Venturing into Fashion Tech

Becoming Dean of Academic Strategy at London College of Fashion
The North West of England is not necessarily associated with fashion, but the small town where John Lau grew up is where it all began.  From reading his first copies of Vogue, to working in America and China in John's early fashion career, to now becoming the Dean of Academic Strategy at London College of Fashion, John shares how he uses all of these experiences to shape the future of fashion education. 

Embedding Tech & Innovation into Fashion Education
John offers us a peek into how London College of Fashion secures its top-notch ranking by nurturing groundbreaking programs that cater to the global market. Listeners will be familiar with the Fashion Innovation Agency from previous episodes, but tech and innovation are being embedded throughout LCF's DNA. John and Peter bring all of this together by dissecting what fashion students and upskilling professional need to do stand out in a highly competitive fashion industry. It's more than what you think!

John and LCF are featured in chapter 2 of the book Fashion Tech Applied.  Check it out.

Find out about London College of Fashion here.
Connect with John on LinkedIn.

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends end June 2024

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Building Virtual Fashion Stores
The promise of an £80K deal that would never have happened until Olga met her technical co-founder on LinkedIn. Emperia was born. Specialists in building virtual stores for fashion brands, Olga and Peter dig deep into the retail, marketing, and creative strategies necessary to bring virtual spaces to life that resonate with a new generation of shoppers. Olga tells us firsthand how Emperia is not just adapting to the digital age but actively shaping its future, especially with the dawn of the Apple Vision Pro and Emperia's newly released 'creator toolkit'.

What Fashion Brands Want
We unpack the challenges and triumphs of designing digital worlds for top-tier brands such as  Dior, Lacoste and L'Occitane, and Olga takes us through success stories highlighting the need for data-driven insights to make their clients happy. 20-minute engagement time anyone? That first £80K contract has subsequently turned into many clients along with a Series A fundraising round of $10M - Emperia seems to be doing something right in the virtual retail space. Tune in now to find out what it took to get there.

Olga and Emperia are featured in chapter 5 of the book Fashion Tech Applied.  Check it out.

Find out about Emperia here
Connect with Olga on LinkedIn

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends end June 2024

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Fashion's Big Fit Problem
This episode features Vadim Rogovskiy, CEO of 3DLOOK,  in which he takes us through how he discovered that fashion is the industry with the biggest pain to get body measurements and fit right. Starting from a tech perspective, in which he confesses is not necessarily the best process for starting a business, Vadim takes listeners though why fashion brands are struggling with fit.

AI Powered Body Measurements
3DLOOK's patented AI technology has the potential to reduce consumers buying ill-fitting clothes and its innovative approach can streamline the consumer experience.  Serving over 100 brands including Reformation and Bershka, the mobile technology combines virtual try on, body data analytics, and sizing recommendation to overcome the retail challenges.

And as a little bonus, Vadim is also a VC investor with his micro fund,  which he talks us through what makes a great fashion tech founder and what he's looking for within teams to convince him to write cheques. 

Find out about 3DLOOK here
Connect with Vadim on LinkedIn

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends end June 2024

--------
The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Turning Textile Waste into Recycled Fibres:
Pauline Guesné, co-founder of Refact, once a corporate consultant now turned entrepreneur shares her story of a little French girl dreaming big. Those dreams developed into the desire to do something for the world and in this case fashion, having been shocked by the industry's wasteful nature. Pauline and her team have invented a novel process that utilises a combination of mechanical and chemical recycling processes to break down used garments into reusable fibres. Pauline shares in this episode how that magic happens and the drastic shift it could enact for fashion to become circular.

The Industry's Appetite for Recycled Fashion:
This episode peels back the layers of the glamorous facade to expose the urgent need for a circular economy in fashion. Alarmingly in this conversation Pauline tells host, Peter Jeun Ho Tsang, how the larger fashion players are just not biting and the truth about VC investors still prioritising short term returns over long term humanity's need for advancement. What will these commercial and market challenges mean for circular solutions like Refact?

Find out about Refact here
Connect with Pauline on LinkedIn

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends end June 2024

--------
The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Human Creativity & Technology
Joining Von N. Ruzive and Peter Jeun Ho Tsang, co-authors of Fashion Tech Applied, are Yigit Alp Elmas CEO of T-Fashion and Koen Warmerdam co-founder of Aware, to discuss how tech is impacting the creation of fashion products. The conversation unpacks how human creativity is still a vital part of the design process and tech will not replace humans, but rather how the individuals with the tech skills will be the ones thriving.  We confront the industry's resistance to new technologies and emphasise the importance of shifting mindsets to adopt these innovations that promise to refine industry processes.

The Future of Fashion Design & Product Development
With the emergence of tech such as Gen AI, digital product passports, and data-driven platforms, this episode shines a light on the importance on how they can be integrated into the fashion value chain and bring value in the creation of new fashion products. The panel forecasts a 'phygital' future where the physical and digital realms of fashion converge. What do you think will be the future of fashion design and product development?

This episode was originally recorded as a webinar on LinkedIn live.

Find out about Aware here and T-Fashion here.
Connect with Koen here and Yigit here.

