Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, consumer habits have changed and so has fashion. Massive interest in digital fashion exploded since then as people started to show themselves more online than offline. Virtual fashion allows customers to "go crazy", according to digital fashion designer Amber Jae Slooten of The Fabricant.
Slooten is a co-founder of The Fabricant, a virtual fashion house based in Amsterdam which has a real claim in sustainability as "waste nothing but data and explore nothing but imagination". The house operates at the intersection of fashion and technology producing digital, and only digital, couture.
The bespoken pieces are only digital and are designed to move and drape as in real life. The client’s avatar can "wear" them in the virtual world, social media, or games. None of the items are created in the physical world, they only exist digitally. "We try to create a new fashion narrative for the 21st century because we really believe that we need to look at ourselves in the mirror and see if our vanity really needs to harm the planet in this way" explains Slooten.
Virtual spaces, as well as virtual fashion, comes naturally to the young generation who has blurry perception of physical and digital world. Also, people adopt different personalities according to the digital platform, which requires a different dress code. In this sense, virtual fashion offers an endless set of options to express him/herself.
For the future, she believes that sustainability and technology will be the core for all brands that will opt for features like smart materials that act as a second skin, monitoring body vital signs. So the physical world will be the place where people express a more sober version of themselves. On the other hand, the virtual space will offer ways of being more expressive and creative. As if the physical space will be in charge of our survival and basic functions and we leave the fun and creativity to the virtual. "And then within the digital world, we can go completely crazy. You can wear a dress made of water or have lights everywhere and you can change the fabric you are wearing according to your mood" added Slooten.
To know more about the The Fabricant, click here.
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