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I found this unit incredibly interesting, the use of language in the lecture initially sparked my interest with Galliano’s description of merged realities using the word ‘Chiaroscuro’. This idea of mixed elements, contrasted ideas and the power of imagination to create worlds of make believe, led nicely into the premise of the unit which focused on the merging of the physical and digital worlds.

Ultimately this was my key taking from this unit that imagination is key, key to bridging the gap between the physical and digital, as we move forward as a society our worlds already include many digital interfaces and our screen times on our own apparatus represent an anthropological change in how we are interacting both in the world of work and education and socially and creatively.

This natural adaptation of bridging worlds will subtly evolve our perception of reality, if reality become merged with the digital the potential for humans to take great value in their digital self is heightened, blurring boundaries making the merging of physical and digital worlds viable.

Firstly I found the film references really relevant, I myself am massively interested in historical references to the future, humans are the creators of the digital platform and this speaks to the power of our imagination, directors in films such as Metropolis 1927 and  blade runner 1982 were made 40 and nearly 100 years ago consecutively, they pictured the anthropologic changes we see around us, perhaps with a darker projection but ultimately the idea of corporation and tech companies running the world are all so closely aligned with our reality today, it speaks to the level of intelligence that a human has in their imagination.

Bladerunner 2049 further ideates around personalised experience, humans becoming further disengaged and relying upon meta connection as relationships. Ultimately you can critique the films perception of our future and the reality of our future, but you cannot deny the alignments between digital and physical that are becoming reality and how closely these relate to consumption, human desires and needs.

Next, I considered our interaction with gaming (gamification), another interface that humans are continuing to socially engage in, the younger generations. Time spent within these worlds have meant that people are naturally concerned with their digital selves and representation and the opportunity to create avatars within these imagined world merging gaming and fashion has become very real, we have seen this through many Luxury brands adoption of a gaming element to their advertising or online store.

As AUROBORUS defines, this allows for diversity as consumers can dress as they choose and live authentically in a safe space. Why where normal clothes in metaverse when you can wear what you want

Only limitations we have is imagination. This naturally leads into the metaverse as the metaverse I used to describe a shared virtual realm, that can be navigated freely and without control.

This further amplifies the need for diversity within communities, people choosing the safer spaces online to express themselves immediately opens more opportunities for digital advertising and clothing, the digital Aesthetic melds seamlessly with activism. Digital communication has driven the power of the influencer making Fashion more interesting when consumers must fight against society in a digital free, activist world.

HOLITION: DIGITAL AGENCY: Jonathon Chippindale

I was deeply inspired by HOLITION and their ambitious vision of humanising technology. I loved how multi-disciplinary the team is and I believe the future of all creative industries require this type if think tank to explore, the synthesis of scientists, film makers, mathematicians, UX designers and so on really speak to the creative output they can create. And at the heart of the business is curious minds and innovation.

‘’ the creative team combines analogue and digital design practices to navigate every creative challenge by aggregating visual and academic research and leveraging their multidisciplinary skills, to generate distinctly original concepts and design outcomes’’

I found it inspiring that HOLITION works as an innovation consultant, connecting multiple technologies to push storytelling forward for the brands it works with, each challenge a brand-new project that pushes boundaries, using the world of augmented reality and AI to push Luxury brands into different spheres, testing that digital narrative for marketing and allowing data capture for the brand and new experience for the consumer.

I found the concept of non-commercial work captivating brands truly interesting playing to the idea that brands are reaching outside the mainframe of the fashion and commercial disciplines.

Jonathon mentioned working with several different brands including Burberry and the development of creating a smorgasbord of ideas making the brand more nebulas bending and twisting their marketing direction to fix that customer, doing this through social media and personalising the digital experience to be more targeted. Jonathon uses heritage brands as an example of a brand that can challenge new ideas, legacy luxury brands have a core heritage that allows them to reimagine storytelling. Ultimately the key finding for HOLITION brings me back to the first part of my refection which is blurring lines between disciplines, stretching brands outside of their own architecture to re define their consumer base, anthropologists, psychologists, and computer scientists making a commercial endeavour less commercial.

I loved how diverse the HOLITION team is, interesting source of employees, thinking into the future, harnessing employees direct from university where they are un bias and fresh with innovation and building tools that will measure an emotional response as you go through the journey

When thinking of the question of what digital tools brands will require to talk to their emerging digital consumer, I considered both SMART FABRICS and STITCH FIX.

Key notes and reflection on both interviews are below:

SMART FABRICS

·      Technology stretches along value chain: As tools become more ubiquitous whole industry work of 1 or 2 platforms and there will be a liberation in creativity.

·      3D creation of clothing in a way that can be dragged and dropped.

