The new episode (in French) of the LuxurynsightXFashionNetwork podcast series features Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel, CEO and co-founder of Arianee, a French consortium specializing in Web3 solutions.

Hurstel, former president of the US branch of show organizer Eurovet and professor at the French Institute of Fashion, talks with Olivier Guyot, France Editor-in-Chief at FashionNetwork.com, about the importance and challenges of the digital transformation facing place in the fashion and luxury sectors.

The Arianee consortium was co-founded by Hurstel with Frédéric Montagnon, ​Julien Romanetto, Alexandre Cognard and Luc Jodet in February 2019, and aims to attract fashion brands to its independent blockchain.

Since 2017, when Hurstel created Remode, a series of global conferences on sustainability challenges, he has been aware of the “major survival issues facing brands” and questions such as “how can we make products that are better and more responsible ?” and “can we improve the sustainability of our entire value chain?”

“As brands seek to address the twin challenges of operating sustainably and deploying an omnichannel strategy, I am convinced that technology and innovation will enable them to achieve their goals and enjoy sustainable growth and sustained success,” said Hurstel. According to him, “these innovations must be introduced from start to finish throughout the [value] chain, thread [production] to the final consumer.”

Initially, these innovations were just a foundation for implementation strategies, but Hurstel says that “they are now being internalized by most labels, who are working on sustainability and traceability because they know that environmental impact measurement and ratios they will be mandatory and that the passports of digital products are approaching”.

Hurstel believes that fashion and luxury companies today are better equipped to grow within the Web3 digital ecosystem, but still have a number of challenges to address.