As a trend forecaster working on long-term trends, I understand the importance of innovation and creativity in today’s rapidly changing business world.

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Un futur  hybride

Durant le confinement, l’espace nous a cruellement manqué, nous étions enfermés, l’idée même de voyager était inenvisageable. Le voyage est donc devenu intérieur et introspectif durant toutes ces semaines. Et, finalement, nous sommes demandé si l’on devait toujours se déplacer physiquement pour découvrir le monde ? Comment faire un voyage immobile devient une vraie question … 

Ceux qui me connaissent savent que je suis d’une nature extrêmement curieuse, que j’affectionne tout particulièrement tout ce qui ne rentre pas « dans les cases » Imaginer à plusieurs un nouveau format hybride associant sons immersifs enregistrés en binaural, interviews, musique live, vidéos et animer ce voyage immobile est un challenge parfait pour moi!

Avec Antoine Bertin – artiste sonore, Sound Anything qui conçoit et réalise des expériences sonores immersives et Plink studio de création de podcast pour les marques, nous avons lancé en juin dernier le premier épisode d’une série d’événements polyphoniques et hybrides à déguster de chez soi.

Michaël Valeanu, guitariste français installé à New York depuis 2008 a joué deux morceaux en live pour ouvrir et fermer cet épisode avec émotion.  Michaël est l’auteur de 3 albums solos, il s’est produit dans les meilleurs clubs du monde et de très nombreux festivals. Depuis 2017, il se rend chaque année au Chili pour s’y produire et pour rencontrer et travailler avec les jeunes musiciens de la Escuela de Musica Paparhheno.

« Voyage dans le temps » a été enregistré entièrement en stéréo. Pour profiter au mieux de l’experience, mettez un casque sur vos oreilles ;)

Expliquer le monde

Peut-on définir l’espace en un seul mot ? Pour moi, c’est le vide dans lequel existe notre monde, c’est une confrontation à l’immensité. Parfois l’espace nous effraie, pour certains c’est une immense solitude et, pour d’autres c’est le luxe ultime. 

Les déserts sur la terre sont des territoires extrêmes qui procurent une très forte sensation d’espace. A la fois lieu de réflexion et lieu de résonance , ils amplifient et exacerbent nos sensations et nos pensées.

Allons ensemble au Chili dans le désert de l’Atacama. Ce désert, situé à 3000 mètres d’altitude, marque la frontière entre  le Chili , la Bolivie et l’Argentine. La plupart des déserts ne datent que de quelques milliers d’années (le Sahara par exemple, était encore vert il y a 5 000 ans), l’Atacama lui, est aride depuis au moins sept millions d’années, peut-être vingt .. ce qui en fait un lieu unique de recherches archéologiques. A cet endroit, des astronomes étudient aussi l’univers avec les télescopes les plus puissants du monde car, la transparence du ciel permet de regarder jusqu’aux confins de l’univers. 

Photo courtesy of Caroline Corbasson

 Caroline Corbasson est une artiste visuelle passionnée de sciences qui vit et travaille à Paris. Elle explore comment l’observation de l’espace et le perfectionnement des outils astronomiques ont provoqué une rupture entre la perception de l’individu moyen, et celle des scientifiques. Ses dessins, ses sculptures et ses vidéos questionnent la place de l’humain dans l’univers. Elle met en rapport l’infiniment grand et l’infiniment petit, perceptible grâce aux outils de la science.

Dans le désert de l’Atacama, elle a réalisé un film qui « cherche la poussière des origines » et questionne notre place et notre existence.D’où venons nous, de quoi sommes nous fait? Qu’avons nous tous en commun qui nous relie au monde et les uns avec les autres. Son travail est une traduction poétique des phénomènes mystérieux qui nous entoure. « L’art, ce sont des signaux que l’on envoie. C’est minuscule dans l’immensité du monde, fragile, mais cela peut avoir beaucoup de force » 

photo courtesy of Caroline Corbasson

Entendre la spiritualité

La notion de spiritualité prend une place prépondérante dans nos vies occidentales. Nous ressentons tous un besoin de connection avec une dimension qui nous dépasse. Nous pratiquons la méditation et différentes formes de yoga, nous faisons des voyages initiatiques et nous nous accordons des retraites spirituelles. Et, ce n’est pas toujours à l’autre bout du monde, ces voyages intenses et mémorables se font parfois juste à coté de chez nous. Cette soif de spiritualité nous touche tous, pour nous réconcilier avec nous mêmes et nous inscrire dans une universalité.

Antoine Bertin, artiste sonore, travaille à l’intersection de la science et de la sensorialité, Il explore notre relation à l’environnement à travers la narration audio, la sonification et la musique. Comme Caroline, Antoine a été dans le désert de l’Atacama. Il a travaillé à partir des datas sur les vents stellaires enregistrées par des scientifiques. A partir de ces données, il a réalisé une sonification (la sonification est la représentation d’informations sous forme de signaux acoustiques). Antoine nous permet d’entendre l’invisible et de voir la poésie cachée dans les datas scientifiques.

