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The best of 2019's tech experiments will mature, with smart brands building on only those that provide meaningful returns.

Augmented reality, digital clothing and blockchain will continue to develop, while rental, resale and influencer marketing will grow.

Investors will look to B2B startups that provide "behind the scenes" technologies for customer service, logistics and more as new areas for growth.

2019 saw fashion brands and retailers testing new technologies and developing new business models. 2020 will see them identifying, and scaling, practical use-cases.

Last year's fashion-tech investments followed shifting trends in customer behaviour. Developments in data and AI led to new programs from the likes of Kering and Yoox Net-a-Porter aimed to better deliver what customers want, including smarter omnichannel shopping journeys, advanced clienteling and data-informed product development and merchandising. An increasing appetite for newness that doesn't create waste led to a slew of rental and resale models: Urban Outfitters Inc. launched rental service Nuuly; luxury brands like Burberry inked official partnerships with The RealReal and other resale sites. Pushing that trend forward, brands like Louis Vuitton and Farfetch experimented with digital designs through the world of gaming.

This year, brands will continue to eschew big, tech-centric launches in favour of incremental tests, and they will build on what worked best in 2019's year of experimentation. Based on momentum from many of last year's emerging themes, here are the technologies and trends expected to make headlines in the year ahead.

Influencer marketing could benefit from a data squeeze. As data literacy matures, so does consumer and governmental awareness of data privacy. California's new Consumer Privacy Act builds on the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, which gives people more control over the usage of their data, and Apple is making it harder for third parties to gather data. Thus, Forrester predicts that "2020 will be a bad year for third-party data and a good year for marketers who take consumer privacy seriously."

Brands will have to limit reliance on aggregated third-party data to target customers, Forrester says, which might result in decreasing data-informed personalisation efforts. Instead, brands should seek to build authentic connections through influencer marketing, especially as Instagram builds tools to help brands create targeted influencer campaigns based on ideal audience.

Blockchain use-cases will mature and scale. Last year confirmed that the potential of blockchain is becoming apparent to fashion retailers: Farfetch joined the Libra Association, LVMH linked up with Microsoft on Aura and Ba&sh is offering resale through blockchain-enabled purchases. This year, expect Farfetch and LVMH's blockchain strategies to accelerate, which will likely include providing a unique digital identity to items, plus more pilots and products that use blockchain to help authenticate luxury goods like bags and sneakers or anonymously transfer ownership of pre-owned goods. This year could potentially even see the development of luxury payment through cryptocurrency.

Rental and resale will continue their proliferation. In 2019, Burberry, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, Farfetch and Ba&sh saw business opportunities in customers' growing interest in consigning, while startups like Caastle, Reflaunt, The Restory, LePrix and Eon grew to help both brands and customers participate in circular business models. The RealReal's continued rise encapsulated the surge of the model: The company's Q3 revenue increased 55 per cent to $80.5 million, and average order value climbed to $438 from $418. This year, expect a major fashion player to make an even more significant step toward fashion's version of "reduce, reuse, recycle" through in-house resale, rental or the use of deadstock fabrics to make new designs. Last November, for example, Kering's chief client and digital officer Grégory Boutté acknowledged that rental and resale were on his radar. Menswear and streetwear wear will also see more options for rental and resale with startups like Seasons and Laced.

A luxury brand will offer digital clothes. Last year introduced the concept of clothing that exists only digitally: Gucci let customers "try on" Ace sneakers through augmented reality, Louis Vuitton designed "skins" for League of Legends characters and Drest sold digitised versions of Farfetch inventory. While selling digital clothing at luxury prices is yet to come, it's an intriguing method for a brand to experiment with technology, engage with customers and cater to both Instagram culture and sustainability.

Already, some brands are using digital designs to gauge market appetite: In addition to Tommy Hilfiger's digital showrooms, San Francisco brand Taylor Stitch invites customers to pre-order digital designs before they go into production. This programme has been profitable, says Matt Field, co-founder of product development platform Maker/Sights, which works with the brand. Field anticipates seeing bigger brands adopting "flavours of that approach" - by "dropping" digital designs on Instagram before the most popular design is produced, for instance. Already, Scandinavian brand Carlings has created and sold a T-shirt whose designs can be changed digitally using Instagram AR filters.

