International Designers and popular Labels, as well as lesser-known Labels, ranging from global discount retailers to exclusive Luxury Brands, are incorporating Digital Technology in Fashion through their Designs of the present. In 2020, for example, Virtual Events replaced Fashion Weeks due to the COVID-19 epidemic, causing the industry to embrace Digital Media. Some Designers also explored their creativity by fabricating Virtual Garments for their Digital Avatars. And even though Virtual Garments and Technology co-relate, Fashion Technology in Garments differs from Virtual Clothing (more on that in the future).
Today, we will discuss Digital Technology in Fashion, its benefits, and some collections from my top list of Designers embracing Fashion Technology.
WHAT IS DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN FASHION? WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
The Fashion Industry has long been a frontrunner in innovation, from the invention of the silk reeling and sewing machines to the growth of e-commerce. It is trend-driven and continually evolving, just like the Tech Industry. Today, the Fashion Industry is partnering with technology providers, investing in startups, and in some cases, building their in-house technology to expand their revenue streams and business models. And together, Fashion and Technology continue to evolve.
So, how do you integrate Fashion and Technology? Realistically, the concept of Fashion and Technology is not a newly developed phenomenon. It has existed for the past three decades but has taken its limelight since the 2020 Pandemic. From fabric sources to conceptualizing new designs, the fusion of fashion and technology has proven successful. For example, robotic stitching and cutting, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to predict fashion trends, and 3D-printed clothing. Besides, technology is automating, personalizing, and speeding up the Fashion Industry. And as Digital Technology in Fashion is constantly evolving, the wearable economy is predicted to be fully sustainable by 2050.
Direct-to-Textile 3D Printing explored by designers Ganit Goldstein and Julia Koerner
How is Digital Technology in Fashion sustainable or beneficial? What makes Fashion Technology a superior eco-friendly alternative to conventional fabrics and designs?
Technological advancements can enhance the Fashion Industry beyond what one might expect. For example, Material Innovations and 3D Printing are two highly effective strategies.
The Fashion Industry is actively seeking new ways to produce sustainable garments. And there is still a need for more research and development to prevent animals from suffering under the burden of fashion. However, some developers are making progress toward producing garments in laboratories that do not utilize animal materials. In other words, now that fur or leather may flourish without harming animals, eco-friendly fashion should be widespread and worthy of consideration. For example, Adidas has recently contributed by collaborating with “Parley for the Oceans” in a limited edition of sneakers made from ocean plastic. With Digital Technology and Material Innovations, sustainable and earth-friendly couture can soon become available to the world, either from recycled materials or organic matter such as orange peels, mushrooms, and algae.
Then, the rise of 3D Printing in the Fashion Industry and its rapid implementation is no longer surprising. 3D Printing in fashion is primarily valuable due to its accessibility and availability to the general public. A 3D printer allows professionals to turn even the most improbable ideas into reality, transcending the boundaries of design. It can blend several materials into a single piece of cloth, such as a waterproof textile infused with a flexible one, and so on. Brands can customize their apparel for people using 3D Printing based on specific body types, sizes, heights, and other factors.
HERE ARE MY TOP SIX DESIGNERS EMBRACING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN FASHION FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE.
IRIS VAN HERPEN
Topping this list is my new fav, a Dutch fashion designer and couturier renowned for her darkly surreal and futuristic aesthetics. She also exhibited her latest collection during Paris Couture Week 2022. As one of the first fashion designers to adopt 3D Printing technologies, her designs have drawn appeal to artists such as Lady Gaga, Björk, and Tilda Swindon. The designer combines cutting-edge technology, high-end materials, and meticulous craftsmanship to create elegant designs. Her artistic and fashion approaches reflect the material world but also promote sustainability. In addition, having an interest in architecture, she benefits from the visual connections between fashion and architecture to enhance her conceptual understanding of fashion and technology.
