3 questions for . . .
Karen Elalouf, Director Lectra France
After earning a Masters in information technology at Paris-Sud University, Karen Elalouf stayed in the software sector. Immediately after graduating, the Parisian started her retail career working with the Galeries Lafayette Group and then Monoprix. These first experiences gave her an understanding of the information technology processes in mass retailing. Next she played a role in developing retail activity for the German software provider SAP before joining Microsoft France as Manager for major retail accounts and then becoming Sales Director for the industrial sector. In 2014 she joined Lectra. Her goal is to help fashion clients optimise their collection management processes.
Tell us about Lectra. What is its mission for the fashion industry?
Lectra is the world leader in integrated technological solutions for industries that use flexible materials such as textiles, leather, and industrial and composite fabrics to manufacture their products. Lectra serves major world markets including fashion, apparel, automotive, and furniture. Through our software solutions and automated cutting systems we give clients ways to work collaboratively. That means helping them transform their working methods and ability to create faster while respecting quality, all in order to meet consumers’ new demands. The guiding principle of our work in the fashion sector is obviously to predict tomorrow’s shopping trends. Today we’re used to designing, manufacturing, and selling. In the future we’ll have to anticipate and define client needs and, at the same time, determine what we’ll be able to manufacture. Our role is to help fashion businesses use all the technologies (software, service modelling, connected data, etc.) that Lectra has available.
How is the fashion industry doing?
Getting products into stores quicker, transforming design methods, producing more, multiplying product innovations – all our clients, meaning all the French fashion businesses, brands as well as subcontractors and retailers, are completely rethinking how they function. This is especially true in our rapidly changing era. What’s being questioned? The design process is constantly moving faster. Today, given the number of their collections, capsules, etc., none of our fashion clients get time off. Is this infernal rhythm supposed to support creativity? This is why fashion businesses are increasingly trying to use intelligent collaboration software. Innovation has become an absolute priority. Freeing up creativity while safeguarding quality is one of Lectra’s concerns for industry 4.0.
What are consumers’ new demands?
Today millennials (everyone born between 1980 and 2000) are shaking up the codes for society and especially for consumption. And this new generation is quite numerous, and above all super-connected! They were born with a smartphone in their hands so they want everything right away. And since they have become true web experts, they know that’s possible. They’re also very demanding. For example, if they don’t agree with a product’s manufacturing conditions, with a brand’s ethics charter, or with the way a business treats the environment, in just a few clicks they can damage, even destroy a brand’s reputation. Their lethal weapon? Internet and social media, of course. The major challenge is to make clients loyal, to offer them a positive experience at any moment. And that also happens through personalisation. This search for a one-of-a-kind piece entails a new way of selling, manufacturing, and designing. By producing unique pieces that have been ordered, brands will reduce costs and respect the environment while innovating. Industry 4.0 is a facilitator for transforming the fashion industry.