·      Plug and play

·      Easy to use functionality

·      Virtual try on

·      Learn about technologies that are relevant to you and work for you.

·      Trial and exploration and making mistakes.

·      Understand the user benefit and journey of UX

Stitch fix: Key elements from the interview:

Personalisation: At Stitch Fix, human stylists use a deep set of consumer data to curate collections for each individual customer

Stitch Fix allows consumers to Transform the way they feel.

One of the original builders of the site came from Aerospace engineering, before textile industry, the brand started with a more tech background allowing a diverse approach to targeting consumers protecting waste and giving consumers more autonomy.

Stitch fix model based on personalisation varied segmentation.

Stitch fix compete with value driven brands as it is personalisation.

Operating system – hiring principles way they interact with each other

·      Bright

·      Innovative

·      Kind

·      Motivated by challenge

Able to aggregate data findings and find more descriptors of why a product didn’t sell. Usually, it is nebulas and is between fact or opinion, but stitch fix collects data in a more personalised way allowing more intel back into product creation and buying.

Did it sell did it not sell?

Data informed design decisions: Examples of GAN process being successful in identifying trends:

GAN technology and AI: Testing and (Example of generating best-selling plad patterns and then proceeding to order the handlooms from vendors after data collected.

Personalisation – diverse

5 pieces in a box keep what you like send back what you don’t like.

Back in time tailor made – has a place in individuality and uniqueness.

People feel seen and understood.

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·      It is still imperative that we see the fashion digital revolution as an ecosystem, each unit has verified the need for collaboration and platform connectivity. Evermore brans are being asked to work together to find solutions, not just to market themselves but in the background cogs of the system to nurture the future landscape and create healthier corporations that are concerned with regeneration and not just production and consumption.

·      The need for Multi diverse teams in emerging business models and existing is imperative, cross disciplinary expertise innovates business ideas and educates a stale system  by learning about different business models outside of fashion, the concept that all brands will have robotics specialist and engineers working alongside product design to find innovative solutions from cradle to grave is how the future of the fashion industry can truly evolve to design from inception solutions that design out waste.

·      The main actions I saw across learning about these companies is that they are designing solutions through practise and answering questions with a multi-disciplinary response they are providing the conceptual lab to test ideas for larger corporations, and I can see many collaborations in the future that will help their lab grow, where they can enhance existing business models.

·      Finally, product design is at the core of circular fashion, a well-designed, quality product that has learnt from past mistakes and has empathy for technology that can recycle will truly allow circular fashion to become viable:

·      “Luxury is that which you can repair” Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas

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On reflection, I felt the concept of embedding digital ethics in the infancy of new digital models was vital. As stated during the lecture with Sean and Lesley there is no governance currently across the fashion world where the government have measured regulations that brands must adhere too, therefore brand loyalty is built on trust, and this can quite easily be washed or given a cover story to sell product and mislead consumers.

Lablaco was answering this issue in the many facets of their brands, SPIN, LPLUS and CFS. Allowing consumers to trach the entire journey of a piece, shifting the design mindset and empowering consumers to autonomy to trace their product from cradle to grave. BCorp has initiated ways to measure brands in their existing, models but it is vital to go beyond this and help brands to nurture any new product and business models from infancy to design better.

The only true way to challenge greenwashing is by implementing traceability accountability and transparency and block chain is an active, irrefutable way to embed this verifying the product from source to sales.

This idea was introduced in the lecture and furthered by Lablaco who’s brand iterations provide solutions to the business and global problem. Giving the consumer ownership but also ultimately allowing brands to gain more data which allows them to sustain their own ecosystem, reduce wasted and understand their consumer better.

The word ecosystem was raised a lot and this I feel is one of the main challenged across the board, fashion is an extremely complex system and I agree that the reason the fashion industry causes so much damage is that it is a runaway train that is difficult to slow down to its logistical complexity so there is not a one stop shop or one fixable solution, connectivity and journey management across platforms is necessary, It takes companies such as Lablaco that have many iterations of their brand to explore these complex issues and they are actively finding solutions to do so.

This aligned to Beth Espinotte’s vision for UNSPUN’s also, that it is now imperative that fashion brands start to evolve the conventional, fashion companies need multi diverse teams across digital ethics, robotics, engineers to work with designers to design from inception solutions that design out waste.

The main vision of UNSPUN is to phase out product being produced before demand, I loved that when Beth studied her product design masters, she led out with this question and asked it across many different disciplines now just fashion. She put a different lense on the question and the question challenged her to find a solution through UNSPUN. It is incredible that the brand leverages all different expertise outside of fashion but also that within the brand business model they are scientifically challenging this question to improve on demand models, utilising her own experience through the brand to find answers.

