Metamorphosis Between Fashion, Humans & AI

Embracing Digital Fashion for a Sustainable Future

The fashion industry has long grappled with issues of sustainability, diversity, and accessibility, signaling the need for a transformative shift. Recent research by Barclays Bank revealed that 9% of customers in developed countries purchase new clothes solely for the purpose of showcasing them on social media. While physical fashion undeniably offers beauty and excitement, I firmly believe that technology can serve as a solution to address the challenges faced by traditional fashion. By leveraging the power of AI and digitalization, we can produce less, enhance creativity, and solve numerous sustainability issues. This paradigm shift empowers designers, both 3D and fashion, and opens up new markets and opportunities within the digital creative economy. The integration of physical and digital fashion can pave the way for conscious and sustainable production, enabling us to create phygital appearances in both the real and virtual worlds.

Fashion cycles are accelerating, and the quest for lower prices intensifies, urging brands and manufacturers to seek cleaner, more sustainable, and cost-efficient approaches. The digitalization of the fashion industry, facilitated by virtual technologies like body scanning and 3D design tools, has long been recognized for its potential to optimize industry processes, minimize waste, and provide sustainable instruments for fashion design and garment development.

Physical fashion can be produced with consciousness and sustainable – create phygital appearances in real life and the virtual world.?

In response to the growing demand, accelerated further by the pandemic, fashion has embraced full digitalization, introducing digital-only fashion. This entails 3D visualization of clothes that can be worn in images and videos across various social media platforms, online gaming environments, and other virtual spaces. Digital fashion represents an unprecedented opportunity to democratize the fashion industry, making it more affordable and accessible to people from diverse backgrounds. It creates new revenue streams for fashion creatives and opens doors for creative self-expression on a virtual canvas.

How GenZ Is Shaping The Digital Fashion

As people live and display more of their lives online coupled with growing concerns about sustainability, digital clothing has the potential to expand well beyond gaming. In lieu of physical events and runway shows, fashion collections made their way into the digital world. Gen Zs and young Millennials grew up in the digital era, blurring reality and fantasy, and developing key characteristics of a digital fashion customer. They evolve in a fluid digital world in which the boundaries between their physical and online lives have converged. When it comes to fashion, they not only need physical items to express themselves, but also digital clothes to dress up their virtual identities.

The possibilities digital fashion brings for creative expression are endless, making the digital fashion realm very appealing for both 3D, traditional fashion brands, design studios, and more creative outlets. Digital fashion is an opportunity to give a second life to clothes which are sometimes unsuited for being worn in our daily lives – young designers’ graduate collections, some high-fashion or couture designs. While such items could be seen as too bright and expensive for our daily lives in the real world, we can look at the clothes in a completely different way in the digital space.

The Environmental Case For Digital Fashion

The sustainability potential of digital fashion cannot be overstated. By replacing just 1% of physical clothing with digital garments, we can save 5 trillion liters of water and eliminate 35 million tons of annual carbon emissions, equivalent to Denmark's total carbon emission in 2017. Achieving this impact requires converting only 1% of our wardrobes to digital! This contribution to our planet is within everyone's reach while keeping fashion enjoyable and maintaining the thrill of acquiring new clothes and creating amazing fashion content.

The production of digital garments generates significantly less waste, energy consumption, and carbon footprint. No water or chemicals are used in the creation or usage of digital fashion. On average, the production of a digital garment leaves a 97% smaller CO2 footprint and eliminates concerns about microplastic shedding or soil degradation, as compared to physical garment production. Digital fashion prevents the production of items that may only be worn once or twice, effectively decoupling financial growth from the extraction of raw materials. In digital garment production, the primary focus is not on speed but on quality. However, the speed of production is still faster than that of physical clothes, enabling the satisfaction of fast fashion demands through digital-only alternatives without depleting raw materials. Once an item is 3D rendered, it can be utilized endlessly. Research conducted by DRESSX in 2020 indicates a 61% level of acceptance among respondents for digital garments as a substitute for physical clothing in content creation.

The digitalization of the fashion industry has brought forth virtual design technology capable of creating photorealistic products to replace physical samples. Additionally, a new digitized fashion system is emerging, aiming to replace the production and consumption of physical garments with digital alternatives, thereby reducing environmental impacts. Moreover, the advent of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has added provable ownership and scarcity to digital fashion. Blockchain-registered digital fashion items now possess investment value, offering clear ownership and rarity. NFTs provide an extra layer to the industry, maximizing opportunities, resolving certain issues, and enabling new realms of self-expression and creativity. Comparable to high fashion or Haute Couture, NFTs impart a sense of belonging, the allure of scarcity, and a luxury appeal that would otherwise be challenging to achieve in the digital realm.

