If you want to know anything about the intersection of fashion and technology, ask Liza Kindred, head of Third Wave Fashion, a fashion tech think tank. AlleyWatch, a respected online news source covering New York City startups, entrepreneurs and investors, recently named Liza as one of “12 Amazing People” in New York Fashion Tech you need to know. Obsessed with technology and how it continues to change the way we shop, Liza Kindred has literally put the term “fashion tech” on the map.
In an industry where the technology behind online shopping changes faster than we can change clothes, Liza Kindred and her monthly Third Wave report is the go-to database for info about e-commerce companies. “I love fashion, but I love technology more because it’s changing the world,” said Kindred. Her soon-to-be published book, The Third Wave of Commerce: How We Buy Now, chronicles 21 new, innovative and/or disruptive business models, from nail polish you can rent, to computers you can wear.
“WHEN I’M RESEARCHING A COMPANY, AND I GO TO THE LEADERSHIP PAGE AND IT’S A SEA OF WHITE MEN, I GET REALLY DISCOURAGED.”
Liza’s first business was a clothing boutique. After it failed, she worked as a freelance fashion editor and a fashion and photo stylist, then she ran the business side of a small technology company. From there Liza became managing partner at Lullabot, one of the top open source, interactive development and design agencies in the world. “Technology just fell in my lap,” Liza said. Lullabot’s content management platform, Drupal, is the framework behind robust and complex sites like WhiteHouse.gov, Martha Stewart, MSNBC and the Grammy’s. “Right now, Drupal powers seven percent of the web. It’s bigger than WordPress,” Kindred said.
Traditionally the fashion landscape has been controlled by a handful of designers. Today technology is not only creating online communities of like-minded fashion bloggers and consumers, but it’s changing the ways they purchase. Technology, like 3D printing, is also changing the way everything from fashion to cosmetics is manufactured. In the bigger picture, technology is changing the way we look at what is, and what is not, fashion.
“In a lot of ways, fashion and technology have become one in the same. When I was in school, the brands I wanted were clothing brands like Guess jeans, Benneton shirts and Esprit bags. Now my daughter’s that age and the brands she wants are iPhones, Nintendo DX and iPads. Even though they’re technology, they’ve become fashionable.”
Liza Kindred is interested in merging online and offline. “I’m working on putting together a popup store of the future. I’m also obsessed with what the magazine of the future is going to look like, which is why I’m excited to be working with 1010ParkPlace. And I’m finishing my book!”
