Emma Zajdela

There's actually evidence of this in a variety of different

human societal aspects.

So in music, for example, we've found this.

We've also found this in art and in literature, that the ones that are successful are these innovations that are different, but not too different.

So our idea for the model is based off of this optimal distinctiveness.

And we find that you need to be optimally distinct from three factors.

So you need to be different from the past, but not too different.

There's this quote by this French stylist that I really like, Agnès Bé, that says, the problem with fashion is that it goes out of fashion.

So intrinsically, fashion always needs to be different from the past.

Then you have kind of a social aspect where you want to be different from others around you, but again, not too different.

If you're a little bit different, then maybe you're cool.

If you're too different, then you just go into the weird zone.

Yeah, you're like an outcast, pariah, iconoclast.

Totally, totally.

I think it's also exactly about the time at which an innovation comes in.

And we have found this in technology and in science that this idea of optimal distinctiveness is true as well.

So the technologies that are successful are sort of different, but not too different from others.

Well, I will say that our research is focused on these three axes of neckline, waistline, and hemline.

And of course, there's so many different dimensions to fashion that you can mix and match.

So there's the shape of the garments, the colors, the patterns.