Like many industries, the fashion industry is going digital – it has
been for years. But in recent months, with the outbreak of Covid-19 causing
unprecedented distribution to global supply chains, wreaking havoc on
physical retail and making the traditionally intimate world of fashion
shows seem an alien remnant of a bygone era, that process has accelerated.
In this article, FashionUnited takes a look at some of the interesting ways the fashion industry is going digital, as well as some of the companies leading the charge.
Fashion garments
It would be amiss, when talking about the digitisation of the fashion
industry, not to begin with fashion itself. That is, the digitisation of
clothing. Once a far-fetched concept, the idea of digital fashion – or
fashion that never physically exists but instead is made only to be seen in digital spaces – is gaining traction in the industry. One of the companies
at the forefront of that movement is Amsterdam-based digital fashion house
The Fabricant.
The company uses film visual effects such as motion capture, 3D
animation software and body scanning to create hyper-realistic animations
of fashion garments without ever physically creating them. And there is a
growing appetite for this new type of fashion. Since it began operating in
2018, The Fabricant has established an impressive portfolio working with
fashion heavyweights such as US label Tommy Hilfiger and German sportswear
brand Puma. In 2018, the company sold its first digital couture dress,
called Iridescence, at an auction in New York for 9,500 US dollars.
Read our earlier interview with The Fabricant here:
Founder Kerry Murphy envisions a world in the not-too-distant future
where people will buy and rent digital clothing to be worn by avatars of
themselves – or ‘digital twins’ – who will occupy online spaces such as
social media and interact with others. “There is a massive opportunity to
sell digital-only clothing and that is the space we’re moving towards,”
Murphy told FashionUnited. “We are true believers that digital fashion will
be more creative and profitable in the future than physical.”
Design and manufacturing
The way our clothing is designed and made is experiencing a shift away from
traditional manual processes. 3D fashion design software programmes like
Clo3D and Optitex are allowing people to design in a more streamlined and
sustainable way, cutting down on the waste and carbon emissions traditionally
generated in the sampling process. In November 2019, Tommy
Hilfiger’s then-CEO Daniel Grieder announced something radical – that from spring 2022, all the label’s collections would be designed digitally using digital fabric, a pattern and
color asset library, digital 3D presentation tools and rendering
technology.
“The potential of 3D design is limitless, allowing us to meet consumer
needs faster and in a more sustainable way,” Grieder said when announcing the plans. “The technology has become a fundamental tool in our collection design and has the potential to significantly accelerate our speed to market and replace traditional
product photography entirely.”
In recent months, brands have cancelled billions of dollars worth of
clothing orders with manufacturers, and factories across the world have been
forced to close. Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on the supply chain by exposing
pre-existing weaknesses within it, such as the fragility of the supply and demand
model. But as the dust settles for many countries across the world,
companies have an opportunity to find new solutions to those issues. One
potential solution – and something that has been growing traction in recent
years – is on-demand fashion.
Made-to-order automated production cycles
have a number of benefits over existing models. Firstly, they cut down on
overstock, as only garments that have already been bought are being
produced. They also allow for streamlined timelines and offer new levels of
personalisation, allowing consumers to customise garments before purchasing
them. The development of automated technologies such as 3D printing, 3D
knitting and laser printing are further enabling this production model.
UK-based company Unmade creates on-demand fashion software that allows
brands to offer made-to-order customisable garments. The company has worked
with the likes of New Balance and Christopher Raeburn. CEO Hal Watts said in an April panel talk with Fashion Revolution that during the Covid-19 pandemic, when factories were being forced to shut, its software allowed existing customers to quickly and easily switch production between factories. He also said companies who were in discussions about working with Unmade further down the line were now interested in accelerating that process. “I think they’re seeing that their supply chains are very brittle. They
are slow and they involve large amounts of stock – something
like coronavirus just really exposes that reality,” Watts said. “It hasn’t
actually created a new problem, it’s just made the problems they’ve had
really visible.”
Fashion weeks and catwalks
Fashion weeks have always been an innately physical affair – theatrical
spectacles where masses of industry professionals flock to fashion
capitals, packing intimate locations to the brim, sitting shoulder to
shoulder while gawking at the latest trends. On a list of things
not to do in the new socially-distanced world, it would rank near the top. So
of course, the industry had to adapt.
This month, London Fashion Week (LFW) became the first of the four major
fashion capitals to showcase its fully-digital iteration – a
three-day schedule of films, video discussions and workshops, among other
things. But something was missing. Traditionally the crown jewel of any
fashion week, the runway shows, for the most part, were nowhere to be seen.
It was a sensible omission in light of Covid-19, though nonetheless a
drawback. But one brand found a workaround. Taiwanese-born luxury fashion
designer Malan Breton showcased his SS21 collection, called ‘Immortal’,
through a virtual catwalk show featuring CGI designed 3D models.
Read more:
And Breton isn’t the first to reimagine the runway show in recent
months. Back in April, Congolese designer Anifa Mvuemba took to Instagram
to showcase the latest collection of her contemporary ready-to-wear label,
Hanifa. The brand created a video featuring photorealistic digital versions
of dresses from its Pink Label Congo collection moving down a catwalk on
invisible torsos, showcasing how the garments would move on a real body.