5G will power augmented reality and live video shopping. The processing power of smartphones and their networks has limited effective augmented-reality projects, including shop-adjacent uses in fashion. As the fifth generation of wireless technology, 5G promises faster downloads and less latency. Combined with the influx of AR developer tools from mainstream platforms like Apple and Facebook, 5G could facilitate the technology's presence on social media in 2020. For example, customers will be able to "try on" designs on social platforms before checking out in-app.

5G will also allow new streaming media formats with higher-definition graphics, sound and interactive technologies, says eMarketer principal analyst Yoram Wurmser, suggesting that livestream video shopping, already generating $4.4 billion in sales in China as of 2018, will become more popular in Western regions. Early players include H&M-owned Monki and ShopShops, which connects Chinese shoppers with US boutiques. Expect platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to jump in with potential new features that facilitate in-app live shopping.

VCs will reward profitability and practicality. Consider it the Softbank effect: the venture funding climate has grown more conservative, with investors prioritising stable growth over bloated scale. In the year ahead, investors will look for companies that can demonstrate customer loyalty and diverse customer acquisition strategies beyond Facebook - a strategy that applies to existing consumer brand startups as well. Building customer loyalty and competing with the technology of Amazon while achieving profitability is a lot to accomplish at once, which is why 2020 will require brands to invest in the less sexy categories of innovation, including fulfilment technology and e-commerce experience.

The B2B companies that facilitate these capabilities behind the scenes are in a position to step into the spotlight this year. Forrester anticipates the rise of "agent whisperer" technologies that help customer service agents more intuitively and accurately respond to customer inquiries.

EMarketer's Lipsman says that brands will find refuge in "Retail as a Service" (RaaS) platforms that deliver off-the-shelf, on-demand services that "fill the innovation gap with back-end technology and infrastructure". He points to Shopify's new fulfilment services, Microsoft's white-label "store-of-the-future" technology and Neighborhood Goods's flexible pop-up format as clear leaders.

After 2019's experiments, 2020 will be a time to stick to the technologies that help brands with staying power. "2020 could become the year that companies convert on the potential energy built up in 2019 to move from prudent investments to breakout growth," says Forrester senior vice president of research Sharyn Leaver. "The most successful will be those that properly invested in their foundation - and have the innovation skills to move quickly."
To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here. Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com. More from this author: Can innovation be taught? VC Sonya Brown on how to stand out as a DTC startup How fashion startups get accepted into tech accelerators

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The best of 2019's tech experiments will mature, with smart brands building on only those that provide meaningful returns. Augmented reality, digital clothing and blockchain will continue to develop, while rental, resale and influencer marketing will grow. Investors will look to B2B startups that provide "behind the scenes" technologies for customer service, logistics and more as new areas for growth.

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Virtual event - ambassadors broadcasting from different fashion capitals and showcasing the benefits of the new app

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This article appeared first in The State of Fashion 2021, an in-depth report on the global fashion industry, co-published by BoF and McKinsey & Company. To learn more and download a copy of the report, click here.
At the beginning of 2020, the luxury industry was at the precipice of a seismic shift. Consumers were increasingly choosing experiences over things, facilitating the rise of the resale and rental markets, and inspiring luxury brands to move further into hospitality. China, which accounted for the lion's share of growth in the market for personal luxury goods in 2019, had never been more important to the survival of old brands, and the development of new ones. E-commerce was steadily gaining market share and, while tourism remained a significant revenue-driver for luxury brands, growing government regulation was already making local customers more important.

Then the pandemic hit, and "seismic" took on a whole new meaning. The global Covid-19 crisis limited the mobility of even the wealthiest consumers because of lockdowns and other travel restrictions. In the 2019 fiscal year, EBITA (or earnings before interest, tax and amortisation) was down an average 3.2 percent, according to the McKinsey Global Fashion Index. Economic profit, which factors in both explicit and implicit costs, was up by 4 percent. Companies big and small, successful and struggling, streamlined operations in order to account for the sudden dip in sales.
The Enduring, All-Important China Factor
But it's not as if shopping halted altogether. Consumers, stuck at home worrying about their finances, were making buying decisions that would have been almost impossible to predict a year earlier. Years of online innovation and change happened in a matter of months, as brands focused on generating revenue from the only channel available in many markets: e-commerce.

Brands were motivated to do whatever they could to recapture lost revenue online. Still, even the biggest companies in the most profitable market segments have been hit hard. The luxury and affordable luxury segments have proven marginally more resilient, with sales shrinking an average 30 percent and EBITA an average 20 percentage points during the quarters falling between February and June 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, according to McKinsey. Sales of mid-priced fashion brands were down 35 percent, with EBITA down 21 percentage points in the same period, while discount players experienced a 36 percent decline in sales, struggling under mountains of unsold inventory.

Years of online innovation and change happened in a matter of months, as brands focused on generating revenue from the only channel available in many markets: e-commerce.

As executives look ahead to 2021 and beyond, it is important to consider the longer-term ramifications for everything that has already happened - and the further changes to come.

Companies that already had a major foothold in China, including luxury's power player conglomerates LVMH and Kering, got a head start in mitigating the pandemic, as the economic impact of lockdowns there were mild in comparison to that of the west - and mass testing made it easier to track and trace the spread of the virus. Brands that generate more than 30 percent of annual sales in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region - including Mainland China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan - achieved higher market valuations during the pandemic than their counterparts who did not have a strong presence in the region, according to analysis by McKinsey of 311 fashion companies that disclose regional sales figures. On average, APAC-focused companies boasted a market cap that was 18 percent higher.

Luxury brands have long relied on Chinese consumers to spend money abroad. But in recent years, as government officials put more restrictions on daigou sellers of grey-market goods and brands worked to harmonise their prices globally, it has become more important to win the local customer by offering site-specific exclusives and entry-price products that appeal to the country's still-rapidly growing middle class. Even as consumers begin travelling again when the pandemic is behind us, the local customer will remain front of mind.
From Experiences to Things, and Back Again
"Recovery is going to happen where businesses and retailers are not heavily tourist-dependent," said Robert Burke, a New York-based retail consultant who works with clients across the globe, from China to South America to Europe. "That's where we are seeing some of the best recoveries: where it's a local shopper."

Looking ahead, that means cultivating local shoppers in other regions too, like Europe, which is over-stored and heavily reliant on out-of-the-country visitors to drive sales. While local China customers will keep that market humming, brands must also look to cultivate local relationships in regions that have recently been more reliant on tourism to drive growth. "China is best placed, but one region can't carry an entire industry," said Philip Guarino, a Paris-based luxury advisor.

Recovery is going to happen where businesses and retailers are not heavily tourist-dependent. That's where we are seeing some of the best recoveries: where it's a local shopper.

The coming years will also force brands to recalibrate their strategies in hard-hit regions like Brazil and India - and further ahead, make inroads on the African continent - where there are growing customer bases but also more barriers to entry and success. "The industry has an opportunity to reset its 'rest of the world' strategy," said Nelli Kim, a New York-based advisor to luxury brands and retailers. "So many people rely on China as the growth engine, [but] there are other emerging markets that also need attention."

For decades, a luxury handbag was the ultimate status symbol, especially for the newly wealthy. But pre-pandemic, it was already becoming clear that customers were looking for something more experiential. That's why luxury companies were hyper-focused on creating experiences, from Louis Vuitton's pop-up in Chicago's West Loop to coincide with Virgil Abloh's exhibit at the city's Museum of Contemporary Art, to the influx of hotel residences emblazoned with names including Versace, Armani and Bulgari.
Balancing Casual Luxury and Investment Pieces
In 2019, market research firm Greenlight Insights projected that the global market for location-based entertainment would grow to $12 billion by 2023, at a compound annual growth rate of 32.2 percent. As consumers made it clear that they were prioritising experiences over things, new business models emerged to ensure they would keep buying clothes in one way or another - from rental to online. But when the pandemic hit, travelling, visiting stores and even going out to eat became impossible for almost everyone. So, curiously, people started buying things again. Luxury handbags, shoes and jewellery fared better than expected in many cases, even if overall consumption was down on pre-pandemic levels.