The main actions I saw across learning about these companies is that they are designing solutions through practise, they are not fixing the problem but creating life brands that test solutions and implement technologies that are going to be embedded across much larger fashion companies imminently, their future forward and brave approach to realising a different way to design product and distribute allows people to understand better the concept of CIRCULAR.

Lablaco SPIN is a great platform to devise consumer experience through this and engage people in this concept of taking back product, furthermore this is a massive business opportunity for all brands to understand how they can take ownership of their own resale and gain profit through circular modes as averse to new product.

Beth raised the issue of Downgrading and heighted that the science and technology is still working to reimagine product and textile, finding potential to recycle material and rather than it being less that the quality it was before, it is becoming the same or innovated into an even better-quality product. Downgrading is a challenge that can also be met with more consideration in the design of the product going forward.

Through the learnings from downgrading and recycling designers can find intelligence about the best fibres to use and the best ways to construct garments with recyclable trims etc to allow for future regeneration.

Ultimately, I agree that the key thing is that all these learnings educate designers to make exceptional products that can have a much longer Lifecyle:

“Luxury is that which you can repair”. This visionary quote from former Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas resonates strongly today. After an era of planned obsolescence, the time has come for sustainability.

All the questions and challenges raised bring us back to product design and ask us how technology can inform better decisions and allow for consumers to develop ownership and loyalty through a closer relationship to this product. I am looking forward to digital futures and feel that the learnings about the importance of product design and community building will have a big part to play in the configuration of the digital landscape going forward.

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·      Ultimately AI is an intelligence tool and if this can empower designers with data and allow for better more precise decisions, then it can only be a benefit to embed this into the design ecosystem.

·      Compatibility is key: a fully orchestrated development system require systems to be compatible and the future will require brands and systems to collaborate and create consortiums to ensure designers can develop the most innovative collections.

·      It is pioneering the conversations that a full AI model can create. Digital clothing and models undoubtedly will start conversations which I believe is a positive thing, AI can offer a personal sensibility but disrupt with deep cultural value starting much needed conversations and actioning learning,

·      Overall, I agree these innovations won’t reduce craftsmanship but just convert our human understanding of what that is, all creating is craft, technical yet beautiful and digital creation can become a new form of artisan.

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My first thoughts were that it is a very large conversation and how you were going to approach dissecting it. The potential for digital to become a fully integrated ecosystem across all levels of fashion is astronomical and sometimes overwhelming, but I think by breaking it down into key areas and speaking with people who have launched business models from conceptual ideas, you can really help to educate the learner and test run these environments for bigger volumes within fashion, whereas Gonzales mentioned we might start to see sustainable impact.

The idea that designers lose contact with ideas really resonated, having worked predominantly in product development the product journey can be really disjointed and often the designers’ concept is re confirmed and restricted and diluted to an unrecognisable piece in the end, due to cost, volume, margins etc.

So many people within the structure all educated to simplify and reduce costs, however this is mostly a quick fix as the sampling process often drains the financial resources of the business and bleeds cost. I completely agree that whilst companies are being financially squeezed on margins, with inefficient supply chains, the added pressure to disseminate knowledge about the behind the scenes becomes a bigger challenge. The words ‘chasing our tails’ comes into my head as it is a hamster wheel continuous allowing no breathing space to innovate.

Larger conglomerate and cash heavy business investing into block chain consortiums is a real positive mode to decoding the importance of tracking product and trial running solutions for future business that may not have the infrastructure to support such endeavours. The idea of AI existing everywhere through the supply chain is exciting but also daunting.

Ultimately AI is an intelligence tool and if this can empower designers with data and allow for better more precise decisions then it is only a benefit to embed this into the system, a fully orchestrated development system with all areas of impact tracked and assessed. I think the data we can get from processes support in implementing the hidden waste we often see, or don’t see.

I loved learning more about DRESS X and Gary James McQueen artistic and groundbreakingly work with them, the idea of mixing old craft traditions, bespoke and tailoring skills and using those design skills to enhance designs, interchanging patterns and textiles easily. Seeing how important it is for these software’s to be compatible was interesting, opening my eyes up to the concept of a wider 3D Ecosystem and consortium was fascinating. Whilst there are key players in the industry it is vital everyone works together to incorporate and merge these systems to create the best possible designs.

But not ignoring the fact either that without an inherent understanding of cut, pattern, and development you cannot truly use these systems to their optimum. From this I see how essential it is to bring these skills into the fashion world, implemented in all fashion course so that they are hybrid, allowing designers to access the technology and utilise it in a way that suits their vision, we will start to see differentiation and USP through identified system use.

Platform E: Key reflections of interest:

·      Bringing the digital skills into the fashion arena for consumers.

·      Key principle is producing less, manufacturing less, and with more empathy and commitment from the consumer, achieving this by engaging them with the process.

