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- Pant suit nation - Hilary clinton
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- how clothing can define your socioeconimical background / perception

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history of virtual reality

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VR began to advance when aircraft designers began experimenting with ways for computers to develop aircraft models. Computer experts began redesigning computers so they could display these models. Following WWII and throughout the 1990s, the first true form of virtual reality was the development of the flight simulator. This was used to train military personnel before subjecting them to the dangers of flight. This was the first interactive virtual environment.

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VR began to advance when aircraft designers began experimenting with ways for computers to develop aircraft models. Computer experts began redesigning computers so they could display these models. Following WWII and throughout the 1990s, the first true form of virtual reality was the development of the flight simulator.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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POLITICO Magazine
03/19/2020 07:30 PM EDT Link Copied

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Coronavirus Will Change the World Permanently. Here’s How.

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A crisis on this scale can reorder society in dramatic ways, for better or worse. Here are 34 big thinkers’ predictions for what’s to come.

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Humankind is now facing a global crisis. Perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. The decisions people and governments take in the next few weeks will probably shape the world for years to come. They will shape not just our healthcare systems but also our economy, politics and culture. We must act quickly and decisively. We should also take into account the long-term consequences of our actions. When choosing between alternatives, we should ask ourselves not only how to overcome the immediate threat, but also what kind of world we will inhabit once the storm passes. Yes, the storm will pass, humankind will survive, most of us will still be alive - but we will inhabit a different world.

Many short-term emergency measures will become a fixture of life. That is the nature of emergencies. They fast-forward historical processes. Decisions that in normal times could take years of deliberation are passed in a matter of hours. Immature and even dangerous technologies are pressed into service, because the risks of doing nothing are bigger. Entire countries serve as guinea-pigs in large-scale social experiments. What happens when everybody works from home and communicates only at a distance? What happens when entire schools and universities go online? In normal times, governments, businesses and educational boards would never agree to conduct such experiments. But these aren't normal times.

In this time of crisis, we face two particularly important choices. The first is between totalitarian surveillance and citizen empowerment. The second is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity.

Under-the-skin surveillance

In order to stop the epidemic, entire populations need to comply with certain guidelines. There are two main ways of achieving this. One method is for the government to monitor people, and punish those who break the rules. Today, for the first time in human history, technology makes it possible to monitor everyone all the time. Fifty years ago, the KGB couldn't follow 240m Soviet citizens 24 hours a day, nor could the KGB hope to effectively process all the information gathered. The KGB relied on human agents and analysts, and it just couldn't place a human agent to follow every citizen. But now governments can rely on ubiquitous sensors and powerful algorithms instead of flesh-and-blood spooks.

In their battle against the coronavirus epidemic several governments have already deployed the new surveillance tools. The most notable case is China. By closely monitoring people's smartphones, making use of hundreds of millions of face-recognising cameras, and obliging people to check and report their body temperature and medical condition, the Chinese authorities can not only quickly identify suspected coronavirus carriers, but also track their movements and identify anyone they came into contact with. A range of mobile apps warn citizens about their proximity to infected patients.

This kind of technology is not limited to east Asia. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel recently authorised the Israel Security Agency to deploy surveillance technology normally reserved for battling terrorists to track coronavirus patients. When the relevant parliamentary subcommittee refused to authorise the measure, Netanyahu rammed it through with an "emergency decree".

You might argue that there is nothing new about all this. In recent years both governments and corporations have been using ever more sophisticated technologies to track, monitor and manipulate people. Yet if we are not careful, the epidemic might nevertheless mark an important watershed in the history of surveillance. Not only because it might normalise the deployment of mass surveillance tools in countries that have so far rejected them, but even more so because it signifies a dramatic transition from "over the skin" to "under the skin" surveillance.

Hitherto, when your finger touched the screen of your smartphone and clicked on a link, the government wanted to know what exactly your finger was clicking on. But with coronavirus, the focus of interest shifts. Now the government wants to know the temperature of your finger and the blood-pressure under its skin.

The emergency pudding

One of the problems we face in working out where we stand on surveillance is that none of us know exactly how we are being surveilled, and what the coming years might bring. Surveillance technology is developing at breakneck speed, and what seemed science-fiction 10 years ago is today old news. As a thought experiment, consider a hypothetical government that demands that every citizen wears a biometric bracelet that monitors body temperature and heart-rate 24 hours a day. The resulting data is hoarded and analysed by government algorithms. The algorithms will know that you are sick even before you know it, and they will also know where you have been, and who you have met. The chains of infection could be drastically shortened, and even cut altogether. Such a system could arguably stop the epidemic in its tracks within days. Sounds wonderful, right?

The downside is, of course, that this would give legitimacy to a terrifying new surveillance system. If you know, for example, that I clicked on a Fox News link rather than a CNN link, that can teach you something about my political views and perhaps even my personality. But if you can monitor what happens to my body temperature, blood pressure and heart-rate as I watch the video clip, you can learn what makes me laugh, what makes me cry, and what makes me really, really angry.

It is crucial to remember that anger, joy, boredom and love are biological phenomena just like fever and a cough. The same technology that identifies coughs could also identify laughs. If corporations and governments start harvesting our biometric data en masse, they can get to know us far better than we know ourselves, and they can then not just predict our feelings but also manipulate our feelings and sell us anything they want - be it a product or a politician. Biometric monitoring would make Cambridge Analytica's data hacking tactics look like something from the Stone Age. Imagine North Korea in 2030, when every citizen has to wear a biometric bracelet 24 hours a day. If you listen to a speech by the Great Leader and the bracelet picks up the tell-tale signs of anger, you are done for.

You could, of course, make the case for biometric surveillance as a temporary measure taken during a state of emergency. It would go away once the emergency is over. But temporary measures have a nasty habit of outlasting emergencies, especially as there is always a new emergency lurking on the horizon. My home country of Israel, for example, declared a state of emergency during its 1948 War of Independence, which justified a range of temporary measures from press censorship and land confiscation to special regulations for making pudding (I kid you not). The War of Independence has long been won, but Israel never declared the emergency over, and has failed to abolish many of the "temporary" measures of 1948 (the emergency pudding decree was mercifully abolished in 2011).

Even when infections from coronavirus are down to zero, some data-hungry governments could argue they needed to keep the biometric surveillance systems in place because they fear a second wave of coronavirus, or because there is a new Ebola strain evolving in central Africa, or because . . . you get the idea. A big battle has been raging in recent years over our privacy. The coronavirus crisis could be the battle's tipping point. For when people are given a choice between privacy and health, they will usually choose health.

The soap police

Asking people to choose between privacy and health is, in fact, the very root of the problem. Because this is a false choice. We can and should enjoy both privacy and health. We can choose to protect our health and stop the coronavirus epidemic not by instituting totalitarian surveillance regimes, but rather by empowering citizens. In recent weeks, some of the most successful efforts to contain the coronavirus epidemic were orchestrated by South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. While these countries have made some use of tracking applications, they have relied far more on extensive testing, on honest reporting, and on the willing co-operation of a well-informed public.

Centralised monitoring and harsh punishments aren't the only way to make people comply with beneficial guidelines. When people are told the scientific facts, and when people trust public authorities to tell them these facts, citizens can do the right thing even without a Big Brother watching over their shoulders. A self-motivated and well-informed population is usually far more powerful and effective than a policed, ignorant population.

Consider, for example, washing your hands with soap. This has been one of the greatest advances ever in human hygiene. This simple action saves millions of lives every year. While we take it for granted, it was only in the 19th century that scientists discovered the importance of washing hands with soap. Previously, even doctors and nurses proceeded from one surgical operation to the next without washing their hands. Today billions of people daily wash their hands, not because they are afraid of the soap police, but rather because they understand the facts. I wash my hands with soap because I have heard of viruses and bacteria, I understand that these tiny organisms cause diseases, and I know that soap can remove them.

But to achieve such a level of compliance and co-operation, you need trust. People need to trust science, to trust public authorities, and to trust the media. Over the past few years, irresponsible politicians have deliberately undermined trust in science, in public authorities and in the media. Now these same irresponsible politicians might be tempted to take the high road to authoritarianism, arguing that you just cannot trust the public to do the right thing.

Normally, trust that has been eroded for years cannot be rebuilt overnight. But these are not normal times. In a moment of crisis, minds too can change quickly. You can have bitter arguments with your siblings for years, but when some emergency occurs, you suddenly discover a hidden reservoir of trust and amity, and you rush to help one another. Instead of building a surveillance regime, it is not too late to rebuild people's trust in science, in public authorities and in the media. We should definitely make use of new technologies too, but these technologies should empower citizens. I am all in favour of monitoring my body temperature and blood pressure, but that data should not be used to create an all-powerful government. Rather, that data should enable me to make more informed personal choices, and also to hold government accountable for its decisions.

If I could track my own medical condition 24 hours a day, I would learn not only whether I have become a health hazard to other people, but also which habits contribute to my health. And if I could access and analyse reliable statistics on the spread of coronavirus, I would be able to judge whether the government is telling me the truth and whether it is adopting the right policies to combat the epidemic. Whenever people talk about surveillance, remember that the same surveillance technology can usually be used not only by governments to monitor individuals - but also by individuals to monitor governments.

The coronavirus epidemic is thus a major test of citizenship. In the days ahead, each one of us should choose to trust scientific data and healthcare experts over unfounded conspiracy theories and self-serving politicians. If we fail to make the right choice, we might find ourselves signing away our most precious freedoms, thinking that this is the only way to safeguard our health.

We need a global plan

The second important choice we confront is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity. Both the epidemic itself and the resulting economic crisis are global problems. They can be solved effectively only by global co-operation.

First and foremost, in order to defeat the virus we need to share information globally. That's the big advantage of humans over viruses. A coronavirus in China and a coronavirus in the US cannot swap tips about how to infect humans. But China can teach the US many valuable lessons about coronavirus and how to deal with it. What an Italian doctor discovers in Milan in the early morning might well save lives in Tehran by evening. When the UK government hesitates between several policies, it can get advice from the Koreans who have already faced a similar dilemma a month ago. But for this to happen, we need a spirit of global co-operation and trust.

In the days ahead, each one of us should choose to trust scientific data and healthcare experts over unfounded conspiracy theories and self-serving politicians

Countries should be willing to share information openly and humbly seek advice, and should be able to trust the data and the insights they receive. We also need a global effort to produce and distribute medical equipment, most notably testing kits and respiratory machines. Instead of every country trying to do it locally and hoarding whatever equipment it can get, a co-ordinated global effort could greatly accelerate production and make sure life-saving equipment is distributed more fairly. Just as countries nationalise key industries during a war, the human war against coronavirus may require us to "humanise" the crucial production lines. A rich country with few coronavirus cases should be willing to send precious equipment to a poorer country with many cases, trusting that if and when it subsequently needs help, other countries will come to its assistance.

We might consider a similar global effort to pool medical personnel. Countries currently less affected could send medical staff to the worst-hit regions of the world, both in order to help them in their hour of need, and in order to gain valuable experience. If later on the focus of the epidemic shifts, help could start flowing in the opposite direction.

Global co-operation is vitally needed on the economic front too. Given the global nature of the economy and of supply chains, if each government does its own thing in complete disregard of the others, the result will be chaos and a deepening crisis. We need a global plan of action, and we need it fast.

Another requirement is reaching a global agreement on travel. Suspending all international travel for months will cause tremendous hardships, and hamper the war against coronavirus. Countries need to co-operate in order to allow at least a trickle of essential travellers to continue crossing borders: scientists, doctors, journalists, politicians, businesspeople. This can be done by reaching a global agreement on the pre-screening of travellers by their home country. If you know that only carefully screened travellers were allowed on a plane, you would be more willing to accept them into your country.

Unfortunately, at present countries hardly do any of these things. A collective paralysis has gripped the international community. There seem to be no adults in the room. One would have expected to see already weeks ago an emergency meeting of global leaders to come up with a common plan of action. The G7 leaders managed to organise a videoconference only this week, and it did not result in any such plan.

In previous global crises - such as the 2008 financial crisis and the 2014 Ebola epidemic - the US assumed the role of global leader. But the current US administration has abdicated the job of leader. It has made it very clear that it cares about the greatness of America far more than about the future of humanity.

This administration has abandoned even its closest allies. When it banned all travel from the EU, it didn't bother to give the EU so much as an advance notice - let alone consult with the EU about that drastic measure. It has scandalised Germany by allegedly offering $1bn to a German pharmaceutical company to buy monopoly rights to a new Covid-19 vaccine. Even if the current administration eventually changes tack and comes up with a global plan of action, few would follow a leader who never takes responsibility, who never admits mistakes, and who routinely takes all the credit for himself while leaving all the blame to others.

If the void left by the US isn't filled by other countries, not only will it be much harder to stop the current epidemic, but its legacy will continue to poison international relations for years to come. Yet every crisis is also an opportunity. We must hope that the current epidemic will help humankind realise the acute danger posed by global disunity.

Humanity needs to make a choice. Will we travel down the route of disunity, or will we adopt the path of global solidarity? If we choose disunity, this will not only prolong the crisis, but will probably result in even worse catastrophes in the future. If we choose global solidarity, it will be a victory not only against the coronavirus, but against all future epidemics and crises that might assail humankind in the 21st century.
Yuval Noah Harari is author of 'Sapiens', 'Homo Deus' and '21 Lessons for the 21st Century' Copyright © Yuval Noah Harari 2020 Follow @FTLifeArts on Twitter to find out about our latest stories first. Listen to our culture podcast, Culture Call, where editors Gris and Lilah dig into the trends shaping life in the 2020s, interview the people breaking new ground and bring you behind the scenes of FT Life & Arts journalism. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Letters in response to this article:
So, Prof Harari, who am I supposed to trust? / From Justin Evans Let's be the good ancestors our descendants deserve / From Lord Bird (Crossbench) and others

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Yuval Noah Harari: the world after coronavirus | Free to read

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Humankind is now facing a global crisis. Perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. The decisions people and governments take in the next few weeks will probably shape the world for years to come. They will shape not just our healthcare systems but also our economy, politics and culture.

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Summary of the House of Beautiful Business Living Room Session on "Post-Techlash Tech"

Will the coronavirus crisis reset our relationship to tech? And if so, which principles should we apply to shape a more humane technology going forward?

Last night, we explored these questions in the House of Beautiful Business' first public online Living Room Session, focusing on " Post-Techlash Tech." Before the live discussions, my colleagues Monika Jiang and Till Grusche had taken playfully extreme positions in their email battle, and they were in good company with recent articles both in The New York Times (" The Coronavirus is Showing Us How to Live Online") and The Guardian (" Coronavirus is a chance to reset our relationship with our phones ").

Although Living Room Sessions are usually an exclusive benefit for our members, aka "Residents" of the House of Beautiful Business, in light of the coronavirus crisis we decided to open them up to the public for free until at least the end of April. Last night, 150 people joined us, and it was incredible to see so many Residents and new people convene virtually to actively take part in this discussion.

Our three speakers were John C. Havens, executive director of the IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems; Kit McDonnell, systems biologist at Ginkgo Bioworks; and Jared Ficklin, chief creative technologist at argodesign. From ethical guidelines for AI to the promise of synthetic biology to "fantastic futures" inspired by technophilia, they each presented a different optimistic vision for the future of humane technology.

Ethical AI, human wellbeing, and mental health

John C. Havens spoke from the "belly of the beast", representing IEEE, the world's largest technical professional organization representing more than 420,000 engineers across the globe. IEEE is the organization that creates and certifies the standards behind a large part of our digital infrastructure: mobile phones, WiFi, and other communications. To say that IEEE has at least some influence over how we embed technology in our lives, is an understatement, and it was encouraging to hear John promote a values-driven approach (" Ethically Aligned Design") and new IEEE standards for wellbeing, including one to combat climate change and protect children in the age of AI.

Furthermore, John stressed that we need to "rebrand mental health in the algorithmic age so that humans always know their worth." He cautioned us to consider that the conversation about "AI outperforming humans" would aggravate mental health issues, and asked companies and governments to pay more attention to this dimension of human wellbeing. "We can celebrate the glorious machines that we have without denigrating ourselves," he said. Citing New Zealand's national budget for wellbeing as well as Denmark's concept of " Hygge," he called for (technology enabling) "intentional intimacy" to fight the loneliness epidemic (exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic) and foster human flourishing.

Synthetic biology - the next big promise?

Following John, Kit McDonell, in conversation with my co-host Monika Jiang, opened the black box of synthetic biology, heralding a more symbiotic relationship between biology, science, and tech, as well as between humans and their natural habitat. At her company, Ginkgo Bioworks, which calls itself "the organism company," Kit combines science and engineering to literally create new forms of life - arguably, the most exciting manufacturing technology on the planet and especially relevant as a potential remedy to a pandemic like the coronavirus.

As Azeem Azhar wrote in his Exponential View newsletter: "If you think that the surveillance economy based on monetizing people's private experiences will be the most 'valuable' enterprise in the 21st century, think again: it will be Biology. When we reach full sequencing capacity, we will be generating about 1,000-2,000 more data than that produced by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube - combined. Significant advances in artificial intelligence and in causal data science of the type pioneered by Elias Barenboim and Judea Pearl will be needed to decodify the many complex networks at work in the Book of Life."

For this very reason, Kit believes that we are entering the biological era (and ending the computational one) and is excited about its potential. Synthetic biology is clearly having a moment in light of the coronavirus crisis. Not only do companies like Gingko work on developing "living medicines," which are "like probiotics, except that they can live in the body and under various conditions can provide a direct delivery of a certain therapeutic." In addition, she said, they are involved in programs on vaccine development and programs for higher-throughput testing.

On a more philosophical level, COVID-19 reminded us, Kit pointed out, that we live in an interconnected ecosystem: "Instead of controlling nature or putting it into specific boxes, it's really about learning how we can work together and do what nature is already doing."

Fantastic Futures: We are Solarians.

Our third and closing speaker, Jared Ficklin, chief creative technologist at argodesign in Austin, took us on an exhilarating tour de force through "fantastic futures" - utopian and dystopian projections that exposed the very choices with which we're presented.

He left us with the following reflection: "We kind of think we are Earthlings, but maybe more accurately, we are Solarians. We live in a solar system, and our purpose is to feed the universe love and intellect. And we should be using the tools of technology and the resources of the entire solar system to grow the family of humanity, while we are securing the role of earth as healer and mother to humanity."

From Ego to Eco

Evoking this more ecological view of technology was the overarching sentiment of the session.

All three speakers, as well as the participants in their questions and comments, agreed on one major paradigm shift being crucial for ensuring more humane technology: If the coronavirus crisis is indeed " the great humbling," the big reset-button for us Earthlings and our technologies, then it is paramount we shift from our obsession with human-centered design and innovation to new, more holistic concepts of wellbeing that don't put human needs at the center but the wellbeing of all life on earth. Call it planetary-centric design, conscious technology, beautiful technology, or simply "oneness," as one attendee suggested - it's obvious that human-centered concepts of tech, with their myopic focus on short-term satisfaction, optimization, and efficiency, are now obsolete. We need technology that incorporates and expresses long-term thinking, sustainable behaviors and actions, and a new softness and fluidity that respects planetary boundaries and is in tune with our natural resources.

Moreover, the discussion brought to the fore that technology is ultimately a manifestation of our own human values and behaviors. To shape more humane technology, we must first better understand ourselves, which implies actually spending time with ourselves, fully present, and alone with our thoughts (and demons), as hard as that may be.

The next big innovation is the one that directs our attention inward. The future of technology begins with each and every one of us. It's deeply personal.

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Post-Techlash, Post-Coronavirus: Will Technology Become More Humane?

