On the occasion of the ANDAM 2021 INNOVATION AWARD, we are organing a series of meetings with several members of the jury who present their vision of tomorrow's Fashion. Today, we are very pleased to interview Franck Delpal, Director of the Specialised Master at the IFM.
1/ What has made the biggest impression on you this year in terms of innovation ? And especially in the Fashion sector ?
In a context of complete upheaval in the fashion system, with profond disruptions in consumer habits and supply chain management, the most striking point is the rapid maturation of numerous technologies that enables the players in our sector to invent ways to bounce back.
In the space of few months, issues that seemed to take years to emerge have experienced a fast-track deployment. Whether it's a question of tools for digitalising sales processes, of a constant search to reduce the environmental impact of supplies or new forms of interaction with customers, many solutions have been put into practice over the past year. I don't think that we assit to a back to the past on the whole of these dimensions and this testify of a growing appetence of the fashion's players for innovation in the broadest sense. The ANDAM innovation award, which has always been intended as a bridge between the fashion and tech universes is therefore more meaningful than ever today.
2/ What do you expect from the start-ups that will compete this year's ANDAM 2021 Innovation Award ?
To bring out new issues, by offering solutions adapted to the specificities of our sectors. The first solutions born in the Fashion Tech sphere are now mature and in the meantime, new possibilities have appeared, as much in the world of materials as in that of digital and data. It's therefore a matter of identifying new possible uses in the fashion-luxury universe to continue to infuse the latest developments in our sector.
3/ Do you have an advice to be given to them or to the innovation entrepreneurs who have entered the Fashion industry ?
Acculturation to the fashion sector is a necessary process for entrepreneurs, often from very different universes. It is a question of understanding how it works, and beyond that the particular mindset that drives the business' leaders.