Louise Laing
Fashion businesses run on a development model that was already strained before AI changed what was possible. A typical garment moves from sketch to production through six to eight weeks of manual pattern work, multiple physical samples, and inventory commitments made months before a customer is asked anything. The operational question is no longer whether to automate. It is whether the leadership team understands which parts of the cycle can now be compressed, what the supply chain looks like when production becomes on-demand, and how to integrate digital and physical product lines without losing brand identity.
Louise Laing is a fashion entrepreneur and the founder of PhygitalTwin, helping brands shorten the cycle between design and production by applying AI, 3D and on-demand manufacturing across the value chain.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Louise Laing
- She has run the operating model she now sells advice on. As CEO of Shrimps she grew revenue by 240% and brought the business into positive EBITDA within three years, with senior prior roles at Burberry and Reiss in sourcing, development and supply chain.
- PhygitalTwin and Phygen give her a working technical view of how AI compresses pattern engineering and digital-to-physical production, not a consultant’s overview of the field.
- She translates between creative directors, production heads and technology teams. Heritage fashion businesses lose months because those three functions speak different languages; she has worked inside all three.
- Recode the Curriculum, the foundation she leads, gives her a credible voice on closing the technology confidence gap among young women, which connects her commercial work to a wider workforce question senior buyers care about.
Biography highlights
- Founder, PhygitalTwin (2022), an AI platform converting 3D designs into game-ready digital assets and production-ready physical files.
- Founder, Phygen, AI-native pattern engineering platform.
- Former CEO, Shrimps (London fashion brand). Drove 240% revenue growth and positive EBITDA within three years.
- Senior leadership roles previously held at Burberry and Reiss, in sourcing, product development and supply chain.
- Founder, Recode the Curriculum, a foundation supporting girls into technology and entrepreneurship.
- Speaker at the World Economic Forum, Davos (January 2024, Phygital Wednesday with CV Labs and Phygicode). Contributor to The Interline.
Biography
Pattern engineering is the part of the fashion supply chain almost no one outside the industry sees. It is also where six to eight weeks of every new garment is spent. Louise Laing has built her last decade of work around the question of what happens when that cycle collapses to hours.
PhygitalTwin, the company she founded in 2022, is an AI SaaS platform that converts a single 3D design into two commercial outputs: a rigged, game-ready digital skin and a print-ready file for physical merchandise. Phygen, a parallel venture, automates the pattern, grading and tech-pack work that traditionally sits between designer and factory. Both are built on a thesis she has lived inside: fashion’s waste problem is structural, and the solution sits in the production model rather than the marketing one.
Before founding either company, she ran a fashion business. As CEO of Shrimps she grew revenue by 240% and took the company into positive EBITDA within three years, while protecting the brand’s creative identity. Earlier senior roles at Burberry and Reiss gave her direct operational experience of sourcing, product development and supply chain at scale, which is the operating context most heritage brands now have to redesign.
Her wider work includes Recode the Curriculum, a foundation introducing girls to technology as a creative and entrepreneurial pathway. She has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos and writes for The Interline on fashion, gaming and brand strategy in virtual environments.
Key speaking topics
- AI in fashion design and product development
- 3D and on-demand production
- Phygital fashion and the digital-to-physical product chain
- Supply chain optimisation in heritage and emerging brands
- Sustainability through production model redesign
- Entrepreneurship and scaling a fashion business
- Women and girls in technology
Ideal for
- Boards and executive teams in fashion, retail and consumer brands considering operational redesign around AI.
- Heads of product, sourcing and supply chain looking for a working view of digital-to-physical workflows.
- Innovation, transformation and digital leaders in adjacent industries (consumer goods, luxury, sportswear) studying fashion as a sector ahead on phygital.
- Programme leads building gender-balanced technology talent pipelines.
Audience outcomes
- A clearer operating picture of where AI compresses real cost and time in product development.
- Specific examples of how 3D, on-demand and digital twin technology change unit economics in a brand business.
- A view of phygital fashion as a commercial category, with the brand and IP questions it raises.
- An entrepreneur’s perspective on running a creative business through an operational reinvention.
Talks
A working session on where AI is already changing fashion product development, marketing and e-commerce operations, and how to act on it without losing brand control.
Key takeaways:
- How predictive analytics and AI-driven recommendation engines change the economics of e-commerce.
- How 3D garment modelling and on-demand production compress sample, inventory and waste costs.
- Why smaller, proprietary AI models are becoming a more practical option than general large language models for brand-specific work.