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Summary of the House of Beautiful Business Living Room Session on "Post-Techlash Tech" Will the coronavirus crisis reset our relationship to tech? And if so, which principles should we apply to shape a more humane technology going forward? Last night, we explored these questions in the House of Beautiful Business' first public online Living Room Session, focusing on " Post-Techlash Tech."

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The idea that made Mariana Mazzucato one of the most influential economists in the world came to her in early 2011. It had been three years since the financial crisis of 2008 and, in the UK, the coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had chosen to pursue a fiscal policy of austerity that was forcing councils to cut back public services and leading to a rise of homelessness and crime. "In my neighbourhood after-school clubs, youth centres, public libraries, policing and mental health budgets were all cut, affecting the most vulnerable people in society," she recalls. "It was very sad."

What particularly infuriated Mazzucato was the prevailing narrative that such cuts were necessary to boost competitiveness and innovation. In March 2011, Prime Minister David Cameron gave a speech excoriating civil servants working in government, labelling them "enemies of enterprise". Later that year, in November, he visited the Truman Brewery in east London to announce his plans for a new technology cluster called Tech City. "They were hyping up entrepreneurs and dismissing everyone else," Mazzucato says. "There was this belief that we didn't have European Googles and Facebooks because we didn't subscribe to Silicon Valley's free market approach. It was just ideology: there was no free market in Silicon Valley."

It was then that Mazzucato, an Italian-American economist who had spent decades researching the economics of innovation and the high tech industry, decided to look deeper into the early history of some of the world's most innovative companies. The development of Google's search algorithm, for instance, had been supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, a US public grant-awarding body. Electric car company Tesla initially struggled to secure investment until it received a $465 million (£380 million) loan from the US Department of Energy. In fact, three companies founded by Elon Musk - Tesla, SolarCity and SpaceX - had jointly benefited from nearly $4.9 billion (£3.9bn) in public support of various kinds. Many other well-known US startups had been funded by the Small Business Innovation Research programme, a public venture capital fund. "It wasn't just early research, it was also applied research, early stage finance, strategic procurement," she says. "The more I looked, the more I realised: state investment is everywhere."

Mazzucato included her findings in a 150-page pamphlet she submitted to UK policy think tank Demos. It was distributed to thousands of policymakers, and received coverage in daily newspapers. "It was obvious that it had touched a nerve," she says. "The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to go straight to the core of the myths about innovation." She decided to dissect the product that symbolised Silicon Valley's engineering prowess: the iPhone.

Mazzucato traced the provenance of every technology that made the iPhone. The HTTP protocol, of course, had been developed by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee and implemented on the computers at CERN, in Geneva. The internet began as a network of computers called Arpanet, funded by the US Department of Defense (DoD) in the 60s to solve the problem of satellite communication. The DoD was also behind the development of GPS during the 70s, initially to determine the location of military equipment. The hard disk drive, microprocessors, memory chips and LCD display had also been funded by the DoD. Siri was the outcome of a Stanford Research Institute project to develop a virtual assistant for military staff, commissioned by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The touchscreen was the result of graduate research at the University of Delaware, funded by the National Science Foundation and the CIA.

"Steve Jobs has rightly been called a genius for the visionary products he conceived and marketed, [but] this story creates a myth about the origin of Apple's success," Mazzucato writes in her 2013 book The Entrepreneurial State. "Without the massive amount of public investment behind the computer and internet revolutions, such attributes might have led only to the invention of a new toy."

But a narrative of innovation that omitted the role of the state was exactly what corporations had been deploying as they lobbied for lax regulation and low taxation. According to a study by Mazzucato and economist Bill Lazonick, between 2003 and 2013 publicly listed companies in the S&P 500 index used more than half of their earnings to buy back their shares to boost stock prices, rather than reinvesting it back into further research and development. Pharmaceutical company Pfizer, for example, spent $139bn (£112bn) on share buybacks. Apple, which had never engaged in this type of financial engineering under Jobs, started doing so in 2012. By 2018, it had spent nearly one trillion dollars on share buybacks. "Those profits could be used to fund research and training for workers," Mazzucato says. "Instead they are often used on share buybacks and golfing."

That posed an urgent, more fundamental problem. If it was the state, not the private sector, which had traditionally assumed the risks of uncertain technological enterprises that led to the development of aviation, nuclear energy, computers, nanotechnology, biotechnology and the internet, how were we going to find the next wave of technologies to tackle urgent challenges such as catastrophic climate change, the epidemic of antibiotic resistance, the rise of dementia? "History tells us that innovation is an outcome of a massive collective effort - not just from a narrow group of young white men in California," Mazzucato says. "And if we want to solve the world's biggest problems, we better understand that."

One of Mazzucato's most enduring memories of her childhood is watching her father Ernesto, a nuclear fusion physicist at Princeton University, yelling at the news. She would say, "Dad, that's just information," to which he would reply: "That's not information, that's just what they're trying to make you believe." "A critical eye was the first thing my dad instilled in me, mainly just from watching him swear at the TV," Mazzucato says. After the publication of The Entrepreneurial State, Mazzucato, an effervescent woman in her late forties, became a regular on current affairs programmes, often delivering devastating critiques of commonly held economic beliefs with eloquence. During a debate about the budget deficit on Newsnight in 2017, she berated Evan Davis for obsessing about it, explaining with exasperation: "Deficits matter, but what matters is what you're spending it on." When asked about Google's tax avoidance by Jon Snow on Channel 4 News, she retorted: "You know what? That's not the problem. The real problem is that people don't know about the backroom deals that the Googles and the Apples and the Glaxos and the Pfizers have with the treasuries around the world on tax policy."

That the message at the core of her book had resonated with a general audience didn't necessarily surprise Mazzucato. "Silicon Valley entrepreneurs rarely acknowledged that they were standing on the shoulders of giants. It was a call to arms to innovators to sort of step up and acknowledge that," says Saul Klein, co-founder of venture capital firm LocalGlobe. "There has been a very concerted effort, over the past 40 years, to build this intellectual construct that was sold to government and sold to society about the free market, supported by businessmen who were trying to tell a story that was advantageous to them," says tech mogul Tim O'Reilly. "It's now very clear that there's something wrong with the story. We need a new theory to replace this, and Mariana is one of the economists trying to build a rival narrative."

Mazzucato was surprised to find supporters inside the coalition government. "To be honest, given that I had mainly written academic things, there was no real risk that I sounded like a communist," she says. That support came in the form of Business Secretary Vince Cable, who founded the Catapult centres to promote partnerships between scientists and entrepreneurs; and the "eight great technologies" investment announced by David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science. "There's been a gap in conservatism in offering a constructive account of the role of the state," Willetts says. "Mariana provided an account of the role of government which was neither one of minimal government nor traditional socialism. I was able to say in government, hang on, this isn't some experiment with left-wing socialism. This is what happens in Republican America."

Soon, she became a regular visitor at Whitehall, advising both Cable and Willetts on policies such as the Small Business Research Initiative, which funded small and medium enterprises, and the patent box, which reduced the rate of corporate tax on income derived from patents (which she calls "the stupidest policy ever").

Mazzucato knew that to influence politicians she would need to do more than just criticise. "The reason progressives often lose the argument is that they focus too much on wealth redistribution and not enough on wealth creation," she says. "We need a progressive narrative that's not only about spending, but investing in smarter ways."

At the time, Mazzucato was increasingly interested in what she called mission-oriented organisations. The prime example was DARPA, the research agency founded by President Eisenhower in 1958 following the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik. The agency pumped billions of dollars into the development of prototypes that preceded commercial technology such as Microsoft Windows, videoconferencing, Google Maps, Linux and the cloud. In Israel, Yozma, a government-backed venture capital fund that ran between 1993 and 1998, supported more than 40 companies. In the UK, the Government Digital Service, launched in 2010, was behind the award-winning .gov.uk domain, saving the government £1.7bn in IT procurement. "When I use the word 'state' I am talking about a decentralised network of different state agencies," she says. When such agencies are mission-oriented to solve problems and structured to take risks, they can be an engine of innovation."

To Mazzucato, the epitome of the mission-oriented concept was the Apollo programme, the space programme designed to land Americans on the Moon and return them safely to Earth. Between 1960 and 1972, the US government spent $26bn (£21bn) to achieve precisely that. More than 300 different projects contributed, not only in aeronautics but in areas such as nutrition, textiles, electronics and medicine, resulting in 1,800 spinoff products, from freeze-dried food to cooling suits, spring tyres and digital fly-by-wire flight control systems used in commercial airplanes. The programme was also instrumental in kick-starting an industry for the integrated circuit, an unproven technology at the time, and other space projects such as the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station.

The modus operandi of these mission-oriented institutions provided Mazzucato with an alternative vocabulary that told a different story about the role of the state. "Economics is full of stories," she says. "Words like 'enabling', 'facilitating', 'spending', 'regulating' - they create a story of the state as boring and inertial. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We need a new narrative to guide better policies." These mission-oriented institutions were actively creating and shaping markets, rather than merely fixing them. They were ambitiously seeking high-risk directions for research and investment, rather than outsourcing and avoiding uncertainty.

Mazzucato's collaboration with Whitehall was put on hold after the 2015 general election: Willetts stood down from his seat, and Cable lost his. By then, however, she had gone global - working with US Democrat Elizabeth Warren on public funding for health innovation, and advising Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on the development of a Scottish national investment bank. Mazzucato also launched a new type of economics department at University College London, the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) - with the mission of training the next generation of civil servants in the theory of mission-oriented policies. "We want to them to think strategically and ambitiously for the public good and, in the words of Steve Jobs, to 'stay hungry and stay foolish'," she says.

In early 2017, Carlos Moedas, the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, offered her a position as special adviser, which she accepted. "I wanted the work to have an impact," she says. "Otherwise it's champagne socialism: you go in, talk every now and then, and nothing happens." She suggested reframing the European research and innovation programme as Horizon Europe, a €100bn (£90bn) mission-oriented initiative due to start in 2020. Moedas gave her carte blanche to pursue the project.

The European Commission had traditionally framed its policies in terms of grand challenges, but Mazzucato's concept of missions translates these into concrete projects: the Cold War was a challenge; landing on the moon was a mission. In February 2018, she published a report - titled Mission-Oriented Research & Innovation in the European Union - that defined five criteria missions should obey: they must be bold and inspire citizens; be ambitious and risky; have a clear target and deadline (you have to be able to unambiguously answer whether the mission was accomplished to deadline or not, Mazzucato says); be cross-disciplinary and cross-sectorial (eradicating cancer, for example, would require innovation in healthcare, nutrition, artificial intelligence and pharmaceuticals); and allow for experimentation and multiple attempts at a solution, rather than be micromanaged top-down by a government.

In the report, she illustrated what missions could look like with three hypothetical examples: a plastic-free ocean, 100 carbon-neutral cities by 2030, and cutting dementia by 50 per cent. The clean oceans mission could involve removing half of the plastic already polluting the oceans and reducing by 90 per cent the quantity of plastics entering them before 2025, through projects such as autonomous plastic collection stations or distributed nets. The solution would require inventing alternatives to plastic, designing novel forms of food packaging, and creating AI systems that could separate waste automatically. "These were just examples to tease out the difficulties," Mazzucato says. "When people talk about missions, I always warn them: if this is something that makes you feel comfortable and happy and cosy, then you haven't understood it, because it's actually about fundamentally changing how we think about innovation."

In March 2018, Mazzucato was contacted by two members of a progressive political movement in the US called Justice Democrats. She had no idea who Saikat Chakrabarti and Zack Exley were. "They were saying that they were trying to bring in a new wave of young politicians," she recalls. "It was more curiosity from my side of hearing what's going on in the US, because I had sort of lost touch."

Chakrabarti and Exley had previously worked for Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign. Chakrabarti then co-founded a political action committee with the aim of recruiting 400 working class candidates to run for Congress. "The idea was to create a new caucus within the Democratic Party," Chakrabarti says. "We have people like Donald Trump in the White House, the Democratic Party leadership is acting as if it's still 1995. The real divide is not between left and right. It's between ambition and not ambition. We wanted an alternative vision of society that's revolutionary. What was exciting about meeting Mariana is that there weren't a lot of people in the US talking about those kinds of ideas."

In London, at Mazzucato's home in Camden, they told her that, in three months, they were hoping to have elected officials in Congress who would be willing to talk about big policy ideas, particularly around environmental change. One of their most promising candidates was a young bartender from New York. Her name was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

In June 2018, Ocasio-Cortez defeated 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary, shocking the political establishment and in effect guaranteeing herself a place in Congress.

A month later, Mazzucato and Ocasio-Cortez spoke over Skype for the first time. Their conversation revolved around a new, ambitious industrial policy that the Justice Democrats were calling the Green New Deal. Mazzucato had been one of the originators, in collaboration with the economist Carlota Perez. "The most important thing is to stop thinking that we should sacrifice our way of life in order to solve our environmental problems," Perez says. "We always thought of it as an opportunity to transform our society in a way that is also fairer and socially sustainable."

To Mazzucato, a Green New Deal could be as bold as the 1969 moonshot. "When my book came out, Bill Gates invited me to come to Seattle," she says. "He told me that he had followed the lead of the public sector when it came to IT. And now he was concerned that he couldn't see the public leading in green in the same way." A Green New Deal would involve, as she puts it, "greening the entire economy", transforming not only the renewable energy industry but every single aspect of manufacturing. It would require tax incentives and disincentives to tackle high polluters and to encourage innovation around areas like waste and durability. It would require patient, long-term finance.

On September 11, Mazzucato and Ocasio-Cortez met face to face at the Firefly restaurant, the latter's local hangout in Sunnyside, New York. They spoke about everything from the issue of public return for public investment to the notion of market co-creation versus market fixing. "She's quite academic," Mazzucato says. "It was much easier to talk to her about these things than it normally is with a politician who just wants the slogans, but doesn't really get the details behind the message."

Ocasio-Cortez also asked the economist for advice on how to get her message across to voters. In 2009, when Obama was proposing his healthcare reform, he had to assure people that government bureaucrats weren't meddling. That was fine, but it didn't capture the imagination of the public, Mazzucato said. He should have said that, actually, public-funded agencies were not just regulating - they were financing most of the innovation in the healthcare system. The pharmaceutical industry gets $32bn (£25bn) a year of innovation financing from the a state agency - the National Institutes of Health - condition free, and yet taxpayers still had to pay extortionate prices for life-saving drugs. It made no sense. "Get the language right," Mazzucato told Ocasio-Cortez. "Otherwise, you're just going to be a nice social democratic, boring lefty politician."

In February 2019, Ocasio-Cortez released her first piece of legislation as a congresswoman: a 14-page resolution on the Green New Deal, which she called the "moonshot of our generation". A few weeks later, during a congressional hearing on the drug industry, she asked Aaron Kesselheim, a professor of medicine from Harvard: "Would it be correct, Dr Kesselheim, to characterize the NIH money that is being used in development and research as an early investment? The public is acting as an early investor in the production of these drugs. Is the public receiving any sort of direct return on that investment from the highly profitable drugs that are developed from that research?" "No," Kesselheim replied.

One afternoon in May 2019, Mazzucato sat alongside David Willets in a packed lecture theatre at University College London. She stood up and introduced herself to the audience. Then she pointed towards a stack of 100-page yellow reports on the desk. The cover read "A Mission-Oriented UK Industrial Strategy". "This is what we've been doing for the past year," she reflected. "We've been working really hard and this is the outcome."

Almost exactly a year before, then British Prime Minister Theresa May had delivered a speech at Jodrell Bank Observatory about the government's new industrial strategy, which was centered around four grand challenges: clean growth, mobility, healthy ageing and AI. May announced one mission for each challenge: halving the energy use in new buildings by 2030; using AI to transform treatment of chronic disease; extending healthy, independent life to five extra years; being at the forefront of zero-emission vehicle manufacturing by 2040. These had already been a direct outcome of Mazzucato's influence with the then business secretary, Greg Clark. Months before, Clark had contacted Mazzucato to learn more about mission-oriented policies. He later asked her to co-chair a commission with Willets and coordinate cross-departmental mission teams in Whitehall, inspired by DARPA.

Over a year, the commission met every month. "We found that putting into practice Mariana's five criteria for what missions should be a lot harder than expected," Rainer Kattel, IIPP's deputy director, says.

For instance, the commission deemed the mission for the future of mobility as unambitious and too siloed within the Department of Transport. "That target was going to happen anyway," Kattel says. "We went back to them and said that it was too low-hanging. The biggest surprise was that they were very open to our criticism."

Regarding the healthy ageing mission, they struggled with the definition of "healthiness" "How do you even measure that?" Mazzucato asks. Initially, they considered the scenario of an Alzheimer's patient who is completely independent in the home and assisted by cutting-edge technologies. But the mission leader didn't like the idea. "Why obsess about independence?" She said. "How about nurturing co-dependency instead?"

On the future of mobility, the musician Brian Eno, one of the Institute's advisors, questioned the assumption that getting from A to B quicker was the goal. "How about going slower and appreciating life?"

The year-long collaboration between the IIPP and Whitehall included a series of workshops around the theory of mission-oriented policies, delivered by Mazzucato and her team to civil servants in Whitehall. "These were, after all, people that had been constantly told to get out of the way and stop stifling innovation. It can get depressing," Mazzucato says. "Going in and giving them a different narrative about ambitious missions and dreaming the big thing, their eyes would just light up. Sometimes I felt like a life coach."

Some of those conversations, however, were challenging - particularly regarding the policy appraisals conducted by the Treasury. "As the Chancellor of the Exchequer, all across government 20 people come to you with different policy proposals that you can spend the money on. How do you decide which one will have the biggest impact or is the most worthy?" says George Dibbs, the head of industrial strategy at IIPP. The standard method of appraisal, used by governments around the world, is cost-benefit analysis, in which a simplistic quantitative estimate is made about how much a policy will cost and how much money it will generate. "It's like the old mentality from the Vietnam war: as long as the enemy's body count is higher, we can ignore all other variables." Kattel says. "That's why, for instance, some new drugs are not paid for by the NHS because not enough people can benefit from them. Bureaucrats have really lost that idea that they are somehow responsible for the people on the street."

Cost-benefit analysis is not suitable to evaluate mission-oriented policies, which are inherently risky and uncertain, and aimed at creating new markets rather than fixing existing ones. As Mazzucato likes to point out, we would never have walked on the Moon if the Apollo Program had been evaluated via cost-benefit analysis.

At the launch of the report, Mazzucato told the audience a story to illustrate her point: in the 1500s, the Jesuits had a system that involved opening a cash box by turning two keys simultaneously - one belonged to the accountant, the second to the rector. This meant that, to open the coffer, "you had to have a vision but you also had to think about the budget," she concluded. "I know it sounds strange, but that's what's missing."

One afternoon in late June, Mazzucato sat pensively at her office in central London. A neon sign spelling "the value of everything" - a present from her husband in celebration of her second book, which has this phrase as its title - adorns one of the walls. Large posters hang on the walls depicting Mazzucato's complex mission diagrams. Two days after the launch of the industrial strategy report, Theresa May had resigned as prime minister, potentially derailing the entire industry strategy policy and putting Mazzucato's work with the government, once again, on hold. "Sometimes you either just want to go crawl back in bed or you fight back harder," she says. "I tend to always do the latter."

Mazzucato sees her work as a battle of ideas. "So much bullshit happens in the name of innovation," she says. "As an advisor, its critical to follow up and put in the time and make the whole argument again and help people get the details right." Sometimes, when she's addressing an audience, she thinks to herself, 'Oh my god, I've said this so many times.' "My dad makes fun of me," she says. "He tells me 'Don't people realise that you keep telling them the same thing?' But the audience is different and the message reminds heretics in many circles."

She laughs, because she does realise - but it's a necessity. Recently, at the European Investment Bank, she had to tell an audience of economists: "Please never write the word 'de-risking' again in any of your reports, because that's not what you're doing. You took risks and you should able to say it openly - kind of coming out of the closet about it."

