Fashion Technology Trends in January by Alley Girl

Alley Girl team has started 2019 fast and energetic. This year I am planing to do some changed on alleygirl.com by hiring some new writers. Please check Chaylin’s (the new fashion writer) posts. And new writers starting later this week. But today is the day! Tech Tuesday… So here is our Fashion Technology Trends in January by Alley Girl, by me Betul Yildiz.

⌚️On Thursday, Google has announced a $40 million deal to acquire intellectual property from the fast fashion brand Fossil. Google is planing to bring new smartwatch technology to Google’s wearable platform — Wear OS. According to Fossil’s chief strategy and digital officer Greg McKelvey, the acquisition is more about “new product innovation that’s not yet hit the market.”

Fossil 3G smart watch Rose Gold $192 on Amazon

?‍?I continue with new exciting investment news. Madison Reed, the hair-colour brand, has closed a Series D funding round for $51 million on Tuesday.The investment led by Norwest Venture Partners and True Ventures. The round brings its total capital raised to more than $120 million. Wow, that’s a big money.

?Bloomingdale debut a revamped cosmetics floor at its 59th Street flagship this month with 75 new brands. Why? Bloomingdale establish an omnichannel beauty experience like many others, Sephora to Ulta Beauty to Saks Fifth Avenue has signalled is their plan in 2019. Omnichannel continues to be growing especially in Beauty.  Crate and Barrel has started “The Connected Store”, that uses MobileTotes one of the best omnichannel retail examples. And don’t forget Amazon’s Go convenience stores. We are going to see a lot of these. Thank you, dear Milennial. 

?The latest Dior Menswear collection has all the new accessories, promoted as ‘the electronic essentials of modern life’ in the show’s announcements.

The accessories included AirPod and iPhone cases made from plexiglass and engraved with prints pulled from the work of artist Raymond Pettibon. Best of it, some of the accessories are versatile. The AirPods have a bungee cord that can be turned into a bracelet and some iPhone cases can carry two phones at once.

Image via wtvox.com

?Berluti, the luxury fashion, the part of LVMH house has just announced the collaboration with NATIVE UNION. The iPhone XS case made from alligator skin is an interesting piece that sells for £1,500.

?? Watch out for Virgil Abloh x Louis Vuitton. After LV’s 2017 Tambour Horizon smartwatch, the company is preparing a digital luxury pocketwatch in Spring/Summer 2019 menswear collection. But before this smart watch luxury house release wireless earbuds in a collaboration with Master & Dynamic.

Lastly, Chitose Abe’ s 2019 Fall/Winter collection has a version of BeatsX headphones that can turn into a colourful beaded necklace which remind me my Motif Headphone‘s cord from years ago.

Coty, Inc. has announced that has developed an augmented reality mirror for its Wella Professionals salons. The technology allows customers to try on variety of hair colours. The augmented reality tecnologies have been widely adopted in the consumer space recent years. Google glass was one of the earliest version which unfortunately discontinued back in 2015. Lately, AR has been used for entertainment purposes.

?Conde Nast is about to launch Vogue Business for fashion industry’s insider news. The Vogue Business magazine is going to be run separately from Vogue we know. The new magazine has own content team and will cover the impact of technology (Let’s see about that) Trends in manufacturing, marketing and broader issues such as climate change and geopolitics. (I am hesitant about these topics because the mass media never can be objective about these subject since they always concern about their advertisement relations with the fashion brands.)

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The Fashion Tech Companies We Dig

??‍? Heuritech helps fashion businesses by providing them with more accurate fashion trends. The French startup’s technology scans 3 million Instagram images on a daily basis to predict whether a specific style will sell or fail. (source: FashNerd)

? Drunk Elephant is looking for a sale of the company according to BOF’ news. Good Luck Tiffany Masterson.

? Harper Wilde the bra startup and For Days the t-shirt start up comes together for a great project. For Days is bringing deep expertise on the latest recycling technologies within the project.