Talk of Tech and Fashion’s Future at FASHINNOVATION’s “Next Normal” Panel
Source: FASHINNOVATION
The integration of technology into fashion is all the rage in today’s industry, but when Francesca Rosella co-founded CuteCircut in 2004, her vision of melding these two worlds was met by uncertainty. “We came up with our Hug Shirts in 2002 when the iPhone didn’t even exist,” Rosella said while laughing. “If you think about trying to create something that is all about being social without social media yet existing, it was kind of a tough sell in the beginning. People said to us, ‘Sorry, what are you guys doing? A hugging what? Are you guys crazy?’ But we told ourselves that we just needed to persevere.”
And persevere they did. Rosella and her co-founder, Ryan Genz, set their sights on bringing apparel with interactive capabilities into the public consciousness. But first, they had to educate the industry itself. “These materials did not exist. We had to convince manufacturers that creating an interesting, very thin, very soft conductive ribbon to be used in our clothing was something that was going to be actually useful in the future,” Rosella explained. “Obviously, we design clothing that has electronics inside, but we didn’t want to add wires, and there were no conductive fabrics then. It was a lot of trial and error and convincing big manufacturing companies to just start making materials a little differently.”
Source: HuffPost
After years of research, testing and presentations, CuteCircut emerged as the world’s first wearable technology fashion brand. In 2006, their groundbreaking Hug Shirt was selected as one of Time magazine’s Best Inventions of the Year, and at the 2010 Met Gala, the brand brought wearable tech to the red carpet through Katy Perry’s LED-laden gown.
Sixteen years after the launch of her business, CuteCircut is staying agile. “People’s communication behavior has changed,” noted Rosella in reference to challenges brought about by COVID-19. “All of the sudden, we started getting more requests for Hug Shirts and other things that bring people together.”
The brand has also taken advantage of the disruption of the supply chain and the pause on live events by switching their focus to developing a consumer-version of their smartphone app. Rosella’s outlook on navigating these difficult times is one of optimism: “We decided to continue innovating despite the pandemic and just make something better that is for everyone.”
Expanding the reach of human connection is just one of the many ways that fashion tech can help improve the way we live our lives and guide us through this time of transition. As explored during FASHINNOVATION’s third round of 2020 Worldwide Talks, technology can move the industry closer to its sustainability and diversity goals. In addition to CuteCircut’s Francesca Rosella, the organization’s Fashion Is Technologies Assisting in the Next Normal panel gathered three other innovators who are bridging the gap between fashion and technology—lablaco’s Lorenzo Albrighi, Ditto Africa’s Ayaan Mohallim and Aulera Authentication’s Bill Dixon.
Source: Braperucci
From Albrighi’s upcoming VR fashion summit and circular retail platform—which helps consumers track the journey of their garments—to Mohallim’s standardized retail website that allows customers all over the world to shop African goods and Dixon’s NFC tag technology that protects consumers from counterfeit products, we can clearly see that tech is rushing fashion into the future.
As noted by the panel’s host, Jackie Trebilcock from New York Fashion Tech Lab, we are not completely sure what the fashion industry’s “next normal” will look like. That being said, pioneers like these make it clear that we’re getting closer to the future of fashion that we’ve been dreaming of, and it looks like it’s a bright one.
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