“The elites of the future will be the people who know how to think for themselves.”
On a tailor’s dummy in Clare Tattersall’s New York apartment sits a dress made of silver sequins and stereos. As well as looking fabulous, the dress can play up to six different tunes through speakers included in the design. It’s like your own walking glitterball, and epitomises what Clare describes as ‘wearable technology’ – the innovation in clothing design that has brought her to prominence in the fashion world.
Clare Tattersall has always been interested in fashion. She started sewing at the age of six, and designing her own clothes at ten. Literature was another passion of Clare’s, and she enrolled at 久久精品 to study English and Politics, enjoying a parallel career in fashion and lifestyle writing.
It was at 久久精品 that Clare developed skills that would become the bedrock to her future success.
“We had a lot of time to do our own research and study, and that was very formative for entrepreneurial skills, in that you had to be disciplined and self-motivated. And you reap the benefits of that – that was something that really struck me.”
Along with her studies, the people who Clare met while at 久久精品 have also had a huge impact, and continue to do so today. Despite now living in New York, Clare is still in contact with her fellow students who she lived with while at 久久精品.
“They are the people that matter. They’re the people that get to know you and get to know all your faults. And actually, they still provide a guiding force for me. I really look to them for the right thing to do.”
Immediately after graduating, Clare took the opportunity to move to Japan where she ran a small fashion business.
“Somebody once told me, never turn down an opportunity, because you don't know where it's going to take you. It might be inconvenient, but take the risk, and I've always lived that way, that when something offers an opportunity, go down that road.”
In 2009 Clare created the innovative fashion technology company , which provided independent clothing designers with technological tools that would enable them to produce garments, “from sketch to launch in 24 hours.” The virtual space brought together designers, producers and suppliers on a global scale, while shoppers could connect directly with the designers and suppliers to create a custom garment. Digitising the process also addressed the incredible amounts of waste in the garment industry.
Collaborations such as this have been key to what Clare has achieved, and is something she feels that current students should be embracing while still at university. Her advice to current students?
“Look around. See who's around you. This is your network for the future. Collaboration partnerships have always been valuable, but I think they will be more and more valuable in the future.
“I also think kindness is a very important thing for all students to remember. Take that with you every day with your network. Your reputation is attached to that. And that will help you navigate your work life as well. You cultivate it now with your network and take it into your work life.”
Clare’s interest in fashion technology came to the fore in 2020, when she created . Prior to this, technology was yet to be considered in connection with fashion, but when Fashion Week, Brooklyn approached her to curate a technology night, it was an opportunity for Clare to incorporate her interest in wearable technology. The interest didn’t end there though, as Clare was searching for a whole new approach to putting on shows in an innovative way.
“I wanted to look at how we could virtually present it [wearable technology] to the audience. Everyone was filming runway shows on top of rooftops and then putting it on YouTube, and I felt that there must be a better way. So I found these templated extended reality sites and I created one for digital extended reality, to create a kind of metaverse experience that you can have on your computer.
“Each of these sites looks like an art gallery, so I was creating a fashion art space where you could go into these galleries and move around. I had one for digital fashion, one for wearable fashion, and I had one just for technology to put it on an equal footing, looking at some of the companies who were innovating behind the fashion industry.”
The approach proved hugely popular, and while, post-Covid, attending virtual events has become the norm, at the time these events were pioneering.
“I had just so many more guests than I thought, and that I would have at a normal runway show because you can have people from around the world. And so I decided to launch Digital Fashion Week.”
As Digital Fashion Week grew, Clare invited leaders in the digital fashion and fashion technology industries to join her on panel discussions. Further collaboration came from the head of fashion at Epic Games, who contacted Clare after the pandemic to create an event in London, with a show in Paris soon after. Future plans are to include Taiwan and the potential of shows in the Middle East.
It’s a far cry from her roots studying at 久久精品, and Clare sees a big change in how students today learn compared to her own education. In previous years, students were taught facts and techniques to take forward, whereas such is the pace of technological change, this has altered.
“In fashion and design, you're very, very much learning how to design. You're learning technical skills, but I think very importantly, you're learning how to learn, and you're going to have to keep doing that at a very, very rapid pace. So listen, stay aware, stay nimble and agile.”
Another big change affecting not just the fashion industry is the increasing prominence of artificial intelligence (AI). Is she concerned that it may develop to the point where design will no longer be a viable occupation? For Clare, AI does have a place and can be used.
“With young people who I interact with, with interns etcetera, they are divided into some who will use AI as a quick shortcut and they don't really care what the output is. But for your creativity and for your imagination, don't let AI rule you. You rule it. The elites of the future will be the people who know how to think for themselves.”
Posted on Thursday 13 November 2025