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These platforms want to be the Farfetch of digital fashion

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New marketplaces are establishing avenues for digital fashion designers to sell their designs, and for customers to wear them, outside of games or marketing moments.

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The digitisation of cultural heritage started more than 20 years ago and brought about a few changes in the way culture is being produced, consumed, and perceived. Initially, this process aimed at taking out the cultural artefacts, which were stuck in the dusty galleries, libraries, archives, museums, and bringing them closer to both professionals from the creative industries and non-professionals. Nevertheless, this approach is rather difficult because even though there is a huge amount of already digitised cultural heritage, those resources are not used that much, especially in the segment of fashion heritage. What is the importance and the relevance of a digitised cultural heritage? How can both the organisation and its users benefit from it?

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You are what you (co)curate: A participatory approach to fashion curation in the digital world

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The digitisation of cultural heritage started more than 20 years ago and brought about a few changes in the way culture is being produced, consumed, and perceived. Initially, this process aimed at taking out the cultural artefacts, which were stuck in the dusty galleries, libraries, archives, museums, and bringing them closer to both professionals from the creative industries and non-professionals.

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Digital clothing is the latest fashion. Except it's pixels, not textiles.

It's not your stereotypical concept of catwalks, photographers, studios, and sample sizes. Instead, it flips fashion on its head with outlandish, gravity-defying designs that fit all sizes.

It's still exclusive, but it's also affordable.
Want to know more?
Read on as we dig into digital clothing to see why it's booming and how your fashion brand can join the revolution.

What is Digital Clothing?

Digital clothing isn't made of fabric or anything tangible. The garments are made from pixels rather than textiles, using computer technologies and 3D software. So you'll never wear an item of digital clothing in real life.

Instead, you can browse an online selection of digital clothes and order something you like. Depending on the retailer, you can either send a picture of yourself to a team of 3D designers who will digitally fit the item of clothing on your photo, or you can download and manipulate the files yourself using 3D software, so it's ready to post on Instagram.

Why Digital Clothing is Booming Now

Here are five reasons why digital clothing is booming:

1. Digital clothing is eco-friendly unlike the traditional fashion industry

Waste is an on-going issue in the fashion industry. It contributes more to climate change than the annual emissions of air and sea travel combined. If trends continue, it could account for a quarter of the world's carbon budget by 2050.

Even if you recycle plastic bottles or produce organic cotton, there's a lot more water used and it's still more wasteful than digital.

Gala Marija Vrbanic, creative director at digital fashion brand Tribute, says:

"We truly believe this is something that is going to shape the future of fashion, and it's something that is totally zero-waste."

The carbon footprint of producing a digital garment is 95% lower than that of a standard physical garment.

2. Digital clothing is in line with current usage of people who need an "outfit of the day"

A quick search of the popular Instagram hashtag reveals more than 350 million posts. Many of the designer outfits cost thousands of dollars and will only be worn once, just to get that exclusive social media post, before they're cast into the back of the wardrobe.

People want to look pixel-perfect in their outfits, especially in their social media photos. Writing in Vogue, Christian Allaire said:

"I am often guilty of scrutinizing my outfit in photos, and if the fit is only slightly off, I will delete said photo."

3. Digital clothing is relevant in times of pandemic when people don't go out as much and instead show off on social media

Digital clothing has seen accelerated growth through the pandemic. Brands have had to switch to virtual showrooms and online events to show their latest fashion designs. Even the models, like @lilmiquela, have become digital.

It makes sense. If people are trapped indoors there's no need to buy real-life clothes to show off on social media. It's more cost-effective to buy an exclusive, limited-edition virtual fashion item that can be modeled to fans and followers.

4. New tech making it easier to create digital clothing

Advances in technology, especially 3D software, is making it easier to create digital garments. What currently takes 3-5 hours could eventually become instant.

Initially, designers were digitizing their existing textile designs. But with the latest software they can create digital clothes from the start. They can even add imaginative items and materials that would be impossible in real-life, as well as adding AR effects and filters.

5. Digital clothing has a similarity with video games avatars

The inspiration for digital clothing brand Tribute, was Grand Theft Auto, The Sims, along with other ‌video games.

"You have these characters and clothing shops where you can dress them up. That was always the most exciting part of the game for me."

Similarly, Carlings' first digital-only collection, "Neo-Ex", was inspired by video games such as Tekken. It featured a bright yellow crocodile skin coat, blue latex chaps covered in computer code print, and a black visor emblazoned with the slogan: "Eat The Glitch'"

Esports is a thriving market, as Matthew Drinkwater, head of the Fashion Innovation Agency at London College of Fashion told Elle:

"Fortnite fans rack up millions of dollars on skins for their avatars. And the fashion industry is only just beginning to realize that there might be an opportunity there for virtual content."

