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The theme for Bruceglen’s New York Fashion Week show this Wednesday is ‘Life Lately’, a play on Instagram carousels that reflect the current mood. For designers and twin brothers Bruce and Glen Proctor, life lately is feeling quite prepared. “We are in a very good place,” Bruce said one week before the show. By contrast, Glen says, “The last seasons, we were drowning until the day of the show.”
They credit this sense of ease to working with Resonance, a digital design and on-demand manufacturing company. Laura Garcia, who showed on 8 September, also turned to Resonance when she relaunched her brand.
‘Fashion on demand’ has emerged as a key innovation theme at New York Fashion Week as designers, conscious of an economic downturn and perhaps disillusioned with high-profile metaverse disappointments, are focused on practical technology that can drive sales and make production more efficient. They have moved away from the fantastical exploration of Web3 and toward technology that they hope immediately improves production, marketing and selling. In addition to on-demand manufacturing, used by both Bruceglen and Laura Garcia, there are new approaches to see-now-buy-now, as seen at Patbo, Staud, Collina Strada, Luar, Dion Lee, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Altuzarra and Rebecca Minkoff, among others.
Digital fashion and artificial intelligence weren’t totally absent. Instead, they flew under the radar or were relegated to satellite tech events; Resonance’s platform, for example, relies heavily on digital design and AI. And Collina Strada’s Hillary Taymour used generative AI to design her collection, but she did not mention it in the show notes. Instead, she included a QR code to promote her partnership with Emcee, a social commerce app that taps influencers to co-create and sell items immediately as they appear on the runway.
Design, sell, make
During the pandemic, the Proctor brothers applied for, and won, a grant from Resonance. At the time, Bruce says, they didn’t totally understand the fullness of what Resonance offers, which is a design and manufacturing process that aims to dramatically reduce waste. Its “One” platform uses digital design to enable photorealistic samples, and uses AI to cut fabric as efficiently as possible, shipping directly from the manufacturing facility.
While Bruce and Glen were initially just seeking funding, they have found that working with the technology is more affordable and faster. They estimate that they now spend a quarter of the time they once did designing and evaluating patterns and samples, and can go from concept to finished physical garment in three weeks.
The technology has also enabled them to lean into their “unconventional” design process, in which they create multiple variations of patterns and colours, including some pieces that aren’t ultimately shown on the runway. Now, they are able to test designs by putting the 3D digital version on their website; if it sells, then they can manufacture the physical piece.
When Garcia was planning to relaunch her company last year, “it felt very dated to hold inventory,” she says. On-demand manufacturing also makes sense as the industry shifts to e-commerce, drop-shipping and direct-to-consumer sales; no longer is it necessary for retailers to sit on excess inventory in hopes that it sells. “Designers don’t have a crystal ball, so no matter how experienced of a merchandiser you are, it’s hard to always get it right,” Garcia says.
Making clothing only after it has been sold is “the antithesis of fast fashion”, she says, but speed is still top of mind. Resonance co-founder Lawrence Lenihan says that after a garment is sold, it can arrive at the customer’s house in 10 days or less. Still, while the potential value of digital design and on-demand manufacturing are clear, shifting the industry is a technical and cultural challenge, Lenihan says. “This industry has been built on ‘design, make, sell’. Ours is ‘design, sell, make’. And that little juxtaposition, those two words, are everything.”
See-now-buy-now
Video shopping and see-now-buy-now, aren’t new, but they arrive in a new time, with better tech and perhaps more moderate expectations. Patbo founder and creative director Patricia Bonaldi enabled pre-orders this season by working with e-commerce tech company Vtex. The Patbo show was live streamed on the brand’s website and on Instagram. As the item appeared on the screen, remote viewers could view the product, the price and click to pre-order it.
“I believe video is the future of shopping, especially for our clothes, which have a lot of details,” Bonaldi says. The brand already does well when it shares product videos on its website, Instagram and TikTok, resulting in more engagement and more sales, Bonaldi says. This season’s collection, inspired by Brazil in the 1970s, for example, included feather embellishments and fringe, and a collaboration with Raiffe Glass that included glass bags — the types of details that might not be obvious in still imagery.
