Meet the fashion-tech startups powering a better fashion industry

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Fashion is approaching a new era, one in which technology and sustainability converge to offer opportunities that are better for business and better for the planet. But as budgets constrict and consumer sentiment shifts, brands face tough decisions on where to invest to drive innovation and decrease waste.

There are a number of hot topics in the mix. Improvements to artificial intelligence are driving a new industrial revolution. Wearable tech is enjoying a renaissance, thanks to smart glasses and mixed reality headsets. Digital design is getting fast and photorealistic. Mixed reality is going mainstream. On-demand manufacturing is ready to scale. And circular business models such as rental and resale are becoming the status quo.

Brands are juggling a number of goals, balancing the needs to increase efficiency and creativity on the inside while boosting consumer loyalty on the outside. This makes their next experiments and the tech partners they work with critical to success in the years ahead.

Thanks to a host of AI startups, designers can quickly generate photorealistic product renders, brands can create on-model marketing imagery, and shoppers can virtually try on products via e-commerce. On-demand manufacturing and 3D printing solutions, meanwhile, offer a new approach to product production that upends the design-make-sell cycle that has led to a climate emergency. Digital fashion, augmented reality and smart mirrors bring the metaverse into stores and showrooms, offering new ways to engage outside of physical goods. Digital identities and blockchain-based data provide a new layer of authentication and transparency, paving the way for circular economies and new loyalty rewards.

At the Vogue Business Fashion Futures event, in partnership with GXO, held at Chelsea Factory in New York, we invited a range of companies and founders to exhibit new tools that better the fashion industry using these technologies. The gallery below offers a virtual tour of the Vogue Business technology startup showcase, with many exhibitors hand-selected by Vogue Business editors.

Meet the fashion-tech startups powering a better fashion industry.

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