Fashion and Tech? No Thank You.
Online shopping, 2-day delivery, Apple Pay, cell phones that act like credit cards, subscription services, and so much more. All things we can do thanks to technology. Technology has made so many tasks and activities easier for us, specifically in the fashion industry.
Shopping used to be about the experience. People would go out for the entire day and browse through store after store, being served by those working on commission. Retail workers would practically wine and dine shoppers, knowing them by name and having select pieces waiting in stores for them. Then it moved to only luxury shops providing this classy, upscale service to their best clients. The mere thought of buying designer goods online was ridiculous, until it wasn’t. During the pandemic, luxury brands were forced to move online. Worth Global Style Network’s (“WGSN”) trend analysis for 2021 luxury fashion found that, “online luxury sales grew 50%... even as overall revenues declined by 23% average.” Designer brands have indulged the online technology by utilizing livestreams, classes, augmented reality experiences, and other digital touchpoints to connect with luxury customers. Online fashion buying is expected to grow into a trillion-dollar industry within the next 5 years, found WGSN trend reports. This is changing the way we buy in all aspects. Hermes Birkin handbags are untouchable; they are the epitome of wealth and class. To even buy one, you must, “know a sales rep” and/or spend over $5,000 in the store BEFORE even asking to SEE a Birkin. On top of that, the waitlist to buy one is over a year-long for the general public. Will this precious gem soon be sold online by Hermes stores? Is this the future? Another impacted area of the fashion industry is bridal gowns. The bridal experience is one known for its in-person presence, where the bride can ring a bell as she, “says yes to the dress!” It is a personal experience where bridesmaids, mothers, mothers-in-law, dads, sisters, brothers, and family gather to watch a bride choose her gorgeous, white dress for her special day. Will this soon be an online experience? Well, it already is starting to make the shift with websites like Azazie that allow you to try dresses on at home. Azazie lets customers choose up to 3 gowns that are then sent to the customer’s home for a person “runway show.” Azazie also provides virtual showrooms to connect with your bridesmaids and keep track of the shopping experience [1]. Another online store is Anomalie which allows brides to design their own wedding dress by connecting them with a style quiz, stylist, swatch book, and fit session [2]! This personalization helps balance out the fact that brides are no longer gathering inside a store to choose their special gown. Why go in store when it can be brought to the comfort of your own home?
Another benefit to fashion and technology would obviously be sustainability in fashion, right? Advances in technology have allowed people, regardless of where they live, to shop through the internet with the click of a button. A person living in a city that does not have sustainable clothing offers can easily search for it online. Social media technology has even brought attention to environmental issues in the world like sustainability in fashion. This has pushed consumers to demand more from brands, asking them to make sustainable changes or risk losing loyal customers and business. Influencers on social media are also advertising green brands, as opposed to promoting fast fashion brands, and companies are recognizing the shift. Boohoo has partnered with an app called reGAIN to reduce waste by providing a place for customers to recycle old clothes in exchange for discounts at their stores [3]. Fast fashion brands are even using technology to reduce negative impacts on the planet. More brands are releasing sustainable collections with recycled fibers. In 2019, Prettylittlething also partnered with reGAIN and even released a sustainable collection [3]. Technology has helped create the actual process of recycling textiles. Textile Mills need specific processes to break down clothing into original fibers to reprocess and create new pieces. Many fiber manufacturing companies are providing recycling services for certain fibers. For example, Lenzing fiber manufacturer recycles cotton waste from Inditex, a textile giant consisting of Zara, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, etc., and turns it into new clothing to sell [4]. These companies are using advanced technology to create machines that will break down fibers, plastic bottles, and more to transition them into new fibers to produce textiles. WeAre SpinDye is another innovative company that combines the spinning of polyester fibers with the dyeing of these fibers to lessen the impact on the environment [4]. Instead of doing each task separately, wasting water and resources, the company combines the processes into one single step. Online technology has also helped consumers sell used clothing instead of tossing them into landfills. Technology has made sustainability accessible, easier, faster, and cheaper. People from all over the world can connect to buy and sell clothing by uploading photos, prices, and descriptions quickly online. Places to purchase second-hand fashion include Vinted, Poshmark, Depop, and Vestiaire Collective [5]. Buying sustainably-made pieces are like investments as they are designed with quality in mind; in the long run, these pricey purchases will end up saving you money as you won’t be buying multiple versions of the same thing after one rips or fades.
Technology in fashion ranges from manufacturing machinery to Artificial Intelligence (“AI”). AI allows brands to understand buying patterns, habits in spending, color preferences, size issues, and predict trends that will sell. As of 2016, 51% of purchases were made using an online website or app [6]. In addition to AI, Augmented Reality (“AR”) and Virtual Reality (“VR”) are gaining traction in the fashion industry. AR and VR are the future of brands available services, allowing customers to scan apparel pieces to understand garment fit and sizing. This will give consumers the opportunity to see if the garment will fit them and how that fit will look before buying. Currently, brands like Amazon and Lowes use the technology to let customers sneak a peek at how a piece of furniture will look in their homes [6]. Soon, this will happen with clothing on the body!
