INDUSTRY INSPO Vogue Singapore Will Host First Vogue Conversations About Tech And Fashion’s Future
Have we reached a point where demand transcends design? What is the role of the designer when data dictates the next trend? Is this the inflection point where commerce supersedes art? These are just some of the questions that will be addressed during Vogue Singapore’s first ever Vogue Conversations: ”How technology is fashioning the future - runway to retail”.
The virtual conversation to be hosted via Zoom, boasts a diverse line up of fashion and tech heavyweights, including designer Angel Chen; Vogue Business Innovation Editor, Maghan McDowell; Head of Luxury for Google, Maria McClay; and Founder of The Fabricant, Kerry Murphy. Hosts of the conversation will include Condé Nast‘s U.S. artistic director and global content advisor, Anna Wintour, and Vogue Singapore’s Editor-in-Chief, Norman Tan. In a radical move, access to the general public is granted via a sign up sheet found on the Vogue website and advertised via social media.
During the global COVID-19 pandemic, Vogue has presented a number of online Vogue Conversations, bringing together the best, brightest, and most well-known members of the fashion industry for a live “meeting of the minds” on numerous topics. It’s one of the first times in recent history that the general public has had access to this level of conversation within fashion. Previously such conversations would happen mostly behind closed doors, eventually filtering down to the consumer via magazines and other media, celebrities, stores and the buyers that work within them, and all the miscellaneous cogs that make up the supercharged fashion industry engine.
The fact that Vogue Conversations has manifested at all, and to the degree of allowing the general public to register to listen in, is in itself a sign of the times. The consumer is no longer on the outer, peeping through the proverbial keyhole, drip-fed through glossy pages and feverish runway visions. The era of the elite gatekeepers of fashion is well and truly over, and Vogue seems to be leading the pivot.
In a similarly seismic shift, the topic of sustainability is increasingly on fashion’s lips, as just about anyone will have noticed if they can keep up with the furious pace of change that has come about since COVID. Sustainability will be a focus of the conversation from the standpoint of practices in design, production, and selling. It’s very much leaning towards discussing the “perspective on how technology is transforming the fashion industry in an increasingly consumer-centric model of fashion creation”, as stated on Vogue’s official webinar registration page.
There are many different tangents that this conversation can take, and it‘s hopefully one that evolves from more than just a “consumer-centric” business standpoint and into something more holistic and responsive to societal needs during the recent turmoil that is 2020, while taking into account the delicate balancing act needed in order to preserve the human side of the fashion industry in an increasingly technological milieu.
In any case, it will be interesting to see the diverse career backgrounds of the speakers shape the conclusions that they come to, and whether there will be any stand out individuals that present innovative thoughts beyond just toeing-the-line to keep the watching consumer audience happy.
You can sign up for the webinar, scheduled for September 23 at 8:00pm SGT, here.