By the third quarter of the 2020 fiscal year, certain areas of luxury were bouncing back. At LVMH, the fashion division - which includes the crucial leather goods category - was up 12 percent year-on-year, even as overall sales decreased 7 percent (attributed to challenges in its duty-free business), as well as at Sephora, its global beauty store. At independent brand Hermès, sales were up 7 percent overall, with leather goods, apparel, watches, jewellery and home goods all returning to growth. At Kering, overall sales fell just over 1 percent, beating analysts' estimates by nearly 8 percentage points. While sales at Gucci fell almost 9 percent, hot label Bottega Veneta jumped 21 percent.

Has the culture regressed back to 2008, when "it bags" were en vogue? Probably not. It's unlikely consumers will continue to prioritise "things" longer-term after the pandemic. Business travel may not bounce back as quickly, but tourism and experiences are poised to rise in popularity once there's a proven vaccine. Brands must be prepared for another sudden shift back to pre-pandemic consumer trends. Resale has continued to flourish during the pandemic, rental will likely experience a comeback too.

Sales of activewear and loungewear - anything with an elastic waist - have soared through the pandemic, as consumers prioritise comfort, work from home, and adopt new exercise routines in the hopes of remaining active, even in lockdown. While clothing and footwear brands suffered the biggest decline in value - their average market cap was down 18 percent and 19 percent respectively in October 2020 from December 2019 - the sportswear segment saw a strong recovery and increased by 7 percent.

But while the global casualisation of the wardrobe continues - even in China and other parts of the APAC region, where suiting has remained a typical work uniform for both men and women - it won't be the end-all. "Men have felt the need to change up their wardrobes," Burke said. "It's about casual, not athleisure."

In fact, most experts believe that the men's high end ready-to-wear market will continue to expand, whatever the future business-casual wardrobe looks like. "There is more innovation there," Kim said, noting the launch of the Air Jordan Dior collaboration as an exciting fashion moment that was also genderless in its appeal.

"The young people are shopping - and a lot of young men," added Sharifa Murdock, co-owner of Liberty Fashion & Lifestyle Fairs, which includes Capsule. "They're shaping the culture."
Personalising Retail Everywhere
But not every category is winning with these important cohorts. "Watches under 1,000 Swiss francs [approximately US $1,090] are doomed," said Elsa Berry, founder of luxury M&A advisory firm Vendôme Global Partners, referencing the lower end of the market's growing irrelevancy in the face of digitisation.

The industry has an opportunity to reset its 'rest of the world' strategy. So many people rely on China as the growth engine, but there are other emerging markets that also need attention.

"High-end watches and solid luxury jewellery, however, are remarkable in several aspects." Not only are one-off watches and fine jewellery considered investment pieces, they are all also benefiting from the general trend in self-gifting, including a "serious level of interest" in the Chinese market. "The Chinese consumer used to buy jewellery for the weight of gold; now they're buying it because it's beautiful. It's a wonderful way to show their personality, their taste level and to discreetly stand out."

Chinese group Fosun acquired a majority stake in French jewellery brand Djula in late March 2020 through its Yuyan subsidiary in the midst of the pandemic, which she said is evidence that there is market confidence in the category's growth potential.

In 2019, e-commerce made up between 10 and 15 percent of global luxury sales, with Europe and China at the lower end of the range and the US at the higher end. By 2020, the figure had risen by at least 50 percent across all three regions, according to McKinsey. At online luxury marketplace Farfetch, second-quarter sales were up nearly 75 percent from a year earlier to $365 million. Gross merchandise value - or the cost value of goods sold on the site - was up 48 percent. By October, the average market capitalisation of internet retailers was up 42 percent from December 2019.

Single brand retailers from Nike to Louis Vuitton also saw an uptick online, which they attributed in part to personalising the shopping experience in every channel.
Big Guns and Creative Independents
In the past, the "one to one" experience, as Nike calls it, has been reserved for only the top tier of customers. Now fashion brands must make every customer's experience feel more unique through a mix of artificial intelligence, human recommendations and direct contact with salespeople using client communication apps and customer relationship management tools. This won't be easy to scale, as it requires a mix of sophisticated technology and a savvy, well-educated salesperson. "It'll be interesting to watch how they do it - and if they can do it," Kim said.