·      The social, environmental impact that this way of development has, essentially at the core it is financially viable as the costs are not being wasted at development level.

·      Increasing the designer pool and diversifying its skill set by using film designer and collaborating with new industries to find different results.

·      Starting with this conceptual more Luxury idea will eventually impact mass production where it can have a real impact.

DIIGITALS

·      I loved the idea of photography meeting human beings and creating a beautifully graphic output that can traverse across different mediums.

·      The potential to allow expression through this medium, digital model growing into accessible digital twin’s people can create where they are able to show their true selves through play form and identify how they wish.

·      Presents a new opportunity to break down and build something new.

·      Has global reach and can democratise beauty ideals, allowing consumers to have a say with their interpretation.

·      Pioneering in the conversations that a full AI model can create

·      Creating a digital cultural conversation.

·      Interesting how the founder has taken such inspiration from cartoon, fantasy, and the gaming world, this speaks volumes about how society choose to express themselves, sometimes they invest more in their digital versions as they are truly able to be themselves.

·      I agree this won’t reduce craftmanship but just convert our human understanding of what that is, all creating is craft and beautiful and digital creation can become the new artisan.

·      Digital clothing and models undoubtedly will start conversations; however, this is not a negative thing it has an in personal sensibility but with a deep cultural value and will start much needed conversations actioning learning,

Ultimately these points above have led me to have questions bout digital ethics, with diversity and inclusivity.

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1.     The concept that consumers can adjust their own garments, visualising prototypes and taking part in the development process. For the future this personal interaction with product development through digital means can help to educate the consumer, bringing them tangibly close to the product, ultimately creating emotion around the process and adding value to the ownership of that product.

2.     AI design technologies working holistically together will ultimately create a more sustainable design practice. The benefits of these digital technologies being united within a shared ecosystem is exponential, as they will continue to collect and share intelligence creating a more seamless and sustainable development process.

3.     There is great potential for handcraft to fuse with technology, the connective links between digital and artisan are truly exciting, at the heart both are creative processes sharing many methodologies so it is natural to start to develop design techniques that can re product artisanal craft, continuing crafts that may becoming extinct and democratising humans’ access to these crafts in terms of understanding how they originated, digitising the technique and allowing them to be rendered into digital form.

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The Digital Stage - A reflection:

I was really inspired by these insights into the digital stage, coming from a product development and sourcing background, I have seen first-hand the physical waste, the design and development stage in any business can be drawn out and involves many players on the process, often it is overcomplicated, one of the central behaviours to this has been to over produce samples to ensure you end up with the right collection, trial and error has meant waste and mass cost to many brands, an unsustainable way of working.

Firstly, it was amazing to learn see how AI can be used as a key design tool to link multiple platforms such as the Eva engine, Heuritech and Pantone to work holistically together.

When you look at the key driving issues to do with fast fashion a lot of it is around waste some of which is created in the design stage during sampling before product is even sold, naturally products must be prototyped, however this causes many samples to be made in the process and many not taken forward to production, the external effect of this in terms of carbon emission, globally sending products back and forth is another major issue that contributes to environmental damage.

I was fascinated that EVA engines can transform analogue hand sketches to high resolution garments, allowing the designers to create many iterations from the original sketch to test design detail, this combined with ensuring designers are in the right track is a great opportunity to ensure products delivered to wholesale buyers and direct to consumers have less risk in terms of sales, increasing consumer satisfaction and reducing waste on loss of sales.

In my first reflection I spoke about consumer psychology and the importance of retraining how we look at fashion and consume, through these lectures and interviews I witnessed tangible ways that designers can impact the development of product, reducing key elements of waste within the initial process and making garments that are more targeted rather than a gamble.

Furthermore, this led me to Luis’s interview, I found his business model fascinating, Luis brand business model incorporates many elements of waste reduction, only producing what is ordered is one key element, however I also found the the personal interaction with consumers bringing them tangibly close to the product creating and emotion around the development process.  The concept that consumers can adjust their own garments, visualising prototypes and taking part in the development process for luxury adds great value and has many psychological impacts in terms what that piece becomes and means to the consumer.

From a consumer psyche standpoint this creates an integrated value for ownership, making people less frivolous and starting to recreate the model of clothing, development, and ownership from a consumer standpoint as well as the designer. Luis within his business model is creating a full cycle solution with the ability to innovate and adapt as he is so close to the needs of the consumer.

The Idea of handcraft fusing with technology and fashion becoming an extension of our bodies is a concept I am very interested in, digital as artisan and how we can start to develop design techniques that can re product artisanal craft, continuing on crafts that may becoming extinct and democratising humans’ access in understanding how these crafts originated and can come alive through digitisation.

