion without gender
In fashion schools, more and more students conceive their collections beyond the masculine and feminine gender. According to "Irregular Report: The Future is Fluid," a study on the Z generation launched by Irregular Labs with the support of Gucci, "the entire Z generation identifies the genre as something of their choice and fluid." Despite this, there is still much to do, or at least, as Tori West, editor of the gender section of this report, thinks: “Yes, we finally have the terms to identify ourselves, but we still live in a world in which our sexuality and gender dictates not only our rights, but also the products we consume. ”
The first initiatives of change have appeared in the last five years. In 2015, Selfridges introduced the reflection on genres with a “Genderless” pop up of three floors. Two years later, John Lewis announced that he would remove the labels and separations in the “boy” and “girl” store for his children's section, with the desire to strip children of gender labels from an early age - although Today on its website there is still a category for boys and another for girls. In May 2018, Phluid Project, one of the world's first gender-free stores, opened in New York. This new space promoted by Rob Smith, former executive of Macy’s and Victoria’s Secret, was born with the will to “Redefine gender labels and create a space where strangers, friends or allies can be themselves without excuses”.
These are just some first examples of what will be a future in which the male and female sections will gradually disappear, at least, especially in stores aimed at a young audience that is not comfortable with these borders. To make this disappearance of categories possible, more and more large brands present their male and female collections together, something that in addition to saving costs, would allow them to start working on proposals beyond gender. "Having designers who question preconceived notions of gender or simply recognize that male collections can attract a female consumer is a continuing trend," said Caroline Rush, CEO of the British Fashion of Council to The Business of Fashion last year.
4. Beyond sustainability: regenerative fashion
In 2019, the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, a reference event in sustainable fashion, celebrated ten years. This 2020, with the title “Redesigning Growth”, puts one of the key issues on the table: the need to question the current growth model, which often conflicts with the idea of sustainability. A conflict over which the famous influencer Bryan Boy complained last year, overwhelmed by how all brands, whether new, old, large, medium or small, were targeting the sustainable fashion car: “I will pull a bridge if I hear again about another “sustainable” fashion line. There is nothing sustainable in creating something new in mass. Stop Please. Do you want to know what is sustainable? Put on your damn old clothes, that's it. ” At the end of this lighted statement, journalist Jake Hall wrote an interesting reflection on I-D with the title: Is sustainability incompatible with fashion ?, giving voice to some ethical fashion designers.
Without a doubt, in the next ten years it will be necessary to rethink the current production model, which, in fact, has changed very little during the last hundred years. The big fast fashion companies are the ones with the biggest challenge: “An industry built mostly on short-term financial incentives has many consequences, including the continuous creation of new collections, trends fueling demand to consume new products, overproduction forcing the price drop and underutilization that generates large amounts of spending. At a time when new technology is allowing traditional business models to introduce disruption, businesses and organizations have the opportunity to re-evaluate current growth logic and drive systemic change, ”they reflect from Copenhagen Fashion Summit.
While the traditional industry explores how to reinvent itself, the second-hand and resale market, the rental market and the new generation of digital fashion, propose alternatives and new ways of development. In the Re-Barcelona, congress on sustainable fashion that opened its first edition this fall in the city, the lines of work for a more responsible and ethical fashion were drawn, as well as the need to go further. There was talk of an important word: "regeneration." And it is that the fashion of the future, not only does not have to pollute and be respectful, but it has to contribute to the planet. In this direction we work in laboratories with fabrics that purify the environment, designers propose swimsuits that clean the seas or some brands propose to invest part of the purchase to compensate for the carbon footprint or contribute to environmental programs.
