THE METAVERSE YOU WANT OR THE METAVERSE YOU GET? IT'S TIME TO CHOOSE

So, the word is out and the race is on. The metaverse is coming and everyone is sprinting to secure their slice of the virtual pie. But how to strategise for the future of everything? Is it better to acquire, collaborate, reposition, revise or restructure?

Let’s start with a truth bomb: if we want our digital world to level up, we need to recognise that an open, equitable and democratic metaverse won’t just magic itself into existence. It’s on us to make it happen, and the time to push hard is now. 

Though the default mindset is tuned to working out how to extract value, for The Fabricant our instinct is always to take the road less travelled - our choice is to build, and to think in terms of how to create and escalate value. 

Our newly-launched platform The Fabricant Studio is how we’re lighting the fuse of the decentralised future we want to see, by enabling anyone to create, trade and wear digital fashion NFTs in the metaverse. In collaboration with our community, we’re giving everyone the ability to curate their virtual identity one digital garment at a time. In the classic illustration that depicts humanity’s evolution from crouched ape to upright Homo Sapiens, we’re envisioning the next image in the sequence. As we free ourselves from the boundaries of physicality, what will we look like when we all become Digi Sapiens?

The Fabricant studio season 1: ‘GM Boots - starry dawn’

This is an effort that reaches far beyond the creation of beautifully rendered 3D garments. As OG pathfinders for the digital fashion movement, we’ve always searched ahead for possibilities yet to come.

The passion and creative energy we’ve poured into The Fabricant Studio signals our intention to construct an entirely new fashion economy. It’s one built on blockchain with a mission to burn down fashion’s velvet-roped power structures, giving everyone the tools to become a digital fashion designer and take ownership of collections.

In co-creating garments to build the wardrobe of the metaverse, each contributor becomes part of their NFT’s origin story, forging emotional involvement with the piece while gaining an equal split of its revenue. It’s designed to cultivate an economic feedback loop that incentivises creative participation and rewards community spirit.

The Fabricant studio season 1: ‘rising gaia bodysuit- node’

See our paper on Medium for full insight into the Studio’s tokenomics.

In the industry we’re building you do not have to live in a historic fashion centre to take part. 

You do not have to go to the right school, be connected to the right people, or be born into the right family. Your wealthy aunt does not need to have a discreet word with the CEO for you to be fast-tracked within the organisation. No embossed invitations will be sent to the usual VIP list, and the endless middle men and gatekeepers will be consigned where they belong - as obsolete relics of a system no longer fit for our tech-driven age.

As we said in our manifesto, “A kid in Dakar will stand as much chance as a kid in Paris of becoming an influential fashion force”. 

Yes, The Fabricant Studio is executed as a playful creation experience, but revolutions can take many forms. We’ve purposefully created a space where it’s possible for a savvy 12-year old to create a metaverse-native brand that can compete on the same terms as a heritage fashion label. This is what digital democracy looks like.

The birth of the metaverse is the Big Bang that we all get to witness, and right here right now is when we can iterate the future on our own terms. Our consistent, focused and deliberate actions will build the Web3 we want, otherwise we’ll end up with whatever we get. When we lead with our values we can create experiences that form the soul of the place we intend to inhabit. We’re doing our part, now it’s over to you.

Join The Fabricant Studio community in Discord - https://discord.gg/Epv8YG62qp

CURATING OUR IDENTITY IN THE METAVERSE: WHO WILL WE BE WHEN WE CAN BE ANYTHING?

William Gibson described it first: “Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding”.

Back in the analogue glory days of the early 1980s, when exciting new arcade releases such as Pac-Man stoked public hunger for the joyful escapism of computer games, Gibson was extrapolating where all this harmless fun might lead. His seminal Sci-Fi novel Neuromancer would solidify Cyberpunk as a genre and birth a whole new virtual dystopia in which to play out our tech paranoia. Flash forward a decade later and Neal Stephenson’s 1990s novel Snow Crash - now a staple of Silicon Valley’s reading list - would pick up the cyberspace baton and run with it. Foreshadowing both crypto currencies and the concept of a virtual reality-based internet, the author gifted us the buzzword of our times: welcome to the age of the ‘metaverse’.

In Sci-Fi the digitally connected environment has remained a place of both awe and intrigue; a human-made network in which we’d become self-enslaved in a matrix beyond our control. 

And yet, as we conceptualise the closest iteration of what both Gibson and Stephenson envisioned, anticipation is off-the-chain. The nascent metaverse may be several years away, but multiple players are readying to define our brand new unreality. And if early promise is anything to go by, things are about to get visually spectacular and candy-coloured.

Mengze zheng x the fabricant studio: ‘Gnosist - slumpy snow’

The metaverse, a universe of persistent virtual spaces that will form the immersive iteration of the internet, in which we’ll interact, transact and experience, is currently keeping the planet’s developers and coders deeply connected to their keyboards. Epic Games, creators of the multi-player behemoth that is Fortnite, is the name most often dropped as a frontrunner in the space, and is beta testing our appetite for virtual bewitchment by serving wow after digital wow to experience-hungry gamers. 

Epic’s big name concerts in Fortnite’s ‘Party Royale’ mode have inspired millions to toss aside their in-game weapons and instead be transported on beautifully imagined 3D journeys, with artists Marshmello, Travis Scott and Ariana Grande. With each musician represented as an avatar looming large in imagescapes that bring to life their sound and aesthetic, the visual tech-splurge in each gig is a commitment to blowing minds; the predicted digital dystopia reinterpreted as a joyful thrillopia.

If we take a moment to catch our collective breath away from the dazzling imagery, it’s the avatars themselves that we should pause to consider. These particular digital twins were birthed for entertainment and are mostly faithful recreations of their human counterparts, created for instant recognition by their fanbase. But in the metaverse, in an existence beyond physics and boundaries, all options are on the table, and we’re about to have a banquet of expressive possibilities. If identity lines are blurring IRL as we embrace broader notions of gender, imagine the debate when we can represent ourselves as entirely new species. As we all become Digi-Sapiens, will the politics of real world identity pale into insignificance or be magnified by the digital to become more vital than ever?

Now that the tech RenaiXance is upon us and we wander wide-eyed into into the magical hinterland between being and unbeing, it’s worth considering which aspects of our selves will transition into the digital realm and which we’ll retain in the terra firma of physical reality. These aren’t necessarily thoughts that many are losing sleep over right now, but for the team at The Fabricant, as a digital fashion house that creates only non-physical garments, it’s these kinds of questions that inform our process as we iterate the wardrobe of the metaverse. 

Creating fashion for the non-physical space requires us to push our own neural buttons at the same time as we code the drape and fit of a digital garment. From our perspective, the 3D fashion we create is not just a matter of digital dress-up, but a way to transmit emotion as we iterate humanity in a new realm of existence. That sounds like a lot, but fashion has always been the frontline of our identity, and it’s the medium by which we’ll self-realise in environments where we’re no longer tethered to genetics or the need to decide if a garment flatters or fails; data looks good on everyone.

Transcending physicality also means transcending self-judgement, and allows us to take experimental steps that we’d otherwise fear to tread. If the metaverse lives up to its conceptual pitch, within its realms we will be beyond age, beyond gender and, when skin becomes a matter of selecting between fish scales or tree bark, beyond ethnicity. Digital fashion’s scope will include more than trying on garments; we’ll try on new bodies, new experiences, new ideas and new lives. Those unexpressed corners of our identity that we’ve kept hidden away for fear of diverging from ‘appropriate’ presentation, are about to have their day in the data-driven sun. Prepare to take a walk on the wild side. After all, there’s no danger of a twisted ankle in 10-inch digital stilettos. 

