The STEM-ification of Fashion
26TH JANUARY 2025The rise of fashion tech, anti-intellectualism and its impact on circularity and personal style
The internal tug-of-war between my ‘left’ and ‘right’ brain has remained a recurring theme for much of my life. While I’ve always revelled in the certainty of a ‘correct answer’ in Maths or savoured the satisfaction of flawlessly debugging a Python script, I’ve just as easily found myself immersed for hours filling blank pages with avant-garde fashion designs, crafting mystery plots or pondering over think pieces on popular culture. Although the concept of ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ dominance has long been debunked, the war between STEM and the arts remains deeply entrenched in modern society.
The litany of cavils that resulted from my choice to pursue an undergraduate degree in Fashion Marketing reflects much of today’s undervaluation of creative pursuits. My IB Economics teacher, a fellow woman of colour in STEM, expressed her dismay, deeming my choice, a “waste of potential”—a sentiment that would echo throughout Freshers’ Week. The same imperious Economics students who had been my academic equals just months before, were swift to dismiss my course as a “waste of £27K” while my friends in Biomedicine struggled to hide their unbridled mortification at learning that a fashion student (derogatory) had exceeded their entry requirement grades, despite my ‘lightweight’ degree choice. The question etched in their frustrated perplexity was clear: if you were “smart enough” to be in STEM, why would you choose to be a “creative”?
These experiences, as I later discovered from fellow and former fashion students, were not isolated, but instead symbolised a broader societal ignorance that dismisses the intellectual demand, rigour and multidisciplinary skillset required to pursue creative fields.
But while the fashion industry has historically depended on creative direction and experimental ideas to drive innovation and commercial success; it is now one of many industries receiving the STEM treatment. Platforms such as Data But Make It Fashion, with a 425K-strong Instagram following, the popularity of Pinterest Predicts— Pinterest’s annual trend prediction report— as well as TikTok’s burgeoning ‘trend forecaster’ community are all testament to the shifting influence of data in shaping the modern fashion landscape.
It goes beyond social media. Data-driven innovation is expected to solve a wide range of the fashion industry’s issues including stock management, AI-assisted product discovery and more. Among such concerns, sustainability and socio-environmental impact remain most notable, even as they fall down the priority list for fashion executives, with solutions that range from reducing sampling waste with 3D CAD rendering to environmental impact tracking tools which promise automated lifecycle assessments, smart circular design recommendations and more. As new fashion tech companies continue to spring up, roles requiring domain experts with both creative competency and data literacy are increasing in demand. However, as we embrace 2025 as the ‘Year of Fashion Tech’ and the opportunities provided by STEM-powered innovation, wider conversations continue to raise concerns around how such shifts stand to impact creativity, collaboration and more…
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