Weaving the Future of Fashion | Karina Ochoa de Baker | PI Apparel

I do a few things. I use basically every software that is out there. So I'm a digital fashion creative, which means I can use all this tech to create the digital fashion product, either 3D, using AI, using other tech. I'm a fashion technologist because I can use all that knowledge and the technical knowledge I had in creating physical fashion to put together pipelines, whether it is to build your library of samples in 3D or to work in virtual try-on or to do AR. And I'm also an educator because I think it's— sorry. It's really important to make sure that everyone has access to this knowledge so that we can keep creating and making better pipelines and making better digital products and physical products. I've been doing this for, I will say, professionally 7 years. But I moved to this country 10 years ago because I really, really wanted to use technology to create the productive fashion. So I ask myself many of these questions and many more every, every single day. I ask myself, does digital fashion really matter? Like, is what we're doing really making a difference? Are we implementing it in the correct way? Is this new technology gonna like take over some of our positions? Are we going in the right direction? Are we using the technology in a sustainable way? Are we actually using efficiently? Are we using it for the right reasons? And also even like who define innovation roles because I have like 3 role names and I don't have one and even like when I read positions out there or when someone is needing a professional, we kind of have to come up with new names and hope that the description is good enough that you can get the right talent. Another question I ask myself a lot is what is a designer? And I think it's really, really important Because the designers are the one that really need to start implementing this technology in their process. But I think we're missing maybe one part of that description, right? So the first paragraph is what is a designer according to Google? And it says that is the person who plans the form, the looks, and the workings. And I think in fashion sometimes we forget about the working part of what is a designer because we think a lot about the look, we think a lot about the form of this product we're creating, but we don't think about the whole lifecycle of our project and our product. And I think when you start bringing 3D, when you start to bring other of these solutions, when you start getting your digital product into PLM, is the right moment to start thinking about the whole cycle of the product. Materials I'm using, how is the product going to be used? And in terms of the technologies we have available, how I'm going to be able to implement this technology to bring better user experience? —does the job of a fashion designer, I think. And in our industry, we have many roles within the designer or the maker of these products. We have the technical designers, we have the designers, we have the product manager. And I think we all should have this creative mindset of being these designers, makers of these products. So how do we weave the future of fashion? Let's think for a minute that these are the threats, right? The threats of technology we have available at the moment. Some of these threats have become like buzzwords right now, buzzwords that we don't even want to hear too much about it. I didn't even put metaverse. I put immersive web. I didn't put NFTs. I put blockchain, which I think they're more encompassive, like more bigger terms that can keep this in sign. We don't have to talk again about these kind of things. But these are technologies that are not going away. These are technologies that are here to stay. So how do we implement these with the infrastructure of the supply chain of our companies to weave the future of fashion? I'm going to tell you a quick anecdote because when I was like 16, 17, my family and I went to this projection mapping— not this one, this is just an example— but there was a projection mapping in Colombia at church. And my grandfather, Sat right with my older sister and I. We sat, he kind of think, I think that we were gonna watch just a movie, you know, presentation, they're gonna project something. We kind of knew what it was about, but they didn't told us what this experience was gonna be about. And everything went dark, they, it was outside, they turned out all the lights in the street. Out of nowhere, flashing lights, this building seem like it's coming down, a train coming through this church, and very loud notes. My grandfather grabbed me and my older sister and tried to pull us away. And I was like, what's happening? Like, grandfather, are you okay? It took him the whole show to recover from the impression of what was going on. And we had to explain to him, it's okay, sit down, it's just a projection, nothing is happening. Sometimes we use technology just for the sake of using technology. And a lot of the projects we see out there, I think why we get tired of hearing, oh, it's more NFTs, but what does it do? Oh, it's another immersive experience, but do I really need a virtual store for my product, right? What is my target audience? How am I presenting these technologies to them? So this curve, I think we've all seen it, is the curve of technology adoption. And I think we think about these trends that we're already here. Like we're already over, right? They have a high, we're done. But in reality, we're right here. Like we are, entering the early majority. Technology has been developed. We early adopters have started to adopt it, but how do we present it to people? That's where we are right now. And as I said, like, this is going to keep growing. Like, it's not going to go anywhere. This is a great example