Everyone from Nike to Primark to Eres has launched athleisure lines to cash in on this $44 billion market (in the US alone), according to NPD Group. By many accounts, athleisure is the signature fashion trend of the 21st century so far. The expression comes from the contraction of “athletic” and “leisure”.

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).

Similarly, in the fashion industry, extended reality has been experimented with long before the COVID-19 outbreak, but was unable to gain significant footing in the industry, with many designers still preferring to show their collections at traditional in-person shows. However, the need for virtual technology in the fashion industry has been felt particularly acutely in recent times. 

In the most recent spring/summer events for Paris Fashion Week, held February 24th through March 4th, most of Europe and America were still operating normally. However, according to Vogue Business, travel restrictions from China prevented eight China-based designers from travelling to Paris to show their works. As a contingency, Tomorrow London Ltd chief development officer Julie Gilhart coordinated a backup, having each designer create a video showing their work. While effective as a stopgap, this incident exposed an acute need in the fashion industry for a more high-level technological approach to remote fashion. “We all think we are so technically connected,” says Gilhart, “but this has made us realise we are actually not. We are using [tec

 

 

With the digital acceleration we're witnessing, and the great Metaverse movement. That is a conversation everyone is enrolling to. Do you live? Do you believe the future of fashion will exclusively be built up by technologists such as CGI imagery AR and VR? To what extent do you agree or disagree with this matter? And if so, what would this mean for physical stores?

 

Very good question, reggae and thank you everybody for having me and for taking the time out of your day.

I mean, you have to talk about Metaverse, right? I mean, I think it's actually a must at this point.I do think that it's an interesting balance. I think we've got

how long is the internet been around for quite a while? How many? How long is ecommerce been around at least 20 years.

And ecommerce is right now still only, like 20% If you talk about luxury goods 20% of the market. And it grew exponentially in the last two years because of the stores being offline, essentially,the physical stores. So while I 100%. Think you know Metaverse is something we talk a lot about here at Farfetch in general, what it means how to engage with it. We just launched beauty collection a month ago. And it was very important that we started playing in the more in the gaming space that obviously fits in nicely to that. But knowing that that is a customer is interested in that, makes it important. It's to like two worlds kind of converging. And the gaming world is absolutely massive. The Metaverse has so much potential, understanding people's appetite for ownership, but of digital goods versus physical goods. And you know, for those of us that have been around a little while, we still love the concept of owning physical.

But I don't live my life in the digital space, per say. But I do know that increasingly more and more people do and you want to personalize what you look like where you're where you live, you know if it's a space and sandbox, you know, whatever that looks like whatever you want it to be. And I think that's what's super exciting about it is like, right now there are no parameters around what it is, it's being built in front of us. And I think that's what's super exciting and why it's super exciting for I think fashion in general has a tendency to lean into the space of, of the revolutionary the pioneering the willing to test and do different things. And I think that that's something that obviously we are all drawn to I mean, I'm sure all of you guys find it incredibly interesting.

But then ultimately, there's a whole bunch of people that don't care, can't understand it can't wrap their head around it, don't want to do want dining to do with it much like a lot of people felt about the internet and EECOM shopping. So I think every like interestingly, this definitely has a place. And I think for the more advanced it will have more of a place and for those less advanced, it'll be just like, oh, isn't that funny what those kids are doing?

And you know, and those guys and those players will probably be fine for a while because I think my point of bringing up how long these

like E commerce been around is that it takes actually a lot longer than we think for people to adopt new ways of engaging of consuming and yeah, there's some very fast movers but I think if you're talking about the vast majority of the world, it does take a lot longer and you know a lot of that's technology dependent, you know, do they have Wi Fi Do they not do they have 5g 4g, 3g You know what types of apps are enabled or not so there's like there's a lot of considerations in regards to that. But

I find it incredibly exciting. I know Joe's a finds it incredibly exciting and there's we've got a team dedicated to it here, who's kind of exploring what it means. We've started taking cryptocurrency as a payment form at BROWNS, which is very exciting. Got to see the first transaction done through

actually Sandrine who runs our luxury retail store

sort of the future component, she has

crypto wallet and she actually bought something and paid with the new terminals that we have in the store. And it was very seamless and very quick and like you would have never guessed you were plate paying with crypto. Not that I know what to expect. But you would think it actually would be probably very easy. But that was actually very exciting. And off the off white stores are now taking crypto as a form of payment. And I think I just read yesterday that Balenciaga is as well. So obviously, we're starting to see some adoption as we move forward in this space. But was there anything else specifically? Was that a static answer? You people answer and I have to say, I totally agree with you. You know, asking the similar question to Caroline Issa thank magazines do because initially, I was a bit sceptical about this matter of the metaverse. And she just told me as you did, you know, it's exciting, you have to tackle and embrace it. And, you know, see where, how you can implement it, even in the fashion world in the editorial side. And overall, see how you can develop on these notions. And yeah, so it was perfect. It was so thank you, it was so interesting. We did a focus group, a couple of focus groups at the end of last year with

like a handful of Gen Z, because I was very curious, as we were going into beauty, I wanted to understand a bit more specifically. And you know, legally, I can't ask in my office, how old people are. So I couldn't actually get them together in the office per se. So we had to go out and talk to a bunch of different people kind of in the fashion space as well, because I wanted a particular type of viewpoint. But one of the questions I specifically asked or had the team ask was, what do you think of the metaverse? And it was fascinating, because all of them said they pretty much don't care. So it was really enlightening to me. Because here we are like going oh my god, what does this mean? Like? How do you wrap your head around it? How's it all connected? And like a whole bunch of them going down? I don't really care.

