Promising areas for innovation in COVID-19 times: Part?3 - Digital Acceleration

Fashion for Good points to solutions in key focus areas to strengthen the fashion industry.

In our previous two articles, we covered two of three key areas that have been highlighted by the repercussions of COVID-19 and the lockdown on the fashion value chain; Stock Management and Supply Chain Transformation. Innovation in these areas is nothing new to the industry, however the devastating impact of the crisis has brought them into sharp focus given the immediate need for alternative solutions.

In the meantime, some of the shifts we will witness in the fashion industry, such as the digital step change, are mostly an acceleration of the inevitable — shifts that were likely to have happened further down the line had the pandemic not prioritised their urgency now.

As the crisis has prevented physical contact within and between every stage in the fashion supply chain — and will likely still pose limitations on manual processes, physical meetups and travelling for some time to come — the fashion industry is evaluating options to shift into the digital space along the entire value chain.

In this third article, we will cover the innovations that offer solutions for the Digital Acceleration of the fashion value chain.

Part 3: Digital Acceleration

When speaking of digitisation, we are mostly referring to replacing current manual and physical practices with more efficient and sustainable digital technologies, which we will cover in this article. However, innovation in digital fashion also extends to virtual fashion such as the digital clothing created by one of our innovators, The Fabricant.

The sustainability benefits of virtual fashion are obvious as there is no need to produce and transport physical garments. However, virtual fashion is still a niche market and consumers likely need time to become accustomed to its application and adopt it into their everyday lives.

There are a number of other benefits that come with digitisation throughout the supply chain, including:

• More accurate designs and better communication between designers and manufacturers that can potentially lead to products that are more effectively designed for their purpose;
• Fewer samples, which means less waste;
• The elimination of unnecessary (air)travel;
• Dramatically shorter lead times, which could contribute to limiting overproduction and facilitate on-demand manufacturing;
• And fewer returned items through e-commerce (in the case of digital fitting and virtual try-on).

We have explored the opportunities for digital acceleration throughout the fashion value chain highlighting the innovations that are driving the transformation.

DESIGN

During the concept as well as the merchandising phase, the design of a garment may undergo a number of alterations. Traditionally, prototypes and samples would have to be sent back and forth with every alteration, resulting in the production of multiple samples and longer lead times.

Many 3D design software solutions offer real-time feedback, including information on the cost price of the product (and could eventually feature information on the sustainability of the complete garment), allowing alterations to be made immediately, tested and iterated upon without the need to ship physical samples. The collaborative nature of creating digital garments on 3D platforms has proven it can also improve communication between teams, increasing feedback loops and efficiency that extends across the entire value chain.

Today’s 3D design products can render photorealistic reproductions of designs that accurately visualise materials, drape and shadows. While physics and light simulations can take care of the drape and shadows, solutions are needed to accurately capture and reproduce the textures and look of the fabric. Vizoo and Seddi are two platforms that specialise in digitising real fabrics that can then be saved, uploaded and used by 3D design software. For an ever expanding collection of materials, textures and swatches, Swatchbook provides a cloud storage platform that allows brands and manufacturers to create a centralised library that can easily be visualised, explored and shared.

When designing the garment itself, a number of software solutions can be utilised such as CLO, Browzwear and Optitex. Stitch — a digital design suite for every step of the collection (currently a sub division of PVH Corp. which will spin out publicly next year), intends to work with a software as a service (SaaS) model that includes a package to help brands internalise 3D design throughout their supply chain.

3D design can be used for visualisation, accurately representing a real garment that can assist designers with the design process as well as merchandisers and eventually consumers with their decision to purchase. And their utility also extends to production. High quality 3D models are incidentally a great resource to manufacturers and can halve the time to create 2D patterns with a lower margin of error.

The above would suggest that brands must transform their entire workflow from 2D to 3D to accommodate digital collections. However, the process can be outsourced to digital design specialists — such as Pixelpool, Virtuality.Fashion and Expivi, rather than centralising processes within the brand. Pixelpool can create up to 500 digital garments in a day and Virtual.Fashion can produce an entire digital collection in less than a week.

While there are advantages to outsourcing, digitising one’s own internal workflow will allow brands to reap the most benefits and maintain control of the process. It’s worth mentioning that the digital transformation of a brand’s workflow is an iterative process which is as much about changing internal mindsets and culture as it is about technical expertise.

MERCHANDISING & PLANNING

Based on the final digital samples created in the design phase, merchandisers are able to compile the final collection more easily. The digital samples can be distributed within the company, facilitating better and faster decision making. It also allows for improved trend forecasting, given that 3D design and sampling can drastically reduce lead times and as such enables companies to produce what consumers desire in a timely manner. In addition, many start-ups, such as Heuritech and Chain of Demand are developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) trend prediction solutions that help brands to better understand their consumers and their needs.

