DECODED FASHION; WHERE FASHION MEETS TECHNOLOGY

We´re living in a time in which technology is vital, the continuous inventions of new apps and the growth of social media has changed the consumers habits as well as the shopping experience.

Actually, the newest technologies are becoming a great platform for fashion brands, products and retailers, certainly a matter of discussion and analysis. The need of an open space to speak and present the latest and hottest technilogical advances and products came through and that´s how Decode Fashion was born.

Decoded Fashion: the new face of retailers

The Decoded Fashion event took place at the Royal Society in London to bring together retailers and tech startups to explore the future and compete in a startup pitch.

During the event, the finalist of the startup pitch strutted their stuff before a panel of experts in the fashion and retail industry.

One of them, Perch Interactive, even managed to pitch via Skype as the company’s representative had been stranded in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

The overall winner of the $65,000 prize was Snap Fashion, the visual search service that uses image recognition to find ítems, just incredible…¿dont you think?

The need of reinventing print media

Along with the startup pitch competition there were many sessions throughout the day discussing methods for luring more shoppers your way, empowering consumers via social media and reinventing fashion print media, one of the most interstesting discussions aborded as well as the use of 3D runways instead of live ones.

The experts exposed how the internet and our browsing and online buying habits are completely changing the fashion and retail landscape.

Brands have to innovate to keep consumers interested in their products and accessories, and they´re using social media to stay in touch with consumers and create a more personal, targeted shopping experience overall.

The latter on that list provided a great deal of food for thought, not just for fashion print media, but wider areas of news and publishing.

The impressive discussion panel

The panel discussing the current status and future of fashion in print was pretty impressive. Duncan Edwards, editorial and design director at ASOS; Caroline Issa, editor in chief of O: by Tank Magazine, Dirk Standen, editor in chief at Style.com and Paula Goldstein, online director and digital development at Purple.fr just to mention some of them.

Fashion forward

The case of style.com is pretty intersting, the site has a strong reputation as the go-to place online to find out insider news. The publication’s coverage of catwalks is hard to beat and its quality photography, livestreaming and narrative style suits an audience that will clamour for glamour. Interestingly, Style.com has recently returned to print after running an Internet-only offering.

This might sound extreme, but it’s a sign that fashion is dealing with the crisis in print media in some pretty innovative ways. A magazine that is big and expensive becomes a desirable object in its own right. Back this up with the latest news online or for mobile and you have a pretty good plan for weathering the long change in print media.
Style reporting might be pushed aside by publishers of global headlines as a weekend pursuit or light feature for the ‘also in the news’ section. But the bold strides in the fashion media industry are well worth watching for.
Not having a digital and mobile plan, or worse making a hash of it and trying to force old formats into new shapes is not the answer.

What is the future of retail and fashion? New technology and the people will decide then.


By: Itziar Arriola H.