fashion Archives - Exhibit Tech

The allure of homegrown indie brands practicing sustainability

Fashion is an industry that spans the world and inspires people to find their voice and approach. However, it is crucial to consider the tremendous environmental impacts of fashion on our planet. From Fast Fashion declining the lifespan of garments to trends taking over social media, consumerism has increased, and the industry desperately needs sustainable practices.

Reusing, recycling, renting and thrifting to increase the lifespan of garments is essential in the fight to tackle the existential threat of risen carbon footprint and climate change. It is time to hit the brakes on fast fashion and mindless shopping and work towards creating a fashion industry that supports ecological practices and addresses overconsumption.

More importantly, brands must adopt ethical practices, use eco-friendly packaging, and strive to be more sustainable to defend the planet and help consumers in their slow fashion journey. Throwing a spotlight on three homegrown indie brands that are socially and environmentally responsible and will help you build a greener wardrobe.

Okhai offers handcrafted apparel created by rural artisans across the country. These artisans are gifted with the skill to craft exquisite designs, and the pieces transcend trends by giving classics a fresh twist. Embroidery, patchwork, and mirror work emphasize handloom and are a vibrant expression of culture. The brand has helped improve the economic conditions of women artisans.

Ritu Kumar believes in slow fashion and uses soybean and banana fibres to create her signature crafts and embroideries. The brand is rooted in sustainability and is devoted to reducing its carbon footprint by using natural fibres. The collection celebrates bandhini, aari work, geometric patterns, florals, patchwork, and dyed prints with a promise to stay true to their vision of transparency.

Bareek is a sustainable and green menswear brand specializing in light and breathable clothing. Bareek strives to lessen its impact by using handwoven fabrics such as khadi and handloom cotton and ensures that each piece is sourced mindfully and responsibly. The fabrics increase the longevity of the pieces and promise modern, sensible use and reuse of the collection. The heritage crafts such as jamdani and ikat are their bestsellers.

Fashion- Seasons Explained

The air is getting colder, and the leaves have started to change. Hence, the discussion around the fashion industry shifting away from its seasonal collection is getting stronger.

This article will discuss what fashion seasons represent and why there is a strong need for seasonless fashion.

What are Fashion Seasons?

Fashion is divided into four seasons; spring/summer, autumn/winter, and resort and pre-fall. The name Resort arose because the wealthiest fashion house clientele would purchase these designs on vacations.

Some fashion businesses currently produce more than 50 micro-seasons every year to produce constant emerging trends so that consumers rapidly purchase as much clothing as possible.

But why do we need fashion seasons in the first place? Previously, fashion seasons were just periods when the weather changed and the things you wore in response to the changing climate:

Warmer garments in cold weather
Bright clothes in the sunny weather
More practical clothing during the rainy season

The fashion seasons have become more complicated and serve as a metronome for the worldwide fashion business, defining the speed and time for manufacturing, marketing, and selling new collections.

When do fashion seasons run? This is where it gets a little confusing. Spring starts in January and runs until June, while the winter collection runs from July to December. Resort collections are offered from October to December. Summer and Resort collections are sold in January when it’s cold! And winter collection is sold in July when it’s still warm out there.

This is done because fashion brands and retailers like to offer their designs early so that they can understand the consumers’ needs better and market them accordingly. In 2016, Burberry started a ‘See now. Buy now’ approach, pushing their pieces on sale as soon as they are shown on the runway.

With four collections a year and a cycle of design, perpetual production and distribution, brands are forced to create new products throughout the year. This results in the overproduction of clothes that retailers are forced to dispose of through significant discounts implied only a few months after the product arrives in the store. It leads to a situation where the consumer who paid a high price for the merchandise finds it depreciating a few months later.

Designers and buyers are now demanding to curb the rhythms of the current production cycle and return to a slower fashion and long-lasting products- both materially and aesthetically.

Fashion Week

Apparel manufacturers need a platform to promote their products to the target audience, and fashion week plays a vital role in communicating the idea and marketing the trend. Nothing is constant in fashion, and fashion shows help to draw public attention to new arrivals in design and style.

The collection buyers and journalists see on the catwalk are not the same as it arrives in the shops. Of all the clothes, buyers select the ones with the highest consumer potential that will enter production and finally arrive in retail. The period that follows the fashion week is when the sales campaign takes place, which somewhat decides the fate of the brand or the product.

For example, The Ritual campaign was chosen by Gucci for its new FW 20-21 campaign, which was made entirely of selfies made by the same models. All the images were made without regular support, including the stylist, hair, and makeup artist.

Seasonless Fashion

Seasonless Dressing represents the trend of wearing the same fashion year-round. People spend more time in climate-controlled environments since ACs, and heated cars and workspaces have eventually diminished their time in natural temperatures. This leads to less demand for heavy-winter clothing and increases the need for neutral clothing.

