And yet, there are also positive developments and exciting challenges for brands to puzzle over. As brick-and-mortar shows signs of life, brands are navigating the new interplay between physical and digital retail. Brands are rising to take responsibility on long-term issues like sustainability, diversity and inclusivity. And the spirit of collaboration that buoyed the industry through the pandemic is here to stay, as brands, physical retailers, online marketplaces and other partners are finding pragmatic ways to score mutual wins.

Oh, and we’re cautiously delighted to see the return of in-person events — in fact, we just hosted one! On October 4-6, Glossy’s Future of Fashion Summit brought friends and industry leaders together in Miami. For three days, we floated ideas, discussed emerging business trends, and learned from each other’s expertise and experience on the most pressing challenges and opportunities in fashion marketing, including:

• the search for sustainability
• brands building communities
• personalizing fashion’s future

Below, you’ll find some of the highlights of those discussions on the topics that will shape the future of fashion, complete with excerpts from our executive interviews with top marketers and brand leaders.

The Search for Sustainability

In many ways, the story of the next decade in fashion will be defined by how well brands and the industry at large unpack the many questions around sustainability and fashion. Sustainability is very much a challenge of untangling and rewiring systems, and there’s no magic bullet. But individual brands are doing what they can to manifest the change they want to see.

At the summit, we heard from brands like Rebag and Thousand Fell about the solutions they’re forging to promote sustainability in fashion. Thousand Fell’s co-founders talked us through their recycling-driven approach and the experience of launching as Covid-19 gripped the world. Meanwhile, Rebag CMO Elizabeth Layne told us that creating educational resources on the brand’s platform is informing and inspiring consumers. She said we’ve only scratched the surface of what resale can do to advance sustainability in fashion.

Executive interview

Stuart Ahlum and Chloe Songer, co-founders of recyclable sneaker brand Thousand Fell, spoke about engaging the conscious consumer and the structural challenges of building a truly circular economy to counter the rising tide of textile waste.

Glossy: You launched ahead of the last 19 months and the rise of the conscious consumer that we talk a lot about. Has this wave and this trend really worked to your advantage?

Chloe Songer: We love the idea of the conscious consumer. We definitely felt that we were launching at the right time, and we definitely saw that furthered post-March 2020 and then post-June 2020, particularly with the younger demographic that we are …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron