# Digital-first fashion: exploring our digitally immersive reality By [altr_](https://paragraph.com/@altr) · 2022-03-14 --- _This is the second in a series of posts introducing_ [_altr\__](https://www.altr.space/)_, a digital-first fashion house built and owned by creators. Read the first post_ [_here_](https://mirror.xyz/altr.eth/rGDW46ovAc_y5AaPIzilptpudWzy5EmJGvNMvCik37Y)_._ In our last post, we talked about the metaverse—its origins, its implications, and how it’s shaping the digital fashion opportunity. Today, we dive head-on into digital-first fashion: what it is, its opportunities, and its challenges. **Digital-first fashion is a form of fashion created in a natively-digital format that serves as a portable and adaptable visual expression of your identity across various media.** Digital-first garments and accessories are wearable like digital skins on yourself or on your avatar—as extensions of yourself, but they are not exclusively digital, and can be rendered into the physical world. After all, your identity is not solely limited to the digital realm. ![Alexander McQueen, "Dress." The Horn of Plenty, autumn/winter 2009–10](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/4d9a3a847f7babd48ae061c9bca64dfff332dde48aca290a63fb1118d18756a6.jpg) Alexander McQueen, "Dress." The Horn of Plenty, autumn/winter 2009–10 Digital fashion is more accessible, both for creators designing wearables, as well as for consumers using and collecting them. It also reduces the limits to a designer’s creativity. In traditional fashion, a significant part of high fashion comes in the form of experiments. Couture involves the creation of exclusive, custom-fitted, high-end fashion design that is constructed by hand from start to finish. Designers use only the best materials and are free to create unique pieces that inspire us and push the boundaries of our imagination. Digital fashion creates a much wider canvas for pushing innovation and creativity—one where the physical and financial constraints of the real world cease to apply. On the flip side, couture prices out the majority of consumers, whereas digital fashion can provide a more accessible alternative for them to enjoy the beauty of fashion. Relatedly, digital fashion is also about changing the economic model for creators, providing a more direct mechanism for rewarding and incentivizing them, both on the primary, as well as the secondary market. By using NFTs as the primary distribution mechanism for digital fashion, creators can remove intermediaries between them and their audience and embed royalties directly into the goods sold. We believe our identity in the digital space is inseparable from our identity in the physical world, and as such digital fashion needs a way to extend into the physical world, even if it starts digitally. Digital-first fashion is more sustainable, yet still satisfies the core artistic objectives of fashion, providing a vehicle for self-expression and beauty and a medium for community identity. The fashion industry is notorious for waste, generating 20% of global water waste and annually sending 85% of textiles—21 billion tons—to landfills. \[1\] Every season, about 30% of the clothes produced are never sold—and this problem has only been getting worse with the advent of fast fashion. \[2\] Going digital first is a highly scalable way for creators to experiment and test out concepts before ever producing anything physical, avoiding the waste of resources even from the sampling stage of the production lifecycle. This approach has allowed many designers to try new things and target new audiences before ever putting up the capital to produce physical goods. It can help transform consumers to users and collectors of fashion garments, reducing impulsive purchase decisions in the fast fashion space, but still allowing people to have a real sense of ownership in the pieces they buy, which is only further enabled by providing the tools for individuals to showcase their digital wares on social media and enabling redemption of physical pieces on a limited basis. Finally, with easier access to their audience, creators can also take a more collaborative and interactive approach to design. We should note that digital-first fashion isn’t about tearing down the legacy fashion industry. This is a new category that expands the horizons of fashion. Digital-only actually implies a new boundary and a new form of exclusivity; instead, we envision a world where the digital and physical blend and coexist naturally. Where are We Today? ------------------- You’ve likely seen digital fashion in one form or another. While today it’s attained the status of a subculture, \[3\] it dates back at least to Second Life, where not only did globally recognizable brands like Adidas, Calvin Klein, and Lacoste create virtual garments; but Second Life "natives" created their own brands, such as Blueberry and Jimmy Chau (hey, we didn’t pick the names!) \[4\] ![Metaverse Fashion Week SL: the Jonathan Simkhai collection by Blueberry, February 2022](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/8e8bbb56791a6a8794bac03cebc248403e2e20a445454640fccbce4f2c057802.jpg) Metaverse Fashion Week SL: the Jonathan Simkhai collection by Blueberry, February 2022 It also has roots in gaming skins. Games like Fortnite monetize by selling skins, letting players customize and adorn their gaming characters with distinctive wares. These skins are purely cosmetic in nature, a way to differentiate your avatar in whatever way you deem