Ambulance

polarisation of answers, I guess. Yeah. Perfect, then that's that was my question from my side. And now I'll hand the virtual microphone to Chiara following online. Thank you. Thank you, Enrique. And hello, Holly, and thank you for being with us today and sharing some of your time with us.

So without further ado, I will just go ahead with the next question. So we asked you a similar question last time you came. But now since you launched the beauty department, we wanted to ask you so in how did you reboot fashion? When you acquired it when you became the fashion chair? And what was the process like? And if you could describe if there was any experience or any challenges? And how did you overcome these challenges? Oh, my God. Thank you, Kara. That's a very loaded question.

I've now it's actually interesting. This year marks my seventh year in the business and

I feel it's gone by very quickly and at times very slowly. But

I think it was super exciting. When Joe's a asked me to join, they just acquired browns and they asked me to join to run browns. And

something I had never done before physical retail my entire previous 12 years of experience had been in digital retail. And so like getting getting an understanding of what physical actually meant was was was a real challenge to me to start with.

And then dealing with physical stores and the staff in stores and understanding who the customer was, I mean, I think it was literally all so new and like how do you engage in the physical space? And I know how to like I knew all the digital elements of how to engage with customers, but the physical becomes something very different and you need you really need to play into that in a different way. And I think that's one of the reasons why for me when we started talking about all the different layers to the business and you know, you get somebody might the head of my tech team was like, okay, so Holly, it's omni channel, we're just talking omni channel and I'm like, No, actually, we're not talking omni channel. Like what is omni channel mean? I'm like it's multi channel, because each one of these channels has its own nuances. And yes, it brings you together and can give you if you do it well a single source of truth in terms of the customer and what their purchase behaviour is, and maybe even viewing browsing behaviour, but it each needs to be handled in quite a different way.

And he and I went back and forth on this one for quite a while it was really funny. Interestingly enough, as a CEO, I won that conversation, but

it was definitely I think, and he finally got it after, after a little bit of time he finally understood like, you're right, actually, because we do need to address, you know, the people that walk physically into the store. And one way the people that shop online and another way the people that weave between the two and another way, and I think that's been a big part of my journey through Browns is understanding how do you make it the most engaging, you can through each one of those channels. And with

opening, so I had to shut a couple of stores. So I ended up shutting, there was a store on Sloane Street and a store on South Molton Street, which was the first flagship store. And I think honestly, Kara, one of the most challenging things was telling Bernstein's who started the store that we bought grounds from telling them that I was going to shut that store down, because I was just like, Oh, my God, they've been they had the store, it was, I think, at that point was like, 48 years old. And I remember speaking to a very famous architect about maybe working with us on revamping that store space. And she was very funny. She's like, you know what, you just leave it, she was very, very fast with me on the phone, she's like, you just leave it as it is. It's perfect the way it is. There's nothing wrong with browns, and I was like, oh, maybe she hasn't been in in a while.

And so you start questioning yourself and where you're going and what you think is right. And but I ultimately knew this space was no longer adequate for what we needed to do and what we stood for and where we were going. And a lot of that being technology enabled and needing to be technology enabled, meant that this crazy layout of five different townhouses, sandwiched together wasn't allowing for the technology and the Wi Fi to play into the customer journey. And so we needed to move and telling the Bernstein's I was petrified, honestly, so petrified. and Mrs. B says to me, because it was very important to me through the whole the whole time as being very respectful of heritage and what they built, but knowing that we were taking it into the future, and but always knowing that they had, that I was a partner to what they had started. And I think that was for me, very important. And when I told her, she looked at me, she goes, What's taking you so long? And I was like,

okay, great, thank you. Anyway, we had a great new space down the street, when we got really lucky in finding the new location on Brook Street. And it was I always say, when we got shown the real estate, I was like, yes, like without hesitation. And I was like, This is honestly, this is a gift, a gift from

the world to us on in terms of like the proximity to the previous location. And then also, interestingly enough, just putting us that little bit further in to an, I guess, a more relative audience to who we were speaking to, from a luxury standpoint. So, you know, Claridges is just a few doors down now. And then the other direction is Bond Street, and there's, they're opening a Mandarin Oriental Hotel. And then there's the main restaurant that just opened not too long ago. So it's like, literally all the right kind of people and even the team in the store now talk about the fact that the types of people that come in the store now are very, very different than when it was just up the street. So I think it's, you know, there's a lot about kind of doing your due diligence in terms of what makes sense for you as a business and the future but then also trusting to a degree the gut instinct of what's right and knowing when you need to move and being respectful but maybe needing to do it a little bit sooner.

Yeah, I mean, I could talk forever about it. So I don't know I don't know it's amazing work you guys.

