This year’s fashion week experience was phenomenal with new name at big fashion houses, new market strategies and a plethora of technological ideas and initiatives which really mixed things up.
New York, London, Milan, Paris – all the fashion capitals saw a lot of technology being adapted into the clothing with wearables being a huge trend for the season, and virtual reality and chatbots becoming a huge part of the runway experience.
Martine Jarlgaard’s Hololens
Martine Jarlgaard set the bar very high at their London show this season. The project which a partnership between Jarlgaard, the Fashion Innovation Agency at London College of Fashion, and Hololens developers and 3D capturing company, DoubleMe saw the traditional runway format being replaced completely with a holographic version. Guests were each presented with a Hololens headset which allowed them to see a pre-scanned holographs of models which were recreated for a mixed reality experience. Guests could look at the dresses up close and walk around the room with a view of holograph as well as the rest of the room. With holographs and virtual reality gaining traction in the fashion industry, could this revamp traditional runway fashion shows is something that just might be possible.
Snapchat Filters turned into Reality
Snapchat filters, with their powerful underlying tech and ridiculous fun appeal, have become widely popular all over the world. So it comes as little surprise that fashion brand Desigual, on its New York show, sent its models out on the runway with Snapchat-inspired make-up – complete with puppy noses, the deer look, and flower headpieces and flower crowns.
The Data Center Runway
To shed light on how our lives are increasingly data-driven, Chanel’s Paris show runway was designed with data storage units as a backdrop and it was mind-blowingly accurate and relevant with the times. And it wasn’t just the runway, the invites to the show boasted Chanel’s logo made with cables and some of the wire and LED detailing was seen on clothing and accessories as well.
See-now, Buy-now
The biggest let down of fashion shows used to the waiting for the clothes to be available to buy – a wait that could extend up to 6 months. But with ecommerce and technology, and the changing behavior of buyers, many top line brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Burberry made full use of chatbots to get the collections on the market in “see-now, buy-now” concept. This type of conversational commerce is engaging and exciting as the customers not only see the runway pieces but also see the chatter and content about the collection, get behind-the-scene looks at models lives, follow a decision tree for tailored responses and end up getting nudged to e-commerce pages for respective collections. This way you no longer have to wait for your favorite collections to become available in the market.
In addition to virtual reality replacing traditional runways, and characteristic long wait being replaced with “see-now, buy-now” concepts and processes, this fashion week season also saw wearables being integrated in clothing to measure comfort, and augmented reality experiences allowing buyers to see how dresses and items from their favorite runway collections would look on them. It’s safe to say that like every other industry technology is now taking over the fashion industry as well