Examples of Pioneering Brands in Digital Clothing

Let's take a look at three pioneering brands who are leading the fashion industry towards digital clothing.

Tribute

Tribute is a Croatian-based company that makes "contactless cyber fashion." It was founded by creative director, Gala Marija Vrbanic, and head of digital fashion, Filip Vajda.

Originally, Vrbanic and Vajda digitized their traditional real-life clothing patterns using 3D software. Nowadays, they are a 100% digital brand.

Their digital clothes are made from materials that people could never wear in the real world due to the laws of physics.

Customers purchase garments from their website and supply a photo. Then the Tribute designers blend the digital garment onto the image seamlessly, and add shadowing and other lifelike elements.

For example, you could buy the FIDO poison green pants, upload your photo, and appear something like this:

The Fabricant

The Fabricant is an Amsterdam-based digital fashion house "leading the fashion industry towards a new sector of digital clothing." The brand creates hyper-real virtual clothing for fashion brands and retailers, such as Puma and I.T Hong Kong, Their founder, Kerry Murphy, reckons it won't be long until a luxury brand releases a completely digital collection.

The Fabricant also designed the world's first piece of "digital couture" sold at a charity auction for $9,500 on the Ethereum blockchain. The iridescent, translucent one-piece was designed by Amber Jae Slooten, creative director at The Fabricant, to be fitted onto a photo of the owner.

It was modelled by Johanna Jaskowska @johwska:

And purchased by this lady in the auction:

The Fabricant also sells digital clothing direct to customers from its online shop, including FFROPS (free file drops), which are free to download for anyone who wants to use these files, like SOORTY, for their own creations.

Unlike Tribute, The Fabricant customers need to "fit" the garments to their own photos using 3D software like CLO3D, Marvelous Designer, Blender, Maya, Houdini, Cinema4D or any other industry standard 3D software.

Happy99

Happy99 has a different digital-clothing strategy. Founders Nathalie Nguyen and Dominic Lopez, are not interested in editing Instagram photos for customers.

They see wearable AI as a tool to help build brand identity and ultimately open up a dialogue about what ‌to‌ ‌consume. They're famous for merging their digital shoes with physical outfits to create a stronger connection with fans and customers.

"In terms of brand identity, I think that narrative storytelling is the most sustainable option. We want to create a universe instead of just products and, at the end of the day, that makes all of our shoes 'real'," Nathalie explains. "Are they physical, consumable products? No. But in the same way that people like a picture, engage with it, comment on it, and share it with their friends, they have consumed the product."

How Your Fashion Brand Can Ride into the Future with Digital Clothing

Here are four ways your fashion brand can harness the power of digital clothing.

Idea 1: Limited editions

The first idea is to follow the examples of The Fabricant and Tribute and offer limited editions of digital clothing that customers can purchase and download. Restricting items to limited numbers keeps the garments exclusive rather than mass produced.

It's fair to say that from the consumer side, technology is "getting there" at the moment.

As Matthew Drinkwater says:

"As technology improves and the photo-realism of what you can create gets better, you start getting to the possibility where the desirability of digital clothing could become on a par with the real thing."

But as the digital fashion trend grows, technology will become more mainstream and make it easier for consumers to manipulate their digital garments.

For example, you only have to look back at how 3D printing has now been democratized with desktop-size printers after previously being restricted to heavy industry.

Idea 2: Social tokens

A second idea is to link the concept of digital clothing to another topic we discussed recently on the blog: social tokens.

Non-fungible tokens ( NFTs) allow creators, such as designers, photographers, musicians, and authors, to monetize their creations with their fans.

NFTs are blockchain-based records that uniquely represent pieces of media. The media can be anything digital, including art, videos, music, and text.

RTFKT Studios manufactures virtual collector's sneakers in NFT format:

Recently, their FEWO sneakers sold out in 7mins and generated $3.1 Million:

we just made sneaker history with @fewocious and @RTFKTstudios ... I can't breath...... https://t.co/NjDwNMZsgz

- ClegFX RTFKT (@clegfx) February 27, 2021

There's definitely a market for NFTs, so you could consider selling other fashion accessories like hats or sunglasses. You could also take this one step further and include items of digital clothing, designed by brands and endorsed by celebrities and influencers.

Idea 3: Esports fashion

Finally, you could head down a different path, conceptually, and branch out into esports fashion.

Some brands are already creating digital clothing for video games.

