A modern solution to fashion bias – Ziwei Qu

Council of Fashion Designers of America’s findings show lack of diversity makes black employees feel as if they ‘don’t belong’

The fashion industry still has a bias towards white men and they outnumber anyone else in executive roles, a new report shows.

The findings from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) showed that the lack of diversity has made black employees feel as if they “don’t belong” to organizations, with two in three black employees (63%) reporting that they are regularly the “only” black person in the room. This, in turn, has led to an increase in pressure to perform and represent their identity.

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The report – called the State of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – also revealed that just 57% of black fashion industry employees believed that their company was doing enough when it came to racial and gender inclusivity, compared with 77% of their white colleagues. Less than half of black employees believed that inclusivity measures would result in permanent change.

Last year, following the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd at the hands of police and the Black Lives Matter protests, many fashion brands and shops were called to task for the apparent schism between their statements of solidarity and own their issues of structural racism from the shop floor to the executive level.

Another issue that came from the report was an economic one: 37% of black employees reported having to supplement their income compared with just 23% of their white counterparts. The study also found that the low-paying nature of internships could also affect black employees’ subsequent chances of employment.

The CFDA itself has been solid in its actions fighting racism in the fashion industry.

Sustainable fashion tends to cost more unless you buy used or used clothes. But given the huge environmental impact of the fashion industry — estimated to account for 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions — eco-friendly clothing cannot be just a luxury affordable to a few, which is especially important in the context of surging demand for more environmentally friendly clothing.

The current pandemic appears to be creating a new ecological awareness, with more consumers looking for sustainable products on the market. A survey conducted in April found that 67 percent of consumers believe it is important for products to use sustainable materials when buying clothes, and 63 percent are also concerned about brands’ efforts to make products sustainable. But there’s a problem: fewer than a third of consumers are willing to pay more for eco-friendly products, according to a report.

In fact, sustainable fashion doesn’t have to cost a fortune if there is enough demand. “People think sustainable Fashion is expensive, but it doesn’t have to be,” says Brittany Burns, director of strategy and corporate development at non-profit Fashion For Good. When new innovative products enter the mainstream, this drives prices down. There will be a big shift in the market.”

Put a price on sustainable fashion

Right now, sustainable fashion often comes with a high price tag, but some brands, like Ninety Percent, are trying to make a difference. The London-based brand, which has pledged to donate 90 per cent of its profits to charity, has positioned itself as a cross between smaller fast-fashion brands and contemporary brands such as Acne, with t-shirts priced between £30 and £55. Shafiq Hassan, the brand’s founder, said: “Millennials, Gen Z, should be able to afford our clothes. I want the quality to be on a par with Acne, with all our sustainable processes and a third of their price.”

Making products cheap is no easy task for the brand. “We can do these prices because we have our own factory,” Explains Hassan. He added that all Bangladeshi garment workers are paid fair wages and have health insurance. Its knitted clothes, for example, cost more (a Merino pullover costs £150) because they are made of high-quality materials and in small quantities — but are still cheaper than other modern brands.

The role of fast fashion brands

Big brands like H&M have become key players in the sustainability space, with a clear price advantage thanks to mass production. H&M’s Conscious collection is made from materials that are at least 50% sustainably sourced (except when recycled cotton is used) and currently sells t-shirts for £6.99 to £19.99. Giorgina Waltier, H&M’s UK sustainability manager, said: “It’s really H&M’s mission to make sustainable fashion accessible and affordable to everyone.

H&M’s size also allows it to invest in and promote new technologies, such as Circulose, a new fibre made from discarded cotton fabrics that the retailer first used in February. “We want to use our sheer scale to really drive systemic change across the industry,” Waltier explained. We are investing in new and innovative technologies to bring more sustainable materials to scale and make them affordable.”

But some campaigners accused the fast-fashion chain of “greenwashing”, arguing that H&M’s entire business model — selling clothes in large quantities at low prices — was the antithesis of sustainability. H&M says its ultimate goal is to become a “100% circular business” and is committed to that, although it clearly has a long way to go.

Another concern is whether workers across the supply chain are being paid a living wage, given H&M’s low prices. There is growing concern about the treatment of garment workers, who were put in an extremely difficult position at the start of the pandemic as brands cancelled orders worth $3.18 billion in Bangladesh alone (H&M promised to pay its orders in full). According to the Clean Clothes Campaign, a whopping 93 percent of brands do not pay their suppliers a living wage. While H&M has put forward a strategy to create the “best preconditions for fair wages”, campaigners are calling for a more specific commitment to ensure all workers are paid a fair wage.

