The fashion industry has undergone significant change in its functioning in the past couple of years due to more technology and now due to the coronavirus pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has completely altered daily life across the globe. This has accelerated a number of strategic shifts and created a new business landscape. While companies are discovering more flexible ways of working, the pandemic is driving fashion companies to adapt at a rapid speed. Work-life has changed drastically as self-isolation has shown how successful businesses can operate from their employee’s own homes or other unconventional environments. We will be looking at some fashion accelerators that have adapted to this new world, while some have completely transformed themselves! If you are interested to know what new changes fashion designers will have to adapt themselves to and the new breed of fashion designers that will emerge from these changes, read on!

The Scenario of Fashion Designing Teaching

In terms of fashion education, even the world’s most renowned colleges go for a simple approach to fashion design teaching. This means a traditional way of teaching using manual skills that are used in drawing and illustration, paper pattern-making and draping fabric on mannequins. They don’t want to forget the old techniques that made fashion designing what it is today. There is another reason for this too. While the tools of communication have become digital in the past decade or so, the new designers’ creative process remains mostly manual. This means that even though our machines have changed rapidly, our mind requires more time to adapt to these changes. And because fashion designing is such a creative field, it is best to use resources that actually stimulate the brain juices. 

But slowly and steadily, we need to change according to the rapidly evolving industry. There are students who are willing to learn these new techniques. The industry is on the verge of digital change, and some colleges are helping students who want to learn digital design and coding, the skills they need to drive new fashion industry solutions and experiences. Due to this, there have become two distinct streams in the fashion industry. One is the ‘creative’ part, and the other one is ‘technical’. The creative stream involves raw designing. At the same time, the technical stream involves pattern-making and garment construction using the new digital tools. One problem with this is that the digital solutions required for the new world need an amalgamation of both streams. So a new world fashion designer will be needed to serve a fashion industry now aiming to deliver end-to-end digital fashion from design to showroom! What an enormous change! The lockdown has generally facilitated upskilling. The more skills you have, the more valuable you are considered for any job or in the industry in general. 

If you, too, are looking for different types of fashion designing courses online, check out JD Institute’s website for up-and-coming fashion avenues like Fashion Photography! Learning virtual digital design software like Clo3D is actually beneficial to the student’s career-wise too. It is used by many fashion giants and makes the designing of garments and 2D garment patterns work simultaneously while giving real-time updates every time a design detail is changed in 3D. Virtual fitting of the garment can also be done. 

Startup Accelerators

Startup accelerators are companies that invest in and fund new and sustainable startups as per their fashion priorities. They organize accelerator programs for fashion startups with a proven minimum viable product. But these programs are nothing new. They used to be common in the fashion industry even before the pandemic. The key is that these have also adapted according to changing needs. They have started to deliver their whole programs virtually, unlike earlier, when they used to take place in major metropolitan cities of the world. Their motto is that ‘Innovation is long-term success in the market is critical, and early-stage startups often need assistance to prosper.’ Along with monetary and career support to these startups, they have started providing health support as well, which is crucial in these times. However, there is a gap between creative and technical knowledge as design and pattern-making have been isolated historically, but new 3D design solutions that are being rapidly embraced by the market necessitates expertise in both fields. Being responsible for becoming accelerators, they offer startups much needed support to improve their solutions to solve industry problems and are functioning online, even when pitching for investment!

Moving Towards Sustainability

As we know, fast fashion has come with an enormous environmental toll. Changes in the environment also need to be kept in mind while generating fashion. Several brands have refused to sacrifice the environment for their profits. Instead, they are practising “sustainable fashion.” By using organic and recycled materials, producing locally, minimizing water usage, getting rid of harmful chemicals, and more, these brands are prioritizing the future of our earth. So much so that this has turned into a full-fledged sustainable fashion movement! To survive in the current fashion industry, we need to find innovative ways to better work together and bring sustainable goods to market.

Overview

Here are some final pointers on how the fashion industry is changing to cope up with the digital changes as well as the pandemic:

• Digital transformation is taking up speed—not just for consumer-related solutions, but for design and manufacturing fields too. 
• Consumer sentiment has become dynamic, driven by concerns of climate change and awareness of social sustainability issues, so brands must respond accordingly. 
• Sustainability initiatives were all put on a halt when COVID-19 hit, but for previously reckless brands and manufacturers, there will be increased speed and focus on digitalization, reduction in waste and overproduction.
• We might be headed for a global recession, so we need to be prepared for consumers who will be more selective over brand choices but will at the same time be very price sensitive.

These are the challenges that face the fashion industry. If you are someone who is curious to learn different skills and want to know more about types of fashion designing courses at JD, check out the website! You will find all details regarding our amazing professional courses and the GAT exam required for entrance.