In recent years, the apparel industry has become unusually complex. This change includes the segmentation of clothing brand positioning, the evolution of upstream fabric technology, the upgrade of intelligent production technology, the improvement of brand operation capabilities, and omni-channel marketing represented by various traffic diversion models.
The clothing design department makes different fabric performance research and development models based on accurate consumer portraits and around different product strategies and product attribute requirements, and then combines fabric and product strategy requirements to sort out Develop accurate design and disbursement methods to help brand companies control sources and intermediate links, thereby reducing trial and error costs and increasing the efficiency of product matching to market demand.
As a carrier that serves clothing, fabric has its own form and technical attributes, and at the same time, it must serve the clothing itself and its application scenarios. At a time when homogeneous products are increasing day by day, the research and development of differentiated fabrics can highlight the brand’s personality and tone, and is imperative.
Clothing design and fabric development complement each other, and only through synergy can precise research and development be achieved.
Fabric texture and clothing style need to be coordinated
In the past, the style development of many clothing brands came from Because of imitation, many styles have not changed for many years. They just change the color and fabric and continue to make them. This simple and crude development model causes designers to pay little attention to the texture effect of fabrics.
Different materials and textures have their own aesthetic attributes, which will extend the appropriate style and creative scope. Only when the aesthetics of material texture and overall style expression are unified, can a piece of clothing be It looks classy and quality. The reason why brands at different levels can seem to be distinguished is mainly because of the different textures of fabrics and craftsmanship and the different matching techniques of style and design elements.
Many new brands have emerged in recent years. The design has indeed improved compared with the previous aesthetics, but it is still slightly insufficient in combining the fabric material texture with creative element design. In order to achieve competitive differentiation, some mid-to-high-end brands have developed some unique fabric patterns, but they are still a little immature when it comes to combining fabric textures to present unique designs.
Three rules of fabric innovation
Fully embody the genes of clothing brands
There are many international clothing brands that have formed their own design genes and design techniques. For example, Issey Miyake’s clothing makes clever use of wrinkle texture and structural design. In the domestic market, there are no designers or brands that can express and apply the texture of fabrics or design techniques very well. Of course, this also needs to be synchronized with market demand. It is believed that consumers’ future personalized needs will promote innovative design of fabrics.
The material style is coordinated with the overall design
The basic direction is around commuting wear or style clothing. To select a certain type of fabric material texture, and then the designer can maximize the coordination and design creativity. At this point, Korean designers, Japanese designers, and European and American designers are more mature, which is related to the aesthetic maturity brought about by the early development of the design education system and economy. In recent years, some designs that coordinate fabric texture styles and overall designs have gradually appeared in China. In the future, domestic designers are expected to become increasingly mature in this field.
The pursuit of conflicting beauty is a trend
Cross-border design has become popular in recent years, giving rise to various The possibility of mixing and matching elements is different from the past. In the past, many mix-and-match trends were just for the sake of mixing and matching. In the future, with the improvement of designers’ abilities and the evolution of the market, there will be real mix-and-match of fabrics, textures and styles to achieve the beauty of contrast and conflict. , clothing brands will truly gain market value from creative designs.
Design is still the easiest to imitate. With the rapid development of the social economy of the mobile Internet, brands will create “copied and modified” brands from the perspective of building brand IP at the beginning of creation. “, imitation” moat, strengthen information synchronization through social fan marketing, reduce the market share of imitators, and maximize brand benefits.
Multiple scene applications of comfort fabrics
The social attributes of clothing demand are conveyed by styles, and Functionality is mainly conveyed by the fabric. In addition to the seasonal demand for thin and thick fabrics, consumers’ functional demands for fabrics, including comfort, may become one of the trends.
Different consumer groups have different urgency and perceptions of comfort, but the general direction will not change. Comfort is not just for underwear. When consumers wear clothing in any scene, they do not want to sacrifice comfort because of style. Therefore, humanized design is to apply comfortable fabrics to different scene styles, such as how sportswear can satisfy Functional requirements combined with comfort, and how business travel clothing can achieve comfort during travel.
Cotton, linen, wool, silk and other natural fibers themselves have comfort and quality. However, due to issues such as cost and care, natural fibers made of Although the sense of fabric quality is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, many practical application problems need to be solved in terms of design performance. Natural materials�Texture characteristics and material characteristics often have certain restrictions on style design. Strengthening technological breakthroughs in textile technology or the development of raw materials will broaden designers’ creative space for style design and activate consumers’ multiple needs for comfort and quality. demand market.
Focus on consumer trends and develop differentiated fabrics
In order to compete in the market To stand out from the crowd, developing differentiated fabrics is the key. However, consumers themselves do not pay attention to differences in competition. Consumers only have differences in needs. Differences in competition means increase the difficulty of consumer choice. Therefore, this trend will make consumer group preferences more differentiated, which is also what drives the future community economy. One of the essence.
Differentiated fabrics will increase R&D costs when creating value. Before the industry has fully adapted to the new competitive trajectory, there are still relatively few products with real cost advantages and mature designs, and these are the keys to cost-effective products. The demand for cost-effectiveness is overwhelming. Efficiency improvements throughout the industry chain can meet this demand, and the most direct measure to improve efficiency is cost control. When companies develop new fabrics, they will reduce costs through technological innovation. This trend deserves attention. This is not only for corporate profits, but also will have a subtle impact on consumer trends.
Currently, the overcrowding of wardrobes is driving consumers to purchase higher-quality products. More and more consumers are reducing the number of clothes and choosing more and more. More rational, this phenomenon does not only appear among mature age consumers, young people have also begun to have the same consumption philosophy. Driven by such a consumption concept, designers need to quantify needs, then quantify strategies, and finally quantify designs.
The differentiated development of fabrics deserves attention, but for the specific means of implementation, practitioners still need to start from the perspective of reaching consumers, combine the aesthetics and characteristics of materials, and further innovate. </p