For example: Louis Vuitton created an unprecedented, one-of-a-kind Trophy Travel Case to hold the Summoner's Cup, the trophy awarded to the world champions. They also designed unique champion skins for Qiyana (a character from the game) and a capsule collection, along with other League of Legend digital assets.

To unlock this exclusive skin, League of Legends fans had to buy the 2019 Worlds Pass for around $10. From there, players had to grind out games to earn tokens to buy the skin from an in-game shop. The skins cost about 2,000 tokens.

Although this is slightly "left field", in the sense that it's not clothing that you apply to a human photo and post on social media, but a skin you apply to a video game avatar, it's still a viable market.

In 2018, Glu Mobile's 'Covet Fashion' game, which allows users to style models with digitally rendered designer clothing, generated $53.4 million.

However, it's still digital wear that you can exclusively use in an online world, and ultimately help your brand build awareness and drive revenue, as esports fans spend millions of dollars on skins for their avatars.

Idea 4: Offer digital fitting solutions

Right now, there's an opportunity to develop more user-friendly tech, like 3D software and analytics tools.

For example, Whering is an app that can digitize your wardrobe:

"The app that's gonna change your outfit game in 2020. Seamlessly browse, style, and organise your clothes. Save time, money, and regain confidence."

The concept is to get people to wear their clothes more rather than dumping them in the wardrobe. "On average a garment in the UK is worn just 4 times."

Once you've digitized your wardrobe, the app prompts different combinations of outfits to wear, and in so doing, help reduce your carbon footprint.

This is just one type of app - there are more opportunities throughout the digital clothing chain, from design and production to ecommerce to eco-friendly initiatives.

Digital Clothing in a Nutshell

Boosted by broader supply (more brands joining the movement) and demand (more people staying home while hanging on social media), 2021 could be the year digital clothing blooms into a new fashion avenue.

At the same time, digital fashion is more accessible and can rest easy knowing it hasn't left an enormous, negative carbon footprint like the traditional fashion industry.

To summarize, digital clothing is eco-friendly, is getting easier to create, fits in with the trendy OOTD, allows people to show off on social media, and is closely aligned with the thriving esports market.

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Digital Clothing: All You Need to Know About the Future of Fashion Brands

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Digital clothing is the latest fashion. Except it's pixels, not textiles. It's not your stereotypical concept of catwalks, photographers, studios, and sample sizes. Instead, it flips fashion on its head with outlandish, gravity-defying designs that fit all sizes. It's still exclusive, but it's also affordable. Want to know more?

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Is digital fashion really the industry’s eco-friendly saviour?

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It’s been celebrated as a pathway to sustainability, but digital fashion doesn’t come without its own set of challenges

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We may not fully know what the metaverse will look like, but at least our digital selves will dress sharp as we find out.

On Wednesday, designer Ralph Lauren unveiled a holiday-themed experience complete with unique outfits for the kid-friendly game Roblox.

Players will get to explore a wintry landscape while participating in activities together such as ice skating, toasting marshmallows and grabbing a hot chocolate, as well as joining a holiday treasure hunt to unlock exclusive accessories.

"Our engagement in the metaverse is a natural extension of our lifestyle brand which, at its core, has always been about stepping into the worlds of Ralph Lauren," said Alice Delahunt, chief digital and content officer for Ralph Lauren, in a statement.

Players can also customize their avatars with Ralph Lauren clothing at virtual Polo shops located in Roblox.
►What is Roblox? ►Streaming TV: Google and Roku reach deal to keep YouTube apps on streaming devices What you need to know about the kid-friendly gaming platform
The experience will be available through Jan. 3, 2022.

The metaverse is a combination of virtual and augmented realities along with other tech allowing users to live, work and socialize in a digital universe. Many supporters of the metaverse believe it will succeed the modern internet.

Ralph Lauren has dabbled in the metaverse before, partnering in August with Zepeto, a social networking app, creating a digital collection of apparel and a thematic world for users to socialize.
Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.
Ralph Lauren is one of several brands to partner with Roblox, considered one of the frontrunners in the push toward building a metaverse. In September, Roblox announced a partnership with shoe company Vans to create a virtual skate park and offer users the chance to buy Vans gear.
►PS5 restock alert: Walmart has a gaming consoles release Wednesday with Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5
Roblox also has a partnership with fashion icon Gucci, announced last summer.

► Metaverse explainer: Everyone wants to own the metaverse including Facebook and Microsoft. But what exactly is it?

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Ralph Lauren's next venture is a metaverse holiday experience for Roblox

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We may not fully know what the metaverse will look like, but at least our digital selves will dress sharp as we find out. On Wednesday, designer Ralph Lauren unveiled a holiday-themed experience complete with unique outfits for the kid-friendly game Roblox.

