In the past year, everyone in the fashion industry has learned the lesson that they need to pivot their age-old business model or succumb to the changing dynamics of the market. Another underlying factor that has caught people's attention is the misuse of the fashion domain, particularly the apparel segment. Customers understand that the fast-fashion world is destructive and has significant and irreversible consequences on the ecosystem and environment. Therefore, solutions, such as 3d clothing design software, are here to help fashion brands and retailers evolve with the latest trends in the fashion sector and take the business to a new level. The customization software enables brands to be ahead of their times and make their business model more flexible, allowing them to incorporate any changes that come with time. Also, it helps apparel houses to keep track of the manufactured garments as they will only manufacture products demanded by customers through digital technology in real-time.
3D Fashion Software Allows Brands to Mold their Business Model
Fast fashion has always guaranteed enviable growth to many clothing companies as they compressed the production cycles and turned up-to-the-minute designs. These businesses have enabled shoppers not only to expand their wardrobes but also to refresh them quickly. Across nearly every apparel category, consumers keep clothing items about half as long as they did 15 years ago. Some estimates suggest that consumers treat the lowest-priced garments as nearly disposable, discarding them after just seven or eight years. Fast fashion has remained a large, sophisticated business fed by a divided and relatively low-tech production system which has outsized environmental impacts. This mode of production requires a lot of water and chemicals and emits significant amounts of greenhouse gases. Also, many cases have been reported where the factory workers were underpaid and exposed to unsafe and sometimes even deadly workplace conditions, particularly when handling materials like cotton and leather that require extensive processing. Without improvements in how clothing is made, these issues will grow proportionally as more clothes are produced. However, customers have realized that these frequent changes are causing hazardous impacts on the environment in the last year. Therefore, we see that since the beginning of this decade, people are coming back to nature and preferring to purchase stylish products affordable and eco-friendly. In fact, many fashion houses are meeting these demands, and we can see falling costs, streamlined operations, and rising consumer expenses and disposable income. Now companies are trying to reduce their social and environmental costs. While fast fashion may not soon get extinct, more people are placing a strong emphasis on sustainability and eco-friendly clothing. As a result of this shift in consumer behaviour, many brands have started to evolve and adapt to sustainability.
It is also true that innovation in the fashion sector has failed to keep up with how clothes are manufactured. Many big names in the sector have shied away from incorporating the latest digital solutions that would have helped them accelerate their designing and marketing processes. As they say, let the bygones be bygones, and we should now focus on the future where sustainability is gaining enormous traction from buyers and brands. Many fashion companies have also begun to take initiatives that guarantee their adherence towards ethical and eco-friendly motives. For instance, fashion made pledges to sustainability this year at COP26, and material innovation accelerated, and interest in circularity piqued.
Most importantly, a growing realization emerged that climate change is as much about equity as it is about carbon going into 2022. Several stakeholders and big wigs have also realized the fact that climate change is not just about emissions; it is about a system that has been benefiting itself from the extravagant spending of the majority population. Emissions are still going up, circularity remains elusive, gen-next textiles have yet to scale, and countless garment workers still go hungry. It is better late than never; even so, the fashion sector has made little but tangible progress towards its sustainability efforts. It is high time that the sector indulges in positive conversations, urgently addresses the concerns, and sends the positive signs to people. Many leading brands have taken this on a positive note, and they are talking about establishing biodiversity strategies and discussing end-of-life impacts which reflects a shift in mindset as new strategies are developed for next year.
In the last 12 months, mindsets and decision-making frameworks have started to change, with alarm bells going off triggering meaningful action. The progress has been a bit slow because this is how it is how it is designed to be, tweaking around the edges. Nevertheless, we can now talk about the sea changes, which was never a part of the conversations. Brands are now gradually eliminating fossil fuels and increasing worker wages which requires a systematic transformation of industry infrastructure and business models. Next year, brands also need to prioritize and address the need to educate exporters about the sustainability themes that have emerged from fashion this year. Hence, it would be appropriate to say that rising numbers of brands and customers are willing to align with the strategies that look after the planet while also providing top-notch fashion products and looks. Let us now concentrate on the latest trends and ways many leading companies in the apparel sector incorporate to ensure smooth business while keeping their production in check.
