A phrase that conjures up glamour, ‘world of fashion’ also describes a global industry worth £2 trillion employing millions, but with outsized impacts on the planet’s depleting natural resources and environmental pollution.
The industry is important to the UK economy. Its contribution fell in 2020 to £20 billion, according to the British trade body UKFT, as consumer spending on clothes and textiles shrank by £10 billion, and exports were also down. But even before its expected recovery, the industry still employed 500,000 people – 88,000 in manufacturing, 62,000 in wholesale, and 413,000 in retail.
After a torrid time of COVID-enforced closures and supply chain disruption, companies are eager to serve style-conscious consumers re-stocking their wardrobes as they party and holiday again. But amid rising costs, squeezed purses and fierce competition – on and offline – times are, and will continue to be, tough.
In an industry vaunted for never standing still, the need to innovate at pace is only becoming more intense. As in other sectors, the pandemic accelerated long-term trends. Most conspicuous is the shift to e-commerce. Online retail sales in the UK for textiles, clothing and footwear increased to an all-time high of 31% in 2020, UKFT reported. Analysts predict that full one half of global sales will be online by 2025.
For fashion retailers it is not just a challenge of pivoting sales from bricks and mortar stores to clicks and home delivery. There is a whole new business approach to master – from social shopping to personalisation – while physical outlets vie with rivals to enhance the shopping experience.
New fashion technology enables these and other trends and drives them as early adopters seek a competitive edge. Not just at the point of sale, but from design and procurement through manufacturing, warehousing and distribution.
From surreal to real
Digitalisation is disrupting every industry. In the fashion world, this extends to surreal realisations of the catwalk and digital clothes. March 2022 saw a four-day virtual show held on metaverse platform Decentraland. If Meta’s Mark Zuckerburg is right about the future of the internet, then digital natives will lavish their disposable income on styling their avatars as much as themselves.
If this sounds like hype, serious market analysts expect more companies to push the bounds of online creativity and commerce as virtual fashion edges closer to the mainstream. This includes gaming ‘skins’ and non-fungible tokens. These NFTs may range from giveaways with jeans to digital twins of outfits. The early movers have already expanded into the digital metaverse, rolling out virtual stores, gaming and digital events. McKinsey predicts this trend will gather pace “as in-app social commerce plays an increasingly important role.”
Vogue Business agrees that the metaverse is one of the investment post-pandemic priorities of innovative retailers, especially in the US. After the uncertainty of 2020, investors poured record sums into fashion-tech and retail-tech start-ups. Notable beneficiaries included online marketplaces and platforms, video commerce, mixed reality, the sharing economy, and behind-the-scenes start-ups that help fast-track innovation, such as warehouse robotics.
This surge is not just making up for lost time in 2020, but also slow tech adoption over a period of years. More than half (58%) of retail professionals said the pandemic had accelerated new technology-related product launches.
An AI for style
From design to delivery, artificial intelligence (AI) is being applied to help companies operate more effectively. Algorithms are bringing new power and sophistication to forecasting by analysing masses of consumer data. AI can help streamline production, warehousing, inventory tracking, and distribution by telling brands what, when, and how many products to manufacture.
The now-standard website chatbot is giving way to smarter systems that enable search using customers’ uploaded images and hyper-personalised fashion while upselling.
‘Superpersonal’ is an AI-powered app by a British start-up that allows buyers to try clothes on their virtual ‘self’, based on their information gender, height, and weight. Clothing brand Hanger trialled the app at the London Fashion Show in February 2022; there is also a commercial version for retailers to create personalised shopping experiences.
London-based Intelistyle claims to understand fashion trends better than human designers by analysing the latest catwalk photography and social media. They are not being supplanted by AI yet, despite the best efforts of tech giants Amazon and Google, as developers in China and Japan also edge closer to design by machine.
In the meantime, AI has become a creative partner as brands collaborate with tech specialists such as IBM, Heuritech and Stitch Fix to create and iterate designs more quickly. However, with further R&D and tech convergence, automation of personalised fashion comes nearer – styles matched to customer preferences, selected in a virtual changing room, and tailor-made by robots to a design generated by a 3D platform.
While robotics has made some inroads into footwear manufacturing, the garments sector relies more heavily on low-paid labour, mostly offshore. However, specialist developers in the US claim they can help US companies repatriate production. In February 2019 SoftWear Automation began leasing its Sewbots-as-a-Service. Using specialised cameras, computer vision and robotic arms these machines are claimed to slash the manufacturing cost of a T-shirt to $0.33. Sewbo Inc temporarily stiffens fabric so its robots can manipulate it precisely.
Global supply chain disruption has helped make local – and even on-demand manufacturing – more appealing. There’s also a stronger case for re-inventing fashion business models – from ‘pile-it-high’ to more targeted design, production and marketing with the help of these and other technologies. Start-ups like Sewport also make it easier for small labels to find small-batch manufacturing partners that can meet their needs, while promising transparency around pricing and sourcing.
