25 June 2014

NEW VIDEO: Vlog #2: Press Days and Belly Dancing


Fashion and technology have always got along. New ideas and inventions come out so regularly, it's sometimes hard to keep up! The two cater to each other, like smartphones becoming one of the 'essentials' for bloggers and catwalks becoming more of a visual experience by using tech. I for one have never been that much of a 'techie', I able to run this blog and my channel without too much trouble, but as soon as it comes to writing codes and the like, my brain shuts down. So when I was invited to a FashTech event for London Technology Week I was intrigued and a little scared that I wouldn't be able to understand all of the complicated things but decided to go. 

I'd been at an audition beforehand,  but got caught in the 'Oxford Circus jam' as I like to call it. If any of you don't know what I'm talking about, Oxford Circus Underground Station often closes the station if it gets too crowded, resulting in a tailback of commuters going down Oxford Street. I've been in this 'jam' a couple of times before, and haven't been held up for more than 5 minutes. This time however...did I wait 5 minutes? No. 5 minutes came and went, so did 10 minutes and 20 minutes. I was stuck for 30 minutes, meaning I missed some networking time when I (finally) got to London College of Fashion for FashTech. Thankfully, I was just in time for the talks. I looked at the agenda of talks going on, and my heart sank. Would I be sitting for hours on end listening to clever people talk about clever things that would go completely in one ear and out the other? NO! As the first talk started I knew I was going to enjoy myself, regardless of that fact that I was a tech rookie. There were a variety of different companies and industry professionals including:


  • Brooke Roberts A radiographer turned fashion knitwear designer who turns MRI scans into patterns for her clothes. She's worked with the Allan Institute for Brain Science with their archive of brain scans to create her work, and has collaborated with composers, choreographers and directors. 
  • Cortexica An image recognition app that helps you find items that you take a picture of so you can buy them. Using the technology that the likes of macy's, Grabble and Zalando are using, it helps you source items that you love without doing long complicated web searches. 
  • Bodi.me Helps you get your right clothes size for online shopping by using a 3D scanner, and is already being used at Burberry, Zara, Mango and Tommy Hilfiger. I got the chance to be scanned at FashTech (after the third attempt, my bad), however when I got home and checked the measurements they were completely off what I actually am! I even remeasured myself to check! I think this is a lovely idea but I think the accuracy needs to be improved as if I'd have bought something with the measurements they gave me, I would have been swamped in material! Not a good look. 
  • EvoMODA Is like the new Pinterest or Polyvore, where you create mood boards using items on the website.
  • Grasshopper Enables smaller companies to set up phone numbers so they can expand globally. Currently in beta. 
  • STEM Academy A sixth form academy who had created STEM In Style and the students created a winter technology garment, with the winners showcasing their product to us.
  • Fashion Teach Tech The Q&A panel made up of Francesca Bernard, Brooke Roberts, Michaela Wolf and Karinna Nobbs. 
Afterwards we were able to network some more, and it was lovely to discover some new brands, and see some old faces- the lovely Grabble people were there so it was amazing to have a catch-up with them (post about their event to come soon). 

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This is a bit of a mash up vlog so there are some clips of when I went to United Colors of Benetton press day on behalf of Naked Fashions as well as of my time at FashTech! Please excuse my quiet talking at the beginning on the train, vlogging on the train is just awks! 

The lovely Adora makes an appearance when we explore Liberty's! You can find her here

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What have you guys been up to recently?

Gx


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