In a post in 2016 we wondered if, at some point, consumers would have stopped buying real clothes to opt for a cheaper and more convenient choice - a digital wardrobe. At the time we compared dressing yourself in digital clothes to a fun activity, like playing with paper dolls.
Digital clothes are not a new thing, especially if you consider buying more original and quirky outfits for avatars or skins for videogame characters, yet this year we have seen proper digital clothes being released.
In May there was a collaboration between Dapper Labs (better known for creating the CryptoKitties blockchain phenomenon), Dutch startup and digital fashion house The Fabricant and artist Johanna Jaskowska, creator of one of Instagram Stories' most popular filters - Beauty3000. The collaboration resulted in a unique digital dress.
Dubbed "Iridescence" for its futuristic multi-coloured and shiny nuances, the dress was sold in May at an auction at the Ethereal Summit in New York for $9,500, paid in crytptocurrency. The piece was created after developing a 2D pattern-cutting software, 3D design software, and rendering software.
How does digital couture such as this work? The wearer provides a picture and the creators custom fit the digital garment, sending back to the wearer an image that can then be shared on social media.
Again this is not a new process if you consider digital models such as Li'l Miquela or Shudu: as you may remember from a previous post it took weeks to Shudu's creator to make sure she could be clad in digital replicas of designs by Cushnie et Ochs, The Great Eros and Noon by Noor for a shoot on WWD as her clothes had to be digitised with a programme called Clo that simulates fabric.
Besides, there have been other experiments in the creation of digital clothes: last year ASOS created a collection for The Sims that appeared in a runway in the game and that allowed the game users to buy those clothes. Players of videogame Fortnite love to get original skins for their characters as they are a sign of status and skill.
Yet there's more behind a dress such as "Iridescence": while the digital outfit is based on 2D pattern pieces, so it could be physically produced, the dress can also be used as a cryptocurrency. The new owner received indeed ownership as a non-fungible token (NFT) on the Ethereum blockchain (remember that the blockchain technology ensures its assets can't be altered or tampered with).
NFTs are not tied to a specific platform, so a digital outfit that exists as a non-fungible token on the blockchain can be bought, sold, traded, and visualized in any platform or interface.
On The Fabricant's site its team explains its policy regarding virtual clothes: "In the digital-only fashion world we all get to walk the runway and sit in the front row. Collaboration, co-creation and personalisation are the new normal. The chosen few are about to become the chosen many".
The team also announces the creation of digital ateliers, window displays, walk-in wardrobes and exhibitions, plus spaces to trade and spaces to parade, and possibly a new fashion economy with digital collectibles becoming digital vintage and digital classics.
To this end The Fabricant launched in January a drop model (well, everybody seems to love it, Amazon included...): the site has been releasing free digital-only clothes that the team calls "free file drop" (FFROP), digital outfits from the DEEP digital fashion collection, the world's first fashion design collaboration between a human (The Fabricant's creative director Amber Jae Slooten) and a computer. The items are not limited nor exclusive, there is no time limit on their availability and the file is entirely free to download.
At the moment there is also another company producing digital clothes - Norwegian Carlings created last year the Neo-Ex collection, in partnership with AI influencer Perl. You can pick an outfit from the 19-piece collection and have it digitally fit on your image by digital 3D designers (clothes start at 10 Euros for a headband and prices vary). Once the image is ready, they send it back to you and you can use it on social media.
But are digital clothes necessary? Well, they may not be necessary and some of them do not look very appealing (Carlings' collection could be dedicated to a Space Age raver, while Fabricant's free drop includes outfits that look like costumes for a sci-fi B-movie or like collaged pieces from several collections - in a way they are collaged pieces as the A.I. analysed several looks seen on the Paris Fashion Week runways and combined them together), yet they may represent an eco-friendly solution for all fans of social media and in particular for those influencers and wanna-be influencers obsessed by the "Outfit of the Day" concept. Cheap digital clothes would indeed guarantee you could easily change your looks without going bankrupt, without cluttering your wardrobe and, last but not least, without killing the planet (virtual clothes may even reduce the problems caused by the culture of returns...).
So in the long run digital clothes may become a genuine fun way to put less stress on the planet and, while luxury brands may not consider this option to avoid brand dilution, at the same time affordable digital clothes could represent the chance for some major luxury brands to win back a younger generation of consumer by offering them luxury or Haute Couture pieces they couldn't afford (imagine being able to buy a digital couture gown by Dior, a futuristic piece by Iris van Herpen or several Prada bags).
Most influencers lead fake lives on social media and only a handful of high profile bloggers and influencers can actually afford luxury pieces and an over the top lifestyle, so digital clothes may genuinely turn for the majority of social media users into an affordable and intriguing answer to fakers and elite influencers. And if you don't trust their potential, bear in mind that technology moves fast and you can bet that in a few months' time you may spot something desirable not in a window shop or on the site of a major ecommerce retailer, but on the Instagram page of a digital fashion house.
Comments