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Last week, Facebook announced its rebranding to Meta and committed billions of dollars to building the metaverse, an immersive future state of the internet that would be a natural environment for digital assets like digital fashion or avatars. In the past two months, leading fashion and gaming companies like Balenciaga and Fortnite and Vans and Roblox have announced collaborations that span digital fashion collections and physical activations. And throughout 2021, sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) dramatically rose to $10.7 billion in the third quarter from $1.3 billion in the second quarter.

Companies around the world are grappling with the existential implications of this evolution. Digital assets have existed for years, but engagement now seems to be at an inflection point, especially as NFTs - which prove authenticity and ownership and drive scarcity - could increase the utility and value of digital assets.

Are we at the precipice of a new digital frontier? Or are we facing a frenzy of hype, amplified by time spent at home during the pandemic?

BoF Insights believes companies in fashion and retail would be well-advised to understand the shifts taking place, in particular in consumer behaviour and purchase motivations. For an industry slow to adapt to platform shifts like e-commerce, some fashion companies are already taking note, with brands from mass to luxury experimenting with collaborations and activations and digital-first entrants rapidly emerging.

The Opportunity in Digital Fashion and Avatars is the second in-depth report published by BoF Insights, a recently launched data and analysis think tank from The Business of Fashion arming business leaders with proprietary and data-driven research to navigate the fast-changing global fashion industry.

The new report from BoF Insights reveals that:

approximately 70 percent of US general consumers (Gen-Z to Gen-X) rate their digital identity as important

65 percent rate digital ownership as important

50 percent are interested in purchasing a digital asset in the next 12 months - whether a digital skin or other item in gaming, digital fashion, digital avatar and/or an NFT.

Interest in purchasing a digital asset in the next 12 months is even higher among US high-net-worth individuals, according to BoF Insights research involving both a LuxuryOpinions® panel assembled by Altiant and a Global Virtual Fashion Panel drawn from the communities of DressX and The Fabricant:

In the report, BoF Insights offers its perspective on the staying power of digital assets, what consumers believe about digital identity and ownership, what motivates consumers to purchase different digital assets, and how companies should engage over the short, medium and long term.
Why this report is a must-have:

It offers a comprehensive overview of digital assets in fashion - including items in gaming, fashion, avatars and NFTs - which deepens the knowledge of current or would-be industry participants.

It identifies the underlying technological and social shifts driving interest in digital assets while examining the durability of these shifts.

It analyses in-depth consumer insights that measure the familiarity with, perceptions of and behaviours associated with digital assets broadly and digital fashion and avatars specifically.

It provides a playbook that outlines how brands can tactically develop their digital asset strategies, including where and how to experiment within these new environments.

The report is based on proprietary research inputs, including:
30 interviews with founders, chief executives, other senior executives and investors across the following domains:

Gaming

Digital-first brands, retailers and marketplaces

Physical-first fashion and luxury companies

Four proprietary surveys:

Demographically balanced US General Consumer survey of Gen-Z to Gen-X, facilitated by Altiant on behalf of BoF

Altiant LuxuryOpinions® panel of US high-net-worth individuals (each with a minimum of $1 million in investable assets) conducted on behalf of BoF

Global Virtual Fashion panel fielded by BoF across the communities of DressX and The Fabricant

Senior executive survey of BoF's global community of fashion professionals

Companies and collaborations covered in the report include Altava, The Aura Blockchain Consortium, Auroboros, Balenciaga, Betaworks Ventures, Boson Protocol, Burberry, Digitalax, The Dematerialised, DressX, Epic Games (Fortnite), The Fabricant, Genies, Gucci, The Hundreds, Improbable, Louis Vuitton, Mythical Games (Blankos Block Party), OpenSea, Palm NFT Studio, Poplar Studio, Ralph Lauren, Retail Prophet, Riot Games (League of Legends), RTFKT, Roblox, Straiqr.ai, Substance, Truesy, Vans and Wanna.

For enquiries and/or support, please email insights@businessoffashion.com.

Related Articles: The Metaverse Will Radically Change Retail Unpacking Fashion's Latest Wave of NFT Sales The Limits of Virtual Fashion

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The Opportunity in Digital Fashion and Avatars Report - BoF Insights

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Last week, Facebook announced its rebranding to Meta and committed billions of dollars to building the metaverse, an immersive future state of the internet that would be a natural environment for digital assets like digital fashion or avatars.

