After an extended intermission in daily routines, I am sure that you will agree that 2021 could go down in history as the greatest boom in the fashion industry. But, what else is new? Well, Facebook has released Metaverse, a mind-blowing social revolution. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had this to say, “The metaverse is the next evolution of social connection. Our company’s vision is to help bring the metaverse to life, so we are changing our name to reflect our commitment to this future.”3D spaces in the metaverse will let you socialize, learn, collaborate and play in ways that go beyond what we can imagine”. This is revolutionary! 

As a brand, Dolce&Gabbana’s artistry is centered around a love of creativity. Dress from a Dream, or L’abito dei Sogni, began as just a dream and now will be brought to life. Dolce&Gabbana is inspired by the opportunity to celebrate the iconic history and culture of Venice, a fitting backdrop to this marquee release. With Collezione Genesi, Dolce&Gabbana and UNXD see an opportunity to cross – and even transcend – the digital and physical world with a collection of one-of-a-kind NFTs.

Yet, as 2021 soon comes to a close, it surely hasn’t run out of surprises. I can only imagine what 2022 has instore for the luxury fashion and beauty business. Let’s face it, AI is growing at a rapid pace. More to the point, it seems as though the experience is going to augment to next levels quite soon. I recently had a dinner with one of the top augmented-reality professionals in the fashion business. I was overwhelmingly astonished and intrigued by the rapid change in fashion and beauty brands overall creative direction.

The Future of Fashion-Predictions and More:

In my humble opinion, 2021 has only given mankind a sneak-peek into the vast possibilities of technological evolution within the fashion world. As I meet with the experts and review the new methods of conducting business, it seems to me that the fashion experience is more revolutionary than evolutionary as technology is taking it next, from AR/VR dressing rooms to temperature-changing smart fabrics… its future knows no bounds.

 Mugzy McFly – Founder of Signed By McFly “I honestly think 2022 is the year of confidence. After the cozy 2020 built off the back of the pandemic, & the uncertain direction of 2021, 2022 will be for the survivors. 2022 might be the closest thing to “normal” we’ve seen in a while and the fashion will reflect it. Wilder silhouettes and color combinations will reign supreme. The “survivors” will go for bolder hues and risker fits. Earth tones will continue and bulky footwear will be everywhere”. 

Throughout history, fashion has always been at the forefront of innovation — from the rise of e-commerce to the introduction of virtual try-on, tech fashion is prepared to take on the future of the business with a force to be reckoned with. Leveraging digital solutions, fashion brands can make a boast of new technological advances, giving their products an advantage over their competitors while satisfying their customer base. 

Similarly, Pius Boachie, CEO Digimatic, a PR agency said “Fashion brands that’ll dominate the market in 2021 must leverage digital solutions and high-tech.” For an industry estimated to be worth more than $3T (by the end of the decade), according to CB Insights. In a word, the fashion industry ranks as one of the largest industries in the world. The Fashion business seeks technological growth so much so that it is willing to listen to new methods with great enthusiasm.

And the new technologies have been a high-profile fashion figures such as Natalia Elenkina; a petite fashion model with a raving community of fans, Today, the business even welcomes bots that cut and sew fabric, AI algorithms that predict style trends and tasteful combinations, VR shopping, and mirrors in dressing rooms, and an abundant number of technically advanced innovations which show the extent to which technology is automating, personalizing, and speeding up the fashion space.“The key to a sustainable fashion brand is to keep giving…to keep meeting needs, through the best possible means”, explains Craig Kielburger of WE Charity.

AI Fashion Designer:

When you combine the creativity of man and the precision of artificial intelligence, magic seemingly happens. Luxury fashion brands with household name recognition as well as less known smaller brands are moving forward into new technologies. In fact, these businesses today are using high-tech to satisfy customer retention. As data collection strategies grow more sophisticated, with a focus on predicting what consumers would like to wear next, artificial intelligence will reshape product design and development methods for fashion brands altogether. Even outside the walls of fashion, manufacturers already use artificial intelligence to generate out-of-the-box models for products. Fashion keeps evolving and adopting norm-battering innovations. Just like the inception of Blockchain technology, and even more recently, Non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The NFT is a disruptive tech that surfaced only a few years back but has already been adopted by prominent brands like Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Nike.

For example, Gucci recently partnered with an Christie’s auction house on an epic NFT video called “Aria”. In June of this year, the video sold for a whopping $25,000. Also this year, Beeple, a famous digital artist, also sold his piece for $69 million at Christie’s. The overnight success of NFTs has led Christie’s to accept auction bids with Ethereum. Other brands have also dipped a finger into this digital wave in varying strategies, delighted to take advantage of the boom that drives NFT collections to successfully bring in new revenue streams while increasing brand awareness.

Fashion is taking a hold on further Blockchain technology such as NFT. In fact, each week, I receive multiple NFT fashion pitches for inclusion in Forbes. As it is a learning process, I take time to discuss with my colleagues at The Fashion Institute of Technology. In fact, most classes are now highlighting the importance of NFT’s in its relation to the overall fashion business.

The fashion business is evolving rapidly, here’s what DEIP CEO/Co-founder Alex Shkor had to say about their tool helping creators, “Web3 tech has come a long way over the past decade, and recent innovations like NFTs show much promise for the creator economy. “The main barrier to adoption right now is the complexity of Web3 tools. This is why DEIP is creating tools that will make interaction with Web3 second nature for creators”

It’s no longer fresh news hot off the press that as fashion focuses on the discovery of NFT. On the contrary, these NFTs open the business up to new (disruptive) digital channels and games positioned to capture both Gen Z and millennial consumers. In a press release, Rod Manley, Burberry’s chief marketing officer, said to this effect, “With this exciting concept, we are able to unlock genuine value for the gaming community by encouraging players to interact with our brand in an environment that celebrates art, design, and exploration.” 

Results? Straight off the official Blankos Twitter account, the Burberry NFT drop sold out faster than any other collaboration done by Blankos that preceded it; including the NFT drop with music artist Deadmau5. This news fired off the alarm bells of the importance of NFT. Neda Whitney, svp and head of marketing at Christie’s, had to say, “NFTs prove that in spaces where digital fashion and skins are already a user behavior, the entrance of fashion brands into the conversation is a natural next step. The ability to allow users to not only buy digital items in the fashion space but to also have unique and, oftentimes, ‘1 of 1’ certificates of ownership adds a level of exclusivity that has always worked well within the fashion culture.” 

And a lot of crypto exchange companies are making financial transactions with Crypto more reliable than banks. One brand riding this wave is Cryptex; a KYC-free trading platform with which you can easily and quickly buy, sell or exchange crypto to FIAT currencies and vice-versa. 

Cryptex offers 

• Competitive exchange rates
• Cash deposits and withdrawals in over 10 countries
• Bulletproof account security with 6 Factor Authentication (E-mail, SMS, Telegram, Jabber, Google Authenticator) and a lot more…

Another brand disrupting the creative space is Ruby Labs; a leading tech company that operates subscription-based consumer products in the self-help and wellness market. The company started in 2018 in London, as a collaboration between Roman Taranov and his friend with extensive expertise in business, technology, and marketing, with a vision to create a tech company that builds a world-class self-help and wellness platform, to empower people to make self-care a way of life. A platform that is easily accessible for everyone and enjoyed for years to come. Since its launch, two successful products were introduced to the global market: Able and Hint, and are on track to launch a third in 2022. As technology moves towards into new frontiers, the fashion business is ready to listen.