Cyber-clothing: Where is the limit of fashion?
Last Friday, as I scrolled through my Instagram feed page, a fashion account caught my attention. As its name Tribute Brand suggests, it seems to be a fashion brand. But the Tribute Brand is not a traditional fashion house, as it only sells digital clothes. Instead of receiving a physical piece of clothes, customers would receive computer-generated clothes through emails.
But how can someone buy these digital clothes? In fact, the process of buying cyber clothes is relatively simple, but also different from any online shopping experience. When you order from their official website, you will need to send the brand pictures you wish to be processed. After waiting for several days, you will receive a picture of you wearing the CGI-generated cyber clothes that are designed to fit your body. The whole shopping process is completely digital and non-contact.
Image via Instagram
Initiated in 2020, when COVID-19 forced everyone into the virtual space, Tribute Brand has attracted hundreds of customers and received thousands of followers on its Instagram page in roughly a year. It is certainly the pioneer in this field of cyber clothing, but it’s not alone. In fact, in recent years major fashion brands are also experimenting with the idea of digital clothes, as exemplified by Balenciaga. Not only did it launch its Fall 2021 collection in the form of a video game, but it also collaborated with Fortnite, a popular online game, just a month ago. In both campaigns, clothing from Balenciaga was worn by computer-generated models or figures; without the context of the brand, it is even hard to tell if these clothes are made to be worn by humans in the physical world.
Image via Balenciaga
Image via Vogue
Perhaps fashion brands’ embrace of the digital world is a product of our increasingly digitized society. After all, fashion has a socializing component; when socializing becomes virtual, fashion no longer needs to be real. Indeed, new technologies, such as VR and AR, have shortened the distance between the real world and the digital one, and this distance will continue to be shortened. It’s hard not to link this trend with the recent news about Metaverse, an initiative announced by Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook. In the Metaverse, people would learn, play, socialize and collaborate in a 3D virtual world supported by various VR/AR equipment. The future depicted in the movie Matrix, in which reality is intertwined with the digital world, is probably near.
Image via IMDb.
Interestingly, many fashion brands, including Balenciaga, made reference to the Matrix in their recent collections.
But what would you do in this digitized society? Would you spend hundreds of dollars on these cyber-clothings? Or would you consider it a waste of money? Personally, I might buy one of these cyber coats one day, and post it on my social media. Afterall, who would reject a trendy, futuristic coat, even if it is not real?