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Designers are using digital technology to reinvent and speed up the process of designing and selling ... [+]
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Digital transformation of fashion design and manufacturing is viewed as both an opportunity and a threat, depending on who you ask. The perceived threats include job security, creativity, and loss of the "human touch" in fashion design and garment-making. The opportunities span time and cost savings, vast and swift sustainability gains (including removing textile waste and reducing the need for dyeing, water use and the carbon emissions generated by physical sampling) and the ability to manufacture small quantities of products profitably. Other creative industries, such as gaming and film, have adopted digital tools and subsequently platforms that link design, the beating heart of all the products created for human consumption, with every other person and process necessary to bring that design to life (whether that be on a screen or in physical form). It follows that these industries have therefore provided a blueprint for the digitization of fashion-or have they?

To put this debate into the current context, the sustainability pressures facing the fashion industry point to digital transformation being necessary, rather than optional. The rising cost of raw materials as the planet's resources dwindle, the carbon and financial costs of manual garment sampling and shipping back and forth from manufacturers in Asia to Europe and the U.S., and the switch from two seasons per year to monthly (or weekly) product launches to keep up with social media trends, mean that the only way to meet global consumer demand is to digitize and streamline manual processes. Indeed, the question seems to be how can the industry progress in a manner that is sustainable, ethical and profitable without digitalization?

To draw parallels and find out what fashion can learn from the gaming and film industries, I spoke to Remo Gettini, a serial innovator who is ex- Dreamworks, and DWA NOVA, and now the CTO of the human-centric app-based community of 16 million buyers and sellers of fashion, Depop. What is holding fashion back? Why has digital transformation been so slow? What steps should the industry take to transform expensive, slow, manual, unethical, unfair and unsustainable practices into processes fit for today's consumers, who want a paradox of constant newness (often personalized) within the planetary bounds?

As CTO at DWA NOVA, Gettini worked with brands ranging from Tommy Hilfiger to Nike and Burberry to navigate the digital landscape and define and implement digital solutions for product design, development and merchandising. "The fashion industry has the opportunity to increase its creativity way beyond what it can currently imagine," says Gettini. What it lacks is access to human-centric technologies fit for the creative nuances and ephemerality of fashion design. "How do you express the value of a Burberry scarf in a 3D render?" asked Gettini. This is a tough question and one that is being asked by fashion brands, too.

Why has 3D digital design fallen so far short for fashion, I asked? The answer, according to Gettini, having spent decades orchestrating digital transformation as a solutions architect, technical director, and CTO, is that digital design has been borne out of engineering and is based on CAD/CAM solutions, which are "not creative or intuitive in a way that empowers designers." His view is that the solutions on the market right now, CLO3D (one of the newest CAD solutions for fashion) included, are driven by technical specifications that still do not bridge the gap between creative design and product creation. The width of this gap is astonishing if you think about the current turnover of styles and speed of fashion, paired with dwindling order volumes as e-commerce has ushered in a shorter shelf-life for styles that are driven by fleeting Instagram trends. This is a phenomenon Depop knows only too well as they provide a seamless platform that integrates social-media trends, e-commerce, and online communities.

The second barrier, he believes, is that solutions providers approach fashion like it was any other industry. They present the same tools to fashion as they do to automotive, aerospace and architecture. "This just won't work with fashion," he says. "Fashion needs a platform that plugs creative design into the supply chain painlessly and without designers having to change the way they work. This is fundamental. Designers should not be asked to drop their manual design and illustration techniques in favor of a mouse and keyboard." To Gettini's mind, this is where digital transformation "falls at the first hurdle." So what is the solution?

Reflecting on the strategy of digital transformation at Dreamworks, he explained that they gave designers a tablet and pen so that whatever they drew was digitized-the action was the same, but the options for color, texture, and effects were greater. They expanded the designers' toolkit, rather than changing it. This unleashed their creativity and the rest of the digital solutions were built around translating these digital sketches into products that could be manufactured via CAD/CAM solutions, seamlessly. He stressed throughout our conversation that the technology "needs to disappear" and leave only the impression that the work is easier, better and more creative. "Human-centricity is the key to digital success." In fact, at Depop, the users never talk about the app. They talk about "the experience, the friends they make, the communities they join, the clothes they buy-never the technology," says Gettini.

What else would Gettini do to fast-track digital transformation in fashion? From a C-level perspective, he would hire new talent graduating from fashion colleges with 3D design skills and an appetite for creative digital design in place of traditional methods of fashion design. He would place these new recruits with the current crop of designers and task them with developing the next collections collaboratively, to leverage both approaches. Fundamental here is the integration of digital design in the actual design and development of products, rather than as an isolated "project." "There is no point running a separate pilot to dip your toe in-digital-native designers need to be introduced into the process as part of the business, not as an experiment," he says. This triggers memories of views shared with me by digital designers working in siloed departments at global brands, who express frustration that digital solutions are adopted within their departments, but do not influence or integrate with other departments, or the supply chain. The very "project" approach that Gettini warns against is a common approach, it seems.