At a talk at Nasa, where Mazzucato has been working as part of a group studying the low-Earth orbit economy, she urged them to recover the ambition befitting an agency of its calibre. "I don't think many people realize that Novartis, one of the richest pharmaceutical companies in the world, is working for free on the International Space Station," she says. "Who thought that up? Charge them. Or make sure the relationship is symbiotic, not parasitic."

In May, the European Parliament voted and approved Mazzucato's mission-oriented proposal for the Horizon Europe programme. After a lengthy consultation period, five mission areas were chosen: adaptation to climate change; cancer; healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters; climate-neutral and smart cities; and soil health and food. The European Commission will now appoint a mission board of 15 experts for each area. They will be responsible for identifying the first specific missions, following Mazzucato's criteria. "Moedas jokingly offered me the role of chief muse of missions," she laughs. "That report was the most important thing I've written. It's now a legal instrument, it can't be undone unless another vote is had." She pauses. "I've influenced politicians, but having a parliament vote on something I wrote is just fantastic," she continues. "That's what I want: to bring about change."
Mariana Mazzucato is speaking at WIRED Smarter at King's Place in London on October 30, 2019. Click here to find out more

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This economist has a plan to fix capitalism. It's time we all listened

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The idea that made Mariana Mazzucato one of the most influential economists in the world came to her in early 2011. It had been three years since the financial crisis of 2008 and, in the UK, the coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had chosen to pursue a fiscal policy of austerity that was forcing councils to cut back public services and leading to a rise of homelessness and crime.

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As 100 million people in Europe are in lockdown, the US seems to be completely unprepared for the tsunami that is about to hit. "We're about to experience the worst public health disaster since polio," says Dr Martin Makary, professor at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Don't believe the numbers when you see, even on our Johns Hopkins website, that 1,600 Americans have the virus. No, that means 1,600 got the test, tested positive. There are probably 25 to 50 people who have the virus for every one person who is confirmed. I think we have between 50,000 and half a million cases right now walking around in the United States."

Having returned to the US from Europe on the last plane before the travel ban kicked in two days ago, I feel as if I have traveled backwards in time. Which is exactly what people report when they arrive in Europe from East Asia now. You feel as if you're moving backward in time, back into an earlier state of awareness, which the country of departure had already moved past. Here are my eight takeaways.

COVID-19 has further opened up our current state of disruption and, interestingly, has accomplished more to reduce CO2 emissions within weeks than all climate conversations combined have done in years. While some disasters, like hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis, tend to bring out the best in people (pulling folks together), pandemics tend to do the opposite, as columnist David Brooks argued recently. The virus holds up a mirror in front of us. It forces us to become aware of our own behavior and its impact on the collective, on the system. That mirror gently invites us to make a few personal sacrifices that benefit the whole - to shift our inner place from ego to eco.

If the coronavirus crisis has brought home anything, it's that we - each of us, separately and together - can change the system. Remember how distant that strange virus from Wuhan seemed to many of us when it first hit the headlines in early January? That was just a few weeks ago. It's a powerful demonstration of our current global condition of interconnectedness. We are many. We are one. Now we need to slow the spread of the virus, to flatten the curve, to avoid the massive, unnecessary suffering of those among us who happen to be the elderly, the uninsured, the working poor who live from paycheck to paycheck, the folks who are alone and without any safety net. Self-isolation and social distancing are not about you; they're about protecting the people who are especially vulnerable. In short: Your behavior changes the system. Your mindful behavior is needed to avoid a breakdown of the system.

To slow the spread of the virus we need to change our collective behavior. We can accomplish this in two ways: through (a) timely government response and (b) testing-based citizen awareness and action. China, after a slow start, navigated the pandemic by relying mostly on the former (draconian lockdowns, quarantine, and social distancing, including movement surveillance of the entire population), which worked surprisingly well. Italy (and now also Spain) pursued an approach that for an extended period was weak on government action - both in terms of control measures and testing. But if you have no effective regulation and no reliable data when facing a pandemic, it's like running in the forest while blindfolded. The result is massive suffering and death among vulnerable people, for instance when older people in need of care are turned away from hospitals. That is the very path the US now appears to be on.

A third group of countries, however, seems to have found a middle way. Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea all have had noteworthy success in navigating the pandemic without imposing draconian controls or citizen surveillance. South Korea significantly slowed the spread of COVID-19, and Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan succeeded in preventing a massive outbreak in the first place. As of today, March 16, Hong Kong has 141 confirmed cases, Singapore has 212, and Taiwan has 53. How did they do that?

It seems they succeeded in different ways that, nevertheless, share three strategies: (1) reduce arrival of new cases (travel restrictions), (2) prevent transmission between known cases and local population (quarantines), and (3) suppress silent transmission by reducing contact in the community (increased hygiene, social distancing, self-isolation).

Because Singapore is an island, travel restrictions were relatively easy to impose. Only three days (!) after the Chinese authorities alerted the world about the outbreak in Wuhan, Singapore started to refer incoming travelers from Wuhan for further assessments and possible isolation. Later, travelers from affected areas were placed under mandatory quarantine, facilities were swiftly converted to serve this function, and all who lost workdays were compensated by the government. Much effort has been made to trace the contacts of people known to be infected. Large gatherings have been suspended, yet schools and workplaces remain open.

Taiwan, also an island, first continued to allow travel from China, inspecting and screening travelers on incoming flights. Only after the first case from China was reported did Taiwan ban (most) incoming flights from China. Taiwan recommends self-isolation and home quarantine, even when public facilities remain available. School was canceled, but only for two additional weeks after the holidays.

Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of China, shares a border with the mainland that used to be crossed by approximately 300,000 people per day. It chose yet another approach. Rather than entirely blocking people from affected regions from entering, it focused on preventing transmission within the community with mandatory self-quarantine for all travelers from China, among others. It also mandates social distancing. Civil servants work from home. All schools remain closed and all classes are conducted online. Plus, the Hong Kong government proactively shares information with its citizens. For example, the government is publishing building-level maps showing where people were infected, when they were there, and how they contracted the virus, so that everyone can see the unfolding social map and adjust their behavior accordingly.

In summary: These countries have navigated the epidemic using a combination of testing, transparency (active citizen information), and citizen awareness guided by a timely and proactive government response. In other words, by not running while blindfolded. Instead, they slowed down, paused, and took off their blindfolds in order to see what was going on. They are sharing information transparently. And they are moving together more mindfully, more intentionally, and as more collectively aware populations.

Figure 1 summarizes these observations. The two axes track the two approaches: timely government response, and data-based citizen awareness. You can see China's journey at one end of the spectrum (led by government action). And the journey of the US and Italy on the other (led by citizens, due to the lack of timely government action). But what's interesting is the middle path: the journey taken by Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea. One thing that sets them apart is their history; they had the "benefit" of the SARS outbreak in 2002-2003, which led them to upgrade their institutional readiness.

Another beneficial factor may be less evident. They all share a Confucianist cultural background. For many centuries they have placed a premium on quality education and on sending the most talented people of each generation into government, not into business. The famous essay by Confucius, The Great Learning, articulates this foundation by observing that, in order to change the world, you first need to cultivate your interior condition as a human being. They share a cultural context that focuses on harmony between the external and interior. That is precisely what's at issue when you think about how to integrate government action with individual action. What are the interior conditions that, if in place, could integrate both of these levers or axes and move our disaster response pattern from the bottom-left to the top-right?

The coronavirus situation provides an opportunity for all of us to pause, reset, and step up. COVID-19, like any disruption, essentially confronts each of us with a choice: (1) to freeze, turn away from others, only care for ourselves, or (2) to turn toward others to support and comfort those who need help. That choice between acting from ego or acting from ecosystem awareness is one that we face every day, every hour, every moment. The more the world sinks into chaos, desperation, and confusion, the greater our responsibility to radiate presence, compassion, and grounded action confidence.

Figure 2 summarizes this choice by depicting the two different social fields that we can choose to embody through our actions, through our relationships, and through our thoughts. In the upper half of the figure you see the "freeze" reaction, which tends to amplify ignorance, hate, and fear. In the lower half you see the "opening" response, which tends to amplify curiosity, compassion, and courage.

Video by kind courtesy of Ctgn

Even though the physical social distancing is necessary now, it doesn't mean that our interior condition should be frozen. In fact, over the past few days we have seen very moving examples from Italy and Spain of how physical distancing can be responded to by inspired compassion and empathy. As a citizen from Spain shared over the weekend: "Earlier today there was a call on social media in Spain to go out to balconies and windows at 22:00 [10 p.m.] to give a huge ovation to thank and support hospital workers. It's 22:05 and I can hear the roar from the other side of the closed double glass windows."

How one responds to disruption - by freezing and turning away or by opening and turning toward - is both a personal choice and a collective one. Over the past four years, we all have seen an enormous uptick in the freeze reaction by whole countries, brought on by Trump, Bolsonaro, Orban, Salvini, Modi, Johnson. The list goes on. Although Trump has gotten away with telling more than 16,000 lies since taking office, this time it may be different. In "normal" times, you can get away with a lot of nonsense because for some it's less consequential and sometimes even a bit entertaining. But in times of disruption, the very same behaviors (denial, desensing, absencing, blaming, destroying) come together as a powerful engine of accelerated self-destruction. When that dynamic becomes apparent, when catastrophic breakdowns will result as a direct consequence, the mood will shift and the Trump presidency may soon be history - if the election takes place on schedule this year.

Even though I will use Trump to illustrate these behaviors below, I do not mean to imply this only goes for America. Boris Johnson and many others embody similar blind spots of their leadership. My general point is about the underlying mindset, which is one of avoiding reality - that is, science and data - rather than embracing it when the going gets tough. Clearly, this mindset is on a massive collision course with reality as we speak.

According to Andy Slavitt, Medicare and Medicaid administrator in the Obama administration, hospitals in the US could be overrun by coronavirus cases in little more than a week and result in a "tsunami-like" escalation that would leave tens of thousands in need of inpatient medical care, but unlikely to receive it. Some experts even suggest that more than 1 million could die in the US from the coronavirus.

Here is how we can view this leadership failure through the lens of Absencing (see figure 2):

Denial: "The original sin is Trump's months-long denial and his dismantling of public health and response infrastructure," said Andy Slavitt. While it took Singapore and Taiwan about three days to respond to the virus outbreak in early January, Trump didn't take action until mid March. Testing kits are still mostly unavailable. The total number of tests in the USA until March 15 is about 10,000 - the same number of people that are tested for COVID-19 in South Korea in a single day. In other words: in the US, we are only now, after losing two full months, beginning to address the situation. In contrast, Angela Merkel has bluntly warned that two-thirds of Germans will likely contract the virus.

Desensing: Trump refused to provide necessary care for American citizens on the luxury liner Grand Princess so that "his" coronavirus numbers wouldn't grow once those passengers left the ship. He continues to keep demonstrating this complete lack of empathy and compassion.

Absencing: All disruptions enable profound moments of "letting go" and "letting come." Any leadership that activates this deeper level of humanity is completely missing in the case of Trump. Recent examples include his initial refusal to buy existing testing kits that were developed by Roche and that would have solved the testing problem months ago, as well as his attempt to offer "large sums of money" for exclusive access to a Covid-19 vaccine, developed by the Germany-based biopharmaceutical company CureVac. The leadership of the company declined the offer citing the ethical aspiration to serve the entire global community, rather than just one country exclusively.

Blaming others: All Trump's announcements so far have been guided by the mindset that the source of the problem is "them," not "us" - despite the strong evidence that the virus has long been spreading domestically in the US. Calling the outbreak a "Chinese virus" has helped him justify a number of travel bans, which in the beginning have certainly been helpful. However, the same mindset also made it increasingly impossible to leverage the other two critical strategies: to prevent the transmission between known cases and local population, and to suppress silent transmission by social distancing and self-isolation.

Destroying: Trump continued to lose the trust of European allies by blindsiding them with the announcement of the travel ban and by trying to buy exclusive access to the vaccine, which would have excluded the rest of the world from accessing it. Trump has been very reliable in his attacks on science, governmental and multilateral institutions - from dissolving his own CDC task force in the White House, to pulling out of the Paris Agreement, eroding the trust in these institutions exactly when we needed them most.

All these behaviors add up to a pattern of decision-making that moves us towards accelerated self-destruction. The more this becomes visible, the more likely this old model will hit a wall, and the more possible it will be for a new pattern of social collaboration to emerge. It doesn't mean that Trumpism is already done. But it's about to hit a wall far more visibly and tangibly than we have ever seen before.

The coronavirus crisis is prompting us to improvise new ways of collaborating and coordinating. Data-driven Awareness-Based Collective action (D-ABC) operates by attending to a situation together, and then adjusting one's behavior accordingly. Another way of describing this type of governance is to coordinate by letting go and letting come, based on what we are seeing together: letting go of previous plans, and letting come what is about to emerge.

In 2008, during an earlier moment of disruption in the financial world, we saw most major organizations suddenly switch to a different mode of operating. They had to abandon the annual plans and quarterly targets that were set before the financial crisis, and instead pay full attention to the situation as it unfolded and adjust their behavior accordingly. It's a skill and capacity that we urgently need in many other areas of social and environmental crisis today.

In times of business-as-usual, we tend to "outsource" the coordination of our systems to external mechanisms, such as the visible hand of government regulation or the invisible hand of the market. In times of disruption, however, these mechanisms tend to break down. When that happens, we, the key players in the systems that we co-enact, need to come together to co-sense and co-shape the future as it emerges. In other words, our attention and intention need to quickly align with what is actually happening in the moment. Learning to connect in a more conscious and intentional way may well be the most significant gift that emerges from this crisis. The functioning of this new way of fluid coordinating seems to require two important enabling conditions:

· Accurate information about what is happening in the moment; and,

· A holding space that helps people to act for the well-being of the whole, allowing them to move from ego to eco.

This new collective capacity will be crucial in addressing many other areas of crisis in the years to come, from climate action, biodiversity, and refugee questions to social justice and well-being for all.

Each disruption has two sides: the things we need to let go of, and the things that are about to emerge. On the letting-go side of things, it's interesting to see how quickly we can adjust as a global community. Suddenly, we find that more than half the meetings we tended to fill our schedules with, may not be as necessary, as essential as we deemed them, after all. So why do we keep ourselves busy with stuff that is not essential? That's a great question to ask.

The next question might be: If we let go of everything that is not essential - what's left? It's another great question (or "mantram") to meditate on. Whatever the answer is that emerges for you from this contemplation, keep it in your heart.

And then, a third question to contemplate might be this: What if we used this disruption as an opportunity to let go of everything that isn't essential in our life, in our work, and in our institutional routines? How might we reimagine how we live and work together? How might we reimagine the basic structures of our civilization? Which effectively means: how can we reimagine our economic, our democratic, and our learning systems in ways that bridge the ecological, the social, and the spiritual divides of our time?

That's the conversation we need to have now. With our circles of friends. With our families. With our organizations and communities. If there is anything that I have learned from previous disruptions I've witnessed, such as the 2008 financial crisis, it is this: the same disruption tends to have a dramatically different impact on different organizations, depending on how the leadership - and people or change-makers in general - respond to that situation. Whether it's by turning away and freezing (i.e., operating from the upper half of figure 2) or whether it's by turning toward and opening (i.e., operating from the lower half of figure 2). I have also found that even within one single organization some leaders might exhibit one of these responses (i.e., hiding from the situation), while others exhibit another (i.e., connecting to people in the moment of vulnerability). The difference in impact is tangible and profound: the first set of teams grow apart, while the others tend to grow together at levels of collective resonance not seen before.

Which brings us all the way back to the Confucianist roots of the Four Tigers: that the outer changes necessary today require us to tune into and activate our inner sources, the deeper levels of our humanity. Of course, these deeper roots are not bound by Confucianism; they are inherent to all our cultures, and they are dormant in each and every human being.

But are we able to activate these deeper sources of knowing? And how can we activate them not only at the level of the individual, but also at the level of the whole system? How can we upgrade the operating system in our various key systems? This clearly requires us to upgrade:

1. our learning infrastructures toward whole-person and whole-systems learning;

2. our democratic infrastructures by making them more direct, distributed, and dialogic; and

3. our economic infrastructures toward shifting from ego-system to eco-system awareness.

How might we use our present situation to slow down, to pause, and to connect with our deeper sources of stillness? Maybe what's called for now is a global moment in which everything and everyone stops for a moment of stillness, for a moment of connecting to source.

Whatever it is you choose to do - and we choose to do - in this moment, whether we freeze and turn backward or open up and lean forward, let's not forget that, in the words of the German poet Hölderlin, "where the danger is, the saving power also grows."

Where the danger is, the saving power also grows. It's something I have experienced on several occasions. But it only works collectively if we slow down, pause, and take off our blindfolds to attend to the now. What actually emerges from the now? We may see the beginnings of a new wave of hyper-localizing our economies, of supporting small farmers and producers who may be more resilient to supply chain disruptions. We may see the beginnings of a more intentional economy, one that - similar to CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) - is based on aligning economic activities around a shared intention for the future, namely, co-creating an ecosystem-centric agriculture, as opposed to extending the past based on ego-driven transactions.

Many of us feel that we live in a time of profound change - change not only in terms of things ending, but also in terms of seeding and cultivating and growing a new civilization for the decades and centuries to come. That was true before the COVID-19 pandemic, and it will be true after. The question is how to respond to the current situation in ways that help this enormous potential for positive change to manifest?

How can we reimagine and reshape our various forms of movement-making in ways that allow them to embody the principles of planetary healing and societal renewal? How can we reshape our learning and leadership structures in ways that move the focus of learning from the bottom left (training of individuals) to the top right of figure 3 (eco-system learning)?

At the Presencing Institute, we have prototyped various proven formats for transformational ecosystem-based learning and leadership. Yet, to make these formats accessible at the scale necessary today will require a new platform and network of places - think of it as a School For Transformation - that focuses on activating generative social fields through providing vertical transformation literacy.

This column has discussed some of the first learning experiences that we see emerge from the corona crisis and our responses to it. The landscape of our responses forms an interesting field of possibilities. I identified the responses of the Four Tigers as interesting from a systems perspective, because it blends proactive government action with data-driven citizen awareness. From there, I explored the various interior conditions that can give rise to either a social field of co-creation (presencing) or one of self-destruction.

Which leaves us with the question: Now what? In my view, one of the most urgent priorities for the coming years is to cultivate these deeper conditions for our individual and collective actions in ways that are highly accessible, scalable, and modularized so that everyone can integrate them into their own movement building and learning infrastructures.

It is for this reason that, starting next week, my colleagues and I are going to offer an impromptu global learning infrastructure that is free, online, Zoom-based and yet designed in ways that will activate generative social fields among all of the participants throughout the coming weeks. The idea is to offer this infrastructure as a journey for change-makers from all sectors, systems, and cultures - a journey that will eventually result in a global, multi-local, multi-regional Forum, co-created among the participants later this year in July.

The actual format of this journey and the Forum will evolve with and adjust to the situation that keeps unfolding around us, between us, and within us. It's an infrastructure that invites you to join with your whole Self and that is designed to be accessible to all, whether you want to join from home while in self-quarantine or in concert with friends and fellow change-makers in your local organization or community.

If you are interested to join, check out this landing page for the journey: Global Activation of Intention and Action (GAIA) and sign up for the first session on Friday March 27. The time to pause, to sense, to connect, and then act together is now.

P.S.: We provided 1000 seats for the first session on Friday. These seats were taken within hours. This has prompted us to prepare some additional sessions on that day that will provide 4000 additional seats. These additional seats and sessions will go live later today. So check out this link to register or to put yourself on a waitlist that may clear up shortly before the event. Thank you!

