WGSN Big Ideas 2023 - Fashion

1. Future Strategies
WGSN | Big Ideas 2023:
Fashion
From the impact of collective activism to the rise of frugal
consumerism and smart manufacturing, we highlight the
five need-to-know directions that will impact the fashion
industry in 2023
Lorna Hall
01.19.21 · 6 minutes
Pangaia
Pangaia
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

2. Executive summary and methodology
Against a challenging economic, social and environmental backdrop, we
present five areas that will impact product development for fashion
businesses by 2023. The following pages explain these areas, explore the
opportunities and challenges they present, identify early adopter companies,
and outline what you should do to succeed. The areas are:
Push for Progress: the urgent need for inclusive and regenerative change
will drive demand for proactive products and business practices that
actively improve the world
Embracing Frugality: long-lasting, reusable and circular products will
gain importance as consumers look to save costs and reduce waste
Mastering Wellbeing: with wellness now core to consumer priorities,
brands should explore hi-tech and lo-fi solutions that respond to mood and
improve wellbeing
Tech-ceptance: digitised design will go mainstream, opening up new retail
channels and boosting the importance of customisation and flexible
design
Intentional Community: emerging social and values-led networks will
become more influential on consumer purchasing decisions, and brands
will need to implement new strategies to reach these communities
Each January WGSN produces the Big Ideas series of reports (one for each of
our platforms – Fashion, Lifestyle & Interiors, Beauty, and Food & Drink),
which highlight the industry-specific trends you need to know now, so you
can start developing products and services that will resonate with consumers
in two yearsʼ time.
The five trends in our Big Ideas reports evolve from the broader themes
explored in our two annual flagship forecasts – Future Innovations, which
showcases the creative and cultural directions that will shape the next two
years, and Future Drivers, which chronicles the social, economic and
political factors that will affect businesses in 2023. Big Ideas takes shape
alongside our Future Consumer forecast, which is published in January and
outlines the key consumer profiles you will need to engage with over the
coming years
These reports are produced by WGSNʼs global team of experts and analysts,
ensuring they have broad relevance across all regional markets. Our trends
are validated by data, industry examples and our unique STEPIC
methodology (encompassing developments in society, technology,
environment, politics, industry and creativity) so you can apply them with
confidence to your product development.

3. Overview
The ve need-to-know Big Ideas for 2023
Push for Progress
Regenerative supply chains,
protecting biodiversity, and
equity and social justice will
be a stronger focus for
fashion brands, who should
look to create more good by
their actions rather than
simply doing less harm.
Embracing Frugality
Long-lasting and versatile
products will be important
as more consumers embrace
sustainable mindsets and
focus on buying less but
better, putting sales volumes
under pressure.
Mastering Wellbeing
Fashion brands will need to
collaborate and expand into
new categories to capture
the opportunities presented
by a growing wellbeing
market, where mental and
physical health are
inextricably interlinked.
Tech-ceptance
Smarter supply chains and
digitised design and retail
tools will enable on-demand
retail models. A new
generation of brand owners
will emerge out of social
networks.
Intentional
Communities
Like-minded design
communities are emerging,
creating new direct channels
to market and new routes to
ethical and conscious cross-
cultural collaborations.
Wrangler
Wrangler @katekanimoreku
@katekanimoreku Gravity x Modernist
Gravity x Modernist Zalando
Zalando Carla Fernandez
Carla Fernandez

4. Push for Progress
In 2023 products will need to be t to function in a trading
environment where collective activism has increased and industry
practices are being continually challenged on environmental and
social grounds.
Regulators, investors and consumers will coalesce to demand services,
systems and products that accelerate regenerative change and deliver
inclusive and equitable outcomes at a local and global level. Proactively
designed products that do more good will stand out to consumers, as
markets become inundated with products designed to do less harm.
Fashion industry implications
By 2023, beyond embracing circular design and manufacturing systems
and having a credible core assortment of low-impact products, it will be
imperative that fashion brands can evidence their ongoing efforts to be
more ethical and inclusive. Sector leaders will be marked out by how
invested they are in actions that go beyond their own operations,
particularly around areas such as boosting biodiversity, helping to restore
the planet, and promoting social justice. Brands will need to collaborate
equitably and respectfully with all their partners to attract consumers
looking to align spending with values.
Future Drivers: Community 3.0, Radical Reform, Environment: From
Urgency to Emergency
Future Innovations: Design Is a Social Practice, Collective & Regenerative,
Science Will Save Us, SuperNature
Christy Dawn
Christy Dawn

