Reflective and Personal Development Post – 3
Throughout the Better Lives unit, I have been exploring the new emerging technologies in the fashion industry with Nick Almond. Technology has never been something that has interested me except for the latest iPhone or macbook, that is why when choosing a topic for the unit, Emerging Technologies in the Fashion Industry sounded very interesting and something I was eager to learn more about.
When starting the project, I thought that the topic was going to be about different fabric technologies or 3D printing, however, it turned out to be about blockchain technology, augmented reality and Artificial Intelligence. This in a way made me more interested in the topic because for me, this was completely new.
Engaging in the project and coming up together as a group with a pitch for a blockchain start-up made us explore the actual impact blockchain has on the fashion industry and how much positive, but also negative factors it can bring to the future. It was also interesting to work with new people from different courses whom I had never worked with or seen before, also from different parts of the world. This gave me an insight on how technology is seen depending where you come from, for example the students from China in my group used VPNs and different apps then what I do.
As the final project outcome, we chose to work with the topic vintage trends and researched about creating a fashion start up using vintage. As a group we all contributed with ideas and thoughts and put it all together to make a pitch. The start-up Retrograde, an app which you can use to analyse vintage trendology came to ‘life’ by the Emerging Technology team. In the app, you would be able to see trend and anti-trend forecasting which would empower diversity and creativity by exploring these globally. Also, launching an online trend platform for everyone and not putting an expensive dollar sign on the technology , which is the case for most trend research databases today.
I really enjoyed the outcome and learning from Nick Almond. Exploring different technologies and what impact they will have on our future was very eye opening. Diversity, social responsibility and sustainability needs to be included in all of the fashion industry sectors because of its size and impact on the global economy and morals. Having Better Lives as one of my first units will be something I take with me far into my future. Learning about this and having a better understanding in the beginning of my education will open my eyes more for the following projects, at university but also outside of LCF.