BUSINESS TO BUSINESS SELL IN

Digital showroom

In times of social distancing, digital showrooms, allow brands to showcase digital collections virtually, offering an alternative to the physical showroom. Furthermore, they can enhance the existing experience, allowing garments to be viewed from any angle, in the finest amount of detail as well as displaying information on sizing and price. Garments can be viewed on different platforms, mobile, web or even in virtual spaces, which can be streamed to Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, such as those provided from Ordre for example. The digital showroom Hatch and VR showroom VOOR host digital samples created with 3D design software; no physical products are involved.

In addition to providing VR headsets, Ordre uses capturing technology to create 360o imagery from real physical products that can be used in virtual environments. Other start-ups creating 3D assets through capturing technology are M-XR, pioneers in accurately capturing metallic surfaces — specifically their reflectiveness and light/material interactions, and Th3rd, an Amsterdam based start-up whose technology can digitalise entire collections at scale.

Touch and feel of fabric is an important aspect to a garment and one which digital technology is not yet able to provide. This challenge will have to be addressed in order for digital showrooms to be fully embraced. Exciting developments in haptic gloves and special touch screens can “digitise” the texture of fabric samples, enabling users to “feel” them. These technologies require further research and development before they are able to be fully integrated into the digital and virtual showroom experience

The restrictions on travel and gatherings has called into question the reason and value of physical fashion shows, often a costly affair, when the technology already exists to reach a wider audience and extend beyond our physical realities to build a better experience in an engaging and creative way.

Though fully immersive and interactive shows delivered through mixed reality are yet to be realised, there are other technologies that extend beyond a simple livestream. Ordre’s VR headsets can, for example, place buyers in the front row from the comfort of their offices.

Bigthinx’s artificial intelligence software carries out 3D body scans with just a smartphone. Using uploaded photos, they can create personalised 3D avatars and digital garments for virtual clothing trials and fashion shows. In addition, when a consumer creates their own avatar they can also see how this garment would fit and drape on their body and Bigthinx’s neural networks can use these images to help them find their ideal size. We elaborate on these Virtual try-on technologies later in this article.

HoloMe, a start-up that facilitates Augmented Reality, can bring the fashion show into the viewers home, allowing users to view pre-recorded footage or live models on their smart device, overlaid on their own environment.

The world’s first all-digital modelling agency, The Diigitals — home to Shudu, billed as the world’s first digital supermodel, creates 3D virtual models, which eventually could be seen on the runways of the future.

SOURCING & SUPPLY CHAIN

Partner integration

As touched upon before, brands as well as manufacturers work with 3D software which can be used as a real-time feedback and communication platform. As a result, apart from training their design team to use the software, brands will also need to onboard their manufacturers to ensure they provide consistent quality. The ultimate goal is to create 3D models of such high quality that tech packs can be eliminated altogether, allowing manufacturers to cut and sew products using only the 3D models as input. This could potentially lead to a “first-time right” approach, eliminating the production of prototypes and samples entirely, creating efficiencies and benefits for all supply chain partners.

On-demand manufacturing

The ability to show customers a photoreal, digital garment created early on in the process, makes it possible to facilitate an on-demand manufacturing model coupled with digital fit solutions (more on this later in the article). Start-ups like unspun, Atacac and Bespokify, operate only as on-demand suppliers and with the proliferation of digital samples, every brand could potentially operate with this model.

CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT

There are many digital technologies that allow brands to engage with consumers in refreshing new ways. They have seen a surge in use and conversion since the lockdown and are likely to maintain their momentum long after.

Enhanced selling

Fashion gaming: Apps like Covet, Drest and Ada’s Fashion Show, let users style digital models with versions of real clothing from popular brands. Fashion games are a relatively affordable way for brands to test consumers’ appetite for digital clothing. Looking further into the gaming industry, Fortnite, a popular online game, generates up to $300 million in a month, 60% or $180 million of which comes from “skins”, the clothing worn by characters in the game. The start-up IVA (Immersive Virtual Apparel), allows fashion brands to capitalise on this sizeable chunk of the $152 billion gaming industry, by transforming their physical fashion collections into skins that can be worn by avatars in and outside of gaming.

AI Style and Fit Advisors: Many innovators have developed solutions that allow brands to provide better recommendations to consumers and thus reduce e-commerce returns and drive conversion. Stylitics and syte.ai are two leading platforms working in this space.