Comme dans beaucoup d’autres domaines,  il y déjà une profusion de sons et de compostions sonores. Son travail apporte une perspective originale sur les sons qui nous entoure dont nous n’avions même pas conscience. La sonification des vents stellaires nous encouragent à être plus conscients de ce qui est plus grand que nous et à percevoir une spiritualité omniprésente.

Avec ces voyages sonores, nous voulons associer avec liberté des domaines séparés jusque lors et sortir des silos étroits et des cases trop petites. Nous voulons créer des liens et susciter des émotions. Nous avons imaginé cette série comme autant de rencontres avec des personnalités créatives et des humains engagés. Nous espérons vous retrouver en septembre pour le prochain épisode.

I had been recently interviewed by The PowerHouse an innovation agency for FashionTech and wearable technology with whom I have worked to realize a  Fashion Future & Mobility Trend Report .
We had 2 very long talks at the beginning of the lockdown and this is a summary of these exchanges. I share my perception of the future, what does my job as a trend forecaster mean today and the major changes that are happening.

I hope you will enjoy the read ;-)

ThePowerHouse: As professionals and thinkers, what is our role in this moment of crisis?

Cécile Poignant: There is no precedent for this situation and we don’t know the rules. It’s all new for all of us. I think our role is to be prepared for afterwards. We first need to focus on the present and just do whatever we can to be helpful. But our fundamental role is to think of what’s going to happen after this. Now we can spend time thinking about the future. So it’s both a time for action in the present and a reflection on the future.

TPH: So what can we do now? How can we create value in this situation?

CP: All the things I had planned have been cancelled, and I’m someone that needs action. At the moment, I can’t go anywhere, so the only way of moving is by using my brain. I have started to study anthropology and am beginning an introduction to philosophy to feed my curiosity.

I’m not sure about anything else. I think no one is sure about anything. What we see is that everything is changing very quickly. The model we had been using for many years is not sustainable anymore. What we see is that things are changing not only from day to day, but even from hour to hour.

If you think about learning, travelling, eating and socializing, everything is different and going digital. Happily we have the internet. Can you imagine this situation without the internet? This virus is spreading so fast because of globalisation, but we also have the good side of globalisation, which is the internet. What we can do for now is to feed our curiosity!

TPH: Covid-19 is directly affecting our behavior, but do you believe that it’s something strong enough to keep our society in, like less travelling, less consumption, and so on?

CP: We are all changing and I think we have no other choice. It’s not like three months from now we can all take planes like usual, go to the theatre, or to summer festivals. Maybe there will be a second wave and another period of lockdown. The idea of, “Okay, let’s go back to normal exactly like it was before the lockdown.” is never going to happen.

It’s a very unique moment, where everything we took for granted is not there anymore. Everyone is losing security and the feeling of being grounded. This virus is pushing everyone, and our priorities are absolutely not the same. Our top priority from now on is to stay safe and to keep our families safe. All the rest, we don’t care: fashion, design, posting photos on Instagram… A lot of these things seem to be useless.

  On one hand, people might think the best thing would be to go back to normal as quickly as possible. But the problem is: that ‘normal’ was the reason for this problem. So, is it such a good idea to go back to what we used to have?

Our future might be very different: with more regulations, more borders, and more surveillance. It’s not like there is a before and after, we are now in the middle. We are living it. We are changing.

TPH: What does it mean for the old industries now? They can continue as usual, but is demand the same?

CP: There are two very different scenarios. One is called ‘revenge shopping’. For some people not being able to buy was so hard that they are looking for revenge. The old industries would love everyone to embrace this scenario so they can keep all the privileges and the money they use to have…

On the other hand, there is a new world. Almost everyone during their confinement was forced to stop consuming. Some people discovered how to do things with not that much. They realized that they don’t need more clothes in their drawers, that they can re-read the books they have on their bookshelves, that they can cook their own meals …

There will be a fight between the old world and the new world. I don’t know who is going to win as the old world is very strong and had been lobbying us for years.

TPH: So how can we co-exist in this fight between the old and the new worlds?

CP: We will live in the mix of both of them because life is not black or white, life is a mixture.

The old world and the big corporate groups will fight to go back to the previous system, because it is the only system they know. They are not very agile because they are big and some of them might die in the battle.

On the other hand, there will be a lot of development of local solutions and smaller manufacturers with more energy. People are starting to use open source solutions. Decathlon has this snorkeling mask; the online community found a solution to add a small part, printed in 3D, to use it for ventilation. In France, a new generation of textile businesses wanted to reposition the market. They are often pure players with local factories and they are able to produce masks with agility.

TPH: There is this theory from Roy Wagner (1981) about the invention of culture as a result of a clash between two other cultures. This conflict creates the new culture. You say we are in the middle, are we creating another culture? A more sustainable one, perhaps?