Such approaches could also prove more sustainable.
Outsized impacts
Pressure is building for a wholesale re-design of the fashion and textiles system. Like environmental regulators and policymakers, consumers are increasingly concerned about the industry’s outsized impact on the environment (in addition to the exploitation of workers).
Mass manufacture of cheap clothes – not least for ‘fast fashion’ labels launching new styles by the week rather than the old-fashioned seasons (China’s Shein adds 1,000 daily) – has driven a doubling of textile production, as actual utilisation of clothing (the average number of times a garment is worn) falls. The fashion industry’s linear ‘take-make-dispose’ system creates greenhouse gas emissions of 1.2 billion tonnes a year – more than those of all international flights and maritime shipping combined.
Globally, only the oil business pollutes more. The apparel industry accounts for 20% of industrial water pollution. It takes 20,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of cotton. The toll in associated chemicals, pesticides, polyester microfibres, and swelling landfills is also inordinate.[16]
A host of technologies in development could help boost sustainability – often hand in glove with efficiency – in manufacturing, raw material consumption and other parts of the fashion value chain.
Sustainable materials
Much of this global R&D effort revolves around new alternative materials, closing the loop by facilitating recycling, and modernising production processes.
Demand for ‘vegan leather’ – usually made from polyurethane – has spurred the search for more ecologically responsible alternatives. Options on the market or in development include kelp (Nanonic Inc’s SeaCell), law-grown collagen cells (Provenance and Modern Meadow), plus apple, cactus, pineapple, mango, corn, and mushrooms.
Synthetic and non-biodegradable fibres, such as polyester, are used in around 72% of garments, release polluting microfibres and can take 200 years to decompose.
Other sources that could yield novel fabrics that are sustainable include: fibres extracted from waste oranges, kapok trees which grow naturally in arid conditions (Netherlands-based Flocus), or again, kelp (AlgiKnit Inc). California’s Mango Materials, meanwhile, produces bio-polyester, a form of biodegradable polyester.
EU-backed start-up Nano Textile is one of many worldwide working on nanomaterials that could provide an eco-responsible alternative to chemicals for antibacterial, anti-odour and water repellent finishes.
Closing the loop
Globally, less than 1% of used clothes are put back into the fashion industry value chain, according to McKinsey.
New business models and platforms are needed to support a circular ecosystem. Reverse Resources allows factories to monitor, map and measure leftover fabrics, which are traced as they are reintroduced into the supply chain. Similarly, BA-X’s cloud-based software enables fashion brands to design, sell and recycle garments appended with identification tags. In the UK, Glasgow-based ACS Clothing manages the logistics for brands and retailers seeking to join the circular economy.
Others, such as global nonprofit Textile Exchange, promote sustainable sourcing of fibres by manufacturers.
Responsible resource management begins with re-use. A growing number of apps (such as Depop and Vinted) and start-ups allow consumers to sell and buy items, or rent (Style Lend, By Rotation, On Loan). Some rental marketplaces use AI and machine learning to match users based on fit and style.
Brands can also encourage aspects of circularity – bringing clothes back for recycling or re-sale, or just wearing them longer – through reward programmes. For example, jeans in the Tommy Hilfiger Xplore line have a Bluetooth smart tag, which connects to an app, awarding discount points on future purchases.
Conscientious consumers can also turn to apps like Good On You for ratings of brands based on their treatment of people, planet and animals, promoting transparency in the fashion industry.
Flair for innovation
The UK’s fashion industry is brandishing its commitment to sustainability. In September 2021 the British Fashion Council’s Institute of Positive Fashion launched its blueprint for a circular fashion ecosystem.
Textiles 2030 is a voluntary movement led by WRAP (the government’s Waste Resources ad Action Programme) that aims to engage the majority of UK fashion and textiles organisations in collaborative climate action.
Britain’s textiles trade body, UKFT supports a wide range of R&D projects via its Future Fashion Factory – a £5.4 million partnership to exploit digital and advanced textile technologies. Examples in the sustainability and circularity arena include turning leather from scrap car seats (which require eight cow hides) into fashion items; and creating a new sustainable material for swimwear and sportswear using waste nylon.
UKFT claims that the industry is first in Europe and third in the world for innovation – measured by patents. It spends 5% of turnover on R&D, above the average for all manufacturing industries.
Given the push and pull factors, the onus on companies to innovate and make improvements end-to-end through their business has never been greater. The rewards are potentially significant, and not only in sustainable sales and profits. As well as various grants via industrial strategy research programmes, R&D tax credits provide valuable relief for many companies. The widening of the eligibility criteria to cover more of the costs of digitalisation – such as big data processing and cloud computing – is further incentive for fashion to show its flair for innovation.
