What's the point of digital fashion? | Karinna Grant

[00:00:00] TED Audio Collective Digital fashion emerged as early as the very first video games of the

[00:00:15] 70s and 80s.

[00:00:17] Dressing our favorite characters like Mario Bros. and Street Fighters with detail to tire

[00:00:21] that, for better or worse, distinguished them from our real lives and real threads.

[00:00:27] Some were even has it that Nintendo shelved a fashion game that took inspiration from the

[00:00:32] 90s hit classic Clueless, which was a coming-of-age story with Alicia Silverstone and Paul

[00:00:38] Rudd, where users could dress the Alicia Silverstone character up based on her trendy

[00:00:44] looks.

[00:00:46] From second life to Sims to Fortnite, the lines between digital and reality have shrunk.

[00:00:53] In-houses boast collections for avatars and even designers like Hanifa put on entire

[00:00:59] virtual fashion shows of new collections with 3D images and invisible models.

[00:01:06] Paying top prices for quality threads is no longer limited to material goods.

[00:01:12] In 2021, digital fashion crossed over the $30 billion mark according to a McKenzie study.

[00:01:21] McKenzie is leading the market by decorating themselves for distinction, both on and offline,

[00:01:27] spending upwards of $10 to as much as $100 per month on items to clothe or make their

[00:01:34] avatars stand out.

[00:01:36] But what happens when digital fashion goes beyond just avatars?

[00:01:41] I'm Cheryl Dorsey and this is Ted Tech.

[00:01:46] What historian and technologist Corinne Grant reminds us that fashion innovation isn't

[00:01:51] just cool in the digital space or the hyped up metaverse.

[00:01:55] It will be a way of life.

[00:01:58] This modernization will forecast new fashion trends and help manufacturers discover more

[00:02:03] sustainable methods of producing goods.

[00:02:06] Let's listen in!

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[00:04:12] I'm Dr. Kerry McNearny and with my co-host, Dr. Eleanor Drage, I'm an AI ethics researcher

[00:04:33] at the University of Cambridge.

[00:04:35] On our podcast, we ask what is good technology?

[00:04:38] Is it even possible?

[00:04:40] And how can feminism help us work towards it?

[00:04:43] So find us over on YouTube, Spotify, Apple or whatever else you get your podcasts.

[00:04:50] By 2033, you just might have a smaller wardrobe than you have now.

[00:04:56] Not just because you've already checked which items spark joy but because you probably won't

[00:05:03] own as much physical clothing.

[00:05:05] I'm not just saying this because typically we own more than we need and we actually only

[00:05:09] wear 20% of our wardrobe but because dematerialization will have taken over fashion.

[00:05:16] Think about the books that you own, the music that we listen to, they are now in the cloud

[00:05:22] and many of our favorite stores are online and this is happening to our clothes too.

[00:05:29] Digital versions of physical products and digital only products are making their way into

[00:05:34] our lives through gaming, social media and shopping.

[00:05:39] Digital fashion is made of pixels rather than threads and it's still a relatively new sector

[00:05:45] of the virtual goods industry but in the last five years it's kind of exploded and we've

[00:05:52] seen zeitgeist moments from digital first brands like the fabricant tribute brand and

[00:05:57] Oroboros, an artifact who got the world talking about fidgetals, physical and digital versions

[00:06:05] that you buy together.

[00:06:08] And luxury brands are also in this space like Vuitton, Balenciaga and Gucci and they're

[00:06:15] doing something surprising at surprising price points so they're bringing together the worlds

[00:06:20] of gaming and luxury.

[00:06:22] Some of these items are less than $20 and this Gucci roadblocks handbag actually resold

[00:06:29] for $4,000 which is more than the physical one retails for just an hour after it went

[00:06:36] for sale on roadblocks.