Staud, meanwhile, turned to video shopping platform Whatnot to offer an exclusive new bag only to Whatnot users immediately after it appeared on the runway, plus a number of one-of-one pieces from past seasons. Whatnot, the largest live-stream shopping platform in the West in terms of GMV, has raised almost $500 million as it chases the promise of social video commerce. Fashion is its largest-growing category, says Whatnot head of apparel Jack Driessen. It tapped Whatnot seller and vintage bag influencer Nica Yusay, known as Fashionica, to broadcast from the show for an hours-long live stream that included 15-second flash-sale auctions and access to the Whatnot-only bag.
Fashionica is slated to earn $4.5 million in revenue on bag sales on Whatnot this year; in the few hours she streamed from backstage at Staud, she was on track to sell more than $15,000 of product, Driessen said. Appearances like this were new to everyone involved, but Driessen sees high community interest. “We will throw all the pasta at the wall and see what sticks. We always listen to our community, and they love Staud; it’s a high-design brand at accessible prices.”
Accessories and influencers are particularly well-suited to video shopping. Area, Kim Shui, Dion Lee and Collina Strada linked up with Emcee, a social commerce platform that invites influencers to cocreate exclusive products. Dion Lee invited creators to sell the products they wore at the runway show, while Area and Collina Strada each invited two creators to also walk in their shows, then immediately sell those pieces through their Emcee showrooms afterward.
Deals are also still a big draw. Many of the “archival” Staud pieces that Yusay auctioned sold for less than $200, which is lower than the original retail price. Altuzarra, 3.1 Phillip Lim and Rebecca Minkoff worked with cashback shopping platform Rakuten, which gives shoppers a percentage of money back on any purchases they make (brands pay Rakuten for customer acquisition). The partnership, called Wear the Runway, offered Rakuten shoppers the option to buy a “hero” piece from each new collection before the styles are available in stores.
This partnership “allowed me to speak to a new customer who I may not have been reaching before”, says designer Joseph Altuzarra, who offered the option to pre-order a knit dress designed with “lived-in” texture that was developed by knitting with yarn that has a metal core.
What about Web3?
Web3 and digital fashion explorers weren’t totally absent in New York; instead, they were relegated to satellite events, where experimental designers showcased new work and founders discussed how they are navigating the shifting sentiments.
Digital Fashion Week, a multi-day series of events that coincided with NYFW, included panels (speakers included Exclusible co-founder and chief customer officer Olivier Moingeon, Syky founder and CEO Alice Delahunt and digital fashion investor and advisor Megan Kaspar), presentations and workshops. Angelescu Studio founder Patricia Musat, who has attended multiple seasons of this event, presented an AI-generated fashion film to promote her line of phygital rings that are equipped with NFC chips; she says this year’s events focused heavily on AI, and acknowledged the headwinds facing digital fashion founders.
“We still have a ways to go for people to understand purely digital fashion, especially if it’s not for gaming,” she says. “In my work, I’m seeing more excitement for my phygital products.”
The Web3 and digital fashion community is still small and often isolated from mainstream fashion, but the opportunity to share insights at events like these is still valuable, says Moingeon. He has noticed that brands and developers are increasingly looking at the established value of Roblox and other owned 3D experiences with immediate benefits. “You can check a lot of boxes with Roblox. It’s basically 3D with a purpose. We see more needs to have clear ROIs.”
Physical, and phygital, products seem to be an ongoing bridge. Later this week, Syky will host a party that showcases works from participating designers in its Syky Collective which include both digital and physical goods. Expect more to come as these technologies continue to collide, and brands increasingly adopt digital product creation: the assets that the Proctor brothers and Garcia are creating through Resonance could eventually be used in other digital forums.
Bruceglen says that while last season they were drowning, this season they are treading water. Next season, they hope to be walking on water — and to lean into more of Resonance’s technical capabilities, which can enable more personalised sizing and an AI approach to fit. For now, they still have their sights on the practical here and now. “Maybe then we can start thinking about see-now-buy-now,” Bruce says with a wink.
Correction: Article was updated with the correct day of the Bruceglen show. It is Wednesday, 13 September. A previous version stated otherwise. 13 September, 2023
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