Microsoft brings fashion discovery to Copilot; Recycling at scale; Rent the Runway’s AI reboot; Nigeria’s first fashion tech summit
Microsoft teams with Curated for You to bring shoppable fashion into Copilot; Textile-to-textile recyclers scale plants to turn clothing waste into raw material; Rent the Runway doubles down on AI personalization and a $100M recapitalization; Nigeria debuts its first fashion tech conference.
Microsoft Brings Fashion Discovery to Copilot
Microsoft has partnered with Curated for You to launch AI-powered fashion discovery directly inside Copilot. Users can now type prompts like “What should I wear to a beach wedding?” and receive shoppable outfit suggestions from retailers including Revolve, Steve Madden, Rent the Runway, and Lulus. The feature blends retailer data with contextual insights on events and trends, aiming to match real-world intent with instant shopping opportunities.
Why it matters: This move positions Microsoft Copilot as more than a productivity tool, it’s becoming a lifestyle commerce platform. By embedding fashion discovery into everyday AI interactions, Microsoft is testing how AI assistants could redirect retail traffic away from search engines and e-commerce sites into conversational, closed ecosystems.
Curated for You
Fashion Recycling Hits Industrial Scale
Recycling startups from RE&UP in Turkey to Circ in France and Syre in the U.S. are scaling textile-to-textile plants capable of producing tens of thousands of tons of recycled cotton and polyester each year. Once limited to bottle-based polyester, the sector is now tackling blended fabrics with AI scanning and hydrothermal methods. RE&UP alone expects to hit 80,000 tons this year and 1 million by 2030, while Circ and Syre are lining up global expansion plans backed by major brands from Puma to H&M.
Why it matters: Less than 1% of global fibers come from recycled textiles today, but regulation in the EU and California plus industrial-scale plants signal a tipping point. If successful, these projects could transform clothing waste from a liability into a raw material stream.
Rent the Runway Bets Big on AI and Recapitalization
Rent the Runway is undergoing a major digital overhaul in 2025 (paywall), rolling out AI-powered discovery tools, fit insights, and personalized style recommendations for its 170,000+ subscribers. Alongside tech upgrades, the company has expanded its inventory by 2,200 styles and 56 brands, launched new shopper touchpoints from affiliate emails to live events, and unveiled a $100M recapitalization plan that CEO Jennifer Hyman calls the company’s “IPO 2.0.” Subscriber numbers and satisfaction are rising, with Net Promoter Score hitting a record 77.
Why it matters: Rent the Runway is positioning itself not just as a rental service but as fashion’s AI-enabled subscription hub. By pairing personalization with a stronger balance sheet, it’s testing whether data-driven innovation can finally make fashion-as-a-service a scalable, profitable model.
Jeanel Alvarado
Nigeria Hosts Its First-Ever Fashion Tech Conference
Cudney, Wurafadaka, and ALAT have partnered to stage Nigeria’s first Fashion Tech Conference in Ilorin, uniting designers, entrepreneurs, and technologists to explore how digital tools can transform the country’s creative economy. The two-day event featured workshops on AI design, blockchain sourcing, and e-commerce, live demos of rapid garment production, and financial innovations from Africa’s first digital bank.
Why it matters: Nigeria’s debut fashion tech summit signals how Africa’s largest economy is harnessing technology and reflects a growing appetite for digital transformation in Africa’s fashion industry.
