Today, brands are facing many challenges: new consumption paradigm led by younger generations, explosion of digital across the entire value chain, war for talents, etc. all against a background of strong economic volatility and a hyper -globalized competition. Without forgetting the greatest challenge of all: that of the climate emergency. Malik Adouani, Director of Investments within the Creative Industries division of Bpifrance, brings us his expert opinion on these underlying trends.

« Thirty years of hegemonic development of fast fashion have created an industry of overconsumption and overproduction“says Malik Adouani, Director of Investments within the Creative Industries division of Bpifrance. We thus buy four times more clothes than thirty years ago, we only wear a third of our wardrobe, 50% of fast fashion are thrown away after one year and only 1% of our clothes are recycled to create new fibres.
This disposable fashion culture obviously has a disastrous impact on the environment. Fashion is one of the most carbon-intensive industries in the world. For good reason: the material, which alone accounts for 70% of greenhouse gas emissions in industry, including the all-powerful polyester. " Fashion is also the 3rd most water-consuming industry, the fault in particular of cotton growing, it always comes back to the matter“. Not to mention the millions of tons of waste produced each year and the inefficiency of its recycling.

Another very alarming observation: the massive deindustrialization of France. The textile industry has lost 270 jobs over the past 000 years. Over 30% of clothing sold in France is now produced elsewhere, particularly in low-cost production countries.
But if the general feeling of eco-anxiety is growing, many paradoxes are still to be resolved. Evidenced by the frenetic growth in volumes of the fast fashion and todaysuper fast fashion, Shein in the lead. The price remains the very first criterion for purchasing our clothes, a parameter that is all the more difficult to work with in an inflationary environment.
The good news is that consumer pressure is increasing despite everything, and that French and European regulations are becoming more and more restrictive. Fashion brands therefore no longer have a choice: they must transform themselves.

Tomorrow's fashion will be circular... or it won't be

First challenge: the material. " Brands must minimize the environmental impact of each product by placing theeco conception at the heart of the collection creation process, and in particular by maximizing the use of eco-responsible, organic or recycled materials. Kiabi is thus committed to ensuring that by 2030, 50% of its products will contain at least 20% recycled materials.“recalls the Bpifrance expert. Brands must also work on the durability of their products, which is absolutely essential for the massification of circular models – second hand, rental, and at the end of the chain, recycling. Tomorrow, we even imagine fibers that would use little or no new resources at all: fibers from food waste, grown in the laboratory, and even created from carbon emissions! Fibers still in the prototyping phase, but which should be scaled up by 2030.

Second challenge: the traceability of supply chains. A very complex subject due to the opacity of the supplier base and its instability over time. But recent innovations will help us. The European Commission wants in particular that from 2024, each of our clothes will be equipped with a "digital passport", probably based in the long term on the blockchain. The consumer will then be able to access complete information (origin of materials, manufacturing, carbon impact, durability index, recyclability), reliable and standardized on each product purchased, provided that the industry establishes common standards. We can thus hunt greenwashing, and with the precise composition of the clothes, we will be able to recycle them better.

New clothes that are more eco-responsible, more durable, more traceable…” but let's keep in mind that the most durable garment is the one that is already in our wardrobe“, adds Malik Adouani. The second-hand market already represents 10% of the total clothing market in France, and double-digit annual growth rates. However, it is a market hampered by the quality of the offer available, and therefore the number of sellers. We must therefore circulate all the clothes that sleep at the bottom of our closets. We will achieve this by creating true “circular experiences”. Tomorrow, thanks to digital passports, our wardrobes will be “connected”, “digitized”. Tomorrow, a brand will be able to send us a notification on our phone telling us: “Here is the shirt you bought two years ago. Here are photos, original description, size”. And it will take us a few seconds to upload the article. And once the wardrobes of millions of consumers are connected, the brand will also be able to find the buyer of my shirt very quickly. The experience will thus be much simpler and more fluid, boosting the development of the market.

The minimization of the environmental impact of each product, the development of the second hand and the scaling up of recycling must not eclipse one of the original problems of the industry: the explosion of volumes. " We, consumers, must at the most basic level consume less but better, and restore value to what clothing is, with the first avenues of promoting the repair of one's clothes and buying second-hand clothing, that 'we can also resell afterwards, only in fast fashion', notes Malik Adouani. And brands must produce less but better, as close as possible to real customer demand, by shortening time and space as much as possible. “Shortening time” means putting an end to the system of two collections per year and supplier commitment rates before the launch of collections that do not allow any possible adjustment during the season. Brands must adopt a logic of " drops », marketed throughout the year, with fewer products, but better chosen thanks to data and new artificial intelligence tools. Brands must also "shorten the space", by maximizing the share of products sourced in short circuits to increase responsiveness, which also makes it possible to respond to the great challenge of French and European reindustrialisation. On this point, the development of a genuine textile industry 4.0, innovative and low-carbon, and new brand-supplier partnership logics, will be crucial.