fit. And designers have noticed; Balenciaga was the first high-profile fashion brand to offer a collection in collaboration with Fortnite, and it wasn’t long until Moncler followed suit. ![Fortnite x Balenciaga 2021 Drop](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/265d484a37ed54ca7535497b15a4b0748004ddf1ed0db83fb2c05f4aaadf3a5d.jpg) Fortnite x Balenciaga 2021 Drop Finally, brands like the Sweden-based Carlings pioneered augmented reality garments as far back as 2018. This was followed by the emergence of new companies like DressX, who focus on digitally-created garments that can be used as AR filters on popular social media apps. ![Carlings Digital-Only Capsule Collection](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/a9194c5f9d38ceea2fcd6f7b5b3484fa9c8439e77eb4cf063a9411381bc5c827.jpg) Carlings Digital-Only Capsule Collection What Are the Challenges in the Industry? ---------------------------------------- Since Carlings’ 2018 collection, there has been a ton of new experimentation in the digital-fashion space, much of it spurred in the last year by the popularity of the NFT medium. However, challenges persist for both consumers and creators of digital-first fashion. ### For consumers: * **_Narrow, single-dimensional experience_**: as users, we want to express ourselves in both physical and digital dimensions. With digital-only or physical-only, our experience is incomplete. Moreover, as a user or consumer of digital fashion, the venues for showing off your wares are highly limited. Fashion is self-expression, yet the medium of expression does not match the richness of the physical world. * **_No input or collaboration in the design process:_** we are yet to have a collaborative approach in co-creating digital fashion, but this is the natural conclusion of a shift that has been undergoing in traditional fashion already, with brands predicting trends from the analyses of their followers on social media. The promise of Web3, which is built on the concept of decentralization, can help bring users into the fold in a more interactive design process. * **_Lack of Curation of designers or products:_** fashion has traditionally been a very curated space; but today, the likes of completely open bazaars like OpenSea lead to a paradox of choice that dilutes, rather than highlights, the aesthetic quality of digital fashion products. Despite the ethos of decentralization, consumers will need high-quality curation of digital fashion designers and collections. ### For creators: * **_Lack of ownership over designs:_** designers are perennially undervalued in the traditional fashion industry , where they are typically not compensated via royalties, in effect not participating directly in the success of their creations. Even in purely-digital fashion, however, creators remain undervalued. In some cases, the tooling—particularly around payments—remains a technical barrier, while in others the mission of decentralization and open source can sometimes seem at odds with rewarding the creator for the IP they’ve created. * **_Lack of digital tools and ecosystem:_** today, the lack of technical infrastructure, educational and financial support, and community remains a barrier to entry for designers trying to enter the digital fashion space. They need more resources and tools to bring their creations to life and distribute them easily to end users. * **_No direct connection to consumers_:** As we anticipate a longer-term, collaborative approach between consumer and creators—where consumers will be users as well as collectors and curators, we need to establish the channel for designers and consumers to communicate, a connection that is absent in today’s landscape. Digital-first fashion is still very much in its nascent form, but the opportunity space is massive. In response to the question “what is fashion?” the Japanese designer Kenzo Takada once famously said, “music.” In much the same way, digital-first fashion is a complex, multi-faceted symphony that opens up myriad possibilities for self-expression and creativity. At altr\_, we are all about exploring that space. ![We are altr_. We aim to alter the relationship between creators, consumers, and the legacy fashion establishment.](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/e0479b7a56b34d4c2ec9e21de5660027d5c9c7d68dfc2ac95702d4be0f61d4c8.png) We are altr\_. We aim to alter the relationship between creators, consumers, and the legacy fashion establishment. _We’re excited to tell you more about_ [**_altr\__**](https://www.altr.space/) _in the coming posts. In the meantime, stay in the know by following us on_ [_Twitter_](https://twitter.com/altr_____)_._ **_Genesis drop coming soon._** \_\_ ### References: 1. Keisei Magazine, “[The Evolution of Digital Fashion and the Impact on Sustainability](https://keiseimagazine.com/the-evolution-of-digital-fashion-and-the-impact-on-sustainability/)” 2. Fashion United, “[The Extent of Overproduction in the Fashion Industry](https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/infographic-the-extent-of-overproduction-in-the-fashion-industry/2018121240500)” 3. Vox, “[What’s the Point of Digital Fashion?](https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22893254/digital-fashion-metaverse-real-clothes)” 4. Capture the Flag, “[Digital Fashion: a Historical Perspective](https://www.capturetheflag.today/digital-fashion/)” --- *Originally published on [altr_](https://paragraph.com/@altr/digital-first-fashion-exploring-our-digitally-immersive-reality)*