With blockchain and crypto powering our metaverse experiences, the spirit of decentralisation will underpin its ethos and manifest as resistance to old world systems. In fashion terms, we’ll air kiss goodbye to the historic gatekeepers of style and their velvet ropes, who will have little say in the democratic space of digital fashion creativity. Data will be a design influence and those who don’t currently consider themselves fashion-savvy will create their own looks. New tribes will form as garments become tools for communication and connection. Want to signpost your love of all things Rick and Morty? Then you could iterate as Rick’s disembodied white lab coat that scrolls dialogue from your favourite episodes, ready for hangouts in 3D worlds that recreate the duo’s intergalactic escapades.

Dedicated digital fashionauts will find new ways to explore selfhood with garments that communicate hopes, dreams and desires. Digi-couture collections coded with the personality types defined by Carl Jung might detect traits that correspond to those of your soulmate; translucent moodwear made of shifting colourscapes could transform from muted to glowing in response to your emotions; physical pieces that have long crumbled to dust could be digitally revived to create new histories, and physically impossible silhouettes will take form in spaces beyond gravity. Seaweed, glass, light beams and blood cells will become digital fabrics for garments that contain playlists, stories, hidden messages or belief systems. All of which, if an interoperable and open metaverse becomes standard, will transition seamlessly across virtual worlds to be worn, traded and collected.

The Fabricant studio: ‘pluriform - Treated craft earth’

Digital fashion’s vast creative possibilities will provoke a rolling process of experimentation to unearth the most meaningful ways to display our innermost being. But what we can predict with certainty is the sheer volume of digital garments that will be required when we express not just one but multiple selves, in a spectrum of personas from professional to playful. This pressing issue of capacity is something that The Fabricant is solving right now by unlocking the ability for anyone, anywhere, to become a digital fashion designer through collaborative creation. It’s our shot at instigating a fashion revolution for a more democratic, equitable and sustainable industry that’s suitable for our tech epoch.

Our co-creation studio is debuting its first seasons and allows digital fashion first-timers to make and mint limited edition garments as NFTs, requiring zero knowledge whatsoever of 3D software. Creators and brands experienced in the 3D space drop blank garments that are ready to be customised. Users collaborate on the design by selecting from the multiple fabrics, textures and colours available for each, creating a new one-off piece. No two are the same, providing scarcity to give the garments value that will benefit everyone involved in their creation, in perpetuity. The intent is to create a virtuous circle of creativity, participation and remuneration that will enhance the lives of both our digital and physical selves.

In our physical reality billionaires are building rockets to transport themselves on ego-trips to the edges of our atmosphere. But in the digital realm it’s the universes that we’ll create ourselves that will allow every one of us to experience new ways of being. As we speculate on who we will become as humanity shifts its focus towards the potential of the non-physical, it’s wise to review the original meaning of the word ‘avatar’ as defined in Sanskrit, the ancient mother tongue of Hinduism: it means ‘descent’, signifying the manifestation or incarnation of a deity released on Earth. Perhaps fittingly, it’s the word we now use to describe how we’ll self-create to become the gods and goddesses of our own imagination.

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‘CURATING OUR IDENTITY IN THE METAVERSE: WHO WILL WE BE WHEN WE CAN BE ANYTHING?’ is available as an NFT as part of BeInCrypto's Star Edition auction HERE.

100% of sale proceeds will be donated to Open Earth.

BUILDING A DIGITAL FASHION HOUSE - A HOW TO GUIDE

The trouble with creating something utterly new is the complete lack of reference points to guide your path. When The Fabricant was founded in 2018 digital fashion barely existed as a concept, and the idea of a digital atelier crafting couture for the non-physical environment? Forget it. It meant not only signing up for the wild ride that is start-up life, but also creating a new industry for the company to operate in. It was a classic case of the Silicon Valley mantra ‘build the plane while you fly it’ but now with ‘and the airport too’ added on for good measure.

Since day one we’ve had to define the meaning of a digital fashion house. What it is, what it does, and what it believes in, answering the questions for ourselves before we could begin to answer them for anyone else. It’s been a rolling iterative process of testing boundaries, challenging preconceptions, evaluating and revaluating decisions, and maintaining our agility so we can pivot to enhance our capabilities at a moment’s notice.

Here’s how it was done:

Speak your truth and find advocates for your cause 

Is it possible to be a pragmatic radical dreamer? We think it is. It has never felt contradictory to imagine never-been-done-before possibilities and then implement practical steps to make them happen. The Fabricant’s position of ‘uploading humans to the next level of existence’ while ‘wasting nothing but data and exploiting nothing but imagination’ was and still is outlandish to some. But we long ago made peace with the idea that some people will never get the memo, no matter how many times we send it. 

Unshakeable self-belief took us a long way, but finding like minds that understood our vision and believed in our work was a game changer. Dapper Labs, fellow digital pioneers and creators of Cryptokitties, was one of them, working alongside us to auction the ‘Iridescence’ dress as the first digital fashion NFT in 2019, earning $9.500 and global attention. 

Don’t swim against the tide, create your own tide

Revolutions don’t happen because of a single entity but by multiple individuals committed to a single cause. In our case, the passion for a democratic and innovative creative future where fashion spliced with tech kicks the door wide open to new forms of self expression.

Cue one of fashion’s sacred cows being sacrificed - secrecy. Radical transparency has always been our M.O, and since day one we’ve given away our digital patterns as free file drops (FFROPS, for the uninitiated) and built a global community of convention-killing 3D creators that we named Fashionauts. 

For us it was always clear: you can’t have industry gatekeepers if there are no gates to keep, so we removed any boundaries between ourselves and our audience, never treating them as passive consumers but as what they are - our peers and co-creators. In digital fashion, inspiration is a two-way street.

If you like what you see put an ‘X’ on it

Don’t just choose your collabs, let your collabs choose you. Being a game changer requires whoever knocks on your digital door to be of a similar mindset, meaning the brands willing to put an ‘X’ between our name and theirs understood and appreciated that whatever we did we’d break new ground. 

Staying true to our beliefs and saying “sorry, that’s not what we do” and “nope, there is no test case” has allowed our projects to self select in favour of creativity and innovation, while bringing new value and insight to those that took the journey with us. 

It’s a diverse roll call, but every single collaboration added a new plot point in digital fashion’s origin story, while infusing fashion with gaming and blockchain and vice versa. 

In no particular order: BAPE, Atari, Napapijri, Adidas x Karlie Kloss, Off White, Star Atlas, Peak Performance, Under Armour, Buffalo London, I.T Hong Kong, Tommy Hilfiger, Vogue Singapore, and Australian Fashion Week.

Recognise a fundamental truth when you see one

From the moment Iridescence dropped to a world unready for the concept of non-physical garments, it was clear to us that our work was part of an ecosystem profoundly restructuring how humanity interacts, transacts and expresses itself. Fashion’s ivory tower of indifference towards innovation was about to be stormed. Welcome to the RenaiXance, folks. 

While others contemplated being future ready we were present ready, building blockchain, DeFi, gaming and the metaverse into the foundations of our fashion house and the digital couture collectibles that we released in a rolling calendar of NFT drops.

In this tech epoch fashion goes beyond mere digital dress-up; it is the means by which we’ll be metaverse-ready as digital expression forms the frontline of our identity in virtual worlds. Garments made of data worn on personalised avatars will communicate our moods, belief systems, intentions and desires. The digital fashion co-creation platform that we’re building right now is the key to unlocking the Wardrobe of the Metaverse and a limitless new fashion reality. This is your future calling, make sure you pick up.

Know that there is no full stop

(to be continued...)

The Fabricant collaborations, from top left: RTFKT, Pabllo Vittar x Nicopanda, PUMA, TRS.MNZ, Buffalo London, Atari, Toni Maticevski, Buffalo London, Marques Almeida, Star Atlas, Iridescence, Soorty Denim

THE POWER OF NOT KNOWING

There’s a question that comes up often: How did you know? How did you know before anyone else that digital fashion would accelerate to redefine what fashion can be? 

