How To Be More Fashionable With This Simple Data Hack

In an industry that is constantly pushing out trends and putting on runway shows year-round, staying on-trend isn’t easy. For consumers, knowing what will make it from the runway to the street style scene is usually based on gut instincts and unstructured information.

What if I told you there’s a better way to identify what’s going to be big next season? What if, as future industry leaders, you could make decisions grounded in data and lessen the industry’s destructive environmental impact?

That’s exactly what Moda Operandi does: the luxury e-commerce retailer is leveraging analytics to spark change in the industry. At DASHION, we want to highlight their data-driven business model and show you how you can use data to be more fashionable and sharpen your trend-spotting skills.

Time and time again, the fashion industry proves to both insiders and fans that it doesn’t work without data. Ask yourself: Why is young brand Revolve one of the most profitable e-tailers while once-giant Forever21 is dying out? How is Zara growing twice as fast as its fast-fashion competitor H&M (and not sitting on a pile of $4bn in inventory)? One word: data.

Take it from Moda: data is in. It’s the perfect time for us, as consumers and fashion lovers, to learn more about how we can use data for fashion-related purposes (think: get some style insight before others!) and why analytics are so important for the industry we love to do better.

A Bit About Moda

Moda Operandi’s trunkshow concept consists of giving consumers the ability to browse and pre-order next-season’s looks straight from the runway. It’s a total disruption of the industry’s traditional experience, where buyers pick up runway looks to produce and sell in their stores — six months after the live shows — and potential customers have to wait that long to make a purchase. With the online retailer, a simple click on the “TRUNKSHOW” tab on their website tells clients they’re the first to buy next season’s collections and can secure their size and color in their favorite looks. For customers who’d rather not wait for their order to be produced, their exceptionally-curated Boutique section offers the latest, in-season pieces from their huge portfolio of designers and brands.

The value proposition here is that Moda doesn’t schedule production and orders based on style and gut feelings. Puja Clark, Moda’s Senior VP of fashion buying and E-commerce tells us they know what pieces to produce and in what quantities, all in a matter of minutes. Insane.

Their Data-Driven Approach.

How do they do it? By analyzing and listening to the data. They’ve realized that data is nothing more than an authentic display of customer’s actual preferences, and that it’s important to listen. It’s not what clients say they want, but what they are indisputably purchasing over and over again. The e-tailer is using this data, and its paying off: their return rate is a just 17% — way below traditional e-commerce retail’s 52%!

Not only does it work to raise Moda’s profit margins way above the industry’s — their data-driven strategy is also a way of disrupting fashion’s traditional processes, which are to blame for the shocking levels of waste.

Once again, let’s revisit the traditional model: the industry relies on buyer’s tend-predicting instincts and production decisions to sell. But gut feelings are no longer enough to keep up with consumers’ ever-changing tastes, and the result is overproduction and lots of waste. It’s the reason why retail giants like H&M are sitting on billions worth of unsold clothes and high-fashion brands resort to burning excess inventory. With 85% of textiles ending up in landfills and 20% in global water attributed to the industry, fashion’s waste problem isn’t sitting well with consumers.

That’s exactly what Moda’s strategy indirectly combats. Through their pre-tail trunk shows, the luxury e-commerce giant is able to collect data that shows what the biggest trends will be for the next season; aka, what consumers will want and what should really be produced. CEO Ganesh Srivat tells Bloomberg:

The metadata we collect on all the customer purchases is a strong indicator of future fashion trends — not only do we know the individual items that are going to be successful or certain designers that are going to have a huge season, but we can also somewhat tell the colors, fabrics, silhouettes, and patterns that are going to be big trends in the future — six months from now.

Accurate Predictions

Having data on next season’s consumer-dictated colors/style/textile trends proves invaluable to the company: they are able to make better production decisions and be more sustainable in regards to inventory. And they’re sharing it with the industry: In 2019, Moda published their first “Runway Report,” an official document based on data from more than 120 trunkshows they held in the FW‘19 season. Through clicks and dollars, customers literally tell Moda what they want to wear next season. Moda, in turn, doesn’t make blind guesses and actually carries inventory that sells. Their report tells buyers, designers, and brands what colors will be big next season, as well as what designers are grabbing consumers’ interest the most. It helps brands working with Moda to improve their sell-through rates and see which of their pieces people actually want.

It’s literally data made fashion. And it’s helping Moda drive the industry ecosystem towards more sustainable decisions.

So, About You

How does this apply to you? Okay, so you’re not Lauren Santo Domingo. But maybe you look to build the next Revolve (a profitable retailer built with data), or you dream of being a top analyst at Zara — or the future CEO of Moda. Whatever it is, you need to start using data. Get your hands dirty with the latest technology and read all about how AI and Big Data are changing the industry.

Fashion stopped being about just style long ago, and while we all love stunning runways, data is what will allow us as future industry leaders (and consumers) to make conscious decisions and build better brands.

With that said, here’s a Dashion-inspired exercise for you. At Dashion, we like to look at the latest runway collections and break them down to find common themes, identify the coolest styles, and dissect different trends!

Here’s how we go about it. With the designer’s individual styles & history in mind, we look over their entire collection to get an overview. Then, we go look by look, tagging which trends are in each look.

An Example: Carolina Herrera Fall 2020 Ready-To-Wear

Venezuelan designer Carolina Herrera describes her style as “simple, well cut, but with one major extravagance.” Her bridal and ready-to-wear collections communicate a signature joie de vivre, and since Wes Gordon’s appointment as creative director in 2018, the brand has regained a youthful spirit while maintaning its refined looks. Fall 2020’s ready-to-wear is a perfect example of this, as it presents a series of colorful looks, sophisticated capes (a huge trend for next season) and lots of ruffles.

Here’s our breakdown:

Basically, from just one collection — 45 looks — we were able to identify major trends (hello, solid colors & belts) and get a sense of what’s really going to be big in the fall. Herrera’s collection was the perfect balance between bright colors and more classic, elegant tones. Monochrome looks were also winners, as were solid-colored fabrics. Good news for all the fans of black monochrome outfits!

The designer also included a wide variety of sleeves, and the trendiest ones (which popped up the most) were bishop sleeves, straight long sleeves and puff sleeves. Add to cart.

It’s like CH gave us all the expert-approved trends for next season. While consumers definitely won’t sit down and do this fun exercise every time they go online shopping, it definitely makes you think: what if we could shop based on whats objectively in style? Spoiler alert: Our website is constantly providing data-driven fashion recommendations. Moda would be proud.

Now that you’ve seen how data can give you a glimpse into next season’s it styles, it’s time you jump on the fashionable data trend. It’ll make you more decided & responsible consumers, elevate your style and trend-spotting abilities, and more importantly, it‘ll make you better industry leaders.