It's great. Thank you. It's it's actually very very helpful for us especially second year students. So the buying pathway has to open the concession inside bronze east

and then the business pathway has to open a whole store for matches fashion.

So it's actually are in house.

So the challenge is to open a new point of sale for matching blinded so in your area. Oh.

Very interesting to your answer was super helpful also in terms of customer experience, and I love them how you said that you need like a different experience for each channel so that the customers have different needs. So very helpful. Thank you so much.

And continuing on this topic. So as I'm, as I mentioned, like the East London is a big part of our projects, especially for second year term. So in October 2017

European brands east in Shoreditch, so we would like to know what decided you and what were the goals and objectives of this new store?

Yeah, I can't believe it's already been that long. It's, I think, for us, it was to try and get

a different for people to have a different perspective on what grounds was. So back to like the fact that the store had been in existence for 40 plus years. At that point, everybody just thought of the flagship store. And what I was really trying to do, by opening Browns East was changed the narrative around what brown stood for. And instead of something that sat in the past, instead, something that sits in the future. And for me, it was like, how do you bring the you know, the online and the offline, hopefully into one space. And

so hunted around for ages, it felt like for that space of almost got another space, like literally a block away. And that did not end up playing out because of the landlords were incredibly difficult. And then we ended up taking that space that we're in now, which actually, I'm quite thankful that we ended up there, because actually, the footprint of the building is not gigantic, which I quite like, because you can make it you know, for me, it's always been important that brown stays in the consumers eyes of boutique, a very interesting, like BG boutique. And so they feel like they get more attentive customer service that they feel like it's kind of just for them. And I think going into short it. What I had found out after we decided we were going to do it was that actually, so many luxury brands had been looking and shortage because I think everybody understood, but there were so worried about footfall and how you would actually make a profit in that part of town and what it meant what it meant for me, though, in terms of stick changing the narrative around browns, but it was also about,

you know, quite frankly, I knew I wasn't going to have anybody complaining to me that no, you can't sell my product in your store, because they had there was no one else selling there, you know, the Gucci and the salons and all that in that part of town. And so I did something that probably not too many other people do, and I and it was definitely not arrogance, it was kind of speed to market to be honest with you. But it was like, we're just going to open this store, we're going to tell three brands, give them some in depth ideas around what we're doing.

Because we know they'll kick up a bit more of a fuss because of course they sell luxury product. And they should be very protective. But we're just going to see how it plays out and who wants to participate in this space. And we had a few of them go, no, no, no, you can't put you can't put our product in that store. And then after about two months of selling, they were like, can you please put our product in your store? It's really cool. And we're so upset that we didn't open a store over there. You did it first. You know, and I think we've subsequently seen like Gucci takeover

that one house and do a pop up there for quite a long time. And then Bottega Veneta down wretched Street as well. So it's been, you know, obviously host has been there for a while. So that's, it's been really interesting. And I probably missed a few in there too. But it's been really interesting to see what's gone on in that space. And I think for us also it was the place where we could truly start to weave in the

technology into the customer journey. So that was where we kind of did the store for one concept where you could take the upstairs was two has been up until we launched beauty was the idea that you could come in and have an e book an appointment with a stylist to actually order in whatever products you wanted. So hence the store for one and then you could open the Mikado pod to open them up and you could actually have your friends come and it could be like a party up there if you wanted it to be that, but just a real like one on one kind of customer service area, but then, you know, more accessible product downstairs. And something that was important to me was like being very conscientious of the neighbourhood in which you exist and not wanting to be like just a direct copy of like a Mayfair store in Shoreditch that would make absolutely no sense really speaking to the audience and the community around you trying to engage and it was really interesting because we have people that come in the store like every week, they just they live they live locally and they just love coming in and they're like I can't believe you did this and put the store over here and they really love like Nick Grimshaw is in there all the time. He loves browns. You

He lives right around the corner. But that and I think another part of it for me. So besides the technology, and trying to move the narrative forward around Browns was also part of that narrative was like, what do we stand for from a values perspective. And the

one thing I have noticed, since I've been able to spend a bit more time on the shop floor was the fact that this idea of

gendered clothing was becoming less and less important. And while we have, I think we have it all set up that way, because that's just historically how it's been set up. You've got your department set up and the back end of your inventory system. So it's actually really hard to break out of, but one of the things I wanted us to do when we opened that store was just mix, mix clothes for men's and women's all together. Because for me, it was like, it's actually not about that it was about and this was five years ago. So I mean, I think, you know, decently forward thinking, but like mixing it together, because it's not about that. It's about what you like, and then what suits you. And I remember,

he's actually the guy who's running the business. Now, Paul, he's the MD, and he was our CEO at the time. And he was so funny. We were standing on the shop floor just not long after we'd opened. And I think it was a wide project shirt that I've been looking at. It's quite oversized. And I've been looking at it. I was like, Oh, I thought it could be a shirt dress. And I actually don't even know, because we had men's and women's and white projects. I don't even know what it was. And he picked it up. He's like, I tried this. On the other day. I was like, me too. And he was horrified.

He was absolutely horrified. And I was like, why is that a problem. I mean, it's just a shirt. Anyway, it was quite funny. But I think it's been really interesting. And I think and interesting. Also like our labels, when we did the rebrand.