The straight up answer is we didn’t know. Certainty doesn’t come into when there’s no template to follow and nothing to base your business hypothesis on. We had the same access to information as anyone else on the subject, which was none at all. The fashion industry knew it was long overdue to embrace tech and innovation, just like every other creative industry before it. But there’s a world of difference between knowing something and acting on it.

But we had one thing that no one else had: the will to put our everything into making fashion’s digital RenaiXance happen, no matter what. 

Image: the fabricant x buffalo london ‘fortuna’ shoe

We may have lacked resources at the time, but there has never been a shortage of passion and belief in what digital fashion has the capacity to be, or the energy to make it happen. It’s been said before but it still rings true - ultimately we are all what we do. 

Anyone who’s had to strive to get an idea off the ground knows what it takes. Showing up every day to make something happen when you’re swimming against the tide can make you question your judgement. But sometimes uncertainty can be the thing that drives you. It’s what everyone means when they talk about The Hustle. Or to put in business language, an entrepreneurial mindset.

This definition from www.hacktheentrepreneur.com nails it: An entrepreneurial mindset is a way of thinking that enables you to overcome challenges, be decisive, and accept responsibility for your outcomes. It is a constant need to improve your skills, learn from your mistakes, and take continuous action on your ideas.

It’s a spirit we encourage in every team member that joins us. But this isn’t just an internal belief system. It’s a way of operating that defines the teams we collaborate on the change-leading projects that come our way. Like inevitably attracts like.

Buffalo London is a good example, who we’ve worked with once again to evolve their participation in the digital fashion landscape. Our first project, a co-created digital sneaker which debuted in January this year, presented the concept of being digitally-dressed to Buffalo’s audience for the first time. They committed fully to the idea, placing the digital-only piece right next to the regular physical inventory on their website. No physical fashion brand had ever done that before, marking a landmark crossover moment for digital fashion.

THE FABRICANT x Buffalo London ‘FORTUNA’ SHOE

Today we go live with Buffalo London x The Fabricant design collab 2.0. The latest piece, the ‘Fortuna’ sneaker, drops on Async art and moves fashion’s needle once again. Created as a layered NFT, Fortuna is a multi-owner, collaborative and collectible piece. Each of the buyers can interact with their section of the sneaker and switch up the design based on their aesthetic preference. 

To discover more about the beauty and capacity of layered digital art, take a look at Async’s insightful video HERE.

Utility will be added to the NFT through the creation of an AR filter, with the owners deciding on the final look before its captured and transformed into a wearable asset by Vyking. The really great part? The filter will be dropped across our channels for anyone to wear and show off their digital swag. The shoe owners get to decide their own fashion future, and everyone else’s.

Has Buffalo London ever done this before? Do they know the outcome? Is there some pre-written path that shows them exactly what will happen? The answer to all of these questions is of course is no. But it has always taken bold steps into uncharted territory to bring about lasting change. It’s the momentum of actions like this, by brands committed to innovation and challenging the status quo, that will transition fashion from its over-reliance on physical goods towards its digital future. 

It’s a privilege to be alongside them on the journey once again. Embracing what we don’t know is sometimes the most powerful and exciting thing we can do.

……………………………………..

The Fortuna shoe NFT drops on Async art at 6pm CET today, June 10th

IN A DIGITAL ATELIER THERE ARE NO SECRETS

What is it about secrecy that’s so appealing to traditional fashion? It’s an unspoken rule: whatever you do, do NOT be transparent. Confidentiality equals comfort.

No atelier in the history of couture has opened its doors and allowed absolutely anyone to turn up and view its activities. That goes against the very instinct of how fashion is supposed to behave. How can the mystery of the creative process be preserved if you let everyone witness how you do it? 

Then imagine if a couture atelier gave away its patterns away for free, encouraging aspiring fashion designers to make their own versions of a couture piece, while suggesting that their interpretation had as much validity as the atelier’s own work and treated them like peers.

This is just not the fashion way to do things. And yet this is exactly what The Fabricant does every week in our digital atelier, where radical transparency is a creative act.

Image: Sneak peek of the 'Re-veil'
The Fabricant x TRS.MNZ NFT drop

Anyone who shows up to our weekly live Twitch stream gets to see how we work and exactly what we’re working on. It’s a 3-hour co-creation session hosted by our fashion team, where viewers can download the 3D pattern file that we’re using and iterate their own design right alongside us. In real time, on a live project.

It’s an invitation to observe and participate in our couture house, stitch by digital stitch. 

For traditional fashion transparency is a red flag. Its rules say that fashion’s audience does not need to know its methods, hear its insights or participate in its collections. 

As a distributed fashion atelier working daily across 8 locations, the idea of collective participation in the non-physical space is second nature to us. Our in-house creative team collaborates every day from The Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia, Switzerland and the U.K. Digital fashion does not need to conform to boundaries or borders.

Our new fashion future starts with a new fashion instinct. One with a hunger to be open, collaborative and inclusive, and committed to making creativity a democratic process. For The Fabricant, this is exactly how a digital atelier should behave. Technology is meant to build connection not division.

Currently the team is working on a project called ‘Re-veil’, a collection of headpieces that questions their historic function as coverings to hide one’s identity and instead reimagines them as tools for fearless self expression. Our boldest selves revealed and re-veiled. 

Re-veil is co-created with Teresa Manzo, the talented digital artist that recently won our #makingstrides competition and whose work we find inspirational. The final collaboration will drop on the Foundation digital art platform on May 13th as limited edition NFTs.

Join our weekly Twitch stream to see our iteration process and co-create with us. Just like our Re-veil headpieces, we’re an an expressive digital atelier with nothing to hide.

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The Fabricant’s digital atelier open every Tuesday at 6pm for 3 hours, via
https://www.twitch.tv/thefabricant 
The Re-veil 3D pattern files are free to download on our website, via
https://www.thefabricant.com/pluriform
Submit your Re-veil designs to our new Remix competition, closing midnight CET, May 10th. 

RTFKT x THE FABRICANT PRESENT: RenaiXance - an exploration of the possible

Have you ever asked yourself ‘What if?’ What might be if things played out another way? This is the thinking that informed RenaiXance, a collab by RTFKT x The Fabricant - a fluid, genderless collection that recognises a spectrum of possibility. Only when we question the status quo can things evolve.

RenaiXance is inspired by the Renaissance period of the 1500s, an era of rapid social change that transformed culture and society, but reconfigures its spirit and energy for the technological age. The digital world has thrown history’s rule book out of the window and we find ourselves able to challenge every aspect of our existence. Technology gives us the power to explore and embrace our beautiful human complexity - in the digital terrain, all things become possible. 

The letter X has always represented a powerful symbol of potential, it is mysterious and  awaits input to be given meaning. X is also a foundational presence within the human condition: each of us shares the X chromosome, regardless of our chosen gender expression. It is the genetic thread that unites us, sitting appropriately central within the word RenaiXance, suggesting movement in any direction. Like the original word, RenaiXance means to rebirth, pointing to the fact that in the digital world we can be reborn time and time again, transforming daily to express multiple selves.

Physical reality has long preferred the fixed and static in terms of self expression. Traditional masculinity is the benchmark to which we’ve all been held, with strength, assertiveness and power only able to be conveyed in a certain immovable way. Conform to these ideas or you are nothing, is the message we’ve all been fed. Its tightly policed boundaries have kept every one of us entrapped. 

People across history were required to adopt masculine symbology to hide their assumed vulnerability, or were persecuted if they crossed invisible lines of what was deemed gender-appropriate behaviour. While those whose gender expression was anything other than binary were eradicated from history entirely or incarcerated after being determined mentally unwell.

