Bonprix’s Carolin Klar on 3D Design, AI, and the Human Side of Fashion | WRC 2025

Hello, everyone.

This is Omni Talk Retail.

I'm Anne Mazinga.

And I'm Chris Walton.

We are coming to you at the end of day two of World Retail Congress from the Vision Group booth.

We'll be here for just a little while longer today.

And a big thank you to Vision Group for making all of our coverage at today's conference possible.

Now, Chris, standing next to me is our next guest, Carolyn Clar, the member of the executive board at Bone Prepared.

Welcome, Caroline, thanks for making the time.

Yes, thank you.

So glad we're able to make this happen.

So let's, let's start out.

So let's tell the audience back home in the United States about yourself, your background, your role, and also a little bit about Bone Pre.

Yes, yes.

Well, I do.

Yeah.

I'm Caroline.

So as you mentioned.

So.

And I'm a textile engineer, actually.

Okay.

That's the reason why I really love promotion products.

So I'm a really product addicted person.

So.

And yes, I started my career, I think 20 years ago, and first I worked more in the marketing department because I also had a degree in business engineering.

Okay.

After my textile, I thought, okay, maybe it's not the safest industry, but I decided to do some business engineering on top or in postgraduate studies.

But I'm really product addicted and I love fashion.

So it was the reason I said, okay, now I go back to the product.

And that was the reason I started at Ponpre 18 years ago and I started marketing and then I worked in product development and product management.

So I had several positions and yeah, was in charge of different assortments.

So, yeah, I'm a really expert in product.

She loves product.

Yeah, I love product.

And two years ago, I stepped in the.

In the member.

I stepped in the broad.

And yeah, I'm in charge of product management, sorting and cr.

Oh, okay.

Got it, got it.

And tell us a little bit about Bon Pre too.

Like for those at home, like, what business is it?

How many stores do you have?

The whole nine yards.

Yeah.

Vonprix is a digital fashion brand.

We were founded in 1986.

So.

1986.

1986.

Wow.

Okay.

Wow.

We are nearly 40 years old.

Next year we have our huge anniversary.

Yeah.

And we, we come basically from the mail order business.

Mail order business.

Okay.

When it, when we.

We never had stores before, so we were always online.

Got it.

Or catalog.

Got it.

In between we had some retail stores, but we also now focusing on online.

But first of all, we catalogs and then we.

I think at really early stage, we Developed our online shop, or we started with our online shop in the 90s.

So we were really early with the webshop.

Some kind of a pioneer.

Yeah.

And we have mainly female customers.

We operate in 25 European countries.

25 countries?

Yeah.

And all over Europe we have over 10 million customers.

And our assortments are from apparel for women, men, kids, and also home.

Got it.

Shoes, accessories, all this stuff.

And you were just on stage earlier today, Caroline, you're talking about the power of strategic sourcing partnerships.

Tell us a little bit about what you talked about on stage and what you hope the audience took away.

Yeah.

First of all, we developed together with our partner Auto International, it's our sourcing providing agency.

We developed a joint or how to say, a global structure for technical product development.

I don't know if familiar with 3D, but based on the developments we have in 3D, we developed a new structure that we have our teams in different countries so that all the patterns which have done in the past on the manual process, you don't now do it in 3D.

And we have different teams sitting all over the world.

I have to say they sit in the different Auto International office or they sit in Poland and also in Hamburg.

And this is a structure I think we started three years ago to build up.

And now we are finalized everything and we can scale now the 3D.

And we are really, I would say fast forward with this.

There are only a few companies which has this progress.

We already have in N3D in Europe.

Yeah, right.

Always talking about Europe.

But this is what we showcased during our speech, how we came there, what was the change?

Because there was a lot of change in the organizational structures, in the job profile.

The teams were really affected by this.

And this was interesting also for us, a really interesting journey.

But I think it was, the story was okay, this led us to become better partners, stronger partners, and also the outcome.

And was your second question, what have we learned during this journey?

And I think what was really great, we had a common vision, a strong vision and commitment and said, okay, that's really great, let's do this together.

And this is what we achieved at the end.

And we are so proud.

And that's really great.

When you have achieved something together, then you are also, I think you step into the next level and say, okay, now we go for the next.

And so also a lot of learnings through this journey.

It's also a bumpy road.

It's not just the straightaway.

No, it never ends.

So what we learned out of this urgency and change.

This is also what I learned for other projects or organizational restructure projects we had in our organization.

You have to go through this.

Yeah.

And I think Heidi compared it in our speech when she said, okay, it's like you, it's kind of.

You wrap up this band.

So this is.

You have to do it really hard.

Yeah.

You have to rip up the band.

Otherwise everyone is in this.

Okay.

Stuck in the middle, in the change.

And you have to go for this.

And this is also important.

You have to really have hard but honest discussions.

That's also so important.

And I think you can say, okay, let's do this jointly.

But on the other hand, everyone is doing its own.

You really have to discuss when you think, okay, that's not.

Okay, that's not working for me.

So let's discuss this openly.

This is really great.

And you also, and I think there are several lines, I just want to highlight this also due to the time we have.

You just can build high performance teams when you are also accept that you are not the only one who can do everything and so also give trust to other colleagues and give him also the appreciation.

Okay, you are also capable to do this.

Yeah.

And it's not just me who I'm capable to do this.

And I also respect your skills.

And this is where you can really build high performance team when you have complementary skills and capabilities.

And this is really in strong learning for me.

And this is what we always have to do.

Because even if we are now on the journey for the next level, we see.

Okay, we always have discussions where we say, okay, no, let's go ahead.

We have the learning, but we have to trust each other.

That's so important.

That's a great point, actually.

And I were just talking about something completely different about that same idea.