One of the concepts was to split rounds into two tags, and one was bro and the other was wn s. And it actually plays out perfectly. So all the tags in the store that our men say bro, and all the women's, say wn s. So like, if you really want to know, you can actually just look at the tag and see. And that literally just played out by accident, I'd love to say that was by design. But that was not necessarily the case. But

But yeah, so that was really important for me was that piece of it. And then the experiential because we also have had an immersive room, which changed every couple of months, which we now actually adopted into the Bourke Street store because it was a concept that customers really loved. And it's a talking point, which is really important, I think when you're talking about retail and engagement of customers. But we've now since moved that into our beauty space for brands and that shortage store. So it's immersed you in beauty now.

Leave it like the entryway is another great space in terms of drawing people in. And it was like something we I think notoriously retail has always been so stuck to Windows, the idea of windows and like, what are you going to do in your windows for Christmas or holiday or whatever. And so it was a conversation we had to have like we're moving into stores that really don't have windows? And actually it's kind of freeing when you think about it, because it's like, actually it makes it more about what's actually going on inside as opposed to like this. People go, I know what you're all about keep walking. It's like now they have to engage and come in. So

So yeah, there's I mean, it's a I think it's ends up being like, even though it's not a huge space ends up being quite an engaging space.

Amazing. Great, thank you so much. This was really helpful for our project. And also I love the tag story.

But also, I love how this feeling of yes, you have closed there. And you just choose whatever you like, and whatever will fit you and suit you. And it's great. Thank you so much. That's all for my side. So I'm going to pass pass on to Sam, for the last questions. But thank you again for being with us. Thank you, of course, I have to leave thank you for being so tap into what you said about needing a new outlook for East London. How do you enhance brands, physical retail stores to make it more sustainable and conscious? And also since brands brands and also digital, how do you translate that digitally?

Very good question.

So I think generally our approach

is, I mean, actually for a little while I had until COVID basically hit. We had delivered local deliveries we were doing

With electric bikes, and it was also because of Brexit but why we had to stop doing it but

on electric bikes and guys on skateboards because I was like That way they can make use of public transport and keep it really, you know, like from

pollution standpoint not continuing to pollute and the process of of getting your product. Because with Brexit we actually had to move our warehouse to the Netherlands because it became too costly to actually keep it in this country. Unfortunately, we have a small one now. But

yeah, so we, you can't really skateboard too quickly from the Netherlands to London,

we might have a few unhappy delivery men if we did that, or delivery people.

But circularity and

the environment are really big conversations that we're constantly having, I think little, little things that we did very early on was like, you know how when you go into stores, a lot of times people offer you something to drink, and a lot of times they'll offer you a bottle of water that's in a plastic bottle. So we made sure that we did not do that anymore, we started getting filtered water.

And just explaining to the customer that this is actually filtered water, because we don't want to we want to reduce the rubbish that we're actually generating as a business. We went in and we looked at like all of our packaging, from the email, our email from the IE concession or E commerce to many verb to many different terminology for me to keep in my head, the E commerce orders, really looking at, you know, box sizes, inner box, outer box, the tissue paper, all the different components that you usually include. And it's like this really interesting balance between what's considered luxury.

And it's different for everybody. It's so vastly different. And do people want another box? Do people want another interlining? Do they feel guilty about getting that piece? Do they feel like they have to hold on to it and then feel terrible if they throw it in the trash. And so I think it's like, if we are giving them something, maybe give them something they can reuse. And I think that was really important to me when we were developing the boxes. Because you are a luxury store that sells very high end product. So you also don't want people to have

an experience with you that feels maybe to throw away as well. So I think there's there's just a really interesting place you have to sit and giving people the option of whether or not they want conscious packaging or not, I think sort of helps in that conversation when they're shopping online. But I remember when we did the little bags that we put the product and we put it in the box and ship it so we got rid of tissue paper altogether. Because again, wasteful, you can't really reuse it as a consumer. So we we got the drawstring bags, and I remember talking to our head of visual experience. I said can we get this made out of recycled material? So she went back to the supplier? The supplier was like no.

And I was like, Are you you gotta be kidding me at this point. I mean, this was several years ago. This is like five years ago now. And I was like, Are you sure? Like that just doesn't even seem logical to me. There's got to be fabric made out of recycled materials that we can actually utilise. Okay, yeah, then they sent me something offs, terrible quality, like it felt like a you can't put you can't pack

a really expensive dress in that. So we went back and forth. And eventually, you know what they found something that was like, quite felt quite high end. And it's what we've been using ever since. And I think that then we also realised that maybe people were getting too many of these. So we actually have it so that you can, if you feel like it and you're sending back a return, you can actually just return any unused

bags, and we'll take those back. So I think it was it, there's a lot about like reducing, maybe reducing where you can and then reusing what you can. And then obviously recycling, which is also a big a big component of what we do with what we have in the warehouse and then also in the stores. And I think I remember walking one day I was walking home from from South Melton Street, and I happen to walk because I couldn't. I didn't really like walking on Oxford Street too much because at the time was way too busy with people. But one street, just south of there is I guess maybe where Primark puts all of their bins because it's like right along there on Oxford Street. And I remember walking past three containers the size of probably a lorry of just hangers, plastic hangers and I was at

