Technology and fashion are perfect match

As a matchmaker, I will not hesitate to say that local fashionistas and techies need to make haste and find each other, for consumers to experience the magic born out of their union

 Dear Fashionistas and Techies,

For years now, I could not help but notice how very like the opposing sides of a magnet you are, repelling each other for what I can only presume as superficial reasons. Granted, Fashionistas can seem flighty and shallow, what with expressions like “sexy geek style” and the idea that tech is somewhat limited to social media, apps and websites that sell stuff while not compiling a list of Best Dressed Techies in Kenya because, who are they again?

 And Techies, heads wrapped around with thick headphones, surrounded by code, MacBooks and a selection of phones who grunt and dress like Zuckerberg. It struck me that as a pair, we are soulmates. Twin flames even. Yet here we are, opposite sides of the roome, not crossing the threshold leading up to a mutually satisfying relationship with potential to be mind blowingly delicious.

So where we are on a weird third dimensional plane where everything is ordinary. Fashion schools trot along on the back of a dot matrix education system.

GRADUATION WITHOUT CLEAR UNDERSTANDING

Creatives graduate without a clear understanding on how to do business in a technological age. It limits their ability to be visionaries who can build bridges across unique fields. This is, after all, how inventions come about. Inspiration transcends a single industry. In technologically playful parts of the world fashion talent graduates with an intricate knowledge of textile and fabric engineering, manufacturing and design.

New textures and dyes emerge as a result of interesting combinations where techie innovators work with creatives and create something fresh. They use this as a competitive edge, collaborating with textile mills to create a profoundly singular signature.

Conversation is gearing towards smart threads and fabrics not for athletes, but in Levis and clothes that will soon monitor heart rates, blood pressure, activity levels and overall health of the wearer. This could, incidentally, be an ailing parent whose biofeedback is linked to your smartphone so you can know if she took her medicine.

Instead of overdosing on Ankara and upcycling fabrics from America and Europe, we can work on upgrading our textile mills. The government is investing billions into textiles. But the education system is not exactly preparing graduates to collaborate and create fabric that the Kenyan market desperately needs.

Exchange programmes across the continent would be illuminating as would an open mind.

Data scientists can dive into the world of consumer psychology, understanding patterns and behaviour which in turn inform software design used to predict future trends. Allowing even the most eccentric creative to plan ahead.

AUTOMATED STITCHING

Struggles with tailors can be phased out with automated stitching. Or how about pattern cutting machines, a skill designers have long complained graduates do not seem to possess. Or a digital changing room. You get to see how you look before spending any money. Or, instead of sweating the day to book balancing, why not make use of an accounting product for financial management?

It is easy to dismiss tech but in the backroom of design it is woven into it. As a consumer, you may not know this because you do not engage with the process.

Tech has a reputation for being disruptive but it should not be so. It needs to provide solutions.

You might wonder, why does tech have to be the new black? Well, tech needs fashion too. The best case in point has to be smartphones. They have to look sexy. And no one does desirable like fashion. Apple even poached the creative director of Burberry and changed its business model from a luxury brand to a fashion brand. To make tech mainstream, tech needs fashion’s eye to smooth its edges. This is because consumers prefer something not straight out of sci-fi.

Fashion and tech combined pushes boundaries. Both are restless, fluid, dynamic, innovative, vibrant, impossible to pin down and transient. Both are symbiotic and adaptable, customisable and allowing for self expression.

Together you challenge the status quo and spark necessary fights and conversations. There will also be spectacular fallouts and formidable unions. As a matchmaker, I do not hesitate to say Kenyan fashionistas and Kenyan techies need to urgently make haste and find each other, court swiftly, get married as soon as possible and have as many distinct babies as is humanly possible.

Love,

A Heavily Invested Fashionista.