Technology has also made clothing smart by connecting apparel to the Internet of Things (“IoT”). Levi’s partnered with Google’s Project Jacquard in 2018 to release a Commuter Trucker Jacket that has technology in the sleeve, allowing consumers to access phone music, camera, and more [7]! Wearable X’s Nadi X yoga pants are made with haptic vibrations that pulse at the joints to help you strengthen your positions and movements [7]. Other companies like Ambiotex, Komodo Technologies, and Supa have created sportswear that tracks athletes’ heart rates [7]. Technology is literally being put INSIDE clothing! This is the future of garment construction.
As with most things, technology and fashion are not a perfect combination. There are some negative effects of this duo that may not be worth the benefits they provide. With enhanced technology and more available access to it, start-up fashion brands pop-up faster than it takes me to type in a website name. This has allowed fast fashion brands to emerge more and more, designing and selling new collections every few weeks! Technology in the manufacturing realm has also allowed these fast fashion brands to make apparel faster and cheaper [8]. Online only fast fashion brands are emerging more than ever, as they do not have to pay for a physical location. It is so much easier to just buy a domain name and pay a monthly fee for a website, as opposed to paying wages for employees, décor and storage for a store, and rent for a brick-and-mortar location. This all just feeds into the continuous cycle of fast fashion brands. It is never ending, and these brands have no reason to end it.
N. F. T. No fun tonight? Next fashion trend? Nope, NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token. This trendy term is used online to sell virtual/digital goods that are not interchangeable. NFTs act as vouchers for these digital goods and cannot be copied. NFTs provide ownership of work such as digital art, fashion pieces, drawings, music, etc. [9]. Buyers of NFTs are like collectors who hope the value of the digital assets will increase in the future, treating them like investments. The fashion industry has seen a spike in interest of NFTs, with brands utilizing 3d software like BROWZWEAR or CLO3D to create virtual clothing for people to purchase online. Luxury brands are even taking a bite of the business and are considering utilizing NFTs to increase revenue. Currently, luxury brands are using NFTs for marketing but plan to expand the use to authentication and tracking of high-end fashion [10]. Luxe brands hope to take advantage of NFTs for their scarcity, uniqueness, verification of authenticity (no counterfeiting), and permanence/timelessness. With a future headed towards being all digital, NFTs will help preserve luxury fashion items that can be given to future generations [10]. NFTs may be the future, but they may also be leading to the destruction of the future. These tokens claim to be sustainable for the future as we won’t be wasting physical resources to create art or fashion apparel, but the energy consumption can be way worse. Cryptocurrencies and NFTs go hand in hand with their negative impacts on the environment. One Ethereum, the most actively used blockchain (a database storing data in blocks chained together), transaction uses the same amount of energy that could power a house in America for almost three days [11]. The carbon footprint is huge and Ethereum ends up using more energy per year than all of Denmark [11]. NFTs use energy as well and leave an average carbon footprint equivalent to a flight from London to Rome [11]. NFTs and cryptocurrencies require an energy-intensive computer function (mining) thus causing them to eat up a lot of energy [12]. Mining occurs when specialist computers attempt to guess digital lock combinations. By guessing the correct combination, the computer is rewarded with cryptocurrency [12]. This takes a lot of energy for computers to constantly guess a combination every 15 seconds (the amount of time the digital lock resets) [12]. NFTs use this same process and consume a lot of energy. One artist, after hearing about the negative environmental impacts of NFTs, cancelled the sale of 6 digital artworks because the energy wasted from the sale of these digital goods could power her studio for two years [12]. The energy consumption is also causing blackouts in countries around the world. In 2020, Iran was home to 3.4% of Bitcoin mining, disrupting the living conditions for thousands of people [13]. The increased mining has been causing blackouts among homes and businesses all over Iran. In May of this year, the Iranian President banned all mining of cryptocurrencies until September to stop the harmful impact on energy in the country [13]. Unfortunately, mining is still taking place illegally, and homes across Tehran and other major cities are still losing electricity for up to ten hours a day! With a hot summer ahead, this is dangerous for the elderly and sick community.
When will our world learn that what we put into the planet will cause a chain reaction? The environment can only handle so much. NFTs and other technological advancements like cryptocurrency are bad for our environment. The fashion industry is only beginning to take a nibble out of the NFT market. Will power shut offs in a leading country like the United States soon become the norm? Technology in general in the fashion industry is not damaging our planet, but the growing need for more is. Are the benefits of fashion and tech worth these consequences? Only time will tell…
REFERENCES
[1] https://www.azazie.com/about_us
[2] https://www.dressanomalie.com/how-it-works
[3] https://techround.co.uk/business/technology-fast-fashion-and-the-environment-helpful-or-harmful/
[4] https://www.lead-innovation.com/english-blog/sustainable-solutions-in-the-textile-industry
[6] https://magazine.startus.cc/how-smart-technology-is-disrupting-the-fashion-industry/
[7] https://www.wareable.com/smart-clothing/best-smart-clothing
[8] https://theconversation.com/can-technology-help-fashion-clean-up-its-act-59888
[9] https://www.theverge.com/22310188/nft-explainer-what-is-blockchain-crypto-art-faq
[11] https://www.morningstar.ca/ca/news/211282/are-nfts-hurting-the-environment.aspx
[12] https://theconversation.com/nfts-why-digital-art-has-such-a-massive-carbon-footprint-158077
[13] https://fortune.com/2021/05/27/iran-ban-crypto-mining-bitcoin-blackout-energy-use/