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
ABOVE: The Fabr
fashion LEFT: Calvin Klein

industry:
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 self-
out 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 ever-
evolving 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 Calvin Klein
Dazed Magazine Fashion We
Hypebeast FX Gear
The Guardian The Fabrican
The New York Times Design Milk
Business Of Fashion Sammy Slab
Vogue Business Carlings
Alan Zenreic
Vogue Runw
ADE OF
ISATION

eek Online

nt

bbinck

ch
way
 END.
Katie Donaghy
FA5008
Consumer Trend Research