Digital Fashion: Virtual Garments Aren't Just for Gaming
"How these Companies are Redefining Fashion in the Digital Era"
In the dynamic world of fashion, where trends come and go, one concept is challenging traditional notions of style and identity: digital avatars. Embracing avatars as a second self is reshaping the fashion industry, blurring the lines between physical and digital realms, and empowering individuals to express themselves in new and exciting ways. Let’s delve into how companies like Syky, Xtended Identity, and DressX and The Fabricant are redefining luxury fashion across realities, and the future implications for the fashion landscape.
Redefining Fashion in the Digital Age
The blend of digital and physical fashion for screenwear and streetwear represents a growing paradigm shift in the fashion industry, leveraging technology to craft and redefine how we engage with clothing and personal style. A digital fashion collective from London, Xtended Identity blurs the boundaries of traditional fashion creations, by giving consumers the possibility to rent digital fashion to sport the looks via social media. They can also earn membership points to unlock a free mint from the brand’s next drop. Other benefits include invitations to special events, online and off. Screenwear is already a highly important aspect of gamers from Roblox to Fortnite, as a gamer’s “skin” or outfit, speaks volumes about who they are. Just as people signify their taste and style with their physical dress, digital outfits are growing in importance - especially to Gen Z and Alpha.
“In digital worlds, everyone can have feathered, golden wings. Everyone can fly. Everyone can be beautiful.”
-Catherine D. Henry
Gamer Fashion
67% of Gen Z/Alpha spend between 1 to 3 hours on gaming platforms every day - and nearly 60% would rather socialize with their friends on gaming platforms than in person. Part of that rationale is that they often feel their avatar is a “better” version of themselves.
Inclusion and Digital Fashion
Xtended Identity’s co-founder, Yunjia Xing, says that typically, “new technologies that connect digital fashion and web3, like ours, are being presented to a mostly male audience.” Yet 70 percent of the brand’s consumers were women or part of the LGBTQ+ community. Both groups expressed a strong desire to be included in the crypto space, which resulted in NFT drops of new designs by members of the collective, in collaboration with Syky, a community-driven platform at the intersection of luxury fashion and technology.
Sustainability
The environmental impact of fashion production - especially Fast Fashion- has been under scrutiny in recent years. The industry is under pressure to reduce ecological impact, worker exploitation, and waste. While digital goods reduce physical waste, their creation with gen-AI tools and sale with crypto is an important epiphenomenal effect. Big fashion houses from Gucci to Dolce Gabbana, Margiela, and Louis Vuitton have added NFTs to their product portfolios to attract and connect with consumers worldwide and at the same time, grow new business. The environmental costs of this new business model have yet to be determined.
Digital Fashion - The Next Wave for Fashion
DressX co-founder Daria Sharapova, pictured below, has referred to digital fashion, or “screenwear” as the new streetwear. Digital clothing can be rented or purchased, customized, issued in limited or unlimited quantities, as still or “live” pieces and downloaded as easily as an app. Unlike streetwear, clothing can have floating flowers, sharp steely edges, or be accompanied by a horde of angry bees.
Screenwear is the new Streetwear
Today, screenwear and digital clothing skins are a small but flourishing market segment. With over 3.3 billion gamers around the world, most under the age of 25, this market segment is set to flourish. By embracing technology and pushing the boundaries of creativity, digital fashion is changing the way we think about style, identity, and creating content for social media. As the digital revolution continues to unfold, digital fashion is set to revolutionize the business of fashion.
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