Like fashion week, CES, the consumer electronics technology show in Las Vegas, is excited to highlight the latest products and trends that will fascinate people in the coming weeks and months.
Yet the show has never been a regular stop on the fashion and beauty circuit – except perhaps for the most tech-based brands and platforms. Look closely and find companies like L’Oréal, Procter & Gamble, Fossil, Perfect Corp. and others eager to tell their innovation stories, identify interesting new partnerships or showcase their latest developments, products and projects.
More from WWD
L’Oréal Group’s fascination with beauty hardware and intelligence led the company to introduce two new makeup application devices at the show called Hapta and Brow Magic. Guive Balooch, global vice president of technology incubator L’Oréal, told WWD that they contribute to the broader goal of using technology to ensure that “our fingers and hands are no longer an obstacle to achieving the results we want.”
Unlike previous years, Procter & Gamble did not introduce new products or hold an exhibition this time. But she made her presence known by sending Kelly Anderson, director of research and development for data science and artificial intelligence, to talk about the company’s approach to data science and partnerships with startups to keep new ideas and innovation flowing.
“AI and data — high-quality, proprietary data — are part of our digital transformation strategy to disrupt the way we innovate, bring products to market faster, better and cheaper,” Anderson said in exclusive comments to WWD. “It really helps to understand consumer behavior very deeply, what they want to achieve, and it helps us design the best possible products to achieve that for them.
“We strategically collaborate externally, of course with academics, to understand the basic sciences, [and] with start-ups, especially because in the AI world, technology is moving very, very quickly from academia to startups to large enterprises.”
Perfect Corp., an artificial intelligence and augmented reality platform for beauty and, increasingly, accessories, has also become a regular at CES. Just ahead of the show, the company announced a virtual trial solution for eyewear with “a simplified automated modeling process simplifies 3D sku creation by introducing an easy-to-use self-service platform for brands to digitize their product line in a fraction of the time,” according to the company.
The 3D virtual glasses creation process he devised was essentially created to replace complicated, multi-dimensional scanning processes with automatic 3D rendering “using just three flat product images to create a unique live camera view.”
Adam Gant, Perfect Corp.’s chief marketing officer, was also spotted on a CES panel about solving retail’s biggest challenges. The talk focused on six specific technology trends identified by the company, including sustainability, the return of physical retail, AI-based skin technology, the rise of AI and AR for fashion accessories, the intelligence of personalization and virtual commerce over Web 3.0 and other immersive experiences. .
Naturally, the larger show underscores some of these points, especially the latter, as dozens of exhibitors kept mixed reality, NFTs and blockchain, the metaverse, Web 3.0 and related trends at the fore.
WWD caught up with one tech company whose wearable technology aims to bridge fashion and a virtual experience similar to augmented reality, but in a more practical way. Vuzix has announced a new Ultralite reference device that expands smartphone notifications in a visual way to the eye, but without the bulk and annoyingly short battery life.
As Paul Travers, president, CEO and founder of Vuzix, explained to WWD, the company’s approach to waveguide technology allows for a slimmer form factor without compromising on resolution and quality. “It’s all about skinny and sexy.” [and] fashionable,” he said. “Displays can be very small, in the corner hidden in frames. And the lenses are 0.6 millimeters thin. So you have this form factor that you can put into the glasses.”
This premise seems especially interesting considering that Apple is reportedly on the verge of releasing its own smart glasses or mixed reality headset. So it’s no surprise that major tech and fashion brands have shown interest in Ultralite. Travers didn’t name specific companies, but hinted at the feasibility of an Ultralite reference design that will arrive under the globally recognized consumer brand this fall.
Wearable technology and fashion have become so irresistible that even celebrities like Paula Abdul are getting in on the act. The dancer/singer saw fit to bring her trendy IdolEyes sonic glasses to CES, while plenty of wristwear was also spotted, including Fossil’s latest sixth-generation wellness-focused hybrid watch.
Fashion-focused technology seems to have moved from the face and hands down to the feet. Luxury shoe designer Enrico Cuini actually collaborated with orthopedist Dr. Taryn Rose to create a line of high-end men’s and women’s shoes that promise maximum fit and comfort, thanks to the development of their ALIA, or Active Lift in Alignment, support technology.
The system uses computer vision and intelligence for personalized tailoring. The shoes “disperse pressure over a larger area of the foot to dynamically enable pressure relief, stability and energy return, making even the tallest, sexiest stilettos amazingly comfortable,” their announcement read.
Attendees who turned out for CES this year—about 112,000 in the final tally, a little more than half the usual crowd—were rewarded with gonzo spectacles across a range of eye-catching tech. . Most visible to the casual viewer were futuristic, bendable displays in televisions and automotive innovations for self-driving cars, electric vehicles, infotainment systems and more. If that didn’t grab the attention, the transportation options certainly did. After all, how often does one shoot through the colorfully lit underground tunnels beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center in a chauffeured Tesla for free?
But there was more going on beneath the surface of the show, and it’s clear for fashion and beauty that innovation will light the way this year and beyond.
Click here to read the full article.