TREND
a decade of digitalisation THE FUTURE OF FASHION
TREND PUBLICATION Katie Donaghy © 2019 Fashion Communication Northumbria
A DECADE OF DIGITALISATION
”The world no longer needs physical clothing. There are so many beautiful things that already exist, does it need another? Our answer is no.”
- Kerry Murphy, co-founder of The Fabricant.
In today’s social climate, the fashion industry is desperate for change. While some speculate fashion will remain cyclical and repeat previous trends from decades before, there is a necessity to move beyond what has already happened and consider how fashion will adapt to the future. ‘A Decade of Digitalisation’ is the future of fashion and provides a solution to many growing problems within the fashion industry. With concerns about climate change increasing as it’s predicted we have around 11 years to act on the environmental issues affecting our planet, the fashion industry needs to step up. With the popularity of fast fashion stores, every year global emissions from textile production are equivalent to 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2, a figure that outweighs the carbon footprint of international flights and shipping combined. Digitalisation will introduce visionary garments available at the click of a button with zero environmental impact. Offering newness and diversity for social media feeds without the need to create physical garments, it is a powerful and more sustainable alternative to fast fashion. Within the next 10 years, the luxury fashion sector needs to advocate for the concept of digital clothing in order to set the bar of sustainability for high street brands to follow.
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TREND ”If clothing was purely digital, the industry wouldn’t have to worry about working conditions and pollution in supply chains, or about unsold inventory and growing mountains of garment waste.” - Weixin Zha, Fashion United.
DRIVERS 1. a planet under pressure When considering the future of fashion, it is important to look at the current climate we live in and how fashion affects our daily lives. As the fashion industry continues to grow, the environmental impact it has on our planet only follows. With fashion being the second largest polluter in the world after oil, there is an unavoidable need to evolve, as an industry, into low-impact consumption. Within this evolution to more conscious consumerism, the basis must be built around reducing the impacts of the clothing sold to consumers, extending the useful life of clothes and keeping clothing out of landfills. As United Nations predicted we only have 11 years to limit the climate catastrophe, making positive change within the fashion industry is key to reducing the pressure on our planet.
2. the curse of ’snap and send back’ With Instagram being at the forefront of social media, the rise of influencers receiving an abundance of clothes from PR packages to try on once and post a photo for sponsorship, never to be seen again, has led to consumers following in their footsteps. According to a survey by Barclaycard, nearly one in 10 UK shoppers (9%) admit to buying clothing only to take a photo on social media. After the ‘#OOTD’ makes it online, they return it back to the store. #OOTD, an acronym for ‘outfit of the day’, has over 288 million tags on Instagram. It is estimated that only 10% of clothing that gets returned ends up back on the shelves. Some is sold on to discounters and recyclers, or routed to charities. But the high cost of transporting, sorting, and repackaging those goods ensures that billions of pounds of returns end up in landfills and incinerators. This cursed concept of ‘snap and send back’ is detrimental to not only the climate but how we consume fashion today. With this attitude of instant disposal, there is no experience of building a relationship with a garment you’ve yearned for, finally being able to purchase it and cherishing it for years to come.
3. a new world once we put on the headset ”With virtual reality, you’re essentially hacking the visual-audio system of your brain and feeding it a set of stimuli that’s close enough to the stimuli it expects that it sees it as truth.” - Chris Milk, AR Developer.
With advancements in both virtual and augmented reality technology, it is key that the fashion industry keeps up to date with these innovations to enhance the experience of fashion as we know it. Virtual and augmented reality technologies offer a powerful new digital growth channel. With the ability to view a London Fashion Week runway from the comfort of your own home, or try on a multitude of clothing without even entering a fitting room, the future of fashion depends on new inventions to work alongside it. “To change the culture of fast fashion consumerism, we need to change the experience,” says Kerry Murphy, founder of digital fashion brand, The Fabricant. It is essential that fashion and technology evolve hand-in-hand to change the landscape of how we consume fashion today.
RIGHT: FashionWeekOnline BELOW: FXGear
DIGITALISATION In a recent Calvin Klein campaign, Bella Hadid poses alongside a CGI model, Lil Miquela. Lil Miquela’s Instagram, where she shares pictures of her imaginary life to 1.5m followers, is a key example of the popularity that digitalisation accumulates. Alongside this, digitalisation has been introduced to multiple sectors aside from the fashion industry. Virtual reality has made its way into the contemporary art world, with artists presenting works that come to life inside headsets. Rising by Marina Abramovic, for example, consists of a highly detailed, three-dimensional avatar of the artist herself, which the viewer can choose to save from rising sea levels. This level of engagement and interactivity is beyond what was previously achievable without this advancement in technology. With the launch of a virtual reality arcade in East London, the lines between real and virtual are becoming ever-increasingly blurred, and just as captivating.
within the fashion industry:
ABOVE: The Fabr LEFT: Calvin Klein
N IN CONTEXT in the world of art & design:
ABOVE: Otherworld, a virtual reality arcade in East London.
ricant n
ABOVE: A still from Marina Abramovic’s virtual reality work “Rising” (2017).
