Fashion’s digital future

What will happen to fashion week? When the pandemic struck and it was clear the (fashion) show could not go on – at least in its current form – this was the question facing an industry that has often been slow to embrace change. But as the weeks wore on, it became clear that runways were just one aspect of a system in desperate need of digitisation. Soon, hypothetical solutions, as well as acronyms like AR, VR, CGI and 3D, began to circulate – like digital lifelines ready to keep this very tactile industry alive.

For consumers, fashion’s great system reboot all sounds very exciting. But for the creatives actually doing the work, what does it all mean? And with two major virtual fashion weeks fast approaching, is the solution as obvious as replacing a physical runway with a 3D one? We put these questions to some of the industry’s digital pioneers, who are driving fashion’s tech conversation in their own unique ways. Fashion, it seems, might never be the same – and maybe that’s a very good thing.