To grow in business, you've got to be able to let go of some things and give that control to other people.

So that's great.

I'm curious too.

So someone that loves products as much as you do and has spent the amount of time in product development, how has product development changed over your career?

Like, what's different?

What's stayed the same?

What are the core fundamental principles of doing it?

Well, yeah, I think, yeah, there are so many changes, but there are still things which are the same.

I think, first of all, yeah, even if you have a lot of technology around you or you use a lot of AI, whatever comes up, I'm convinced that you always need some human who.

Feel the fabric, feel the product.

It's really Great.

And I can't imagine that one day I have a robot coming and say, okay, this is a great hand feel for this fabric.

This is what I can't imagine.

So I think this will be.

It will be always a combination of using technology enable or enable the employees to be better using technology.

But it won't be without.

And I think it has not to do with the fashion industry.

I think it's in every industry, but I think especially in the fashion industry, also something to do with what you like and how do you feel.

And so emotion always.

Yeah, there's always a bit emotion.

And I think that brings me to the second point.

It's always an emotional product.

I often have discussions with my executive colleagues will say, okay, the customers, they just love shirts, white shirts.

And I say, okay, I don't think.

And also what is the demand of a customer and the demand of a customer for?

And I look at me, I say, okay, the demand can also be.

I want to have a new fashion trend.

It's also kind of a demand.

And this is where we really have to understand fashion is always changing and that is what never changed.

And trends go up and down and this comebacks.

And so I think it's also important and it's also to emphasize the personality and yeah to express yourself.

So fashion will be always important and you always have the change.

So this will be also the same.

And I think what is maybe one time it will change, but I think and also in the near future, I don't see that it will be changed so much is that manufacturing of a product or a garment is really, you need a lot of workforce because they are not robotics which can robot which can sew a garment.

And this is what I don't see it in the near future because then you don't have to discuss, okay, where I have to.

In which sourcing market, where can I go?

Where's the cheapest workforce?

Then you have other discussions.

But I think in the near future I don't see it because it's, it's still a really manual process because there are some challenges you can't solve with technology.

This is what I don't see at the moment.

Maybe one day we just talked about.

That on our podcast.

Some in some other degree.

But yeah, that's the beauty and the richness and the special specialty of those products too, being handmade or having those being different on those.

On those certain elements.

Well, Caroline, let's.

So let's close with this question.

If you're talking, you mentioned 3D technology is something that you're using.

What technology are you finding advantageous or helpful in the sourcing process, in the design process, in addition to the human creative side of things.

Yeah.

What is really great, I think and can have really also to be more productive at the end or to get more information.

That is what you at the end.

What you need is when you can use AI.

For example, I see there's a Google trend coming up and I just take the Google search and can prompt in the style and I don't have to create it on my own or I have to do a huge analysis of a catwalk.

I can really take a Google search for my customer and this is what I can prompt directly.

I think this will be the way.

So it will be from my point of view more and pull that we bring or this is more a pull product strategy than this push as we defined or as we develop collections in the previous years.

So that you would think, okay, I make an analysis of a catwalk and then I have some precision prediction what I think what is good and also what I know from the past, what my customer.

So all these analyses and then it's what where I'm also a bit uncertain.

Okay, does she or he likes this?

I think it will be more clear.

You take data from wherever, from customer, from influencer, from social, from all different sources, put it in it and say, okay, let's create the product.

And at the end, and this is what I mentioned was my first point, you still need someone who checks it and say, okay, is it really the great.

Because we also know the quality of artificial intelligence is at the moment not so that you can say, okay, it's always the best to come a bit shit out of it.

Right, Right, right, right.

Sometimes when I see when my kids write or I have to do an essay for the schools and they say, okay, yeah, it was in the Internet.

They make nonsense.

It's really totally wrong.

So please use also your brain.

If this is right.

That's one.

I think that is also the same.

Yeah.

Caroline, does that change at all how you have to manage the team, like the team of designers, the product designers that are using these tools, like how do you think through that from as an executive in terms of helping them or managing through that challenge or that adoption?

Yeah, I think they need to be more open because I think at the beginning they have to be open and say, okay, it's not.

It's not a substitute for me or my job.

And you have to explain in a very Good way.

How you can enable and bring them to a better result and not just, oh, I substitute you with technology.

And I think this is really a good explanation and how you bring them and also to show them all these things.

And what we are doing is we also, for example, created kind of a fashion app where we're prompting styles and say, okay, and we always try it and we always have some iterations with the teams and ask them, okay, use it.

What is the outcome where we can improve?

And I think it's also so important not to bring it at the end to them and say, okay, this is the final product, the final tech product.

You have to use it now, you have to ask them, you have to iterate together with them.

You have always this, test and learn, adapt.

And this is where you can bring them together and they skill them up to use these technologies and that they are not afraid of this, that they see it as a chance.

I think that is so important.

And this is where we work on really, really also for us in a really important way to do it like this.

Yeah, yeah, that's a really important point to end on because you're right.

I mean, I think like, you know, with AI, it's going to make everyone more productive on the front side of the process, which should give more time for the finished product side of the process.

Gives you a rapid prototype.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, it's more than that too because like I can remember back to my days working with product designers, like we'd always hustling at the end to get things done because you got to make the production timelines.

But it should give you more time to fine tune those last details, the actual touch, the stitch of the embroidery, everything that does matter fundamentally, that oftentimes gets overlooked just by way of time constraints.

So that's a really interesting way to think about AI and where you emphasize things as a manager.

So that's awesome.

Thank you for that.

Well, thank you.

Yes, thank you.

It's a real pleasure having you.

Thank you for making time for us.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for making time for us.

We've got one more interview coming your way here at WRC 2025.

Thanks to Caroline Clar for joining us and Ann, as always, be careful out there.