I found the other day about the Apple Vision Pro headset. And if you guys can see the app development and even the sales, the sales curve is very similar. The apps that have been developed for this device have gone down significantly in a very short amount of time. So it makes me question, this technology is great. If you guys had the chance to try the headset that they have out there yesterday, I don't know if they have it out there today, it is amazing. I went to the store. If you guys haven't, please do. The last part of that experience when you get to feel like you are petting the baby rhino, it's beautiful. I would recommend it. So it's really cool and it's really interesting. So why is this happening? Why is people not building more for this spatial computing that is supposed to be the future of computing? And I think it's maybe how we're approaching the technology. Are we just launching a bunch of things without thinking how we use this kind of technology to get to an audience that really wants to use this technology? So here we have a great example of Alo implementing spatial computing in their e-commerce. But let's think about it for a moment. Is this kind of experience going to prompt you to want to use spatial computing? And how is this very, very different from the regular e-commerce that you have, right? Is it better to have more time creating a better website experience overall? And of course, you have to have a spatial computer e-commerce option because it's another device people can shop. But how can we make this better? Should we maybe think about doing a brand experience instead of an e-commerce experience using 3D models that maybe people don't even want to interact with, that's just media that is there? Can I bring to my consumer meditation yoga experience that is very in line with the brand and that actually allows me to use maybe this kind of video as a catalog for new products, for a specific kind of brand experiences? And Alo Yoga, they do a lot of like gyms, exclusive experiences, how do I bring this to these virtual spaces? And also, what if? What if with my avatar that I have, or my digital twin, or however you want to call it, inside this headset, I can actually have— sorry— a representation of my body that I can tweak and align, and then I can actually see how the clothes will fit? I know that the technology of virtual try-on still has a lot of development. There to happen, but this kind of experience for me will prompt me to want to try this tech because it will allow me to actually shop in a very informed way, right? This is a little bit of gossip, like jumping from spatial computing to AI. From the film and advertisement industry, you guys don't have to read through this, I'll tell you, summarize what it is. They wanted to do something, a project using AI. They brought in, instead of the regular workforce that they bring, prom engineers, the people that can write the prompts to get AI. And if you read, there is a little bit about beef, even how artists talk about other artists. But the problem was that they brought these prom engineers and the results that they got, the first round, good, okay. They were getting what they were supposed to get. Once the art director asked for changes and gave them comments, the prom engineers couldn't deliver. Because they were getting just variants. So for example, if I said we're going to make this scene and I have these specific models with these specific garments and I get the first results, OK, that's great. And then I tell them, OK, I need this garment to look more like this or I need it in this specific color and I need the lighting to be adjusted and I need the poses to be adjusted. That is very, very specific. The technology has a very hard time to do those minor changes. They will get a completely different image. And that's very difficult to finish a project that is gonna be like visual media, maybe a video, maybe a campaign that is photographs. How do you go about that? And the thing about it is like you can, you can make comments, but you need to have more technical skill than just using AI. You need to make sure to use like, you can even use generative AI, but inside Photoshop to make those minor changes. And in softwares like Nuke that is used at the end of any commercial to complete post it, all the images, then you can adjust lighting, you can do all these things. So how do you guarantee that these artists that have beef between each other, the ones that use AI, the ones that use the 3D tools, are actually working together, right? This is a music video made only with AI. It was made using Sora, the OpenAI platform that does this kind of video, text-to-video. And I think it's a really great example of creativity. And even though we're all maybe a little bit scared of the uses of AI, it is great if you don't have the resources to make such a production to be able just to make it with AI, right? And then we have examples of the fashion industry. This is Puma. They use AI. They also use 3D software. And they use traditional filmmaking to create this commercial. But above all, they use creativity. Doing great work of storytelling using these tools as what they are, tools. It's not about making a campaign with AI. It's not about AI. It's about these kind of results, right? And here we have another example that I think is really cool. Dennis, he is one of the top Snapchat creators. He did this one where you can basically with your phone, you point at a garment and it copies this and it puts it into the 3D mesh that is already in your body from the Lens Snap software, you can basically wear any garment in a matter of a click. Is the technology still a little bit gimmicky? Yes. But this guy is just one developer that he did this all on his own. So imagine when we have