Supplying What?

A creative economy approach is proposed to discuss the value creation among fashion apparel producers. It is considered that fashion accounts for value creation and for value adding in new products. Fashion turns basic apparel items into more appreciated products. Relations between fashion apparel companies and their suppliers give evidence to support our theoretical discussion in Brazil. This research concludes that the lenses of industrial production and global sourcing are not enough to explain the value creation and the value adding of apparel manufacturing and that the emergence of a local fashion belief and a creative economy can be explored as a source of value creation and value adding. In addition, it is understood that fashion matters on the configuration and coordination of the apparel industry.

Fusion of Artisan and Virtual

Three defining pillars spearhead the current global fashion system: speed to market, overt supply (and consumption) and low prices. This contrasts with a juxtaposing position, through the evolution of slow fashion constructs, embracing artisan techniques with bespoke methodologies. Additional to this is an emerging paradigm integrating new technologies including the strengthening of online retail, virtual interfaces for communication with end-users including customised manufacturing and small scale production runs plus the capacity to communicate and market to anyone, anywhere at anytime across the globe. When these two potentially disparate cultural positions in fashion are considered in tandem, it can facilitate opportunities for small-scale operations to use their size as a platform for flexibility, responsiveness and growth. This model provides for customised and personalised options for a discerning and socially responsible fashion customer. The blurring of bespoke and virtual sees the rise of the digital fashion artisans.

Augmented Reality as a Tool to Enhance the Experiential Value of Online Shopping

Perceived shopping value is an essential factor that affects the purchase decisions of consumers (Babin, Darden & Griffin, 1994). Former research has proved that experiential value associated with shopping activities helps retailers to create sustainable relationships with their consumers (Mathwick, Malhotra & Rigdon, 2001). Therefore, many retailers are seeking for interactive applications that facilitate the online shopping experience. Applications like Augmented Reality (AR) which provides a direct product experience for online shoppers can be a valuable tool for online fashion retailers. This paper aims to provide insights about AR applications' probable experiential value in online fashion retailing. As a result, a conceptualization of AR's experiential value is proposed with hedonic and utilitarian value perspectives combined with assumed benefit and risks of online shopping that can be eliminated with the use of AR technology.

How to Use Sizing Technology and Fashion Metadata to Improve the User Experience for Online Fashion Retail

This chapter aims to open a dialogue on the importance and influence of sizing technology and fashion metadata on fashion e-commerce, especially the use of body metadata and garment metadata. It describes the e-Size project, its objectives, its contribution to specific innovation areas, the methodological approach adopted, as well as presenting the results of an exploratory survey administered to a convenience sample of customers in the attempt to assess the potential validity of the use of sizing software applications amongst fashion retailers. The chapter consists of six sections. The first section outlines the opportunities and challenges for online fashion retailers, the second and third sections analyze fashion metadata (What & How) and Size Technologies for Online Fashion Retail, the fourth section describes the methodology adopted. While the fifth section highlights the preliminary findings of the research, the final section illustrates the conclusion, their limitations and directions for further research.

Entrepreneurial or Not?

UK fashion micro-enterprises, often founded by creative individuals, need to be entrepreneurially oriented and develop a business model that sustains their growth during the critical early phase. Literature on this phase offers guidance in best practice and survival strategies for the operational challenges that emerge, however the business models that sustain enterprise development and provide the blueprint for growth strategies have not been examined. This chapter explores how micro-enterprises integrate entrepreneurial actions into their business models. By applying literature on best practice in fashion designer businesses and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) to the business model concept, a conceptual framework is developed and serves as a point of reference to analyse the current business models of five micro-enterprises. The study finds that business models in this segment of the fashion sector are asymmetrical and EO emerges in some components of the business model and not others.

CRM in Fashion Retail

Relational resources can help fashion retailers facing the increasing uncertainty which is characterizing their competitive arena by developing customers' store loyalty. This paper illustrates the results of a study aimed at developing and testing a model of store loyalty building in the fashion retail context. Hypothesis referring to loyalty antecedents have been derived from previous studies and are not only limited to the key relational variables already identified in the literature (trust, satisfaction and perceived value) but also to their antecedents among the retailing-mix levers to provide managerial directions to fashion retail managers. The developed model has been empirically tested. Data have been collected using a phone survey; the sample is composed of around 1,400 fashion retail customers. The most important result of the study are: the role of trust as a loyalty antecedent and the poor, and negative, role of salespeople within the model.

Slow Fashion and Sustainability

The fashion industry is contributing to today's sustainability challenge in a number of ways. Despite all the advantages of modernization, the pace of life is getting frantic and societal behaviour is in conflict with natural resources. Thus, an urgent need arises to ensure quality in production and improve social and environmental conditions. In this vein, slow fashion emerges as a revolutionary process, which is sensitive to the impact that production and distribution have on society and ecosystems. This chapter contributes an original discussion by exploring how luxury fashion could be valuable for long-term sustainability. While luxury fashion is growing fast, it is interesting to ask to what extent luxury fashion could have a positive impact on sustainability due to quality, heritage and artisan skills. This chapter looks deeply into (i) how luxury fashion could enhance sustainability through sustainable sourcing and local manufacturing, and (ii) how the slow fashion concept could be further endorsed through luxury.

Multi-Sensory Fashion Retail Experiences

In an increasingly competitive and digitally driven fashion market, retailers have to find innovative ways to gain consumers' attention and amplify their brand (Brakus et al, 2011; Barclay & Odgen-Barnes, 2011). This paper examines how fashion retailers can reinforce their brand through integrating multi-sensory experiences within the physical store, specifically sound, smell, sight, touch and taste and analyses if sensory retailing really can have a direct influence on consumer perceptions of a fashion retailer and consequently on the strength of its brand.

Omnichannel Fashion Retail and Channel Integration

The evolution from single channel to multichannel retailing is explained by the need to overcome existing format limitations such as the size of store, expansion in new markets through electronic channels, increasing sales by cross-channel interactions and gaining valuable insight into consumer behaviour through the Internet. The aim of this chapter is to explain the development and implementation of omnichannel retailing and to demonstrate its experiential touchpoints in department stores. Case study approach is adopted to look at the development of omichannel integration and retail touchpoints in two iconing department stores: Harrods and Selfridges. Different strategies are identified and implications of each are discussed with relevant recommendations for retail practitioners.

Fashion-Technology and Change in Product Development and Consumption for the High-end Menswear Sector

This updates a longitudinal study of Bespoke/ High End tailoring (Ross, 2007) with a secondary focus on mid-market menswear. The discussion commences with a review of key literature and practices from digital menswear studies to-date and evaluates how in the last two decades a deeply entrenched traditional sector such as tailoring has embraced numerous fashion digital-technologies from the design process to multi-channel consumption in-store, e-commerce and apps. The author utilizes a 3D-4C's process model as a structural template. The research methodology is interpretive, qualitative, online structured-observation of tailors currently utilizing digital practices plus in-depth interviews with industry experts. Those interviewed include Bespoke/Designer tailors with current 3D- platforms and International researchers providing insight into the latest developments in digital fashion including virtual design, scanning, sizing, avatars, 3D-fabric-simulations, 3D-printing, virtual-try-on and customization to establish best practices and future forecasts for proactive fashion management.