Techy Buzzwords Have Us Fashion Folk Aflutter, But Could They Transform The Future Of Fashion?

Did Alexander McQueen know something we didn’t in S/S99 when he put Shalom Harlow on stage with two robots?

- Natalie Westernoff

As the machines danced while spraying dye all over Harlow’s dress – encapsulating McQueen’s typical flair for the dramatic – the moment seemed to foreshadow what was to come. More than two decades later and the idea of robots taking on human job roles isn’t such a crazy thought – it’s happening. And as technology looks to help us solve future crises across sectors, we get to grips with some of the latest innovations, and find out how tech is changing our industry right now.

One buzzword that has the fashion industry aflutter at the moment is blockchain; purported to solve myriad problems across the industry, from logistics to supply chain and even counterfeit products. But what exactly does it mean? We caught up with Joy Aljouny to explain it in laymen’s terms. Founder of Bonfaie, a company that was acquired by fashion e-commerce giant Moda Operandi, Aljouny also co-founded Fetchr (the online delivery service), raising $41 million for the company and vastly responsible for its financial success. “Blockchain is really simple when you simplify it; blockchain is information,” she explains. “So you no longer need third parties, that is all it is. For example, all the records people have stating where a garment has been made, where the fabric has come from, who bought the fabric, all this information will sit in a cloud and will be accessible to anyone who has an internet connection. It will put the customer at the forefront of everything we do and there will be absolute visibility.”