I found the concept of digital identity interesting and using AI modelling to develop a digital twin, this has far reaching potential, it can be tested before translating it physically, but can also allow consumers to see themselves from a different perspective, being able to play in this arena can give brands informative data and allow consumers to try before buying and maybe even opt for digital versions rather than physical.

This expands out to the use of AI modelling for virtual shows, samples from inception right up to sales both with buyers and consumers existing within the AI world creating data and interest, allowing buyers to consumer knowledge before goods, reducing loss of sales and increasing consumer satisfaction.

As tony mentioned in his interview AI has the power to understand consumers needs, reducing waste and supporting brands profit margins to invest in the digital ecosystem further. Tony mentioned AI would not be able to build their own product however I felt this contradicted my findings from the first unit as al these systems become more intelligent, they too will be able to evolve iterations of products and design new ones without humans, everything can be possible when you hear about the intelligence within the system.

Julie’s interview was insightful, that designers are not being inhibited but instead allowed to work in a unique way, less wasteful way. And her points about it being more accessible and opening the industry to many different types of designers, people being able to access the world of deign through different avenues. This concept that it is limitless being able to design digitally, you can try many different concepts and connect it to the real data regarding the socio-cultural influences affecting how people dress, supporting designers’ instinct, and allowing them to connect their ideas to wider spheres of influence.

The potential to link all of these areas as an ecosystem is so exciting, each technology can influence and impact the other to integrate more possibilities and create more sustainable ways of working, I think this unit has laid foundations well for The Digital Ecosystem stage, as already you start to see the ways digitisation can have a dramatic impact on the design ecosystem as a whole and there are many benefits both creatively and environmentally.

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1.     There is a psychological revolution that needs to take place in terms of our relationship with consumerism. Throughout my reflection I have used examples both from Amber and Kerry of how digital fashion can help to feed our desire for the new, redirecting our purchase obsession from the physical to the digital.

2.      Whilst I agree that curiosity is essential to transforming systems we cannot underestimate the wider reaching collaboration that will be required from global ecosystems and government policies for digital fashion to have a real impact on waste. There are many challenges in consumer behaviour and supply chain economy that need addressing, these are not simple issues but engrained infrastructures that have political and capitalist reach.

3.     There is great power for diversity and expression of true identity within digital fashion. I believe there is an educational force behind how we evolve and educate new generations within this. People being able to live outside restrained barriers, expressing their identity in imaginative ways will evolve human behaviour and change how we look at segments of society and engage with people in real life.

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What did I take from the lecture on digital revolution and the insights from Fabricant Amber and Kerry?

There were some key elements that stood out to me during this lecture, I found the concept of time highlighted through the ‘scaffolding of the revolutions’ insightful.

This idea that we are only 200 years away from the beginnings of the industrial revolution. From its infancy the 200-year cycle that has ensued was truly revolutionary. Channels of transit have opening globally, the growth of export and import, the development of machinery to create efficient production are only some of the ways the industrial revolution has evolved our socio-cultural backdrop. As a result, the economy improved and through this process employment and standards of living improved.

The speed of this revolution was phenomenal, over the course of 200 years industry has grown exponentially, however alongside the positive is the destructive element of such exponential growth. This has fed greed and the concept of consumerism, the human psyche has too evolved to be more materialistic and transient, the concept of value and the desire for newness has grown to dizzying heights.

The idea that the industrial revolution was profound really stood out to me, I think that the cycle of optimism, growth and destruction cannot be ignored and that we need to take learnings from the cycle. The digital revolution really began with the development of the computer and then next stage was the birth of the internet.

Now today we are fully emerged in a digital and physical world as referred to in the lecture we are in the ‘4 th distinction, person and machine are becoming bled’. A large percentage of our time is spent communicating, consuming, and coveting on our online portals. Again, we began with an email that we could be waiting days for a response for. Then our phones became intelligent and now everything is immediate. So, this pace and speed of growth has already surpassed the speed of previous growth, the lecture made me reflect on this and consider speed and the psychological element of how the digital revolution can make true change in the fashion industry.

To reflect on this, I have chosen to highlight elements from the FABRICANT interviews, points made by both Amber and Kerry that are extremely significant. Whilst some can be challenged as they do not necessarily take on board the global ecosystems required to configure this change, there are optimistic concepts that are so pioneering and really resonated with me regarding how and why we will choose to connect with digital fashion in the future. The Fabricant and other such digital companies are pioneering in their curiosity of how we can make change, there were many elements to both Kerry and Ambers interview that I found truly profound, and I think will embody the central purpose of the potential of digital clothing, however vital this optimism is it is important to look at the ecosystems surrounding the concepts to ensure their viability and ethical growth.

