An idea can reach the world in a day now. Staying relevant takes longer than that, and it takes something else entirely. Speaking to Modern Era following her contribution at LEAP 2026, Aram Kabbani describes the shift in how fashion is discovered and experienced as a positive one. Technology opened the industry to new voices, ideas and audiences, and that door had been closed for a long time.
But she draws a clear line between being seen and being followed. “Technology can accelerate visibility, but what makes an idea relevant over time is the substance behind it,” she says. For her, lasting influence still comes from knowledge, consistency and a genuine point of view, none of which move at the speed of a feed.
Access Is Not the Same as Capability
The same distinction shapes how she reads the generation coming up behind her. Kabbani sees real energy and ambition among young talent in the creative industry, with access to technology and global platforms creating possibilities that did not exist before. The opportunity, as she frames it, is in what gets combined with that access: knowledge, experience and curiosity. And there is one quality she keeps returning to.
The most interesting talent today, she says, is globally connected while remaining deeply connected to its culture and roots. That authenticity is what produces a distinctive point of view, and a distinctive point of view is what makes creative work land on a global stage rather than blend into it. Which brings the conversation to the tools themselves.
Kabbani sees technology and AI as powerful creative instruments, changing how ideas are discovered, how audiences are understood and how creativity reaches the world. Her caution is not about the technology. It is about what it gets used for.
“The opportunity is to use technology to expand creativity, not standardise it.”
Human judgement, taste and cultural understanding stay non-negotiable in her view, and the future she finds most interesting is the one where technology and human creativity raise each other rather than compete. The algorithm can carry the idea. It cannot supply the substance.