5. You are currently viewing sample pages of
this report.
Request a product tour
Already a WGSN member? Login now. Not a member yet? Request a demo.

6. Push for Progress: case
studies
Regenerative sourcing strategies are
on the rise across all levels of the
market, while forward-thinking brands
are looking at ways to be more
equitable and socially inclusive
within supply chains.
Luxury Group Kering has set itself the
target of a "net positive" impact on
biodiversity by 2025, committing to
converting 1m hectares of farmland in its
supply chain to regenerative agriculture
by 2025. Wrangler has extended its US
regenerative farming scheme to Europe,
while Timberland has partnered with the
nonprofit Savory Institute, which focuses
on large-scale regeneration of global
grasslands, as part of its strategy towards
building a net-positive leather supply
chain. The havoc the pandemic wrought
on livelihoods of garment workers in the
fashion supply chain has led forward-
thinking brands to move to mitigate this
risk and ensure more equitable
conditions. Outdoor clothing brand
Arc'teryx decided to work towards Fair
Trade certification for its product, with a
target of 80% of its range being Fair Trade
by 2025.
Designer Mara Hoffman and New York
workforce development programme Custom
Collaborative created a local pilot
apprenticeship scheme to up-skill and
support women from low-income and
immigrant communities
Mara Hoffman
Mara Hoffman
Wrangler's Science & Conservation Program is
building a regenerative bre supply chain. The
brand aims to source 100% of its cotton from
farms that use its land stewardship practices
by 2025
Wrangler
Wrangler

7. The rst Fair Trade-certi ed Arc'teryx
products will be manufactured this year via its
Vietnam supply base and will account for
nearly 20% of the Canadian brand’s total
production
Arc'teryx
Arc'teryx
Timberland's Regenerative leather boot is the
rst product out of a regenerative farming
project that aims to enable the brand to
contribute a net positive impact by 2030
Timberland
Timberland
Christy Dawn is now in its second season of
regenerative cotton dresses – the result of a
partnership with the Oshadi Collective in India
and a family of farmers to create a
regenerative bre supply chain
Christy Dawn
Christy Dawn

8. Embracing Frugality
Income insecurity and recession will have been experienced by
many by the time we reach 2023, leading consumers to reassess
their priorities and needs.
Frugality will be embraced as a life skill – one that can be mastered, shared
and celebrated as a new form of smart consumption. To appeal to this
mindset, it will be imperative to develop products that can be made and
used efficiently, and that enable self-sufficiency, aligning with your core
consumersʼ values and interests. The motivation to be more frugal and less
wasteful will not only emerge from financial constraint, but also from a
newfound interest in DIY, and as a way to better sync with the seasons, the
environment, or with a community or locality.
Fashion industry implications
Pressures on disposable income at the lower end of the market will
position low-price digital resale head to head with the value fashion sector,
with both competing for market share. The rise of fashion hacks and
upcycling tutorials on social media apps will see the youth market looking
to recreate and trade new trends out of old garments. This, teamed with
more limitarian shoppers and sustainable mindsets, will put sales volumes
under increasing pressure.
Future Drivers: The Recession Generation, Environment: From Urgency to
Emergency, Community 3.0
Future Innovations: The Lifecycle Lifestyle, Collective & Regenerative,
Design Is a Social Practice
Holzweiler
Holzweiler

9. Thank you for reading this sample report.
To view the whole report, click here to learn about WGSN membership
Already a WGSN member? Login now. Not a member yet? Request a demo.
More from WGSN
WGSN Insider Press: In the Media Future Consumer 2022