Most experts believe that the men's ready-to-wear market will continue to expand, whatever the future business-casual wardrobe looks like.

One outcome may be fewer, larger transactions. "So many consumers have shifted to digital that an older demographic is now converting," said Adam Freede, chief executive of US-based Madaluxe, a third-party distributor for fashion brands. "Customer acquisition costs per order have come down."

Whatever happens, the physical retail store will be as important as ever - even if there are fewer of them overall. "Stores are really going to have a heyday," Berry said. "[Changed consumer behaviour] is going to put pressure on the stores that do exist to be super interesting."

The luxury industry was already busy consolidating long before the pandemic, as giants squeezed out mid-sized brands unable to compete with the scale of strategic conglomerates. While each brand in a conglomerate's portfolio commonly pursues independent strategies, synergies at the group level mean brands still benefit in just about every area across talent acquisition, marketing spend, retail footprint and supply chain. Those best positioned to prosper in the next phase of industry growth are conglomerates like LVMH and Kering and vertically integrated independents like Chanel and Hermès, companies that have the ability to directly manage inventory and can easily stop and start production.

"If you don't have your supply chain, e-commerce, etc. up and running in all markets, then you're a weakened player," said Anne Line Hansen, founder of AH Advisory, a boutique European consulting firm. "Without the infrastructure, mid-sized brands are better off being consumed by a group."

If you don't have your supply chain, e-commerce, etc. up and running in all markets, then you're a weakened player. Without the infrastructure, mid-sized brands are better off being consumed by a group.

However, Berry believes there may be an opportunity now for mid-sized brands to come together and form new entities that are better positioned to go up against the giants. "The world has become very complicated... but [conglomerates] are going to get too big," she said. "There is going to be some consolidation between mid-sized companies that are more family- and culture-driven and less corporate."

And yet, industry consolidation does not mean upstarts will be edged out completely. During the pandemic, many young, independent brands have actually thrived. Some because they operate on such a lean budget - using the pre-order drop model to drive sales - and weren't weighed down by excess from the spring season. Others managed to gain mindshare because they have been nimble enough to react rapidly to changing customer sentiments - either by creating relevant products or responding to cultural movements in a sensitive, authentic way.

While the conglomerates are certainly safer than most, a crop of independent brands in the accessible luxury space, including Brooklyn-based Telfar, Los Angeles fashion collective Brain Dead and sweatpants connoisseur Entireworld, made waves and sold-out product, proving that there is still room for smart, original ideas that appeal to the next generation of luxury consumers, who are more attuned to false marketing. The luxury customer of 2020 is well-educated about the product and has high expectations, and they're only going to become more knowledgeable in the years to come.

"Niche brands are willing to test and listen to what their consumers want," Hansen said. "It has forced everyone to be more creative."

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How Covid-19 Is Catalysing a New Era of Luxury

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This article appeared first in The State of Fashion 2021 , an in-depth report on the global fashion industry, co-published by BoF and McKinsey & Company. To learn more and download a copy of the report, click here . At the beginning of 2020, the luxury industry was at the precipice of a seismic shift.

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By Marc C. Close August 31, 2017 05:29

BANGKOK, Thailand - If you think you run a fashion business, you're wrong. A technology business with a fashion focus? Sure. Anything else and you may as well wave the white flag, because the rules of the rag trade are changing. You're either leading that change, or you're a sitting duck ready to be picked off by a sharp-shooting tech juggernaut.

Since Amazon first started peddling books online, Jeff Bezos never once saw his company as a retailer. "Amazon is a technology company. We just happen to do retail," said Amazon CTO Wagner Vogels in 2011. With this mentality it's no surprise Amazon has been able to conquer retail category after retail category, solving long-old supply-chain inefficiencies using technology as the not-so-secret weapon.

From product development to distribution, nothing about the fashion supply-chain is agile. It's impossible for traditional fashion businesses to respond to real-time demand; it takes too long to get ideas to market. Even , the masters of supply-chain efficiency, can only bring a product to market in 10-15 days. In our hyper-connected digital world, a lot can change in 15 minutes let alone 15 days.

