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American fashion photographer Bill Cunningham once said that fashion is the armor to survive the reality of everyday life. This holds so much relevance to us as a generation that has watched technology, art, food and numerous aspects of our day to day life evolve at such a rapid pace. I can’t believe that we are the kids who were once slurping on slushies and are now relishing gourmet ice-cream, frozen with the aid of liquid nitrogen.
Amidst it all, we have seen fashion evolve from overalls and mood rings to the little black dress and funky joggers. It is really refreshing to buy or wear something trendy because one piece of apparel can have such a massive impact on your confidence. Fashion is meant for everyone, whether you are a man, woman, boy, or a little girl, it has so much power and it can really help you express yourself.
You must have noticed that artists have a rather eccentric sense of style and corporate hustlers prefer clean cuts on their outfit to look a bit sharp and formal. Everyone, from your hairstylist to your boss, has a specific sense of fashion and that speaks so much about their personality and profession. For instance, when you see someone wearing the boho-chic look, you can be sure about them being the happy hippie person with most probably a degree in fashion or fine arts.
The importance of fashion is undisputable in the age of social media and we millennials want to look good not only when we are in public but also on our social media accounts. This has helped the fashion industry amass enormous success in a couple of years. Today, we can buy a Prada handbag in a few clicks (P.S. you need a fortune to do that), and global trends are walking on the ramps of fashion shows all across the world.
Globalization and digitization have helped fashion houses spread their roots to emerging markets all across the globe. You can find the showrooms of the most posh fashion brand in your own city, whether you live in India or the USA. However, what a lot of people aren’t aware of is how Big Data has contributed to the development and expansion of the fashion Industry.
Big Data & The Fashion World
When we talk about Big Data, fashion for sure isn’t what hits our mind because we are unaware of the probability to use it in this industry. Well, this might surprise you but fashion designers have been deploying Big Data nowadays, to not just create designer apparel and accessories but also market them. By deploying it designers can, not just learn more about their designs but also about their target audience.
How Big Data Is Changing The Fashion Game?
Let’s take a look at how Big Data solutions are aiding designers in keeping pace with the changing dynamics of the fashion market and consumer behavior.
Runway To Retail
Runway fashion is aesthetically great but isn’t really practical wear. These models aren’t always comfortable donning the outfits with sharp cuts and heavy embroidery, with some really hard to carry accessories. This is the reason why what you see in retail stores is quite different from what you see on runways.
Runway designs simply become an inspiration behind the creation of practical outfits that can be rolled out in the retail stores. Big data aids designers in developing the required understanding to add and remove elements to outfits in order to create practical wear from high-end designs of the runway.
Picking Remunerative Products
Whether you run a food-chain business or a fashion house, no matter what your business line is, what really matters is what the customer needs. Big Data helps fashion enterprises develop an understanding of how lucrative it is to launch a product in the market.
How does this work? Let’s take an example. Say, your business is dealing in sports and fitness wear and a particular style of yoga pants can give you an edge over competitors while there is also another variant of sports shoe style that can benefit your business.
After an in-depth analysis with the aid of Big Data, if the probability of the yoga pants being a hit is higher than that of the shoe style, then you can concentrate more capital on the former. This will help you earn better profits and will greatly reduce the chances of loss.
Picking The Right Colors
If you are remotely familiar with the fashion world then you would know that every year certain colors trend on the runways all across the globe. However, when you run a designer clothing or accessory business you can’t just go with what’s trending, you need to find out about the colors that your target audience wishes to wear.
Big Data is used to determine the range of the colors that were more favored by the customers while purchasing. This helps businesses in the fashion industry pick shades that can do well when it comes to sales.
It is quite simple to use and is effective in comparing outfit or accessory colors that were picked by the customers more frequently. Big data helps businesses see beyond the trends and get the pulse of what their customers want.
Getting Closer To Customers Than Ever
As mentioned afore, the implementation of Big Data to pick trends in colors and designs that can favor retail is quite common. However, one of the biggest application of Big Data solutions in the fashion industry is understanding customer behavior.
It has helped fashion businesses get closer to their customers than ever and has helped them mold the designs, patterns, and colors to suit the customer’s needs best. Big Data sure is a great tool to understand the requirements and behavior of customers and make the end products more relevant to them.
Forecasting Fashion
Apart from all this, Big Data can also forecast what you can call the shelf life of a product. Trends come and go so quickly but you cannot discontinue products with each changing trend because this can incur more loss than you can anticipate.
The production of one designer product at a mass scale costs your business a fortune and you cannot just expect it all to sell out overnight. This is the reason why forecasting how long a product can last in the market matters a lot.
Big Data solutions can be quite handy in forecasting the changing trends and can help designers put together designs that don’t go out of fashion for a few seasons. This, obviously, can help fashion houses make the most out of their investment with each line that they launch in the market.
Bottom Line
These are just a few of the ways Big Data has enabled the fashion industry to operate in a more organized way and to understand what their customers really want. However, they are enough to explain why it is changing the way businesses in this domain work, and how it is making fashion more practical than ever.
Big Data is a harbinger of good luck for the enterprises in the fashion industry and we can say that it has immensely helped in making global trends and runway fashion more buyable and customized to suit modern fashionistas.
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