  CP: For many years, we have been speaking about sustainability, and people say “no, we can’t stop these industries, it’s not possible.” What we saw is that, in a couple of days or weeks, a large majority of retail spaces and industries just stopped, so it can be done. It means that if there is a real emergency, we can make radical changes. We can completely change our habits and our way of living, like not going outside to shop every day, except for food and medication.

We never thought that there would one day be such a global worldwide event. A complete game changer. It’s unbelievable; it’s a science fiction scenario.

There will be a lot of fights when the pandemic is over; it’s not going to be peaceful. It’s going to be a struggle between the old world and the new paradigm, the old way of thinking about growing, getting more money, producing more, versus people who want to produce less and make a more human-centered world.

TPH: You work with some great clients in Tourism and Hospitality. What do you see happening with this industry?

CP: Even before the Coronavirus situation, some of my friends in Scandinavia and in Germany didn’t want to take a plane anymore because of the carbon footprint. In the near future, there will be more people travelling locally. Some people will buy a house in the country to start growing their own vegetables and enjoy staying home.

But, there will still be the old-fashioned people that keep accumulating miles on their airline company platinum cards. The old world is not ready to die, and if going to Thailand still costs less than staying at home for a week, then, of course, people will go to Thailand.

TPH: In some way, we are going back to old practices and keeping things simple. Do you believe this will impact future generations and how?

CP: We are making radical choices because we are forced to do so. We didn’t choose to spend time at home, to cook, or to do homeschooling because we love our home. We are in lockdown and, for many of us, it’s unbearable. A few of us are luckier and have a garden or more square meters. During the first week of confinement, many people were like, “Oh, cool. I have so much time. I’ll do all the things I always wanted to do: read my pile of books, try a bunch of new recipes, take yoga classes, and so on.” But it’s not the holidays, we are locked down because the outside is super dangerous due to a virus killing anyone. We’re at home not only with time but with fear and anxiety. After a while, it’s very strange because you don’t even know exactly what day of the week it is and you don’t open the weather forecast app anymore. Because who cares?

When the lockdown ends, some people will spend money on self-indulgence. Probably, this will not last, because they have experienced by themselves the change. I’ve been doing remote work for more than 20 years, but, for many people, working somewhere else than in an office is new. For some others, cooking your own food is new. When people have been experiencing things by themselves for real, not just by reading in a book or on a website, it leaves marks in the mind, in the way of seeing life. There will be consequences in the long term in the way we will work, live, travel, eat, and dress…

  I think we all are realizing what we have missed the most. It also gives us clues for the future. What we missed the most is what we should focus on because this is really what we want.

What I miss the most is being outside in nature. It’s not going to a museum, a cafe, or restaurants. What I missed most is walking freely along the river, seeing the trees, smelling the flowers, feeling the wind on my skin, walking bare feet on a beach, and watching the waves on the seaside.

A quick look around you reveals that white is everywhere. Perhaps you’re sitting in a room surrounded by white walls. Or looking at cool places – pure and clean volumes – on Instagram? One question pop into my mind: why is white so mainstream all over the world just like if it was an evidence?

An omnipresent aesthetic
Recent waves of the post Marie Kondo effect might make it seem that way: a stack of art books in front of white walls with Kilim carpets, a few eclectic splash of colors here and there and some green plants and looking great on Instagram… Even if this aesthetic is fading away ..

What does that really reveal about us? Why are we into such monotony when it comes to decoration? It might be the desire of neutral timeless. But how come white can seduce us on such a large scale, like a global worldwide mainstream trend?

The explanation for this universal success has largely evolved from the world of the Arts. In the Renaissance, sculpturists abandoned colour completely and expressed themselves only in the white volume of the marble. Over the years, white becomes a claim as seen in the 1930’s at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. After an entire renovation of the museum, the director, Baron David Cornelius Röell speaks about a cleansing process: “The rooms were cleaned, a canopy was stretched under the ceiling lighting and the walls were covered; everything has become very clear.”

The houses imagined by the disruptive architects of the XX°century – Le Corbusier, Mallet Stevens… were white to serve a radically different lifestyle focused on functionality and importance of daylight.

White looked really good and modern, and, little by little, white became the implicit substratum of the art exhibition. On a global level the concept of the flexible white cube becomes the default solution for displaying art, which leaves us, the visitors, wanting to replicate at home this concept.

To me, the success of white comes from its purity: in an era that prone transparency, shadows are suspicious and white is perfect! White also acts as a signal of freedom – everything seems possible to us with white walls. These walls will successively accommodate our different desires. We dream of a white cube from floor to ceiling, an idealistic blank volume in which we can draw our life.

No doubt, it’s a safe bet: white it is a colour unlikely to draw criticism from anybody and it saves you from having to consider different options. It’s convenient for so many reasons that no one can be really against white…

what’s next
But if you look closer, it seems like in all of white’s predominance, most avant-garde art galleries are re-painting their walls in other hues than white, and colours that match the exhibition are becoming more important than ever. It appears that the global phenomenon of the white cube may be running out of steam and we will soon have to learn how to reuse colours to imagine a much more personalized future.