[00:06:38] This is interesting because quite often our first luxury purchase is sunglasses or ellipsic

[00:06:46] in the near future and especially for the next generation that's not going to be

[00:06:51] the case it will be a virtual item that you can wear just like that handbag inside a game

[00:06:57] and if your pockets are deep enough you can also pay luxury prices, crypto punks and Tiffany

[00:07:04] last year did a collaboration where they made digital pendants, 250 personalized ones

[00:07:12] which were the princely sum of $50,000.

[00:07:17] I'm a fashion academic and innovator and I've spent a lot of years researching how and

[00:07:22] when people adopt new trends whether they're dad sneakers or snapchat filters and it's

[00:07:28] kind of ironic because I fell in love with digital fashion because I like vintage fashion

[00:07:34] and the thought of being able to wear key pieces from fashion history is something that keeps

[00:07:39] me awake late at night.

[00:07:41] What's super exciting is that we're at the very beginning of this revolution within

[00:07:46] fashion and when it goes mainstream probably within the next five years it's really going

[00:07:51] to change not only what we wear but also how we produce and consume goods hopefully for

[00:07:58] the better.

[00:08:00] Just because something isn't physical doesn't mean it's not real and just because something

[00:08:05] is dematerialized doesn't mean it gives you a warm, funny feeling in your stomach when

[00:08:10] you buy it or own it or wear it so for digital fashion there's something really for every

[00:08:16] body from sportswear to couture to the kind of straight out ethereal and when I see pieces

[00:08:23] that are so cool that I want to own them physically I get frustrated because there isn't a

[00:08:29] word to describe that.

[00:08:31] So I've started calling it meta desire and I'm still working on an emoji for it which I think

[00:08:37] is very important.

[00:08:39] Digital fashion is characterized by infinite creativity.

[00:08:44] When you design in the physical dimension you unfortunately have constraints like gravity

[00:08:50] how a fabric drapes perhaps the cost of raw materials but when you design virtually you

[00:08:55] have limitless possibilities of say for example what a dress could look like how it could perform

[00:09:01] or function and in the near future we have completely new categories of materials and

[00:09:07] products and magazines are also using this as well.

[00:09:12] They're adopting digital fashion to make the pages and the fashion become more immersive

[00:09:18] but so what?

[00:09:19] That's what my mum often asks me.

[00:09:21] What's the point of digital fashion?

[00:09:23] Well you have two choices, you can either wear it on your real self, your physical self

[00:09:29] or you can wear it on your digital self and gamers have already been doing this for over

[00:09:35] 25 years they already understand the value of virtual goods.

[00:09:40] They've been earning, modifying and putting skins and cosmetics on their characters to

[00:09:46] wear inside games.

[00:09:49] Digital dressing is a thing.

[00:09:51] You guys can try this yourself if you go to platforms like the dematerialized or dress

[00:09:56] X and a relatively new company 010 also does this so digital dressing is when an extra layer

[00:10:04] like an augmented reality is added onto a photo or a video and this is something which

[00:10:10] I call soft wearables so effectively you have kind of like a new form of fast fashion

[00:10:19] because you could update the clothes that you're wearing with new messages, slogans on

[00:10:24] a daily basis if you want.

[00:10:27] Something that I'm excited about in the further future is that we won't need to view this

[00:10:31] extra digital content through our mobile phone.

[00:10:35] It will actually emit from the smart materials in the fabrics themselves.

[00:10:40] But why do we need digital fashion?

[00:10:43] Well today we already spend one third of our time online and as we move into the next

[00:10:50] generation of the internet known as web 3, we won't just be on the internet, we're

[00:10:56] actually going to be inside it and we already curate different aspects of who we are for

[00:11:05] each of the different platforms that we sure ourselves on.

[00:11:10] But we're not just going to be 2D images inside social media circles or squares anymore,

[00:11:16] we're actually going to be full-bodied avatars working, shopping, dating even in 3D spaces.

[00:11:24] If you go to South Korea the avatar culture is already very well embedded from Kpop brands

[00:11:32] to digital banking advisors.

[00:11:34] They're kind of everywhere and they have an app called Zepeto.