absolutely mortified. And realizing, obviously, that's the scale of their business, but also recognizing what can we all do to make that difference. So I think, you know, that's in that space. And then the restaurant that we actually decided to work with the new store on Brook Street is called native. And there is a zero waste concept. So you can't do every not everything is possible to do that. But they will take stuff from the previous day, reuse it and make whatever the menu items are for the day, they'll go and use parts of of a fish that maybe other people are a vegetable that other people wouldn't use. So I think that was playing into it as well. A lot of the interiors were either vintage pieces, and or we didn't change some of the original features from the store when we redid it. So really kind of embracing the past, and holding on and holding on to the past, but trying to make it modern, but recognizing that with the history there is so much more story to tell, so recognizing that there is beaty in that, in also the product that we sell.

 

 

So, which are the trends that we believe will shape the fashion system. So, we backward them in three main categories and out the global economies affecting Of course, the overall fashion and also the lifestyle market. Number two, how the shift from a consumer perspective is a core is is affected the behaviour, the perspective and also the retracing, and of course, the merchandising that the fashion company and the fashion system should be rapidly adapting. And, of course, overall, our deficiencies thing is rapidly evolving according to channels according to a country of origin and mixed effect technology, and also the bread racing nation now, as is happening us, but it's also very meaningful in Europe and in Asia. So, all in all, I think, what is important to mention, let's go one by one better for the global economy, and either recover or neither recovery or logistic gridlock of effective strongly and practice from the the margin contribution for all the fashion system for our fists of the fashion CEO that in that we interview for the new state of fashion, and reported an uneven recovery for 22 inflammatory given the global turmoil given the worrying of course, also given the logistic gridlock that is affecting the supply chain. If we take for example, the most important raw material like the pattern like nylon, feather, leather, and so on and so forth, cashmere and wool, let me say the variation between 2020 or end of 2019. And today, it range from 60 to 250% increase. Of course, these affect a lot the buying is affects a lot the margin of the products, which doesn't mean and this is important because sometimes I see in a random Financial Times that oh my god, raw material is increased 1% So people believe that the product would buy one 50% more. Of course, it's not because a t shirt is composed by different kind of raw materials different kinds of costs, which imply a Cox impact of cotton for example, less than 1/3 and the cotton part for that part of the cotton is less than 1/4 itself. So which means that at the end of the day 250% increase in the fibre price for the final costs for a T shirt in cotton is around 6%, CMT included and that's number one. So, in terms of output and in terms of take away the key initiatives and the key priority for the CEO is secure the recovery secure the recovery is time that the majority of the fashion MCs today there is no control tower for all the cost control and at the same time of course they are putting in place procurement strategy and procurement excellence department to renegotiate create all bi spreadsheet and also a flying team that go from rest of words to forest which are the bases they usually procurement are divided into two secure quality and cost, consumer shift consumer shift, it's something that probably we perceive closer now to the more traditional fashion world wide global economies, more CFO CEO driven mother consumer shift, we identified three main themes. So number one is the reputation of the leader of the laxer into the domestic market. And of course you are aware of the fact that the Chinese economy due to the MO to Chinese tourists due to the COVID have been ranked by trading a lot this spending this luxury spending and also with the opening of China in

free tax zone, the suspend quite an important trend for all them. So just to give you an idea the overall Chinese spending abroad has been diminished from Mark for 80 to 80% in value, value 2020 Value 2021 We're the remote of quietness and I think one more important thing is and this is that the global footprint in the in the retail of the luxury and fashion, the fashion brands has been impacted a lot because the return per square metre incidents that they add this is dramatically change now. So these were stores that were ranging from 30 to 40 to 45,000 units

because a workload is dirty Yeah, that's the people I just remind everyone to the microphones after two years of COVID almost

I this is impacting a lot their capex and it's impacting a lot their geographical footprint, what are their report, what are the report is totally changing from a merchandising strategy perspective. The assortment is now change from one more time from athleisure. And let's say less occasion where tomorrow occasion where so the aisles and and the shoes are back on track, the more formal things are back. And of course, this is going to become one of the major event into the merchandising strategy and community assortment evolution for fashion competent companies meet diverse mindset is becoming definitely central in all the consumer shift. And, of course, especially with the advent of Gen Zed playing video games, and also we record the more than seven hours per day. Sorry, more than seven hours per week played on the game is becoming a fundamental and pivotal role for attracting the Gen Zed and actually onboarding them on this fashion world that is attracting a lot of a lot of brands to create and design products for the gaming and products for the retailers. The in terms of actions, so the new shape of demand has to be redesigned, both in from from a geographical footprint for the retail and both from Merchandising perspective. And of course, strengthening the digital adoption, which doesn't mean anymore that companies and only to buy or sell online, but they have to interact, they have to use the channel as a channel for dialogue to create a dialogue with the consumer and with the final consumer fashion system. The third big trends and the third big bucket we discover is that social shopping is becoming more and more important that there's been a surge into the saris not this one. Let me report Yeah, there we go. I'm sorry. There we go. So is becoming more and more important, and 37% of the fashion executive we work with, they believe that is going to become one of the most fundamental channel and go to market for engaging in for distributing and selling the product in the very short term. What is important to say is that one more time, the differences between US, Europe and China is becoming more and more long in terms of adoption shopping in in the premium and mass market in the US is now around 40% of the adoption of the sales while in Europe and while in Asia, it's still below 10% sustainability will not be something that we avoid to talk of course but it's a little bit different. In the in the in the past we were talking about how to become to create a sustainable business model how to create something that could pollute less and to create less greenhouse emission. Now we're talking for more sophistic and we are advocating for a more sophisticated business models with any business model, which basically mean typical or close loop textile business model. This is important because the leftover of the within the Metro of the brands will not be of course discarded or incinerated anymore. And there is a value of the array, which is another item of value for the balance sheet but it was a value for usage there is a value for companies that need of course, to adopt large scale collection certain processes, were going to times partner with startups and process them into something more useful and convenient for the society. And for the mission perspective, I think of this part on this point that we are advancing more and more in the fashion system. So, we are not talking anymore about sustainability per se, but it's becoming something more related into responsibility. So, taking care of the planet taking care of business model and brands, which are taking care of the people

