Beyond The Fancy Mirror On the Wall: Why AI Is Set to Change Fashion, And Not How You Thought

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#fashiondesigner, artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence in design, artificial intelligence in sales and services, brand consultant, fashion, fashion brands, fashion consultant, fashion retail, machine learning, machine learning and supply chain, technology

Artificial Intelligence is the latest buzzword today. After the industrial revolution and the invention of the World Wide Web, Machine Learning and AI are indeed the next big thing.

Why?

Because a machine with enough data can predict events before they happen, can skim through more data than a million humans in one lifetime, and can help businesses implement these learnings into their strategy!

Some experts are quick to disregard AI in fashion as nothing but a fancy tool to bring more customers into a store. We say, this in itself is not bad. However, the real potential of AI lies well beyond the stores- indeed, it quite literally lies behind the scenes. Because fashion as a business is simply retail, after all.

EDITED, a retail technology company | Source: Courtesy

Here are a few ways in which we think AI in fashion can help make the world, and the business, a better place:

1. Machine Learning and Supply Chains: From the garment manufacturer to the accessory-supplier, every stakeholder in the chain influences when a collection will be ready. Using past delivery trends, a machine can predict where bottlenecks are most likely to arise and help you solve the problem even before it begins. Think Just In Time Inventory Management, adapted to suit manufacturing needs.

2. Artificial Intelligence and Automation: If you’ve heard the new Google Assistant making a hairdresser’s appointment, you already know that machines are poised to perform repetitive tasks with a small degree of variance. Imagine if they could track inventory levels globally, and raise purchase orders when stock levels run too low. Some applications already do this, but by leveraging AI, human intervention in inventory and subsequent errors can almost be nullified.

3. Artificial Intelligence in Design: The actual designing process is a creative endeavor, and from where we currently stand, it is highly unlikely that machines will do it better than humans anytime soon. However, tools can work in tandem with human teams to gather trend data from around the globe to predict what would sell well in the coming seasons- the future climate, economy and social norms taken into account.

4. Artificial Intelligence in Sales and Service: Amazon has just debuted a store where billing is automatic. What if audio-enabled trial rooms became a thing? What if they could offer consumer opinions on the right size and fitting by ‘looking’ at them in a piece of attire? Not just that, even for online brands, more sophisticated chatbots are the need of the hour. Not only do they serve as efficiently, but they also reduce the cost of after-sales service.

5. Machine Learning in Collaborative Fashion: Brand collaborations are not new, but what if they could collaborate with a purpose? For example, a grassroots level linen brand and a global house of fashion could work to create a collection that adds value to everyone involved. Machines can observe trends from around the world and recommend these value-based collaborations.

As the saying goes, give a machine enough data, and it will show you the truth. Scary as it may seem, any repetitive task repeated a million times can approximate what a human being can do. Time to put the machines to task alongside the people then, wouldn’t you say?

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram

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What is a Tech Pack and How to Create One…

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apparel, apparel manufacturing vendors, apparel production, Fashion Business, fashion designers, fashion illustrations, fashion startup, garment, garment files, garment manufacturing, measurement charts, patterns, sizing, start up fashion brands, start up fashion labels, style, technical design, technical designers, technical specifications, technology, techpack, what is techpack

Anybody looking at the fashion industry from the outside sees a lot of creativity and glamour. But behind the glitzy glamor and the creative capabilities lies a tremendous amount of hard work and effort. Those of us who enter the world of fashion entrepreneurship soon realize this. Fashion design does not just start and end at the drawing board. Just like a beautiful monument without plans detailing every minute element, or a race car without an exact engineering drawing, garments cannot move from the concept to the production stage without a tech pack.

What is a tech pack? It is to a fashion designer what a building plan is to an architect – a complete map of the product to be created. A tech pack essentially converts your design from a dreamy concept into a practical piece of clothing that can be produced, in small or large quantities. It tells a garment manufacturer what elements need to be included and where, the type, quality and dimensions of the fabric and other elements

Tunic techpack for a women’s casual wear brand.

A good tech pack consists of a combination of images and measurements, made in such a way that every detail of the garment is captured. It usually consists of:

• The flat sketch of a garment from front and back, with close-ups of the complicated sections
• Details for the stitching, fabric, trims and embellishments. This may include details of the suppliers as well, and can include a swatch of the fabric as well as samples of the embellishments such as lace, buttons, etc.
• Measurements of all the important dimensions including the size of any added portions or cutaways.
• Details of the embroidery, print, patterns and labels to be used.
• Packaging instructions

With a tech pack, a designer need not be present during the entire manufacturing process, and the garment manufacturer can execute production of the sample and final order to specifications. Be sure to include as many details as possible. A good tech pack will help you with grading, pattern making, calculating cost and yield of the material and determine your approximate cost of production.

