Dear Friend,
As we are getting close to the end of the year, I feel more and more reflective. The year 2017 has been truly transformational for me in so many ways and I hear the same from many people I speak with. More and more people become awaken to the fact that this world can't go on the downward spiral path of extreme consumption, mindless waste and unethical work environment across our Planet. I'm so grateful & inspired to meet like-minded people who share my passion for creating a meaningful change in our industry.
Last week my friend Jennifer Yassen held her first event focusing on pre-consumer waste. The panelists spoke about opportunities for brands to easily adopt sustainable solutions through collaborative efforts and discussions on the best practices for eliminating pre-consumer waste from the production stream to benefit bottom-line, add to marketing edge and significantly reduce the environmental impact. There are several startups that work on helping brands eliminate production waste - one of them is FABSCRAP, a one-stop textile reuse, and recycling resource for businesses and individuals.
I'm excited to get a chance to organize a pre-holiday event at FABSCRAP with our Balanced Fashion community. We will be volunteering 3 hours of our time to help them sort fabric scraps at their warehouse. It will be a great chance to meet, get to know each other better and learn types of fabrics, their qualities, and recyclability. As a thank you, to us, the volunteers, FABSCRAP will let each of us keep up to 5 pounds of any fabric we like! So get your holiday DIY ideas ready! ;) Space is super limited, only 12 people can come to volunteer at a time - so sign up now if you're interested! We are going to be organizing these events periodically next year as well, so you can always sign up for the next one by filling in this form.
Hope to see many of you at my event with Lona Alia of StyleLend tonight and join us for the discussion of what our wardrobes can become in the future if we start utilizing the right technology platforms!
News Digest:
- Is the second wave of sustainability finally here? - Refinery29
- The State of the Wearables Market - PCR
- Will the year of ‘the drop’ change fashion forever? - Fashionista
- With Aday investment, H&M hopes to ‘leave stigma of fast fashion behind’ - Glossy
- This Manufacturing Method Can Create Flexible Wearable Electronics - Medical Design & Outsourcing
- Tech titans José Neves and Ian Rogers on the future of luxury fashion - Evening Standard
- The luxury brand guide to transitioning to direct-to-consumer - Glossy
- Fashion’s interest in alternative fabrics keeps growing - NY Times
- Warby Parker’s app is cleverly using the iPhone X’s face mapping to recommend glasses - TheVerge
- How Brands and Startups Are Using AI to Help You Get Dressed - Fashionista
- This AI Learns Your Fashion Sense and Invents Your Next Outfit - MIT Technology Review
- Poshmark builds a styling tool for Amazon’s Alexa powered devices - Internet Retailer
Events:
Tuesday, December 5th
8:00am - 5:00pm Fashion Digital NY 2017 *
FDNY17 is expected to attract 500+ of the leading minds in fashion and ecommerce technology, including heads of ecommerce and heads of digital marketing making significant technology decisions. Price: Free for retailers Location: 333 West 23rd Street
6:00pm - 8:00pm The Business Of Luxury
The Business of Luxury – Can companies like Authentic Brands Group, Marquee Brands or Global Brands Group Become the Next LVMH?Join attorneys from Authentic Brands Group, Marquee Brands, Global Brands Group and Iconix Brand Group for a riveting discussion on the legal issues facing their companies including licensing, IP asset sales, endeavoring to take national or regional brands “global,” and legal and regulatory challenges posed by utilizing social media as a means for marketing and promoting brands. Price: Free Location: Cardozo School of Law, 55 Fifth Ave
6:00pm The Reinvention Of The Great American Road Trip