The supply-chain also fails with personalisation. Products must be designed to appeal to markets broad enough to justify producing at scale, sacrificing individualisation for unit economics. Then there's the fit issue. Standard sizes statistically fit less than 20 percent of the total addressable population. Too many consumers fall between the cracks of standard sizing bell-curves.

These shortcomings are being aggressively addressed by tech companies. Amazon for one has been mining its retail data and spinning up private labels to exploit product gaps discovered in the apparel market. In April 2017 the company was granted a patent for an on-demand apparel manufacturing system that creates custom clothing to the fit and specifications of individual customers. This means Amazon can not only eliminate inventory, but can respond almost instantly to market trends, and sell their products to the entire population.

Los Angeles-based Fame and Partners is another pioneer in the on-demand apparel supply chain. Like Amazon, the online womenswear label has developed a proprietary factory floor system with their manufacturing partner near Shanghai. CEO Nyree Corby says Fame and Partners use a modular design approach, allowing them to create new styles tied to their pattern and factory floor systems, which in turn maximises design flexibility, fit, and manufacturability. Corby says the rise of direct to consumer labels "translates to a larger proportion of brands now taking inventory risk than their business models previously allowed for." She adds that reduced barriers for new fashion labels going to market "is driving fragmentation of trends and contributing to the general retail malaise."

As consumers and their expectations digitally evolve, so too must the companies that clothe them. It's not viable for fashion companies to design products for market segments when tech companies can design products for specific individuals. It's not viable for fashion companies to spend weeks or months bringing products to market if tech-companies can do the same in seconds.

Technologies like data mining, machine learning, pattern bootstrapping, and product virtualisation are the tools of the new game. Tools that are already bolstering the arsenal of tech retailers like San Francisco-based Stitch Fix. They use artificial intelligence to analyse and predict purchasing behaviour, and formulate new product designs based on what components of style are popular at the time. Their AI-design technology sorts through trillions of design and variants to generate products that have a statistically-high chance of retail success.

From product development to distribution, nothing about the fashion supply-chain is agile.

Human designers cannot compete with AI-designers when it comes to synthesising complex data from multiple sources. They also can't compete with AI-designers to action their findings and assemble, render, and launch entirely new products in seconds. A consumer may soon be browsing an eCommerce site as an AI-designer watches and learns from their actions. The machine could design, render, and display new products to the consumer in real-time based on what it believes they want. The product could then be manufactured only after the consumer has purchased the product, eliminating inventory risk.

This supply chain revolution doesn't only apply to mass-market fashion brands. Luxury brands cannot claim superiority when tech-driven mass-market players can guarantee a more personalised and better-fitting product.

Technology also shifts the creative process towards a more symmetric interaction between consumers and brands. With AI, brands have the scalability to use individual customers as the basis of inspiration for designs. H&M's Ivyrevel have collaborated with Google to translate "a week of your life into a one-of-a-kind design." Lifestyle data is collected through an Ivyrevel app, including tracking venues they visit and activities they do. The app learns "who you are, what you like to do, and where you like to go," and then proposes a unique dress design for a specific occasion.

This might sound like novelty, however it's just the beginning of a movement where technology begins to inform the creative process. To remain at the cutting-edge, luxury brands must learn to harness AI to pioneer new and meaningful experiences with consumers.

Fashion businesses need to start their transition into technology companies now. The sooner they start, the sooner they'll cultivate the domain expertise required to remain competitive in the future. Firstly, digitise historical designs and build a rich database of products split into their individual variants. When properly organised, a human or AI designer can easily reference this library to assemble unique product without having to create anything from scratch.

Secondly, ditch standard-size grading and adopt parametric pattern grading. With parametric grading any product design can be made to fit any body type. It is getting easier and easier to capture customer body data, from taking 3D body scans on smartphones to predicting 50+ measurements from a few questions about fit. It's only a matter of time before the mass market falls for bespoke fit, and you don't want to be dependent on standard sizes when that time comes.