At times, modifications may be required due to technical constraints in the production process. These changes are incorporated in the tech pack and the new one is used, just as building plans may change marginally when construction is in progress to account for unforeseen obstacles. Keeping the tech pack updated ensures everyone has a clear idea of what needs to be done.

Unlike fashion design concepts, tech packs are purely technical tools with strict guidelines. However, it is essential for any designer to be able to create a tech pack, so that you know the intricacies of the design. This makes it easier for you to guide the factory and ensure that the garment created meets your requirements. You can create a tech pack using tools like Adobe Illustrator, or work with a technical designer like Fuel4Fashion, who will convert your sketches and concepts into production-ready tech packs.

With a tech pack, you are now armed and ready to convert your concepts into a physical garment that the world can wear and flaunt. If you need any help, do get in touch with me at here with your queries.

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer, Sourcing and Manufacturing Consultant helping fashion brands to plan, design and develop new collections with small quantity garment manufacturing. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest Instagram

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Top 5 Wearable Technology Adoptions by the Fashion Industry

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concepts, creative, fabric, fashion, flexible LCD screen, freelance fashion designer, Intimacy 2.0 by Studio Roosegard, Lady Gaga’s bubble dress, O2’s phone fashion accessories by Sean Miles, Philip Treacy, responsive clothing, technology, trends

The last post on the merging of technology with fashion talked about responsive clothing, and there have been many more innovations taking place since then, with a number of collaborations emerging between tech companies and fashion labels. While these are more about incorporating fashion into technology, here I’d like to showcase some of the examples of fashion incorporating technology to deliver designs that are truly awesome.

The LCD Coat  (Image courtesy www.planetdtv.com)

Dave Forbes first created this masterpiece to be worn at Burning Man (an art event), and it represents the path of fashion as technology gets added on. The coat is made up of a flexible LCD screen capable of creating video images like a walking signboard, when connected to a phone or iPad. Imagine sports fans displaying their team logo, and then changing the display to represent their favourite band when they go off to a concert!

Intimacy 2.0 by Studio Roosegard (Image courtesy Studio Roosegard)

Daan Roosegaarde created a dress that changes from opaque to nearly transparent as the wearer’s pulse increases, signifying attraction to the person in proximity. The dress is made out of electronically charged foil which changes with the level of electricity, determined by the wearer’s heartbeat. While this is a potentially embarrassing concept (imagine suddenly finding yourself on display – the more embarrassed you get, the more transparent the dress becomes!), the technology could be adapted in many ways to help change form and silhouette depending on external stimulation.

Lady Gaga’s bubble dress (Image courtesy www.becauseiamfabulous.com)

Lady Gaga left a trail of bubbles – literally – when she wore this dress made up entirely of bubble-machines that just covered her modesty under a soapy cloud. Soon, we could see a number of innovations along this line.

O2’s phone fashion accessories – Sean Miles  (Images courtesy O2 Recycle)

Designer Sean Miles worked with telecom company O2 on their recycling initiative to create a range of accessories with mobile devices in them: handbags, shoes, gloves are all recycled with phones built-in to create a range of unique devices. The future of wearable fashion this definitely promises to be.

Kinetic LED Hat by Philip Treacy  (Images courtesy www.fashioningtech.com)

Philip Treacy and Moritz Waldemeyer created this unique collection of headwear for the Philip Treacy collection in 2013. Using a set of rotating LED lamps, the headgear creates a halo effect.

Have you seen any new innovations in fashion that incorporates wearable technology in the recent past, or created some yourself? Do post your comments to us below, and we’d love to incorporate them.

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion, the first virtual design studio that caters to new and upcoming fashion design labels with a diverse portfolio of design services. She is a member of the Cherie Blair Foundation’s Women Entrepreneurship Program and has over a decade of fashion industry experience with international labels and start-ups.

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Cutting Edge Trends in the Fashion Design Industry – Zero Waste Fashion

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apparels, blog, fashion blog, fashion designers, fashion history, freelance fashion designer, pattern, Siddhartha Upadhyaya’s DPOL (Direct Pattern On Loom, sustainability, tech pack, technology, Virtual Fashion Design Studio, zero waste, Zero Waste Design, Zero Waste Manufacturing

As the fashion industry evolves and adapts to the evolving norms of environmental sustainability, new ways and means of reducing waste and increasing recyclability of clothing are being developed. Sustainability efforts have been focused on key areas like reducing fiber loss, yarn loss, fabric wastage and recycling materials for new garments.

