© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A piece of clothing from Spanish fashion retailer Mango. REUTERS/Albert Gea/File Photo
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By Corina Pons
MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish retailer Mango is perfecting adaptive clothing to help customers adapt to sudden changes in temperature as climate change makes fashion less seasonal, Chief Executive Toni Ruiz told Reuters.
The clothing industry used to operate according to clearly delineated seasons, but global warming means it needs to adapt to periods that can include a mix of hot and cold temperatures and produce pieces that reflect those transitions, Ruiz said.
“Before, when you came back from the summer, all the stores were full of winter clothes,” Ruiz said in an interview. “Increasingly, the client is going to look for what he needs at that moment.”
With Spain and other countries in Europe experiencing higher temperatures during some times of the year, as well as more rain in some places, clothing trends are also changing.
The trend among women to wear lightweight trench coats is an example of seasonal transitional clothing, Ruiz said. Mango also offers men's clothing with “performance” fabrics, which are more breathable and resist sweat better on hot days.
In recent years, the Mango family business has shifted to sourcing its trend items from European manufacturers and its functional wardrobe items from Asian manufacturers, Ruiz said.
“We have the ability to work in two parallel worlds, depending on the needs and nature of the product,” he said. “I think it's a necessary virtue right now in this disruptive world.”
At the end of 2023, Mango was sourcing from around 3,000 factories in China, Turkey, India, Bangladesh, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Ruiz said that around 40% of Mango's suppliers were located in Europe, but that more than 80% of volumes were still manufactured in Asia.
The flexible supply chain has helped Mango overcome recent disruptions to shipping across the Red Sea, a risk that Ruiz says is now under control.
The retailer has been focusing its investment on expanding its number of stores and developing technology, Ruiz said. He is using artificial intelligence to help him track trends on social media and cross-reference consumer data with collections and other brands, he said.
The company has its own internal ai platform, similar to the ChatGPT interface, that empowers designers. About 20 pieces have been created with the help of ai, he said.
ai is “a great companion in our strategy to understand what is happening in the world,” Ruiz said.