With parametric grading and bespoke fit comes the third recommendation: supplement your mass-produced inventory with on-demand production. You can quash sizing-related problems, eliminate unsold inventory headaches, and be responsive to consumer demand on a sale-by-sale basis. A low-barrier-of-entry approach would be to leverage pre-sales as a way to collect a critical mass of orders before producing custom products at scale.

Finally, start collecting and analysing all the data that you have, such as point-of-sale data, e-commerce analytics and metrics about your customers. Whatever you have, collect it. Your biggest competitive advantage is locked away in the data that flows through your business, day in day out. Build infrastructure around your data to analyse and take action on the findings. Your business' survival depends on it.
Marc C. Close is the co-founder and CEO of Bespokify. "The Future VOICES initiative is an important soap box for future industry leaders to share their ideas with the global fashion community. It's important for the industry to keep pace with the change and disruption happening all around, and the quicker these ideas can be picked up and embraced by established industry players, the quicker the industry will evolve. A personal highlight of the writing process has been dedicating my time to researching a topic I believe very strongly in. It was immensely rewarding connecting with other like-minded industry leaders and hearing about their ideas for the future of fashion." The views expressed in Op-Ed pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Business of Fashion.

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By Marc C. Close August 31, 2017 05:29 BANGKOK, Thailand - If you think you run a fashion business, you're wrong. A technology business with a fashion focus? Sure. Anything else and you may as well wave the white flag, because the rules of the rag trade are changing.

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The 2019 edition of Viva Technology, the world's premier rendezvous celebrating innovation, is set for May 16-18 in Paris. LVMH is a major sponsor of the event for the fourth consecutive year, both as co-organizer via media group Les Echos and as a top-tier partner. With its 500-square-meter Luxury Lab, the world leader in luxury confirms its active engagement with the startup ecosystem and continuous commitment to innovation that fuses the best of technology and savoir-faire.
This commitment underpins an array of concrete initiatives that structure a compelling ecosystem supported by the Group, with Viva Technology constituting a key pillar. Viva Technology provides a showcase for the forward-thinking solutions developed by startups from around the world, the best of which are recognized by the LVMH Innovation Award.

The theme chosen by LVMH for VivaTech 2019 - Crafting the Customer Experience of Tomorrow - will serve as the guide for demonstrations and presentations throughout the event. The Luxury Lab is organized according to the eight stages in the customer journey, from product awareness through after-sales service. The goal is to deliver innovations for customers that make their purchase experience uniquely memorable and fluid. Augmented reality, machine learning and artificial intelligence all usher in a new luxury experience thanks to applications such as virtual try-ons, immersion into the universe of Maisons or seamless payment.

" Innovation is our obsession at LVMH. We strive to exceed client expectations across the board. Visitors of the LVMH Lab at VivaTech will see first hand how our Maisons and our Innovation Award finalists are helping to further that goal of crafting the customer experience of tomorrow, " says Ian Rogers, Chief Digital Officer, LVMH.

A contemporary take on 19th-century wrought iron pavilions, the Pavillon LVMH will welcome 24 of the Group's Maisons along with 30 startups selected from around the world. The Maisons and startups will present their solutions in a sequence that follows the customer journey. The startups have been shortlisted for the final round of the LVMH Innovation Award, the winner of which will be announced by Bernard Arnault and Ian Rogers during a ceremony on Friday, May 17 at 10 am.

LVMH Maisons will be unveiling their most recent innovations at VivaTech, spotlighting those that elevate the customer experience thanks to compelling immersive in-store engagement (Fendi, Bvlgari, Acqua di Parma...), innovative products (Louis Vuitton, Kenzo Parfums...), new generation payment services (Sephora, La Grande Epicerie de Paris), virtual reality (Maison Francis Kurkdjian) and augmented reality (La Samaritaine, Ruinart...). The conversation between startups and LVMH Maisons - already very active throughout the year, notably at the Station F incubator - will nourish the dynamic exchanges and emulation that make Viva Technology such a uniquely enriching event.