More recently, deeply embedded visual signifiers have crept into the gaming environment, taking gender cliches and biases into our digital world. Hyper-masculine characters such as Kratos from God of War - pumped, violent and powerful - pushed the narrative into new realms. Meanwhile ‘Quiet’ a female character in the Metal Gear series, was created with a sexualised outfit unfit for her role as an elite soldier and a name that suggested it was better for her to be looked at than heard.

With RenaiXance, RTFKT x The Fabricant present the idea of what could be if we reimagined possibilities. What if historic signifiers of femininity replaced those of masculinity, and what new expressive potential does it give us? Does a character become any less intriguing if it’s wearing a robe and corset regardless of gender? Or do notions of the depth and power of femininity give it a new and exciting dimension, drawing on a frame of reference that destroys the limitations we’ve become accustomed to?

In the new digital RenaiXance we can create our world anew. Technology allows us to reject the conformist structures of physicality and resist its gatekeepers, reshaping our world for the better. RenaiXance draws on our innate human capacity for fluidity and pushes back against the toxic, fixed ideas of gender. Come with us on this explorative journey of freedom and possibility. It’s time to finally become what we’ve always had the capacity to be.

RenaiXance, by RTFKT x THE FABRICANT: 
drops on The Dematerialised https://thedematerialised.com/ 20.00 CET, Friday 16th April. Request an access code via their site to participate.

IN PRAISE OF TECH’S (S)HEROES

We know you’re out there, women in tech. Like all of us here at The Fabricant, you’re too busy pursuing excellence and getting stuff done to bother showing your face or talking about what you do. But as we’ve learned, women’s visibility in tech matters, which is why, for once, we’re letting ourselves be seen. And know this: we see you too.

As is apparent from the image within the post, women are fundamental to The Fabricant at every level, and present in roles including co-founder, digital fashion designer, 3D artist, technical management, business development, communications, production, and marketing. 

We work in an environment that values the work of everyone involved, in an atmosphere where we’re supported and appreciated alongside our brilliant colleagues of all genders. But we know this isn’t the case for all womxn in the tech world, and today on International Women’s Day, it feels timely to address the situation.

The gender disparity in tech is well documented, manifesting in what is frequently described as a ‘bro culture’ that’s unappealing for women to participate in and actively sexist in terms of career advancement and pay disparity. 

According to data compiled by PWC in 2018, the issues start early. In their study, just 27% of the young women respondents were considering a career in tech compared to 61% of young men. This was due to having no guidance on the possibilities within STEM-related fields and no visible women role models in tech.

When women do get into tech, the hurdles continue. According to figures collated by Pitchbook in 2020, companies founded solely by women garnered just 2.1% of the total capital in venture-backed startups across Europe.

And yet, despite the odds, women prevail and thrive in an arena that, in its structure right now, is stacked against them. In an inspirational moment just last month, Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder of Bumble, a dating app specifically designed by women for women to empower them within the process, became a billionaire when the company floated on the US stock market. The moment was made all the sweeter by the fact that Bumble was created after Wolfe Herd left her previous position at Tinder due to harassment, where she was stripped of her co-founder role.

So, now you’ve seen us, we’d like to see you. We know women are working hard throughout the tech industry, and we thought we could take this opportunity on International Women’s Day to become our own cheerleaders and give ourselves the shout-out that doesn’t often come our way.

If you’re a woman working in the tech world in any role whatsoever, please add a comment to this post on Linkedin telling us what you do - we’d love to know about you and your work. And if you’re the colleague of a woman in tech, or want to recognise any womxn in tech that inspire you, it would be wonderful if you did the same. 

We know women have been working hard in tech since day one, when Ada Lovelace became the first ever computer programmer in 1842. We have nothing but praise for every woman quietly striving and achieving, but just this once, let’s take time out from our task lists to give ourselves the visibility that often goes unrecognised - and let young women considering a career in tech know that we’re here. Let’s do this together and enjoy the moment, let’s celebrate our fellow womxn in tech and continue #makingstrides.

Wishing you all a very happy International Women’s Day, The Fabricant.

Image: The Fabricant

FROM NASA TO NOW - HOUSTON, WE HAVE A WOMAN PROBLEM

Everything has an origin story, even 3D. The intriguing part for The Fabricant was that it was a mystery to us until we took a deep dive into 3D’s history to satisfy our curiosity. Which is how we became acquainted with the non-conformist brilliant mind that we owe everything we do as a digital fashion house. 

You might assume the founding architect of multi-billion dollar industries in cinema, television, aerospace and medicine, to name a few applications of 3D imaging, would be a well known name by now. But it just isn’t so. The conclusion we drew is this is because the inventor of 3D imaging is a woman, and also a woman of colour. And a scientist whose brilliance is equally weighted with modesty.

So today, on her 78th birthday, as a 3D tech company whose staff is made up of over 75 percent women, The Fabricant would like to honour Dr. Valerie L.Thomas, the NASA scientist and inventor without whose capacity to transform ideas into groundbreaking technology, our work and industry would simply not exist. 

As a child in the US of the 1950s, Dr.Thomas’s interest in mechanical systems was sparked by observing her father fix a broken television. Her instant curiosity was discouraged, so at the age of eight she took matters into her own hands by reading a book not intended to speak to her gender, The Boys First Book on Electronics.

The pattern would repeat itself throughout Dr.Thomas’s schooling: a lack of support and encouragement to pursue STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) was something she continually fought against. But her resilience in the face of persistent challenges paid off and she would go on to study Physics - one of only two women to do so at her university.

Clearly a force to be reckoned with both scientifically and personally, in 1964 Dr.Thomas was offered a job at NASA as a data analyst. Here she worked her way up to associate chief of the team creating NASA’s Landsat programme, the satellite technology which maps Earth from space and has to date recorded over 8 million images of our planet. 

Dr.Thomas’s hunger to learn and innovate remained undimmed despite being at the top of her field. After attending an exhibition that included an illusion of a lightbulb made possible by the use of mirrors, she began research into how light and concave mirrors could be used in her work at NASA. The project led to her inventing and patenting the Illusion Transmitter, the founding technology for 3D imagery. Her creation allowed real-time 3D viewing of objects through the use of parabolic mirrors, and is still in use by NASA today.

Image: United States Patent and Trademark Office

Dr.Thomas’s achievements are inspirational, but there’s an aspect to her story that continues to resonate. While many of the social attitudes she pushed against have thankfully evolved, a jarring truth remains: Women are still underrepresented in STEM subjects and consequently, within the tech industries as a whole. Statistics by Pew Research Centre reveal some uncomfortable insights:

• Women aren’t entering tech jobs at the same rate as men — and one reason can be traced back to male-dominated workplaces.

• 50 percent of women in tech said they had experienced gender discrimination at work, while only 19 percent of men said the same.

• 36 percent of women said sexual harassment is a problem in their workplace.

• Women are not only underrepresented in STEM, they are also underpaid - for computing fields, women earn 87 percent of what men earn.

• The numbers are even worse for black women in STEM, who earn around 87 percent of white women’s salaries and just 62 percent of what men earn.

The need for diversity in tech is a no-brainer. Our world is deep into the process of being digitally shaped and our virtual existence is being defined by a limited demographic, without input from full spectrum teams with a broad range of life experience. In a startling example from 2018, Amazon scrapped the AI recruitment tool it was using because it treated any mention of the word ‘women’s’ as a red flag. Using machine learning, the algorithm decided that male candidates were preferable and downgraded candidates from women’s colleges.

Image: A selection of images by 3D creators submitted to the #makingstrides competition

One of our collaborations, the #makingstrides initiative, recognises that positive interventions are required to redress tech’s currently skewed gender dynamic, and as a new tech-driven industry, the world of digital fashion has a part to play.