FABRICANT:

1.          B2B - Servicing brands digitising samples and content for marketing

2.          B2C - Digitally savvy people, prominent virtual existence

The Fabricant business areas nicely overview how the world envisages digital fashion currently. Brands who have money to invest in utilising its potential both for marketing value, supply chain innovation and future. And of course, the consumer and their engagement, tech savvy consumers and consumers of brands who have integrated these mediums and therefore created desire.

Gaming and luxury brands are leading the way on terms of advocating metaverse environments.

‘Fashion Industry is in such a mess’ (Lesley Holden, 2021)

This leads me to the below reflections both on the supply chain and consumer side:

The digital psychological revolution:

From the consumer side, the digital revolution so far has democratised fashion, increased access, allowing people to order and return online at great speed and with credit, fast fashion and social empires have grown in tandem, and supply and demand has become a much faster transaction, again evolving our ‘psychological consumer approach’ in a negative way.

Kerry spoke about interaction, engagement and how digital collections and purchase of online digital pieces could play a part in changing our behaviour, the demand and hinger for newness can be met with digital rather than physical purchases. This really resonated with me as I believe we have so heavily evolved into a materialistic society that the unravelling of this cannot be an overnight job, it is more viable to convert the desire for newness than to try and devolve people’s relationships with purchasing. By bringing fashion into the virtual world with no physical collections or less physical collections you start to configure a new consumerism pathway that is less damaging.

From a supply chain side, it has allowed us to work with global suppliers, opening the supply chain to meet the demand, however many more players have been added into the ecosystem and control over the product has been diluted. This made me reflect on the positives of how digital fashion could impact the supply chain.

As Lesley mentioned revolutionising ‘The Landscape of how fashion works’

·      Reducing or removing entirely the need for sampling.

·      Marketing / shows to be digital reducing environmental impact

‘Working through the whole chain from trend to manufacture’

‘Resetting the relationship between fashion and ourselves and the world we inhabit’ (Lesley Holden, 2022)

There are many beautiful projects in place such as Li Edelkoort from farm to fabric where she has developed a master’s course that focuses on nurturing the entire value chain, ensuring the designer makes impact from the point of product inception and nurturing the least damaging and more ecologically productive ways to manufacture in a natural setting. These projects becoming en mass rely on many different aspects that are further reaching than the design chain. For these ecosystems to work the political and social environment needs to be in harmony with its objectives, this is true also for digital fashion.

Many economical ecosystems rely upon manufacturing and many consumers cannot access digital, so how does digital fashion truly become democratic if for it to do so economies and global infrastructure must change to adapt. And could it further widen the gap between rich and poor?

Humans are still physical and still need to dress, whilst Kerry’s concept of the one outfit and holographic changes for the speaks to many visionary’s concepts of the future such as Blade Runner, even in these films there were the underground and people with fractured access that lived as outcasts, in society poor and rich remains and revolutions widen these gaps. It has made me reflect on the importance of government collaboration to build ecosystems and infrastructure around digital implementation to make it accessible.

We will need pioneering change through global ecosystems and government bodies alongside the optimism of new bourgeoning companies that are presenting these evolutionary ideas.

Accessibility to digital fashion can further be critiques when looking at NFT’s, again this interconnected system with art and value and trading speaks to a metaverse version of wall street. That whilst everyone can purchase and own something on the block chain unless this interaction can prevent mass consumerism and social divides then it could work at widening gaps further.

I think the biggest reflections I took form both Amber and Kerry were the ideas that we can ‘Transform systems and think of new systems.’

Without curiosity none of these innovations would have taken place. The strongest element for digital fashion is that we cannot truly know how limitless it is. Jobs are increasing within the metaverse world and digital fashion is allowing designers to approach things with a whole new state of mind, as Amber showed through her own curiosity she was pioneering and was the first to submit her work in a way that the academics had not seen before, this is exactly when education is vital when it has open ended structures:

‘I am of the strong belief that fashion week is not for every brand, and there shouldn’t be a need for younger brands to feel “legitimized” through an industry structure as such’

The industry is evolving, and it takes curiosity to engineer new life saving ideas for its survival. Finding this freedom allows new conventions and infrastructures to exist. I loved that Amber spoke about how the subtle things we all have access to are the most pioneering, mixing physical and digital worlds, laser scanning LIDAR digital over physical, if this is nurtured it will be possible for consumers to create worlds and where digital clothing in worlds that just may allow their demands to be met, naturally making them shop less.

Diversity

Kerry referred to the idea of one outfit and a holographic layer of expression and how this will impact body positivity, allowing people to express themselves out of the norm in a safe place, I believe it has real true value in breaking down these barriers and in a wider educational aspect of acceptance, that fantasy world being a place where humans can interact with no barriers. This concept of clothing becoming an emotional asset and freeing our identity and not blocked into stereotype roles we have been pushed into has great psychological value and perhaps again feeds into where we will spend our time and money, therefore reducing the demand.

