Fashion + tech = revolution?

Fashion and tech. A weird and daring combination. As a geeky girl in a mens’ world, it’s easy to stand out of the crowd. After working in the tech and start up industry for almost 4 years, I have to admit, the prejudices about tech savvy’s, geeks and game freaks are right. Fashion is hard to find. For one clear reason; there is nothing social in coding, gaming and developing. Your computer screen doesn’t care how you look, what you wear and how you smell. Luckily for us, fashionable girls, social media started to change that. The techies needed fashion and the fashion industry needed tech.

Fashion and tech reinforce each other these days. Hipsters and geeky looks are ‘in fashion’, all the big brands innovate with technology during fashion weeks and both fashion and technique are extremely accessible through the web.

I’m not a fashionista but I do like to look representative. If I have a hangout, Skype conference or meeting I rely on my own taste of fashion and the technique. That was pretty much the only connection I thought of, before December 2011.

On a cold and rainy day in Paris, Karl Lagerfeld turned out to be one of the most iconic geek freaks in the fashion industry. At that moment, he was the proud owner of 6 iPads, 1024 iPods and 4 iPhones. Actually using all of them for sketching, inspiration, music and pictures. Not for calling, e-mailing or online conversations though. The famous designer was always known because of his striking appearances, turned out to be really into technology as it helps him to work faster, work everywhere and be able to share his ideas with his team in a split second.

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At that very moment, fashion became something technical for me. Designing clothes is more than sketching, sewing and wearing. Picking fabrics, drawing patterns, is the coding part of the fashion industry. It’s the foundation of every piece you wear. The process is always the same. Instead of a lot of zero’s, ones and php, C++ and phyton, there are pencils, needles & thread, pins and fabrics involved.

Eversince, hilarious Karl became my hero. No matter how far technical innovations will develop, the process of creating, inspiration and overthinking opportunities, can’t replace human powers. Karl proved it, live on stage. Sketching on his iPad, it was his brain and creativity that created fashion on a screen.  We might be able to print 3D bracelets, dressing and furnitures, the first computer who designed them without human interference still has to be developed. It’s like your team of designers, developers and content creators. In need of each other to produce something good. Guess you never thought about fashion this way!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2JI_FUrf6M

by Sabine de Witte