#makingstrides takes the form of a competition. Devised by The Fabricant alongside Adidas and Karlie Kloss, its purpose is to elevate womxn in tech through interaction with 3D digital fashion. Kloss, whose organisation Kode With Klossy organises free coding camps for young girls, is a longtime advocate for the need to inspire women to pursue STEM and participate in tech-centric environments. 

#makingstrides asks upcoming 3D artists, of all genders, to create an interpretation of a piece from the Adidas x Karlie Kloss collection, with the intention to magnify their visibility and fasttrack their entrance into the innovative world of 3D digital fashion. Guidance comes in the form of a series of free webinars hosted by The Fabricant. And as well as cash prizes, 20 selected finalists will have their designs showcased and uploaded to blockchain, enabling them to make revenue from their creativity.

To quote one of Dr.Thomas’s fellow scientists the fabled physicist Isaac Newton who formulated the laws of gravity: 

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” 

The Fabricant has the privilege of building a digital fashion industry that stands on a foundation laid by a woman who pursued her immense talent despite the numerous obstacles in her way. The least we can do in return is to try level the playing field for those following in our footsteps, and continue to pass on our passion for the 3D technology that she strived to create.

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The #makingstrides competition closes at midnight CET, 15th February, 2021.

Discover more about Dr.Valerie L.Thomas and her groundbreaking work HERE:

HOW TO CREATE A FUTURE-PROOF FASHION BRAND

In 1854 Louis Vuitton launched its company-defining travel luggage with a design that flew in the face of received wisdom. Its beautifully crafted trunk, made from what would become its trademark lightweight canvas, was the first to have a flat top and bottom so it was stackable and easily transported. It was an innovative piece made from new materials, based on market insights about the needs and desires of its customers.

If the maison launched today, with the same aspiration to be a craft-led innovator relevant to cultural expectations, isn’t it reasonable to assume it would be a digital fashion house making digital products?

The Fabricant’s latest collaboration, with iconic footwear makers Buffalo London, launches today using this idea as its base level expectation - how can a brand meet the cultural conversation head on, creating something innovative and revenue generating in the long term, that speaks to the consumer of now and tomorrow? 

The answer in this case is the ‘Classic BurningFor’, marking a first for us both as design houses. This Buffalo London x The Fabricant co-created, 3D digital sneaker is worn exclusively in the digital realm, and makes the physically impossible possible by using flames as its primary material. The concept references fire as a transformative and regenerative force, and asks wearers to express what they’re #BurningFor in 2021, during a cultural crossroads when toxic principles are being challenged with the hope of installing equitable replacements.

The experience is powered by digital fashion retailer Dress-X, who will fit the 3D sneakers to an image of the buyer so their digitally dressed style can be seen across social platforms with no physical item being created or physical interactions taking place. 

Lockdowns and curfews may be a daily reality right now, but bold fashionauts still have complete freedom to dream, explore and express themselves in the digital environment. 

The project signals a true crossover moment for digital fashion, where an established and well loved physical brand has worked with its equal in the digital realm, embracing the possibilities of the non-physical world so they can be delivered to its consumers - not via a gaming platform or mobile app, but by selling them as wearable items alongside the regular inventory on its website. 

Buffalo’s distinct platform-soled footwear was originally made famous by The Spice Girls in the 1990s. Today its collaboration with The Fabricant reimagines it for a new audience, placing the brand at the forefront of cultural dialogues. The Classic BurningFor can be worn by anyone with a passion for creative, innovative and sustainable ways to experience fashion, without any tech awareness required for participation. It’s the stuff new business models are made of. 

A label paying close attention to it consumers’ digital-centric world, innovating its products to fit their needs and desires for the long term, while opening up new revenue streams in new environments with new ways to engage. The future-proof fashion brand has just been made.

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The Fabricant x Buffalo London Classic BurningFor digital sneaker launches today. 

Find more details on our website HERE

Video: The Fabricant

MAKING FACTS FASHIONABLE AGAIN

“Sustainability is the new black!” according to cynics who want to paint it as fashion’s  latest passing trend. Of course we understand it’s easy to tune-out when our global circumstances require the use of the word ‘sustainable’ on a daily basis. But stick with it, sustainability isn’t going anywhere, and we have a remedy for any impending ‘eco-fatigue’. Thanks to rigorously conducted research, The Fabricant has scientific proof that digital fashion not only makes you look great, it also enables the traditional fashion industry to shift its behaviours to help relieve the pressure on our planet’s ecosystem. We’ve always been big believers in the power of data.

One of our founding ideas was that we could make fashion sustainable by harnessing technology to reduce the environmental impact of garment creation, and in time, fully transition to an industry that makes only digital clothing. We were told it was a very grand ambition, but if you’re going to dream you might as well dream big. So far, in collaboration with the forward thinking brands we work with, we’re taking steps that bring us closer to making that prospect a reality.

Knowing that beliefs are one thing and hard facts are another, we wanted to add empirical evidence to our mantra of ‘fashion should waste nothing but data and exploit nothing but imagination’. With this in mind, we collaborated with Imperial College London, a world-leading university with a reputation of excellence in science, engineering and business, to put together a sustainability report that would add numbers to what we felt to be true: that digital fashion, through its use of technological disruption, could positively impact the carbon footprint of the fashion industry.

The research paper, available to download HERE, compares the life cycle assessment of physical fashion versus digital fashion production, using the creation of a single t-shirt as its working example. Its findings were very telling:

• The life cycle carbon footprint of the production of a single t-shirt, from design to disposal, generates 7.8 kg of CO2. A digital-only t-shirt generates 0.26 kg: a reduction of more than 97 percent in carbon impact.

• Wetting processes during the life cycle of a t-shirt amount to 683 litres of water consumption - a digital-only product skips this phase step entirely.

• Environmental pollution caused by the use of chemicals in the physical design and production phase amounts to 12,300 kg. Digital-only generates 0.692 kg.

Beyond the creation of a purely digital product there are significant gains when physical fashion brands use digital interventions in their usual processes. As the report notes with reference to a previous study:

• Digital samples replacing physical garments during design and development phases dramatically reduce the brand’s carbon footprint by up to 30% and help to achieve sustainability goals. 

It’s this kind of potential that inspired Peak Performance to work with The Fabricant to digitise a large part of its FW/21 collection. The Swedish brand, established by passionate skiers who couldn’t find the practical but stylish apparel they wanted - back in the 1980s - decided to create it for themselves. As a company built around a strong bond with the outdoor environment, transitioning to 3D sampling and digital asset creation that reduces the carbon footprint of its business, aligns with its mindset.

Peak Performance credits the approach with allowing it to reduce several key resources: Energy, water consumption, time and cost, and says: “The use of 3D sampling and creation allows us to quickly build on core styles, enabling even stronger decisions earlier in the process on colour, fit and features. It will also improve communication with our supply chain and create exciting, new digital designs using these assets as a base.”

Whatever your feelings about the word ‘sustainability’, it is a reality we must continue to facilitate, whenever we can, however we can. Digital fashion has the tools and the scientifically proven facts to support its wider uptake. Only when more brands embrace the process can we begin to remake an industry that still has much work to do.

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Our sincere thanks to Imperial College London and talented researcher Yihan Xiong, supported by Dr Onesmus Mwabonje and Dr Eva Sevigne Itoiz, 
who led the detailed life cycle assessment comparative research, illustrating the environmental effects of physical versus digital fashion.

IMAGES: PEAK PERFORMANCE FW21, MADE DIGITAL BY THE FABRICANT

THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE

It’s impossible not to be preoccupied by the topic of democracy and the nature of our institutions right now, but what does democracy mean for our digital existence, and is it even relevant to how we operate in the non-physical fashion world?

A topline definition of it states: “Democracy is a system of decision-making within an institution, organization or country, in which all members have an equal share of power.” If we apply that theory to fashion’s creative process, it deals a body blow to the current opinion on how things should be done, and storms the gates of creative possibility. 

