ANALYTICS IS KILLING CREATIVITY
The Fashion Industry is evolving as retail landscape is also in reconstruction. Big data, machine learning and technology 4.0 are leadind the change and users are accelerating it thru e-commerce and the online arena. All the steps and participants along the fashion value chain are impacted and evolution is a need in order to survive. Even the Gods of the industry, designers, are in “danger”. Analytics is killing creativity.
In a previous article, “the fashion retail value chain revolution“, I explained the standard design process in fashion retail. From the trend to an idea, fashion gurus were inspired by fairs, colors (pantone), social trends and events,etc. Today, Millenials define fashion and brands identify those insights and try to offer, as soon as possible, a product that fits to them. A way to identify those microtrends are analytics and big data. More and more designers, most of them from mass-market fashion retailers, are using those insights in order to decide what color, style, pattern or fit to design and produce.
This is an interesting article from Glossy and written by Hilary Milnes regarding to how algorithms are helping designers to do their jobs.
Since launching “TommyNow,” a series of fashion collections made immediately available for purchase worldwide as they sashayed down the runway on co-designer Gigi Hadid and her crew of models, designer Tommy Hilfiger has never moved faster. For one, the collection goes from design to market in six months, a clip three times faster than traditional collections.
“If you fall behind, catching up isn’t an option,” he said during the NRF Big Show conference last week in New York. “Listening to the customer is very important, and what the customer wants is immediate gratification. I want them to see something on the runway, click and buy it. I want the fastest delivery and the most incredible experience. If there’s no risk, there’s no reward, and our risk was changing our entire design and production process.”
With the exception of Burberry, other designer brands have failed to launch see-now-buy-now collections on Hilfiger’s scale, but the need to speed up the production process is industry-wide. As brands work to eliminate inefficiencies in the production process, artificial intelligence, in particular, is playing an increasingly critical role in not only manufacturing and supply chain logistics, but in the creative design process as well. It’s a tool that’s catching on among legacy brands, technology providers, student designers and retail startups alike.
Read more on: Glossy