Has internet made fashion a more egalitarian place?
Technology has played a vital role in the evolution of fashion. Global brands like Zara, Mango etc that produce cost-effective, decent, contemporary clothes rely immensely on technology and modern business practices for their growth. They are constantly setting new standards in the fashion industry using the web space and hence changing the dimensions of fashion. The fashion industry has undergone a tremendous metamorphosis since the advent of the internet. Prior to it, it was a niche.
There was only a handful of fashion magazines. The consumers too were relatively unexposed and, for most, fashion was limited to watching Jackie O in magazines or their favorite actors at the cinema. In short, fashion was a new concept with elitist connotations.
The internet has created a large landscape for fashion and also increased accessibility alongside the availability of options. Consumers can now literally reach out anywhere in the world for new clothes without stepping out of their homes. They have access to every designer online. The entire arena is now a click away. This in turn has forced fashion designers to hone their skills and push their creativity and increase the diversity of their range.
The other outcome of the internet is the exponential growth in the turnover of trends. Earlier, fashion had a longer shelf life, but with the world wide web, that perspective has changed. And while this has been great for the consumer, it has led to an increased competition, faster turnaround of trends, more freelance designers. Naturally all this has impacted profits: by the time a collection hits the racks, that trend is over. In some cases it’s already been replicated by mass producers.
And as with every other industry, the internet has forced all of us in the fashion business to start thinking faster and out-of-the-box. New business models are being created and fashion is moving from one-designer brick-and-mortar boutiques to multi-designer web portals offering a one-stop shop for a plethora of rapidly evolving fashion trends. Creative designers, exploiting fabrics like age-old khadi and new-age nanofibers, are breaking the mould and creating profitable designs.
Another major innovation that has come about with the internet era is the advent of the fashion blogger. While some of these self-styled fashionistas are quite predictable, there are other internet influencers that are playing a huge role in defining fashion trends. A great example is the success of fashion blog sites like lookbook.nu which has demonstrated that the world of fashion is becoming increasingly open to new creative ideas. If someone has something new and innovative to say, they aren’t tethered by editors or corporations. Now there is freedom to explore possibilities and that eventually leads to innovation in trends. But clearly the biggest gain from the internet evolution has been the huge jump in creativity and productivity. Designers can now swap concepts and palettes with colleagues and clients at the click of a button. Wait time from concept to production has gone down and colour-matching has become an exact science: so if I see a colour on the internet that I want to use, I can match it exactly by using a colour picker. Fabric selection too has become a breeze. Cross-pollination of creative ideas from other parts of the design industry is leading to a new generation of fashion designers who will shape the future of the industry.
It is not just about stitching, silhouette and fabric any more either. Fashion is becoming part of a holistic lifestyle that defines each of us—free people as we are today. The influence of the digital revolution may be intimidating but it is here to stay and fashion designers that ignore it do so at their own peril. Who knows where this digital revolution takes us next—maybe sitting at home, enjoying a front row seat at the Paris Fashion Week using Oculus Rift. Let’s embrace this global virtual revolution and use the vast reach of the internet to explore new markets, to look at new ideas, to enhance creativity and to make fashion a more egalitarian concept.
(Fashion designer Ritu Beri’s new book The Fire of a Restless Mind is just published.)
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The darker aspect of the online marketplace has been the proliferation of ‘exciting’ discounts, which is possible largely thanks to badly-paid workers and sweatshops, mostly based in Asia and Africa.