together with the mission together with them with the sustainability of the environment is becoming something bonded into that is going really together with with sustainability and simpler textile that we are exploding here. So, and also this is reflected from some of the most emerging brands which are playing this game and I think they're becoming very close to the majority of the of the Gen Zed consumer blockchain product passport is important, there is an anti authentication boost of transparency, which is of course related to sustainability and that this is required from consumer and also of course, from the brands which are requiring scope tree transparency and sustainability. Try trust at the same time, product passport now with the with the with the COVID. One more with the worry is becoming less actionable. And sculpture is becoming more demanding, especially from fashion back then the other Copenhagen fashion agenda that is requiring more transparency, which unfortunately is not, which was lately, concrete action. So I think we are lagging behind a little bit between the comparing sorry, with the timeframe that the fashion bank was given to the fashion system overall, cyber resilience is a little bit less sexy trend. And the cyber resilience is actually on the CFO and the chief risk officer agenda. Now, I don't know if you've seen that, more than 35% of the listed companies, all fashion companies all over the world all over the world, in the last eight months, add at least one cyber attack, which implied the shutdown of commerce shut down the Wi Fi in stores, shut down the iPad for the storage system, and so on and so forth. I know it's definitely less sexy topic. But of course, the cybercrime is going to backwards regulation and also GDPR in Data Management, which at the end of the day is our the data of the consumer, which can from the consumer and customer base of the company. So, of course, this is going to impact sales, but also leakage in privacy information. Grant raishin nation or talent crunch is the last of the most impactful trend in the fashion. We in the past, we were talking a lot about attracting, developing and retaining talent. Today we're talking about purpose and talking about purpose require fashion system to really explain the consumer but also being the employees, which are the first consumer have the branded set per se, why they are doing something why they are what is the responsibility and the X they're doing versus the society and also men is important, especially related to the Agile way of working that the employees are required more and more to the fashion brands. This is going to become very important. I remember a very cool conversation last year, one year and a half ago with luxury brands. And I will say look, we've seen especially us that we have a lot of problem in retaining talent because on top of the attraction part because us people are about valuing some give you more attention to some of the values then you are not that you were not seeing in the past now like the flexibility like the purpose like the camaraderie like the sense of belonging, right. And nowadays, and basically they term that luxury brand, which a dispatcher or business partner with Express of that brand. Were telling me you know, Andrea, we are not kidding about this because the power and influence of our election events is so strong that I could afford any challenge in the world. I could pay how much money I want and I could ever throw now. I met him a few weeks ago. anywhere, Sandra, you are right, because we are not capable anymore to attract this kind of talent. And we are even if we are paying them, they are valuing other dimensions so much more than before. Right? So of course, this is putting tension on the overall business model. But let me, let me stop here and understand if there's any passion from your side, or if you want to deep dive more in some of these dimensions that we believe are going to share the 2020 the fashion system.

Any questions even from the third year you're having?

You actually would like to ask a question if it's possible. And it's regarding exactly the current industry trends that are booming within the fashion industry. And since I'm doing a product, business plan for my honours project that is in line with the latest trends in the fashion industry. I was going to ask if in European considering the topic of the metaverse and the latest trends of digitalization, and digitalization that, as you know, are currently booming within the fashion industry. If you think in your opinion, do you think that consumers would like an application in which the shopping experience of the customers would be a mix between real life and the digital world? And what do you think this? Let's say a new topic, a new panorama of the metaverse will evolve in the future, shaping the retail industry and how we are going to purchase our products.