Feature:?Baris Gencel's Metamorphosis: Fashion Design Reborn Through AI

Artificial intelligence?is revolutionizing the fashion and creative industry. From computer-generated designs,?NFTs, architecture, and virtual fashion shows to generative art, AI is changing how we think about fashion design and art and how we perceive creativity.

For creators, many worry that the advancement of technology will lead to a loss of respect and appreciation for artists. While it is true that the artistic process and original ideas behind a work are essential, the final result is also significant, particularly for businesses that hire artists for graphic design and advertising. While technology can be helpful and convenient, it can also pose dangers. As AI advances, there grows a need to find a balance between technology’s benefits and risks and consider its ethical implications in the arts. Baris Gencel ?shared with Hypemoon .

I was around for the emergence of computers and software like Photoshop and After Effects; when these were initially released, people also questioned if what was being created on the computer was true “art,” and many people, artists were against the rise of computers and the internet. AI is bringing up a similar debate and is receiving a similar response. However, it is a normal part of the evolution and advancement of technology.”?

His experiment on "metamorphosis" digital fashion was inspired by siamese fighting fish and human emotions.

But.... Let's pay attention, to something hidden in these works, my message....

He would like to ask if one day we all evolved into these beautiful creatures are we still going to continue our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position to destroy our oceans and this planet? Looking out there for some planets to find inhabitable places is not the solution. This is the only home we have. Expect his NFTs soon.?

Feature: YIQIN(Isola) ZHU

Founder and CEO of HGVIS is a digital fashion creator. Co-creating with the community members. Transforming the digital artwork into wearable assets in the virtual world. She strives to bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds by focusing on digital garments and augmented reality.?She collaborated with Baris Gencel in Lisbon art the recent NFT conference and is a well know figure in the fashion industry. Her work in the #marthaverse is inspired by the works of Boris. We will hear more about her in the #marthaverse.

The use of AI in fashion design is an exciting development that has the potential to transform the industry. It allows designers to create unique and visually striking designs, streamline the design process, reach a wider audience through virtual fashion shows, and more. While it’s essential to consider the potential drawbacks, AI in fashion can bring new opportunities and innovation to the industry overall.

Feature HIGHLIGHT PHYGITAL FASHION: Marije de Roos :?Fashion A World Without Waste

Marije de Roos believes in a clean textile industry where aesthetics meet ethics.

Marije is an independent circular fashion researcher, whose work at the intersection of science, design, and technology is directed towards creating a new paradigm for fashion. With a background as an economist, she specializes i interrogating the true state of sustainability, challenging brands to move beyond baseless sustainability statements, and empowering consumers to make better-informed choices.

She introducesd Meta-Kira - the first virtual Influencer in UAE- a new chapter for digital fashion.

In her role as the CEO of Positive Fibers?, and under the guise of her alter ego ‘The Circular Fashion Detective,’ she has been a consistent force for positive change in the industry. Marije’s main mission is to make landfills obsolete and this is done through responsible supply chains for any product that is made of fibers.

Positive Fibers? is a Dutch fashion design tech startup that aims to promote regenerative fashion and put the "ECO" into e-commerce. The company's mission is to dress the world better by creating sustainable fashion.

Digital fashion is seen as a sustainable alternative to fast fashion, and it can help to reduce waste in the fashion industry.

Dive Deeper: DETECTED: Plastic is Fantastic, oh wait it isn't in Fashion!

Subscribe to Marije de Roos as her alter ego "The Circular Fashion Detective" newsletter.

Feature: PinkCryptoBabe

A creator we will learn more about in the #marthaverse. She has been very kind to create special flying vehicles for my space. With her deep passion for fashion , she created a Fashion World.

How Can We Thrive In This Important Paradigm Shift?

No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life. -Nietzsche-

Let's join forces and embrace the metamorphosis between fashion, humans, and AI. Together, we can unlock endless possibilities for creativity, sustainability, and positive change in the fashion industry.

Meet Me in the #marthaverse

#fashion #AI #nfts #sustainability #creativity #marthaverse