War Tech

War 

Tech

How are new technologies, new manufacturing techniques or new retail strategies

disrupting the fashion industry?

Fashion is that thing that gives a person an identity. It defines who you are and, represents your personality.

Traditionally people satisfied their fashion needs using a face-to-face experience and visiting boutiques in

person. However, with the urge of technology, the industry is facing massive changes, as the people would

prefer to do their shopping online to save money and time. This article will discuss both sides with adding

expert inputs to examine the issue at hand from different perspectives.

On the one hand, traditional fashion has many advantages, as people find their way to the stores, wandering

around and imagining themselves in different styles. The traditional fashion has been offering many benefits

such as creativity and customized products. You can go to a shop and ask the designer to create something

unique, something that represents you and only you would wear it. This experience could never be done

through a computer; however, our new generation would prefer following role models. Singers, actors

Instagram celebrities have been disrupting the notion of fashion through vast advertisements on social media,

and some youngsters see these characters as their role models. As a result, they would rather use retail stores

and popular brands to wear the same clothing as their ideals. An interview was done with a recent graduate at

George-Brown College, and Maliya Abenier stated that the "traditional fashion industry is coming to an end

and it's very displeasing". She argued that these are different times and therefore the fashion industry needs to

adapt itself as well. She is a designer and even she would rather prefer online shopping because it’s much more

convenient, cheaper and faster. She is not against the technology nor in favour of it, she stated and I quote "we

should not see the technology as an enemy, we should see it as our friend and we should use it to our advantage

to adapt the industry and make sure the fashion does not die". Now the question that comes to one's mind is

how the fashion industry can survive this huge wave of change?

On the other hand, over the past several years technology has been our friend. You can order items with one

touch using fast check out, easy payment methods, and fast delivery? I would mostly say everybody expects

old people. About 70% of people in Toronto are adapting themselves to use online shopping even from

expensive brands such as Gucci, Fendi, Ysl etc. I am addicted to online shopping because it's way faster than

in-person shopping. Online shopping is becoming a business in Canada. Besides, technology has many

advantages but, with every advantage comes a disadvantage. This means as technology makes things more

convenient, faster and cheaper but, it requires less workforce. This leads to many people losing their jobs as

people would rather use self-checkouts or use online shopping instead of going to actual stores. The new mass

manufacturing methods and corporate retail-stores are disrupting the notion of fashion. One example would

be Sephora with its vast product variety and assisted self-service philosophy that led them to earn double-digit

growth in recent years. They use a virtual assistant that was a game-changer by tailoring the cosmetics

recommendations to each customer's skin, tone, type, eyes or even hair color specifically. The Sephora virtual

beauty app uses augmented reality to digitally overlay Sephora products on their selfies that were a game changer for millennials and generation Z as their smart-phones are a big deal in their daily lives.

You cannot swim against a furious river, no matter how hard you try you will still fail. With every problem

comes to a solution, it is undeniable that the manufacturing techniques and the retail store advancement are

disrupting the fashion industry. Yet the fashion industry should adapt itself to the change, one idea that came

to my mind while I was researching this article was to develop an application. The application will connect

every boutique thought the desired radios to the costumers. The sellers will be providing their products on the

app with prices and availability etc, they can even present their new ideas and designs and they can receive

feedback from the costumers. On the other hand, the costumers have the chance to find unique products that

are available in all the shops near-by or far away, they can even ask for a delivery! How awesome is that? In

this way, the online shoppers have a chance to buy unique products and even customized ones using the

application and the traditional boutiques would stand a chance against the corporate retail stores and mass

manufacturing companies. You might spend a little bit more but at the end of the day, you know what you

wearing is unique and it's you.