�Digital fashion our need for no expression witho environment: a v needs to be mou of a person bef is posted on so becomes part
- Weixin Zha, Fa
n could satisfy ovelty and selfout burdening the virtual dress only unted on a photo fore the picture ocial media and t of our lives.�
ashion United.
1.
FASHION BE REALMS O
EYOND THE OF REALITY
a cure for society’s need to consume
Digital fashion elimates a need for fast fashion. With an abundance of garments ready to purchase and download at the click of a button, the carbon footprint produced from the manufacturing, distributing and disposal of fast fashion is completely eradicated. Digital clothing is the level of low-impact consumerism that the fashion industry must adopt to rectify the current climate crisis. If the fashion industry embraces digitalisation within the next decade, there will be no cases of ‘climate anxiety’. Our wardrobes and landfills will not overflow with clothes that are coveted but not cherished, bought but not kept. There will no longer be pressure on the planet from the fashion industry.
”Given fashion’s everevolving transition to sustainability, it can sometimes feel like the only option is to buy second-hand or now, go digital.”
- Gunseli Yalcinkaya, Dazed Magazine.
building a future of sustainable influencers Within 10 years of digitalisation, influencers will be promoting a level of morality and sustainability unknown to those currently. Long gone will be the days of Pretty Little Thing hauls and ‘#OOTD’. Instead, social media feeds will be populated with digital designs, providing true individuality and diversity while maintaining a promise to protect the environment. With PR packages sent digitally, there will be an absence of unrecyclable packaging and wasted items sent in incorrect sizes disposed of in landfills. As more and more influencers adopt this sustainable fashion alternative, this will interest followers in digital fashion and lead to a nation of low-impact, ethically conscious consumers.
ABOVE: Sammy Slabbinck
�In an enviro makes the possible, th nothing bu exploits noth imagination idea of physi outda
- Kerry Murphy, co-f
onment that impossible hat wastes ut data and hing but the n, the very icality seems ated,�
founder of The Fabricant.
designs breaking the boundaries of real life Beyond reducing the negative impact of the fashion industry on the environment, digital fashion will open new doors for designers looking to break free from the constraints of what can be achieved in reality. With no rules or regulations, digital fashion garments can transform, distort and move as the designer sees fit. Regardless of the gravitational structure it exists in, digital fashion presents the opportunity to explore the unknown depths of fashion design and emerge adorned in an otherworldly, transcendental collection of data to be viewed on the Instagram feeds of the world.
COLOUR AND TEXTURE SCHEME
2.
A NEW METHOD OF CONSUMING LUXURY FASHION
Designer VR headsets introduce a level of exclusivity to the luxury fashion sector that has yet to be explored. An essential item in every luxury consumer’s wardrobe, this trend will redefine the experience of luxury fashion. Gaining access to the latest fashion collections, runways and entry to the stores, designer VR headsets will soon be a must-have accessory for those wanting to encounter fashion in an entirely new reality.
a level of exclusivity not yet discovered
beauty is in the eyes of the headset
Digital fashion consumed through VR headsets will open a new door for creativity to flourish. With only those who have a headset themselves being able to view your outfit, this element of mystery and unknown will build curiosity to reveal what occurs through the eyes of the headset.
LEFT and RIGHT: Carlings
IMPACT ON
N INDUSTRY
changing the future of the world we live in Digitalisation, as a whole, will have an increasingly positive impact on both the fashion industry and the planet we live on. Changing our attitudes about fashion consumption and redefining fashion’s impact on our lives will further influence our attitude towards our social and environmental climate as we promise to protect our planet from the harm we once caused it. Behind this bold vision about the future of fashion is one that simultaneously predicts how we may interact with each other in the future. As we continue to build and construct our digital life through social media profiles and heavily edited highlight reels of our everyday lives, dressing our digital avatars only comes naturally. This virtual layer of our lives is built exclusively on the internet, why not create fashion that exists purely for social media to go alongside it?
�The dig fashion un an unchar for self-ex where pre rules don
- Kerry Murphy, co-f
gital-only niverse is rted space xpression e-existing n’t apply,�
founder of The Fabricant.
the store of tomorrow In this new age of digitalisation, the presence of retail stores will be a topic up for debate. Will there be a need for stores when all clothing is digital? If present at all, retail stores will be vast, minimalist spaces with elaborate LED screens in which you may try on the digital clothing by clicking ‘begin’. With no physical garments, there is no need for fitting rooms. With no need for fitting rooms, there is no need for sales assistants. With all clothing available at the click of a button and no possibility for theft, all that is present is a self-checkout.
ABOVE: Alan Zenreich
IN SUMMARY • digitalisation is an advancement of reality as we know it • it is an effective, sustainable solution to fast fashion • the luxury fashion sector adopting digital fashion will pave the way for a decade of digitalisation
A DECA DIGITALI REFERENCE LIST: research:
imagery:
Fashion United Dazed Magazine Hypebeast The Guardian The New York Times Business Of Fashion Vogue Business
Calvin Klein Fashion We FX Gear The Fabrican Design Milk Sammy Slab Carlings Alan Zenreic
Vogue Runw
ADE OF ISATION
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END. Katie Donaghy FA5008 Consumer Trend Research