Digitisation is more important than ever. Accelerated by the global pandemic, partnerships and workflows between suppliers and fashion brands have become increasingly more digital. Fabric mills focusing on digitisation will not only cater to a brand’s digital product creation but also greatly increase customer service, reduce costs and reduce resources.

In most cases, fashion brands would digitise their fabric swatches in-house, with the swatch ordered and shipped this is a process which can take as long as 4 weeks. To optimise this process, there is a greater push to move the digitisation of fabrics from brands to the suppliers. With this shift, designers can immediately begin their design process, allowing them to move up their ordering schedule for the collections accordingly.

In a move which we hope will encourage and support our exhibiting manufacturers in the potential advantages of fabric digitisation, we have digitised and showcased a selection of new material developments in the WE ARE ALL IN Digital Trend Space for the new Spring.Summer 22 season.

We first introduced the concept that fabric suppliers will offer a digital twin alongside physical swatches at our 2019 edition of Keyhouse. After successfully demonstrating the individual steps of fabric digitisation in the Digital Fabric Lab, we have now succeeded in creating a realistic image of digital fabric samples in cooperation with individual partners from this network.