When the internet revolution entered in our lives, many of us believed we were living a dream. Customers and suppliers could be reached easily; the creative work and its evolution would be displayed easily on a web site or a blog. There would be a place for everyone in the nearly infinite nooks and crannies of virtual world.

The dependence from middlemen or big fashion houses would be over, their advantage shattered. No more mass market, no more need to sell oneself: we will be able to find the people who like our character, our designs, our cuts or our photography.

Instead, large players still seem to dominate the fashion business, both online and offline. Few are the exceptions and the old advantages seem difficult to overcome. So much for specific and unique desires and niches of a fashion designer.

Connectivity is effortlessly moving trillions and trillions of bits of information, billions and billions of messages, the large majority of which is just getting drowned in the flood. Before things could not be found because of limited connectivity, now because of too much of it!  Chaotic, organic networks, the virtual world, imposes its own challenges, which were not faced by previous generation of designers, but that doesn't make them any less real.

Running an independent online shop seems a natural springboard into the market. However, it requires venturing into the intricacies of technology and running a real-life supply chain: from buying office-supplies to design clothes and managing an inventory. The details of the selling process are far from a dream and more like a nightmare. On top of that, most designers under-estimate the effort and time required to bring traffic to their web site and in tying it all together.

A while ago, when we analyzed this problem, we realized that these issues could be solved within a single integrated environment. An environment that breaks from the limitations of the past while hiding all the resulting unmanageable complexity behind the web-page, in a matter of speaking. A place that merges seamlessly the virtual and real world, and where designers could participate in exchanges, connect and trade with one-another.

A sophisticated but painless ecosystem centered on fashion, beauty and lifestyle. An ecosystem that invisibly manages the back-end and brings a designer to fashionistas, suppliers, manufacturers, models, photographers, buyers and, perhaps eventually, everyone. An ecosystem where a designer could be finally free to create.

Xaxii is that ecosystem!

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