Recently, I had been working with Lisa Lang the cool and geek CEO behind ThePowerhouse to provide a Trend Report on the Future of Fashion and its links with Mobility.

It’s in four parts, the second part is called POWER, an abstract of this trend on their blog was published on their blog, that I’m pleased to share it with you today ;)

To forecast the future, we asked Cecile Poignant who is a critical figure of this report to develop a bespoke study. She has been forecasting trends for over 30 years, she is a collector of thoughts, ideas, pictures, signals, and movements. With her collection, she then starts connecting glimpses of the future. The modern world doesn’t stop moving, and the fashion of the future will mold itself according to the needs of this world. For ThePowerHouse, she encapsulated the major long-term trends on Fashion & Mobility within four angles: FREEDOM, POWER, COLLECTIVE and EXCLUSIVE. These global trends we see forming today will affect the human experience of fashion in the near future, all under the umbrella of mobility — physical, mental, digital. She provided the structure and the foundation of this report and, of course, we wanted to intermingle our expertise into it. The result is a combination of Cecile’s expertise in trend forecasting and our expertise on Fashion Tech. 

Technology has the ability to transform the way we envision the relationship of one’s body with the outside. In the future, lines will blur between bodily enhancements, animate objects, and our individual selves. Power within mobility’s context also extends past ourselves into the realm of future space travel.

Enhancing Humans

Sometimes the greatest power we can find is within ourselves, yet we hardly take the time to marvel at the human body and its continuous evolution from birth to death. And believe it or not, we are already wearing something that is extremely technical: our skin. But think about how our skin could evolve into something greater. What is stopping our bodies from becoming the interface? Instead of using another device, we can simply use the largest organ of our bodies.
DuoSkin is a product collaboration by MIT Media Lab and Microsoft Research in which anyone could create customized devices that directly attached to the skin. By touching the on-skin device, users can manipulate a mobile device, display and share information.
But beyond our skin, our eyes are also great sources of power. In 2014, Samsung filed a patent on smart contact lenses that would provide an augmented reality superimposed over the real world. These smart lenses would include a built-in camera and sensors that could detect blinking motions. While the lenses haven’t come to market, this is just the beginning frontier for this emerging product and it is estimated that the smart contact lens market will grow by 67.7% over the next five years.
The trend of power is about seizing our individual strength and harnessing it to be something greater — akin to a super-power.

Augmented Capacities

Beyond using technology to improve our intellectual and physical bodies, what if we also wanted to utilize the power of our emotions? Ye-Fei Chen created a tear gun that would take individual tears captive and turn them into a weapon. This new conceptual form of self-defense may be more symbolic in nature but opens the conversation of how emotions can be employed.
Technology can allow us to immerse ourselves with animate objects and beyond the boundaries of our physical bodies. A great example is the 3D printed car seat that was made to imitate human breathing in an autonomous vehicle. This seat was created by Audi and a team of design students from the Braunschweig University of Art. Instead of just being a mode of transportation they wanted to traverse the boundaries of what a car typically signifies to a human. What if the moving, breathing seat could become the emotional intersection between humans and a car?

High Technology

Power will be realized in the lab where new materials are grown and built for the future. Modern and highly resistant materials are being created similar the new material referred to as twistron harvesters. This material creates its own electricity and harvests energy from breathing and also ocean waves. While this thread isn’t totally ready to be worn and woven yet, it has the potential to make fashion more multidisciplinary — meaning that clothing will be equipped to provide protection and energy.
Sometimes the products of the future will need to be made on-the-go, as in during spaceflight. Growing a MarsBoot was a project commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art for the exhibition “Items: Is Fashion Modern?” and realized by Liz Ciokajlo from OurOwnsKIN and Maurizio Montali from Officina Corpuscoli. The project concerned the constraints of space travel to Mars and addressed the need to grow materials during space flight to reduce spacecraft load at launch. This project takes a low-tech and high-tech angle by using astronaut’s sweat and fungal mycelium to grow materials.

Space Tourism

Space tourism is still in its infancy but with private companies offering space tourism voyages in the near future — this quickly becomes a story about power. Only 24 people have visited the moon and in 2023, SpaceX’s first space tourist should be making a journey around the moon. What makes this about power? In short, money. One day space tourism may become affordable but at this rate, it will remain out of reach for the current world population minus one. This type of power is extraordinary technology has the ability to transform the way we envision the relationship of one’s body with the outside.

In the future, lines will blur between bodily enhancements, animate objects, and our individual selves. Power within mobility’s context also extends past ourselves into the realm of future space travel.

I had been asked by DesignFax – a French online weekly letter on design strategy – on what subject I would like to be interviewed. The return of crafts is something I’m seeing more and more: some designers have been taking a more artisanal dimension, many graduated design students focused their diploma on craft and materials, I thought it could be interesting to share about this !

What are the reasons behind this return of crafts?