Part II of this Blogpost (April 8)

On the levers for climate action: Soil; Democracy; Consciousness

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Eight Emerging Lessons: From Coronavirus to Climate Action

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Read the article in Spanish - in French - in German - in Italian - in Portuguese - in Traditional Chinese - in Polish - in Vietnamese - in Simplified Chinese part 1 & part 2 As 100 million people in...

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HMnpZn2H7Qe1n1K0JCLyTmoi_3i6V87EuSvg1I2QB3E/edit

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Hyper Real

reality - virtuality continuum

HRI - real environment

AR - augmenteed reality

AV - augmented virtuality

VR - virtual reality

launch of pokemon mobile game in 2026 had 45 million users worldwide

harvard business review (2016) suggested that AR is key part of the 4th industrial revolution and mass adoption would be driven by:

meaningful content

convincing and realistic interaction of virtual and physical environment

unique values that goes beyond what other technology deliveries

industry 4.0 frame and contributing digital technology

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Innovation:

a multimedia approach becomes essentials to develop and produce communication strategies that work across different visual platforms

2x4 media

communication and media are embracing a constantly evolving hybrid model in which technology augments human performance and entertainment

immersive experiences: - full sensorial experience

interaction - engagement

gamification - playfullness

content - interest

vr/ mr - mixed reality

augmented reality - dvtk (do stuff for kenzo ect)

hybrid shopping experiences - advertising and selling through engagement

conversational tech -

digital environments

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LONDON, United Kingdom - When Apple's iPhone first appeared nearly 10 years ago, few could fathom the extent to which it would transform our daily lives. Today, much like mobile before it, a rising technology platform has the potential to create what Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan called "new patterns of human association," unleashing a tsunami of innovation.

For years, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) - a view of the real world that has been "augmented" by layers of computer-generated content - have been the stuff of science fiction. Both still have their fair share of sceptics. Yet, driven by Moore's Law and the rapid advancement of processors, screens and other commodity components coming out of the smartphone supply chain, VR and AR are finally poised for mainstream adoption with some calling them nothing less than a " new medium of human experience."

Back in 2014, early VR pioneer Chris Milk explained the profound power of VR: "You read a book; your brain reads letters printed in ink on paper and transforms that into a world. You watch a movie; you're seeing imagery inside of a rectangle while you're sitting inside a room, and your brain translates that into a world. And you connect to this even though you know it's not real, but because you're in the habit of suspending disbelief. With virtual reality, you're essentially hacking the visual-audio system of your brain and feeding it a set of stimuli that's close enough to the stimuli it expects that it sees it as truth. Instead of suspending your disbelief, you actually have to remind yourself not to believe."
So what does this mean for fashion?
In the past decade, the fashion industry has driven growth largely by tapping emerging markets, opening hundreds of new stores, particularly in China. But as Chinese demand has cooled, many have sought new growth online, which Luca Solca, head of luxury goods at BNP Exane Paribas, has called "the new China."

"A number of things have changed in the luxury industry. As you know, the luxury industry was growing 8 percent before - now it is growing 2 to 4 or 5 percent in the next year and it's going to stay there," said Olivier Abtan, a partner at the Boston Consulting Group. "Now, in this slow growing market [brands are] considering digital very seriously," he added.

For some, virtual and augmented reality technologies offer a powerful new digital growth channel. "When one thinks how engaging VR could be, I imagine that this will indeed be even more important than mobile in the grand scheme of things," said Solca. "However, it took 20 years for e-commerce to reach an inflection point," he cautioned. "I'd imagine VR would need a similar amount of time to really shape our everyday experience in the same way as our mobile phones."

But momentum in the VR/AR space is building quickly. Late last year, HTC Vive announced a venture capital alliance for virtual reality technologies; comprising 27 firms, the initiative has amassed $10 billion dollars of deployable capital. Last October, digital distribution platform Steam reported adding 1,000 new VR users daily, with over 600 VR apps already on the platform. And technology heavyweights are doubling down in virtual and augmented reality. See Facebook's Oculus Rift to Snapchat's Spectacles.

In this early stage of development, accurate projections of future market size are difficult. But according to Goldman Sachs, revenue from VR- and AR-related hardware and software is expected to reach from $80 billion to $182 billion by 2025.

Virtual reality and augmented reality could certainly become a powerful channel for brand-consumer interactions, much like mobile and social are today. But current pricing ($600 for an Oculus Rift headset, $800 for an HTC Vive) will slow mainstream consumer adoption for the moment, according to Goldman Sachs.

In the meantime, there are plenty of enterprise opportunities for fashion companies. "The obvious first step in the apparel industry is designing and development tools, and we are working with a lot of brands and a lot of supply chain companies behind the scene on this," said Ari Bloom, CEO of Avametric, a San Francisco-based startup working in VR/AR. "You think about the ability to have a more digital experiences: the amount of time and money you can save not having to sample thousands of garments to get to three or four hundred!"

Virtual simulations of store environments could also be useful to retailers. "In VR, specifically, you can [test] two different environments - and that is really powerful," explained Bloom. ShopperMX, a virtual reality platform developed by Chicago-based firm InContext Solutions, allows retailers to experiment with signage, product display and layout without the time and resource commitment required to build and test these elements in the physical world.

But over the next decade, it is ultimately consumer adoption of VR/AR that will drive the most opportunity for fashion companies - and already some brands are dipping their toes in the space. In October 2015, Tommy Hilfiger became the first major fashion retailer to deploy virtual reality headsets in its stores, inviting shoppers to immerse themselves in a 360-degree experience of the label's Autumn/Winter fashion show. This year, American accessible luxury brand is following suite, installing VR headsets in stores in 10 malls across the US to provide consumers with full access to its latest runway show.

, too, is experimenting. Last month, the retailer unveiled an augmented reality dressing room that allows consumers to try its ranges digitally. The experience, built with Bloom and Avametric in collaboration with Google, has its drawbacks. For a start, it only works with Google Tango smartphones, which have yet to be widely adopted by the market. But the specific limitations of the Gap experience aside, AR has lower barriers to adoption than VR, which is costly and comes with a steep learning curve for consumers. And in recent cycles, AR applications - mostly geared towards trying on clothes - have spread relatively quickly as fashion brands and retailers jump on the bandwagon.

Unsurprisingly, beauty brands have been early to AR. Within the last year, Sephora, Charlotte Tilbury and Rimmel have all launched AR applications that allow users to try on products via a filter on their phones.
But do these applications offer real value? Or are they just marketing gimmicks?
"The number one difficulty has been that there are a lot of false prophets at this stage," said Tom Adeyoola, chief executive of London-based virtual fitting room company Metail, whose augmented reality "try-before-you-buy" solution aims to drive concrete business results. According to research conducted by Metail in conjuction with Tufts University and the Kellogg School of Management, the company's AR application can boost sales by 22 percent.

Its bigger potential lies in the power of data collection, however, illustrating how consumer-facing VR and AR applications can drive back-end benefits. "Our big partner in India is using data that is coming through to re-cut their clothes to match the fact that India is not a one-size demographic - people are taller in the North and shorter in the South. They are starting to rethink and recut clothes," said Adeyoola. "For another retailer, for example, we saw that only 20 percent of their customers matched the clothes that were cut. By resourcing the garments, they could do a better job of matching that demographic."

For the moment there's little doubt that VR and AR remain in their infancy. And much like e-commerce 10 years ago, when fashion and luxury brands were reluctant to sell online, there are those who doubt the potential of these new technologies. "But if the consumers are there, they have no choice," says Abten. "If consumers complete their transition into VR/AR channels, brands - even the luxury ones - will have no choice but to embrace."
Related Articles Vision Quest: 3 Technologies Shaping the Future of Fashion At CES 2017, a Glimpse of Tech Destined to Transform Fashion

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Virtual Reality: Growth Engine for Fashion?

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LONDON, United Kingdom - When Apple's iPhone first appeared nearly 10 years ago, few could fathom the extent to which it would transform our daily lives. Today, much like mobile before it, a rising technology platform has the potential to create what Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan called "new patterns of human association," unleashing a tsunami of innovation.

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PRADA X PRADA - The Interactive Virtual Reality Experience

Defined by duality and contradiction, #PRADAxPRADA is a 360 journey into La Femme Prada and L'Homme Prada. Download the app to navigate a unique experience.

Type : VR Interactive Experience
Realisation : Mathias Chelebourg
Sound Design : Todd Baker
Art Direction & Production : UNICORN PARIS
Conception : Mazarine
Development : DVMobile

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PRADA X PRADA - VR INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE - UNICORN PARIS

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Defined by duality and contradiction, #PRADAxPRADA is a 360 journey into La Femme Prada and L'Homme Prada. Download the app to navigate a unique experience. Type : VR Interactive Experience Realisation : Mathias ChelebourgSound Design : Todd BakerArt Direction & Production : UNICORN PARISConception : MazarineDevelopment : DVMobile

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Prada launched its iconic perfume L'Homme Prada and La Femme Prada with PRADAxPRADA, its first interactive virtual reality film, available on Oculus Store, App Store and Google Play Store.

Through a transitional series of scenes and experiences - each one offering glimpses into the narrative and aesthetic codes of La Femme Prada and L'Homme Prada - PRADAxPRADA is a metaphor of the paradoxical and multi-faceted human nature.

Along the way, the audience experiences the gradual opening of interconnected three-dimensional spaces, in which reality, abstraction and surrealism constantly merge together. Collages, optical illusions, reflections, diffractions, trompe-l'œil and infinite or monumental aspects create multiple inner landscapes that the user is invited to combine. The interactivity offers up to 625 ways to go through the film.

DV collaborated with Todd Baker, the multi-awarded composer of Monument Valley and Land's End VR, who is specialized in interactive spatial sound design. To evoke the olfactory journey, the universe of the perfume was transposed into abstract representations using images, echoes, objects suspended in mid air, layers, lights, or vegetal elements.

Virtual Reality, stereoscopic technologies and 3D sound have all been merged for the first time so that the spectator would be drawn into the mind-blowing universe of this 10 minutes long 3D animation film. This immersive experience showcases a principle based on intuitive interactivity, which grants it a unique impression. By exceeding the boundaries of technology, this stereoscopic film opens a new chapter in high-definition VR experiences.

VR, Entertainment, Marketing March 12, 2020 by Alvin Manalac

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Prada - The Interactive Virtual Experience - Virtual Reality Marketing

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Prada launched its iconic perfume L'Homme Prada and La Femme Prada with PRADAxPRADA, its first interactive virtual reality film, available on Oculus Store, App Store and Google Play Store. Through a transitional series of scenes and experiences - each one offering glimpses into the narrative and aesthetic codes of La Femme Prada and L'Homme Prada - PRADAxPRADA is a metaphor of the paradoxical and multi-faceted human nature.

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Fashion is not something that immediately springs to mind when thinking about virtual reality but nevertheless, it is used by the fashion industry in a variety of ways.

These include:

VR software for building virtual fashion stores

3D avatars (virtual humans) to help with clothes design

Fashion show in Second Life

3D fashion portfolio

Second Life is discussed further as a separate article. Please see the Virtual Reality Games section.

Virtual fashion show

There are situations in which the boundaries are blurred between fashion and technology, for example, the use of virtual reality as part of a live fashion show. In that scenario, a 3D image was projected into a real world setting, i.e. a catwalk as part of the show.

Second Life fashion

Another example is where fashion is influenced by technology, in particular virtual worlds such as Second Life. The models and clothes are based upon avatars in that environment.

Girl games and fashion

The meeting of fashion and virtual reality can be seen in games which are designed for girls. These games combine fashion, music and technology in a way designed to appeal to the interests of teenage girls.

The issue of girls and virtual reality gaming is discussed in more detail within the virtual reality games section.

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Virtual Reality in Fashion - Virtual Reality Society

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Fashion is not something that immediately springs to mind when thinking about virtual reality but nevertheless, it is used by the fashion industry in a variety of ways. These include: VR software for building virtual fashion stores 3D avatars (virtual humans) to help with clothes design Fashion show in Second Life 3D fashion portfolio Second ...

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Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in Fashion Retail

Retail is evolving and adapting to digitalization or the phygital. Online is destroying the way retailers, or some of them, understood physical shopping. Business Models that successfully grew during the 20th century are closing stores. Most of them are department stores: Big buildings strategically prepared to keep customers inside, without external windows, an outside-in retail approach. In many cities, department stores were the only place to find such a wide fashion assortment and people visited them as a regular plan. Big parking, large stocks, good prices. Many shoppers didn´t have an alternative until online arrived.

But Retail Apocalypse doesn´t mean that customers won´t buy anymore in physical stores. Some Department Stores and Malls are reinventing the point of sale thru digitalization, but for others, it´s too late and too expensive. Brands like H&M, Ralph Lauren or Michael Kors are also closing stores. The ones that didn´t invest in "digital" (e.g. UX, UI, RFID, ROPO, etc) for the latest 10 years will have problems to face competition.

Many fashion retail brands are investing in flagship stores but forget second-tier stores. These are sometimes ugly and dirty, a pile of clothes is stocked anywhere, and it´s not easy to find what you are looking at. It´s a labyrinth. Then, queuing for the fitting room, and same thing when going to pay. No doubt, online is going to kill those stores that only sell products like water bottles in supermarkets. I have seen, more than once, a vaccum cleaner and lots of wrinkled clothes in flagships stores. And the " touch & feel" shouldn´t be exclusive to luxury fashion retailers, because experience and story telling is something expected in any segment of the fashion pyramid. If you want to buy a basic product, you will use the internet and avoid a bad offline experience (If you know your size and you are only buying a white shirt, that you already bought it a few monthts ago, why would you go to a store?).

Omnichannel shopping demands a totally different approach to the customer and the way products and services are delivered. Customer experience demands the reinvention of product display and information (traceability and transparency), customer service, store layout/architecture, stock management, etc. Traditional retail KPIs need also to adapt to omnichannel: Sales growth per store, Availability, Stock Turn, Average Ticket, Conversion ratio, Sales per square meters (or foot), for example, aren´t realistic when customers can window shopping, Research Online Purchase Offline (ROPO), See Now-Buy Now, etc.

Millennials and Generation Z values are different from Baby Boomers ones, and experience is what they want. Nownership and experience above materialistic stuff. and not Flagship. It´s in the Experience Economy and Curated Experience where Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality will have an impact in fashion retail. It´s Fashtech. As an example, in Feb 17, the affordable luxury brand Coach installed VR headsets in stores to provide consumers with full access to its latest runway shows. The virtual reality experience was a partnership with IMG, Simon Malls and Facebook.

Zara is already betting for Experience in the Digital and Omnichannel era. Zara opened a pop-up store in London to show how online and offline are integrated. The store's design features technology-enhanced elements aimed at elevating the customer experience. Store employees will have mobile devices to aid customers, and there also will be a card terminal system that operates with Bluetooth technology (WWD -1/25/2018).

Zara, also introduced a few weeks ago its augmented reality shopping app. After downloading the Zara AR app (from either iTunes or Google Play), customers can point their phones at the aforementioned shop window, as well as "via in-store podiums, on boxes they receive delivering online purchases and via dedicated images at zara.com," and models Léa Julian and Fran Summers are brought to life for seven- to 12-second sequences (4/13/2018, Refinery 29).

In 2017, Amazon acquired Body Labs, an AI platform that utilizes computer vision to generate three-dimensional human motion and shapes for gaming and shopping applications. And also Graphiq, an Artificial Intelligence firm that provides data visualization solutions for researchers, journalists and enterprises (read Strategic Acquisitions: Amazon vs Walmart). GAP is also investing on VR, with its DressingRoom app (developed by Avametric), that uses avatars to help people understand how products will fit without stepping foot in a dressing room.

But, what is Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality?

According to Gartner Augmented reality (AR) is the real-time use of information in the form of text, graphics, audio and other virtual enhancements integrated with real-world objects. It is this "real world" element that differentiates AR from virtual reality. AR integrates and adds value to the user's interaction with the real world, versus a simulation.

Virtual reality (VR) provides a computer-generated 3D environment that surrounds a user and responds to that individual's actions in a natural way, usually through immersive head-mounted displays and head tracking. Gloves providing hand tracking and haptic (touch sensitive) feedback may be used as well. Room-based systems provide a 3D experience for multiple participants; however, they are more limited in their interaction capabilities.

AR and VR Startups & Companies specializing in Fashion retail that you should know about:

OBSESSis a platform that enables brands and retailers to create Augmented & Virtual Reality shopping experiences for mobile. Customer can access digital information and media associated with in-store merchandise thru an app. Customer can also find videos and recommendations that help in making in-store purchase decision.

AVAMETRIC is a digital 3D software platform that provides automated content creation for brands, retail, and e-commerce sales tools. Its technology enables brands to deliver accurate 3D rendering of their apparel & Accessories on customizable digital body models for web, mobile, and AR. Avametric technology creates digital garments that faithfully reproduce their real world equivalents.

VIRTUSIZE is a virtual fitting solution that enables online fashion retailers to illustrate size and fit for consumers. As they mention, their solution has been developed alongside designers, pattern makers and industry leading online retailers who share our view that garment comparison is the only way to clearly and objectively showcase size and fit.

provides business tools & solutions using world-leading augmented reality, computer vision, artificial intelligence & visual search technologies. Max Factor partnered with Blippar to make its entire range scannable through the app. By scanning a product, customers will gain access to related content, including reviews, tutorial videos and before and after pictures.

is Apple's augmented reality development platform for iOS mobile devices. Burberry partnered with ARKit adding a function to its app that interacts with users' camera feeds to digitally redecorate their surroundings with Burberry-inspired drawings by the artist Danny Sangra.

MODIFACE, acquired by L´Oréal in March 2018, is an augmented reality-based application that allows users to simulate live 3D makeup, skincare assessment and photo-realistic hair coloring.

Modiface and Sephora (March 2017)

HOLITION: Formed as a venture start-up to explore and expand the role that technological innovation can play in communicating with today's new digital consumer, Holition is a synthesis of luxury marketers, retail specialists and cutting edge leaders in 3D technology (e.g. Magic Mirror, Virtual try-on).

is a digital consultancy providing strategic business solutions with technical power & creative edge. Above you can see how Decathlon used VR, and developed by Valtech, to show their Quechua Tents.

SYMPHONY RETAILAI is a global provider of Artificial Intelligence-enabled decision platforms, solutions and customer-centric insights that drive validated growth for retailers and CPG manufacturers, from customer intelligence to personalized marketing, and merchandising and category management, to supply chain and retail operations.

IN CONTEXT SOLUTIONS is specializing in enterprise mixed reality solutions for total retail optimization. With the power of ShopperMX™, an enterprise mixed reality platform, clients can ideate new in-store concepts, evaluate with test shoppers, and activate those concepts to market.

TAKELEAPis an Interactive Marketing and Technology Media agency with expertise in Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Projection Technologies, Hologram, App Development and Augmented Reality.

So, it´s clear and it´s not about the future. AR and VR are already powerful technologies for brand-consumers interactions.

Read more about Fashion Technology in The Fashion Retailer:
The Fashtech Ecosystem

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This is my second post about Fashion 4.0 or Fashtech for The Fashion Retailer: Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in Fashion Retail Retail is evolving and adapting to digitalization or the phygital. Online is destroying the way retailers, or some of them, understood physical shopping. Business Models that successfully grew during the 20th century are...

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Fashion in the workplace has changed drastically throughout the last century.

In the early 1900s, both men and women were dressed to the nines - but just 50 years later, casual work looks began to emerge.

Pantsuits dominated women's fashion in the 1970s, and men in the '90s began to rock the "business casual" look.

Nowadays, many people can choose to dress up or dress down for work.

It's the age-old question: What should I wear to work today? And it has been at the forefront of peoples' minds for decades.