It's an interesting question. I think immediate versus, of course, is is a critical point. And I think we rallied point out here in this in this chart. I love some of the answers that I've seen in the in the last month, which we don't know, we didn't know, this is what's one of the most answered question from from the CEO. So I give you my perspective. So my perspective is that number one of the adoption is now very linked to the AR, and especially stores, but especially from an experiential perspective. So the AR, and the Oculus that has been developed in the last and the most recent year, is currently the only real application that could create Traffic Conversion and digital adoption and the sales at the same time. There is no other at the moment, which will link the omni channel interaction, right. So if you see also the fourth from Mita exotica group, right? The only things they are doing and developing together are the glasses, right? Unfortunately, these glasses have limited storage. And at the end, they have limits in connectability. So they are only connecting you for eight to four months to eight to 12 minutes according to the application that you're opening at the same time or the band that you require for connection. So which of course, is limiting the power of the application. Also, the conversion is that if you're using them in stores, and a lot of retailers, both from fashion and furniture are really advanced in this, they could ask you, for example, to take a picture of your house, in case you're choosing your new upholstery or your new sofa. And then if you bring them into the furniture shop, they could load to the VR or to the Oculus and basically could choose the sofa to bury prefer for him from your house, you with the actual link in the eyes with the touch that is going to provide Of course, nada on how this could fit to the to your house in terms of design, but at the same time, also the comfort that you're going to test of course with your body filling and so on from the rest of the dynamic that I'm seeing the market, I think what we're doing is a little bit of testing trial, because sandbox in particular or the creation of licences and concession or on Farfetch or on some other application is still very early stage and that the application you could do is Oreo try to translate into nfts for the better a storable licence to make money or to actually create a profit out of it. Why otherwise you can create a digital wardrobe in, in the web trade. Now in the metaverse the ladder, it's definitely less adopt. And there's no anticipation except for Versace, Gucci and a little bit return which made some capsule. The first one, the former is actually much more distributor and you see from the NFT emission from Gucci, for example, Obi Wan saga that does create a lot of bots. But we are really under stage and creation. And the mission of this is very volatile. And it's very linked to the defy or to the blockchain creation, which, of course, is under turbulence, I think, know better than I do. What's happening for you study Lunada, and so on. So that's basically the situation. But I think what we are less advanced for in is the web three part, which is definitely unexplored, it's more something that is not is an equation that is not be sold.

Also, because considering the fact that I'm doing the trying to develop this type of new, let's say, a new brand, the problems that comes when trying to operate on the web three and on the metaverse are also regarding sustainability, because like the consume of energy required for mining and mining this kind of products is is a lot as you know. And so I was wondering if in the future, because we are all waiting for Aetherium 2.0 that maybe will allow us to work within the web three and the metaverse in a sustainable way using renewable energy. But right now for the like for Fiji vitality, let's say if you consume a product that will real life and also life within the digital environment, making it sustainable in real life. It's doable, but mining it in the in the metaverse would be

very energy consumptions for many out there.

And so I'm wondering how the soul like the soul system will be embedded within supply chains in the future, also, because if we can't about fast fashion companies and like companies that are used to mass produce and all these kinds of things, I don't think that will be a very easy shift to make in order to make a sustainable jump, let's say. So yeah, I wanted your opinion regarding this. And also regarding the fact that we are we are forced to to find sustainable solutions, because for the Sustainable Development Goals agenda, we will be soon required to make a shift that is not an openable, let's say but it's a must for the industry. No,

I totally agree with you. But I have my personal opinion on this that, unfortunately, actually, luckily for them. The trade off between mass production that you were mentioning, and eth, version one is definitely net positive, which means that better way to go on Aetherium right now than to wait for the toilet zero because from an environmental perspective is less polluting and is preventing that or is actually accelerating the sustainability adoption, right. So if I were them, I will not be constrained on the sustainability part more on the actual track track consumer in fast fashion the way they did with the mass market business model. Real fast lane reactivity supply chain reinvention copy base of some Luxury Collection at the very affordable price. This would be I think, a strong concern for them. And this is a point of no return also, because if they lose the trip, if they lose the traction if they convert the 20% of consumer, from the physical to the digital, the digital I mean, the web 2.0 for them could be a great loss even if it could be an advantage advantage from sustainability perspective and point of view. So this is basically the trade off and the strong point. They are the debate, the debate that are discussing at the moment.

Thank you very much. That was so interesting, and so big project. So I don't know if any others or other questions regarding the topic that I was discussing with you right now.

Yes. I'm very I'm fleetness meteo. Yes. Actually have also question regarding, not the metaverse but NF T's. And I was wondering if you like do you think NF T's in fashion could help brands build a community or forming more brand loyalty around them? And if so, in what ways

Yeah, no great question. I don't think he's going to create loyalty, but he's going to track consumer and that they were not interested in the fashion system before, or they were not fashion savvy before, like before? So for this definitely yes. The real question is, could they trade up America, they convert the physical with the digital spending. That's the real point. But loyalty wise, the creation of a ecosystem and compass, going and designing a collection, at the same time designing an NFT, because you are a lifestyle company and being a lifestyle company means that you have to be present in a bulk domain to really attract consumer, especially in that specific age.

Yeah, no, I agree. Yeah. Because also for my project, it's basically around the brand that works in fit in the phygital. area. So they will have a physical and the NFT version of the product of that product. And now I agree, it's, it's very interesting how brands are trying to implement and using the, to try to convert these customers.