[00:11:39] This is just a selection of my digital twins, the avatars that I use on a daily basis in

[00:11:45] messaging to convey different emotions also to meet friends and to go to digital events

[00:11:51] in 3D spaces.

[00:11:53] I try to convey different aspects of my personality in my avatars, different trends that I want

[00:12:00] to show and also which tribes I want to belong to.

[00:12:05] But the metaverse that we've all been promised isn't actually here for a while yet.

[00:12:10] Some people are quite excited but it's not going to be here for a while yet.

[00:12:13] However, it's actually the physical fashion sector that could be impacted by digital

[00:12:18] fashion the most.

[00:12:21] Some of you might have heard a lot of negative hype and sentiment around NFTs, non-fundable

[00:12:26] tokens but actually they are key to the future of digital fashion because they turn a regular

[00:12:33] file like a JPEG into an asset that you can own and that you can trade.

[00:12:39] Brands like Robertswood, Prada and Diesel have all done this.

[00:12:43] They've all sold digital items as NFTs.

[00:12:47] For us as consumers this is really good because we can check to see if something is real

[00:12:52] or authentic before we buy it.

[00:12:55] Also, once we actually buy it people can see that it's us that owns it on a blockchain.

[00:13:02] And for designers especially emerging ones it helps them protect their designs and each

[00:13:08] time this piece is resold the designer gets a royalty fee.

[00:13:13] It's going to be a game changer for the fashion sector because it redistributes power

[00:13:17] and money back towards the original designers and creators.

[00:13:23] But it's not just about creativity and aesthetics.

[00:13:26] Digital fashion could also make us be more sustainable.

[00:13:30] 150 billion garments are manufactured every year and many of them are unsold.

[00:13:38] This overproduction is unnecessary.

[00:13:41] And what we need to see more of, and I'm talking specifically to you, Fest Fashion Retailers,

[00:13:46] is that instead of just relying on previous sales history you actually showcase digital

[00:13:52] versions of products before you manufacture them.

[00:13:57] US brand Finesse already does this and has no waste in their production processes.

[00:14:03] And how about a fashion tool that helps you wear that other 80% of your wardrobe?

[00:14:09] I think your wardrobe is an amazing tool that digitises your wardrobe, it kind of works

[00:14:15] a little bit like a fitness tracker, helps you style outfits together and facilitates

[00:14:20] care and repair so that your items last longer.

[00:14:24] And it could be a way that you could help reduce the impact of the 92 million tonnes

[00:14:30] of clothing that ends up in landfill each year.

[00:14:34] So the exciting thing is, the clueless dream closet is actually already here.

[00:14:42] And lastly, e-commerce return rates within fashion are scarier than 40% to 60%.

[00:14:49] And this says a real environmental cost.

[00:14:51] So again, how about if retailers helped us try things digitally before we purchased them

[00:14:58] physically?

[00:14:59] John Lewis in the UK uses artificial intelligence to do digital dressing so that consumers

[00:15:05] can try before they buy.

[00:15:08] And what they've been finding is that people have been trying over 80 items every time

[00:15:13] they shop and it also makes online shopping much more fun.

[00:15:18] Looking to the future, by 2030-33, it's probably likely that you'll have a Spotify style

[00:15:24] subscription to download the latest fashion, to wear on your work hologram calls or to flex

[00:15:31] on your avatar to a virtual gallery opening.

[00:15:34] Just another couple of reasons why that wardrobe of yours might have a lot less in it.

[00:15:39] Thank you.

[00:15:43] Ted Tech is part of the Ted Audio Collective.

[00:15:52] This episode was produced by Nina Lawrence, edited by Alejandra Salazar and fact-checked

[00:15:58] by Julia Dickerson.

[00:16:00] Special thanks to Maria Lodias, Faraday Grange, Corey Hashim, Danielle Valoresso, and Michelle

[00:16:06] Quint.

[00:16:07] I'm Cheryl Dorsey.

[00:16:09] Thanks for listening and talk to you again next week.

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