Do we even need (real) clothes? The - Fabrics - Première Vision Paris
At the last show, Première Vision organised a talk in partnership with Vogue Business :
“Do we even need (real) clothes?”
With Maghan McDowell, innovation editor Vogue Business. Kerry Murphy, founder the Fabricant – digital design house. Morten Grubak – executive creative director Virtue (Vice Group). Lisa Bridgett – chief marketing and commercial officer / Drest – luxury fashion game. Anne-Christine Polet – senior vice president of digital / PVH (Tommy Hilfiger)
This panel will examine the promise of digital design to decrease waste and provide ‘fast fashion’ that wins on both social media and social responsibility.
Five things we learned about digital fashion:
People buy digital fashion only their photo can wear
From the $9500 virtual couture dress, sold by digital clothing only The Fabricant as online art to Virtue’s digital-only “you will not receive a physical version of this item,” streetwear for Norwegian fashion brand Carlings, which sold out, clothing designed for a digital-only existence is here.
Digital fashion can reduce overconsumption
Carlings has also created The Last Statement, where one logo T shirt can make dozens of statements, through Augmented Reality Instagram filters; a way to combat social media-driven overconsumption: “A lot of people are only using clothes for Instagram,” says Morten Grubak.
Digital to disrupt design and reduce waste
PVH, already transforming its design processes to all-digital by 2022 – next plans digital selling pre-production to reduce supply and demand mismatch. Drest, the fashion stylist game where you can try out 160 luxury labels then buy for real on Farfetch – sees its future also in prototyping, where brands test which pieces gamers love most.
Digital tailoring now looks hyperreal
“You need the fashion designer to say to the 3D designer, you should do it like this because this is how the tulle pattern works,” says The Fabricant’s Murphy, who brings his visual effects background to creative director Amber Slooten’s fashion training to achieve photo-realism – key to adoption of digital fashion. Drest tailors each item’s high-resolution pack shot around at least 8 body types and plans to allow gamers to soon create avatars in-their-own image.
Fashion schools, mills, model agencies: a glimpse into the digital future
One model agency digitizing its 500 models, fashion schools offering majors in digital design, the digital future is here. On the manufacturing side, PVH has its Stitch Academy working with mills to scale 3D and obtain a digital pack when buying a fabric. With tech providers investing in AR, how digital carries connects to our real – contact lenses with an AR function, say, will be up to technologists. Far in the Fabricant’s future we will be able to download a layer of digital clothing to fit any given moment.
Find the other reports of the Première Vision conferences in our programme section.