The real point is that for now, they're using an FTS tracker consumer, which basically means they're using these as levers to sell more clothes. Yeah. If this is going to become a revenue stream, per se, we don't know yet. Because if you see the open See, market variation on selected the best seller and if this is decreasing over time, and of course, there is a exogenous market drivers, which is affecting them, but at the same time means also before the word that the consumer, we're not appreciating over time, the fact that the NFT is worse cars, and one of a kind product for this brand, you know, and they want exclusivity, like they were buying the new dress, or they were buying the new leather goods, specific bags, right. So I think this is something they didn't crack at the moment. So they also stopped basically the sign that amazing, thank

you very much. Thank you very much for your insight.

I don't know sir. If there's any other question.

I can't see any other question in the chat. I was checking the chat. I have also another one where I can check but I didn't receive anything. So the reps have more power because they have the WhatsApp group that I don't have. So I don't know if the student reps they receive the messages on your whatsapp groups that I don't belong to obviously

questions about the other student trips but if possible, I can ask another question that it was curious about. So as we were talking about how the possible shift will happen of sustainability within the market that can be fought during the mass production the fast fashion companies I wanted to ask in your opinion how these companies in general we will make sustainable materials affordable. And I must go for companies risk replacing destructive fabrics inside their supply chain. So from what they say is making let's say the circular closed loop supply chain as definiton like pillar base at the base of the supply chain. So for everyone, and not only like of certain brands

you will excuse me, as you know in Italian when we ask another question after you receive a question, is that example like so? I'll ask you a question. Yeah. Are you meaning for fast fashion or luxury? What you're saying

actually would be would be beneficial thing for everyone since we are doing projects that are different projects that some are based on luxuries, fashions, others are based on nice written fast fashion, I think. So.

I tell you the difference. So unfortunately, luxuries hasn't solve this dilemma. So balancing the purpose with profit for them is has not been easy and is now easy because the circular loop given the quality of the raw material. And given the technology advancement so far of the of the machinery. It doesn't allow them to take five to 10 to $15 leather bags. and reuse the ladder into another another product the same is forgotten. If you take a 300 350 T shirt and a percent cotton pad is impossible to recycle, like h&m does with renewal in in the Nordics right? Because when h&m recycle the eight euro t shirt the technology renew so allows h&m to have the same T shirt, but with the 85 to 92% of the same quality as before for the for the laxer instead that specific neck technology drops quality of the cotton pulp to 64 E also sometimes percent because the fibre is so thin and the fibre is a different specification that are not made from that machinery so that the reason why I was asking that one is a little bit provocative because unfortunately for mass market and low price the scheme works now and works for cotton worse for wool. Worse For denim works also for leather for until some extent but for Laxmi, unfortunately doesn't that's why if you look at LVMH if you look at that mess, they are not doing circular loop, they are not adopting circle loop business model. They are investing in solving a netzero equation but providing other let's say sort of plugging the gap without a sources of greenhouse emission to get to the net zero right? At a mason conversely is doing a little bit of upcycling now together with some of the brands of the caring group and also with Barbary. But again, this is just more scale now because if you go to our mes website and you search for potash, these are products which are going beyond the fashion which is something admirable but these are very tiny collection that cannot afford the leftover and venturi, let's say recycling or upcycling. No, entirely. So these very fragmented and I think fast fashion is definitely more advanced, even if even if it's more cause of the problem. While luxury and affordable accessory doesn't ever wrote yet no one or it rejects a clear trajectory to overcome this problem.

 

 

 

 

interaction through social media, where consumers could interact with them, making e-commerce about the people, community first, created an ocean of interaction, this will help the purchasing decisions for consumers. This is the most important part for us.

Creating a network, with influencers, 2015 is where genz comes to age and you see them buy things online, so it became a home for an audience, who wanted to buy things online and try something else, build a platform for a place they can make it their own on this digital world, where young users are very natural to promoting themselves, finding economic opportunities.

be aware of what consumer’s needs, change of values and needs, such as sustainability and its impact and drive in fashion, a few years ago it was not as important, it was not a part of the discussion back then, its becoming a part of who we are.

this is very important for the audience, to help drive decision making and help shape the business, 

stay close to the community was a very important part for the business

 

 

very hard to answer, we have a unique opportunity to make second hand, especially when we have such a nice community, there is real value in the clothing, that might no longer be aware, we are on a journey, the beginning is to realize is to have an audience of sustainability consumsion, however price will be the most important drive for consumers, sadly enough, we cannot win on price, and convince, when consumers are more addicted, especially after the pandemic, where you can get it delivered on your door the same day or next day

you feel better when you shop from depop because sustainability, but it should be more of a experience, 

promote the value of circulation, we need to build the value of that in consumers mind, its important to realize that good intention will not make us sell, so we need to look at other factors

 

 

media landscape has changed in a massive way, try to bring people to the real world, create a relationship, brands need to think about interacting with people, partner up with different brands, try to show viability and visibility. expanding the market. we are all about bringing together people. Covid made us look at marketing different, meaning the inspiration was solid from the screen, so social media became key, working with influencers, videos, engaged to reach different audiences through social media. 

we see celebrities wanting to join into express sustainability, where they want to wear depop. marketing mix is important

cultural experience is important, be more transparence å

 

research engagement, looking at data, emerging trends, like tiktok, what is happening on the digital world