The first half of 2026 has been filled with conversations, customer visits, industry events, and new partnerships. Instead of looking ahead, we wanted to take a moment to look back. Here are six months of insights from the fashion brands we have had the privilege of learning from, and the lessons we believe will shape the rest of the year.
We are already halfway through 2026. It feels a little strange to write that, but looking back, one thing is very clear: the fashion industry has been busy.
Over the past six months, we have had the opportunity to spend time with brands in many different ways. We have welcomed customers to our own events, travelled to visit teams in their offices, met new brands starting their digital journeys, and joined industry conversations across Europe. Every meeting has been different, but many of the topics have been surprisingly similar.
Brands are looking for better ways to collaborate. They are exploring how AI can support everyday work without losing the human perspective. And they are preparing for a future where regulations, transparency, and product data will play a much bigger role than they already do today. Rather than predicting what comes next, we wanted to pause for a moment and reflect on what we've actually learned from the brands we've met during the first half of 2026.
If there is one theme that has appeared in almost every customer conversation this year, it is collaboration. Not just collaboration between brands and suppliers, but also within product teams, across departments, and even between technology providers. Fashion has become too complex for people to work in isolation.
That was something we experienced first-hand during our recent visit to Erve Europe. After more than seven years of working together, our conversations are no longer about implementation. They are about continuous improvement. Looking at workflows together, identifying opportunities, and making small adjustments that create long-term value. "Delogue & Erve Europe, step by step, each time better." Siska De Wolf, Project Officer at Erve Europe
The same perspective came through in a Wheat interview. Their experience showed that technology is not about replacing collaboration, but about strengthening it. When everyone works from the same information, teams stay aligned and suppliers are better connected.
If 2025 was the year everyone started talking about AI, then 2026 feels like the year brands have started working with it for real. The conversations have become much more practical. Less about replacing people and more about supporting them. Helping teams organise information, speed up repetitive tasks, and make better use of the knowledge they already have.
But brands are also realistic. AI is not something that transforms a business overnight .As Calvin Baillie, CPO at ROTATE Birger Christensen, says: "It takes time before AI starts freeing up time." That patience matters. Successful AI projects still rely on good data, clear workflows, and people who understand the context.
As Kasper Brandi Petersen, CEO at LABFRESH recently put it: "We don't use AI to create content. We use it to optimise." And perhaps that is exactly where the industry is heading. AI is becoming another tool in the toolbox, helping brands work smarter rather than replacing the expertise that already exists.
The final thing we have heard again and again this year is that complexity is no longer something brands expect to disappear. New regulations, growing transparency requirements, product documentation, supplier information, and Digital Product Passports are changing the way products need to be developed. The amount of information brands are expected to manage continues to grow.
Dogman Group described it very clearly.
And during TechThreads, Micky Bach, COO at Les Deux perhaps summarised the industry's current reality better than anyone. "The only thing we get for free is complexity."
The brands that seem best prepared are not necessarily the ones with the biggest teams or the most resources. They are the ones creating structure around their data, their products, and their supplier relationships. Because while complexity may be unavoidable, the way we manage it is entirely within our control.
Every month, we host a webinar, often in collaboration with our IT solution partners and leading industry brands. The topics vary, but one thing remains the same: we aim to make the fashion industry’s challenges more manageable and share our take on practical, hands-on solutions.
Check out this month’s webinar by clicking the button below.