Investing in sustainable brands

All of this means that consumers accustomed to low prices may have to pay more to ensure that the clothes they buy are produced in the most sustainable and ethical way possible. “If you’re paying £3 for a shirt, you should really think about the circumstances behind the production and the sacrifices made by the workers,” Burns says. I’m not saying you need to spend 900 pounds on a shirt; I think there’s definitely a middle price.”
When considering the price of sustainable fashion, the phrase “buy less, buy more” is helpful; If you spend money on a piece of clothing that you can wear for years, rather than wearing it a few times and throwing it away, the cost per wear will automatically go down. “Consumption patterns must also change,” she continued. Buy less, but buy things you want to use longer.”

Consumer demand will be key to making sustainable fashion affordable for everyone – which means we need to support brands that are committed to the environment and demand more from those that are not doing enough now. This will allow brands to invest more in sustainable materials and technologies, which in turn will bring prices down. “It comes down to supply and demand; When demand changes, the industry tries to meet it. The decisions consumers make have a lot of power.”

When people are tired of a trend, it means that it is not far out of date. The luxury industry may be reaching such an inflection point. As a consequence of the logo craze of the 1990s, consumers were not interested in logos for a decade from the beginning of 2000 to the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

In contrast to today’s logo craze, there was a sense of shame about luxury logos. Some wealthy consumers, in particular, think it is unseemly to flaunt their wealth at a time when middle-income groups are losing money. After the economic crisis, many people chose to return to a simple and rational lifestyle, showing little interest in ostentatious luxury goods. According to a data monitor, there was low interest in logos and conspicuous displays of wealth in China and around the world in 2014, with quality, scarcity and authenticity being the reasons for Chinese consumers to spend on luxury goods. Experts say consumers are increasingly looking for one-of-a-kind products, rather than highly discriminating luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Prada.

At that time, insiders said that researchers once divided Louis Vuitton trademarks into 7 grades from hidden to prominent, with grade 1 being the most hidden and Grade 7 the most prominent. The results showed that the price of Louis Vuitton dropped by $43.90 for every grade of trademark prominence. In luxury brands, the more expensive the item, the more hidden the logo.

In part, the shift stems from high fashion’s emphasis on personal taste and individuality. On the other hand, the poor income outlook has also led to more cautious luxury purchases. Affluent consumers worry that luxury handbags are too obvious and give off a tacky impression. Sarah Quinlan, director of consumer insight research at MasterCard Advisors, said she has clearly observed a reluctance to reveal money.

Richemont CEO Johann Rupert said at the time, “Rich people don’t want to show off anymore, and that’s what really keeps me up at night.” Charles Lawry, an assistant professor at Pace University who specializes in luxury market research, said at the time, “Consumers feel guilty about buying luxury products with logos, and they don’t want to brag about their purchases.”

While the overall luxury market has grown steadily since the end of the recession, several leading luxury brands are struggling, according to Euromonitor. June Haynes, a luxury retail consultant and former Valentino executive, said at the time that consumers were becoming more interested in understated luxury. As the U.S. economy has recovered from the recession, high-income consumers have largely gained wealth, while low – and middle-income consumers have not.

At that time, on the one hand, China’s luxury market limited the purchasing power of luxury goods due to the contraction of consumption. On the other hand, newly wealthy consumers kept broadening their horizons and improving their tastes, and were no longer satisfied with superficial luxury logos.

All of these factors have led to a minimalist fashion trend, with luxury brands going logo-free.

According to Google fashion Trends 2014, Normcore is the most searched fashion keyword. Derived from the English words normal and hardcore, this term shows a bias towards nature and rationality. This style is interpreted as “deliberately wearing very monotonous, featueless” as the theme, while reducing brand recognition, let oneself wear in an ordinary and comfortable state without losing style.

Fashion textile industry causes serious pollution to the environment. Fashion is now the second most polluting industry in the world, after oil. Britain alone, for example, produces about 1.7 million tons of textile waste each year.

In order to reduce the environmental pollution caused by the fashion industry, many luxury goods are beginning to use recycled materials or find new materials to make their products.

Re-nylon

The Prada Group has created a new project called Re-Nylon to meet the goals of sustainability and environmental protection.

Prada Re-Nylon recycled Nylon project is the recycling of textile waste, fishing nets, carpets, industrial waste, etc., through a chemical depolymerization process, Nylon waste is returned to the original purity. ECONYL recycled nylon yarns can be recycled indefinitely without compromising material quality.

