At Shirahime, we have worked quite extensively over the last few months on the development of fashion industry scenarios beyond the 2020 time frame, going as far as 2045.
We mentioned for example Shell as one that used this approach to suit their own goals.
Siemens' 'Future Life' video, as presented the The Crystal in London.
A much more interesting approach, and very insightful in terms of methodology, but also how tangible the results are presented, is Siemens’ work on Future Cities
The current fashion and textile landscape is fairly limited in terms of what types of materials are being used. Innovation is key, and products such as Tencel, Sorona and Ingeo proof that industry is investing heavily in R&D. Spider Silk may be one of the few natural fibres of the future yet to see it hayday.
Japan – for multiple reasons, not the least the still ongoing, if diminishing, cultural influence onto its neighbours – remains an interesting case to look at in terms of sustainable and ethical fashion. And vocabulary and its use and evolution is the start of it all.
In the fashion industry we’re very taken to ‘trend’: the colours, cuts, styles, fabrics of the next couple of seasons or so. Yet few venture to think about how their very own industry will look like in, say, 2020 or beyond. Resting the case for the importance of building scenarios of the long-term future.
Cotton as an attractive alternative in tsunami regions. Leading textile manufacturers promoting the cultivation of organic cotton. New technologies and methods for natural dyeing processes and recycling. And five categories of Green Fashion in Japan.
Authentication and traceability backbone solutions have become a key technology for many a brand to prevent not only product forgery, but also to prove truthfulness of on-and-off product claims.
What few realise: product authentication is just one half of a 2-part system (Figure 1) whereby authentication is applied to the product at its point of origin, and a traceability backbone ensures that the product reaches its destination – for example the end consumer – safely and untampered.
On November 12 and 13, 2013 the yearly Textile Exchange conference took place in Istanbul, Turkey.
I was invited to run a workshop on Scenario Work as one of the 'Strategy' break out session on the first day. The workshop was fully booked with 25 highly interested and active participants. In 90 challenging minutes they experienced a compressed version of a Scenario Planning workshop.
Digital tools and IT systems are a great enabler for more data, more stringent channels of how to communicate what the different players in the chain do, and how they do it, over large distances and across operations and organizations.Yet – digital tools are more human than we think they are … because they, in the end, are representatives of the values and the world view of those that have built them.
In last week’s post I looked at energy companies and their trajectory relative to the Paris Climate Agenda. The insights clearly suggested a mixed picture. A clear point of how important it is to decarbonised the way we fuel our economy and global society.
But that’s unfortunately not all there is to the energy generation picture!
What few people realise: Energy generation requires water. A lot of water.
Not just in the energy generating processes, but also in the extraction of the energy source (coal in particular), and/or the making of the necessary equipment.
Some insights ... illustrated at the example of China.
After 10 years in the make, CETI, the European Centre for Innovative Textiles, was finally inaugurated in October 2012. The aim of the research centre is to give the textile industry a platform to research and prototype innovative textiles that can be used in sectors like: Medical, Sport & Leisure, Hygiene, and Protection sectors representing 25% of technical textile manufacturing industry; building and civil engineering that account for 10% of the production; transport making 26% of the market volume (and 15% of the market value) of technical textiles.
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