Standard designs with cutting result in approximately 15 to 20 per cent of fabric wastage, resulting in millions of tons of garbage that typically ends up in landfills every year. To reduce this, designers came up with the concept of designing garments to ensure minimal or nil wastage of the fabric. The techniques to do this are called pre-consumer zero waste techniques. The main categories into which they fall are zero waste design and zero waste manufacturing.

Holly McQuillan – Kimono Twist dress – Image courtesy : http://goo.gl/Nh3zXi

Holly McQuillan – Kimono Twist dress pattern plotting – Image courtesy : http://goo.gl/Nh3zXi

In Zero Waste Design, the pattern maker cuts a pattern in such a way within the structure of the fabric so that there is no scrap of fabric unutilized. New York’s Parsons the New School for Design – the setting of the famous “Project Runway” series has launched a course on Zero waste fashion design and international zero waste fashion designers such as Mark Liu (England), Susan Dimasi (Australia) Julian Roberts (England) and Yeohlee Teng (Malaysia) are working to bring the trend into mainstream fashion. While creating patterns like jigsaw puzzles (Mark Liu’s “jigsaw cut”) which leave no cutting margins is one approach, the other is to drape the fabric and then decide where to tuck, cut and stitch the folds and layers to eliminate fabric loss, like David Andersen. The challenge lies in the fact that zero waste design turns the entire process of fashion design upside down. The standard approach in fashion is to create design illustrations and sketches, present these to a patternmaker who then creates the patterns for manufacturing. Here, the designer has to start with the pattern and then work backwards to determine what designs can accommodate. Holly McQuillan’s Kimono twist dress is a great example of applying zero waste design.

Zero Waste Manufacturing is done at the manufacturing stage to eliminate waste material cut-off. While techniques like Indian fashion designer and technologist Siddhartha Upadhyaya’s DPOL (Direct Pattern On Loom)- which creates the required panels directly in weaving the fabric, thereby eliminating all waste from cutting – are gaining ground, these are yet to reach mainstream production as the investment required in machine modification and retooling is tremendous, preventing commercial large-scale ventures from venturing into this area. An alternative has been to ensure the use of cut-offs in the construction of other garments, thereby ensuring that the combined patterns of two or more designs result in a zero waste production process. Other designers like Daniel Silverstein use the leftover cut-offs as appliques and embellishments to the garment, ensuring not a scrap is wasted.

Mark Liu’s Zero-Waste Designs – Image courtesy: http://goo.gl/oEl5LV

Another widely debated way (and according to the industry, one of the simplest to implement) is the reuse of old garments to create new designs. This is known as post-consumer zero waste, and involves the re-cutting, shaping and stitching of old fabrics to create new garments. Portions of garments recycled through a waste collection system are purchased by manufacturers to create their new designs. Denim manufacturers are among the first to promote the reuse of old garments to develop new ones, given the life and durability of the fabric. This is another way of extending the life of the garment and reducing waste. This method too faces hurdles in terms of mass-managing the way old garments are collected and recycled, but retailers like Wal-Mart are looking for solutions.

So how should a designer go about creating a zero waste design? Designer Zada Anditon offers some useful tips, as does Timo Rissanen. The biggest fundamental change for any designer is to get the mind-set right from the beginning. By working backwards from the fabric to developing the final design illustration requires a change in thinking from traditional designing and can be a long and arduous process.

Designers have to break the mold of their thinking process in order to design clothes that are truly zero-waste. But with an increasing effort towards better environmental sustainability, the trend should see increasing traction in coming years.

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer, Sourcing and Manufacturing Consultant helping fashion brands to plan, design and develop new collections with small quantity garment manufacturing. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest Instagram

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All that you need to know about Digital Printing.

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apparels, blog, business, colors, creative, digital printing, dyes, fabric, fashion, fashion blog, fashion designers, freelance fashion designer, garments, print screen, printing techniques, Supriya Ghurye, technology, trends

This era has been the witness of some of the greatest innovation and digital printing is one of them. Also Christina Binkley acknowledged, in the Wall Street Journal by saying that it is allowing designers to innovate while “beefing up their brands”. According to many, digital printing is not just another brand new innovation of the century rather it’s becoming more and more recognizable and indispensable for the fashion world.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/1P0CYG
Title: Digital printing

Director of Operations of the New York and Los Angeles based digital printer First2Print, Danielle Locastro says that the digital printing is enabling creative  young people to get their ideas on the canvas.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/eLUxIZ
Title: Digital Printing

Even today designers are relying on the digital printing technology tools like adobe Photoshop and illustrator. Earlier if an average designer wanted to put any idea on the fabric, then he’d have to go through the large yardage of fabrics and he’d have to meet them up for rotary or flatbed screen painting. But now with the advent of digital printing there is no minimum requisite for yardage of cloth nor do we need flatbed rollers. In contrast digital printing specializes in small runs like three to 300 yard runs.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/4JMgR4
Title: Saves resources too