Workplace fashion has undergone quite an evolution throughout the past 100 years, starting with dressy looks and succumbing to subtle casualness by the time the 1950s hit. Women began to rock pants - and pantsuits - at work in the 1970s, and men started the "business casual" trend in the '90s.

Keep scrolling to see the complete evolution of workplace fashion throughout the past century.

Throughout the early 20th century, offices were very formal: women wore traditional gowns and men wore full suits.

Americans not only dressed up for work in the 1900s - they covered up, too.

"Women and girls never wore trousers and women kept their legs hidden with long dresses or skirts," according to the BBC. "Men and boys often kept their coats, jackets and ties on, even in hot weather."

As the 1920s emerged, women sported shorter haircuts and more boyish dress silhouettes.

The "boyish" dress silhouette rose in popularity throughout the '20s, as women abandoned the tight, feminine dresses of the past. Straight skirts were in, and " tailored suits for the working woman also featured the straight, curveless cut."

And a double-breasted suit was key for men in the '40s, along with the popular bowler hat.

Loose-fitting trousers were also the move for men in the 1940s, and - in stark contrast to the low-rise fit of the '30s - were often buckled high on the torso. They were part of the " de mob" suit look, which also consisted of a shirt, tie, and double-breasted jacket.

The 1960s was known for its minimalist, colorful aesthetic, and that was reflected in women's fashion ...

"Mod" fashion was all the rage in the '60s, and working women favored its minimalist, colorful aesthetic. They often paired their chic dresses with white pumps, and their hair was straight and sleek, cut into a bob.

The pantsuit trend shook the women's workforce in the 1970s, and bolder colors began to emerge.

According to VICE's history of the pantsuit, by the '70s, "many young women were adopting pants either as an explicit symbol representing their fight for equality, or simply as a means for more comfort." Many women who climbed the corporate ladder opted for the bold, revolutionary trend.

Pantsuits turned into menswear-inspired outfits for women in the '80s. Broad shoulders and large blazers were in.

Power suits and padded shoulders were the trend of working women of the '80s, as exemplified by Melanie Griffith in 1988's "Working Girl," which led to an exaggerated, menswear-inspired aesthetic.

Men rocked more "relaxed" and broad suits.

"Richard Gere's game-changing Armani suit in 'American Gigolo' is legendary for its looser fit and effortless swagger," according to GQ's history of the suit. It paved the way for many men's trends of the decade, like the power suit, which featured suspenders, pinstripes, and padded shoulders.

Men got increasingly "business casual" throughout the '90s, too, opting for turtlenecks and khakis.

According to The Atlantic, " business casual" dress started to emerge in the '80s and flourish in the '90s: "Business casual consists of khaki pants, sensible shoes, and button-down collared shirts ... By the time it was mainstream, in the 1990s, it flummoxed HR managers and employees alike."

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How the way we dress for work has changed over the last 100 years

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Fashion in the workplace has changed drastically throughout the last century. In the early 1900s, both men and women were dressed to the nines - but just 50 years later, casual work looks began to emerge. Pantsuits dominated women's fashion in the 1970s, and men in the '90s began to rock the "business casual" look.

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As the 1920s emerged, women sported shorter haircuts and more boyish dress silhouettes.
"Colorful suits and patterned socks accented the wardrobe of the casually dressed," according to the University of Vermont, though men still tended to go for the classy, creased, and conservative look at the office.

The 1930s saw an even more relaxed look, but suits remained the standard.
The look of a long torso was in for men in the '30s, so suits were adjusted accordingly, with widened shoulders and tapering sleeves. Men's trousers were still creased, as seen in the portrait of Chicago journalists above.
Women's dress silhouettes got a little softer in the 1930s, and many long dresses of the time featured feminine embellishments, like bows and ties at the front.

1940s - squared shoulders and more adventurous patterns
The idea of "utility fashion" permeated women's work clothing in the 1940s, as many women went to work during World War II. Squared, padded shoulders and varied colors and patterns began to emerge.

1950s- simple jumper and skirt combo with pearls
pencil skirts
"separates" (that is blouses and skirts or blouses and pants) were all the rage.
Suits were still the rage for men, and pocket handkerchiefs became a popular accessory in the '50s.

1960s - minimalist, colorful aesthetic
mod fashion -
They often paired their chic dresses with white pumps, and their hair was straight and sleek, cut into a bob.
men : Clean lines and skinny ties dominated men's professional fashion in the '60s (think early Beatles). Suits boasted slimmer-fitting pants and sleek silhouettes.

1970s - pant suit trend
by the '70s, "many young women were adopting pants either as an explicit symbol representing their fight for equality, or simply as a means for more comfort." Many women who climbed the corporate ladder opted for the bold, revolutionary trend.
Pantsuits turned into menswear-inspired outfits for women in the '80s. Broad shoulders and large blazers were in.

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https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wd7vey/the-history-of-the-pantsuit-456

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- reflecting the aspirations of strong women seeking to defy gender norms and inciting the ire of those intent on keeping us in our place.

- According to Marjorie Jolles, a women's studies professor at Roosevelt University, pantsuits are an essential tool for American women operating in spaces historically dominated by men. "[Pantsuits] hid [a woman's] femininity—and by that I mean their femaleness—because it is a serious liability," she says.

- Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is so closely associated with the silhouette of a two-piece
The pantsuit embodies her ambition to be taken as an equal force.

-  pantsuit is deemed as masculine in Western culture, it can also be seen as incredibly sexy and chic when a women wears it

-  examples of great pantsuits for women show on runways of Christian Dior or performances of classic artists like Grace Jones and even pop stars like Janelle Monae and Rihanna.

- "After having a resurgence on the spring runways at Bottega Veneta, Chanel, and Christopher Kane, the pantsuit found its way onto Rihanna at this year's Grammy Awards," wrote Vogue in 2015 - masion margelia oversized blazer
This created hype as it looked similar to the other mens blazers around her. rihanna made it sexy - There's something sexy there because it's about the intimacy: A woman is inside men's clothesThere are so many ways to evoke sex. So to think now that the pantsuit is what you wear to be safe and conservative is a big shift."

- first lady like Hillary Clinton or performer like Rihanna to wear a pantsuit.

- women were getting arrested just for wearing pants in America as recently as the early 1900s

- women were second class citizens. They couldn't vote, they couldn't hold office, and they couldn't work the same number of hours as men.

- ww1 helped women step in for men when they all went to war. stepping closer to voting

- Coco Chanel laid the foundation for the pantsuit. 1923 introduced her "signature suit. inspired by menswear but tailored to women suitable for post-war women looking to join the workforce.
instead of pants, it consisted of a knee-length skirt and a collarless wool button down jacket with embellished buttons. Chanel's boxy workwear separates would go on to change the game for women's fashion.

- By 1930, 24.3 percent of American women were employed. Even though women in the West had been wearing pants while working on farms and ranches, it wasn't until WWII that women around the rest of the country started trading their skirts in for slacks.

- French designer Marcel Rochas is credited with originating the idea of pairing pants with women's suits in 1932. he introduced a pair of gray wool trousers and matching jacket with extreme padded shoulders.

-  after rochas and chanel, other designers began experimenting -
In 1939, Italian fashion designer and rival to Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli, designed a menswear inspired wool pantsuit for her fall/winter collection.
The wool two-piece was a speckled brown wool jacket with four large buttons down the front and a pair of single pleat cuffed slacks. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the outfit has been on display, during the time of its debut "only the most unconventional designer would offer a straightforward pantsuit, and only a fearless woman would wear it."

- successful (1930s) german born actress Marlene Dietrich, who became one of the early pioneers of wearing pantsuits as streetwear.
dressed in a tuxedo by renowned costume designer Travis Banton for her Oscar-winning role in Morocco.
Dietrich plays a cabaret singer who in one scene dresses as a man and kisses another woman on the mouth—a very scandalous moment that Morocco is now best known for. she later adopted this look as her signature look

- katherine hepburn - wore men's style suits with thick lapels and wide trousers in her film Woman of the Year. she adopted unusal looks that were  forward for the time
was given award by Council of Fashion Designers of America presented her with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1985.

- ww2 allowed women to penetrate work force again. the percentage of women in the US workforce increased from 27 to almost 37 percent. began to fill industrial work roles previously held by men, so they were in need of trousers. Women's Levi's, which were first introduced in 1935

- women would have o wear skirts when not at work - n November 1939, Vogue fashion editor Elizabeth Penrose spoke out against women who would wear their new utilitarian clothing outside the workplace, whether it was to a restaurant or even at home, saying those women "who pad around in hairy sweaters and flannel bags, on duty and off; letting themselves go—and other people down—slackers in slacks."

- 60s= second wave on feminism
passing of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which barred private employers from discriminating against women.

- pantsuit was transformed by ysl in 60s - Le Smoking Suit in August 1966 considered to be first tux designed for women consisting of a dinner jacket, trousers with satin stripe down the side, a white shirt, a black bowtie, and a cummerbund. The powerful look pioneered what the fashion world thought of women in pantsuits and the idea of androgynous dress. - Nan Kempner wore it in 1969 (ny sociliate who dressed forward thinking)
"Nan Kempner, to my eyes, always represented this modern, free, independent, and elegant woman. She is probably the woman who best wore my clothes, with whom I shared the longest and greatest complicity," Yves Saint Laurent once mentioned of Kempner.

After being denied service, Kempner stripped off her pants and entered again in only the jacket worn as a minidress. The manager of the restaurant responded by saying, "Pants... do not belong in a restaurant any more than swimming suits... We will continue our policy."'

By the 70s, so many young women were adopting pants either as an explicit symbol representing their fight for equality, or simply as a means for more comfort. - 1972 women were allowed to wear pants to school  Title IX of the Education Amendments.

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https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/euromonitor?projector=1

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- spending money on avatar clothing on games
- asos

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https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2019/07/hands-asos-virtual-catwalk/
It’s an augmented reality feature that’s found on the Asos app. It allows customers to view what products would look like on different size models, so that they can get an idea of how an item might fit their body shape.

The feature is developed as part of Asos’ partnership with AR company HoloMe, and is currently available on iOS 11.3 devices.

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American Apparel – augmented reality application

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Table of Contents
Abstract List of figures List of abbreviations
1.Introduction
1.1 Research aim and objectives
1.2 Structure of the thesis

2. Literature review
2.1 Digitalization
2.2 Fashion
2.2.1 Historical aspects of fashion
2.2.2 Fashion of today
2.3 The impact of digitalization in the fashion industry

3. Fashion and marketing
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The evolution of digital fashion marketing
3.3 Marketing channels
3.3.1 Paid media
3.3.2 Owned media
3.3.3 Earned media
3.4 The marketing mix
3.4.1 Product
3.4.2 Place
3.4.3 Price
3.4.4 Promotion
3.4.5 People
3.4.6 Process
3.4.7 Physical environment

4. Technological developments in the fashion industry
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Mobile integration
4.2.1 Mobile shopping
4.2.2 Mobile scanning
4.2.3 Augmented reality
4.2.4 Location based services
4.3 Physical store integration
4.3.1 Interactive shop windows
4.3.2 Digital signage
4.3.3 Virtual fitting rooms and interactive mirrors
4.3.4 Magic mirrors
4.3.5 Holograms
4.3.6 3D scanning
4.4 Online store integration
4.5 Social media integration

5. Research Methodology
5.1 Background survey
5.2 Survey results
5.2.1 Customer segments
5.2.2 Consumer findings

6. Conclusion and discussion
6.1 Main results of the research
6.2 Suggestions for future research and recommendations
6.3 Limitations of the research

7. List of references
7.1 Literature sources
7.2 Online sources

8. Appendices
8.1 Appendix A - Questionnaire
8.2 Appendix B - Results from the survey

Abstract

Digitalization is a big part of the everyday lives of fashion consumers. In the past decades, rapidly accelerated globalization and technological developments, among other major changes in society, have modified the overall behavior of consumers. The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of digitalization on consumer behavior with particular reference to the fashion retail industry. To answer this, the thesis will analyze the ongoing trends of fashion retail businesses all over the world and the attitudes and opinions consumers have towards fashion and how ever-developing digitalization affects their fashion experience. This thesis will also clarify how the leading fashion retailers are implementing digital transformation into their business models. The main objective of this thesis will be achieved using literature, existing sources, surveys, and reports. The results of the research suggest that digitalization has a huge impact on consumer behavior in terms of fashion. Based on the results, the thesis will then present recommendations for fashion retailers so that the marketer and the customer can reap the advantages of digitalization.

List of figures

Figure 1: American Apparel - augmented reality application [McQuarrie 2013]

Figure 2: Nike - interactive shop window, London, UK [BWD, s.a.]

Figure 3: Burberry - digital signage [Retail Innovation 2013]

Figure 4: TOPSHOP - virtual fitting room [Retail Innovation 2013]

Figure 5: Age group of respondents [own graph]

Figure 6: The importance of fashion shopping [own graph]

Figure 7: Digital service - click & collect [own graph]

Figure 8: Digital sales advisors [own graph]

Figure 9: The influence of online product presentation [own graph]

Figure 10: Digital Payment Methods [own graph]

List of abbreviations

cf.: Confer p.: page pp.: pages Ed.: Editor

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

1. Introduction

A digital era of information has entered society, distinguished by rapid transformations in the kinds of technological mediation through which people encounter one another [cf. Baym 2015, p.5 ]. The digital revolution has changed the rules, personal relations, business, communication, and the way everyone uses their time. Moreover, the impact of technology is always associated with achieving greater freedom, creating at the same time dependence that has changed how people engage with the world. Sociologist and economist, Manuel Castells, believes that people, companies, and institutions feel how profound this technological change is "but when closely examined through rigorous empirical research, the speed and scope of the transformation turns out to not be exact" [cf. BBVA 2017].

Furthermore, digitalization is the driving force behind the retail sector, making shopping more convenient, more enjoyable and more cost-effective. The rise of innovation and digitalization in retail has altered the face of the industry, becoming more and more symbiotic [cf. Ralph 2018]. This transformation has been set in motion by greater adoption of the internet by the general public on a global scale, which has forced retailers to develop e-commerce strategies and incorporate the multi-channel approach into their business models [cf. Geyskens 2002]. Additionally, a seamless shopping experience created by omni-channel retailing links multiple channels, from online to mobile to in-store. For example, many households nowadays contain a smart speaker or assistant, such as Amazon's Alexa device that can make this experience even easier [cf. Walsh 2017].

The fashion industry, which ranges from global discount retailers to exclusive luxury brands, drives a significant part of the global economy. Fashion is one of the most challenging fields, highly captured by global economic uncertainty as well as distinct trends and industrial changes. In response to the pressure for growth and cost efficiency, the global fashion industry is moving into a decisive phase of digital adoption by the mainstream consumer. As electronic commerce becomes the engine of growth, fashion brands continue to accelerate digital investments to keep up with globalizing commerce [cf. Lay s.a.]. The modern shopper's comfort with digital channels and content has changed the consumer's purchasing journey from a traditional linear model to a complex journey across online and offline touchpoints. But regardless of touchpoint, consumers expect a consistent brand experience at all times [cf. Amed 2017]. Developments in digital content and customer experience have reached an extent as never seen before. Besides this, technology is playing an increasingly important role in consumer engagement and loyalty and without a clear digital vision, traditional retailers risk irrelevance or even extinction [Vernocchi 2012].

1.1 Research aim and objectives

Due to technological developments that have spread all over the world, the traditional concept of marketing has transformed into a digital mode that brings a whole world to the customer's doorstep in just one click. The increasingly penetrative nature of the internet as well as various high-speed digital communication channels, wider networks and new devices and their connection with marketers have made consumers more knowledgeable about the value they expect in return for the cost incurred [cf. Rathnayaka 2018]. The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of digitalization on consumer behavior with particular reference to the fashion retail industry. This thesis will analyze the ongoing trends of fashion retail businesses all over the world. This thesis will also clarify how the leading fashion retailers are implementing digital transformation into their business models. The main objective of this thesis will be achieved using literature, existing sources, surveys and reports. It is important to summarize the challenges correctly and clearly, as well as to describe them in detail.

The main research question of the thesis can be briefly summarized as follows:

How does digitalization in the fashion industry affect consumers' behaviour?

By using empirical analysis to answer the research questions, it will be possible to share valuable insights into digitalization in the fashion industry. The empirical research of the thesis focuses particularly on consumer behavior in fashion and the current attitudes, consumers have towards the modern clothing industry. The research question will be answered by examining these attitudes, considering different opinions and developing the overall idea of fashion consumers. The thesis takes the consumer perspective into consideration and examines the attitudes and emotions that fashion and new innovations arouse in them, making this particular approach to the topic quite unique. The empirical research is complimented by the theoretical analysis, which researches the subjects of consumerism and fashion development and creates a timeline from the beginning of the fashion industry until this moment in order to better understand the changes.

1.2 Structure of the thesis

The thesis starts with definitions and detailed explanations of digitalization and fashion and its impact in the retail and fashion industries. It will also cover the main synonyms, so that the reader is able to understand the topic clearly. The section mentioned above will be followed by the literature review. The main objective of the literature review is to find the most relevant literature and information about the topic. The literature analysis will be divided into subparagraphs, which will each examine a digital marketing communication challenge separately. In addition, the introduction will outline the most relevant terms of the topic. After going through the main ideas and concepts of the thesis topic, the existing technological developments in the fashion industry will be discussed. The aim of this section, will be to explain to which organizations the topic of digital marketing communication challenges relates.

After the theoretical framework has been examined, the methodology and process of analysis will be presented. The possible research methods will be considered and it will be also clarified as to why qualitative research method have been chosen. In the empirical part of the thesis, the results of the survey will be further analyzed. In addition, the responses will be discussed within the theoretical framework of this research.

The final chapter of the thesis will introduce the main conclusions and the discussion. In this chapter, the main findings will be presented and the future research topics suggested.

2. Literature review

2.1 Digitalization

Nowadays, every aspect of people's lives is swept across by digitalization. Living in a dynamic world where speed is of the essence and transformation is the key to success, digital technology is making tasks faster and more accurate [cf. De-Fontenay 2011]. In many ways, the 21st century is different from the previous ones as digital technology is growing in a way that everyone becomes part of the change: "The future which used to be a destination that we marched toward-has arrived" and brought new changes with itself [Rushkoff 2013 in Clendaniel s.a.].

In literature, the terms 'digitization', 'digitalization' and 'digital transformation' are frequently used interchangeably. Brennen and Kreiss [2014] indicate that 'digitization' can be referred to as "the specific process of converting analogue data streams into digital bits" and define 'digitalization' as "the way in which many domains of social life are restructured around digital communication and media infrastructures". MIT Center for Digital Business in collaboration with Capgemini Consulting firstly defined digital transformation as "the use of technology to radically improve performance or reach of enterprises" [Westerman 2011, p. 5]. Similarly [Stolterman and Fors 2004, p. 689] specify that "digital transformation can be understood as the changes that digital technology causes or influences in all aspects of human life". From another perspective [Lankshear and Knobel 2008] describe digital transformation as the final level of digital literacy. At this level, digital technologies enable innovation and creativity, and stimulate significant changes in professional and knowledge domains. All of the above definitions are holistic by nature and do not break down digital transformation in specific technologies and specific changes. One aspect that becomes apparent is that digital transformation does not entail gradual incremental changes but fundamental "radical" changes due to digital technologies. Evidentially using a new digital technology within an organization does not necessarily mean that an organization undergoes digital transformation, i.e. a fundamental radical change.

