Leuty Parker

Tag: #trends

  • Value

    From my previous role as a fashion developer, I’m accustomed to evaluating garments and their properties through a cost-focused lens.

    With whole industries focusing on how to price the end product is a very important issue. What I had to do was build tech packs for manufacturers with the Mr fabrics or findings being called “tech packs”.

    However, the true value of a product can extend far beyond the item itself. In the industry I worked in, and within my role, the focus was firmly on the end product—yet my recent purchase of @ChristianLouboutin shoes, which I’ve written about time and time again, really clarified for me how value can be perceived in a completely different way.

    They paired effortlessly with my wardrobe and were incredibly easy to wear, everything you’d expect from a luxury trainer. However, considering they’re from @ChristianLouboutin, the quality has been a real disappointment.

    After less than a year, they’re already falling apart, a clear sign of poor craftsmanship. For a brand positioned at such a high level, and with a price tag that felt almost painful to justify, the reality simply hasn’t lived up to the expectation.

    However, a new, less superficial sense of value emerges here. Beyond simply being expensive, the pleasure and satisfaction of owning a pair of those iconic red soled trainers was incomparable far outweighing the initial pain of the purchase.

    Taking both perspectives into account, I’d say the overall value ultimately balances out….

    I’m Leuty has a pair of (highly damaged and scuffed) red sold trainers

  • ….. More in depth; AI in design

    One thing that has constantly intrigued me, throughout studying fashion design in my BA then going on to be a fashion developer in London and Hong Kong, and even analysing trends in my MSc in business, was what is woke in a population. That concerns the “what?”… but my pest career focussed more on the “how”?.

    Looking at the current “what,” this post focuses on a topic that particularly interests me: what is trending globally right now—AI. A strong example of this intersection between technology, fashion, and design is L’Oréal’s partnership with IBM. By integrating AI into beauty innovation, the collaboration enables more personalised, inclusive, and sustainable products, showing how technology can quietly enhance design and creative expression rather than overshadow it.

    IBM and L’Oréal are exploring how AI can transform innovation. Using IBM Watson X, they’re developing AI assistants that simulate complex scenarios—originally for education, like classroom interactions—but for L’Oréal, the focus is on cosmetics. Custom AI models can help researchers design products faster, more creatively, and more sustainably.

    Take lipstick as an example. Traditionally, it’s made in two stages: a highly opaque base delivers colour and a matte finish but feels dry and uncomfortable, followed by a second layer to improve wearability. The difference between products like Super Stay 24 and Mad Ink lies not in longevity—they both last—but in comfort. Mad Ink avoids the need for constant reapplication thanks to careful formulation.

    L’Oréal has always been a science-driven company. Early liquid lipsticks in the 1930s were little more than stains; later formulas were heavier and less convenient. Over decades, L’Oréal’s chemists refined these products through trial and error, testing everything from colour and texture to durability under extreme conditions. Every lipstick is essentially a piece of technology, backed by millions of data points.

    The collaboration with IBM, launched in early 2024, brings together two century-old innovators with strong scientific cultures. IBM works directly inside L’Oréal labs to understand researchers’ needs, creating custom AI models tailored to the company’s unique data. Unlike general-purpose AI, these models are smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient, allowing L’Oréal to leverage decades of research in a usable, targeted, and transparent way.

    The potential impact is huge. AI can accelerate product development, expand creative possibilities, and make innovation more sustainable. By narrowing the gap between imagination and reality, it enables breakthroughs that were previously difficult or impossible. This approach isn’t limited to cosmetics—similar AI-driven strategies could help clothing companies fast-track design and fabric development, processing vast datasets and testing countless scenarios to support designers’ judgment.

    L’Oréal also monitors early signals from fashion and social media to anticipate emerging trends, ensuring products meet both current demand and future tastes. Combining this with AI, the company is redefining what’s possible in beauty, showing how data, science, and technology can converge to drive innovation.

    From decades of research to cutting-edge AI, L’Oréal is not just a cosmetics company—it’s a beauty data powerhouse, using technology to turn ideas into reality faster, smarter, and more sustainably than ever.

  • The Black Swan Effect

    The Black Swan effect refers to rare, unexpected events that have huge impacts, and only seem obvious in hindsight. It’s like the butterfly effect; small or unpredictable triggers lead to dramatic, far-reaching consequences.

    In short, it explains how humans underestimate the likelihood of extreme situations, but rely heavily on past data.

    Important attributes include unpredictability; nothing in the past clearly points defined the future.

    It concludes to really big consequences; PESTLE (as learned in my MSc: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental) or cultural. It’s only afterwards when it becomes obvious and should have been expected.

    Black Swanevents can instantly transform entire industries, markets, technologies, and even society itself.

  • L’Oréal x IBM

    L’oreal = cosmetics.

    Many businesses, obviously , include an R&D department, and for cosmetics, this includes scientists, skincare, makeup, haircare and packaging, all glued together with the development department. This is only in the HQ, though, manufacturing takes what has been from the HQ.

