Sofia Whitaker Tabet

I chose to comment on Xia Qiu’s blog post not only because her ideas came from the emerging technologies class, but also because she is already thinking on how she could create a business with everything she has learned from it. It seems to me that she clearly understood the power that technology has to create innovative and therefore really successful businesses and how to merge the real world and the virtual.

She mentioned that the lectures she has attended had a provoking therefore impactful change on her way of thinking and that this will possibly reshape her vision for her future work. As her Better Lives project is Make-up brake down, she started brainstorming new ways to change people’s approach to make-up and for this, she proposed two businesses or ‘’speculative ideas’’; the first one would be the X-reality, where she can create virtual make-up where while using the camera to capture people’s image and add make-up on it, and the second and in my opinion, her best idea, was the dynamic makeup. Qiu explains that after attending a digital learning lab on projection mapping and using the software Mad Mapping she had the idea of projecting images and videos to a surface. Connecting this with her Better Lives theme and Nick Almond’s lecture, she then, developed this super successful and innovative idea of the makeup being projected on a human’s face. ‘’In this way, the virtual makeup will not only stay in the virtual world but also come to the physical world through the projection of light and shadow’’, says Xia Qiu on her blog post.

Although she had an extremely innovative approach to what make-up could be in the future, she didn’t connect this idea to the better lives themes.  In other word, she didn’t mention that her work is, in fact, sustainable, because she is not producing any physical makeup, and as we know, if it’s not a special vegan makeup, the regular ones come from petrol and derivatives. Her idea also tanges diversity, as it adapts to the human face, no matter the gender, race and skin color, and last but not least, they are socially responsible because regular makeup are usually tested on animals and the work force is usually underpaid and work in poor conditions, just as the fast fashion companies do. In fact, this task was to actually connect the themes with our work in the future and she just didn’t mentioned any of them.

Besides her really innovative and successful ideas, I would suggest her to maybe think on ways that they connect further with the better lives themes of sustainability, diversity and social responsibility and to express them clearly. Otherwise speaking, she will ‘’sell more’’ her idea to people and in the future, business partners, if they connect effectively to these themes. Not only because they are really trending on at the moment, but because they have to be addressed in any business. They need attention and they are actually, the future of the fashion industry. Apart from this, Xia’s idea was by far, one of the most successful ones that I’ve read til now on the Better Lives blog posts. 

It is funny to go back in time and remember that I actually missed the day that we were supposed to choose our Better Lives options at the end of last year, so I was initially assigned for Fashion Journalism, which was a course I had almost no interest in. I remember that during one of our lectures, professor Nick Almond was invited to teach us the principles of coding and we briefly talked and he invited me to watch one of his Emerging Technologies in the Fashion Industry Better Lives lectures that was happening the next day. I went, and I came back to the next one also and there he invited me to switch projects, because he saw I had a huge interest on what he was talking about. And I’m thankful for him to have invited me on the first place to participate but I am also thankful to me, that followed my wishes and believed that they were possible, and how, whenever I really want something, I always make it happen.

During our lecture, discussions and studies, the purpose of our project would be, through the themes of better lives in sustainability, diversity and social responsibility, to create a service that was either focused through B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to customer) and using some of the tools we have learned during the course, these being, coding with Python or the Blockchain system that alongside Data Science, serves for tracking supply chains or trend forecasting, based on Artificial Intelligences, with the help of websites that already do this service, such as WGSN or Google Trends. It could be either a simple mobile phone application or an innovative complex machine.

Firstly, individually we thought on possible business ideas that then were shared and voted for the most interesting ones. Using the SWOT analysis technique we would then choose the best one. Amongst the final ideas were the creation of a sustainable crypto-currency called Ecomoney, Think Sustainably an educational platform to re-educate people to think differently and to teach them how to do it, 3D eco-Printing (this was my idea) which was basically the creation of a circular system that was basically to utilize dead stock from fast big fashion brands, turn this clothes into new thread, use this to build new clothing that was designed on a 3D printer and the last and chosen by the majority as better option for final project, Vintage Trends.

For the development of the Vintage Trends project we created a pitch deck, that is, identifying the existing problem (what gap in the market is it filling) and then overcome it by creating a impactful solution. So, following this thinking process, we agreed that our problem statement was that the general public and small businesses don’t have access to trend forecasting systems that not only are expensive but also only focus on new trends, not old ones. Therefore our solution would be creating an anti-consumer Wikipedia of fashion trends for fashion enthusiasts (free/donation based, accessible). Where you can discover the value in your wardrobe and understand the weight and value of vintage trends and their history.

The themes of diversity, sustainability and social responsibility in the fashion world, should be a basic essential prerequisite that in reality have just recently, began to be taken into consideration and be the subject of discussions and change. The fashion world has always been extremely exclusive, with no or very little diversity and extremely unsustainable. With the culture of hyper-consumption, led by social media and the cult of influencers and celebrities, the fashion world demands an exorbitant amount of new products at a pace never seen and lived before. And the more consumption, the greater the demand, the cheaper and more polluting and humanly-degradable the production is because it is fast and its quality is low. This system, and several others, needed a shock, a visceral change. And it is here, right before our eyes. The beginning of the change has come, and we are the future of it.

