Dtail's 'Fashion-Tech Talks'

Episode 3: The State of Tech in Luxury

"It’s true for most luxury brands that they haven’t even started with the newest and most innovative tools such as 3D for creating garments or virtual showrooms. Implementing such capabilities would help them to become more sustainable and future fit."

In this episode of Fashion-Tech Talks we speak to Kim van den Brule who studied Fashion & Design at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute. She graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor of Fashion Textile and Technology. Her final collection, in collaboration with clothing company PVH, was produced digitally, which was a first for the program. Her education and experience with traditional fashion and product design informs her daily work in digital and 3D. She has mastered key 3D tools such as CLO3D, Browzwear, Lectra, Optitex and Blender and is excited about how they are contributing to the future of virtual fashion. 

Throughout her career Kim has helped brands to scale up and digitally transform by training design teams to use 3D tools and create workflows. She set up the original generic library of virtual assets and still product owns this part of PixelPool’s Dtail platform. Constantly challenging herself and looking for ways to innovate, Kim is one of few women in the fashion-tech industry and hopes to inspire others while helping make fashion brands more sustainable. 

Q: This year PixelPool stepped into the luxury market with Bally and you also recently returned from a special B2B event in Paris that featured several luxury brands. Where is luxury headed when it comes to digital?

Luxury is a niche segment of the industry. For these brands it is still crucial to see and feel the craftsmanship behind each item in a collection. A different kind of technology is needed for them, one that helps with sourcing sustainable materials and being more innovative in manufacturing. I can see definite places where luxury could implement more fashion technology.

Compared to other areas of the industry such as sportswear, they aren’t as far along in their digital journey as I would have expected. It’s true for most luxury brands that they haven’t even started with the newest and most innovative tools such as 3D for creating garments or virtual showrooms. Implementing such capabilities would help them to become more sustainable and future fit.

Q: If you could speak to any one fashion executive about the future of fashion-tech, who would it be?

I’m very inspired by Stella McCartney and I admire that a luxury brand is setting the standard for sustainable fashion. She is always looking for new, innovative materials for her designs and pushing the envelope with her stated mission to develop material that is not only cruelty free but also positively impacts the environment. They are using new materials like Bananatex® – ‘the world’s first biodegradable*, vegan material. Bananatex® fully embodies circular flow and has a Cradle to Cradle® Gold Certification.’ I believe this is what fashion innovation should be, serving as an example and inspiring customers as well as other designers.

Interestingly, they don’t invest in marketing, saying: “Eliminating ads, marketing costs, doing away with brand ambassadors, billboards, means investing in reality rather than fiction. It means working back up the production chain and changing it. It means spending more time on the ground, rather than investing in smoke and mirrors.” 

While I was in Paris, I spoke to François-Ghislain Morillion who is one of the founders of shoe brand Veja. They are on an eco-conscious mission and produce footwear with organic cotton and Amazonian rubber and various innovative materials conceived in recycled plastic bottles or recycled polyester. After speaking to their design department and hearing that they are using 3D tools for their design process, I was even more impressed. They are ahead of many in the fashion industry in terms of technology and are a great example of a brand who can be innovative and more sustainable at the same time.

Interestingly, they don’t invest in marketing, saying: “Eliminating ads, marketing costs, doing away with brand ambassadors, billboards, means investing in reality rather than fiction. It means working back up the production chain and changing it. It means spending more time on the ground, rather than investing in smoke and mirrors.” 

This comes across as refreshingly down to earth and authentic.

Q: What are some of the most effective uses of fashion tech/3D you've seen over the last year?

3D tools are now being widely used to design, drape, and make patterns in a virtual space. This helps designers enormously with accuracy and makes the designs come to life in ways that lead to fewer samples and shorter lead times. The new way of working saves resources and time and enables better communication between the designers, the buyers and the factories.

Another important use of 3D is its use in virtual store merchandizing. Since teams will have created the assets already in 3D, they can be visually merchandized in virtual showrooms. In this way the innovation saves time for visual merchandizers in brick-and-mortar stores because they no longer need to source the samples over different departments or use placeholders when samples are not yet inhouse, nor do they have to make a mockup store and send pictures and briefings to original stores as they have done in the past.

This is something I have been working on with PixelPool for over three and a half years. We developed the Dtail platform for fashion brands to plan, analyze and sell their collections virtually.

Mindset plays a role here as well. When an old way of working has numbers that have supported it for years – it takes courage within an organization to make a change.

Q: What are the biggest challenges to the industry and what are a few ways you think they can be best addressed? (More funding? More tech expertise?)

The biggest challenges within the fashion industry when it comes to technology innovation are budgets, mindsets, experience, and resources.

Budgets are made upfront based on experiences that have worked in the past. With innovation and technology, however, you must look into the future, and this is what makes it difficult for companies to spend on tech. Innovation comes at a price.

Mindset plays a role here as well. When an old way of working has numbers that have supported it for years – it takes courage within an organization to make a change.

Lastly, resources and time are obstacles. Most employees need to learn how to use new tools and technology in addition to doing their current tasks and on without much time or support. This creates stress and demotivates a team. Despite these very real challenges we have seen that with correct mindset, people are willing to make the change happen.

Q: How has AI changed the industry over the past year?

I’ve seen some tools that can help in the creative process and save time on certain aspects of the fashion industry. For example, I visited a startup company called Heuritech during my recent visit to Paris, that focuses on trend forecasting with an in-house, deep-learning technique that detects early signals.

I think such tools can make working in the fashion industry more efficient and fun. I believe people need to embrace the new AI tools and use them to their advantage rather than see them as a threat. As humans, we’ll retain our creative abilities and craftmanship.

One of the reasons I chose fashion-tech over a strictly fashion career is to help create change. The only way to do that is to be on the other side and push for innovation. I do believe that over the years this gap will become smaller as more women like me help others find this path and inspire them to go in this direction.

Q: How do you think fashion-tech can attract more women?

Interestingly, in the luxury fashion segment, it is mostly women while when it comes to technology, in my experience, you usually encounter men. Getting women to combine their interest and education in fashion with technology and software is the challenge but this is also what I consider a goal for the industry.

One of the reasons I chose fashion-tech over a strictly fashion career is to help create change. The only way to do that is to be on the other side and push for innovation. I do believe that over the years this gap will become smaller as more women like me help others find this path and inspire them to go in this direction.

What I like about the technology sector much of it is open source and people share information and knowledge with each other. This way everyone can thrive together. If the fashion industry adopts more of this mindset, I believe it will lead to more inclusivity in both fashion and tech.