Smart Fashion Day brought AI and machine-learning startups to New York during New York Fashion Week, using a three-hour Midtown event to spotlight tools for fashion, retail, e-commerce and production. Organized by TechEmbassy with Smart Fashion Council, the program offered a closer look at how emerging technology is being applied to specific industry workflows.
Key Takeaways
- Smart Fashion Day ran at Adelphi University’s Manhattan Center at 529 Fifth Ave.
- Event materials advertised 10 selected AI and machine-learning fashion-tech startups for the pitch program.
- CERRET, Spur and Atelier were among the startups publicly named ahead of the event.
- The program took place during the official Sept. 10-15 New York Fashion Week calendar but was not part of the CFDA’s official runway and presentation schedule.
- McKinsey reported that 71% of merchants in a December 2025 survey said AI merchandising tools had produced limited or no effect on their businesses so far.
Smart Fashion Day shifted part of the fashion-week conversation toward the systems behind producing, testing and selling fashion products.
The program was organized around startup pitches, industry feedback and networking. TechEmbassy’s event materials said participating companies were working across design, product development, personalization, merchandising, digital commerce, customer experience, sizing and fit, supply chains and circular fashion.
The timing placed the program inside a crowded week for New York fashion. The CFDA’s official Spring 2027 schedule ran from Sept. 10 through Sept. 15 and included 70 runway shows and designer presentations in its preliminary calendar. Smart Fashion Day occurred during that period as a separate technology-focused event in Midtown Manhattan.
Smart Fashion Day Puts Fashion Operations at the Center
Rather than center the program on collections, Smart Fashion Day focused on software, connected products and technology services aimed at operational problems.
Fashion Week Online listed the event from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 14, alongside a day that also included Aisling Camps, Vettese, Monse and Bach Mai. That schedule placed the technology event within the broader fashion-week activity without making it part of the CFDA’s official designer calendar.
The broader NYFW backdrop also included the first official fur-free season for brands appearing on the official CFDA schedule. The CFDA said its fur-free policy went into effect for the September 2026 season, adding sourcing and material requirements to a week already shaped by production, merchandising and brand operations.
Smart Fashion Day organizers said the pitch competition would feature 10 selected AI and machine-learning startups. The event page also listed a $25,000 AWS credits prize for the winning company, supplied through TechEmbassy’s cloud partner.
As of Sept. 15, the public event page reviewed for this article continued to describe the prize but did not name a winner. No winner is identified here without a public source confirming the result.
Three Startups Show the Range of Fashion Technology
CERRET, Spur and Atelier were among the companies publicly identified before Smart Fashion Day, and their products illustrate how widely fashion technology can extend beyond design software.
CERRET describes its products as connected safety jewelry. Its website says a wearer can use a bracelet to alert trusted contacts and share live location information through the CERRET app. The company lists silver, gold-plated and rose-gold options and says its products are designed in Geneva.
The company’s product documentation states that users can add trusted contacts and send an alert using a discreet button on the bracelet. CERRET presents the product as both jewelry and a connected personal-safety device rather than as a conventional fashion accessory alone.
Spur develops autonomous quality-assurance tools for websites. The company says its agents can plan, execute and report software tests, a function applicable to retail teams that regularly update digital storefronts and e-commerce systems. Its website currently features a session involving Vuori’s lead automation engineer, giving the product a direct fashion retail use case.
Atelier addresses the production stage between a design concept and manufacturing. Its platform describes tools for analyzing garment components, preparing material specifications, evaluating costs, matching designs with manufacturers and generating production documents. The company also presents a manufacturing network spanning multiple regions and product categories.
New York has also hosted digital fashion events that combined physical fashion with digital presentations and technology. Smart Fashion Day took a different approach by emphasizing business processes such as e-commerce testing, manufacturing preparation and connected products.
Retail AI Adoption Tests the Pitch Behind New Tools
The event arrived as retailers continue to test where AI can produce practical gains rather than remain an experimental layer.
McKinsey reported in January that 71% of 114 merchants surveyed in December 2025 said AI merchandising tools had delivered limited or no effect on their businesses so far. Another 61% said their organizations were either not prepared at all or only slightly prepared to scale AI across merchandising.
The research pointed to fragmented technology systems, inconsistent data and uneven adoption as major barriers. It also identified possible applications for agentic AI in pricing analysis, assortment diagnostics, vendor-material preparation and performance monitoring.
Those findings add context to the types of products placed in front of attendees at Smart Fashion Day. Automated website testing, manufacturing documentation and connected wearables address different business problems, but each is tied to a defined task rather than a broad promise about AI.
McKinsey’s wider 2026 fashion outlook also identified agentic AI and operational efficiency among the themes influencing fashion executives during the year. The research framed AI alongside issues such as consumer behavior and business operations rather than treating it solely as a creative-content tool.
The distinction is relevant during a fashion week still centered primarily on designers and collections. The CFDA’s preliminary September calendar featured 70 runway shows and presentations, while Smart Fashion Day operated beside that schedule as a separate forum for companies working on the infrastructure around fashion and retail.
CERRET’s connected jewelry, Spur’s e-commerce testing agents and Atelier’s production tools do not address the same part of the market. Their inclusion under one program instead showed the breadth of products now being described as fashion technology.
Smart Fashion Day ultimately placed that range of tools in front of fashion and retail professionals at a time when the industry is still evaluating where AI can be integrated effectively. Its relevance came less from a single technology category than from the operational questions the participating companies were built to address.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was Smart Fashion Day in New York?
Smart Fashion Day was a Sept. 14 fashion-tech pitch and networking event organized by TechEmbassy with Smart Fashion Council. It focused on AI and machine-learning applications for fashion, retail, luxury and e-commerce.
Was Smart Fashion Day part of the official NYFW schedule?
No. Smart Fashion Day took place during the official Sept. 10-15 New York Fashion Week calendar, but it was not listed among the CFDA’s official runway shows and designer presentations.
Which startups were connected to Smart Fashion Day?
CERRET, Spur and Atelier were among the startups publicly named before the event. Their products cover connected safety jewelry, automated website testing and fashion production workflows.
What prize was announced for the pitch competition?
The event page said the winning startup would receive $25,000 in AWS credits through TechEmbassy’s cloud partner. The public event page reviewed on Sept. 15 did not identify the winner.
Why is AI adoption relevant to fashion retailers?
Fashion and retail companies are testing AI across merchandising, e-commerce and other operational workflows. McKinsey found that 71% of merchants in its December 2025 survey said AI merchandising tools had produced limited or no effect on their businesses so far, indicating that adoption and implementation remain uneven.