Here are some ways the apparel brands and retailers are leading the way in the fashion sector by balancing profits and nature:
1. Implementing Digital Solutions to Ensure Minimum Wastage
The latest technologies seem to have solutions for any business problem, and they also have the potential to kill two birds with one arrow. These solutions can be efficiently put to use to balance sustainable measures and fashion while offering enhanced product quality and providing marvellous customer experiences. Digital and customization solutions, such as clothes designing software, are helping brands to attain these targets as they allow your buyers to determine the types of apparel they wish to wear and design it using 3d technology. It further helps reduce the waste of clothes as buyers will now have the upper hand in customizing the looks that best suits them and previewing them using digital technology. Also, when customers are so emotionally invested in creating their fashion looks, they experience empowerment and feel they are more independent and can voice their opinions freely. Consequently, they are more likely to return to your store for more similar experiences and share the word with their friends and family members.
Therefore, leading fashion brands and retailers are competing to provide exceptional shopping experiences, and for that, they are partnering with many giants in the gaming sector. For instance, Burberry, which is a continuation of the partnership with Honor of Kings, a mobile game, has released exclusive designs. Two new skins were made available for the game's heroine, Yao, with looks inspired by outfits from the brand's spring/summer 2021 collection. One even included the classic Burberry trench, complete with beige colourings and the house's check lining. Fans were able to buy the looks both in-game, online and in stores in mainland China. This year, many brands had strived to blur the lines between the fashion and gaming worlds, especially when people had no other choice than to turn towards the comfort of the digital realm. It appears that several customers are pivoting their attention to their online selves, a move that high-end fashion brands saw a market in. As a result, many leading brands are willing to enter the new domain by joining forces with the already established gaming platforms in which players can navigate into digital worlds through customizable avatars. These collaborations have opened up a vast untapped market for fashion companies by launching virtual collections and branded content.
2. Raising Awareness Among Buyers for Sustainable Products
As we are entering a new year, people will be gifting products to one another; however, a new trend emerged during the holiday season, which is more environmentally friendly and less wasteful. This is when people would over-indulge in over-excessive waste; here, brands have the chance to do more around sustainability. Research from CIM indicates that 53 per cent of adults are more interested in spending on sustainable festive products. 64 per cent of the 2,000 respondents expect fashion companies and marketing teams to be more transparent about the impact of fashion products used for gifts or clothes during the parties, which could have the least impact on the environment. If these alternatives are not met, they will be forced to look for alternatives.
According to the report, many buyers are already taking the initiative and are not waiting for brands to come up with solutions and are seeking alternatives that offer more sustainable festive options, with 41 per cent of people opting for recyclable products rather than buying new buys, while 22 per cent are more interested in purchasing from local businesses and 26 per cent are moving towards buying from reusable plastic products. Other popular options include renting outfits for parties instead of purchasing new clothes, sustainable gift packaging and sending e-cards rather than Christmas cards.
3. Working Towards Creating More Equal Opportunities
We all are aware of the negative impacts of fast fashion and the harm it causes to the workers working in the factories that manufacture these products. Though decarbonizing the fashion sector is challenging, we can do our bit to ensure that workers in the industry work in a less polluting and more ethical functioning. Suppose the industry devotes itself to actually attaining it. In that case, the process it needs to sweep will tackle some of the fashion's problems along the way, such as waste and overproduction and the overuse of hazardous chemicals. Low labor costs are one of the trends that precipitate the current challenges. The low pricing of clothes could be another factor that could lead to poor working conditions and leads to larger, systemic issues, including overproduction and consumer waste. Increasing the power of labor and organizing power and wages could effectively force a system to change. Also, apparel fashion companies can sign documents that safeguard their workers and compensate them when they meet with an accident. For instance, in a tragic incident, a fire broke out in a sportswear factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, killing 29 workers. These workers made clothing for brands including Target, Kohl, JCPenney, Carter's, Abercrombie & Fitch, amongst others. This incident was a wake-up call for many leading companies, and these American retailers started maintaining and monitoring labor rights post this fatal accident. Despite calls in the wake of this disaster for all apparel brands and retailers producing in Bangladesh to help address the sweeping safety deficiencies across the country's 3,000 garment factories, multiple US companies rejected the creation of a new safety agreement. For example, Walmart claimed in 2011 that it was "not financially feasible" for it to pay better prices to suppliers to help pay for safety renovations like proper fire exits.
Conclusion-
To sum up the blog, it would be appropriate to conclude that fashion brands and retailers need to shun their attitude of just tweaking the old traditional model around; instead, directly operate on the wound to produce positive outcomes. Apparel manufacturers and retailers must work towards changing the mindset among buyers and bearing with some setbacks because these will yield fruitful outcomes. Likewise, the 3d clothing design software by iDesigniBuy will help clothing houses to maintain and balance profits and the environment with the help of its customization and digital solutions. These features enable brands to provide marvellous customer experiences using 3d technology and allow them to preview the product. Additionally, when customers are involved in designing their clothes, they are less likely to waste and pay premium prices for their experience and golden opportunity to wear their fashion.
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