Today the world is going through a situation that was never experienced before and although we are sheltered in our homes, away from our friends, places of public coexistence, schools and jobs, technology unites us, more than ever. People are more caring and more sensible to others, but is this just a momentary thing, or a real change of habits? The world is going through a moment of extreme change and observation and it is literally in our hands, the power of change.

It is in college where we strongly create our identity and principles as human beings and I believe that I am fortunate to be living the experience of Better Lives at this crucial time. The diverse, intense and analytical lecturers around these three so important themes opened my eyes with so much information, feeding me with numerous possibilities for greater change, urgently needed by the fashion system as a whole. Whichever way I go, I believe that from now on I already carry these three pillars heavily in my DNA as a fashion practitioner.

During our classes at Emerging Technologies for Fashion, we discussed possible innovations that encompass all three pillars of Better Lives, from machines that re-create fabric threads from recycled materials, adjustable e-mannequins that vary from weight to color and race of the consumer and through blockchain system, tracking the supply chains of all fast-fashion brands, giving the consumer the right to know the truth behind each piece of clothing. These and other ideas are being discussed because we are a group of students who have received the correct and true information and education. Fashion does not mean hyper-consumption, it does not mean fast and cheap production, it does not mean exploitation of human beings. Fashion can mean awareness, responsibility and conscious production and we are here to make it happen.

My conclusion throughout the Better Lives Project is that if the system becomes circular, all three pillars discussed intensively will be embraced for good. Therefore, the key is to build a system / fashion industry whereby the inputs (materials) are safe, non-toxic and renewable, making high-quality, reparable garments with a design apparel that at the end of the system, can be turned into new clothing. This is the key for consistent change.

resource:

Almond, N. (2020) ‘Emerging Technologies in Fashion’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 11th February. 

Thomas, D. (2019). Fashionopolis : The Price of Fast Fashion–And the Future of Clothes. Penguin Publishing Group.

Clothes are our initial and most basic form of communication. Fashion today and more than ever before, impacts and influences the world we live in, not only by dressing us up every day or by saying who we are and how we want to be recognised, but by representing a highly significant value in not only environmental impact , but of the mental and physical health of its workers and consumers. The fashion world today is responsible for 20% of industrial water pollution and 10% of global carbon emissions, on average 60% of garments contain fabrics derived from fossil fuels and up to 20% of all items go unsold and the vast majority these end up being dumped in landfills or incinerated. How do we, as future of this cruel and fast, fashion industry are going to change the current situation?

It is too soon to try doing anything, and as a student, I feel the need now, to absorb as much as I can, understand as much as I can, and reflect as much as I can about this impacts to be able then, to make a significant change. The lecture given by Professor Nick Almond on Emerging Technologies in Fashion was of significant impact to me, because even today, it was hard to understand how this change could be made.

During his lecture, what caught my attention was the use of two technologies that can change the course of the current situation; Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. Blockchain is an immutable decentralised database or continuously growing record, called blocks, that is managed by computers belonging to a peer-to-peer network. The fashion industry is perhaps one of the most viable industries to be disrupted with blockchain technology; providing transparency, ideal to track the brand’s supply chain, international payment system, authenticity checking, peer-to-peer fashion market places, design crowd funding. Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the other hand, involves using computers to do things that traditionally require human intelligence. This means creating algorithms to classify, analyse, and draw predictions from data. It also involves acting on data, learning from new data, and improving over time. Fashion uses AI’s to trace trend patterns, and predict what consumers like before they know they like it, they can also assist on styling. Major companies have a virtual representation of their consumers, this happens when they shop online or research online for their products.

This class truly impacted me because I know that technology can change the drastic world of fashion, and after this class, I started to have several ideas about how I could do my part. Since I entered this college I was more and more sure that I could not leave it and start a business of mine, ignoring the impacts that it could cause in the world. I always had the idea that sustainability would be the core of my work in whatever I would do, the doubt on what to do and how to do it was constant, but after this enlightening lecture, I finally found my purpose.

H&M Foundation and HKRITA (2018). Circular solutions. edie.net. Available at: https://www.edie.net/news/7/H-M-Foundation-fast-fashion-sustainability-and-the-circular-economy/ [Accessed 28 Mar. 2020].

Almond, N. (2020) ‘Emerging Technologies in Fashion’ [Lecture]. Better Lives, London College of Fashion, 11th February. 

Thomas, D. (2019). Fashionopolis : The Price of Fast Fashion–And the Future of Clothes. Penguin Publishing Group.

Quora. (2018). What is Blockchain in a few words? Can someone explain it with simplicity? [online]. Available at: https://www.quora.com/What-is-Blockchain-in-a-few-words-Can-someone-explain-it-with-simplicity [Accessed 2 Apr. 2020].

Shroff, R. (2019). Artificial Intelligence Explained in Simple Terms. [online]. Available at: https://medium.com/mytake/artificial-intelligence-explained-in-simple-english-part-1-2-1b28c1f762cf [Accessed 2 Apr. 2020].