So what does the digitization of fashion design mean for the future of Depop? Depop currently has 16 million buyers and sellers of fashion on its app (the tip of the iceberg, according to Gettini), and in all likelihood, they have the next generation of fashion designers on their platform, too. What would happen if the Depop community could create and share digital fashion designs for crowd-vetting, that are connected to digital manufacturing facilities allowing production on demand, to the quantity determined by the seller (and demanded by the Depop community)-a kind of "Unity for fashion," as Gettini calls it? This is something that Depop is currently looking into as a possible evolution of their fashion platform. This example further illustrates how 3D digital design has the power to provide fashion-on-demand in a more sustainable manner than the current model of overproduction and inevitable deadstock creation.

During a recent conversation with Kees Jacobs, head of insights and data, global sector consumer products and retail at consultancy firm Capgemini, he explained that in the past decade, digital fashion solutions have been prioritized in consumer-facing domains (website, mobile, in-store experiences) where tech solutions can increase customer engagement and facilitate customer services. On the subject of 3D digital design adoption, his experience has demonstrated that "the urgency to do this is less. The top line (for digital solutions) is retail."

He went on to state that "we see a big shift happening with digital twins of consumer and products and where the two meet." Regarding the top two investments fashion retailers should make that promise good ROI, the first was data analytics solutions, and the second area was "consumer engagement and the digital avatar (to allow) the use of CGI to be able to have digital experiences around the products." Who should retailers look to for these solutions, I asked? Capgemini is working with large players (including Microsoft) and a number of smaller, highly specialized startups to deliver on digital avatars, products, and experiences.

It seems that a potential future direction for the fashion industry is implementing digitized fashion illustration at the first stage of design to connect to 3D CAD/CAM software and equipment for on-demand manufacturing, then eventually the digital product presentation tools at the consumer end. Of course, this is dependent on 3D design tools being adopted by designers and brands, which still proves to be a challenge, based on the views of Gettini and a number of designers I have spoken to at global brands. The challenge is largely due to the technical nature of the interfaces currently on offer to fashion designers via 3D design software.

Many leading designers still prefer to sketch by hand. Paris, January 9, 2019. (Photo by JOEL SAGET ... [+]
AFP via Getty Images

In addition, the preference for hand-drawing and painstaking manual design techniques still dominates amongst senior designers and creative directors (for whom the design and development processes are often structured to accommodate). Indeed, 3D digital design is still notably absent from the curriculums of top fashion colleges, with many 3D digital designers being self-taught (or from a gaming or film background). The fashion design students I have spoken to who are exploring 3D digital design are learning from online tutorials and forums in place of being taught formally at university. If a "Unity for fashion" does emerge, a new generation of fashion designers who buck the tradition of a fashion college education may yet define, and design, the fashion of our future.

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Is Digitization The Savior Of The Fashion Industry?

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Digital transformation of fashion design and manufacturing is viewed as both an opportunity and a threat, depending on who you ask. The perceived threats include job security, creativity, and loss of the "human touch" in fashion design and garment-making.

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Will You Be Wearing Digital Fashion In The Near Future? | i-D

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Last week, Facebook announced its rebranding to Meta and committed billions of dollars to building the metaverse, an immersive future state of the internet that would be a natural environment for digital assets like digital fashion or avatars. In the past two months, leading fashion and gaming companies like Balenciaga and Fortnite and Vans and Roblox have announced collaborations that span digital fashion collections and physical activations. And throughout 2021, sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) dramatically rose to $10.7 billion in the third quarter from $1.3 billion in the second quarter.

Companies around the world are grappling with the existential implications of this evolution. Digital assets have existed for years, but engagement now seems to be at an inflection point, especially as NFTs - which prove authenticity and ownership and drive scarcity - could increase the utility and value of digital assets.

Are we at the precipice of a new digital frontier? Or are we facing a frenzy of hype, amplified by time spent at home during the pandemic?

BoF Insights believes companies in fashion and retail would be well-advised to understand the shifts taking place, in particular in consumer behaviour and purchase motivations. For an industry slow to adapt to platform shifts like e-commerce, some fashion companies are already taking note, with brands from mass to luxury experimenting with collaborations and activations and digital-first entrants rapidly emerging.

The Opportunity in Digital Fashion and Avatars is the second in-depth report published by BoF Insights, a recently launched data and analysis think tank from The Business of Fashion arming business leaders with proprietary and data-driven research to navigate the fast-changing global fashion industry.