    What makes any company in a predictive industry (fashion) , is having to understand what’ll be the trend, tomorrow. This prediction will instigate development, therefore the presumption must be well backed up.

    Where L’Oréal meets IBM is through their exploration in technology.

    L’Oréal products can be seen, without psychically pulling it on, L’Oréal call it “virtual beauty” L’Oréal creates “beauty experiences”, which is why traditional UX can be explored so viscerally.

    With this R&D collection and experimentation gives a HUGE amount of data.

    With this raw materials will be chosen , what combination are decided and how much.

    Safety, performance, quality, compliance and sustainability… and the rest. All this development would take forever!

    But what if… this process could be done digitally. Like L’Oréal’s earlier stages… “virtual beauty”.

    … where IBM comes in… using a custom AI model can help organised and conjoin those results. Where computers collaborate with the human designers, to enhance their work.

    Ages of results found by experts can be analysed and assimilated using AI to predict what’ll be next.

    In essence, the AI dies all the long, dirty work. It takes time results of what has been designed and experimented by the humans.

    After so much testing and results being gathered, the data is “AI ready”. The predictions can tell what the next steps should be.

    Get ready for the future move.

  • Blogging

    As per usual, I’m at the gym (I can walk! Mission accomplished. Now the stair machine. It’s horrible/exhausting/important to my progress), and I’m listening to this podcast:

    https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/this-american-life/id201671138?i=1000697170696

    And this really spoke to me. I need to use this platform better. To express myself, to blog about what I’m passionate about. To read audiences.

    I’m writing my dissertation for my MSc now. This takes a lot of “finding myself”… what I want to write about.

    Soooo what am I really passionate about?

    The future. Fashion. Design. Evolution Technology avancement. Trends.

    So, with this, my dissertation is focused on the evolution of wearable tech.

    It’s clear throughout industries, the “digitisation” of various products. So while researching, I’ll hopefully blog my findings.

    Let’s see how this goes…

  • And the “Balmain” one….

    “With “Balmain” being a client, a project is assumed to be taking the same ecological strategy that the 2023 “Barbie” movie is taking, explained in further detail below. Before millennials were born, the law did not just prevent the encouragement of hazardous activity for children to be involved in, but it also prohibited advertisements targeting this generation. This media targeted consumers at such a young age, indoctring them before they had the capacity to understand how they have been told to purchase the product advertised.

    Around this time, it was legalised for most products, but still forbode those that sent the children addressed in the advertising material, which held to possibly cause damage to the mental and physical health of children. For more discreet adverts, that are just trying to sell stock, they recommend the parents buy as a gift for the child, along with vicariously telling the child to ask for permission or basically, let their parents know they desire it.

    The first Barbie doll was introduced in 1959, but as time progressed, the toy has changed in popularity. With the acceleration of technology, toys are now moot, so Matel and Hasbro have had to alter their corporate governance, along with their central product. “Barbie” was then introduced, and with this introduction, it subconsciously made the female “model” for millennial women, teaching girls how a woman, or Barbies, should be. From how the ideal figure should have dimensions, long legs, tiny waist, enormous breasts, and blonde hair.

    Then feminism happened, where there was an increase in gender equality. More women had higher paid jobs and more impressive education. This is exemplified in the “Barbie” movie, where in “Barbie land” there is an increase in female empowerment. In this film, Barbie explores the “real world”, and you see how different, current gender equality has evolved to how it was idealised when millennials played with Barbies. This film really reflects the message of how genders have become more equal than how it was idealised when the time millennials were born. One thing to note is with the advancement of technology, toys have become moot. So Matel have branched out into other, more applicable media, targeting those millennials who were brought up with Barbies, and are now interested in other media, like going to the cinema, or even spending their money on high fashion.

    A consultancy has recently released a project which links “Pokémon” to the high fashion brand, “Balmain”, in bonnected brand building and advertisement.

    Comparing this film to this “Balmain” project, one can decipher how it follows the same ecological theory, which will be seen in many industries. As teenagers who are now the target market of high fashion, this generation joined the Pokémon hype when Pokémon were popular. So linking the two; Balmain, which millennials can now afford, and who have the subconscious appeal of Pokémon, will create a nostalgic attraction, enhancing the appeal of this brand.”

  • Veblen goods

    This is the theory that if it’s more expensive, it makes these things are more desirable.

    A good example is the Louis Vuitton handbag. People don’t buy the item for any design detail… they don’t care. They buy it for the name. The acclaim the brand has made for themselves, through advertising or values customers like celebrities who they make an icon for the brand.

    In short, people will buy for the name. This is best exemplified in the Louis Vuitton handbag; people don’t care for the design, just as long as it’s got the “LV” logo on it.

    These high fashion brands make no money from the clothes, they do from the Veblen goods. The name they have built for their company. Selling cheaper –in comparison- goods, like handbags, wallets, perfumes or cosmetics.

    In a way it’s saying the more expensive & unattainable it is, the better. Like showing how special you are. How precious you are. Because you can attain this expensive thing which must have taken a lot of money & effort to get to point of sale.