The Digitalization of Fashion
In our technology-mediated world how is the fashion industry incorporating this technology and at what cost?
Under the traditional framework of the fashion industry, brands are integrating technology to enhance the retail experience. There are three main areas of progress today:
- Digital design — Rapid prototyping
Through 3D garment simulation, this technology assists the design process by digitally showcasing the proposed designs on avatar bodies. Moreover, it facilitates rapid prototyping and sampling of collections. Customers can then engage with these collections and provide feedback (at lower costs) for the brand before actually producing the clothing.
Examples of companies providing this service include CLO3D, ShareCloth, Avametric, Browzwear, and Metail.
2. Customers’ E-Commerce Experience
Through virtual fitting rooms customers can try the clothing through avatars that mimic their body shape before placing the order. In addition, live video consulting allows consumers to share their screen with friends as they shop.
“Internet shopping sites understand the consumer and provide a list of recommendations based on the consumer’s previous purchases. So, in a way they have a more personal approach to retailing. This is something physical retail outlets do not do.” (Buissness of Fashion)
3. Digital Promotion and Marketing
Also known as the creation of ‘phygital’ items, this represents clothing which has already been produced and then digitalized. (Ex. Moschino Collection)
Outside of enchaining already established practices, however, technology has also resulted into the introduction of an entire new digital ecosystem. This proliferation of the digital has in a way resulted in a schism of our notion of self — the creation of a ‘digital self’ versus ‘physical/real self.’
Fashion tech consultant, Nataliya Makulova, comments, “Our bodies are becoming digitalized, our money decentralized with Blockchain, new power authorities are being formed and we are moving into oneness/singularity perspective of the world.”
Moreover, social media has introduced a new player into the fashion industry. Fashion influencers, after gaining millions of followers on Instagram, have now acquired a new power to control the consumption patterns of their followers — completely shifting how brands create their marketing strategies.
Transported into the virtual, users are in constant search for individuality amidst this “singular perspective”. Ironically, rather than resulting in new aspects of accessibility and uniqueness, social media has proliferated a single fashion look. What Jia Tolenteno has coined as “the Instagram face,” she concludes that the result of “social media, FaceTune, and plastic surgery has created a single, cyborgian look”
More than a uniform look, the very notion of time has also shifted. Starting first from blogs to continuing on platforms like Instagram, fashion ‘Influencers’ have sped up the circulation of material and symbolic goods. With this new “embrace of the ephemeral and the rapid passing of time” fashion is now defined by “the constant quest for, and production of, the new” (Sandy Black)
This obsession with the new coupled with enhanced production methods has resulted in fast fashion. Due this acceleration, “the industry currently “contributes more to climate change than the yearly emissions of air travel and sea travel combined” (Makulova).
With the goal to limit fashion’s negative impact on the environment while also providing for the Influencer’s need for constant creation, designers have created a proposed solution: Digital Clothing.
Norwegian company, Carlings, in reaction to influencers buying one-off outfits for their social media posts created a digital-only collection named “Neo-Ex.” After you purchase your chosen garment, a group of 3D designers digitally fit the attire onto a photo you send in.
Frankly put, this “is capable of satisfying our shallow, crazy-consumerist needs for dressing up, being seen and admired and willing to pay money for this narcissistic experience, without harming the environment” (Makulova)
One could compare Neo-Ex shopping experience similar to gamers buying new avatar “Skins” . A business in which games like Fortnite total up to millions of dollars solely from revenue from these skins. Yet what are the implications of treating our “digital selves” like game characters?
On the other hand, digital fashion can democratize fashion:
‘’In real life, these types of designer clothes cost thousands of pounds and will usually be worn on social media once because of their distinct design…By selling the digital collection at £15 per item, we’ve sort of democratized the economy of the fashion industry and at the same time opened up the world of taking chances with your styling, without leaving a negative carbon footprint” — Kicki Perrson: Carling’s Brand Manager
Amsterdam-based, The Fabricant, is another example of digital-only fashion house.
Another fascinating project incorporating technology to fashion is their project Deep — Faster Fashion. This collection, also designed by Slooten, “Uses artificial intelligence algorithms” resulting in “the world’s first collaboratively designed fashion collection between a human and a non-human — Amber essentially asking the computer to dream, learn and create alongside her.”