funding and we can have like whole teams helping develop this kind of technology. Now let's talk a little bit about blockchain. These are all like major brands that have entered the Web3 space. Since 2021. So they have been doing a lot. And this is just some of the activity in the space. There is a market for this. We can see the financial gains that they have. There is a lot of styles that have been minted, like more than 180 styles have been minted and created as NFTs. The numbers are high about what we can earn. And there is also a big market for physical and digital garments. So there is a way to not only make digital garments that are going to be sold as NFT, but it's a way of about rethinking e-commerce of how can I sell my garments that I'm already making in the blockchain. And this has a lot of benefits. We see it even for authenticating goods that need to be authenticated. But also, you can see these brands have gone about doing collectibles, so one-off pieces, either physical or digital, that might have more of an emotional connection to people. And yes, there is a possibility to trade it, but we're not going to get into that. There is the phygital, when like, you know, you're just putting your physical goods, they have a digital twin in this space. We have wearables, that's all like AR, um, garments for video games, um, profile pictures, but those are a little just if the market, uh, you know, is desirable by the market. But these last two are really interesting for me, and In reality, when I think about blockchain, membership and loyalty plans are really interesting because we all want our customers to return to us. And what if I'm allowing them through technology, not thinking, oh, you're going to have an NFT in your garment or whatever it is, but I'm just making it easy for you to be part of a membership that I can keep track of you and your needs, and I can also give you loyalty points. For wearing the garment, for recommending the garment to people. So I'll give you an example. And the interesting thing is that it's just not a linear project. Okay, I do this thing and then the other. I can connect everything through the blockchain. So let's say I always buy the same top that I have, which I kind of do. I like the long sleeve, I kind of like the sheer material, and I love black turtlenecks. It's going to wear off even if I really take good care of it. But I know which brand it is. And when people ask me, oh, where did you get it? It's such a nice fit, I can recommend it. So let's say my garment has an NFC chip, a chip that's an NFC, sorry. And you ask me, where did I get this garment? And you can just scan it. And it's going to take you directly one-click shopping experience of this specific thing that you're asking me for. And besides that, it's making it easy for you to get what you want, like the information that you wanted, is gonna give me points. Points that then I can spend as discounts for the brand that I already like and I recommend. These can be enabled through blockchain. But also, let's say I'm always wearing this garment, so it will wear out. And what if I can create a membership that is companies and suppliers that recycle polyester and recycled cotton to keep creating the same garment. So I'm thinking about circular fashion. And for this to work, I need to be able to keep track of it. So if it has a chip, if it has a QR code, then I can make sure that I keep the information of where to return it in my garment. When it wear off, I can scan it. A label can be sent to me. I can send the garment back. They recycle it. They can maybe give me a membership. So it'd be like maybe a little cheaper to buy the same thing that I know already, like I'm always buying, rather if it's running shoes, and On is actually already doing this, which is really interesting. Or, and I can also get points for recycling, right? Because making circular fashion hopefully and often can be cheaper than creating materials from scratch. So there's that kind of application that like I think is really great in blockchain, and it's worth looking into and then how it fits into our companies. And then we have product creation creation in general. So, and how this digital product creation fits along digital technical design, production, and marketing, which encompasses how we do the supply chain of our products. So the idea is that we can take, you know, these very complicated maps and simplify them using technology. So where can AI help me simplify all these communications, keeping track of information, and how we have heard all these days and yesterday in the Centric Software panel, like what if while I'm creating on 3D, I can already keep track of my materials, right? And the AI can tell me it's gonna be too expensive. Why don't you try this material? Because they also, they know about my supplier, they know about my competitors, and it has all this information when I'm designing and it's been assisted. So I can simplify some of these things, right? I hopefully want to try to create the garment just once and make sure that everyone can visualize it. And you know, the design team has all the information, understand the materials. Technical design is there to assist the creation of these garments that are going to be ready for factory. And marketing can keep track of what we're all doing and give us feedback with sales to make sure it's actually going to sell. So the idea is that it works as a network, and this is very blockchain kind of thinking, that instead of being a line, we can work as a network. In the middle is innovation, always thinking in sustainability, but we're just connecting all these points, and we're communicating, and we can take any of these and put them in between. So we think about what project we are going to do. And then we