Accenture and Council of Fashion Designers of America Form Innovation Program for Fashion’s Next Generation of Top Talent
January 19 2017 - 7:57AM
Business Wire
Accenture becomes Official Innovation Partner
of CFDA’s Retail Lab
The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and Accenture
(NYSE:ACN) have formed an innovative collaboration to help shape
how the fashion industry integrates technology and consumer
insights into its business practices.
Combining the high caliber of creativity within CFDA’s
membership with Accenture’s deep expertise in customer experience,
strategy, insights and technology, the two organizations will
create talent-development programs for today’s designers and
tomorrow’s retailers.
In addition, Accenture and CFDA will develop a series of thought
leadership articles and hypotheses on the future of the fashion
customer experience and test these ideas in live pilots with CFDA
Members. This will provide CFDA with a new method to deliver value
and insights to its members and, using the insight and feedback,
help Accenture create solutions that it can share with its
clients.
Last year, the CFDA launched Retail Lab with Cadillac to
help emerging talent make their foray into the retail world, with
Retail Lab’s first physical store at Cadillac House, in New York.
The program enables select designers to open a retail
installation for three months and learn skills integral to succeed
in the industry, under the mentorship of fashion industry
experts.
As the first Official Innovation Partner of CFDA’s Retail Lab,
Accenture will work closely with the Lab’s select group of emerging
fashion designers to develop customized retail strategies and equip
them with the critical business knowledge and digital skills
required to stay competitive in today’s challenging retail
market.
“CFDA’s new collaboration with Accenture will provide our design
community with an invaluable resource to help navigate retail and
business technology,” said Ashley-Brooke Sandall, CFDA’s director
of strategic partnerships.
The collaboration will be supported by Fjord, the design and
innovation unit of Accenture Interactive and Accenture Labs, which
prototypes and pilots new concepts through applied R&D
projects. Plans include inviting fashion designers to participate
in Fjord’s design studio in New York and leveraging
technologies like artificial intelligence and mixed and virtual
reality from Accenture Labs to bring customer engagement to the
next level. Combined with CFDA+ – CFDA’s virtual talent lab – these
initiatives will connect designers with Accenture’s design &
innovation capability. Select designers will engage with a design
challenge that extends their academic work in a fast-paced
design-intensive program. Outcomes range from enhanced research to
physical prototypes, with the benefit of collaboration and input
from Accenture.
CFDA+ combines CFDA membership and its Educational Initiatives
communities, striving to strengthen the transition between
education and industry. Established to address the challenges that
graduates often face as they embark on their professional careers,
CFDA+ is also a service for the more than 500 CFDA members who are
recruiting from a talent pool of thousands of graduates each year.
With the addition of Accenture, CFDA+ will now be able to add
critical business and design-thinking methodologies to its
mentorship curriculum.
“The CFDA represents the fabric of the fashion industry and has
been instrumental in giving emerging talent a series of platforms
to gain real-world business and retail experience,” said Jill
Standish, senior managing director of Retail at Accenture. “Working
together with such a prestigious organization, we can help these
designers acquire highly sought-after digital skills needed for
them to be at the forefront of industry innovation, grow their
businesses and drive tangible business results.”
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company,
providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy,
consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched
experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries
and all business functions – underpinned by the world’s largest
delivery network – Accenture works at the intersection of business
and technology to help clients improve their performance and create
sustainable value for their stakeholders. With more than 394,000
people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives
innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us
at www.accenture.com.
About CFDA
The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc, (CFDA) was
founded in 1962 and aims to strengthen the impact of American
Fashion in the global economy. In addition to hosting the CFDA
Fashion Awards, the organization owns the Fashion Calendar and
stages the bi-annual New York Fashion Week: Men’s. Other
initiatives include the CFDA {Fashion Incubator} and the CFDA/Vogue
Fashion Fund as well as several Scholarship and charitable
programs. For more information, please visit www.CFDA.com,
facebook.com/cfda, twitter.com/cfda, cfda.tumblr.com, and
youtube.com/cfdatv.
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AccentureAleks Vujanic, + 44 7500 974
814aleks.vujanic@accenture.comorCFDAMarc Karimzadeh, +
1-212-768-5708m.karimzadeh@cfda.com
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