The industrial revolution that swept across the world had established a base for an economy that was dependent upon manufacturing. Nevertheless, during the industrial revolution, the manufacturing processes changed. Many manual production methods were substituted by machines, machine tools were developed, and the use of steam power became significantly widespread. This opened the way for the second big "revolution", which led to the rapid extension of roads, bridges, ports, and canals. The third revolution changed the economy of the whole world with transcontinental trade and travel by rail and steamship together with international telegraphs and electricity. The forth wave revolutionized transportation with the automobiles [cf. Perez 2002, pp. 10-11]. What all of these revolutions have in common is the fact that they all led to a massive replacement of one technology with another. [Perez 2002, p.4] further argues that "each involved profound changes in people, organizations and skills in a sort of habit-breaking hurricane. Each led to an explosive period in the financial markets." A similarity can be observed between the four major technological revolutions and the digital one. They all underwent development over the years, starting with an initial eruption. However, 1965 can truly be called the year of the premise for the digital revolution and the development of technologies. Gordon Moore, Intel co-founder, made the observation that "as transistors got smaller, the number of transistors that fit onto an integrated circuit grew exponentially" [Atkinson and Castro, 2008] so that the "number of transistors placed on a single square inch of an integrated circuit chip would double every two years" [Investopedia 2015]. After some minor configurations, this prediction of Gordon Moore was considered to be a law known as "Moore's law". The adoption of technological innovations by people and their penetration to the market started quite erratically.

Furthermore, by the end of the 20th century, the world had seen the rise of a new economy, which transformed heavy industry into new knowledge driven technologies. The use of knowledge in technologies such as knowledge engineering and knowledge management led to an age of rapid dissemination of information and the process of transformation has been accentuated by digital technologies developed across the world. Steam engines replaced water mills, which have now been replaced with electricity. Telephones, automobiles, airplanes, transistors, computers and finally the internet emerged. "Each new wave of technology has brought about surges in productivity and economic growth, enabling efficient new methods for performing existing tasks and giving rise to entirely new types of business" [Manyika 2013].

Back in the 1980s-1990s, the mobile telephone was perceived to be a luxury device or even an integral part of everyday life, for more than half of the people all over the world [cf. Siddharta 2016]. Indeed, nowadays people cannot imagine their typical day without using the mobile phone for social media, messaging services, incoming and outgoing calls, or surfing the internet.

Moore's law has further led to steadily increasing performance [cf. Walwei 2016, p.2] and enabled the future production of computers, internet and mobile cell phones. Further digitalization of information has led to the appearance of the "Big Data" concept and resulted in "advances in areas such as Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Mobile Robotics" [Walwei 2016]. Together with the high usability of Big Data, it has further led to the computerization of the economy. Therefore, the digital information revolution does not aim to create a completely different world but to make it function in a better, more efficient and effective way "with individuals and organizations able to access and use a vast array of information to improve their lives and society" [Atkinson and Castro 2008].

Nevertheless, [cf. Perez 2002, p.9] mentions that the digital revolution is currently in the synergy phase. This means, that digital technology is entering every aspect of life, from society to the economy. This indicates that the digital revolution is not just a theoretical term but in fact reality. It has brought with it the wind of change, which slowly but surely affects everything and everyone from the young schoolgirl to the multinational organization. The digital revolution has opened the door to something new, which has radically changed people and their lives. But these changes also affect the fashion retail world and that is why they have to be discussed from this specific point of view. The next subchapter will review the terminology of fashion and its changes throughout the years.

2.2 Fashion

Fashion is everywhere. As one of the most visible forms of consumption, fashion plays a major role in the social construction of identity. It is also a global industry with a huge economic, political and cultural impact on people's lives. Choosing the clothing provides an excellent field for studying how people interpret a specific form of culture for their own purpose, one that includes strong norms relating to appropriate appearance at a particular point in time. As one of the most visible markers of social status and gender and therefore useful in maintaining symbolic boundaries, clothing is an indication of how people in different eras have perceived their positions in social structures and negotiated between status boundaries [cf. Crane 2000, p.1]. According to Solomun [2006, p. 589], "fashion is a process of social diffusion by which a new style is interpreted as a context dependent code, and then adopted by a group(s) of consumers." Fashion contains all types of cultural phenomena including adornment, clothing, art, music, and architecture. He further defines "fashion" as synonymous with style. As such, fashion refers to a particular combination of attributes. To be "in style" means that some reference group positively evaluates the combination. In an analysis of Simmel [1971], Barnard reports that without the need for union and the need for isolation, fashion cannot exist. Furthermore, individuals must possess the desire to be part of the wider society and also apart from society. These conflicting needs are central to Simmel's account of fashion: the conflict between adaptation to society and individual departure from its demands. Therefore, the individual nature of the conflict might seem to develop an anti-style that is common, for example, when looking at clothing as style. Barnard [2002] implies that individuals "in style" communicate to referent others, in a coded manner, their inner feelings toward society. Style is then likened to a bond, a communicative code that represents the DNA of the genre. In his studies of the postmodern style in subcultures, Muggleton [2002] explains that style is coded communication of resistance. Although, some style scenes demonstrate style that is extraordinarily intrusive, communicating resistance to societal reality can be done in a non-intrusive manner. This connectiveness forms the basis of most post-modern style groups. The discovery and understanding of the changing dynamics of these groups, form the basis of the multichannel decisions that have to be made in this style industry[cf. Rickman and Tracy. Fashion has no mutually agreed definition, and according to Crane and Bovone [2006], fashion is viewed differently by consumers and academics. The term fashion can refer to music, literature, art, business practices, etc. However, generally when discussed, it is considered as clothing [cf. Aspers & Godart 2013, Solomon 2006, p. 589; Crane & Bovone 2006]. As it turns out, fashion is extremely hard to define. Furthermore, lack of academic research might be one reason for the absence of a mutually agreed definition; however, even if fashion had been examined more, it is not certain that there would be a comprehensive answer. This is because fashion as a phenomenon has changed so much; the difficulty stems from the beginnings of the fashion industry and its development until this day. To clarify this idea, the beginnings of the fashion industry will be examined next and it is followed by a description of modern-day fashion.

2.2.1 Historical aspects of fashion

In previous centuries, clothing was the principal means for identifying oneself in public spaces. Depending on the period, various aspects of identity were expressed through clothing in Europe and the United states, including occupation, regional identity, religion and social class. Certain items of clothing worn by everyone, such as hats, were particularly important and sent instant signals of aspiring social status. Variations in clothing choices are subtle indicators of how different types of societies and different positions within societies are actually experienced [Crane 2000, p.1]. Since its emergence in society, the origins of fashion are extremely controversial. Some claim that fashion became a significant part of society during the European Renaissance, while others consider it to have occurred later. There are also sources that indicate that the birth of fashion took place earlier [Aspers and Godart 2013]. According to Watt [2012, p.44], fashion as a term was born in the late Middle Ages as the styles started to change faster and more alternatives arose.

In its early years, fashion garments were manufactured by human hands with the help of threads and needles. Not before the 18th century, fashion deserved to be called couture, which is a French word for sewing. The first haute couture, or "fine sewing", house was founded in Paris in the middle of the 19th century by the Englishman Charles Fredric Worth. Haute couture was primarily known in Europe at that time and Paris was the haute couture capital [cf. Waddell 2004, p.5]. Until the late 19th century textiles, were produced in homes [Powell 2014]. However, as production skills evolved, fashion gradually changed over time, allowing even larger groups to be able to acquire fashion clothing [cf. Aspers and Godart 2013]. During the industrial revolution, technology developed and enabled the production of larger scales of garments, leading to the emergence of what resembles the sweatshops of modern-day in Great Britain [cf. Powell 2014]. In addition, the spread of fashion was faster due to developing communication systems, such as newspapers, typewriters and photographs, which also made the internationalization of fashion easier [cf. Watt 2012, p. 166]. At the same time, in the 18th century, Adam Smith discovered that by imitating the rich and their fashions, individuals showed sympathy through the willingness to relate to others and through that, taking part in their glory. In the late 19th century Nietzsche suggested that fashion was part of modernity. Moreover, the word fashion - in Latin modus - indicates not only manners but also modernity [Aspers and Godart 2013].

A turning point for fashion and especially for the position of women occurred at the beginning of the 20th century [cf. Stevenson 2011, p. 86]. Considering the First World War, clothing became simpler. As men were sent to war, women were hired to do their jobs and thus started to wear more practical uniforms [cf. Watt 2012, pp. 222-238]. As a matter of fact, together with the economic boom, urbanization accelerated even further. In the 1920s, women were able to vote on both sides of the Atlantic. Above all, women came to have their own income and mass production offered them the possibility to acquire affordable clothing [cf. Stevenson 2011, p. 86].

By the 1930s, Hollywood had increased its reputation and became a major influence in the fashion industry. Costume designers had to see further into the future to identify the upcoming dominant trends in order to make the fashion in films look up-to-date when the film was shown in theatres. This accelerated the rise of Hollywood to the top of the fashion industry [cf. Watt 2012, p. 222, p. 306].

After the Second World War, women were not interested in wearing masculine clothing and dull fashion. Even though these clothes were comfortable, women wanted to look feminine again. Therefore in 1947, French designer Christian Dior launched New Look, which brought back the long-awaited feminine style and there were no more regulations for fabrics. New Look was criticized for being wasteful and excessive and caused a lot of debates on both sides of the Atlantic. Even so, the majority of women started to wear the new type of fashion, as it brought hope and symbolized saving. The popularity of the New Look accelerated the emergence of ready-to-wear clothes [cf. Olds 2001]. Prêt à porter, ready-to- wear, increased its significance and pushed further away haute couture [cf. Waddell 2004, p.14, cf. Reinach 2005]. Haute couture divided consumers into hierarchical classes, whereas prêt à porter concentrated on consumers' tastes and styles and new kinds of fashion culture started to emerge [cf. Reinach 2005]. This is an extremely important change in the history of fashion as it gave direction to future fashion in modern society. In the middle of the 20th century, fashion had a type of sophistication in its style [cf. Waddell 2004, p.14]. The hippie movement is a great example of ideology harmonizing with clothing. Born in 1967 in San Francisco, it soon spread across the world. Hippies dressed individually by buying and modifying used clothing. Their aim was to spread the ideals of peace, love, and freedom and the movement organized protests against wars. Clothing had an ethical and political influence; psychedelic patterns and the fabrics were preferably made from natural materials. Hippies highlighted unisexism in clothing [cf. Watt 2011, p. 374]. In the 1970s, the fashion borders between countries softened as travelling increased the popularity of fashion even further and fashion shows became global [cf. Stevenson 2011, p. 202]. Fashion reporters and buyers started to visit the catwalk shows in the fashion capitals Milan, Paris, New York, and London twice per year to get familiar with the next season's fashion [cf. Watt 2011, p. 386]. The first fashion shows can be seen in the 19th century when Charles Fredric Worth invited his customers to a salon show at the beginning of the season, in which models presented the haute couture dresses on the floor in front of customers. At the beginning of the 20th century, fashion shows became more modern and took the form of presentations in department stores. Fashion shows at the time were mainly intended for upper-class women who were loyal customers [cf. Skov et al. 2009]. Some designers who started their careers in the 20th century were so successful that their names are an important part of the fashion world even today. The idea of branding, on the other hand, became more apparent through hip-hop culture, which arose in the 1990s [cf. Watt 2012, p.386, p.256]. In the 1990s supermodels became a vital part of the fashion world. They emerged as celebrities and an essential part of fashion shows, which had turned into major spectacles. Moreover, fashion played a significant role in pop culture [cf. Watt 2012, p. 409, cf. Stevenson 2011, p.246]. In comparison the way in which people currently respond to fashion has dramatically changed. This will be further elaborated in the next chapter.

2.2.2 Fashion of today

Nowadays, the ideology behind fashion has become a sociological phenomenon. As previously mentioned, over the last centuries, fashion has changed radically, from slowly changing dresses into fast phased garments [cf. Aspers 2013,p. 171]. Fashion is a process that has an influence on an individual level by affecting one's behavior. Nevertheless, it represents a social phenomenon and has an impact on several people simultaneously. A fashion system is formed by people and organizations who are building and posting symbolic meanings into cultural goods [cf. Solomon 2006, pp.589-591]. Ma [2012] claim that the consumption of goods, such as fashion, has started to reshape people's identities. At the same time, fashion is a product of many trends that are spreading today at an extremely fast pace through the internet, television, magazines, and celebrity culture, in which the media is selling the image for average consumers to replicate [cf. Watt 2011, p. 415]. These examples briefly show the complexity of the current state of the fashion industry due to the advent of the global market and the need of corresponding marketing practices. Okonkwo [2007,p. 41] asserts that traditional business among the entire fashion industry used to be based mostly on intuition, focusing exclusively on product development and advertisement, but the current rapid development and complexity of the global environment require modern and more sophisticated practices. Aside from the global character of the contemporary fashion market, he further points out the technological innovations as one of the key components of shaping the nature of this industry. Developments in the internet in particular have empowered consumers, more than ever before and have raised their product and brand expectations. As a result, the task of retaining the attention and loyalty of consumers has become an increasing challenge. Guzelis [2010] expands Okonkwo s [2007] argument with the claim that because of the nature of the Web 2.0, tools such as social media and fashion blogs have changed the information flow among the fashion industry; fashion trends and news are no longer passively received but are rather being commented on, discussed, exchanged, and ultimately even recreated. Such an information flow where users are in an empowered position has a natural impact on the entire industry, which needs to learn how to operate in this new environment, and moreover, how to start profiting from its newly transformed character. It is assumed that in order to reach those goals, the biggest adjustment would involve fashion public relations as it is the area directly related to corporate communication and publicity.

Fast fashion and luxury fashion of today represents the global fashion industry. The French fashion designer Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco Chanel" said, "luxury is a necessity that begins where necessity ends" [cf. Okonkwo 2007, p. 7]. Without the luxury brands, the fashion market would be colorless. Differentiation, exclusivity, scarcity, brand strength, innovation, premium prices, high quality, and product craftsmanship are characteristics that describe a luxury brand [Hines and Bruce 2007, pp.131-132, Okonkwo 2007, pp.11-12]. Moreover, luxury fashion brands are giving more features to their customers, such as identified status, exceptional quality, after-sales services and creativity: "Luxury brands provide a complete package of significant benefits to consumers, the social environment, and the global economy" [cf. Okonkwo 2007, p.2].

On the other hand, fast fashion is "a term coined by retailers to encapsulate how trends move rapidly from the catwalk to the store" [Brooks 2015, p.8]. With the development of Quick Response in the late 1970s and throughout 1980s, the concept of fast fashion began. According to Harrison and Hoek [2008, p. 255], QR is when companies try to meet customer demand through supplying the right quantity, variety, and quality at the right time to the right place for the right price. Since a small number of retail organizations adopted the idea of fast fashion, the industry has perceived it as a competitive advantage [cf. Hines and Bruce 2007, p.40, cf. Walker, 2000].

Together with the increase in fast fashion brands, the life of luxury fashion brands has become more difficult [cf. Business of Fashion 2011]. The Italian luxury fashion designer Giorgio Armani mentioned that "fast fashion is a growing reality in our sector" [cf. Colavita and Keiser 2005]. H&M, Zara, Topshop, and Mango are examples of retail brands that have been referred to as fast fashion brands. These brands with their credible fashion offerings have been extremely successful in attracting the attention of the fashion-conscious consumer. They have done this through interpreting catwalk trends with a speedy time-to-market [cf. Business of Fashion 2011].

To conclude, one aspect that really distinguishes luxury fashion brands from fast fashion brands, is their continuous focus on giving the customer high quality service in their boutiques, which today fast fashion brands lack. The next chapter will examine the impact that digitalization has on the fashion industry.

2.3 The impact of digitalization in the fashion industry

Ranging from global discount retailers to exclusive luxury brands, the fashion industry is one of the most challenging fields, heavily influenced by the global economy as well as distinct trends and industrial changes. In response to the pressure for growth and cost efficiency, many brands have started a series of initiatives to improve their speed to market and to implement sustainable innovation in their core product design, manufacturing, and supply-chain processes [cf. Lay, s.a.]. Furthermore, adoption of disruptive technologies such as advanced robotics, mobile internet, advanced analytics, virtual and augmented reality, and artificial intelligence is accelerating and has the potential to disrupt entire industries, including the fashion industry. According to Business of Fashion 2018, the global fashion industry is moving into a decisive phase of digital adoption by the mainstream consumer and online sales of apparel and footwear are projected to grow rapidly, not the least in emerging markets [cf. Amed 2017].

Today, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are having a major impact on everyday life and most businesses. Therefore, fashion is also undergoing the process of adaptation to the digital world on different levels, such as garment production cycles, management and sales as well as communication with the help of digital tools [cf. Lay, s.a.]. In the 1970s, information and telecommunication started to change by creating a significant base for the internet - an innovation that is becoming such an important part of society that people do not know how to live without it. For this reason, technological improvements and digitalization have made online shopping possible and subsequently changed consumers' attitudes towards the retail industry [cf. Perez 2009]. According to McKinsey & Company, some 80 percent of purchases are still expected to happen in stores in 2020. At a time when e-commerce is empowering consumers with more choices and market conditions are increasingly volatile, stores must rethink how they operate [Grieder 2014].

With the exponential growth in the use of digital technologies, consumers are no longer content with simply buying fashion products. Therefore, the role of the consumer has shifted from one of passive observance to enabled dominance. Nowadays, consumers want to interact with, belong to, influence, and be the brand that they buy. Moreover, they care about how they look in public and on social media. As a matter of fact, the majority of consumers use digital channels before, during and after making their purchases [cf. Lay, s.a.].

For instance, well-known figures in particularly niche areas of fashion are also important for the industry and often build their presence through new technologies [Harris 2017, p. 15]. As Theresa M Senft [2008] has mentioned, nowadays micro-celebrities often use "a new style of online performance in which people employ webcams, video, audio, blogs and social networking sites to 'amp up' their popularity among readers, viewers and those to whom they are linked online" [cf. Harris 2017, p.15]. The modern shopper's ease in using digital channels has transformed the traditional customer journey into a complex journey across online and offline touchpoints. Today, many consumers expect perfect functionality and immediate support at all times. They are becoming habituated to rapid delivery times. For example, Farfetch, an online shop for luxury fashion, offers delivery in selected cities from the store to a customer's home in 90 minutes or less. Therefore, digital-first e-commerce companies from Amazon to Zappos and Alibaba to Net-a-Porter are continuing to invest in digitalization with the aim of providing an even-more-premium experience [cf. Amed 2017].

Nevertheless, executives from all retail industries are trying to optimize digital opportunities in their business such as analytics, mobility, social media, and smart embedded devices. Many fashion companies are remodeling their use of technologies, for example with enterprise resource planning (ERP) to change value propositions, customers relationships and internal processes [cf. Westerman et al. 2011]. Therefore, clothing retailers all over the world have to be conscious about new trends and innovations in these countries. The digital race has already started and it is at the starting point of digitalization [cf. Kreutzer 2014a, p. 38].

Currently, the expansion of data and exponential increases in technology performance have opened the door to big data. The use of rich data and granular customer insights to inform decisions, offers business opportunities across the fashion value chain, in areas ranging from dynamic pricing to optimized product replenishment. Clearly, the benefits of leveraging data can be significant. However, new challenges are also arising, such as protecting customer data and privacy [cf. Amed 2017].

Retailers have to be careful of which trends and innovations customers react to when it comes to digitalization. Without adapting suitable innovations or trends, retailers would not be able to achieve customers' engagement or customer retention.

Taking into consideration the ideas discussed above, it is clear that clothing retailers have a tremendous global importance. Therefore, digitalization has a huge impact on clothing and retail businesses. The next chapter will examine fashion marketing and both its development and digital impact.