With the Re-Nylon project, Prada produces 10,000 tons of recycled Nylon, saving 70,000 barrels of oil, 65,100 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and 90% of its global warming impact compared to conventional petroleum-based Nylon.

Recycling is one way for the fashion industry to ensure sustainability, along with finding new materials that are more environmentally friendly.

Innovation and research of organic materials

Hermes has long been criticized for using crocodile skin in its bags. So in March, I teamed up with MycoWorks to launch my Victoria handbag made from mycelium fabric. MycoWorks used mycelium to grow amber leather in place of fabric, a special material called Sylvania.

The living culture composed of fungi and yeast is immersed into the nourishing solution to produce cellulose. Due to the unique honeycomb structure of mycelia, cellulose has excellent strength, toughness and durability after drying, so it becomes a perfect substitute for fabric and leather. For example, MycoWorks’ Reishi mycelium fabric, grown from Reishi, rivals cowhide for strength and durability.

In addition to MycoWorks working on turning mycelium into a leather substitute, Bolt Threads has launched Mylo, a leather fabric made from fungus found in mushroom roots, as an absolutely soft and natural alternative to leather. Stella McCartney, for example, used Mylo for her iconic Falabella handbag, as well as her corsets and trousers.

Whether it is recycling recycled fabrics or exploring the transformation of plant bacteria into fabric substitutes, the rapid change in the fashion industry to adopt new fabrics is key to addressing the sustainability challenges facing luxury goods. The Art School is also exploring the boundaries of regeneration and sustainability.

Journalist, author and TV presenter Candice Brathwaite has collaborated with sustainable British accessories brand Been London to create a handbag made entirely from recycled materials. 

The limited-edition CB x Been London collection includes the ‘Esmé’ crossbody handbag with ruched detailing, named after Brathwaite’s daughter that is available in ‘Get Money’ green and black, alongside a matching makeup bag and pouch called ‘Mini Esmé’.

The bags are made entirely from certified recycled materials including leather waste from the fashion industry, black lining made from discarded clothes recycled into cotton and an interior pocket featuring zip tape recycled from single-use plastic bottles.

Been London founder and creative director Genia Mineeva said in a statement: “Collaborating with Candice Brathwaite has been an absolute joy. After we spotted her first wearing our Ridley crossbody, we knew with Candice’s incredible sense of style and her love for bags that she would design an incredible bag and we most definitely were not disappointed. 

“The Esmé handbag in Candice’s ‘Get Money’ green in particular is the most welcomed new addition to the Been London collection with its stand-out shape and ruched detailing. We have loved going on this journey with Candice and having the chance to chat about the finest sustainable materials and perfect even the smallest details. We are so pleased to have had this opportunity to work with Candice and hopefully this is just the beginning of an amazing collection with her.“

Best-selling author Candice Brathwaite designs sustainable handbag with Been London

Commenting on the collaboration, Candice Brathwaite added: “The process of designing and creating my own bag has been a dream come true and I’m over the moon to be working with Been London. 

“It’s a total bonus that the whole collection is made from certified recycled materials and I’ve enjoyed learning about Been London’s sustainability story. I’m in love with the Esmé bag and I can’t wait to take it with me everywhere going into autumn/winter.”

All Been London bags, including pieces from this collaboration, are handmade in the brand’s East London workshop to ensure a low waste production process from start to finish and with makers paid a London living wage. 

The brand, founded by former BBC journalist Genia Mineeva, also ensures that each bag created is certified and fully traceable, using Global Recycled Standard certified leather, recycled cotton, and Oekotex Standard 100 certified zip tape. On average, each piece it makes has a carbon footprint ten times smaller than a high street equivalent made from virgin materials.

In addition, for every CB x Been London bag purchased, the accessories brand plants a tree. So far, the brand has planted one acre of trees in the Peruvian Amazon.

CB x Been London collection is available exclusively on been.london. Prices range from 65 pounds for the ‘Mini Esmé’ to 295 pounds for the ‘Esmé’ handbag. 

New research reports that 67 percent of UK consumers are going to pay attention to the sustainability and environmental efforts of retail brands during Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas shopping, according to digital performance marketing agency, Tug. 

The research, ahead of the retail ‘Golden Quarter’, reveals that sustainability will impact purchasing decisions. With 78 percent of UK shoppers stating that whether or not brands clearly communicate their sustainability efforts will have “somewhat” of an impact over where they will shop on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, followed by almost two-thirds (63 percent) over the Christmas period.

