Why digital fashion matters — even if you don’t buy any digital clothes

If you’re skeptical a digital hoodie will ever replace ol’ reliable, you may be right — but there’s more to digital fashion than dressing your avatar.

A recent piece by Vox serves as a primer on digital clothes, highlighting the use cases retailers and brands have embraced so far.

Much of the attention on digital fashion…

… has focused on the metaverse and crypto. But digital tools are changing some fundamental aspects of the fashion industry, including:

• Events: Luxury brands like Balenciaga and Hanifa have staged digital fashion shows, experimenting with deepfake technology and 3D modeling to bring innovative effects to the experience
• Design and Fitting: Brands like Burberry and Calvin Klein use 3D design software to create digital prototypes of garments that reduce waste

These use cases are why digital fashion expert Daniella Loftus believes more and more physical products will start with a “digital backend.”

What does that mean?

As more designers and retailers embrace software and modeling tools, digital fashion will become critical to the production process for physical fashion.

So even if we’re a long way from “what’s your avatar wearing tonight?” — digital fashion could still have a huge impact.