Industry

Fashion

Date

January 18, 2024

Insights

Ideation: 2023 Rebuilding the Industry’s Future Together

This past ideation was also a celebration dedicated to Lectra’s 50th anniversary - celebrating five decades of groundbreaking innovation.

As we enter 2024, we are still buzzing from the excitement of Lectra’s annual ideation, a flagship event for the fashion industry that brings together top brands, retailers and manufacturers to discuss and showcase how technology is shaping the world of fashion.

This past ideation was also a celebration dedicated to Lectra’s 50th anniversary - celebrating five decades of groundbreaking innovation.

Lectra has and continues to play a pivotal role in revolutionizing the fashion, furniture and automotive industries by empowering their customers to embrace change and advances in technology.

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“Lectra’s industry 4.0 solutions have been a key driving force behind the fashion industry’s digital transformation. We are thrilled to be celebrating 50 incredible years and look forward to the next 50.” said Leonard Marano, Lectra’s President, Americas.

The event brought together business experts, thought leaders, and industry experts including Liza Amlani, founder of Retail Strategy Group, Amit Gautam, founder of TextileGenesis, a Lectra company Steve Lamar, president and CEO at AAFA, Will Duncan, executive director at SEAMS and Andre West, Director of The Zeis Textiles Extension (ZTE).

In addition to panels hosted by experts in the space, Lectra conducted breakout sessions that focused on trends the industry has been experiencing the past year. Some areas of focus included how On-Demand production has been transforming fashion, with a special guest from Carhartt, how to optimize your cutting room efficiency and Next-Gen AI benchmarking, trends, and pricing strategies.

“Ideation has been going on for more than 20 years now. It truly encapsulates collaboration and camaraderie for all of us that are so immersed in the fashion industry,” said Marano to kick off ideation 2023.

Retail Reshaped Through Key Industry Trends

This year’s keynote, delivered by Coresight Research founder and CEO, Deborah Weinswig, titled ‘Retail Reshaped Through Key Industry Trends,’ touched on how the retail industry has changed over the past year and what is expected of 2024.

Weinswig revealed the key trends she believes will be pivotal to the industry including an increased use of generative AI, changes in consumption patterns, and the need for retailers to compete for buyers' attention.

The current state of the economy has retailers walking a very fine line into 2024, as consumers begin to change the way they spend. “We’re seeing changes in consumption, but people have also gotten smarter – we’re seeing people who are looking for deals,” explained Weinswig. She highlighted that approximately 25% of consumers are increasingly hunting for bargains at discount retailers as inflation continues to remain elevated.

Weinswig also touched on the expansive growth around AI and the impact it will have in the coming year. The implementation of AI will play a large role in retailers being able to retain and attract new customers during a time of economic uncertainty. One example would be personalization of products. Many consumers are looking for items that are unique to who they are and that’s often not found in an item produced via mass production. Weinswig revealed that “77 percent of the companies that have invested in data/AI enabled content for personalization have reported significant or moderate increases in online sales.” For desires such as personalization, technology such as On Demand production will be key for manufacturers in the coming year.

In addition to turning to AI solutions, retailers have been trying to grab consumers’ attention in a variety of ways. Some of which include shoppable videos, livestreaming, gamification and virtual stores. Weinswig shared that currently 91 percent of brands that have invested in virtual stores have seen substantial growth. In a time when consumers are changing, it's important that retailers adapt and stay in tune with their desired consumer in order to keep them.

Towards Greener Horizons: Traceability Powering Sustainability

Another key topic was the increasing demand for traceability during the entire course of production.

To touch on the journey of traceability, Amit Guatam, the founder and CEO of TextileGenesis, a Lectra company took the stage to talk about Lectra’s recently acquired solution, TextileGenesis - a software that allows fashion brands and sustainable textile producers to fully, digitally map their fabrics, from the fiber to consumer, ensuring its authenticity and origins.

When breaking down the textile value chain, Guatam emphasized how supply chain complexities often make traceability difficult for brands and consumers, leading to the need for better technologies.

“When you look at the typical fashion supply chain, everything starts with a farm for natural fibers or a chemical refinery for synthetic fibers and goes through a very complex transformation process,” explained Guatam. He continued to share that many products are now multicomponent and made up of a variety of materials including wool, cotton, spandex and more.

“This is where the fashion industry is moving – multiple blending happening at each level of the supply chain making traceability extremely complex,” continued Guatam. The core technology that TextileGenesis, a Lectra company, uses is digital token technology, currently being utilized by over 10,000 users in 45 different countries.

Guatam was later joined by Steve Lamar, President and CEO of American Apparel and Footwear Association for a two-way Q&A, where the pair touched on managing risks in the supply chain and updates on legislative requirements around traceability.

Charting the Course: The Future of Fashion Through Technological Innovation

In an exclusive panel moderated by Jessica Binns, Managing Editor at Sourcing Journal, Andre West, NC State Wilson College of Textiles, Kiren Patel, WGSN, Matthew Westbrook, Microsoft and Will Duncan, SEAMS took the stage to examine the future of the fashion industry, its dynamics and transformative potential.

The panel delivered insights into the intricate interplay between cutting-edge advancements and how it's reshaping the very fabric of fashion through the guiding force of technology. Nearshoring was a large topic during this session as it has been gaining steam within the industry, in order for companies to have more control over production and shorter lead times due to the use of AI. “There is tremendous opportunity in this hemisphere” explained Duncan, Executive Director, at SEAMS Association, “We can do it here – there are a lot of product sectors where products should be made here.”

The Future of Fashion is Now: Lectra's Big Announcements and a First-Hand Look at What's New

Lectra also took the main stage to talk about what’s next in innovation. As a pioneer for the industry for over 50 years, Lectra was excited to share what the company has in store for the year to come including the introduction of the latest AccuMark solutions, YuniquePLM, built to transform a design, development and marker-making process through an industry-leading suite of software application.

Retviews, Lectra’s automated competitive analysis platform, is another industry 4.0 solution that will play a hand in many customers’ success in 2024. By tracking competitors' collection sizes and prices, those who utilize Retviews will have a competitive edge in creating a collection that consumers will want to purchase, at the right time and price.

Fashion manufacturers will also be able to leverage cloud nesting capabilities in order to reduce fabric expenses, balance workloads and accelerate response times. Flex Cloud nesting will empower manufacturers to respond to the fluctuating market demands, with full cost control.

Lectra is proud to be pushing boundaries hand in hand with their customers and takes pride in the strides made internally and with their partners to unlock their potential. The company's industry 4.0 solutions are must-haves for fashion success.

A Celebration Worthy of 50 Years

After a day full of valuable insights from industry leaders, Lectra invited attendees to continue the celebration of Lectra’s anniversary milestone with their customer appreciation reception. Attendees gathered to network and discuss the day’s events with music, cocktails, a light bite and even some special entertainment performances.

Once the fun and cocktails were flowing, party goers grabbed a seat to sit back and enjoy Lectra’s carefully curated fashion show, highlighting four designers who have leveraged Lectra’s solutions in their design and production models.

The brands that hit the runway include DECODE, a complete Zero Waste Design System delivering sustainability in all of their looks, KILT+, a brand on a mission to empower consumers to express themselves through their modern kilts, Melanie Melendez, a line inclusive of vibrant and empowering corsets that draw inspiration from the rich and diverse Afro-Latina culture, and Ron Ramos, who’s designs epitomize the qualities of subtle luxury.

The show was one for the books and not one to be forgotten.

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Gerber YuniquePLM, Cloud-based fashion PLM

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Flex Offer by Lectra, flexible automated high-volume cloud nesting

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