The beauty of 3D digital fashion is that it’s a rolling work-in-progress, where we can cherry-pick ideas that serve us and step away from those that don’t. Better yet, this evolving space allows us to transplant concepts from outside our usual sphere of reference and use them to reboot what the fashion industry can be.

For The Fabricant, democracy is an idea that’s been persistently under-utilised within fashion creativity, where it remains deeply unpopular as a way of operating. Traditional fashion has a longstanding view on what it considers to be the appropriate way to function: a lone auteur is credited with a label’s creative vision, with the resulting garments bestowed to the public as the definitive execution of a brand’s image. 

But what if it isn’t? 

What if we dare to think of brand creations as inspirational pieces that are designed to be reconstructed, restyled, and reimagined by their intended user, instead of casting them in the role of passive fashion recipient?

3D digital fashion comes ready-made with the capacity for collaboration and co-creation built into its technological foundations. Democratic fashion creation isn’t merely an idea that The Fabricant supports, it’s something we’ve actively facilitated from day one.

Since 2018 we’ve dropped free digital pattern files to our highly engaged 3D community, both of our own garments and those of the brands we work with, giving creators free rein to use them as they wish. One file alone of a Marques Almeida puffer jacket has received hundreds of reworkings, with fashion lovers reinterpreting the piece based on their own aesthetic preference. Each version offers a unique creative perspective taking the garment to new levels of visual possibility.

Marques Almeida was one of the first to understand the power of the idea we proposed to them in our early days: That by participating freely and openly with the collective imagination, its garment file served as an invitation to prolonged and reciprocal creative engagement with the brand, while placing it at the forefront of the digital fashion revolution.

The path towards democracy has always required a dramatic shift in ideology. By embracing the spirit and mindset of digital fashion, the traditional industry can weather the cultural transition. Only then will it benefit from a new paradigm that puts fashion’s creative power in the hands of the many, instead of continuing to preserve it for the few.

IMAGES: The Marques Almeida puffer jacket, as recreated by: @ruby9100m @theblacklabstudio @wonderkatzi @nivva_

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We will soon have exciting news to share on digital fashion’s collaborative future. Sign-up to our newsletter to be first to discover more.

ANNOUNCING THE END OF WARDROBE DICTATORSHIPS

Who decided who should wear what and who shouldn’t, and that certain garments were off-limits if you didn’t possess a particular set of chromosomes? Was there once a committee that decreed these things? 

For some reason we’ve blindly stuck to codes written centuries ago for societies that weren’t ready to question the status quo. Digital fashion is ready. Its creative-tech alchemy has given us the ability to transcend the physical space entirely, and limited beliefs about the acceptability of certain bodies within certain garments. ‘Hands off, identity exploration isn’t for you,’ is a diktat that’s long past its expiry date. 

When we were asked to create something for the Vogue Singapore Foundation and its fundraiser to help elevate homegrown fashion talent, we wanted our contribution to signify that digital fashion is accessible to everyone, regardless of gender, body type or size. The one-off couture piece we created, ‘Seismic’, which is accessorised by the ‘Radiance’ headdress, is a genderless garment that represents a wearable invitation for everyone to express themselves freely and openly in the digital realm. 

In conjunction with its headpiece, Seismic’s lines and silhouette are inspired by the contours of energy pathways that are in constant motion around the ‘subtle body’, visually acknowledging forces that are felt but never seen. As digital fashion has the ability to behave in ways that are impossible in the physical world, the Radiance headdress inflates and deflates in rhythm to the breath, expressing our innate fluidity.  

The de-gendering of fashion, and the use of tech to enable and amplify self expression, are guiding themes that underpin The Fabricant’s creative philosophy. For Seismic, we created our own non-binary avatar to model the garment, taking inspiration from gender non-conforming activists and changemakers within the digital space. There was no pre-existing avatar that realised our aesthetic. It seems digital diversity still has work to do.

For The Fabricant, the digital fashion space has always been about more than trying on new clothes: we can try on new bodies, new ideas, new perspectives, and new lives. Physical boundaries have become utterly irrelevant. As creators in this evolving world, let’s make sure the same thing happens to outdated ideas about acceptable self expression. 

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The Vogue Singapore Foundation prize draw is open until 23rd October, 12pm, SGT. 

The Fabricant will give the winning ticket holder a bespoke fitting of its couture pieces, Seismic and Radiance, on an image of their choice, to wear and share in the digital world.

For details on how to participate please click HERE

IMAGE: SEISMIC DRESS, BY THE FABRICANT

WHEN THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE BECOMES A HUMAN ISSUE

Vogue UK has unveiled its September issue, traditionally the fashion world’s most influential and lucrative edition that’s designed to re-engage our style sensibilities after the frivolities of summer. 

Reflecting an extraordinary year that’s encompassed both a global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, Vogue has chosen a pivotal cover story for this fabled moment in the fashion calendar. The edition, titled Activism Now, Faces of Hope, was compiled by a mostly black creative team and features 20 prominent global activists, the majority of whom are black or people of colour. Vogue UK’s Editor-in-Chief Edward Enninful describes it as a “rallying cry for the future” and a “moment of necessary change”.

Under the guidance of Enninful, who is British Ghanaian, the magazine has hit numerous landmarks around diversity and inclusion that were previously unrepresented by fashion’s most famous platform. One of the most striking aspects of the September issue is that it’s taken this long for high fashion to acknowledge those beyond the demographic it previously thought it should serve. 

Which brings us to the world of digital fashion. Non-physical fashion is evolving and has no historic baggage as yet, but this shouldn’t be cause for complacency. If we take one lesson from the many set by Vogue, it’s to ensure our work gives visibility and representation to those beyond the perceived mainstream.

As creative technologists building the foundations of a digital fashion universe, it’s up to us to avoid the mistakes of the past. We’re at the beginning of the journey, and the decisions we make now will reverberate throughout digital fashion’s existence. It’s a responsibility and privilege to instill collectively beneficial structures, while remaining vigilant about in-built systemic bias in all its forms.

Joy Buolamwini is a computer scientist based at the MIT Media Lab and founder of the Algorithmic Justice League. In her TED talk ‘How I’m fighting bias in algorithms’ she demonstrates how generic software fails to recognise her black skin due the fact it was created with white skin as the standard expectation.

The questions Buolamwini poses are ones we can reference as we ideate the new fashion landscape. 

“Are we creating full-spectrum teams with diverse individuals who can check each other's blind spots? Are we factoring in fairness as we're developing systems?” She closes with: “We now have the opportunity to unlock even greater equality if we make social change a priority and not an afterthought.”

For The Fabricant, our work in this space is about more than trying on clothes. In Leela, the digital fashion platform we beta tested in April, we focus on transcending the physical body and questioning the status quo, while enabling new forms of self expression. Leela is a space to try on new ideas, new bodies, new lives, and new perspectives. 

We aim to be part of a digital fashion environment that promotes inclusivity and equality for all participants. It’s a work in progress, but if we start with a clear-eyed view on where we can fail, it won’t take us the centuries it’s taken for physical fashion to recognise and represent diversity within the fashion community.

IMAGE: From leela, by the fabricant

FOR TRULY DIGITAL FASHION WEEKS, FORGET EVERYTHING YOU KNOW

The first round of ‘digital fashion weeks’ are upon us, and it’s possibly also the first time that  shows have started on time, thanks to the wonders of streaming pre-created content. London and Paris have already taken their end of show bow, and Milan is currently in the hot seat. 

By now we all know the script. The show calendars are published on a website, the public at large is invited to watch, and we get to see a filmed showreel of a new collection; sometimes factual, sometimes dreamy, sometimes quirky. Production crews rallied, models distanced, and directors actioned. So far so very familiar.