3. Fashion and marketing

3.1 Introduction

Fashion is a constantly changing process, which brings new trends into practically any human activity in regular cycles [cf. Easey 2009, pp. 4-5]. Being a product of the time, fashion must be viewed within a broader cultural context of designers ethnic and social background, social mores and attitudes, technological innovations, and the economic and political conditions [cf. English 2009, p. 6]. A fundamental aspect of this industry is the ability to identify products that the customer needs and will buy. For this reason, marketing can help to provide this additional knowledge and the skills needed to ensure that the creative component is used to the best advantage, allowing businesses to succeed and grow [Easey 2009, p. 5]. Marketing strategy can be defined as a fundamental framework that includes current and planned objectives, as well as exploitation of enterprises resources and interacts between enterprises and market, competition and other factors of the environment [cf. Renko, p. 16, from Walker 1996]. Additionally, fashion marketing strategy is defined as a business philosophy that deals with current and potential customers of clothing, as well as products and services that are directly related to textiles and clothing in order to achieve long-term objectives, and differs from other areas in which marketing operates [cf. Easey 2009, p. 7]. Beside the aspects mentioned above, another important component of the fashion industry is a strong brand image. The image is more than a name, logo, slogan, and design. It is the whole concept containing symbolic meaning and induced associations as well as ideas and attitudes of the brand. For instance, "a jeans brand Levi s is not just an eye-catching red label; it has developed core urban-hip user imagery in youngsters minds," as Lee [2000] claim. For this reason, the fashion market strongly depends on creating or maintaining a distinctive, desirable, and constant image, bringing additional value and brand differentiation [cf. Lee 2000, pp. 60-64]. Furthermore, the lack of copyright protection emphasizes the importance for the brands and designers to build up a strong image. According to Blankley [cf. 2010], there is no intellectual property protection in the fashion industry, which means that anybody can copy any design from anybody and present that as their own. The result of the lack of legislative coverage of this issue together with the ongoing pressure to establish collection after collection is the collaborative character of the fashion industry. Nowadays, it is commonly known that haute couture designers search for inspiration in other culture fields (especially the music and film industries), in street fashion or vintage collections several decades old, and are subsequently copied by mainstream brands. Moreover, this mechanism determines the emergence of new global trends, and leads to the democratization of fashion. However, she further notes that as designers cannot rely on legislative support, they can solve this issue by copying themselves and directly cooperating with mainstream brands (for instance, the custom collection by Versace for H&M), or by creating strong image characteristics for a particular brand, copies of which would be perceived as an obvious fake (for instance, Christian Louboutin's red soles or Burberry's classic

checkered pattern). Under the circumstances briefly explained above, fashion marketing can be defined as a management process concerned with anticipating, identifying, and satisfying actual customer needs in order to meet the long-term goals of an organization and continuously building or maintaining strong corporate image to characterize the brand in the market. In order to reach those goals, fashion marketing uses common techniques of advertising and market research along with tools specialized for the fashion industry, such as product development, branding, pricing or forecasting [cf. Easey 2009]. The next chapter will describe the evolution of digital marketing in the fashion industry and its development towards the marketing mix.
[...]

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GRIN - Digitalization in the fashion industry

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Abstract List of figures List of abbreviations 1.Introduction 1.1 Research aim and objectives 1.2 Structure of the thesis 2. Literature review 2.1 Digitalization 2.2 Fashion 2.2.1 Historical aspects of fashion 2.2.2 Fashion of today 2.3 The impact of digitalization in the fashion industry 3.

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8.9k Views

Clothing retailer, American Apparel, is adopting Augmented Reality to bring the online experience offline. By using the augmented reality application, in-store patrons can scan the item to see the product in different colors and read reviews by other customers who have bought that item.

To be honest, it doesn't seem like anything truly extraordinary, but it is functional. It seems to be a great way to bring those online shoppers back into the stores.

What do you think?

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American Apparel Turns To Augmented Reality

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8.9k Views Clothing retailer, American Apparel, is adopting Augmented Reality to bring the online experience offline. By using the augmented reality application, in-store patrons can scan the item to see the product in different colors and read reviews by other customers who have bought that item.

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digitalization is the driving force behind the retail sector, making shopping more convenient, more enjoyable and more cost-effective. The rise of innovation and digitalization in retail has altered the face of the industry, becoming more and more symbiotic [cf. Ralph 2018].

forced retailers to develop e-commerce strategies and incorporate the multi-channel approach into their business models [cf. Geyskens 2002]. Additionally, a seamless shopping experience created by omni-channel retailing links multiple channels, from online to mobile to in-store. For example, many households nowadays contain a smart speaker or assistant, such as Amazon’s Alexa device that can make this experience even easier [cf. Walsh 2017].

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consumers needs and desires have changed along with their purchasing journey, however, consumers expect a consistent brand experience at all times [cf. Amed 2017]

technology is playing an increasingly important role in consumer engagement and loyalty and without a clear digital vision, traditional retailers risk irrelevance or even extinction [Vernocchi 2012].

Brennen and Kreiss [2014] indicate that ‘digitization’ can be referred to as “the specific process of converting analogue data streams into digital bits” and define ‘digitalization’ as “the way in which many domains of social life are restructured around digital communication and media infrastructures”

[Stolterman and Fors 2004, p. 689] specify that “digital transformation can be understood as the changes that digital technology causes or influences in all aspects of human life”.

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just like manufacturing, shopping habits have been replaced with devices and machines. As one of the most visible forms of consumption, fashion plays a major role in the social construction of identity. slowly changing dresses into fast phased garments [cf. Aspers 2013,p. 171].

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points out the technological innovations as one of the key components of shaping the nature of this industry. Developments in the internet in particular have empowered consumers, more than ever before and have raised their product and brand expectations.Okonkwo [2007,p. 41] tools such as social media and fashion blogs have changed the information flow among the fashion industry; fashion trends and news are no longer passively received but are rather being commented on, discussed, exchanged, and ultimately even recreated.

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disruptive technologies such as advanced robotics, mobile internet, advanced analytics, virtual and augmented reality, and artificial intelligence is accelerating and has the potential to disrupt entire industries, including the fashion industry. According to Business of Fashion 2018, the global fashion industry is moving into a decisive phase of digital adoption by the mainstream consumer and online sales of apparel and footwear are projected to grow rapidly, not the least in emerging markets [cf. Amed 2017].

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fashion is also undergoing the process of adaptation to the digital world on different levels, such as garment production cycles, management and sales as well as communication with the help of digital tools [cf. Lay, s.a.].

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According to McKinsey & Company, some 80 percent of purchases are still expected to happen in stores in 2020. At a time when e-commerce is empowering consumers with more choices and market conditions are increasingly volatile, stores must rethink how they operate [Grieder 2014]. - considering adding VR or AR into store fronts

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consumers want to interact with, belong to, influence, and be the brand that they buy. Moreover, they care about how they look in public and on social media. As a matter of fact, the majority of consumers use digital channels before, during and after making their purchases [cf. Lay, s.a.].

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Theresa M Senft [2008] has mentioned, nowadays micro-celebrities often use “a new style of online performance in which people employ webcams, video, audio, blogs and social networking sites to ‘amp up’ their popularity among readers, viewers and those to whom they are linked online”

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Farfetch, an online shop for luxury fashion, offers delivery in selected cities from the store to a customer’s home in 90 minutes or less. Therefore, digital-first e-commerce companies from Amazon to Zappos and Alibaba to Net-a-Porter are continuing to invest in digitalization with the aim of providing an even-more-premium experience [cf. Amed 2017].

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The use of rich data and granular customer insights to inform decisions, offers business opportunities across the fashion value chain, in areas ranging from dynamic pricing to optimized product replenishment.

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Roger leads the Marketing practice within Deloitte Digital in Switzerland. With over 15 years of experience working mainly with global brands in the fashion and luxury industry, he specialises in helping large organisations drive innovation and in the definition and implementation of digital strategies.

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Digital transformation in the fashion industry

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The fashion industry is facing new challenges as a direct result of the rise of technology and its impact on consumer behaviour and must adapt by way of digital transformation.

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Articles & stories

Until recently, the fashion industry has been all about looking good - with feeling good as a psychological by-product of successfully projecting a particular image. But with the advent of smart garments and fabrics, "feeling good" takes on a new dimension: into the field of physical health and wellness. The fashion industry has been slow off the mark to integrate technology, but we are now just beginning to see what may prove to be the ultimate union of both form and function.

The impact of technology on fashion is nothing new at all - it already has a long tradition. The timeline of clothing and textiles technology includes major changes in the manufacture and distribution of clothing. Innovations include manmade materials such as polyester, nylon, and vinyl, as well as features like zippers and Velcro. In 1969, Gore-Tex was invented, admittedly driven by chemicals. Nowadays, the digitization of the economy and society impacts fashion more and more. A very simple example is an RFID (radio-frequency identification) chip built into the garment, which enables you to track the path of the garment from production to the retail store, and shows you that you bought a brand product and not a fake. An additional benefit is you can easily retrieve it if you misplace it.

Fashion Industry Not Quick Enough to Embrace Technology

Nowadays, the compatibility of technology and fashion provides more food for thought and a vision for the future spanning from e-retail through e-textiles or smart fabrics to 3D printing. Computer design is already being used in the production of clothing, and prototypes of 3D-printed fashion can be seen at fashion shows or in online videos.

E-commerce is already effectively in place, but could experience another boost. Replacement items such as underwear and jeans are already being bought via the Internet, mainly driven by cheaper prices and, to a lesser extent, shopping time saved. It is an easy process, especially if you know your size. But imagine you have a specific brand in mind, or are even thinking about having something tailor-made. The future holds a solution: Have your body scanned and use the measurements when visiting the virtual retail store online. The items you purchase will then be sent straight to your door.

Robotic Mannequins to Take Your Body Measurements

A pioneer in innovative biorobotics and the virtual fitting room is Fits.me, founded in 2010 and acquired by Rakuten Inc. (a global leader in e-commerce) in July 2015. The company is receiving lots of publicity these days after launching a partnership with the retailer Hawes & Curtis. Its virtual fitting room helps to solve the single biggest problem for apparel e-commerce, i.e. that consumers cannot try the clothes on before they buy them. The site's shape-shifting robotic mannequin takes your body measurements and mimics your shape so that you can see exactly how clothing would fit you. The site has been such a success that clothing sales at online German retailer Quelle increased by three times, and the number of clothing returns fell by 28 percent.

Revolutionary E-textiles

Another revolutionary development is e-textiles, also known as smart garments or fabrics, which enable digital components to be embedded in them to provide added value to the wearer. In an article on Forbes.com dated 7 May 2014, on the future of fabric, author Rebecca Gaddis quoted Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman of the Pratt Institute as saying that "what makes smart fabrics revolutionary is that they have the ability to do many things that traditional fabrics cannot, including communicate, transform, conduct energy and even grow." One example is therapeutic textiles. Skin is the only organ of the body that comes directly in contact with garments. Since clothes stay in contact with the skin for the longest time, developing fabrics that can heal or protect the skin or even the body would add more value to them. Therapeutic textiles provide new approaches and are slowly gaining importance because of their many benefits and positive results.

The compatibility of technology and fashion provides more food for thought and a vision for the future spanning from e-retail to e-textiles...

A coating of herbal extracts on the fabric can provide a remedial value. These fabrics play an important role in relieving stress, rejuvenating or curing skin ailments, and can even help you sleep better.

Your Underwear Tells You When You Are Not Well

Your underwear is an integral part of your wardrobe, and you are probably very selective when you buy it. In the future, you will become even more selective once you learn what your underwear and other garments can do for you in addition to making you feel comfortable and well dressed. One day, instead of looking into the mirror, you will be able to ask your clothes how you feel. For example, your underwear may tell you if you are coming down with something before you know it yourself, or notify others if you have fallen over or help doctors diagnose and treat illnesses. The next generation of wearable technology aims to embed sensors in your clothes so that you only need to get dressed to start monitoring your health.

What makes smart fabrics revolutionary is that they have the ability to do many things that traditional fabrics cannot, such as communicating, transforming, conducting energy and even growing.

The functions required for personal health have a strong overlap with those of sports and sports training. In general, the idea is that information on the wearers' physiology, e.g. heart rates, respiration rates, body temperature, biochemistry and activities are recorded and stored or continuously transmitted to a clinic in order to help monitor their health. In this way, people with long-term health issues can work on gradually improving their health. Other people with chronic illnesses could stay at home instead of in hospital, but still have high-quality health supervision. How does it work? Smart fibers with sensors are knitted straight into the fabrics. With conductive or optical sensors woven into T-shirts, shorts and underwear, smart clothes will be able to pick up a greater range of body signals at much higher sensitivities than rigid sensors, such as clip-on sensors or wristbands.

In the future, technology will change the way we perceive fashion and the way we shop. The sooner we grow accustomed to these innovations and inventions the better. But never fear - at the end of the day we will presumably continue to wear fashionable clothes - just from different materials.

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How Will Digitalization Influence Fashion and the Way We Shop?

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Until recently, the fashion industry has been all about looking good - with feeling good as a psychological by-product of successfully projecting a particular image. But with the advent of smart garments and fabrics, "feeling good" takes on a new dimension: into the field of physical health and wellness.

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8 digital displays in selfridges

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Most of you guys would remember the 'Nike+ Innovation Center' that was housed at Selfridges during the London Olympics, but what you might not have seen, were the 8, interactive/reactive kinetic window installations that helped to drag customers into the store.

From Kinetic drops that react to people walking past, to dunk-height jumping challenges and LED light flashing walls... All, along some seriously premium high-street exposure. Very cool.

Digital Convergence, Digital Installations, Interactive Stores, Nike, Nike Interactive Installations, Nike Interactive Window Display, Nike Interactive Windows, Nike Selfridges Interactive Windows

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Nike: 8 Interactive Store Windows at Selfridges | Digital Buzz Blog

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Most of you guys would remember the 'Nike+ Innovation Center' that was housed at Selfridges during the London Olympics, but what you might not have seen, were the 8, interactive/reactive kinetic window installations that helped to drag customers into the store. From Kinetic drops that react to people walking past, to dunk-height jumping challenges and LED light flashing walls...

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Burberry announced it has partnered with DreamWorks Animation and NOVA to create what it says is "the first interactive luxury marketing campaign using new 3D technology."

Burberry said it has become the first luxury brand to partner with DreamWorks Animation's newly formed technology company NOVA, to launch an interactive marketing campaign featuring new 3D technology, the announcement said.

Using the NOVA media visualization platform, Burberry said, it has designed a new digital out-of-home experience featuring computer-generated versions of its iconic heritage scarf that users will be able to personalize and play with on the world famous "Curve" screen in London's Piccadilly Circus.

The campaign will allow up to five users to explore the full range of Burberry scarves on their mobile device, monogram their favorite and see it appear on the giant screen where it will fly around directed by the motion of their device.

They will then have the option to purchase their scarf on Burberry.com or receive directions to the nearby Regent Street flagship store.

"DreamWorks Animation is peerless in the work that it has done on the big screen in so many stunning films," Burberry Chief Creative and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Bailey said in the announcement. "They have constantly pushed the boundaries of what is possible in digital animation, and with their latest NOVA platform we have been able to partner with them to create something really beautiful and engaging for our customers ... We are looking forward to seeing how audiences react."

"The NOVA visualization platform is ideally suited for this type of consumer engagement," said Lincoln Wallen, CTO of DreamWorks Animation and NOVA's CEO. "We've paired our state-of-the-art renderer, the same type of technology we use to power our 3D films with our highly-scalable digital asset management solution - all delivered through a cloud-based platform. Put simply, the result for Burberry is not only a tremendous amount of flexibility, but also a product that looks just as beautiful on screen as it does in stores."

The campaign launched on Dec. 14 and will run 24 hours a day until Dec. 31, according to Burberry.

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Burberry campaign wraps up digital signage and mobile interactivity

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Burberry announced it has partnered with DreamWorks Animation and NOVA to create what it says is "the first interactive luxury marketing campaign using new 3D technology." Burberry said it has become the first luxury brand to partner with DreamWorks Animation's newly formed technology company NOVA, to launch an interactive marketing campaign featuring new 3D technology, the announcement said.

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 TOPSHOP - virtual fitting room [Retail Innovation 2013]

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 TOPSHOP - virtual fitting room [Retail Innovation 2013]

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A special kiosk for the fitting room was installed at the flagman Topshop store in Moscow at the shopping centre European from 5th - 8th May in 2011. The virtual fitting room is built on the most sophisticated technologies: augmented reality and Microsoft Kinect. Augmented reality allows the customers to select a garment off the rack without having to try it on physically. As a customer, you see yourself onscreen with a 3D copy of a dress. The system uses kinect to interpret the hand gestures which control the user interface.

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Topshop in Moscow had a virtual fitting room on trial

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A special kiosk for the fitting room was installed at the flagman Topshop store in Moscow at the shopping centre European from 5th - 8th May in 2011. The virtual fitting room is built on the most sophisticated technologies: augmented reality and Microsoft Kinect.

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Pantsuit

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'pantsuit nation' suits up for election day - cnnpolitics

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'Pantsuit Nation' suits up for Election Day

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For some Hillary Clinton supporters, November 8 is more than Election Day. It's pantsuit day, and they intend to dress accordingly.

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how does dressing change your perception of people

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how does dressing change your perception of people

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Choice in clothing can communicate responsibility, status, power, and the ability to be successful (Turner-Bowker, 2001).

a male posing as a marketing researcher dressed “smartly” was more successful in gaining compliance of randomly approached women to complete a survey on advertising in a railway station compared to when the same male dressed “untidily” (Judd, Bull, & Gahagan, 1975).

Designer/name brand clothing also carries social perceptions related to status derived from multiple sources of social influence (Beaudoin & Lachance, 2006). Owning store brand jeans led to more negative person perceptions than designer/name brand jeans in a study of college students (Workman, 1988).

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during the 2017 fashion weeks, the answer would be a rotund yes. Several collections during the last season of fashion weeks employed political statements.

Political runway antics included pink pussy hats at Missoni. There were white bandanas as a symbol of inclusion in Tommy Hilfiger, Thakoon, Prabal Gurung, Phillip Lim, Dior and Diane von Furstenberg.

Meanwhile, black berets à la guerrilla or Black Panther uniforms were shown at Dior. As well, all sorts of slogans printed or embroidered in a diversity of garments popped up at Ashish Gupta, Public School and Christian Siriano, punctuated by graphic underwear in LRS’s collection.

However, this movement may not be good as big fashion houses are profiting from people trying to make a change.

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Political dressing is fashionable right now, but is it fashion?

Celebrities and stars turned up dressed in black at the 75th Golden Globes Award ceremony. Instantly the media was in frenzy over what they dubbed " political fashion statements on the red carpet." This is just the most recent droplet of a rainy season of purportedly political fashion.

It all started with the pantsuit parties in solidarity with U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016. It then progressed with white supremacists uniformed in polos and khaki during their infamous Charlottesville demonstrations last year.

As the effects of Brexit, a Donald Trump White House and the rise of so-called alt-right activism in Europe and North America ripple through the cultural waters, political dressing is trending. Protesters of all stripes - feminists, white supremacists, antifa, nationalists and social justice advocates - are outfitting themselves to match their political mindsets.

This type of political dressing is not the dress code of politicians. This is individuals and groups using everyday dress to express their political outlook. The problem is that often participants and commentators, reporters and scholars, quickly rush to label it fashion. But is political dressing fashion?

What is fashion?

The political dimension of clothing is intuitively understood from the moment individuals are born. Because essentially, human society equals dressed society. What one wears, how one wears it and when one wears it constitutes expressions of degrees of social freedoms and influences.

Dress expression ranges the full political gamut from conformity to rebellion. Simply put, dress style that challenges - or is perceived as challenging, or offering an alternative to the status quo - spontaneously acquires political meaning.

Hence the social power of dress and the political impact of seeing many people dressed in an agreed-upon mode. During the counter-demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va., last summer, antifa protesters opposing white supremacists wore "black bloc" - an all-black uniform of sorts, meant to show a unified hard stance against anti-Black racist discourse.

