When your team has been dealing with traditional workflows for decades, the move to digital fashion design can feel like a big step.
Some fashion design and development teams, whether small or large, may only be getting started with their digital transformation. And given the number of moving parts in a fashion development and production workflow; the coordination of designers, technical designers, pattern makers, merchandisers, and overseas partners, layering on new tools, new processes and new expectations can feel like an additional hurdle.
But there is hope. You don't have to change everything in your workflow all at once. Even the best digital transformation projects understand little steps can make a big difference. When performed mindfully, these steps promote digital trust throughout your team, an ability to move faster, communicate information more clearly and maybe even adopt practices that are more sustainable. For many organizations, even if you’re a freelancer or a small team (Browzwear offers options for fashion teams of any size), the real shock is how early these benefits begin to show up once you move to a more digital workflow.
Digital design and digital design solutions like VStitcher, Browzwear’s flagship digital fashion design and development solution, provide fashion professionals with a functional alternative to modernize, but also doesn’t take away from their day-to-day work. By simulating apparel closely and digitally, before a sample is produced you can review silhouette, style lines, material behavior and true-to-life fit simulations. This helps save time and can provide insights earlier in the development process.
Since fashion design solutions allow designers and technical designers to create trusted digital twins, they can quickly adjust patterns and see how this change impacts look, silhouette, scale, proportion, fit and drape. That omits much of the back-and-forth associated with standard sampling. It also minimizes the guesswork that slows down development timelines. With a garment having a tested digital twin, teams can share ready-to-use pattern files, digital tech packs that are more informational, and digital pattern making, providing higher fidelity input, outputs that keep everyone on the same page, and ultimately enable manufacture to produce 95% FTR samples. Virtual prototypes could likewise go to manufacture, internal merchandising or e-commerce teams, getting teams to showcase styles early and with greater confidence.
As an example, Browzwear client, Perry Ellis International is a shining example of how digital transformation can actually happen and provide benefits. The idea they had in 2017 when they started experimenting with digital design wasn’t to upend the entire company. Instead, they hoped to learn how a digital transformation could facilitate their brand and address real workflow issues. The team knew it could be a game changer, and as a result they went through the transition incrementally.
Collaborating with Browzwear provided the team with the tools and the validation it required. Browzwear provided authenticated digital fabrics, accurate pattern information, and fit validation inside VStitcher. This meant designers of all types could trust it. As confidence grew, so did the number of items they built digitally. The benefits showed up quickly.
With validated digital twins, Perry Ellis was able to shorten sample cycles, increase clarity across teams, and save both time and money. As the team at Perry Ellis put it, they can say that their process is not fast fashion but a smart-to-market process. The thing is, none of this happened overnight after all. They got there because they started small, they built trust, they scaled as much as worked for their teams.
"We call this process not fast fashion, but smart-to-market because it makes us smarter in our decisions. With Browzwear, we have been able to reduce our physical salesman's samples by more than 50% in total, and in some brands by 75%."
Every company’s journey to digital development is a little different. The important thing is to have a plan for your digital product creation you can follow, support, and that seems achievable, and is gaining momentum over time. Here are a few friendly, actionable high-level steps you can take to help you get underway. Evaluate your need, establish good objectives Consider what you want from your digital transformation and how it helps your business overall. Don’t “go digital” just for the sake of going digital. Some common goals that may align with your business include:
Utilizing digital product development to reduce time to market
Cut down on physical salesman samples, saving on budgets
Improving the cooperation between designers, technical designers, and manufacturers
Supporting sustainability projects · More accurate fit and construction true to client, mitigating returns from fit issues
Your goals can be used as guides for choices in the tools you use and adapting and building workflows.
The best way for digital transformation to take place and succeed is through the collaborative processes. This is true in the fashion industry, other industries and small to large teams. Stylezone from Browzwear enables collaboration across the whole fashion design workflow and supply chain.
Consider involving designers, technical designers, production teams , merchandising, buyers or purchasing teams, leadership, anyone who will use or benefit from digital design devlopment. Early alignment helps your team feel supported and increases the probability of long-term success.
As you consider your requirements with digital fashion design software, ask yourself such questions as:
Do digital garments translate to physical without surprises?
Can it integrate with your existing fashion tech stack, such as your PLM or ERM? Or is it a closed garden with few integrations?
Does it help with fit development? Can you visualize and see adjustment to fit in real time?
Is it intuitive enough that members of your fashion design team can adopt it?
Think of your solution as more than just a piece of software that solves one part of the workflow. Many design teams choose a design platform for fashion that will evolve along with them. Think about the future state. That may mean it is less restrictive, and more flexible, in style for designers, technical designers, pattern makers and others in the workflow.
A pilot project is your opportunity to build digital trust. For your pilot project consider and pick something that your teams may be more familiar with and easy for the team to understand like:
A basics fashion category, or athleisure or loungewear, Not a complicated design with multiple pieces
Consider a style that is low risk for the project, one that your team is familiar with, so variables and errors can easily be found
A workable pilot allows for the identification of acute changes and comparisons between digital physical results.
Allow your team to play, practice and learn in any solution you may choose. Ask possible vendors if you can be provided with a test or demo environment. You can also find support for your transformation project by: · Offering guidance, best practices and transformation support (Browzwear has a whole University for training)
Allowing users some time for play and experimentation
Sharing tips and discoveries across teams
Celebrating quick wins
An encouraging learning culture enables designers and technical designers to be confident and excited for the shift.
Digital transformation doesn’t have to be a single thing, especially in the fashion design world with sometimes complex workflows. Small but thoughtful actions can generate immediate results like fewer physical samples, better fit reviews and faster product development.
As you continue working through digital product development with a confident team, those wins become persistent improvements that change the way you do business overall. Perry Ellis showed the small stuff can become big.
Fashion organizations have the opportunity to start creating the digital trust building necessary in the future, with the right preparation and tools, and can become a more effective and sustainable fashion organization. Browzwear and VStitcher are here to ease that journey and walk you through how to make the change.