Mvuemba told Teen Vogue that prior to the pandemic she had already been
using 3D mockups as a way to showcase ideas to her team and was planning to
eventually take her catwalk shows digital. With the future of physical shows cast into uncertainty, perhaps this is the first glimpse of what one day could be the norm. After All, we’ve already seen the increasing presence in recent years of avatars like Lil Miquela – a digital Gen-Z influencer with an eye-watering 2.4 million followers on Instagram who has starred in campaigns by the likes of Calvin Klein, Prada and Givenchy.
But back to LFW. Though the event was undoubtedly far less spectacular
and theatrical than past international fashion weeks (you didn’t see Chanel
models circling a towering stone statue of a jacket, nor Saint Laurent models
walking on water in front of the Eiffel Tower), the free online show
undoubtedly offered a more democratised edition of the traditionally
exclusive event.
Similarly, Shanghai Fashion Week (SHFW) went digital back in March,
delivering a highly interactive event that pivoted away from its
traditional industry audience and towards a consumer one. Visitors watched
real life models walk down virtual catwalks with CGI backgrounds, could ask
realtime questions to designers about their collections and, tapping into
the growing trend of ‘see now, buy now’, could see which items were
immediately available for purchase. SHFW brought together over 150
designers and brands to showcase their collections via livestream and
reportedly drew 11 million viewers and sold 2.75 million dollars worth of
clothes and accessories.
Read more:
Move your mouse over the images and click on the round yellow
icon with the ‘i’ for more information. Click on the arrows to navigate
through the slideshow. Image: Screenshot Tmall Shanghai Fashion Week. Multimedia
created by Weixin Zha for FashionUnited
Trade fairs and showrooms
Physical trade fairs have also been cancelled in recent months. The
events, which traditionally see large crowds of exhibitors, retailers,
agents, designers and the press congregating to network and showcase the
latest products and services, have instead been forced to pivot to entirely
digital formats. The world’s leading trade fairs such as Florence’s Pitti
Uomo and Berlin’s Premium have announced upcoming digital iterations, while
denim trade fair Kingpins has already debuted its first fully-digital
show.
The logistics of the feat was impressive. Organisers of the event
managed to transform the fair into an online format in just 30 days and 75
percent of its original exhibitors attended. But the digital edition of
course had its flaws. Aside from all-too-familiar issues with internet
connection, attendees said they struggled to make meaningful contacts like
they could in person and the inability to feel and interact with the
products and technologies on show was a drawback. But there were also
upsides. Like we noted with fashion shows, the democratisation of the
event allowed companies to attend who
would otherwise not be able to budget for the trip. Other companies noted
that the money they saved from the trip (or lack thereof) could then be
directed elsewhere, on research or product development, for example.
The showroom is also getting a digital makeover. On Wednesday, OTB
Group, which owns brands Diesel, Margiela, Marni and Viktor and Rolf, . From SS21
onwards, all the group’s collections will be digitalised with high-quality
360-degree images and videos and 2D close-ups. Buyers will be able to explore the
virtual spaces and will be guided through remote buying sessions by vendors
connected live.
A growing number of fashion companies are experimenting with this new
format. French luxury label Balmain and Copenhagen International Fashion
Fair (CIFF) have launched their own virtual showrooms in recent months
to help buyers who face travel restrictions. Welsh tech firm Brandlab
Fashion is one of the companies working to digitalise the showroom
experience and envisions a future where trade fairs and showroom attendees
will meet in a virtual reality world to do business, a solution which makes
for a nimble alternative to physical showrooms, while cutting down on costs and
travel.
“The post-Covid-19 world and the inevitable contraction of worldwide
travel make virtual showrooms even more important in the future as a way of
supplementing existing showroom business,” Brandlab Fashion founder Dan
O’Connell told FashionUnited. “Brands can finally break free of the
restrictive fashion calendar and do business with more retailers, more
often.”
New ways of shopping
Even before Covid-19, people were progressively shifting to online, a
trend that will likely only be accelerated by new and globally-shared
concerns about social distancing. A study by ‘buy now, pay later’ provider
Laybuy found that 38 percent of UK shoppers were feeling nervous about
returning to stores prior to them reopening last week. At the same time,
people don’t want to turn their back on the exclusive in-store shopping
experience. In this space between convenience and engagement, new
opportunities for brands to reimagine the shopping experience are opening
up.
At the end of May, Tommy Hilfiger unveiled its Summer 2020 collection
during its first livestream shopping event in Europe and North America. The
30-minute broadcast featured special guests and influencers and allowed
viewers to add their favourite styles to a virtual shopping bag and
purchase them after the broadcast. Viewers could also ask live questions,
vote on their favourite pieces and take part in trivia quizzes. Tommy
Hilfiger has been pushing this ‘see now, buy now’ strategy for the past
several seasons, and said this latest move “builds on the next generation’s
increasing desire for more social and interactive digital shopping
experiences.”