The designer draws inspiration from the dynamic interaction between body and mind. She is motivated by how nature manifests beauty, mystery, and disorder. For example, sound waves, symbiosis, synapses, magnetism, and kinetics are some of the lesser-explored natural phenomena she uncovers through biomimicry techniques. Most of her design collections advocate empowering women by embracing new forms that will lead to a more meaningful, diverse, and environmentally conscious fashion in the future.
ANOUK WIPPRECHT
Another established Dutch Fashion-Tech Designer, building fashion experiences beyond essential appearances with engineering, science, and interaction. Her work explores how clothing enables us to interact with the world in new ways. Using microcontrollers and artificial intelligence (AI), she creates dresses that move, breathe, and react to the surrounding environment, thus expressing the wearer’s psychological state. The design of the product incorporates sensors that analyze the space surrounding the wearer, while body sensors monitor stress levels, comfort, and anxiety. For example, she created a dialogue between the body and the environment with her famous “Smoke Dress.” The dress camouflages itself with a cloud of smoke when someone enters the wearer’s personal space. Then, with the “Synapse Dress,” users can alter their appearance in real-time using their body’s electrical current.
NICCOLO CASAS
An Italian Architect, Designer, and the founder of Niccolo Casas Architecture leads an integrated design practice. He strives to collaborate with various fields to redefine sustainable future inhabitation. In addition to architecture, design, couture, fashion tech, and data visualization, he also works in medicine. The designer has previously collaborated with other fashion designers like Iris Van Herpen and Anouk Wipprecht for multiple projects.
Using 3D Printing technology and craftsmanship, he creates dynamic and aesthetic collections. The components of his designs adapt to the model’s body shape and position to enhance their movement. For example, Niccolo and Van Herpen fused technology with handicrafts in their Lucid Collection in 2016, where they created a high-quality web with durable polyamide printing. It featured two 3D-printed “Magma Dresses,” combining traditional manufacturing methods with flexible and rigid 3D printed materials. Overall, Niccolo emphasizes how technology is reshaping the way we interact with the world around us.
JUN KAMEI
Juggling between London and Tokyo, the fashion-tech biomimicry designer with a background in material science develops products influenced by nature, anticipating future lifestyles. His innovative gadgets utilize polymers and algorithm-driven designs. Kamei founded “AMPHIBIO LTD.,” an organization that delivers innovation to the marine industry through design-led technology. During his recent project with the same name, he developed a 3D-printed underwater garment that functions as a gill. The project aims to simplify everyday life in a world where humans live close to water due to rising sea levels.
NOA RAVIV
Not many people are familiar with Noa Raviv, but she is a well-known young Israeli fashion designer with expertise in grid patterns and 3D Printing in her couture collections. In simple terms, she transforms 2D grid lines into textiles to create an optical illusion. Using advanced technologies like 3D Printing and Laser Cutting, the designer at the crossroads of fashion and technology seeks a balance between harmony and chaos, tradition and innovation, handmade and machine-made.
Raviv has collaborated with Stratasys, a tech printing company, for the Anna Wintour Costume Center’s Manus X Machina exhibition in New York. She presented the “Hard Copy” collection, based on computer glitches, and emphasized the value of original objects today. Moreover, her work has also appeared in magazines and publications such as Vogue, The Cut, BBC, and many others.
JULIA KOERNER
The award-winning Austrian Fashion Tech designer works at the intersection of architecture, product design, and fashion design in her digital design firm, JK Design GmbH, specializing in additive manufacturing and robotics. In 2019, Archinect dubbed her “Architecture’s Queen of 3D Fabrication” for her innovative designs in 3D Printing. Her 3D-printed fashion pieces embrace a dazzling organic design.
Besides, are you a fan of MCU Movies? Have you seen Black Panther? Do you recall Queen Ramonda? Julia Koerner designed her costume and received an Oscar for Best Costume Design. This costume represented the traditional African culture using cutting-edge technology.
The creative possibilities through technological advances are endless and sustainable. Can you imagine a society twenty or thirty years from now with new values that enable us to live in harmony with nature? It is an ideal dream, wouldn’t you agree?