Entering the World of Digital Fashion

The other day I was scrolling through Instagram reels, typical one on a lonely Sunday afternoon, and I came across a video of a woman in a sci-fi look dress. My interest peaked, surely I would look ‘snazzy’ in that dress. I looked further only to discover that the dress was in fact a graphic illusion of sorts and part of a much bigger arena of fashion called ‘Digital Fashion’. And as we end with the fashion month (September), I thought why not to dive in this mysterious and too good to be true world of digital fashion. 

More on Digital Fashion (also called Virtual Fashion)

According to Wikipedia:

Digital Fashion is the visual representation of clothing built using computer technologies and 3D software.

In simple terms, digital fashion is the apparel or accessories digitally altered onto your body. It is like those ads on YouTube for FaceTune which can change the shape of your body or add a touch of makeup to your face. Instead of makeup, this is clothes! What is to be remembered is that digital fashion houses can only add an outfit to a photo (or video), and that’s only good for posting on social media. But in my opinion, isn’t that why we buy nice clothes? If you didn’t ‘Instagram it’, did you even wear it? 

There are various companies working on digital fashion. Most popularly, the company called Dress-X. The way it works is that you go on the website, pick apparel, upload a photo on which they can impose the outfit and pay. And in some time, abracadabra, you have a photo of yourself wearing a pretty stunner outfit. Apart from Dress-X, there is Republiqe, The Fabricant, Rtfkt, Tribute, Replicant, and XR Couture. Now, the outfits on these websites can range from classy everyday looks to crazy cyberpunk. Obviously, it makes sense to go for the crazier outfits since there is a good chance you’d never buy (or find) it from a store.

Now, being a CBSE student, no analysis is complete without an advantage and disadvantage column. So, I’m drawing my results below. Also, just between you and me, I kind of having a hard time coming up with any disadvantages (and clearly, I’m not biased). 

Saying Yes To Digital Fashion

Number one, it is size free. Long gone are days, when you’d go to a store as a size six and come out with a size fourteen pair of jeans, it’s time for clothes to hug all of my curves the right way. Seeing, that it is just a photo, the people (or AI) who edit the picture can just make it fit me perfectly. 

Number two, we might just beat the parade of fast fashion. Let’s face it, if we want cheap yet gorgeous clothes, we find ourselves hoarding the clothes stalked the aisles of fast fashion brands. And guess what, that’s really sleazy of us since mass-production of these clothes is hazardous to the environment. According to a calculation published in an article of Forbes about digital fashion startup Dress-X: 

The total carbon footprint [at Dress-X] of producing one digital item is 95% less than the average production for a physical garment. 

Lastly, how can we ignore the ostentatious and out-there clothes you can find over on digital fashion stores.

The Downfall to opting Digital Fashion

It might seem pricey seen all you get is a photo in an outfit and not really the outfit itself. In addition to that, you can have only one photo with the purchased look. After one purchase, you have no margin for error, that one photo is your only shot. If you like posting multiples at a time, you’ll have to pay for them separately. 

This leads us to the final problem (no, not like from Sherlock Holmes) the world of digital fashion is in its infancy. There are many quirks to work out and the AI/editing tech need some more time to be perfect enough to replace new clothes. 

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