1. When It Comes To Fashion, Personalization Is Easier Said Than Done: “Conventional approaches to personalization and product recommendations utilize a long history of customer data to predict their future needs and behaviors. Typically, in those approaches the rule is ‘The more we know about our customers from the past, the better predictions we get.’” – Read More on Forbes

2. America’s department stores, cornerstones in fashion, could be in their last stages. “Too many U.S. department stores are not so much proper department stores as they are big fashion stores with a small bolt on of other products,” Neil Saunders, managing director at GlobalData Retail, said. “This model is now fully exposed, and it will continue to serve them badly.” – Read More on CNBC

3. Future design: What ‘living’ clothes can do to absorb carbon emissions. U.S. consumers are buying more garments than ever, wearing each item fewer times and sending almost 70 percent of the clothes and footwear produced each year to landfill, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. Changing our relationship with clothing, from one of neglectful fast-fashion consumption to an empathetic connection, is an essential step. – Read More on CNN

4. Face masks: The most used — and polarizing — accessory of the year: COVID has predictably thrown an already unstable fashion industry for a loop. The pandemic upended production capabilities and supply chains, as well as ransacked consumers’ pocketbooks, and thus their abilities and appetite to purchase new clothing and accessories. But to some fashion companies, masks presented an opportunity. – Read More on R29

5. Apparel industry wage-reform bill dies in Assembly after failing to come up for a vote: A bill intended to prevent wage theft in Los Angeles’ apparel industry died in the chaotic final hours of this year’s legislative session when it failed to come up for a vote before the midnight deadline. – Read More on the LA Times

6. RETRO READ: California Legislators Are Pushing for New Law to Protect Garment Workers From Retailers’ Loopholes. The new bill (SB-1399), if formally enacted, will close the AB 633 loophole in order to prevent retailers from escaping liability for wage and labor violations that may not be happening under their roofs but are, nonetheless, occurring within their supply chains. More than that, it will largely outlaw the commonly-used by-the-piece wage structure, in which individuals are paid in accordance with the number of goods their produce, in favor of an hourly wage system. – Read More on TFL