The new report from BoF Insights reveals that:

approximately 70 percent of US general consumers (Gen-Z to Gen-X) rate their digital identity as important

65 percent rate digital ownership as important

50 percent are interested in purchasing a digital asset in the next 12 months - whether a digital skin or other item in gaming, digital fashion, digital avatar and/or an NFT.

Interest in purchasing a digital asset in the next 12 months is even higher among US high-net-worth individuals, according to BoF Insights research involving both a LuxuryOpinions® panel assembled by Altiant and a Global Virtual Fashion Panel drawn from the communities of DressX and The Fabricant:

In the report, BoF Insights offers its perspective on the staying power of digital assets, what consumers believe about digital identity and ownership, what motivates consumers to purchase different digital assets, and how companies should engage over the short, medium and long term.
Why this report is a must-have:

It offers a comprehensive overview of digital assets in fashion - including items in gaming, fashion, avatars and NFTs - which deepens the knowledge of current or would-be industry participants.

It identifies the underlying technological and social shifts driving interest in digital assets while examining the durability of these shifts.

It analyses in-depth consumer insights that measure the familiarity with, perceptions of and behaviours associated with digital assets broadly and digital fashion and avatars specifically.

It provides a playbook that outlines how brands can tactically develop their digital asset strategies, including where and how to experiment within these new environments.

The report is based on proprietary research inputs, including:
30 interviews with founders, chief executives, other senior executives and investors across the following domains:

Gaming

Digital-first brands, retailers and marketplaces

Physical-first fashion and luxury companies

Four proprietary surveys:

Demographically balanced US General Consumer survey of Gen-Z to Gen-X, facilitated by Altiant on behalf of BoF

Altiant LuxuryOpinions® panel of US high-net-worth individuals (each with a minimum of $1 million in investable assets) conducted on behalf of BoF

Global Virtual Fashion panel fielded by BoF across the communities of DressX and The Fabricant

Senior executive survey of BoF's global community of fashion professionals

Companies and collaborations covered in the report include Altava, The Aura Blockchain Consortium, Auroboros, Balenciaga, Betaworks Ventures, Boson Protocol, Burberry, Digitalax, The Dematerialised, DressX, Epic Games (Fortnite), The Fabricant, Genies, Gucci, The Hundreds, Improbable, Louis Vuitton, Mythical Games (Blankos Block Party), OpenSea, Palm NFT Studio, Poplar Studio, Ralph Lauren, Retail Prophet, Riot Games (League of Legends), RTFKT, Roblox, Straiqr.ai, Substance, Truesy, Vans and Wanna.

For enquiries and/or support, please email insights@businessoffashion.com.

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The Opportunity in Digital Fashion and Avatars Report - BoF Insights

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Last week, Facebook announced its rebranding to Meta and committed billions of dollars to building the metaverse, an immersive future state of the internet that would be a natural environment for digital assets like digital fashion or avatars.

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Google releases entire digital fashion range of clothes you can’t wear

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The free 12-piece Pixel 6 x DressX collection, available to UK users from today, doesn’t physically exist and is simply a number of cutting-edge digital simulations created using 3D software.

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Essay question

Intro (300)

How is fashion being digitised?’

I – What is being digitised? 700, (230w each ideas)

Fashion shows

Models

(garments)

II- How big digital fashion will take place in the future? 700, (230w each ideas)

Metaverse

Boox app avatar trying garment

Introduction to more digitalised garments

Conclusion (300)

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Will we be able to use 100% natural Fabrics ?

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Will we be able to use 100% natural Fabrics ?

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To what extent fashion will be digitalised?

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To what extent fashion will be digitalised?

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100% natural fibres with food for example mushrooms etc..

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Fashion is becoming less physical and more digital.

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Fashion is becoming less physical and more digital.

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For most of us, clothes shopping has always been inextricable from the notion of being able to wear our purchases. Its importance is difficult to overstate. The knowledge that we will wear something, and therefore our corresponding preferences for fit, style, colour, and texture, factor into whether we click 'checkout' or hand over cash. The rise of the digital clothing industry aims to disrupt this- to fundamentally reconfigure our relationship with dressing ourselves and our buying habits, by proposing virtual clothing as a viable alternative.

But is virtual fashion anything more than a glorified extension of Instagram or Snapchat filters, one that can come with extortionate price tags? Or, having been banished to the realm of online dress-up games or avatar customisation in video games, is it time for digital clothing to enjoy mainstream attention?

