White paper Smart Tech extract

INTRO- DUCTION

One of the fastest-changing industries in the world, fashion has been reforming itself constantly for centuries. But today consumer demand, global supply chain risk, creative toolsets, and the mandate for sustainability are all moving too fast to keep up with using traditional tools. This is where smart technology comes in, with solutions for everything from 3D design to transparency and product passports - all designed to help fashion professionals to work smart, faster, and more sustainably, without compromising creativity.

Wherever you work in fashion, technology will very soon start to change the way you work for the better - but knowing as much as possible about how smart tech works is the key to unlocking its possibilities.

Learn how smart tech is transforming design, supply chains, product journeys, and sustainability and transparency.

WHY DOES SMART TECH MATTER?

The fashion industry is in a transitional state - a time when everything about the core business of making clothing, footwear, and accessories is changing in response to both external factors and internal business model evolution.

Whatever product segment your business is active in, and whatever price point or demographic you target, every link in the chain from initial concept to final consumer (and beyond) is being reforged, right now. Economic shifts are reshaping people’s purchasing behaviours. Geopolitical upheavals are adding historic uncertainty to the availability and cost of raw materials. And a rapidly-evolving regulatory landscape is quickly making data-backed transparency mandatory in most major markets.

At the same time, a pushback is happening against the most dominant business model in the industry: fast fashion. Brands and designers of all shapes and sizes are instead looking for new ways to prioritise quality, creativity, durability, and sustainability.

Taken together, these two forces have created a strong demand for new software, new hardware, and new processes from within fashion itself. It’s certainly true that technology start-ups, innovators, and disruptors are pushing forward with new ideas, but the real request for different ways of working is coming from the brands, retailers, suppliers, and manufacturers who recognise that adapting to fashion’s biggest challenges - and seizing its newest opportunities - means breaking past the limitations of traditional tools.

To put it simply: the fashion industry is asking for technology, and a huge industry is now dedicated to providing it in key areas like creative design, technical development, supply chain visibility, material innovation, and much more.

This is why Smart Tech - the newest part of the long-established Smart Creation area - is now a key focus for Première Vision. And it’s also why The Interline (the technology publication for fashion professionals) and Première Vision are working closely together to bring the benefits of technology right to the heart of fashion, since every area of the fashion business - from creation to circularity - will soon be transformed by it.

This July, Smart Tech will be one of the key focuses of the new PV Hub at the next edition of Première Vision Paris, alongside eco-responsibility, and a programme of talks will demonstrate how technology is now essential to both protecting fashion from disruption, and to opening exciting new digital doorways.

In this whitepaper, Première Vision and The Interline examine the role of technology in four key areas - design, supply chain, product journeys, and transparency - along with recaps of previous technology-focused panel discussions, interviews with key Smart Tech companies, and key takeaways to help inform your approach to understanding,

finding, and using technology to futureproof the way you work.

Read on to find out why Smart Tech matters to fashion - starting with the digitalisation of design.