To discover the sustainable practices of retail brands, more than a third (37 percent) of consumers said that they use online search via a search engine, rising to 42 percent for those aged 67+ (Boomers). 

While more than a quarter of Gen Z’s are using TikTok (28 percent) to identify sustainable brands and 26 percent of Millennials are using Instagram. Additionally, two in five (21 percent) consumers are still relying on recommendations from friends or family to identify sustainable brands.

Tug reveals Christmas spending with new ‘Golden Quarter’ research

The report also looked at when and how much consumers will spend during the ‘Golden Quarter’. 47 percent of Brits stated that they aren’t planning to spend during the Black Friday weekend and only 14 percent of shoppers are planning to spend more than in 2020, spending an average of 447 pounds, over the Christmas period. 

With the research adding that 47 percent of UK shoppers plan to do the majority of their shopping online during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, followed by 41 percent during the festive period. 

To find the best deals online, 45 percent of Brits said they will use online search via a search engine, with 90 percent adding that they are “open to buying directly from brand websites”. However, this will be driven by cheaper prices (54 percent), speed of delivery (36 percent) and free returns (35 percent). 

Older generations will be more likely to purchase directly from a brand for cheaper prices, including 61 percent of Gen X and 60 percent of Boomers, compared to just 40 percent of Gen Z. While 19 percent of Millennials would be likely to shop directly from a brand’s website due to sustainable practices.

Faye Daffarn, UK managing director at Tug: “Currently, “climate anxiety” is the top concern for UK customers. Our research shows that this is now being reflected in shopping preferences during the Golden Quarter, with the sustainability efforts of brands set to impact where 78 percent of UK consumers will shop. This means it is crucial that retailers are effectively delivering their environmental messaging during this key commercial period.

“An integrated, multi-channel approach that reaches consumers across multiple touchpoints – not only when they are in-market to purchase, but also when they are in browsing mode, will enable retailers to maximise sales during this key commercial period.”

Tug suggests that brands and retailers optimise search strategies through a “smart combination” of SEO and PPC to drive “drive visibility of sustainable practices with Boomers” while also using paid social strategies on TikTok and Instagram to target Millennials and Gen Z.

Many industries have been swept away by the fast-growing developments around artificial intelligence (AI), which is revolutionizing businesses with rich, in-depth data about consumers and the market that our human brain might not be able to analyze. The initial reaction to AI was slightly hesitant for the fashion and apparel industry, and who can blame them. The past has shown that this industry has been built on human creativity, so bringing in facts and figures assembled by technology can be seen as an understandable concern.

Let us start by saying that artificial intelligence uses human input as a reasoning model and does not have the end goal to replace it. It is merely a tool to automate and optimize specific data analyses, establishing thinking beyond our human capabilities.

We live in a world driven by digitization, and this does not seem to change any time soon. Hand in hand with this trend goes the constant change of customer expectations, something you as a brand need to keep an eye out on constantly. Otherwise, you might fall behind with your organizational workflow, which can lead to missing sales potential. So how can you best use additional information and knowledge gained by AI?

Expert Xin Zhang from Chainbalance and the founders of the AI Design Competence Collective, Melenie Hecker and Professor Dr. Ingo Rollwagen, share their visions and expertise on using artificial intelligence and algorithmic innovation.

What is artificial intelligence? 

Before we dive into the experts’ insights, let us first answer the question ‘What is artificial intelligence?’. Unlike human and animal intelligence, which is natural, artificial intelligence is intelligence demonstrated by machines. AI provides software that can reason on input and explain on output. Can you feel your headache starting already? AI can seem a little scary to some because they do not ‘understand’ it, but in the end, it is all about logic. AI brings together rich data and can point you and your company in the right direction when it comes down to decision-making. Still, it seems scary, doesn’t it? Well, AI is already widely used in daily life. Think about chatbots, autocorrect, autonomous vehicles, facial recognition, AI searching engines, and recommendation algorithms. Every day we are confronted with some form of artificial intelligence.

