Digitial Design Dystopia

Written By Clara Padgham, Fashion Staff Writer | Graphic by Samantha Meyerson, Contributing Illustrator and Designer

The overlap between technology, fashion and media is simply a part of daily life in the 21st century. Social media’s stronghold on consumers bombards us with brand-new outfi ts every second of scrolling. Sometimes, an infl uencer’s ‘fi t pic’ consists of items that are worn one time for a post and then never touched again. New trends seem to emerge daily, and once an outfi t hits your Instagram there is an unspoken rule that it cannot be posted again. The trend cycle continues to get faster and faster, pressuring buyers to keep up with relevant fashion and adding more polyester to our ecosystem.

Considering the aforementioned problem, marketers were able to identify a gap in the fashion industry. A gap in which consumers sought clothing that would not pollute and that they would not need to rewear. Enter: digital wearable fashion.

DressX is a brand making digital clothing you can purchase online and download to “wear.” Essentially, the brand sells 3-D fi lters of pieces, helping you save space in your closet. These clothes—if we can even call them that—come with many issues. The DressX digital pieces have a peculiar fi t. They are intended to look worn, but instead, they appear to sit on top of the body much like a hightech paper doll. In a collaboration with Pacsun, DressX marketed digital jeans to their TikTok audience, but the creator’s actual pants were fully visible behind the ill-fi tting fi lter. The clothes look animated, and the unnatural looking fabric does not portray the digital garments the way they would actually hang on the body. They are far from photorealistic—the technology has a long way to go.

The real kicker of digital fashion is its ridiculous cost. On the DressX website, most pieces of clothing cost around $50, with others costing upwards of $1000. Since garments can only appear in photos and repeating outfi ts is a social media taboo, consumers are essentially spending upwards of $50 for a single post. Social media has consumed our confi dence to the point that we would be willing to put money into getting more likes, which brings up issues that cannot be solved by buying digital fashion.

In a collaborative project with DressX, designer Gary James McQueen hosted a digital fashion show. They used software that made their clothes look mobile on the animated models and had them walk down a gaudy animated runway, making the world feel as if it was transcending into something dystopian.

Textiles and movement make fashion so impactful. They are what we see and what evokes our emotions just like brushstrokes on a canvas. The new digital landscape is stripping garments of their artistry. Where else are you going to wear these digital pieces besides a social media post?

Frankly, there are far better options than buying intangible goods. Posting on social media should not be a priority in everyday life, and paying to look cool for followers will only aff ect you negatively in the long run. As much as someone may want to argue for wearable digital fashion, it cannot exist without the need to post it. Instead, save your money and spend your time and energy learning how to style pieces in new ways. ■