Solutions that help consumers select the right fit can further reduce e-commerce returns. Presize allows consumers to capture video of themselves with their smartphones to determine the right fit by creating a 3D model of their body and matching it with product data. Body Volume Index, which has its origins in the health sector, likewise enables consumers to use their smartphones to scan their bodies and shows great potential in providing an accurate fit solution.

Virtual fashion Try-on: An estimated 100 million consumers will shop using Augmented Reality (AR) in 2020; a huge opportunity for brands to capitalise in this space. Fashion try-on apps Forma and Zeekit, let users try on fashion virtually; either on themselves by uploading an image or by selecting a model that matches their proportions or that they relate to. Other innovators like WANNABY and Vykings let consumers try out footwear by pointing their camera at their feet. The real-time 3D rendering and mapping technology needed to generate realistic garment simulations onto differently sized and shaped consumers is however not yet available or advanced enough. Experts in the field predict the technology will mature within the next two years.

Extended Reality (XR) shopping: One solution to retail stores being closed is XR shopping. Consumers have the ability to shop virtually, bringing items they would want to purchase into their own living room or entering a virtual store to browse items. MetaVRse recently released a new engine that enables anyone to create interactive 3D/XR experiences from ready-made templates and code snippets. Another new entrant in this space is HatchXR, who with its technology platform empowers brands to create XR experiences in-house easily and economically. Part of their offering is providing training to upskill brand’s employees to be able to work with the platform.

All these experiences could be viewed through websites, mobile applications and Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) goggles. As VR and MR goggles remain very expensive, they are more suited for commercial purposes. However, Augmented Reality (AR) goggles, which can be used to lay an extra layer over the consumer’s own environment, are becoming less expensive and we may all own a pair sooner than we expect.

The Fabricant, mentioned earlier, will launch their immersive digital marketplace Leela (now in beta) later this year. Consumers can create their own avatar and dress it with digital only designs purchased from big brand fashion houses. These avatars can then be used within virtual and augmented reality environments, for instance in a virtual club, where consumers can show off their style and engage with each other.

The 3D assets used in all the above mentioned applications, can originate from models created earlier on in the supply chain with either 3D design software or 3D capturing technology. 3D automation software like VNTANA’s smart algorithm are required to optimise 3D files and convert these files to be more easily distributed on the web, used in Augmented, Virtual or Extended Reality applications and readily shared within brands to be used for e-commerce or advertising campaigns.

Live Selling

Live Selling and video start-ups like MOOD, HERO and ShopShops enable brands and retailers to reach new markets or audiences using store associates, influencers or celebrities. As many stores are currently closed to the public, and likely to remain partially closed or have limited number of visitors after restrictions are lifted, these new virtual sales channels offer a way for brands and retailers to interact in real time with consumers.

Apart from facilitating virtual fashion shows and enhancing e-commerce experiences, HoloMe’s technology could bring shop assistants or influencers into a consumer’s living room to help them select and purchase clothing in real-time.

Rising to the challenge

This article concludes our series of promising areas of innovation for the fashion supply chain in these challenging times.

However, as the full extent of the impact of the crisis unfolds, it will become apparent which areas of the value chain need specific action. While we have mapped some of the innovations that can provide relief and concrete solutions to certain areas, there will certainly be others that surface which will require our attention. We have no doubt that with each new challenge there will be an innovation that emerges to address it, providing a better, sustainable practice that will transform the future of that particular focus area.

Fashion for Good will endeavour to champion those solutions and to keep the industry and ecosystem appraised of the innovators and the technologies behind their solutions that continue to transform the industry.

Contributors:

This article was made possible through the research and contributions from:

Georgia Parker — Innovation Manager at Fashion for Good

Jana van den Bergen — Innovation Analyst at Fashion for Good

Definitions:

Augmented reality (AR) adds digital elements to a live view often by using the camera on a smartphone. Examples of augmented reality experiences include Snapchat lenses and the game Pokemon Go.

Virtual reality (VR) implies a complete immersion experience that shuts out the physical world. Using VR devices such as HTC Vive, Oculus Rift or Google Cardboard, users can be transported into a number of real-world and imagined environments such as the middle of a squawking penguin colony or even the back of a dragon.

A Mixed Reality (MR) experience, which combines elements of both AR and VR, real-world and digital objects interact. Mixed reality technology is just now starting to take off with Microsoft’s HoloLens one of the most notable early mixed reality apparatuses.

Extended reality (XR) is a term referring to all real-and-virtual combined environments and human-machine interactions generated by computer technology and wearables, where the ‘X’ represents a variable for any current or future spatial computing technologies.

Haptic Technology, also known as 3D touch, refers to any technology that can create an experience of touch by applying forces, vibrations or motions to the user