Digital Fashion is the visual representation of clothing built using computer technologies and 3D software. This industry is on the rise due to ethical awareness and the uses of digital fashion technology such as artificial intelligence to create products with complex social and technical software.
Digital fashion is also the interplay between digital technology and couture. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been deeply integrated both into the fashion industry and within the experience of clients and prospects.
Relative to traditional garment manufacturing, digital fashion is inexpensive and wildly sustainable. More importantly, it comes with zero creative constraints or production limitations. This is where the true beauty of digital style shines. The only limits are our imaginations. We don’t need to be the same people online as we are in real life. We can be whoever we want to be.
According to Jackson Bridges, NFT Project Advisor and Showcase Guide at Alterrage, digital fashion allows for a new medium for individual expression.
“In the metaverse, we can decide our own identities compared to the physical world in which we cannot choose our own race, gender, or cultural background. Digital fashion builds upon this idea by enhancing self-expression outside of the constraints of the physical world and by leveraging technologies such as augmented and virtual reality. The ability for one to express themselves with limitless creative freedom unlocks doors for a true expression of one’s identity,” he shared in an interview with Kiplinger.
Why Is Digital Fashion Important?
To fully recognize the importance of digital fashion, you must first understand the desire for digital identity and ownership. Among digitally native generations, there is strong demand for digital ownership and the ability to express our identity the same way we do in real life.
The digital clothing industry boasts itself as a champion of waste reduction. DRESSX’s own. The rest of the virtual fashion industry follows similar rhetoric, especially since fast fashion is a known contributor to pollution and climate change. Digital fashion offers a solution to fast fashion: Be trendy without contributing to climate change.
It is also important to note that some digital fashion can be sold as NFTs. Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are unique digital assets that can be sold using crypto-currency like Bitcoin. A year’s worth of mining Bitcoin consumes a similar amount of electricity to a small country. Emissions associated with NFTs are typically blamed on the currency used to buy them; not all digital clothing pieces are NFTs, but some brands produce them. In 2019, The Fabricant auctioned off an NFT of a dress for almost $10,000, and this summer DRESSX partnered with Crypto.com to release a range of exclusive NFTs, which opposes the brand’s sustainability claims.
How does digital fashion benefit you?
The digitalization of fashion is an exciting process! Its big advantage is that everything will be eco-friendly, without producing fabric waste. This is not meant to be a sustainability argument or a political one, but it is just good commonsense. Everyone can benefit from using digital fashion to save time and get a better experience and it just so happens it can benefit the environment as well by reducing carbon emissions.
Nonetheless, clothing is meant to be worn in real life. We can try online fitting rooms and makeup products virtually and then buy and wear them physically and offline. The savings in time and effort for us as consumers also extend to the world and environment through reduced shipments, logistics, and other resource costs that would otherwise result in emissions.
Digital Fashion is already here but it will become more and more a part of our future.
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