Companies like The Fabricant , , and Abasi Rosborough that have profited from the creation and trade of virtual clothing in the last few years, largely through the release of high-profile limited edition collections and collaborations with video game companies (such as Fortnite, which earns millions per month via the sale of skins), or luxury designers (see the Moschino x The Sims capsule collection ), deliver sleek elevator pitches regarding the mass appeal of boundary-transcending and waste-reducing potential of digital garments, but they're not entirely convincing.

Unless the immersion of the context surrounding virtual clothing vastly improves [...] it is difficult to see virtual clothing becoming truly mainstream

Unless the immersion of the context surrounding virtual clothing vastly improves, for example, the acquisition of digital clothing is in some way gamified in a multi-player context, or events of significance in the real world migrate to an accessible virtual reality environment (think sporting events, balls or even conferences) that place the richness and community of human interaction at its centre, it is difficult to see virtual clothing becoming truly mainstream. For a lot of fellow clothing fanatics, the tactility of the experience of trying on clothes, be it feeling the sumptuous smoothness of a velvet blazer, the pleasing coarseness of sequins or the heavenly softness of a cashmere-wool blend scarf, would be irreplaceable. Pending such sophisticated developments, alternative uses of the tool, such as fashion designers digitally testing the fit of prototypes on various body types, online clothing retailers allowing potential customers to try on the garment via digital avatars, or even brick-and-mortar shops incorporating displays of virtual clothing to promote real-life counterparts as part of more sophisticated visual merchandising efforts, seem more plausible.

We are surely beyond the point of paying for clothing to be photoshopped on our photos experimentally and calling it an exploration of identity

On a societal level, we are surely beyond the point of paying for clothing to be photoshopped on our photos experimentally and calling it an exploration of identity. If online shopping offers the possibility of browsing for any shape, colour and texture of garment and acquiring it the next day, why restrict yourself to having virtual clothing painted on a photo of you? The democratisation effect of the internet, in terms of affording exposure to independent, avant-garde brands or the work of minority designers with important voices, combined with an era where diversity of aesthetic expression is admired, examined and celebrated (see the Youtube channels The Unknown Vlogs and Not So Blonde ), further makes the appeal of virtual clothing baffling. Admittedly the cost of unique clothing can be prohibitive, and receptivity to alternative outfits might be higher in fashion-forward hotspots like New York or Tokyo than in Northampton or Redditch, so perhaps this is where virtual clothing can shine.

The ascension of digital clothing has been supported by the rise of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), a technology that allows limited edition or exclusive digital assets (i.e. virtual clothing) to be monetised and traded, but this only highlights the appeal of virtual clothing as an activity for the wealthy or niche collectors.

On a more serious note, such a service has potentially sinister implications, particularly for women, who could see themselves becoming victims to particularly revealing or provocative clothes being photoshopped on their bodies without their consent, for gratuitous male consumption. Although blockchain technology somewhat mitigates the risk of this by only allowing the true owner of the image to post it to social media, this remains a dangerous possibility.

As an approach to eco-fashion, virtual clothing is questionable because it does not address the psychology behind overconsumption, the major catalyst to fast fashion

As an approach to eco-fashion, virtual clothing is questionable because it does not address the psychology behind overconsumption, the major catalyst to fast fashion. Virtual clothing might be more affordable compared to ethically and environmentally friendly clothes (though in some instances it certainly is not, as evident in the case of the £7500 virtual dress ), but could a wardrobe of digital clothes or an album of photoshopped pictures truly satiate? The material fantasies sold to us by magazines and influencers are multilayered, and virtual clothing, at least in its current form, only fulfils the desire to be seen fulfilling these fantasies, rather than providing a meaningful experience of fulfilling them.

In short, the pandemic may have made us think twice for a moment, but virtual fashion belongs to a category largely divorced from tangible clothing, one where technology, advertising, internet culture, and eco-conscious tentatively and blurrily intersect. In as yet unmanifested contexts, it has spectacular potential, but it is yet to be realised, and the present endeavours of fashion and technology giants to entice fall flat.
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Virtual Clothing- The Late Capitalistic Future of Fashion? | Redbrick Life&Style

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For most of us, clothes shopping has always been inextricable from the notion of being able to wear our purchases. Its importance is difficult to overstate. The knowledge that we will wear something, and therefore our corresponding preferences for fit, style, colour, and texture, factor into whether we click 'checkout' or hand over cash.

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The future of shopping: what's in store?

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"he is able to choose what he will wear with a virtual avatar"

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Facebook gives a glimpse of metaverse, its planned virtual reality world – video

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Facebook metaverse reveal comes amid public relations crises

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Unreal models

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Digital Models And Fungi Fashion - BBC Click