What do I need to focus on as I move into the digital stage?

My main takings from the first unit are the viability of growth within a global ecosystem, one where 3rd world economies rely on manufacturing, from a future perspective my concerns lie in how it can act as a real solution, it will mean all countries contributing to the education pieces and governments educating and facilitating new generations in business models that work within the network.

I found the GANS generative model very interesting, the creative possibilities but also the ethical concerns of AI surpassing humans in the process.

I don’t fully agree that when everything becomes digital that pollution and waste are non-topics as with any growing engine there is risk and there is risk for it to be done incorrectly and in a more harmful and wasteful manner, this includes the carbon emissions that digital engines can feed into.

The real immediate strengths are the supply chain, cutting elements of waste from it, how we work, the ecosystem of design and production.

The idea that we will evolve psychologically in how we consume is also extremely pressing, in a capitalist world how do we maintain profit growth whilst having concern for the planet? In truth it means encouraging people to buy less, so it is heavily reliant on collaborations by government and brands to engineer new ways of thinking and consuming that are as attractive.

Overall, there is so much potential for transformation within business models. Transforming the retail experience must be done with detail and speed is sometimes the enemy.

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What did I take from the lecture on digital revolution and the insights from Fabricant Amber and Kerry?

There were some key elements that stood out to me during this lecture, I found the concept of time highlighted through the ‘scaffolding of the revolutions’ insightful.

This idea that we are only 200 years away from the beginnings of the industrial revolution. From its infancy the 200-year cycle that has ensued was truly revolutionary. Channels of transit have opening globally, the growth of export and import, the development of machinery to create efficient production are only some of the ways the industrial revolution has evolved our socio-cultural backdrop. As a result, the economy improved and through this process employment and standards of living improved.

The speed of this revolution was phenomenal, over the course of 200 years industry has grown exponentially, however alongside the positive is the destructive element of such exponential growth. This has fed greed and the concept of consumerism, the human psyche has too evolved to be more materialistic and transient, the concept of value and the desire for newness has grown to dizzying heights.

The idea that the industrial revolution was profound really stood out to me, I think that the cycle of optimism, growth and destruction cannot be ignored and that we need to take learnings from the cycle. The digital revolution really began with the development of the computer and then next stage was the birth of the internet.

Now today we are fully emerged in a digital and physical world as referred to in the lecture we are in the ‘4 th distinction, person and machine are becoming bled’. A large percentage of our time is spent communicating, consuming, and coveting on our online portals. Again, we began with an email that we could be waiting days for a response for. Then our phones became intelligent and now everything is immediate. So, this pace and speed of growth has already surpassed the speed of previous growth, the lecture made me reflect on this and consider speed and the psychological element of how the digital revolution can make true change in the fashion industry.

To reflect on this, I have chosen to highlight elements from the FABRICANT interviews, points made by both Amber and Kerry that are extremely significant. Whilst some can be challenged as they do not necessarily take on board the global ecosystems required to configure this change, there are optimistic concepts that are so pioneering and really resonated with me regarding how and why we will choose to connect with digital fashion in the future. The Fabricant and other such digital companies are pioneering in their curiosity of how we can make change, there were many elements to both Kerry and Ambers interview that I found truly profound, and I think will embody the central purpose of the potential of digital clothing, however vital this optimism is it is important to look at the ecosystems surrounding the concepts to ensure their viability and ethical growth.

FABRICANT:

1.          B2B - Servicing brands digitising samples and content for marketing

2.          B2C - Digitally savvy people, prominent virtual existence

The Fabricant business areas nicely overview how the world envisages digital fashion currently. Brands who have money to invest in utilising its potential both for marketing value, supply chain innovation and future. And of course, the consumer and their engagement, tech savvy consumers and consumers of brands who have integrated these mediums and therefore created desire.

Gaming and luxury brands are leading the way on terms of advocating metaverse environments.

‘Fashion Industry is in such a mess’ (Lesley Holden, 2021)

This leads me to the below reflections both on the supply chain and consumer side:

The digital psychological revolution:

From the consumer side, the digital revolution so far has democratised fashion, increased access, allowing people to order and return online at great speed and with credit, fast fashion and social empires have grown in tandem, and supply and demand has become a much faster transaction, again evolving our ‘psychological consumer approach’ in a negative way.

Kerry spoke about interaction, engagement and how digital collections and purchase of online digital pieces could play a part in changing our behaviour, the demand and hinger for newness can be met with digital rather than physical purchases. This really resonated with me as I believe we have so heavily evolved into a materialistic society that the unravelling of this cannot be an overnight job, it is more viable to convert the desire for newness than to try and devolve people’s relationships with purchasing. By bringing fashion into the virtual world with no physical collections or less physical collections you start to configure a new consumerism pathway that is less damaging.

