Digital Fashion: Done Before It Started?
Early Beginnings and the Video Game Industry
Although many would say digital fashion is a fairly recent by-product of the metaverse, its origins can actually be tracked down past Web 2.0 and the social media boom of the 2010s to the video game industry of the 1990s and early 2000s.
In the 1990s, when customization within video games became easier to achieve, and the internet was being widely adopted by more and more households, individuals as well as the development companies themselves started designing and releasing custom skins, accessories, and other in-game assets for playable characters. This started as physical expansion packs, and later digital downloads. With the rise of life simulators and other online communities and MMORPGs (such as World of Warcraft and even Second Life), this practice took off. Websites like The Sim Resource focused only on community-made clothing and in-game objects that could be downloaded and applied to video game characters.
These digital garments were often inspired by real-life designers, so it was only a matter of time until actual clothing brands found a way to monetize them. One of the first examples where a brand showed interest in designing digitally was in 2007 when H&M released a collaboration with Electronic Arts in form of a Sims 2 expansion pack, which contained a full H&M ready-to-wear collection, this included actual pieces of clothing sold at their stores that were available to buy in-game. The sims went on to see 2 more collaborations, firstly with Diesel in 2012 and later on Moschino in 2019.
As brands were developing other methods of raising profits in the digital age, we saw previously futuristic Clueless-esque technologies become reality. The first virtual dressing room software started rolling out in the late 2000s and finally became accessible to the masses in the 2010s. Where before you had to physically visit a store in order to try something on, you could now try on a pair of Ray-Bans from the comfort of your home.
Although digital fashion existed, to some extent, it hadn’t been appropriated by the fashion industry yet. These garments and accessories were not for sale, they were pieces of digitally-reproduced fashion. The 2000s also came with the first online try-on software, virtual try-ons came to be with Web 2.0, made even easier as connections and devices became faster.
Social Media, Fast Fashion, and Influencers
Although digital fashion finds its origins mostly within video game culture, and its revolving communities, it’s strayed away from that in recent years. We first got some insights into what digital fashion could become in pre-pandemic times, through CGI Influencers like Blawko22 and Lil Miquela, the latter having attended Prada Shows and starred in campaigns such as the 2019 Calvin Klein campaign where she starred alongside Bella Hadid. It was around the same time, in 2018 that Norwegian Brand Carlings released together with The Fabricant the first wearable digital fashion pieces, available completely for free. In OBJ file format, the idea was a dab at overconsumption, in order to democratize fashion, the logic went, we have to dematerialize it. Not only those who can afford it can wear it. Anyone with access to a computer and a camera could thus become instantly fashionable without spending a dime and resources, the Insta shot is done, the picture is posted without the garment having to travel around the world, and in its travels, releasing CO2 emissions.
Through 2020, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, when home-working became the norm, the fashion industry had to readapt. This coincided with the rise of NFTs, and it was now possible to own a piece of digital clothing whose purchase was recorded in the blockchain, becoming an investment, a real way to make money with something virtual. With the rise of the NFT together with an industry that was moving more and more toward online fashion shows and the Metaverse in general, the perfect incubator to propel digital fashion was thus in place. It’s only in recent times, that we’ve seen a real, viable, and somewhat successful use of digital fashion as a currency instead of just another marketing tool.
The Future of Digital Fashion
Today, digital fashion is not only a fast way for brands to get their product seen as soon as possible, a way for influencers to potentially lower their carbon footprint and instantly get their hands on the most recent garments, on the contrary, by attracting a new and unexpected audience of crypto investors, the digital fashion industry could contradict itself even further. Its sustainability goals are easily overshadowed by the amount of energy required to register a single NFT. A study conducted by nftclub.com established that to register an NFT it could cost on average 83 kilograms of CO2, a number that could rise up to 211 kilograms over the course of its lifespan.
Digital fashion would have to jump ahead, beyond the barrier of blockchain, unless digital fashion can make it to the masses, its impact will most likely stay minor. Imagine a world where the whole of your Instagrammable wardrobe lives within your phone, no more useless purchases for the purpose of a photo shoot. This could eventually lead to reducing our collective CO2 impact, especially in a time when slow fashion is more and more relevant, and influencers are being called out for their careless use of resources. But for now, it’s still a somewhat distant utopia.
When it comes to sustainability, It’s for sure not a real answer to the actual problem, it won’t be enough to lower our collective CO2 footprint, and will probably only propel sales of fast fashion brands further. Our problem will probably always be the need to control our consumption, rather than aim to own as much as we can. It’s hard to imagine this thirst will be quenched through virtual garments. We must learn to indefinitely manage our greed.