think what of these players we need, we need to these projects, and then we weave whatever fabric we need to create this project, right? So, I'll give you, this is just some remarks of how it's done. I'll give you more specific examples about how I go about these with specific companies. I go into the companies and it depends a lot about the size of the companies, how you can implement this. Monastery Couture is a brand from Colombia that I've been very happy to be able to work with lately. They're a medium-sized company and they're growing. Their mentality is really great about introducing anything with innovation. But the first part where you have to start is education and training. But I not only go and train their design team in how to use 3D and AI to create a product, I do that and I talk to them and I tell them what else can we do and what other projects are we working in the company, and then we can all Talk, sit together with marketing, with sales, with production, and say, okay, we are doing 3D, but at the same time, all the garments are going to have an NFC in this chip in the garment so that we can make sure the garment is authentic. This brand has had many issues about counterfeits. It's one of the major brands in Latin America and Miami with counterfeits right now. So that needed to be done. So in that regards, we're talking with product creation already, how to integrate a chip for authentication. But design team knowing that, they are already thinking in how to integrate that into the next drop. So we have this conversation, they sponsor a lot of athletes and musicians. So what if these chips can help us launch and keep track or a specific product? So we can do a product drop with products that they do in collaboration with artists. And athletes, and these products have certain functionalities. So you buy this product that is a t-shirt made with James Rodriguez, this very big football, football player, and then it will allow you to enter one of the events that they do where it's basically a soccer match, right? So all of this is powered through that technology, and that information is great for the design team to have. And I think that's what's really important, that when we're thinking about what we can do. We're not thinking about the technology itself. We're thinking what makes sense for the brand, what kind of products they already have that can be integrated with certain technology, how can we make sure that design team is working really great with marketing because this brand specifically, they were having a lot of issues with marketing waiting for the lookbook pictures and just color variation pictures. And that can be fast forward with AI. And it doesn't mean that we're We have to stop doing great photographic campaigns. It just means we're allocating the services— sorry, the resources to make campaigns that are like very lifestyle forward. And all the lookbooks and so on that they were waiting weeks to put in socials in their website, we can do that in-house right now. So, having those conversations, thinking across different departments and how we can integrate technologies, thinking about projects that are exciting, like partnering with artists, entering video games. We're thinking about sponsoring esports athletes because they're very sponsored athletes in other spaces. And what can we do with those digital products that are being created for 3D samples, but now we can probably sell them for video games. So it's not something that tomorrow you're going to see all these products happening, but we're already thinking like future-proofing all these concepts and making sure that the inversion that this brand is doing in the 3D software is worth their while to enter different spaces and to create different chains of revenue. So that's kind of just a little bit of what I wanted to share with you guys, the experience I have had working with these brands, the experience I have had working with different technologies and how I have gone about it. I have my QR code right there if you guys want to scan it. And if you guys have any questions, please go ahead. Anyone? And there is going to be the QR code for Slido if you want to do it. Anonymously.

Yes.

What was the brand you mentioned you worked with and had success with? It's called Monastery Couture. It's a Colombian brand. They have been 3 years in the market. Their strategy was kind of like launch simple garments but luxury. And then now they're expanding, but they have been really receiving of like all this innovation and new technologies and how to implement them. Yeah. Okay. Oh, go ahead.

You talk about sometimes when you go and do that educational stuff, does the project change for some reason? —some of these, I'm imagining some people would say, oh, I want to do AR try-on. But then maybe it might be not right for them. Or I'm just curious if you kind of go in and do the application, and then the project that you're working with expands or contracts or changes.

Yes, it does, especially— I mean, and even in many of the conversations we have here in the tables, it depends of also the budget, the technology that is available, and how it works with products. So we have had companies that want to do virtual try-on, but their product is very complex and the technology is not there right now. So maybe doing a recommendation, having a recommendation algorithm will work for them. It's financially also more efficient. And then maybe there is also a company that hasn't even started their digital product development journey yet. So making sure that they understand that that part is really important to do the future-proofing of all these other projects that are more creative and exciting and can bring more. Streams of revenue. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.