What is digital fashion?

One of the most popular topics in the apparel industry, the term digital fashion stands for visually represented clothes, which can be available exclusively online, but also as a digital twin of real apparel or footwear items. Created with software for 3D design, such as Clo3D and Marvelous, it might be a high quality digital product which reflects the physics of a real garment and its details. Which are especially needed when implementing solutions such as virtual try-on.

How can consumers use digital fashion?

By consumers it can be used in social media or gaming, but also treated as an investment when it becomes a non-fungible token. NFTs allow for ownership of unique digital assets. Just like the Mona Lisa - while there are thousands of copies, the real original is available only in the Louvre.

Can digital fashion impact the supply chain?

When it comes to manufacturers, digital fashion is a real game changer and one of the most impactful innovations that would allow for reversing the supply chain and help in making fashion more sustainable. First of all, it can help in reducing the number of prototypes by increasing sample adoption to 55%. It directly affects how much clothes travel between the factory and the company's headquarters. What is more, creating a digital t-shirt costs the environment 97% less of CO2 than producing a real one.

What about retailers?

E-retailers can also benefit from digital fashion. High quality renders may replace photoshoots, so retailers save money on that area of marketing. They can also sell products that don’t exist yet, and to produce only clothes and shoes that are in demand. What is more, digital fashion allows for implementing virtual try-ons such as WEARFITS, so consumers are sure that they buy products that fit them and their needs.

But digital fashion allows retailers to sell digital clothes which have no real representation. Why buy clothes that don’t exist in the real world? Statistics show that 20% of clothes acquired by female consumers are bought only for social media and returned after photoshoot. The ability to own a digital piece of fashion has a potential to drastically reduce return rate, which means less carbon dioxide generated.

There are many pros of digital fashion, it might influence the whole supply chain and in the future make fashion more sustainable. It has a great potential as a part of the future of the apparel and footwear industries.

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