The Future Rests with Technology

Today technology is our biggest asset and liability. If technology via the internet crashes the economy will be defunct. While many claim that a total collapse is nearly impossible because of the multiple servers and collection of networks that the internet lives on, internet pioneer Danny Hillis argues that it is entirely possible. He states, “It can crash since, it was not built for its current large-scale use.” Not to mention cyberterrorism is on the rise, thus the internet could be manipulated as a form of attack on the United States by outside forces. A cyberattack that takes down the nation’s system would halt everything and bring the U.S. to its knees.

Technology, while still in its youth in some ways has sparked an esoteric revolution in the fashion industry. Technology has changed our lives in many ways. We have technology all over our homes, it has seeped into every aspect of life and business. Almost everything in life relies on technology and the internet. To me, this is almost a scary sentiment, in light of many data breaches like Experian to the Cambridge Analytica data mining scandal. It has many Americans thinking about privacy and why we give up as much information as we do online, where it is most vulnerable.

If or when this happens people won’t be buying fashions. They’ll be focused on survival. Nobody is safe, even the upper echelon will be wiped out because the financial world lives on technology, unless they stockpiled gold bars. It would be worse than the last recession and far worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s. Not to mention majority of the population gets their fashion news, inspiration and ultimately buys fashion via the internet.

The cutting edge is crucial in the fashion industry. Living in one of the nation’s concentrated tech hubs makes me realize the fact that tech is so far reaching. Will tech save fashion? While technology has its vulnerabilities, tech has made great strides to solve the fashion world’s biggest and most pressing issue; sustainability. A monumental and overwhelming issue with many facets to it from the production process, labor practices, end-use to the eventual textile landfill waste.

Fashion is the second most polluting industry in the world after oil. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 15.1 billion tons of textile waste is produced per year, with fast fashion being the largest contributor.

H&M, the second leading fast fashion company after Zara/Inditex, produces at the rate of 600 million garments per year with 52 micro seasons. Danish TV's Operation X accused H&M of burning 12 tonnes of unsold garments per year since 2013 in Demark alone, which the company denied. The company has stated that it is replacing coal at the Vasteras power plant north of Stockholm. In March the company announced that the pile of unsold stock had grown 7 percent from last year and is worth nearly $4.3 billion.

H&M is not the only business to face criticism over resource absorbing supply chains and contributing to the swells of clothing in landfills. However, technology is what helped enable fast fashion and has accelerated growth in the fashion industry.

Seattle-based startup Evrnu is attacking the issue of textile waste with its new patent pending technology that takes old clothing and creates new fibers for new clothing. Another fashion technology startup Bionic Yarn is creating denim from plastic found polluting the ocean. They have partnered with brands like Kheil’s, G-Star and Pharrell Williams to introduce their new technology and vision.

The future of fashion has always been tech, since its inception. I can hardly remember the time before e-commerce or social media apps that connect us and help disseminate fashion to the masses. I think it is quite possible that history will repeat itself with another economic breakdown, but I think there is so much technology can offer the fashion industry. While tech companies that tackle fashion’s sustainability issues are not new, it’s time for them to ramp up their businesses in order to instill large scale change. Technology still has more to do when it comes to fashion and it is not slowing down by any means.