Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Tech meets fashion

I remember being in my Trend Forecasting class and getting an assignment to report on how technology intertwines with fashion, and thinking to myself, "how are these 2 topics related at all?" I mean I see my friends posting outfit pictures on Insta every day, and I read the Twitter feed of the top magazine companies. But do technology and fashion link together any deeper than that? Well today while reading an article online, I got my answer.

Zady is a new online retailer that sells fashion pieces that are both sustainable and high in quality. Their focus is the opposite of our favorite fast- fashion retailers (Zara, H&M, F21); as a slow- fashion retailer they value merchandise that is not mass- produced in a factory, is of utmost quality, and is not harmful to the environment or the workers. Not only that but a portion of each sale goes to the non- profit charity, The Bootstrap Project. Check out the site- prices start at just $15!

Next is Olapic, which is essentially a curator of all those Instagram outfit posts I was talking about. It's a site that scans the hash tags on various social platforms containing pictures of people showcasing what the're wearing that day, and enabling you to log on and shop those articles of clothing. So basically you see a shirt you like? You can click on that link and it'll take you to the place where you can buy it. Cool, hu? The shoe company New Balance used Olapic to scan 6,000 Instagram photos over a 120 day period featuring one of their recent campaigns... the outcome was a 39% increase in conversion. Impressive!

Last but not least is Knomi ("know me"). It's an app that basically brings each customer to life every time they walk into a retail store. It's pretty awesome actually. When the customer walks into the store, all of their information is pulled from the app and displayed onto the sales associate's iPad. Each profile contains things like a photo of the customer, the last time they visited the store, their clothing size and even recent purchases and spending information. The customer obviously gets to choose how much info to share but I think it's pretty cool because even after you leave the store, you can send questions or inquiries about certain products, or the sales associate can reach out to you to ask about your recent purchase.

I'm curious to hear what you all think about these tech inventions.. do they sound like something you would use? Does the Knomi app seem a little too private or do you think it could be useful?

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Cruise/ Resort 2014

Admiring all of the beautiful prints showing up in the Cruise/ Resort 2014 runway collections. I'm noticing a lot of the patterns are kinda nature inspired. Take a look at my favorites :]

This one's from a Milan show, designer: No. 21


Mary Katrantzou, London


Givenchy, New York


Moschino Cheap & Chic, New York

Nicole Miller, New York

Prabal Gurung, New York

3.1 Phillip Lim, New York

Last but not least, this one doesn't really fit in with the nature theme but it's pretty awesome so I had to include it ;)

Clover Canyon, New York



What do you all think of these pieces? Have you seen full coverage on the Resort 2014 collections? What are your favorites?

P.S. Style Sight is one of my favorite places to get coverage on these runway shows, and as FIDM students you can access the site via the FIDM Portal!


Saturday, August 17, 2013

new alum in nyc video up