From a supply chain side, it has allowed us to work with global suppliers, opening the supply chain to meet the demand, however many more players have been added into the ecosystem and control over the product has been diluted. This made me reflect on the positives of how digital fashion could impact the supply chain.

As Lesley mentioned revolutionising ‘The Landscape of how fashion works’

·      Reducing or removing entirely the need for sampling.

·      Marketing / shows to be digital reducing environmental impact

‘Working through the whole chain from trend to manufacture’

‘Resetting the relationship between fashion and ourselves and the world we inhabit’ (Lesley Holden, 2022)

There are many beautiful projects in place such as Li Edelkoort from farm to fabric where she has developed a master’s course that focuses on nurturing the entire value chain, ensuring the designer makes impact from the point of product inception and nurturing the least damaging and more ecologically productive ways to manufacture in a natural setting. These projects becoming en mass rely on many different aspects that are further reaching than the design chain. For these ecosystems to work the political and social environment needs to be in harmony with its objectives, this is true also for digital fashion.

Many economical ecosystems rely upon manufacturing and many consumers cannot access digital, so how does digital fashion truly become democratic if for it to do so economies and global infrastructure must change to adapt. And could it further widen the gap between rich and poor?

Humans are still physical and still need to dress, whilst Kerry’s concept of the one outfit and holographic changes for the speaks to many visionary’s concepts of the future such as Blade Runner, even in these films there were the underground and people with fractured access that lived as outcasts, in society poor and rich remains and revolutions widen these gaps. It has made me reflect on the importance of government collaboration to build ecosystems and infrastructure around digital implementation to make it accessible.

We will need pioneering change through global ecosystems and government bodies alongside the optimism of new bourgeoning companies that are presenting these evolutionary ideas.

Accessibility to digital fashion can further be critiques when looking at NFT’s, again this interconnected system with art and value and trading speaks to a metaverse version of wall street. That whilst everyone can purchase and own something on the block chain unless this interaction can prevent mass consumerism and social divides then it could work at widening gaps further.

I think the biggest reflections I took form both Amber and Kerry were the ideas that we can ‘Transform systems and think of new systems.’

Without curiosity none of these innovations would have taken place. The strongest element for digital fashion is that we cannot truly know how limitless it is. Jobs are increasing within the metaverse world and digital fashion is allowing designers to approach things with a whole new state of mind, as Amber showed through her own curiosity she was pioneering and was the first to submit her work in a way that the academics had not seen before, this is exactly when education is vital when it has open ended structures:

‘I am of the strong belief that fashion week is not for every brand, and there shouldn’t be a need for younger brands to feel “legitimized” through an industry structure as such’

The industry is evolving, and it takes curiosity to engineer new life saving ideas for its survival. Finding this freedom allows new conventions and infrastructures to exist. I loved that Amber spoke about how the subtle things we all have access to are the most pioneering, mixing physical and digital worlds, laser scanning LIDAR digital over physical, if this is nurtured it will be possible for consumers to create worlds and where digital clothing in worlds that just may allow their demands to be met, naturally making them shop less.

Diversity

Kerry referred to the idea of one outfit and a holographic layer of expression and how this will impact body positivity, allowing people to express themselves out of the norm in a safe place, I believe it has real true value in breaking down these barriers and in a wider educational aspect of acceptance, that fantasy world being a place where humans can interact with no barriers. This concept of clothing becoming an emotional asset and freeing our identity and not blocked into stereotype roles we have been pushed into has great psychological value and perhaps again feeds into where we will spend our time and money, therefore reducing the demand.

What do I need to focus on as I move into the digital stage?

My main takings from the first unit are the viability of growth within a global ecosystem, one where 3rd world economies rely on manufacturing, from a future perspective my concerns lie in how it can act as a real solution, it will mean all countries contributing to the education pieces and governments educating and facilitating new generations in business models that work within the network.

I found the GANS generative model very interesting, the creative possibilities but also the ethical concerns of AI surpassing humans in the process.

I don’t fully agree that when everything becomes digital that pollution and waste are non-topics as with any growing engine there is risk and there is risk for it to be done incorrectly and in a more harmful and wasteful manner, this includes the carbon emissions that digital engines can feed into.

The real immediate strengths are the supply chain, cutting elements of waste from it, how we work, the ecosystem of design and production.

The idea that we will evolve psychologically in how we consume is also extremely pressing, in a capitalist world how do we maintain profit growth whilst having concern for the planet? In truth it means encouraging people to buy less, so it is heavily reliant on collaborations by government and brands to engineer new ways of thinking and consuming that are as attractive.

Overall, there is so much potential for transformation within business models. Transforming the retail experience must be done with detail and speed is sometimes the enemy.