Simultaneously, "black bloc" dress indicated a willingness to resort to violence if necessary, much like the Black Panthers did in the 1960s and 70s. The Panthers took advantage of a loophole in the second amendment of the U.S. constitution that made it lawful to wear unconcealed firearms in public.

Political dressing is a concerted effort by a group of individuals to call attention to a social issue. They do so by dressing in a codified style. The recipe of political dressing has all the ingredients of fashion, but not in the right proportions.

Fashion - as it is defined - occurs when a society at large agrees to a style, aesthetic or cultural sensibility for a period of time. Fashion's sizeable social scope and requisite expiration date is what makes it so useful as a marker of time.

One sees it used in film, literature or social science research. Thus, fashion means timed changes in taste at a social scale. Fashion occurs in any realm of human pursuits including arts, music, technology, even scholarly discourse and of course, dress.

The source of confusion

We could blame the political dressing vs. fashion confusion on the ubiquitous and pervasive public presence of the contemporary fashion industry. From the 18th century onwards, a large sector of industry has been occupied with manufacturing what dresses us: This includes garments, accessories, beauty services and products. This industry, along with advertisers, coalesced into an all-encompassing fashion industry.

It's not surprising then, that in today's globalized world, most people automatically identify clothes with fashion. After all, they are one of the most visible outputs of the fashion industry. Of course, the fashion industry would do nothing to clarify this; it is in their best interest to be perceived as the source of fashion.

That same fashion industry employs a global army of trend forecasters to fine-comb historical records and a multiplicity of current cultural sources and happenings. They use this data to identify what colours, styles and products people would want next season.

More concerning, though, is that fashion scholars are contributing to the public confusion about political dress as fashion. They are interchangeably using the terms dress, style and fashion without regards for their fundamental semantic difference. There is a cultural explanation for this too. Fashion is an emerging scholarly discipline, which makes it very fashionable right now. Slap the word fashion to the title of an academic article or book and readership is likely to follow.

The trend of political dressing

Could it be that like fashion studies, political dressing is a fashion trend? Based on the number of collections that included political statements during the 2017 fashion weeks, the answer would be a rotund yes. Several collections during the last season of fashion weeks employed political statements.

Political runway antics included pink pussy hats at Missoni. There were white bandanas as a symbol of inclusion in Tommy Hilfiger, Thakoon, Prabal Gurung, Phillip Lim, Dior and Diane von Furstenberg.

Meanwhile, black berets à la guerrilla or Black Panther uniforms were shown at Dior. As well, all sorts of slogans printed or embroidered in a diversity of garments popped up at Ashish Gupta, Public School and Christian Siriano, punctuated by graphic underwear in LRS's collection.

This, however, isn't necessarily good news. The fashion industry has a solid record of co-opting political and countercultural movements, marginalized groups and non-Western cultures, then making a good profit out of it.

There would be nothing wrong with making money this way, except that the aftermath of co-option by the fashion industry is cultural irrelevance. Just like other goods, fashion must be consumed before its expiration date.

The good news is that political dressing may be fashionable, but it isn't fashion. Not even the global fashion industry can prevent individuals from using their dressed bodies as a tool for political discourse.

So go ahead, pick your preferred political graphic T-shirt or wear the colours of your party of choice. Just remember that isn't fashion, unless most everybody else decides to dress the same for a while. In which case, your options are: Embrace your fashionable status or change either your outfit or political affiliation.

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Fashion's potential to influence politics and culture

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Political dressing is fashionable right now, but is it fashion? Celebrities and stars turned up dressed in black at the 75th Golden Globes Award ceremony. Instantly the media was in frenzy over what they dubbed " political fashion statements on the red carpet."

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First up, Westwood sent a host of people down the runway with something to say as they all read poems and gave powerful speeches. Actress and #MeToo activist Rose McGowan, wearing a hat with "Angel" written across it and knee-high metallic boots, told the crowd that "we need more heroes", possibly referencing the number of women who've come forward to share their #MeToo stories since the movement sparked in October 2017 - with McGowan leading it.

Never one to shy away from addressing the uneven wealth distribution of the world, Westwood sent some models down the catwalk with long prosthetic noses (like the character of Pinocchio) saying, "tax the poor and give to the rich, that's the lie with the long nose". And McGowan made a clear statement on it, saying: "Democracy will only thrive when we can achieve a favourable balance between the wealthy and the poor".
Read more: 9 Times Vivienne Westwood Used The Catwalk To Talk About More Than Clothes
Of course, sustainability and climate change were big topics weaved throughout the collection - with Westwood emphasising the importance of buying less, choosing well. "Fashion is all about styling, buy less, choose well, make it last," said one model, while the message was emblazoned across accessories.

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All Of The Political Talking Points Vivienne Westwood Brought To Her LFW Show

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Designer Vivienne Westwood - once again - used the catwalk as a performance picket line at London Fashion Week

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Dame Vivienne Westwood, the doyenne of British fashion, has time and again used the runway (and the street) as a platform to voice her outspoken views on politics, tackling everything from restrictive gender norms, fracking and industrial farming to Scottish independence, Wikileaks and Margaret Thatcher. To celebrate her 74th birthday today and the launch of our new State of the Nation issue - packed full of opinionated Brits just in time for the upcoming election - we count down Westwood's 10 most memorable political moments.
PROVOKING PEOPLE WITH PUNK
Emblazoned with a bold red Nazi swastika, an inverted image of Christ on the cross, the word "DESTROY," and Sex Pistols lyrics, this anarchic 1977 shirt epitomised Westwood and partner Malcolm McLaren's trailblazing brand of punk politics. Westwood has said that the shirt - undoubtedly one of her most controversial creations - was about standing up to horrific dictators around the world who were torturing people, such as Chile's Augusto Pinochet. More broadly, it was a means of challenging the older generation, of saying "We don't accept your values or your taboos, and you're all fascists." The shirt was sold at their iconic SEX store on the King's Road.

"Get a Life!" exclaimed Westwood from the pages of Dazed's July 2008 issue, as the maverick took the magazine's reins for a special Active Resistance edition. Fronted by a child eco-warrior cover star, the issue addressed many of the political concerns closest to the grand dame's heart: inciting readers to think about rising sea levels, to embrace higher culture such as art, and to turn a blind eye to propaganda. In short, it was all about subverting the status quo, and becoming (as Westwood aptly put it) a "freedom fighter" in the process.

"VOTE GREEN" was the simple, emphatic directive emblazoned across the top of the show notes at Westwood's Red Label AW15 show. The manifesto went on to say that we are currently "controlled by the 1% of the world population who are in power. They preach consumption, and they preach war, and they're taking us into disaster. We are in incredible danger. There is no point in voting for the others." Westwood made a similarly powerful statement for men in her AW15 menswear show, where models with severely bruised faces channelled eco-warriors on a mission to save the planet (in a nod to the efforts of Prince Charles). Earlier this year, it was reported that Westwood was donating £300,000 to the Green Party.
PROTESTING AT THE PARALYMPICS
Westwood launched Climate Revolution (her campaign to address climate change issues) in spectacular fashion at the 2012 London Paralympics closing ceremony. Having skipped the dress rehearsals in order to keep her intentions cloaked, the designer sounded a call to arms when, dressed as an eco-warrior standing atop her float, she unfurled a giant black-and-white "CLIMATE REVOLUTION" banner. Westwood subsequently told Dazed that the "climate revolution is the ultimate revolution; if we don't win that, there won't be many of us left." Her more recent acts of support for the cause include cutting off her famous red locks, donating £1 million to rainforest charity Cool Earth, and gathering together celebs in aid of Greenpeace's 'Save The Arctic' work.

The dame appeared in a shower cap and little else for a PETA video in support of vegetarianism. Shower head in hand (the implication being perhaps that vegetarians can take guilt-free showers), Westwood implored viewers to avoid meat in order to preserve the world's water supply - as many of our rivers are being diverted to fuel "miserable" factory farms and grow massive amounts of grain used to feed animals. She concluded by saying that avoiding meat will "do more for the environment than recycling or driving a hybrid car."
COVERING TATLER AS THATCHER
In 1989 Westwood mocked then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by impersonating her on the cover of Tatler (she even donned a suit that Thatcher had ordered but not yet collected). The image, taken for the April Fools edition of the magazine and bearing an uncanny likeness to The Iron Lady, was subsequently blown up on billboards across London for Fashion Week. A few days after the edition was published, the magazine's editor, Emma Soames, was sacked. Westwood has always been unreserved when voicing her opinion of Thatcher - years later on her blog she would label her a "hypocrite," adding that she has done "real damage" to the world.
PROMOTING ETHICAL FASHION

In 2011, Westwood took to the streets of Nairobi for her Ethical Fashion Africa campaign, aiming to empower female workers. The dame designed a range of bags, which were made by women in the capital city under ethical labour conditions (using discarded materials such as safari tents and old shirts). Although dismissed by some as poverty porn, Westwood described her actions as "not charity, just work," noting that the project "gives people control over their lives," unlike charity, which "makes them dependant."
BRINGING DAVID CAMERON A CHRISTMAS PRESENT
In December last year, with Santa hat on head, the designer pluckily delivered a letter and a box of asbestos to 10 Downing Street - suggesting that fracking (the controversial practice of extracting gas by drilling into subterranean rock) will be the next big public killer. Westwood said that David Cameron was "playing Russian roulette with the lives of the British public," adding that we're all just "guinea pigs" in the Prime Minister's "grand experiment." Westwood has been fiercely opposed to fracking for some time, and last year she led the London Fracked Future march and attended an anti-fracking protest outside Balcombe.
PROTESTING ANTI-TERROR LAWS WITH T-SHIRTS
"I AM NOT A TERRORIST, please don't arrest me." The words are scrawled in childlike writing next to a red heart, on what has become one of Westwood's most iconic tees. Created in 2005 - a few short months after the shooting of innocent man Jean Charles de Menezes in London - in collaboration with civil rights group Liberty, it was a bid to confront the government's proposed anti-terror legislation, which, among other things, allowed three months detention for suspects without charge. Westwood said at the time: "We can only take democracy for granted if we insist on our liberty." All profits went to charity.
SAYING 'YES' TO SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE
Westwood was vehemently pro-Scottish independence in the lead up to last year's referendum, with her Red Label SS15 show sending models down the catwalk wearing 'YES' badges (the designer would also don one to take her bow). After the show, Westwood - who is English - told The Independent: "I hate England. I like Scotland because somehow I think they are better than we are. They are more democratic." She also released a video urging Scots to vote 'Yes' in order to "break the deadlock and march into the future."
Watch Westwood discuss the importance of protest in the film below, the third of four Dazed shorts created for our Vivienne Westwood takeover day:

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Vivienne Westwood's top ten political moments

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As the legendary designer passes away at 81, we revisit an article charting a lifetime of rebellion, including taking over Dazed and getting naked for PETA

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Pantsuit: a pair of pants and a matching jacket worn by women.

Whenever you see or hear about a pantsuit today you automatically think about Hillary Clinton. Even though Clinton did not win the presidential election, she definitely made her impact on the world; including the fashion world. She inspired so many movements in a positive direction. One of these movements definitely includes the importance and the symbolism of the pantsuit. A pantsuit wasn't considered very feminine until recently. It was seen as a manly thing to wear. Now the pantsuit is so much more than just clothing. It represents the female movement of empowerment. Politics has infiltrated everything, including the fashion world.

I remember the first time that I wore a pantsuit. It was freshman year of high school for a program that we called High School Heroes. For High School Heroes, we would go to an elementary school in our district and teach kids business applications. Since we were obviously taller than the kids, girls could not really wear skirts and dresses. Pants were the only option. I remember when I put on that pantsuit I felt very professional but not very girly or like myself. This was at a time when matching pants and jackets had no significance. I now see the importance of that outfit that I wore that day.

The pantsuit symbolizes numerous things. It mostly represents the political art movement. Last summer a video was made that was called "Pantsuit Power". It was a flash mob in support of Clinton. There was even a secret group called Pantsuit Nation made in support of Hillary that later went public. They used "Nasty Women" and "The Future is Female," as their party slogans. They were voicing their opinions, just like what Clinton asked them to do. But they were also making their statement be heard everywhere.

Last week during the Grammy's, Katy Perry performed her latest song, "Chained to the Rhythm" with Skip Marley. Her entire performance was a form of political expression. During the election, she was very vocal in her support for Hillary Clinton. She was also visually upset after the election. She channeled all her emotions into this performance. First of all, she was wearing a pantsuit, a white pantsuit. White is a color that represents unity. Clinton wore this on Inauguration day for Trump. This symbolized the peaceful transfer of power with the 2 parties. Wearing white to the inauguration could also be a sign of support for the anti-Trump Women's March. Trump's daughter Ivanka also wore a white pantsuit on the same day, also showing her unity. White pantsuit is also a symbol for the feminist movement. Now back to Perry's iconic performance. The pantsuit showed her support for women all over too. Her performance set included a small white house and a fence. The mini white house symbolized the actually White House. The fence symbolized the wall that Trump plans to build between the United States and Mexico. At the end of her song the fence was in pieces and demonstrates how most Americans feel about the wall being built. Any obstacle that is in the way and woud set America back in time would be destroyed. In an interview before the show, Perry said that she hoped that her song and appearance would cause people tot talk to each other political and understand one another. That is exactly what it did.

Many other celebrities realized the importance of the pantsuit. On Ellen DeGeneres's show, she had a little girl named Macy on. Macy is an expert on all things presidential. She had previously met President Obama on another episode. She was on the show the same day as Clinton and received the same cobalt blue pantsuit that Hillary was wearing. She was so excited because she knew how important that moment was.

The pantsuit for women was first introduced in the 20s. It has come a long way since then and has gained momentum on the way here. Everything that it stands for is so important and monumental. All I can say now to complete this post is, "The Future is Female".

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Pantsuit: a pair of pants and a matching jacket worn by women. Whenever you see or hear about a pantsuit today you automatically think about Hillary Clinton. Even though Clinton did not win the presidential election, she definitely made her impact on the world; including the fashion world.

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2019 was a growth year for virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR)- known collectively as extended reality (XR). The presence of these breakthrough technologies began to be felt far away from the fields of gaming and entertainment, where they first became popular.

The 5 Biggest Virtual And Augmented Reality Trends In 2020 Everyone Should Know About
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Virtual reality - where users wear a headset and are fully immersed in computer-generated environments - has been developed to meet design, marketing, education, training, and retail needs. Augmented reality - where computer images are superimposed onto the user's view of the real world, through a screen or headset - is a more complex challenge, as it requires the software to "see" what is in front of it. But we're getting used to seeing it used for more than adding cartoon features to selfie pictures or spotting Pokemon in the wild.

With global spending on XR technology is forecast to increase by 78.5% next year compared to this year, both technologies will be key trends to watch out for in 2020. We are likely to see a whole load of exciting new hardware offering even greater immersion and realism, as well as innovative use cases as industry gets to grips with what it can do.
Industrial use outpaces gaming and entertainment
Most people's first experiences of VR and AR today are likely to be in gaming and entertainment. That's likely to change, as research shows that the development of enterprise XR solutions is overtaking that on consumer solutions. The 2020 XR Industry Insight report collated by VR Intelligence states that 65% of the AR companies surveyed said they are working on industrial applications, while just 37% working on consumer products and software.

This shouldn't be surprising - although games made the headlines in recent years thanks to Pokemon Go and Facebook's Oculus Rift, the potential to boost productivity and safety using XR makes it an attractive proposition for industry. VR can be used to simulate working in dangerous environments or with expensive, easily damaged tools and equipment, without any of the risks. AR, on the other hand, can be used to relay essential information directly to the user about whatever happens to be in front of them - reducing the time spent by engineers, technicians, or maintenance staff referring to manuals and looking up information online while on the job.
XR takes off in healthcare
The potential uses for these technologies in healthcare are obvious, and over 2020 we can expect to see many of these use cases transition from trials and pilots and gradually into general use. Virtual reality has already been adopted in therapy, where it is used to treat patients with phobias and anxiety disorders. Combined with biosensors that monitor physiological reactions like heart rate and perspiration, therapists can get a better understanding of how patients react to stressful situations in a safe, virtual environment. VR is also used to help people with autism develop social and communication skills, as well as to diagnose patients with visual or cognitive impairments, by tracking their eye movement.

The adoption of AR in healthcare is forecast to grow even more quickly - with the value of the market increasing by 38% annually until 2025. AR can be used by surgeons - both in the theater and in training - to alert them to risks or hazards while they are working. One app which has been developed uses AR to guide users towards defibrillator devices, should they need one when they are out in public. Another one helps nurses to find patients' veins and avoid accidentally sticking needles where they aren't wanted. As these innovations and others like them lead to improved patient outcomes and reduced cost of treatment, they are likely to become increasingly widespread throughout 2020.
Headsets get smaller, more mobile and more powerful
One of the biggest limiting factors with current XR technology is the need for encumbering headsets and display units. This is more of a problem with VR, where the powerful processing hardware needed to generate the graphics is usually contained within the headset. However, hardware devices have started to trend towards being "untethered" - For example, Facebook's Oculus headset initially needed to be connected to a powerful PC, but this year became available as the self-contained Oculus Quest version.

As well as more mobile, headsets will be able to generate increasingly realistic "worlds" for the VR user to explore as the devices are fitted with more and more powerful processors. While early VR worlds were clearly computer-generated using low-resolution polygons, the vistas available to us in 2020 will move closer to reality, allowing for more immersive experiences. Possibly the most anticipated breakthrough will be Apple's forthcoming 8K combined VR/AR glasses that will not be tethered to a computer or phone. The consumer tech giant is hoping that it will be the one to break XR into the mainstream with a high-end but affordable device, in the same way it did with the iPhone.
5G opens new possibilities for VR and AR
Super-fast mobile networks will further boost the potential of XR to strengthen its presence in entertainment and make further inroads into industry during 2020.

The potential for data transfer speeds of up to 3 gigabits per second - by comparison, the average home broadband delivers well under 100 megabits per second - means 5G should be fast enough to stream VR and AR data from the cloud. Rather than needing to be wired up to powerful PCs, or encumbered by on-board hardware, viewing devices will upload tracking data to data centers where the heavy processing will be done. The rendered images can be delivered back to the user in real-time thanks to the speed of 5G and other advanced networks.

Streaming VR has been possible in a limited way for a few years now - Facebook lets you do it with your phone, but the experience is limited due to data transfer speeds and low on-device processing power. Combining it with the cloud and 5G technology means designers of VR and AR tools will be unencumbered by the need to deliver their experiences into a low-bandwidth, low-powered environment. The result will be cheaper headsets and viewing devices and more realistic VR simulations.
More of us will learn through VR and AR
Educational experiences in VR and AR will continue to become increasingly common throughout 2020. The immersive nature of VR means that pupils can engage with learning in fun new ways, and AR brings new flexibility to on-the-job training.

Already students can take a trip through time to visit the ancient Romans, or through space to experience conditions on other planets. But as the technology becomes moves away from niche and becomes part of the fabric of everyday education, we're likely to see growth apart from simply providing "experiences," into solving problems with current education systems. Distance learners could be taught in VR classrooms, meaning they don't miss out on the benefits of learning in a collaborative environment, while AR training aids can ensure that access to the information needed to carry out a job is always on hand.

You might also be interested in some of the best examples of how AR is already being used in business, which I discuss in this video:

... Read More

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The 5 Biggest Virtual And Augmented Reality Trends In 2020 Everyone Should Know About

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2019 was a growth year for virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR)- known collectively as extended reality (XR). The presence of these breakthrough technologies began to be felt far away from the fields of gaming and entertainment, where they first became popular.