I had the privilege of participating in the PI Apparel conference in Milan this October: my yearly dose of external inspiration, conscience-soothing, brain-busting and network expansion in one crazy intensive package.
Here are some of the highlights I’ve managed to digest so far:
HOPE FOR THE SOCIAL CONSCIENCE
No matter how much fun I have every day in this business, I do worry about what our industry does to the planet and it’s less fortunate occupants. There were plenty of people talking about how Digital will reduce the number of samples being produced, flown around the globe, and wasted (more on that later). I got really inspired talking to people like Pim from Fashion for Good, following a panel on Sustainability hosted by Anna Prahl, and listening to Sarah Krasley tell the story of Shimmy Upskill, a program designed to equip unskilled factory workers in places like Bangladesh, for the automation wave that is on it’s way.
In as little as 4 hours, women who had never before used a computer, learnt the basics of preparing markers for an automated fabric cutting process. With the vision of being “as addictive as Candy Crush, as approachable as an older sister, and bringing value to brands”, Shimmy is designed as a voice-activated video game in IBM Watson, configured to “speak” in Bangla (thanks to the wives and families of New York taxi drivers!), and tested so far in collaboration with Tommy Hilfiger on two product groups.
I was gripped by the idea of turning the very tools which are predicted to put these so-far unskilled workers out of a job, into a means for giving them skills to bring value to future production methods. It does my fashion-business heart good to know that there are people like Sarah, Anna and Pim out there, and thankfully many more.
DIGITAL, DIGITAL, DIGITAL
Yes, yes, it’s not news anymore: Digital is coming, we need to foster the skills, invest in the tools, reduce our physical samples, we have got the memo. What this year’s conference told me, was that it doesn’t all have to happen at once. “3D is hard!” said one of the keynotes, and he wasn’t just talking about the tools. But I came here to be inspired, and I got just what I ordered, not least from The Fabricant (positioning themselves as the world’s first digital-only brand – no physical clothes!), from Human Solutions (slightly more relateable to our world, showing where in the value chain digital can bring the fastest value), and from our old friends Hugo Boss, who are now 5 years in to their digital journey, and shared many insights into the challenges along the way.
From Andreas Seidl, Human Solutions: 3D and Beyond – Creating a Whole New Fashion World
Everybody here is talking about 3D, avatars for sizing, digial design, etc. But this presentation took it beyond the gadgets and out to strategy and practicalities. Seidl showed a very recognisable product development slide (title: Time is the Pain) and related the various elements to where digital initiatives can reduce months to minutes.
FRIENDS IN THE BIZ
One really nice aspect of the event, was the openness and willingness to share experiences even with competitors – within reason, but in general there’s an atmosphere of sharing wisdom for the greater good of the industry.
So when the Zalando private label “zLabels” directors drew that picture we all know so well, of minimum purchase quantity vs. actual desired qty vs. actual sold qty, and how many actually were desired by the customer, and from that talked about the importance of supplier relationships to enable smaller purchase minimums… well duh, we all thought. But of course Zalando has data, tons of data, not only about sales of their own brands but all of ours, and all those numbers go into their decisions: build transparent long-term relationship with suppliers, use data to achieve shared understanding and make best decisions, avoid waste not only in resources but also time and money.
Intersport was there too, now well into a PLM implementation for their own private label brands (about 18% of their business). They sought business value by harmonising their data structure and business processes, concentrating their ranges, and yes, reducing their selling samples. Their journey, too, continues… but so far they have got their suppliers downloading their tech packs straight from the tool, and much of the PIM data is now automatically populated. I nearly asked the guy why if they’re so harmonised, they can’t receive same EDI format to their stores in different countries… but that would be a different story.
Pentland Brands, who have Speedo and Hunter among many others, are also mid-PLM implementation; their story was about “Hundreds of Colours, Multiple Brands and One PLM”. They use a tool called Coloro to synchronise and ensure a single version of every colour used.
And finally, Hugo Boss didn’t disappoint; their Team Leader 3D Virtualisation described their journey since 2013, through development of Forms, Styles, virtual protos, virtual styles, and eventually sales material – delaying the need for physical production longer and longer. It was a healthy reminder that digital design journeys are not that different from physical ones – constantly being tuned and revisited!
BLOCKCHAIN – in APPAREL?
Described as “an endless spreadsheet that everyone can write to but no one can delete from”, and “a solution in search of a problem” – this workshop was about some of the possible applications of blockchain in the apparel industry:
- Anti-counterfeiting
- Transparency / compliance / traceability
- Sustainability
- Trade finance
- Shipping / Logistics
- Customer engagement / marketing
- IoT connected product interaction
In particular, the transparency of supply chain was a source of various discussions: ways to ensure that the certified organic cotton you believe you are buying, is indeed sourced as claimed – but it doesn’t necessarily solve the fundamental challenge, of guaranteeing that the source of the information entered into the blockchain is ethical and correct.
The moderator told us about Loomia’s circuitry-embedded fabrics, which were planned for a customer engagement project with LL Bean; not only would they use blockchain to trace the provenance of the materials, but also, pending an opt-in from the consumer, report back on temperatures experienced, number of washes, and reward the consumer for sharing the data.
There are concerns about data scalability, power consumption of server farms, governing authorities. It will be interesting to see the state of the technology already this time next year.
ONE MORE BRAIN-BUSTER
Adam Peacock, designer, artist, experimenter, has been up to some wild stuff. Taking the current interest in genetics and AI to the next level, he created an art installation called the Genetics Gym, applying various (realistic or not) genetic selection options from a menu, to 5 images of different people – then extending those perceptions using computational design. Fascinating, challenging sometimes beautiful, and a little bit scary – asking more questions than it answers, I came away reminding myself to keep an eye on that tendency to wish ourselves different than we are.
It would be natural to feel intimidated in the presence of so much innovation, disruption, and downright digitalness, and to wonder how brands like ours ever will catch up. I’m not panicking though – quite the reverse, I feel hope for our industry and our brands, and while it’s clear we all have work to do, we are far from alone out there. I think the key is to make sure we keep a part of our strategy – in IT and in the brands in general – allocated to self-development, to nurturing skills, and finding great collaborative partners to share the journey.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Want to know more? Here are links to above and others of potential interest:
On Digital
Coloro: Colour standardisation: www.coloro.com
On Sustainability
On Blockchain
Cut on the Bias 