The main reason is the overconsumption and overfilling of soulless products with ridiculous lifespan. We must also remember that craftsmanship is very old and existed since man had the time and intelligence to do things with his hands, useful objects but also decorative ones. Design only dates back to the 20th century. Industrialization has somehow anesthetized the craft industry. The anchoring of craftsmanship is very strong. It’s still present in many countries such as Philippines, India, Morocco … and it comes back today to give meaning to the objects around us.

Pottery by Marion Graux

Is it linked to an ecological awareness? 

Yes quite. Objects with a soul are preserved longer. We have less desire to replace them just for the excitement of novelty because we cherish them. It is a more ecological approach since there is less consumption. We are going towards a new perception of time and duration, we can speak of a slow design as there is the slow food: a more local production, slower with also less transport. These handmade objects resonate with the ecological expectations of many of us.

What are the values of the crafts? 

The craft is a functional object with emotion behind it. In this surplus of products, we need to pause and find back affection for objects. We are witnessing a revaluation of traditional values. Perfect and smooth seduces less, place to irregularity, imperfections and uniqueness of objects. In a world disconnected from touch, matter is gaining importance. There is a lot of poetry in the single and simple object, which re-enchants our everyday life. We do not need to have 40 bowls, only one simple and beautiful is enough.

Wondergralss by Bouroullec

It is related to handmade? 

Absolutely. This trend is reminiscent of man’s ancestral relationship to matter. The craftsmanship skills are highlighted. The creative hobbies explode, just see the success of pottery classes, porcelain painting …. This idea of making oneself is related to the unique piece, the rarity and the need to give meaning to objects .

How do you see this trend developing itself ? 

More and more, students from design schools are interested in this subject. In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in ceramics. The great chefs invite handmade pottery and ceramics to their tables instead of perfect china. The French ceramist Marion Graux makes beautiful dishes for Michelin starred restaurants. The Bouroullec brothers create melted glass vases that celebrate the irregularity. The Mexican designer Fernando Laposse works a lot with local materials including corn to imagine unique inlays.

Craftmanship by Fernando Laposse

What about the future? 

The ideal would be to merge technology and craftsmanship, to bring the hazard back into industrialization to end the perfectly compliant series. The return of craftsmanship is an emerging trend that will continue. Empreinte the concept store of crafts in Paris, values hand-made objects, often unique pieces. Some restaurants rely on mismatched dishes. Even Ikea starts mini-series. They realize that we can not overproduce. Designers are giving an important place to the hand in design, craftsmanship was somehow forgotten in the twentieth century and is back in force.

Céleste Mogador

Le 4 octobre dernier en partenariat avec UTOPIES, j’ai réalisé FASHION HORIZONS un événement immersif pour parler d’une mode désirable et responsable.
#LeLuxeEstVivant a fait un compte rendu très complet de mon intervention qui introduisait celle matinée.

Quelles tendances pour une mode plus responsable ? Lors du Fashion Horizon(s), la trend forecaster Cécile Poignant a dressé le portrait de la mode de demain en quatre tendances clés. Une mode qui a besoin de quête de sens. Et Cécile Poignant de rappeler le travail des pionniers qui ont dénoncé les dangers de la fast fashion, comme Stella McCartney ou Vivienne Westwood.

DO IT YOURSELF

Merchant & Mills

Le consommateur a besoin de reprendre le contrôle. Il aime participer à la création. La marque londonienne Merchant & Mills propose des articles de mercerie premium, mais organise aussi des cours de couture, publie des livres… Même esprit pour la jeune société française Make my Lemonade, partie d’un blog, qui commercialise aujourd’hui Wear Lemonade, une marque de vêtements que l’on peut acheter tous faits, ou faire soi-même, grâce à un patron.

Ces nouvelles propositions libres sont la plupart du temps incarnées par une personnalité engagée. Morgane Sézalory a ainsi lancé sa marque éthique Sézane et une boutique solidaire qui est un lieu de collecte, de recyclage, d’ateliers qui permet aux femmes de confectionner ou customiser leurs vêtements. Quant à Pascale Nivet-Bernetière, elle a créé Céleste Mogador (en référence à une danseuse du XIXème siècle), une marque de bijoux, d’accessoires et d’escarpins couverts de broderies créatives.
La customisation est aussi une tendance forte : ainsi Gucci et son projet de personnalisation de son sac à main Dionysus, ou Jaeger-LeCoultre, qui avait ouvert dans sa boutique londonienne un atelier permettant aux fans de créer leur propre Reverso.

HAND MADE

Anaïs Guery

Cette tendance rappelle la relation ancestrale de l’homme à la matière. Les vêtements sont sobres, intemporels. Les savoir-faire artisanaux sont mis en valeur. La marque London Cloth Company revisite ainsi depuis 2011 les tissus anglais tissés à la main. L’artiste américaine Cara Marie Piazza met tout son talent et son amour du textile dans la fabrication de collections uniques, grâce au procédé subtil de la teinture végétale naturelle.

