For the start of New York Fashion Week (NYFW), Fashinnovation hosted their 10th annual Worldwide Talks where innovators could collaborate on solutions for some of fashion’s most pressing issues.

To start off the NYFW, the team at Fashion On The Beat attended the 10th edition of Fashinnovation Worldwide Talks. The event took place at the Lectra Innovation Center in Hudson Yards and was divided between themed panels and networking hours among designers, product developers, and fashion-tech companies. While the attendees were a diverse cohort of clothing brands and tech CEOs, two themes were on everyone’s mind: size inclusivity and sustainability.

While there have certainly been strides in these arenas, fashion is still a notoriously exclusive and high-emission industry. In 2022, Tech Crunch reported the fashion industry is responsible for 4% to 10% of annual carbon emissions, and around 20% of the world’s wastewater. Further, while brands have begun to slowly incorporate more plus-sized options, fitting garments is more than just a game of petit and plus-size. In 2023, Verena Erin reported that 75% of people have issues finding clothes that fit, and that only 23% of people are the same letter size in their bust, waist and hips. These findings suggest that there is a serious need for manufacturers to reckon with the needs of the environment and the consumer. 

A central way the present brands approached inclusivity was through technology innovations to make sizing more personal. Currently, there are a number of apps which claim to be able to guess users’ measurements through a profile and front photo. However, while Choozr and TAILOR’D use Augmented Reality for their calculations, they are not a one-size-fits-all solution. In addition to accuracy concerns, even if a person knows their size, it is not guaranteed that a store will carry it. That is why companies like Humanetics are going further than just reporting measurements and has actually expanded the size chart to 139 U.S. sizes. The industrial technology group is new to the world of fashion, working primarily within collision industries like automotives and space missions. This background has proved to be beneficial as Humanetics’ representative explained that the company surveyed 18,000 Americans from every life stage (0-75 years) using intra-industrial 3D body scanners, human body data models, and ergonomic simulation software to create their size chart. Perhaps most astonishing is that they’re not done. When asked if their modelling technique might work for disabled people, he confirmed that the company was in the process of determining the needs and modelling techniques for atypical bodies. As the event went on, designers connected with Humanetics because their solutions seem not only advanced, but scalable from small to large made-to-wear businesses. One of these companies was Individu.art, a brand that believes sustainability doesn’t have to be boring.

Individu.art’s founder and lead designer, Erica Bondarev Rapach, identifies as a recovering fast fashion addict and a conscious creative attempting to synergize maximalist fashion with sustainable consumption. While the brand is still in nascent development and was primarily promoting a market-research survey, Rapach explained that the company’s vision is to use AI to produce two complimentary textiles that would reflect the wearer’s personal branding. AI is becoming an increasingly popular way to modernize the textile industry to improve machine efficiency and industry operations. The textiles on display were produced primarily using DALL-E 3 and Chat GPT text to image features. The clothes will be made-to-wear to avoid garment waste, but Rapach is still deciding the most effective way to ensure that consumers find their size. A partnership between Individu.art and a company like Humanetics may provide an equilibrium between practical manufacturing limits and creating a human-centred business. Although Rapach did not yet have original clothes on display, her charm and erudite captured the spirit of her presentation well. The designer sported her natural curls and a mixed texture outfit that toed the line between chic and bohemian. As Rapach and her team reflected, Individu.art is a brand for the bold. Similarly daring, the brand NANDANIE was also in attendance marketing their ties for women.

The only way to describe NANDANIE’s ties are as dazzling. Some of the standout ties are the Denim Crystal Frayed Petite Necktie and Baroque Classic Necktie which are playful twists on the classically serious accessory. While her ties are stylish, found NANDANIE’s founder Nancy Berman does not want them to be overlooked as superficial. The Detroit, Michigan local and member of the U.S. Commission for the President of  America’s Heritage Abroad created NANDANIE after trying on a tie from her son’s closet and recognizing the disparity in ties designed for women. She explained that she is passionate about subverting gender expectations to make styles for everybody: “I sat in a lot of boardrooms as the only woman, and I wanted to be able to wear something that made me feel confident, empowered, like ‘I can be here, I can wear that.’” Many of the designs are unisex, but uplifting women is at the heart of the label. This is punctuated by the NANDANIE’S elephant logo, a symbol of strength, character and uniqueness. Also keeping to the promise of socially responsible manufacturing, NANDANIE is produced entirely in New York City from sustainable materials. Berman stated that only about 40 of each design are produced to ensure there is not excess garment waste. Her luxury ties certainly made one of the biggest impacts of the day and will continue leading the field in gender-expansive fashion.

While the stylings and innovations of these companies is inarguably impressive, the most common and most salient critique of sustainable fashion is its price point. Vogue’s sustainability editor, Tonne Goodman brought this issue up during the “Fashion is Inspiration Via Sustainability” talk speaking with designer Mara Hoffman and her Vice President of Sustainability, Product, and Business Strategy, Dana Davis. Goodman, known for her forwardness asked Hoffman directly how the “proletariat” should engage with sustainability. Hoffman’s response: “Go to the soil.” Hoffman explained that for much of her life she described herself as “tree-lover,” but only recently shifted to forming a basic and reciprocal relationship with nature. Hoffman acknowledged access to nature is an incredible privilege, but encouraged everyone who does to challenge their most basic practices because sustainability is not simply a talking point during fashion week, it is an essential conversation about the closing division between society and the natural world as climate change closes in. This is especially true on islands like Manhattan. 

As a part of this conversation, the two panelists then reflected that sustainability, like innovation, is constantly progressing but never perfect. Throughout Mara Hoffman’s 25-year brand history, the company has transitioned from relying on silk, to manmade cellulosic fibres (made from tree pulp), to now being the first luxury brand to partner with the recycling startup, Circ. For smaller companies which do not have the bandwidth to invest in cutting edge fabrics, Davis advised to start smaller with their packaging and in-house waste. 

While the women’s answers were certainly important, they felt incomplete. The question of what poor consumers are supposed to do was left unanswered, not just by Hoffman and Davis but by the fashion industry as a whole. Goodman added that it is difficult to imagine a world fueled by spirit rather than money because many of the world’s most radical thinkers work in magazines, fashion, industries predicated on yearning for what we do not have. Every business is complicit, and it is difficult and uncomfortable to consider the alternatives. The panel did not end on doom-and-gloom, though. Instead, like the art before it, it left the audience with a crucial contradiction to solve in the week, months, and years ahead.