Both Fabricant and Carlings are pushing the boundaries of what we consider “Clothing.” As Fabricant states on their website “our fashion stories are free from the constraints of the material world”
I carried out a case study using my own Instagram to ask my followers their thoughts. Many opinions varied, but most concluded that digital fashion is not in fact clothing. Rather, it is simply an extension of digital platforms. Here are some results:
Clearly there is a lot of pushback against the rise of digital fashion. It can be understood as a response to fast fashion and its unsustainable production process. Yet, by creating digital collections we do not actually amend problematic consumption patterns. In addition, isn’t the very notion of the medium of clothing vested in its materiality? Can ‘digital clothing’ be defined as clothing? Or, is it rather a digital art form? What happens when clothing is no longer tactile. When the touch of the fabric is only there to be simulated visually?
According to the Handbook on Material Culture, there are “two primary aspects of cloth and clothing — their spirituality and their aesthetic characteristics” (Tilley 204). Not only is digital fashion shifting the definitions of medium, but also the purpose of clothing. Classically, it served to deepen our social relationships and enhance our sense of self (Tilley 205). In other words, clothing is understood as the intermediary between self and society, an object that every individual is bound to. What happens then when this object becomes digital? Is this simply an extension of our digital selves? Or does it slowly seep into our physical/real identities?
Works Cited
Fowler, Danielle. “You Can Now Dress like a Sim Thanks to Moschino’s Latest
Collection.” Harper’s BAZAAR, Harper’s BAZAAR, 13 Apr. 2019, www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/fashion/fashion-news/a27134399/jeremy-scott-moschino-sims-collaboration/.
I-D Magzine. Will You Be Wearing Digital Fashion In The Near Future? | i-D. YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch v=44p44FnOKE8&feature=emb_logo.
III, Haywood R. Watkins, director. Carlings Digital Collection. Vimeo, 21 Dec. 2019,vimeo.com/301705088.
Machuca, Jose. “What’s Phygital in the Customer Experience?” Digital Marketing Agency and Consultancy Online, 15 Nov. 2018, www.wearemarketing.com/blog/whats-phygital-in-the-customer-experience.html.
Mickevičiūtė, A., and D. Siudikienė. “The Role of Fashion Bloggers in Fashion Marketing Communication”. Informacijos Mokslai, Vol. 85, Oct. 2019, pp. 8–50, doi:10.15388/Im.2019.85.15.
Makulova, Nataliya. “The Rise of Digital Fashion.” Medium, Balanced Fashion by Nataliya Makulova, 18 July 2019, nataliyamakulova.com/the-rise-of-digital-fashion-691f92126f90.
Rocamora, Agnes. “New Fashion Times: Fashion and Digital Media .” The Sustainable Fashion Handbook, by Sandy Black, Thames & Hudson, 2013, pp. 200–220.
Semic, Sara. “Influencers Are Now Buying Virtual Clothes They Will Wear On IG But Never Touch IRL.” ELLE, ELLE, 8 Aug. 2019, www.elle.com/uk/fashion/a28166986/digital-fashion-dressing-virtually/.
Tilley, Christopher, et al.. Handbook of Material Culture. London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2006. SAGE Knowledge. Web. 20 Dec. 2019, doi: 10.4135/9781848607972.
“The Fashion Influencers: Building the innovator’s DNA for Trail-blazing fashion growth ideas.” Business of Fashion, 25 Apr. 2015. Gale In Context: Biography, https://link-gale com.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/apps/doc/A411210271/BICu=columbiau&sid=BIC&xid=d4ebe6d9.
Tolentino, Jia. “The Age of Instagram Face.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 13 Dec. 2019. www.newyorker.com/culture/decade-in-review/the-age-of-instagram-face.
Wright, James, director. How Carlings Created a Digital-Only Clothing Line That No-One Can Wear. CNBC, CNBC, 15 July 2019, www.cnbc.com/video/2019/07/15/carlings-created-a-digital-only-clothing-line-that-no-one-can-wear.html.
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