AI within the fashion and apparel industry

Have you ever shopped online for a new pair of jeans and ended up buying not only jeans but also new shoes, a new bag, and four new shirts to finish the look? Ever thought about how you ended up buying all these items which you did not intend to purchase, but did anyway? Yep, that’s intelligent selling, again a form of AI. The ‘complete your look’ method shows you displays recommendations of items that would look amazing in combination with the items in your shopping cart. These recommendations are made based on products that are frequently sold together. The software can detect this and recommend it to others because if one consumer likes it, why wouldn’t a similar customer? Customers are feeding the software with factual input, and an explainable output is given. But still, research shows that globally in the fashion and retail industry, the investment in AI and machine learning (ML) is only one percent, according to the latest McKinsey & Company analysis, “Pitchbook August 2021”. Despite enormous potential, the fashion industry is struggling to make significant investments in this area. In addition to the obstacles in the field, which lie in still a scarcity of adequate software – both in quantity and quality, there are challenges for the use and the practicable application area for the individual company. 

So let’s ask ourselves the question: “What are the biggest challenges in the fashion industry, and how can AI help to battle these challenges?”

More time for creativity

One of the biggest challenges is overproduction and merchandise management. AI can help battle these issues by analyzing consumers’ buying behavior and making production and purchase prediction decisions. At the end of the day, this cannot be done without you, the consumer!

If you do this with the help of technology, you can save up to 80% of manual work. In addition to saving time, you can also make decisions that you hadn’t thought of before, such as assortment optimization or consumption-based production forecasting. 

In assortment optimization, cluster analyses can help identify sales patterns within specific products and use these for similar POS. This way, you can identify hidden sales potential for products or product groups in areas where they were previously not or not sufficiently placed. Searching for patterns across hundreds of POS and even more SKUs is impossible to manage manually, so to do this successfully, you need to get some software in place to help you out along the way.

Daily data-driven software decisions can also be helpful when deciding on production quantities, e.g., for size curves per POS: What used to be done by A B C clusters can be adjusted to the future demand, individually for the store and the product, by forecasting the behavior of the product lifecycle in a reference period. 

The possibilities of ML&AI are unlimited and enable people to achieve better and faster results. So, why not just put AI into everything we do? Xin Zhang, Business Intelligence Consultant at Chainbalance has the answer: It’s not just about using AI just because you can. It’s about serving and satisfying today’s costumer with the help of AI.

Expert on board for consumption-driven decision making

Business Intelligence Consultant Xin Zhang, who graduated from Tilburg University with a master’s degree in Cognitive Science and AI, has gained a few years of experience in the AI field and now applies this expertise at Chainbalance. Chainbalance helps fashion, sports, and footwear brands to optimize operational processes in merchandise management as well as production processes, using technologies such as AI and algorithm innovation.

Organizations like adidas, Esprit, and Triumph have trusted the Dutch company and its technologies for over 12 years now with massive success. Check out our case studies on our website for more in-depth information about our clients!

“In a digital world where consumers can buy anything instantly through hundreds of different channels, there is no place for manual micro decision making anymore. AI and algorithm innovation help us at Chainbalance to keep our clients fast, cost-focused, and most importantly, fully aligned with consumers and their resulting needs.” says Zhang.

Smart Supply has several replenishment strategies for various stores. It would be easier and faster for our solution to figure out which approach is the most appropriate for a specific store in a certain period with the assistance of ML. Additionally, ML helps us to implement outlier detection to engage in customer performance monitoring efficiently.

The attitude-behavior gap 

Consumer behavior is constantly changing, and so is the entire market. So, what does this mean for the future of AI? We asked the founders of the AI Design Competence Collective, Melenie Hecker and Professor Dr. Ingo Rollwagen:

“Major online retailers face the digital frontier of bridging the gap between their customers’ sustainability attitudes and behavior. This means there is no data-based entity between consumers’ opinions on ethical and sustainable issues and their purchasing behavior. Suppose in the future a quantifiable reflexive connection is found. In that case, we can use the new customer data to design completely new products and services based on algorithmic innovation, which can be produced in a resource-saving way. However, to use algorithmic innovation appropriately, the company must first clarify which problem, such as overconsumption, should be solved to define measurable sustainability goals and the algorithmic tools needed to achieve them.”

What is next?

If you let your mind wander, the opportunities for AI and fashion are endless. As analysis opportunities grow, the rich data that can be extracted grows too. So, what is next for Chainbalance? Which AI solutions can we expect?

“AI needs to be fed with data, and as we have learned, data can be about anything. Not only POS data from our clients regarding sales numbers or on-hand, but we can also collect and process external data such as weather forecasts, consumer reviews, and so on used for data mining to enhance the product allocation and replenishment operations. If the forecast shows that September will not be a warm month, you replenish your autumn season sooner, for example. All this data will help you to sell accurate items battling the problem of overproduction and waste. ” says Zhang.