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends end June 2024

--------
The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

The Beginning: Queue-less Payment Systems
The Beginning of the MishiPay story starts with our very own host's retail experiment, The Dandy Lab, in central London. The two kickstart Mustafa Khanawala's entrepreneurial journey in designing the store without queues and from here the fledgling scan-and-go technology becomes a full payment solution deployed at retail stores like Flying Tiger UK, Muji, and more. The episode explores the difficult first years getting over the hurdle of small pilots to full nationwide integrations and MishiPay securing their series B fundraising round.

Redesigning the In-store Experience
The conversation takes a turn towards the psychological aspects of retail, as we delve into theft prevention and the intriguing strategies that transformed modest pilot programs into full hardware and software product offerings. Mustafa reflects on the milestones that marked MishiPay's ascent to a million transactions every month, the pursuit of profitability, and going global which MishiPay is now found across USA and Middle East. Listeners get to hear how the MishiPay team have managed to achieve all of this, parting with actionable insights for anyone working retail tech.

Find out about MishiPay here.
Connect with Mustafa on LinkedIn.

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends end June 2024

--------
The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

One of the OGs of London's Fashion Tech Scene
Matthew Drinkwater, the force behind the Fashion Innovation Agency, part of London College of Fashion, is arguably one of the OGs that set the London fashion tech scene in motion over a decade ago. In this interview with host Peter Jeun Ho Tsang, Matthew shares his journey to building the agency from scratch drawing his part experiences in retail and working with brands in Japan. Starting with fashion wearables and eventually pivoting to immersive tech, we hear how Matthew used his learnings to now by working the likes of Mulberry, Lucas Film, and Microsoft.

Immersive Tech In Fashion
In this episode Matthew elaborates on what immersive tech can do, thinking digital fashion, virtual retail experiences, virtual stores, and more. With  FIA's unique positioning between education and commercial, we discuss what this means for fashion brands, students, and industry professionals that want to tap into immersive tech.

Connect with Matthew on Linkedin.
Find out about the Fashion Innovation Agency: fialondon.com

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends June 2024

--------
The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Why Blockchain and Fashion?
Rakesh Ramachandran and Peter Jeun Ho Tsang unravel the complexities of blockchain technology and its potential pivotal role in the fashion industry. They reflect on the anticipated shifts towards decentralisation and automation in fashion production, in which Rakesh believes that blockchain brings promise of a transparent and sustainable fashion ecosystem. With his startup QBrics, Rakesh helps listeners understand what is blockchain, how his low-code platform enables better digital workflows, and the ways the technology can be applied to fashion.

Fashion's Truth Engine
Featured in chapter 3 of the book, Fashion Tech Applied,  Rakesh makes a case for blockchain platforms functioning as a 'truth engine' that ensures data integrity and trust. Hear Rakesh's analogy of a garment's life akin to revealing the 'karma' of clothing, and discuss how this emerging tech equips consumers with the power to make ethical and sustainable choices. However, this is not without challenges from larger fashion corporations and the like.

Find out about QBrics: qbrics.com
Connect with Rakesh on LinkedIn.

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*offer ends end of June 2024

--------
The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Pivoting to Digital Footwear
Ever wondered how a brand can pivot from crafting exquisite physical footwear to mastering the digital fashion? Nicolas Romero of Futures Factory tell us how he did that in the midst of the NFT and crypto boom of 2021 and 2022, which led him to securing $2.5M in VC funding. Find out in this episode if it's worked, and what's driving him and his startup forward.

Another Pivot to 3D Printing
Nicolas discusses with Peter how blockchain technology and NFTs became the bedrock for his brand's unique crowdfunding approach and how they're ensuring product transparency and authenticity. However, this wasn't enough and 3D printing is next on the cards for Futures Factory. We delve into the importance of community building across platforms and the vital role it plays in guiding product development and maintaining brand resilience. Nicolas shares candid insights on his favorite digital fashion trends, his strategic investments at Futures Factory, and offers sage advice for aspiring entrepreneurs venturing into the realm of fashion tech and footwear.

Check out Futures Factory here.
Get connected with Nicolas on LinkedIn here.

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends end June 2024

--------
The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

IFA Paris' ambition to intertwine heritage and innovation
In this first official episode of the Applied Series where we talk to featured fashion industry professionals on the book  Fashion Tech Applied, Jean-Baptiste Andreani, group CEO of IFA Paris, takes us through how French fashion heritage is being transformed by technology.  We discuss how the school based in Paris, born from a love story in 1982, recognised the need to integrate more forward-thinking innovation subjects into their courses, and how global fashion education is embracing teaching new-age skills with traditional ones.

Integrating tech and innovation into fashion education
Jean-Baptiste takes us through how the next wave of creatives is being armed with the arsenal of a tech lab – think body scanners, fabric scanners, and 3D printers, all integral to learning by doing. We confront the cultural resistance to change, particularly in France, and shine a light on the exciting possibilities that await when tech-savvy graduates infuse traditional fashion settings with fresh ideas.  This episode is a must-listen for fashion students, students-to-be, and any professional in academia.

Connect with Jean-Baptiste on LinkedIn.
Find out more about IFA Paris.

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer valid until end june 2024

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io