Until a few years ago, digital clothing and similar digital possessions were mostly used in the gaming world, to dress your avatar and give it a special look, made purely for aesthetic reasons. Today, it seems like virtual goods are everywhere around us, including digital clothing items, which seem to grab the attention of more and more fashion moguls as well as customers worldwide. But the fashion industry is not the only one captivated by this enticing trend. There are also different objects we use daily, for example, furniture, cars or even digital land that make an appearance in digital spaces! But it almost seems like a paradox to buy something whose original concept was to make human lives physically easier in a solely digital form. ‘How could that be beneficial to anyone?’, one might ask.

Why would you choose to spend the money you worked for in the real world on objects visible only through the screen? The first thing you would have to understand when thinking about this concept is that we are not talking about regular day-to-day life. Of course, you will always need your coat when it's snowing outside and your swimsuit when you decide to go on vacation. To seriously consider the benefits of digital products and their benefits you would have to place yourself in a futuristic mindset with attention to trends the modern social media-centered life has brought to us. 

Let’s face it, there are plenty of things we do for Instagram these days. More precisely, our patterns of social behavior have, in varying degrees, adapted from the real world to the world of clicks and likes. Social media users today put a great effort into making their lives seem as interesting as possible. And a considerable part of those people make quite a nice living off it. Did you know that there are over 1 billion monthly active users on Instagram and that almost 50% of these users have more than 1,000 followers? To persuade the general public about this image they created for themselves, they often spend a lot of money on items that are desired by their audience. Think: designer bags, large properties and luxury cars. Big brands use this phenomena to promote their products and services. They send their goods to the people who are generally perceived as popular or interesting online.

And more often than not, these items are for one-time use - for a post, or even just an Instagram story. So a legitimate question to ask ourselves would be if these objects are there solely for aesthetic and entertainment purposes, why would they have to be tangible? What is digital fashion and what are the benefits augmented reality can bring to this highly competitive industry? Why would you buy something that exists only when you are online?

 

1. NO PLAGIARISM

Fashion has never been just about looking good. It is by some means art, a manner to express yourself through colors, shapes, and materials. But nowadays so-called ‘fast fashion’ has taken its toll on that concept. Brands go towards creating fast-changing trends, called micro-trends, which allow them to sell more and more clothing each time a trend changes. Spoiler alert: it’s very often. Fast fashion and social media go hand in hand, which in the end means that everyone ends up with the same items in their closet. It seems as if creativity got lost somewhere in the depths of Instagram feed. 

 

"Don't be into trends. Don't make fashion own you, but you decide what you are. Do not go into trends. Do not allow fashion take you over, choose who you want to be and what do you want to show with your clothes and lifestyle." - Gianni Versace

 

Digital clothes offer an entirely new perspective on the way we perceive fashion trends. The biggest perk of virtual clothing, and virtual items in general, is the fact that they can be anything you want. Regular clothes are determined by the materials, colors, and well, the laws of physics. But if you opt for a digital option, the options are unlimited! There are no restrictions when it comes to lighting, animation, morphing, floating, flying, and more. On top of that, most pieces offered by digital fashion brands are limited-edition items, meaning your attire is an exclusive product made with vision and creativity. But this idea is not only limited to the items we are supposed to wear. There are endless possibilities with digital items, so you can own anything from a virtual lamp to digital land!

 

2. NO DISCRIMINATION

It is a fact that fashion can make you feel beautiful and improve your self-image, but it can also bring you down since most clothes are designed with specific body types in mind. The fashion industry is slowly becoming more inclusive, but still, a lot of clothes conform only to a certain body type. Virtual fashion, on the other hand, is an entirely different story. You don't need to conform yourself to the clothes, the clothes conform to you! As Givenchy once said “the dress must follow the body of a woman, not the body following the shape of the dress!”

 

Digital fashion takes this principle to heart. The process is simple: you submit your photo to the designers, and they edit the outfit to fit your unique shape and style. This way your body is the canvas, and the digital clothes are the art! Digital fashion goes beyond reality, it brings a complete paradigm shift from the principle of wearing articles of clothing to wearing your dreams and fantasies. It is a dimension where everything is possible, regardless of age, gender or size.   

 

3. NO WASTE

We can’t talk about the fashion industry these days without mentioning its enormous impact on the environment. Maybe fashion is not the first industry that comes to your mind when you think about pollution, but fast fashion industry waste is more harmful to the environment than air and sea travel combined! Its industry is responsible for 2.1 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. Some of the biggest problems the fashion industry faces these days are waste and overproduction, and the overuse of hazardous chemicals. The environmental footprint this industry leaves is tremendous, thus fashion sustainability is one of the great challenges we face today. Digital fashion imposes itself as a pathway to fashion sustainability, given that there is no physical material used in the production of these garments, but simply augmented reality and digitally altered photos.

4. NO EXPLOITATION

It might seem completely harmless and innocent to go online, browse through a webpage and find yourself a cheap imported good. But if you take a look in the background of the companies who produce cheap goods, you’ll see that they are mostly situated in developing countries. This practice is so often that it’s not even taboo anymore, giant companies use manual labor from the population of impoverished third world countries to save as much as they can on production and bring in profits. The consumers are in most cases not conscious about the fact that their sneakers are probably produced by a child for the price that is often just a few dollars a day. But if you were to buy digital sneakers online you could be sure that there was no manual labor exploitation involved. And not just the sneakers, you can buy a car, a pet, or a chair knowing that it’s not made in a sweatshop, and the only person who worked hard for it is the graphic designer who is for sure not underpaid. With digital entities the prices are transparent - they are what the owner of that unique item is willing to pay for them!

5. NO LIMITS

There are no limits with what direction garments can go when it comes to digital fashion. Their genderless, sizeless attributes can disregard human anatomy and go beyond the limits of what is considered fitting. But boundaries don’t just apply to the work virtual fashion designers do, but also to their careers. When it comes to traditional fashion it is hard to make a name for yourself with all of the moguls standing next to you, and without any funds for production. Digital clothing offers a completely new chance for talented 3D designers, since the costs of physical production are virtually nonexistent, and advertising platforms are easily accessible. It is a perfect frame to showcase an out-of-the-box creative mindset and a technical skillset. The items available on the digital market are a product of originality and talent, not just the heavy investments of big companies.


Social media has completely reshaped our way of perceiving content - trends are made to satisfy the digital audience, not the physical one. The limits between what is real and what is virtual are more fluid than ever, which creates endless possibilities for virtual designers. Given that the main premise of modern social media-influenced fashion is to make a statement and not the physical comfort of clothes, why should clothes be bound to reality? Digital items are not made to replace reality, but to add a layer to reality, to add a color spectrum to the shades of gray.