The only digital component for the majority of labels that have shown so far seems to be that the films are aired online. From The Fabricant’s perspective, though the presentations are well executed, this represents a collective failure of imagination when there was a pivotal opportunity for the industry to entirely reinvent the seasonal showcase. The extraordinary creative potential of 3D and the digital environment has been disappointingly left aside.

In our tentative post-lockdown landscapes, where inspiration-hungry fashion lovers express themselves digitally as a daily ritual, is a facsimile of a physical event, created using old world technology, really the best they can offer?

As a piece in the industry bible Business of Fashion advised in April prior to any digital shows taking place: “Brands shouldn’t approach digital events and livestreams as stand-ins for physical engagement, but as an opportunity to experiment with new formats and reach a wider audience in unexpected ways.” They took the words right out of our mouth.

Aside from Ralph and Russo, which created the digital muse ‘Hauli’ to wear its couture, and Sunnei, whose joyful avatar-driven show was backed by the creation of its own 3D platform, the vast capabilities of digital fashion remain unexploited by luxury brands. 

• Gravity-defying digital landscapes open up extraordinary staging possibilities.

• 3D garments have the superpowers to walk, or fly, themselves down the runway to show off their elegance and complexity. 

• Fully immersive digital universes allow prolonged participation with collections. 

• In-show digital networking functions enable deeper engagement with concepts. 

• Innovative digital experiences can set the fashion community alight with trailblazing collaborations.

Though the fashion industry is as stacked with creativity as an Alexander McQueen heel, there’s a perpetual unwillingness to let its talent run free in environments that don’t feel utterly familiar. Yes, the world of 3D digital fashion is new territory, but its creative potential has the ability to electrify and elevate the industry so it can thrive in these rapidly evolving times. And notably, it’s a transition that fashion’s audience has no problem embracing. 

As the show seasons progress, there are still opportunities to build digital experiences worthy of the garments that have taken so much effort to create. But for that to happen in an impactful way, fashion must be willing to unlearn and move on from what it knows about staging runway shows - a 200-year old tradition that has become the industry equivalent of wearing comfortable house slippers.

This may be the first outing in a new era for seasonal shows, but the fashion world still has work to do to align with the digital-first spirit of the 21st century.

Image: The Fabricant x Puma

THE 21st CENTURY - A WORK IN PROGRESS

So here we all are. As lockdowns slowly ease into new daily realities we’ve arrived into a system reboot. 21st century 2.0 is a tentative version with further updates expected. A world where maintaining 1.5 metres distance is the measure of social responsibility, and hugs have become a pre-agreed exchange.

Plans devised by the fashion industry during the ‘big pause’ are now being executed. Some are fire-fighting solutions that tackle immediate issues such as supply chain management, excess inventory and staging seasonal shows. Others have taken more definitive action, stepping outside of the traditional industry calendar entirely and its endless cycles of excessive creation and waste of raw materials.

As an entity that only operates in the non-physical environment, The Fabricant has been through a hectic and enlightening period. In a whirlwind of digital meetings, conceptual roadmapping and tailor-made proposals, we’ve gained firsthand insight into the fashion industry’s psyche - its needs, wants, concerns and expectations, and where it thinks digital fashion fits into that dynamic.  

The most striking learnings haven’t been about where 3D digital fashion can resolve issues for brands right now, it’s the question we posed around what isn’t yet being addressed that has been the most telling: 

How can we build-in structures that represent a range of perspectives relevant to the cultural conversation, that also contribute towards long-term aims such as sustainability, innovation, diversity and inclusion?

If you’re unused to thinking about the 3D environment it’s difficult to appreciate the vast scope of possibilities. Digital fashion isn’t merely a sticking plaster to solve short-term difficulties; it’s true value lies in the fact that it’s a completely untapped sector where innovative, compelling and valuable business models can be created from the get-go. It operates beyond existing systems that were founded on toxic principles. It’s a world that can be created anew from a fresh perspective to be equally beneficial to all. 

• Digital fashion represents much more than trying on 3D garments. It’s a world to try on new ideas, new cultures, new bodies, new perspectives and new lives.

• In the digital environment fashion lovers aren’t passive consumers, they’re co-creators that spark brand dialogues and build communities.

• You can set fashion trends in the digital space, but you can also set agendas, enable cultural shifts and lead movements.

• Non-physical clothing can be bought in a store, or it can be purchased in a narrative, an environment or a brand philosophy. 

• Couture made from data has functions beyond being a garment. It can be currency, a ticket, an invitation, or a password.

As we all step blinking into fragile new realities it’s tempting to imagine that digital fashion and the 3D universe was a momentary stop-gap in the lockdown journey. For brands that want to participate in true digital transformation that leads to strategic change and builds long term resilience, it’s time to engage with a sector that will take fashion, and our surrounding culture and society, out of this century and into the next one.

Video: From LEELA platform by The Fabricant. Type digital.fashion into any browser to try it.

YOU CAN KEEP THE ‘NEW NORMAL’. WE’LL TAKE THE NEW POSSIBLE.

Confine, isolate, distance, flatten. When the language we use every day encourages inhibition it’s tough to allow our minds to expand. 

Has our success at reducing social interactions also created a collective shrinking of  imagination - at exactly the moment when we need to conceptualise a smarter, more resilient and more enlightened future?

When we’re deeply immersed in difficulty it’s tempting to suppress innovation. “This is no time to try out new stuff, we just need to hang on to what we’ve got,” so says the old-school theory. Yet, whether we choose to see it or not, we’re at a pivotal moment of enormous potential. Why passively accept the cold leftovers of outdated ideas when we can open the door to entirely new possibilities? We dare you to be forward thinking. The decisions and actions we take right now have the power to significantly recalibrate our world for the better. And what could be more exciting than that.

As flag-bearers for ‘feeling the fear but doing it anyway’ we practise what we preach. Last month The Fabricant put itself on the line with a Beta test of LEELA - a 3D digital fashion platform that could revolutionise the experience of wearing clothes. We’ll be honest, it was scary. LEELA needs more development and we know it. And the launch was definitely not intended to coincide with the entire planet grinding to a halt. But, we took the plunge and put our flawed baby out there for scrutiny regardless. 

Innovation was never meant to be a comfortable ride.

The feedback we’ve received so far from engaged digital fashion first-timers is hugely motivating. We’ve had insight on what they feel LEELA could be, and where we can do more. They’ve encouraged us to push further than we assumed they were willing to go, and clarified where to draw the line. More than anything, they demonstrated a hunger for playful ways to access creative self-expression that doesn’t come at a cost to people or planet. It’s given us the confidence to pursue solutions that the pre-pandemic fashion industry said consumers weren’t ready for. 

The biggest lesson learned is never be afraid to try. Determined optimism will always enable positive change way sooner than passively conforming to the status quo.

The LEELA Beta test runs until midnight CET, May 3rd. Type digital.fashion into your mobile phone or web browser to begin your LEELA journey, and join us in rewriting fashion’s future.

HERE COMES YOUR POST-PANDEMIC FUTURE

Welcome to life Through the Looking Glass, a world strangely familiar yet utterly peculiar. Endless video conferencing but with a dress code that’s gone out the window. An immediate threat to life yet the internet’s never been funnier. And who knew we’d miss boring old handshakes? 

When our former daily routine feels like a treasured memory it seems irrational to expect anyone to cheerlead change. But as contrary as it sounds, and as uncomfortable it feels, this is exactly when we need to be bold. Welcoming new perspectives on what we considered unshakeable opens us to a future ripe with possibility. 

Since we started The Fabricant we’ve been outliers committed to challenging the norms that the fashion ecosystem holds dear. This isn’t a desire to be unconventional, but a dedication to provoking the industry to question the behaviours that it clings to so tightly. It’s hundreds of years since many of its traditions were established - do they really continue to serve the industry and consumers well?