In summary, eco-design, traceability, "on-demand" production or the strengthening of second-hand will be possible thanks to new digital tools for data analytics, blockchain or AI. But this conviction is not enough. We will not buy a garment just because it is made of organic cotton. We will also buy it because we like it and because the brand embodies values, tells a story that speaks to us. Basically, the brand of tomorrow, just like augmented reality, must also "augment itself": it must go beyond its product, it must feel the moment, it must create an emotion, it must make people dream .

Tomorrow's fashion will be augmented... or it won't be

Fashion will be augmented in several ways: both local and global, physical and digital, real and virtual. Local and global: the fashion brand of tomorrow is a brand with a strong identity, which draws on the “local” to shine internationally. What Jacquemus does brilliantly, who inspires us with the sun, the lavender, the south of France... a very local anchoring, an embodied history which allows him to dream well beyond our borders.

Physical and digital: the fashion brand of tomorrow is an omnichannel brand. One in three items of clothing is now purchased online, today on brands' e-shops and at pure players specialists, tomorrow on platforms of livestreaming. But if customers must now be recruited mainly online, brands must maintain the main objective of bringing them to stores, provided that they offer what digital does not allow: proximity and emotion.
Real and virtual: the fashion brand of tomorrow is a connected brand. Today at the platforms of " social gaming », which already present a huge pool of future customers to address. And tomorrow in the metaverses, which will extend beyond the sphere of Gamers to flood all of society with the democratization of mixed reality. In this context, NFTs could become in a few years the central digital contact point between brands and their communities, and be controlled by the brand itself, suggesting new methods of building loyalty and deepening the customer relationship: new types of rewards (digital and/or physical), new customer service models, new forms of interaction, with brand codes, more experiential and gamified. Another underlying trend: the development of virtual fashion the Gamers already spend €40 billion on virtual clothing in game. Tomorrow, we will be able to dress our avatars with ultra-creative pieces signed by the most beautiful luxury houses and even from brands “ metaverse-native », like RTFKT (acquired by Nike in 2021)… and this without using a single meter of materials.

Which winning models tomorrow?

The fashion world used to be simpler: seasonal trends were agreed upon, modes of communication were fewer and "top-down," and brands competed with clean aesthetics and best sellers seasonal. " This is no longer the case today. The dynamic of creating and disseminating trends is now the business of social networks and the many communities of tastes that make them up,” adds Malik Adouani. " We now find a desirable brand because by buying its products, I accumulate both social capital (my purchase allows me to express myself within a community), cultural capital (I buy a story behind the product, I understand the subtle codes behind the brand, I access an experience) and environmental capital"

In this context, the winning brands of tomorrow will be those that have developed:

• A strong, unique brand DNA that captures the “spirit of the times”;
• A value proposition beyond the product:
  • On the one hand, they will create desire that makes sense, by engaging holistically in the environmental and social challenges of the world and by understanding that they will no longer be able to grow by increasing production volumes alone, but will have to to “premiumize” and reason with new growth drivers such as second-hand or even activities linked to metaverses;
  • On the other hand, they will redefine their role from mere distributors to genuine “experience product platforms”, by developing an activity and a model based on connection and horizontal co-creation with their communities.
• An operating model data-driven and agile, at the service of the customer (rapid capture of trends, more agile and more local sourcing, availability of products in the right place, at the right time, at the right price);
• Multiple anchor points, sources of growth and resilience: France and international, physical and digital, real and virtual, new and second hand, products and services.

This metamorphosis requires resources, a clear vision for customers and supported by the teams, the securing of good talent, a form of excellence in the quality of execution, and a real culture of innovation, involving the dismantling of organizations, the implementation of procedures test & learn and openness to new ecosystems (material innovations, data, web3, AI). Above all, this metamorphosis requires singular creativity, powerful creativity, increased creativity.
« The good news is that France is a major player in the global Fashion and Luxury market, and has some of the most creative and innovative brands in the world, from Kiabi to AMI to our luxury flagships. And that Bpifrance has the capacity not only to finance and support them, but also and above all to create bridges, transversality between Fashion, Gaming, Music, Cinema, Industry and innovation ecosystems . This is how we will go in the right direction, towards a fully 'French Touch' fashion "