Once a signifier of luxury or novelty, custom products and services are now within reach of the everyday consumer, thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence, algorithm-led platforms, and the COVID-era digitisation boom. Today, everyone wants to be the main character of their brand experience.

People are craving comfort. Amid what can feel like a state of constant crisis – a layering of traumatic societal events – it can sometimes seem like we’ve lost a sense of scale and cohesion. In the face of this, the desire to retreat into nostalgia is more seductive than ever.

Why isn’t digital fashion cutting through? Is fashion delivering on consumer’s DE&I credentials? How will people display distaste for lacklustre climate efforts? In this part of the 2023 Expert Outlook, we speak to three experts about how the search for novelty is shaping the Fashion and Style sector.

Streetwear fashion encompasses different subcultures, trends, and influences, with its rise in popularity fueled by the product-churning fashion sector and people’s demand for newness. As Gen Zers move streetwear towards being hype-based and exclusive, how is this impacting the wider fashion space?

Virgio, a start-up in India, is looking to be the next one-stop shop for younger shoppers trying to stay on top of fashion trends. Working directly with designers and manufacturers to mainstream branded apparel, they may also be inadvertently pushing fast-fashion tendencies in the country’s industry.