Similarly, Italian luxury label Gucci has reportedly launched a new
virtual shopping service to give its customers a virtual in-store
experience from the comfort of their own home. Called Gucci Live, the
service works by connecting clients via video call to a Gucci employee
working from a special store, called Gucci 9, in Florence. In fact, Gucci 9
isn’t a store at all, it’s a set made to look exactly like the luxurious
inside of a Gucci store. The service is reportedly still in its trial
stage, according to ChargedRetail, but the label intends to open five
similar stores in New York, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo.
Another important aspect of the in-store experience which has been given
a digital makeover in recent years is the fitting room. While trying on
clothing might seem like an inherently physical process, more companies in
the fashion industry are looking at ways to change that. And it makes sense
when you consider consumers’ growing tendency to shop online compounded by
new concerns over the safety of using fitting rooms. In fact, a recent
study by auditing firm EY found that 80 percent of UK shoppers said they
were unwilling to try on new clothing in stores ahead of them reopening.
Yoox, part of the Yoox Net-a-Porter (YNAP) group, was one of the earlier
fashion brands to work on a solution for this when it introduced its
AI-powered virtual styling suite, called YooxMirror, in 2018. The feature
allowed users to mix and match looks on a digital avatar called Daisy. Fast
forward a year and Yoox launched a new version, this time allowing users to
create an avatar of themselves by taking a selfie or uploading an image. A
combination of artificial intelligence and augmented reality (AR)
technology then converts that image to a personalised 3D avatar. Fashion
companies like Asos and Gucci introduced similar AR try-on features in
2019, allowing shoppers to see what they’d look like wearing certain
Items of clothing.
Amazon is working on taking that idea to the next level. In January, it
was revealed the US retail giant had created a patent, seen by The
Telegraph, for its own ‘virtual changing room’. The tool would reportedly
create a ‘virtual mannequin’ of the user from images taken from their
social media photographs. It could then dress the virtual avatar in
clothing it has found online, similar to the way social media sites already
show us products we might be interested in based on previous searches. The
user can then swipe left or right depending on whether they like or dislike
the look. The feature will also reportedly request access to the users
personal calendar and suggest outfits based on upcoming events such as
weddings, job interviews or sports.
Education
Education across the world has been massively disrupted by Covid-19. It
has been especially problematic for inherently tactile subjects like
fashion, whose move to remote teaching meant focus was forced to shift away
from the hands-on garment production side of the syllabus and toward things
that can be done from home, like working on portfolios or illustration. But
students and educators alike have found resourceful ways to persevere.
Elisa Palomino, senior lecturer of BA Fashion Print at London’s Central
Saint Martins that she challenged her
students to create garments by upcycling materials they could
find at home. The “Couture in Confinement” brief saw one student draping
and sampling with two old shower curtains and another crafting her own
version of the Japanese tradition of washi paper making using bed slats,
scavenged old tissue, dead insects, hair and pieces of soap.
Read more:
End of year presentations – important opportunities for students to
showcase their work to the industry – have also been massively disrupted,
with universities scrambling to offer digital alternatives. Take Kent State
University for example. Normally, its students would be heading to New York
City for the annual Portfolio Showcase in Spring, but this year that
ceremony was transformed into a digital showcase, where recent fashion
graduates from the school could present their portfolios to alumni and
industry leaders. Other schools have hosted virtual career days.
Fashion education for the most part still heavily relies on conventional
methods such as hand-drawing and manual pattern cutting, though it has
slowly been embracing digital tools. Digital design software programme Clo3D,
for example, is used by some of the world’s leading fashion schools such as
London College of Fashion (LCF) and New York’s Parsons School of Design. It
allows users to design true-to-life 3D garment simulation, though it is
only used in a small part of the curriculum in these schools. But that
could change in the not-too-distant future, considering the sudden
need for students to work remotely. Design lecturer at LCF Samuel Membery
said in a panel show hosted by Fashion Revolution in April that before the
Covid-19 outbreak, almost none of the 500 students at the college used
Clo3D. “But now, around 50 percent or more are teaching themselves how to
use it – and very quickly, with really impressive results,” he said.
Although it’s unlikely that the traditional manual side of fashion
education will radically change in coming years, it stands to reason that
as the fashion industry inevitably becomes more digitalised, fashion
students should be provided with the resources to keep up, resulting in a
future where digital tools and traditional manual methods are taught hand
in hand.
The fashion industry began its digital shift long before the Covid-19
outbreak, but the pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated that process and
forced the industry to quickly adapt. It’s yet to be seen how big a role
these digital innovations will play in the long-term future of the industry
– perhaps the virtual trade fair experience will one day be practically
indistinguishable from the real thing, perhaps digital fashion, like Murphy
predicts, will be more profitable than physical fashion. Only time will
tell. And while it’s hard to see an upside in what has been a very bleak
few months, it is reassuring to know it has brought a sense of urgency to
some of the biggest sustainability issues the industry has been tiptoeing
around for a while, which many of these digital solutions could certainly
mitigate.
Main article image: The Fabricant x Puma, courtesy of The
Fabricant
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