For the first time this year the Pavillon LVMH will host a "Talent Meet & Connect" space where young talents will be able to talk to members of the HR teams from LVMH and its Maisons throughout the event to learn more about the myriad opportunities in Digital across the Group.
Close-up on LVMH at Viva Technology 2019:

May 16-18, 2019

LVMH is a partner of Viva Technology for the 4th consecutive year (Platinum Partner since 2018)

Pavillon LVMH: 500 square meters (booth J30/Hall 1)

3 days of discovery, knowledge sharing, and networking (two B2B days plus one day open to the public, on Saturday)

24 participating LVMH Maisons will demonstrate their latest innovations, including Louis Vuitton's Canvas of the Future, available on two of the Maison's iconic leathergoods, the Speedy and the Duffle; the Ruinart augmented reality escape game; Fendi's Baguette Magic Mirror, an immersive experience to discover a selection of Baguette bags; and the Bvlgari "automatic jewelry distributor".

30 startups competing for the 3rd LVMH Innovation Award

This year's theme: Crafting the Customer Experience of Tomorrow

The Pavillon LVMH is organized to trace the eight key stages in the customer experience (1: Awareness, 2: Exploration, 3: Storytelling, 4: Omnichannel, 5: Product, 6: Trial Experience, 7: Payment, 8: CRM)

2 pitch sessions during which finalist startups present their solutions

27 keynotes and talks on the Pavillon LVMH stage

Presentation of the LVMH Innovation Award by Bernard Arnault and Ian Rogers on Friday, May 17 at 10 am on the CEO Forum stage

speakers include Ian Rogers, Chief Digital Officer, LVMH and Norbert Leuret (President of LVMH Japan) on "Japan's Next Chapter: Luxury and Commerce in Japan Today"

"Talent Meet & Connect" space hosted by HR teams from LVMH and its Maisons to welcome young talents and present new career opportunities in Digital

Presentation and first-person feedback from the DARE LVMH intrapreneurship initiative

Moët Hennessy innovations, related to the customer experience, will be shown at The Chill Bar in Hall 2.2

Small local food producers from the Île-de-France (greater Paris) region, sourced and supported by La Grande Épicerie de Paris

MAKE UP FOR EVER makeup partner of the CEO Forum

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LVMH showcases the customer experience of tomorrow at Viva Technology 2019 - LVMH

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The 2019 edition of Viva Technology, the world's premier rendezvous celebrating innovation, is set for May 16-18 in Paris. LVMH is a major sponsor of the event for the fourth consecutive year, both as co-organizer via media group Les Echos and as a top-tier partner.

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"The revolutionary app with an apparent objective: approach technology to their customers and broadening into a slightly younger audience that rules social media but is not the current Chloé customer yet.

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The “Chloé Look” will be an innovative app that will connect the Chloé customers between each other, having the chance to share their ideas, purchases and any digital content that englobes their passion for the brand. Moreover, the idea behind this initiative is to approach a luxury brand that is currently targeted to an older customer (above 30 years old) into a younger audience that rules social media.

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Chloé is a French fashion house founded in 1952 by Gaby Aghionin Paris, who originally came from Egypt from a cosmopolitan family, bringing this way a Jewish-Egyptian essence very present in her initial collections. Aghion and her partner, Jacques Lenoir were pioneers on understanding the demand for collections that could merge the strict requirements of haute couture at that time in Paris. It was not until 1956 when they launched their first collection at Le Café de Flore, a very well-known café where artists and intellectuals usually gathered together. It was then when Chloé first hit off and Aghion and her partner began to hire young talented designers, that later on would acquire their own fame such as Carlos Rodriguez, Maxime de la Falaise or Guy Paulin.(Chloé Official Website, 2019)

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In terms of Chloe´s identity, Gaby Aghion always wanted Chloe to have a happy spirit to make people happy. All throughout the years the brand has being loyal to the original essence Aghion installed back in the days. The brand´s DNA has always been defined as a romantic and cool woman who would pull of very glamorous designs that would characterize the Chloé girl with huge aspirations and huge success a head of her. In terms of their designs, Chloé has also driven their garments towards a sophisticated but at the same time comfortable style; which means Chloé has always a kept a very minimalistic and simplistic spirit. Not only we have witnessed this in their designs, but also in their advertising campaigns and their marketing strategies. (Daily News Impact European, 2019)

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Ashley Graham

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Ming Xi

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Arizona Muse

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Cindy Bruna