FordHub will host a podcast recording of Condé Nast Traveler’s “Travelogue” on December 5th, themed “The Future of the Road Trip,” featuring Sheryl Connolly, Ford’s in-house futurist. In this conversation between Sheryl and Conde Nast Traveler, Sheryl will preview her 2018 trends including how the modern “road trip” is changing. This will be Travelogue’s first-ever live-recorded podcast, produced, and powered by, MouthMedia Network. Price: Free Location: FORDHUB NYC, 185 Greenwich St Suite LL4323
6:30pm - 8:30pm Future of Peer-to-Peer Fashion Rentals w/Lona Alia of Style Lend *
Style Lend offers peer to peer fashion rentals and helps women monetize their closet by renting out their clothing and accessories. Women are enabled to access to their dream wardrobe by allowing users to borrow any item at 90% off retail. I'm a huge believer that the business models like Style Lend will thrive in our sharing economy and the rise of conscious consumption. Come and learn about the insights of running a peer-to-peer rental business and learn Lona's vision of the future of fashion industry. Price: Free Location: Galvanize, 315 Hudson Street, 2nd Floor
Wednesday, December 6th
6:00pm - 8:00pm NADI X HOLIDAY POP-UP EVENT
Join Wearable Experiments team behind Nadi X smart yoga pants for a yoga session with instructor Aditi Shah, followed by more fun, shopping, and drinks. To RSVP email rsvp@wearablex.com Price: Free Location: M.Gemi Soho, 120 Wooster St, NY
6:00pm Machine Learning For Retail - Predict Your Customers Next Purchase
How can retailers data teams use predictive analytics to deliver real value? Yashas Vaidya (Solutions Architect, Dataiku) and Gil Isaacs (Azure Solutions Architect, Microsoft) will walk you through the entire data science process for predicting a customer’s next purchase using HDInsight and Dataiku. Price: Free Location: Microsoft Corporation, 6501 Central Park S
6:00pm Using Science Fiction To Predict Future Impact Of Emerging Tech
Join us for the launch of Tech 2025's new event series, Communities Defining the Future, where we shine a spotlight on other compelling communities around the world providing a platform for people to learn about and discuss emerging technologies and the future Price: Free Location: Matter, 41 Union Square West
6:00pm Celebrating Female Makers
eBay is hosting a dreamy holiday get together to highlight local female-led companies & makers in NYC (including a lot of Dreamers // Doers!). This is a great opportunity to connect with like-minded trailblazers, share ideas and to support local companies in the community. To kick off the evening, a handful of companies will be doing a short and sweet show & tell so you get to learn more about their journeys! Price: Free Location: eBay HQ, 625 6th Ave, 3rd
Thursday, December 7th
6:30pm Women In Technology
With Deepali Kakar (VP Technology UX, Goldman Sachs), Sargi Mann (EVP Head of Digital Strategy & Investments, Havas Media Group), Gela Fridman (MD Technology, Huge), Leah Olverd (Product Mgr, Grubhub). Price: Free Location: General Assembly East, 902 Broadway, 4th Fl
Tuesday, December 12th
This inspiring event series invites key players in NYC’s design community to offer an insider’s look into how they work and create. From branding to user experience to city planning, speakers will discuss how they approach projects from a design point of view, how design thinking methods help with problem-solving, and much more. Plus, they’ll cover opportunities within the field and their vision for the future of the industry. Price: Free Location: General Assembly, 902 Broadway, 4th Floor
Saturday, December 16th
12:00pm - 3:00pm How to Build and Monetize Your Personal Brand in 2018 (Workshop)
In today's rapidly moving landscape, it is now imperative to have a solid brand. What are you known for? What projects do you want to work on? What lifestyle do you want to lead? These are questions to ask yourself when transitioning to building a strong brand that leads to flexible work schedules, multiple income streams and most importantly, passionate life projects. We go through a simple step by step strategy that will help anyone build and scale their brand effectively. Price: $49 Location: Galvanize 315 Hudson Street
Cool Finds:
- Fashion Revolution's Who Made My Clothes podcast
- Antibad - Sustainable Marketplace
- The Good Trade - a resource featuring brands, products & ideas dedicated to social good
Stay Inspired,
Nataliya