Suzusan est une marque japonaise centenaire qui utilise des matériaux traditionnels pour créer des vêtements au design contemporain. En 2014, Anaïs Guéry lance sa marque éponyme, conjuguant héritage couture et expérimentation artistique avec, notamment, tout un travail sur l’indigo.

SOFT BASIC

Eileen Fisher

Dans notre monde chahuté et stressant, nous recherchons des vêtements « doux » qui nous réconfortent. Les tissus envahissent la décoration intérieure, mais aussi les produits tech comme Google Home ou Amazon Echo. Soft basic aussi chez Maison Standards, dont le slogan est « les basiques de luxe sans les marges du luxe » ; sans oublier Veja, précurseur dans la mode équitable dès 2004. Cécile Poignant insiste sur ce besoin de confort simple en citant le vestiaire sobre de Steve Jobs et son éternel pull col roulé noir, porté même avec un short ! La marque américaine Community Clothing, créée en 2016, a racheté une usine pour faire fabriquer ses vêtements en contrôlant le sourcing et la qualité.

SEAMLESS TECH

Vollebak

Nous sommes habitués au confort et de nombreuses recherchent concernent aujourd’hui des matériaux nouveaux et agréables à porter. La marque Vollebak vient ainsi de créer la toute première veste recouverte d’un revêtement en graphène. Elle promet d’absorber la chaleur et de la restituer sur la durée, de conduire l’électricité, repousser les bactéries et dissiper l’excès d’humidité du corps.

Autre innovation : le textile connecté. Google et Levi’s commercialisent depuis fin 2017 une veste en jean aux manches connectées, baptisée Jacquard. H&M travaille sur un « cuir » végétal. Il y a aussi les innovations d’impression en 3D. Les champs des possibles semblent infinis. Et les grands groupes se rendent compte que pour séduire les millennials, ils doivent miser sur les nouvelles technologies. Kering s’est ainsi associé au Fashion Tech Lab, un projet qui est à la fois incubateur international, fond de capital-risque et laboratoire expérimental, pour développer des projets de technologies alternatives et durables dans l’industrie de la mode.

(*) Cécile Poignant est experte associée d’Utopies, trend forecaster, éditrice de Trend Tablet, professeur d’innovation à Parsons Paris, créatrice d’événement internationaux tels que TrendxChange Hong Kong, Londres….

Ce qu’il faut retenir

Une mode plus simple, plus naturelle mais aussi plus technologique : ces tendances sont aussi celles du luxe. L’ostentatoire du luxe griffé s’efface progressivement au profit d’un luxe plus discret, plus personnel, en phase avec les nouvelles attitudes des consommateurs. Personnaliser un sac ou un accessoire de marque, c’est mettre une part de soi-même dans l’objet qui vous accompagnera au quotidien, mais aussi devenir soi-même créateur. Quant à la technologie, elle permet de trouver des alternatives intelligentes aux matériaux polluants, sans oublier le style et la créativité.

Illustration by @vwolfeart

I was interviewed by the cool fashion geeks behind The Power House in Berlin, I had been working with Lisa Lang, founder of this company, on a Trend Report on THE FUTURE OF FASHION & MOBILITY

Here is the transcription of the interview, for more insights you can discover on their blog a collection of short stories, facts, and anecdotes about historical changes in fashion tech. It’s a deep dive into some of the greatest changes in fashion that were born out of technological advancements.

For the next portion of the Future Fashion & Mobility Trend Report series, we sat down with Cécile Poignant. Cécile has been one of the leading fashion trend forecasters for over 30 years and provided information on the future trends that she sees coming as a direct result of mobility.

While we stan Cécile for being Cécile, we are also fascinated by her openness and curiosity for change. She works hard to see these changes become a reality and it’s something to be admired.

Before we step into the insights of our report, get to know Cécile a bit more.

When did you start trend forecasting?

I started trend forecasting something like 30 years ago. The reason why I started this job was that I was already connecting the dots. All the time. That was my passion and by serendipity and very good fortune, I discovered that this could be a profession. So this is why I started to connect the dots and share my thoughts with people to help them better understand the changes in the world and better understand the changes in the future. To be more ready and to not be afraid.

What is one of your favorite fashion trends that have been a direct result of technology?

I would say more than trends in general, its more about objects and materials. One of the things I really enjoy a lot is the idea of the zipper. The zipper completely changed the way we dress. The way we exercise, the way we do sports, the way we just move. This is to me one of the major fashion tech changes.

Then there was, of course, the invention of Lycra in the 60s, which has given us a lot of comfort in the way we are wearing our clothes every day. Our underwear, leggings, yoga pants… For me, Lycra is really a game changer in fashion.

When we come to more recent time, one of the most interesting fashion trends is the weight of sneakers. In recent years, sneakers are getting lighter and lighter which gives us the possibility to be more active, to walk much more. Now that sneakers are just regular shoes, you can wear with an evening dress, or with formal pants during the day. This has really change our attitude and silhouette.

