Digital clothing - when trendiness and sustainability coincide

3D Digital Garments: Balmlabs

Being sustainable is essential for any brand to succeed in the current social climate, since sustainable practices help establish strong customer loyalty. On the other hand, one in three women would consider a piece of clothing too “old” after one or two wears. How can fashion brands remain sustainable and establish their footing in the circular economy, while also satisfying customers’ need for constantly new and up to date fashion?

The answer lies in digital fashion.

Digital fashion includes creating digital, instead of physical, models of fashion designs and providing the customer their clothes digitally. With social media becoming increasingly relevant in our everyday lives, people wish to present their best, most fashionable selves to the online world. Therefore, the customer's constant need for new and trendy clothing relates to social media to a great extent; one in six young people claim that they would not wear an outfit again if it’s already been seen online. Digital fashion presents a perfect solution - while people can have an extensive trendy online closet, they can maintain a more sustainable and minimalist physical closet.

The Fabricant, a fully digital fashion house, is a pioneer in the field of digital fashion. The founder of the Fabricant, Amber Jae Slooten, calls her fashion “thought couture” since “it is beyond physical, just like thought, and it makes people think about the process”. To implement this thought couture, The Fabricant is creating a platform where people can wear, buy and share digital clothes regardless of their physical location or size. Digital fashion is not just limited to helping replace fast fashion, but it can also be a medium for implementing new haute couture. In 2019, The Fabricant sold a couture dress for $9500 in a blockchain auction. They fitted the customer into the dress in the images that she sent, and never met her in person.

With its many avenues, digital fashion is one facet of fashion technology that can grow a lot in the future. It is a perfect solution to the fashion industry’s sustainability issue and also gives customers new and up to date clothes.

Sources

https://uxplanet.org/why-digital-clothing-is-2021s-most-exciting-tech-trend-64717db6856b

https://thepowerhouse.group/digital-fashion-amber-jae-slooten-the-fabricant/