IAF World Fashion Convention 2017 Ends Successfully

The 33rd (International Apparel Federation) IAF World Fashion Convention 2017, which was held on October 17 and 18, 2017, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, ended on a successful note. Over 350 participants came together for the world fashion conference. The theme for this year’s event was ‘Compliance and Technology – Key Drivers for Industry and Retail.’

In the course of three days, visitors, approximately 40 per cent of the international participants, and many representatives from the Brazilian textile and clothing industries discussed a multitude of technical and business topics, market developments and future trends in the clothing and textile industries.

The focus of this year’s World Fashion Conference 2017 panel, consisting of talks and discussions, was placed on the topics of sustainability, digitalisation, and technology.

In their talks, representative for the world’s leading strategic consulting firms McKinsey and the Boston Consulting Group addressed different aspects of the urgency for companies to strategically orient themselves in regard to digitalisation.

John Cheh, managing director and deputy chairman of the board of directors of apparel firm, Esquel Group, talked about his almost entirely automated and digitalised, multilevel textile development for the production of shirts.

Joachim Hensch presented the current development trends at Hugo Boss in the context of digitalisation. The prototypes and production design for the manufacture of the pilot series at Hugo Boss and other international brands will change drastically as a result of new communication paths and shorter development cycles.

Jonathan Zornow, founder of the start-up Sewbo from Seattle, introduced his innovative sewing robot for which he had registered a patent this year. He believes that the automation of the clothing industry holds great potential for changing supply chains and optimising products.

The fourth participant in the panel representing the Gherzi Textil Organisation was the correspondent, Anton Schumann, who talked about the opportunities presented by digitalisation on the basis of the change of and innovation in business models in the clothing and textile industries.

The talk given by the American company Lectra, who built its own research and development centre in Boston for their clientele, was especially stimulating. Thanks to the digital design development and cutting pattern configuration, it is now possible for the designer or product developer to remotely, and independently of time, operate the machines in Bangladesh, India or China with their design.

The presentation by the representative from C&A Brazil in the context of the sustainability discussions on the second day was also highly engaging.