The next big move that I see would be about graphene. It’s in development. It’s not yet so easy to build something with it today but it will be a major game changer in the fashion industry soon. Something that will be really important in the e-textile world in 10 years to come.

What excites you the most about the future of fashion?

The fact that it is the future (after a short laugh).The fact that it will reflect the changes of our society. The need for freedom, the need for anonymity, the need for not being connected, the need for being connected.

Fabric will be the new device. We are used to always have our smartphone in our pocket, the next step is to not have it in our pocket because we already have the textile on our body. Maybe your sleeve will be your device because we will no longer need those smartphones. This is something truely exciting about the future.

What is the most important change you see needs to happen in fashion?

I would say the most important change without a doubt is sustainability. There is no Planet B, we have been damaging the planet so much, we have been producing bad quality products in large amounts. There is a new continent filled up with plastic. We really need to focus on sustainability. It’s really a very big challenge that is going to be super interesting. The way we will invent new bio-materials, the way we are going to skip out of leather and go into leather-like developments, the way we are going to change the process of dying by using bacterias instead of bad chemical products. Sustainability will bring us better quality, better design. Sometimes less clothing.

To me, this is really the big challenge, not just in fashion but everywhere.

How do you think companies like ThePowerHouse can empower the fashion industry?

I think there is a real need of understanding better what technology can bring to fashion. For many people today it is still like a little light — it switches on, it switches off. It’s more like a gadget but fashion tech really can be much more than that. I think a company like ThePowerHouse has the capacity to be a bridge between fashion and technology, to be a connector between different actors in the fashion and the tech industry.

FashionTech companies can really be a game changer and bring knowledge and reality into a very old world. The fashion world is very old and has not changed much over many years. People with the knowledge of what technology can do, people that are makers and not just dreamers, like the ThePowerHouse, can really do a lot of things for the future of fashion.

Fashion is a highly dynamic global industry that employs hundreds of millions of people. It generates very significant revenue and reaches almost everyone. Every year, 130 billion garments are produced and more than a billion tonnes of greenhouse gases make fashion the second most polluting industry just after oil.

Since the 20th century, this industry has become globalized, clothing is designed in one country, made in another, and sold around the world at an ever faster pace.

For 15 years, this trend has been accentuated because of the almost world-wide emergence of a middle class with a higher income and the apparition of Fast Fashion that produces far from our eyes, at a very low cost, extremely cheap clothes that are sometimes because of their poor quality perceived as disposable.

Stella McCartney 2017

On April 24, 2013 the Rana Plaza collapsed in Bangladesh. This building housed garment factories, working for international clothing brands and 1127 workers died that day. This drama has helped Western consumers to become aware of the limits of fast fashion.

The time has come to change this system for a system that delivers better economic, societal and environmental outcomes. Many of us want more transparency and are looking for brands that move in this direction.

How to go from a disposable fashion to a sustainable fashion?

From 2 annual seasonal collections, the major brands have grown to 8 or 20 collections a year, Zara, a leader in fast fashion designs up to 30,000 models each year. This frantic race at a huge societal and environmental price.

Mentalities are changing 66% of 12-25 year olds want to spend their money in sustainable brands and this quest for transparency leads brands to evolve. As of today alternatives are there: slow fashion, green fashion, ethical fashion ..

For these initiatives to develop and become the new norm it is necessary to change narrative and reality: ecology must become desirable. Tomorrow, we will have to rhyme ethically and aesthetically.

We must put the fashion system flat: reinvent the way we produce natural raw materials (linen, cotton, silk, wool ..) or synthetic (polyester, polyamide ..) create new materials with mushrooms, waste plants, seriously imagine using natural dyes for the industry …

Some brands are already very active, we think of course of Veja in France, Patagonia and Everlane in the USA, Stella McCartney in England …

What need to be done is huge and exciting, some foundations actively seek solutions like the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, initiatives are launched everywhere like the Fashion Revolution and many others …

FASHION HORIZON(S)

For several years, I have partnered with Utopies, a firm that supports companies in need of integration of sustainable development. This approach touches and inspires me.

We decided to partner with a series of inspirational and immersive conferences to share our vision.

Thursday, October 4, 2018, with Elisabeth Laville founder and director of Utopies, I will have the pleasure to introduce FASHION HORIZON(S): a morning of conferences, a round table and a mini-village of start-ups to explore trends, issues and solutions for sustainable and desirable fashion from 9am to 12.30pm.

I will decipher the 4 major axes of the Fashion of tomorrow and their stakes. Elisabeth will analyze the actions already taken by industrialists and those just beginning.

A round table will welcome experts and committed actors: Julia Faure, co-founder of LOOM, a brand that defends a slow fashion. Majdouline Sbaï, sociologist, author of « Ethical fashion is it possible? » And also organizer of Fashion Green Days. Damien Pellé, Galeries Lafayette Sustainable Development Director and also coordinator of the Go for Good approach – responsible products for a more engaged business.