Due to the surge in seasonless fashion, designers can now focus more on the creativity and storytelling of design instead of a multitude of seasons in the fashion calendar. Instead of producing extensive collections every month, brands have a core selection of garments that occasionally add styles or offer different colours/fabrics in the existing style.

This pandemic has highlighted the environmental and societal effects of fast fashion as many workers were left unpaid or working in difficult and dangerous environmental conditions. We need to encourage more sustainable fashion and bring a positive change to society.

Making Ethnic Fashion for Women Easy and Accessible | Ambraee, Jaipur

Ambraee, meaning ethnic and chic according to founder Palak Agarwal, a new-era ethnic label launched in 2016, started with the purpose of celebrating Jaipur prints and styling every woman in them. The idea behind Ambraee is to be inclusive for everyone and to bring heritage back into our daily lives. The clothing Palak Aggarwal and the team designs have significantly styled thousands of women for all their important occasions, from weddings to parties to festivals and even to work. Could ethnic wear be more versatile?

This business keeps in mind the diversity our country offers and is designed according to the needs of every individual. Apart from this, Palak and Keshav also keep in mind to cover fair wages for each of their employees. The team works with not just their skills but their hearts as the founders keep in mind their responsibility as a brand to these workers. At Ambraee, you’ll find as many women workers as men, if not more. The work environment is safe, comfortable, and motivating which makes their clothing even more wearable if you ask us. While we’re talking about how hard the brand works to keep the team in love, they also make sure the environment goes unharmed. They keep it clean in terms of their choice of fabrics and their techniques while they’re always o,f course, keeping up with the trends.

Like every other small business, this team founded their business starting from scratch and scaled it up from ethnic to western to now even nightwear (we hear they’re doing jejewelryoo soon). You’ll often find that the brand has dressed celebrities like Krishna Jackie Shroff, Shweta Tiwari, Amyra Dastur, Karishma Tanna, and many more fashion figures in the industry have been spotted rocking their pieces and setting a trend we can’t keep our eyes off.

Apart from that, Ambraee has achieved various milestones like awards by Jaipur beat for Haute Couture in august, 2020 for honoring Jaipur and its legacy. Don’t forget, Ambraee is available now in Nykaa fashion, which makes it easy to get our hands on it.

If you haven’t shopped your favorite from Ambraee till now, may we remind you that your festivities are going to be glimmering with your favorite look from Ambraee so head them soon before they’re all sold out!

Trell App Review: Treading on Growth With Limits

Coordinate geometry may have been a tussle for many. However, if you ask someone to find a midpoint between two points, they will find it. But what is the midpoint of YouTube and Nykaa? The answer is Trell. Well, it is somewhere less than YouTube and more than Nykaa. Why? You have an app where you can make vlogs and buy your cosmetic products. But, why are you reading about Trell? This app has recently raised 45 million USD (somewhere around INR 335.3 Cr/- ). Wow, that’s a whopping figure. Let’s learn about this Trell app, which was hidden somewhere and got more recognition after the funding news through this article.

About Trell App

The very first time if you search about this app, Wikipedia can serve you with vital information related to it. According to Wikipedia, it is an online portal based on lifestyle socialization. If you want to download it, you need to open the Application Store on your smartphone. Now get info related to food, beauty, personal care, movie reviews, etc., through this platform.

Where is it top-notch?

Trell brings the concept of visualization among the people. There are different sections, using which you can find videos – trending, hashtags, and followers. You can select the language in which you want to see a specific video. I have attached the screenshots of selecting language and choosing a different section for a better app tour. Trell lets you watch a wide range of videos related to anything and everything. So, you may find something quite relevant to you and as per your taste. Trell also provides a space from where you can start making tutorials. If you want to become a vlogger, Trell has provided a 4-stage methodology, ranging from Beginner, Advanced, Pro, and Get Certified. However, you must know that you cannot jump to any stage without finishing the previous ones.

Exploring Videos Through Hashtag Section

It has Lacunae too

Well, here, you may feel some fear. When I thought about downloading this app, I saw the rating as 4. I thought this is what I needed. But, the main complaint is about the delay in delivery if someone is buying any product from the app. In addition to this, there are very limited brands (including Mamaearth, Wow, Lakme, Plum, and Biotique) when it comes to exploring the Trell online store. If you think that there is a section for face, hair, and lips, then halt yourself. Because even here, the products are basically related to these brands. The biggest problem with the app is that you cannot delete your account from the app. What? How to delete a Trell account? Well, for this, you need to write an email to hello@trell.in. And, lastly, you will constantly get notifications that this app is draining out your battery.

Conclusion – Trell App Review

Trell app has no doubt the potential to become a dashing platform that has almost everything. But, considering the years since its inception, it is not easy to digest the fact, they have not empowered and enhanced their store.

The Vogue Vanity | Top 100 | Influncex’20

Ex: Tell us about a change you’ve seen in the digital blogging space since you started out your journey? How has this space evolved?

The Vogue Vanity: Recognition & acceptance for blogging as a career and a full-time profession.

