Although digital fashion design has been around for years, there are still many aspects of this new design discipline that are difficult to trace and define. One of these aspects it the history and origin of digital fashion as an independent category. This blogpost therefore, will present several potential origin points of the discipline and discuss challenges and opportunities for further writing on this facet of digital fashion.
A review of the current literature on digital fashion reveals that a universal origin point of digital fashion has not yet been agreed on. One could postulate various reasons for this. Essentially however, the issue can be condensed in the fact that digital fashion design is still not clearly separated from the disciplines it originates from or even its analog counterpart, which it has seemingly become a subcategory of in the minds of people engaging with it today. A possible method for determining the historical origins of digital fashion is to trace its roots in other design fields which have enabled or influenced it and from which it has developed. Among these design fields are undoubtably video game design and 3D modelling. Furthermore, it might be argued that the general basis for digital clothing design also has origins in traditional 2D animation and arguably also digital material simulation.
Scholarly research has yet to acquaint itself with the rapid contemporary developments in the field of digital fashion design. The fast paced nature of technological innovations and advancements makes it challenging for researchers in the field to draw tangible conclusions on the guiding questions the young discipline faces. In reading fashion industry publications and consulting online resources, one is frequently under the impression that digital fashion manifested out of thin air several years ago and has since been quickly expanding and gaining importance in the fashion sphere.
This status quo on the history of digital fashion suggests that for further research into the topic, a history of digital fashion needs to be developed. As a fundamental step to this endeavour, a solid definition of the discipline should be established. If we accept a definition along the lines of Doyle 2022 which reads „Digital fashion is clothing that is not physically manufactured, including game skins, avatar clothing and Non-fungible tokens (NFT)”1 , we must accommodate a large variety of digitally existent clothing products into the term “digital fashion”. A more narrow definition might serve better when it comes to developing a clear history, but would potentially exclude interesting liminal and marginal case studies. It might further be useful to delineate digital fashion from traditional analog fashion by developing definitions of the two fields that point out their overlaps as well as their differences.
To close this brief exploration of digital fashion design history, three main conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, the current literature on digital fashion does not reveal a comprehensive account of the discipline’s origin and history. Secondly, an effort to develop such a history could endeavour an investigation into the relevant disciplines which digital fashion design emerged from. Thirdly, the exploration of the disciplines history requires a working definition of digital fashion in order to provide a solid basis for further investigations into the subject.
References:
1 Doyle, Megan. (2022, March 2). Could digital fashion be an eco-friendly replacement for fast fashion? Ecocult. https://ecocult.com/digital-virtual-fashion-sustainability/.