There are actually two types of people who are interested in the new and advanced digital printing and who will actually be benefit from it, first being the major design company who needs to produce a prototypes and second being the average designer for the economic and other obvious reasons. Since digital printing works in a whoosh so it is really less tedious and lesser time consuming to produce merchandise in any required quantities.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/I8Tzsq
Title: Flattering looks

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/I6GQ1n
Title: Flashy and attractive prints

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/q0cciL
Title: Couture printing

The other major benefactor from this novel painting technique is the new or high-end couture designers and companies mainly because digital fabric printing is possible for short production run . So the products that fit into this category are posh and high end and that’s where a major explosion in the fashion world can be seen, says Locastro.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/Vw4c8f
Title: Colorful vests

What do you think about the rising status of digital printing? Is it a yay or nay for you? Do tell me in the comments section.

Responsive Clothing

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Anouk Wipprecht, apparels, bio-feedback, creative, Daan Roosegaarde, Dave Forbes, fabric, fashion blog, fashion illustrations, fashion innovation, freelance fashion designer, Intimacy 2.0, responsive clothing, technology, Technosensual, Video Coat, Ying GAO

With so many technical advancements in the radar in the fashion world, it’s hard to say from which direction the next technology is likely to come.  Amidst all these innovations, the talk of the town is responsive clothing. These are like a highly sensitive bio-feedback instruments which give the response to the person who wears them with one exception, these are clothes.

Like Ying GAO, who created an entire fashion collection of interactive clothing which responses to their environment. Her designs were displayed at the Musée National des Beaux-arts du Québec. The intelligent couture displayed were a frock that puffed in and out when a visitor breathes in a nearby microscope. Two other dresses called Playtime blurred and shimmered respectively in response to the flashy cameras.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/Ckhqaj
Responsive clothing by Ying GAO

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/38RMN5
Intelligent Couture

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/HqeIM6
Ying Gao’s Collection

Also ‘Technosensual: Where Fashion Meets Technology’, an event which displayed some of very technologically heavy electronics by curator and fashion designer Anouk Wipprecht. One of his dresses uses sensors to change from opaque to transparent to increase the intimacy between the wearer and the persons around him.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/s5DmIh
Technosensual

Image courtesy: http://goo.gl/vjOVvk
Awesome Innovations at the Technosensual

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/vsNivt
Wow! Designs

Daan Roosegaarde also created a similar dress that he named Intimacy 2.0. This dress is triggered by heart rate sensors and proximity. It transforms from opaque to transparent and vice-versa when the wearer gets hot and bothered.

Another example of mind-blowing innovation is Video Coat. Created by Dave Forbes to wear it during the Burning Man, an annual art event, but it nevertheless rose to fame.  Essentially it’s a giant wearable LED television which works when plugged into an iPod or a DVD payer.  It needs a 12V batter to power and is a marvelous example of creating spectacle on stage.

Image Courtesy: http://goo.gl/3fXdoB
Wearable T.V

How do you like these new technical clothes? 

Innovation in fashion industry processes : Part 1- Air Dying

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air dyeing, apparels, dyeing, eco friendly processes, fashion, fashion blog, freelance fashion designer, garments, innovation, sustainability, technology

The lack of innovation in the fashion industry is apparent by the steps the big brands are taking to revolutionize their products. Recently Lewis created the buzz in the market by creating water less jeans that require 96% less water to wash.  Yet another mind blowing technology innovated to save water is Air Dying. This method of air dying fabrics uses air instead of water to pound clothes. Air replaces water to penetrate dyes inside the fibers and it also requires lesser force to dry since water becomes too heavy on the fabrics to later rinse and dry.

Hazardous dying

Apparel industry actually requires a lot of innovation that’s why critiques are quite happy with the technology of Air Dying fabrics. This technology though limited to US and to synthetic materials, can be a big breakthrough for the world in the days to come.  Fashion industry has a big hand in polluting water as each colored fabric requires about 100 gallons of water to dye, in the traditional ways.

Rivers get badly polluted due to industrial waste

The bad implications of marine life are another side effect of this water dying. Thus Air Dying fabrics did really change the face of the fashion industry, in eco-friendly way. Apart from Air Dying fabrics, many other revolutions are required today to make the fashion industry, a sustainable one. There is an increasing need of waste disposal. There are thousands of garments cut and designed every day, not each of them is used and most of them are thrown away in the big bins.

Large bins storing waste cloths

SO what do you think can be the ways in which fashion designers can add a little innovation in their work and save the planet?