See how social shopping changes fashion product design

For a long time, fashion editors and department store buyers have the biggest say in how designers design products that meet market demands. But now, this model is changing due to a more closely linked social networking culture, more convenient online voting tools, online buying and customization.

In order to promote a better connection between designers and buyers, some less well-known brands give divine opportunities to consumers, who decide what to produce and what to design.

In this way, it is possible to enable both parties to better participate in the entire purchase process, and at the same time reduce the waste of manufacturer's resources. Manufacturers and retailers can better forecast demand and then go into production.

As a buyer, "fashion is changing to a two-way model," Vivian Weng described. She successfully embarked on e-commerce adventures in the fashion field. He established a Fashion Stake shopping website with Harvard Business School student Daniel Gulati last fall.

Although FashionStake still has the taste of traditional shopping websites to some extent, Vivian Weng and Daniel Gulati have realized that consumers are also very eager to become part of the entire fashion creative process.

Vivian Weng and Daniel Gulati are also working hard to become Bó Lè, looking for newcomers in the fashion industry. They create an excellent platform: designers and consumers can work together to create products and create pre-order creations. Clothes will not be put into production until they have reached the order quantity.

Traditional e-commerce sites are also in the process of a slow transition, such as eBay. In New York Fashion Week in February this year, designer Derek Lam unveiled his original series of 16 designs. He invited eBay's shoppers to vote and selected five works with more than 120,000 votes (as shown). During the catwalk, six new special designs were added to bring endless surprises to everyone.

In both cases, consumers, not buyers, are given the final say (or collaborative decision) which designs should be mass-produced, and the most popular design-scale natural production meets market demand.

As a designer, some brands are trying to involve buyers in the design process. After Burberry has followed this brand, Blank Label and Gemvara, another one allows customers to freely select patterns, materials and other details through the online application process. The brand, in this way, consumers can own their own unique clothes or accessories. It is reported that later this year, Burberry will allow customers to design their own windbreaker!

With Web applications, consumers are free to choose styles, colors, and other details in Burberry's "scheduled" category. With the introduction of more and more materials, there will be more than 12 million combinations of products, and consumers may create some unique designs.

In this well-established example, clothing is only produced after the order, thus rejecting any possibility of excess stock.

Accessories designer Rebecca Minkoff gave consumers more freedom. She turned to Polyvore, an online fashion modeling community, to design her next season’s morning-after clutch product. Rebecca Minkoff provided images of the named material, including leather, hooks, tassels, studs, zippers, and bandages, and brainstormed at Polyvore.

In a week, nearly 4,000 users submitted more than 6,000 designs with different styles. The designers who won the final victory can display their designs in the February New York Fashion Week opening show and begin in February. The design crown was put into production under the Minkoff brand name.

Minkoff believes that "the cooperation between consumers and designers is an excellent way for designers to truly understand what their customers want from their brands. My customers' participation in this two-way cooperation has truly shown that they understand our brand. The aesthetic concept and design concept.” Minkoff also said she would consider launching similar events in the near future.

"Designer" is out of date?

Although the connection between designers and consumers has become increasingly close, one of Polyvore's founders is aware that some people believe that this collaboration has spurred the artistic integrity of the design process.

"Some people think that the interactive design of ideas has been separated from the special category of art creation," said Jess Lee. She added that the most important thing is to maintain the designer's design perspective and radiate to all designs.

Lam agrees with this and he pointed out that "My design concept has not received any ** during my collaboration with eBay, which is why I think that concept interactive design is a great concept. I can keep my creative idea. Perform the design process and complete the entire design process as usual."

Although Derek Lam, Rebecca Minkoff and Burberry Chief Creative Director Christopher Bailey make consumers part of the design process, they still retain control, but they can still ensure that the product expresses its own style and choice while also engaging in a new one. Way consumption.

“Customer needs are part of the personal experience and more and more websites will try to establish direct contact with customers and make them directly involved,” Vivian Weng said. (Text: Graysie zhao)