Think Consulting Group director and former Supre international brand manager Catherine Taouk recently penned an explosive blog on how Australian brands are losing their way. In this series, she names her innovators.
Reintroducing innovation to the once thriving fashion industry could just be the key to a holistic transformation of the flailing style sector.
In such a fast paced external environment, innovation is the essential ingredient to regain profitability, driving ideas and pushing boundaries.
Recently when a number of Australian fashion businesses accepted government subsidies under the “innovation” banner, it appears they were only taking into consideration one element of innovation- that isolated element in relation to design.
This tunnel vision focus glazes over the important broader terms of being innovative in their business models such as utilising technology, how they create innovative strategies to motivate and empower their team to optimise productivity, utilising retail and online spaces, and of course how they could use Australian manufacturing to their advantage rather than dismissing it as a hindrance to competitiveness.
The term innovation can be defined as something original and novel that "breaks into" the market or society. It’s about the application of new solutions designed to meet evolving requirements: Something original, new, and vitally important.
Here, we look at all the major elements of driving innovation for change in the fashion industry and highlight Australian fashion businesses which are taking the bull by the horns to sharpen their game and as a result achieving better results and sustainability in a characteristically top-heavy industry.
Innovative Fashion Design
In the theme of celebrating Australian Fashion designers successes, you don’t have to look any further than this year's New York Fashion Week where the Zimmermann sisters, Tome, Sass and Bide and Dion Lee took centre stage showcasing their talents to the US market.
Some have called it an “Aussie Invasion” however; they have achieved something that was previously unthinkable strutting their stuff alongside some of the world’s most
renowned labels.
Being innovative in fashion design isn’t just about translating global looks to Australian styling or a unique cutting angle or design- its about how that particular garment was built, structured, and manufactured that makes it innovative.
Whether it’s about transforming an old style into something up to the minute or creating personalised and individual prints on bikinis, technology is certainly a key component to driving change and innovation in the industry.
When the innovation package was introduced to the textile, clothing and footwear category via a large wad of cash thrown at the initiative in response to a review of the sector, we would have hoped that the working title of “innovation” would have sparked a little more creativity.
The aim was to foster the development of a sustainable and internationally competitive textile and clothing industry by providing incentives to promote innovation. However, today there are only a handful of companies who received the sizable grants that are still standing, including Anthea Crawford, Carla Zampatti, SUPRÉ and Scanlan & Theodore.