Ex: What would be your calling in a parallel universe? (Alternate career options)

The Vogue Vanity: By now, our love for social media space and industry has become eternal & for that, we would love to run our own social media marketing agency.

Ex: If you were stranded on an island, what are the 3 gadgets you’d take along?

The Vogue Vanity: Polaroid camera, Phone & Portable charger.

Ex: A technology you wished you’d invented?

The Vogue Vanity: Coffee machine.

Ex: Social media trolling is seeing an upward rise. Do you think this only increases with the popularity of an Influencer? How does one tackle this situation?

The Vogue Vanity: Yes, it definitely increases with the popularity of an individual, be it an influencer or any artist from any industry. The more you grow, the more mouths will speak. But as we said, always know the difference between whose opinions are to be respected and whose here just to seek attention.

Ex: What does success mean to you?

The Vogue Vanity: Success is very subjective. For us, success is to be able to give our parents the best life that they’ve given to us.

Ex: Do you think Influencer Marketing is a fad? Where do you see this space in years to come?

The Vogue Vanity: No, it definitely isn’t a fad. Though, many people haven’t really understood the real meaning and depth of it, which is somewhere because of the lack of knowledge. But then, we definitely see it as the next big thing in the future as everything in the world and every single brand itself is now going digital.

Ex: How do you choose the brands that you want to work with?

The Vogue Vanity: We always try to understand the brand’s value and worth, and how relatable it is to our personality and the purpose it serves to our audiences as well.

Ex: What according to you will be the next big trend in the Lifestyle blogging industry?

The Vogue Vanity: Sustainable fashion and conscious living.

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Technology Laced with Fashion

The twin industries of fashion and technology are interconnected in more ways today than ever before. We all know of common technology processes being used by fashion retailers and manufacturers worldwide: Corel draw and illustrator to create designs to details like inserting the scanned fabric and trims like buttons labels zip etc to create a tech pack, CAD (computer-aided design) to auto-grade the pattern in different sizes, digital printing, computerised embroidery, blockchain to transparently trace the supply chain,3D printing being one of the newest which enables customisation is less labour intensive as printing on demand saves 30% wastage so it’s sustainable.

But The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the retail industry to a grinding halt; with every brand is now looking to technology as a saviour of its business! Social distancing will be the ‘new normal’.
Does this mean that the ‘touch & feel’ experience that the retail stores have provided all along will now be a distant memory? Well, it is yet too early to analyse the impact this crisis will have on consumer behaviour; however, there is little doubt that going forward technology will play a key role in revenue generation for the fashion industry.

The holy grail of online shopping; the question that bothers every consumer is “WILL IT FIT ME?” once ordered.
According to studies, between twenty to forty per cent of all clothing purchased online is returned, often due to issues with FIT, costing fashion e-tailers millions. A bevvy of tech start-ups is aiming to solve the problem. In recent years, fashion and apparel have become the fastest-growing e-commerce category and the second largest after consumer electronics, but fit-related returns cost fashion e-tailers millions, not only in terms of lost revenue but also because of the expense associated with to and fro shipping, processing them and some of those items may now be worn and not eligible for resale.

Few names such as TrueFit, which works with Macy’s and Nordstrom, like Metail and Fits.me are offering fit guidance solutions that better match consumers with correctly fitting garments they developed digital fitting rooms that use virtual mannequins to mimic a shopper’s dimensions and display what a certain garment might look like when worn. Still, others rely on shoppers to input their measurements, matching this data with specific garments.

Yet, the challenges remain since returns still account for a large revenue loss to the retailer. Apps like “The Dressing Room” that uses Virtual reality that allows customers to try clothes on their avatar – of their size to help decide before making a purchase decision.
PARIS Fashion Week did an augmented reality show in 2017 conjoining the use of smartphones.

In London, Tissot allows shoppers to try on their luxury watches virtually at Selfridges and Harrods’ windows. Christian Dior developed VR glasses called “Dior Eyes” that give visitors a sneak peek behind the scenes at their ready-to-wear fashion shows. In New York City, the flagship Rebecca Minkoff store features a smart video wall that suggests new styles when people pass by or enter.

Forecast websites & Styling Apps are also using artificial intelligence
Ratatouille an artificial intelligence-based software used by Myntra that’s used insights of shopping patterns so far and tells what designs will sell or be best sellers so quantities on those styles and their positioning can be planned accordingly

Luxury brands have also been following innovative sportswear producers in creating technology-heavy, functionality-focused fabrics. Ralph Lauren’s uniforms for the US Winter Olympic and Paralympic teams feature a heating system made from electronic printed conductive inks, which was printed in carbon and silver ink in the interior of the athletes’ jackets.

While we can’t necessarily predict what the fashion industry will look like in the future, one thing is clear: it will only become more complex. Now is as good a time as ever to prioritise technology investments and, as an industry collective, we should be aiming to establish the kinds of standards and processes, which will enable us to collaborate more effectively in the future.