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A question we’ve asked for a while is:

Can the fashion industry allow itself to reimagine seasonal runway shows as an entirely non-physical 3D experience? 

video from our LEELA platform on digital.fashion

This was generally met with a torrent of ‘oh buts’. Oh but we need to be there in-person. Oh but nothing could match the drama of a fashion show. Oh but we must know how the fabric feels…and so on.

We empathise with some of the points - building tangible, sensorial and emotional 3D fashion narratives is what we strive for in all our work. But we also know that inspiring, sustainable, brand-elevating, visually premium runway shows are possible to spectacular effect in the 3D environment, and we’ve formulated solutions to make them happen.

Here are some of the questions that have informed our conceptual approach:

• If flying to fashion weeks and attending catwalk shows en-masse is physically prohibitive, if not irresponsible, where can the industry go from here?

• What kind of models walk a 3D catwalk? What do they look like? Are they even needed?

• What can a fashion show look like in a 3D environment where there are no physical boundaries to creativity, not even gravity?

• How can we exploit all of 3D’s capabilities to give a better than real life showcase to garments in a new collection?

• Where can we go beyond physical limitations to give extraordinary insight into fabrics and garments?

• What ideas can we explore to illuminate and strengthen a brand’s values?

• How can we create emotional and beautiful 3D fashion moments that crystallise a designer’s vision?

• In what ways can we bring added value to the entire 3D experience so it continues far beyond the duration of the show itself?

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Video from our DEEP digital-only fashion collection

These peculiar times may have recalibrated the world towards our thinking, but there are still some holding on to the idea that post-pandemic we can return to ‘business as usual’. 

The future is unwritten, but there should be no doubt that the status quo has changed. For all of fashion’s players, it is not a moment to debate ‘Will 3D live up to what we can create in real life?’ Now more than ever it’s a question of will our new daily reality match up to the extraordinary capacity of 3D?

Contact us at adriana@thefabricant.com if you want to know more.

WHEN THE WORLD STOPS, HOW DO YOU KEEP GOING?

It’s disconcerting when the whole world suddenly arrives in the non-physical space that you’ve occupied since you began. 

The near global lockdown, and the necessary reduction of physical interactions, has collided with our mission in an entirely unexpected way. There’s no satisfaction in these circumstances. As digital advocates we are not immune to the difficulties that surround us. But we feel a renewed urgency to communicate what we do. 

For The Fabricant the world of digital fashion has always been about driving innovation, creating opportunities, sparking creativity, and enhancing human connection in the non-physical environment. Now more than ever it feels essential to foster and strengthen a sense of digital community. We’d like to share our knowledge and insight, enable brands to continue to operate, and highlight ways of thinking that help to evolve what fashion is and can become. We hope it proves useful for both industry and individuals. 

As ever, we’ll let our work illustrate why we passionately believe in the power of digital fashion. In a recent project Puma asked us to digitally showcase a new collection in a setting relevant to the theme of sustainability. It highlights what can be achieved with an entirely 3D narrative.

Storytelling in the digital environment gives you superpowers. Not only can you build a universe and create its landscapes, you can control its sun. Shifts in lighting, mood, and emotion are yours to play with until the final deadline. You are the creator and curator of all that you survey.

No airplane was boarded to scout a location for the shoot. No fragile environment was compromised in the name of a marketing plan. No catering truck was marshalled, no sample garments delivered, and no styling team was kept on hand ‘just in case’. 

In a digitally created world, the need to manage physical interactions is an absolute non-topic.

When your entire supply chain exists on a hard drive decision-making is given room to breathe. You don’t just ‘cut out the middle man’, he ceases to exist in the first place. Fabrics and colourways can be switched and switched again in a hyper-real testing ground. With 3D design in place, production can wait for demand. 

In this period of uncertainty we still have the ability to manage some of our outcomes. Whether you’re currently implementing plan B, C or D, proactively working with the technology and ideas of 3D digital fashion stacks the odds for success in your favour.

IN A TIME OF CRISIS, FASHION HAS CHOSEN TO IGNORE THE DIGITAL SOLUTION

On Sunday morning the Italian government officially locked down 16 million inhabitants of the country’s northern industrial heartlands, including its fashion capital Milan, in a bid to contain the spread of the Coronavirus. 

While a necessary measure, it dealt another blow to the fashion industry that is already reeling from the fallout of the global epidemic. Cancelled shows and contracts, a massively disrupted supply chain, artisans unable to deliver to deadline, and entire brand HQs quarantined, have led the fashion world to reconsider its mode of operating if it’s to weather future unexpected business turbulence.

The industry’s thinking so far relies on sticking to its instinct to physically gather every season in its established fashion capitals, but perhaps with some tweaks: one train of thought suggests consolidating the fashion weeks into twice-yearly events that rotate amongst the current fashion centres.

This currently represents radical thinking in fashion circles. In the face of an event that is destabilising every aspect of the global economy, it’s clearly nowhere near radical enough. 

The enormously obvious data-driven elephant in the room is digital fashion. It’s as if the industry has chosen to willfully ignore its potential to completely recalibrate its operations and instill some stability in an antiquated system whose fragility has been exposed.

Here’s what digital fashion can offer in these difficult business times:

• 3D sampling, so sales and marketing teams can continue to operate remotely without ever boarding a plane or crossing a border.

• Digital showrooms, where collections can be shown in hyper-real 3D, giving instant access and insight into the themes, shapes, patterns, and inspirations behind an entire new season output.

• Brand engagement through the co-creation of digital fashion collections in collaboration with a youthful audience that has a digitally rich life; which they give equal relevance to their physical selves.

• New revenue streams via the creation of digital-only garments that utilise blockchain technology to become tradable digital collectibles.

In this time of crisis, 3D digital fashion does not represent a frivolous novelty that can be ignored. It provides solutions in the real world that will increase efficiency, promote sustainability, drive the industry forward, and help to preserve a sector that is long overdue for evolution. Digital fashion is available to help solve physical fashion’s woes. Only time will tell how long the industry is willing to suffer the consequences of holding on to old-world thinking, despite being confronted with shocking evidence that it needs to act now to preserve its entire existence.

Napapijri SS20 Final Image. Full collection presented at theIR go-to-market meeting in JUNE 2019

Napapijri SS20 Process Image. 3D garment constructed before the actual sample was made.

WANT TO TAKE A BEAUTIFUL CHANCE?

There’s a rule that says an industry has to be competitive to succeed. That rivalry drives progress. That pulling down your peers is the only way forward. 

From where we’re standing, that’s a race to the bottom. 

Digital fashion doesn’t want to conform. It’s a new universe where we can challenge the narrative of “but this is how it’s always been”. Forget business as usual, we want business unusual. 

Along with @carlings_official, our fellow digital fashion pioneers, we’re thrilled to celebrate a milestone: FFROP #10, our latest file drop that you can download for free to build up your digital fashion wardrobe. Carlings has given us the patterns of their stunning ‘Intoxica’ coat to share with you.

We first worked together on this piece for @i-d magazine, when we dressed several fashion influencers in digital fashion, including our muse @enamasiama.  

This is the fashion world we want to participate in, one that thrives on collaboration and co-creation. Where we amplify one others’ voices, not shut each other down. The toxic status quo should take a hit, not the creators. 

Progress comes from pushing boundaries, not shaping ourselves around inherited ideas. Where ‘cultural norms’ of behaviour, beauty, gender, and business, were formed by a society that no longer represents what we can be. 

Of course we’re free to cherry-pick the parts that still speak to us. So we’ll take this thought from one of the world’s great creative minds: according to Albert Einstein “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”

Digital fashion is an open door. In this new world we get to change not only how we act, but how we think. It’s a beautiful chance to be more open, expressive, collaborative, generous, creative, and less destructive. Let’s take this chance for change together, it’s clearly the smart thing to do.