Innovative entrepreneurs will be present in a mini village of start ups: CrushON, DAO, Kabanes, Panafrica and les récupérables.

We have been so interested in the frenzy of Fashion for several decades that we have forgotten to love clothes… Join me at FASHION HORIZON(S) to imagine together the future of Fashion.

For those who know me a little, one of my characteristics is my curiosity …at around 4 years old, if you are a little girl – they are a little more curious than boys – you asked about 390 questions a day!

Curiosity is my drug …

Let’s say that I’m still 4 years old and this curiosity has never really left me. I need to learn new things: the names of plants, a foreign language… I also love discovering artists, reading books, traveling…Trying new experiences is vital to me even if sometimes it gets me out of my comfort zone.

Getting out of my comfort zone is what happened to me recently with a 500 m2 space to rethink totally!

500 square meters, that’s huge for me !

A bright place just one block outside Paris with a magical view on the river Seine …. I needed to imagine a friendly and warm work space in this loft dedicated entirely to sound and image. Two recording studios were already built, the idea was to create a new space that would give synergy between different activities and encourage creativity through transdisiplinarity.

I’m not a decorator even less an interior designer … it was a real challenge for me, the entrepreneurs who manage the place had a lot of experience in construction, I was not alone … but I had to choose everything: the color of the floor, the meeting tables, the desks … where to put the sofa, what lamps ..

At first it scared me a bit, it was … so big! Budget constraints will require ingenuity. And, yes … despite my fear, I accepted the challenge.

Being a digital nomad

I am used to work everywhere: in planes, trains, cafes, hotel lobbies, coworking spaces and of course at home. It’s been more than 10 years since I’ve had a fixed office. I am one of those digital nomads whose life has been completely disrupted by the internet and I am delighted because I like to travel and change environment. I knew what was important and the atmosphere in which I would feel good.

Starting with the colours ;)

I began with the colors range by looking around me: the color of the Seine, the bricks of the adjoining building, the white clouds of Paris ’s sky, the green trees of the island. All this gave me the basic structure to which I added some bright colours.

Then, I made mood boards on Pinterest to identify my inspirations and specify the overall style.

For the coworking space: wood and green plants were essential to evoke nature and make a visual link with the Seine and the island. Comfortable seats were needed, a lounge area for chatting, a cozy kitchen for lunch break or grabbing a coffee. There were already 2recording studios that had to be integrated in the new space by relooking them.
I discovered the importance of acoustic treatment and how it gives a real comfort of work by softening sounds and creating a deep sense of well-being.

I created dozens of lists on Trello to organize what to do, one per each room – coworking, lounge, meeting room, lobby, kitchen, recording studios … then a list by supplier to organize purchases and orders. If you do not know Trello, it’s the opportunity to download the free app and install this tool on your laptop: the lists are synchronized and managed in a super smooth way, you can put links and share with others.

For painting, without any hesitation I chose Farrow & Ball colours. They are subtle, refined and worth their price.

Being creative on a budget …

To have a particular style and keep in the budget, my idea was – as it’s often done in Fashion – to mix inexpensive elements with more expensive ones.

In recent years, Ikea has done a good job of refocusing on fancy basics, so I could choose some of the furniture there, I love the Odger Chair which is really a good and simple design Decorative elements come from Made.com. The sofa is made with the clever modular system imagined by Cubit.

On the “pods” I decided to use wooden cladding to remind the trees of the island and also to help with the acoustic. The metal structures “Fency” by Tolhuijs spotted by my friend Judith de Graaff, founder of Urban Jungle Bloggers are perfect to accommodate potted plants. It is much more manageable than a complete plant wall. She also provided a list of plants that would grow easily under the glass canopy.Monstera Plants, Crassula, Chlorophytum and Cactus. They all love the light of the coworking space!

After several months of work … tada!

The place is finished, it’s called Time Work Space it includes a coworking space open to the public, Plink an agency that creates podcasts for brands, Sound Anything a sound design studio that imagines immersive experiences for any type of industry, The Voice Expert specializes in voice over … and you can feel the positive energy.

Today, I am kind of proud to see people enjoying working in this place. You are welcome to visit the place !

I also work regularly here with a homey feeling … in this comfortable place that I imagined by getting out of my comfort zone ;)

I was lucky to be part of a new initiative imagined by Sphères a strategic design consultancy company based in Paris.

They decides to launch Croisement(s) a new kind of talks / debate between two people that never met before !

I met  Guillaume Sanchez who is a young French Chef, he just wrote a book named Humains 

The aim of Croisement(s) is to bring interesting questions and new ways of seeing our time and habits .

From the production to the processing, from the distribution to the preparation, from sharing through to health issues and the mindful fantasies it conjures up, eating has become a major political issue in today’s society. Who has never sat down to enjoy a meal and asked themselves where the ingredients came from ? Who produced them ? How was it all processed ? Is it healthy to eat ?

Hope you enjoy our talk!

PS : you can put some english subtitles when watching on Youtube with the small wheel ;)

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