One of the new products The Fabricant will launch next year is digital clothing for video call provider Zoom. Adriana Hoppenbrouwer, co-founder and chief marketing officer (CMO) of the digital fashion company, made the announcement on Wednesday at the Web Summit technology conference taking place in Lisbon this week.
Hoppenbrouwer explains that up to a billion people worldwide regularly use Zoom. “When you meet online, you have a digital presence. We already live digital lives,” she emphasizes, “and it’s our job to bring you the coolest clothes you can wear in this digital life.”
‘The future of digital fashion is promising’
The Fabricant deals with digital fashion. But what does this term actually mean? Hoppenbrouwer also asked herself this question five years ago, she said during the summit.
Before starting The Fabricant, she had already been active in the fashion industry for 20 years and most recently led the online marketing team for a European retailer. There she also looked at the issue of returns in a study, which showed that ten percent of returned items in 2018 were used for a photo on Instagram.
She also worked with gift vouchers, where sales were declining, explains Hoppenbrouwer. “I discovered that parents don’t buy gift cards for physical goods for their children because they prefer a Fortnite card [Anm. d. Red.: Guthabenkarte für ein Onlinespiel, mit der man digitale Looks und andere Produkte kaufen kann] want to have,” says the Fabricant co-founder. “With this knowledge, Kerry Murphy, Amber Jae Slooten and I founded The Fabricant with the vision of creating a new business model that would go mainstream. Today the prospects are great and the industry is already formidable.”
According to the “State of Fashion Technology” report from the trade magazine Business of Fashion, consumer spending on digital fashion is expected to reach $135 billion (approximately €124 billion) by 2024. $110 billion was spent on virtual goods in 2021, more than double the amount in 2015.
A success story with Weekday
The Fabricant recently digitized two pairs of glasses from H&M subsidiary Weekday. “More virtual copies were sold than physical copies,” said Hoppenbrouwer. The [digitalen Brillen](URL) not only proved popular, but also contributed to an 11 percent increase in overall sales of the collection. “This shows that the Weekday community and fans want to express their identity in a unique way in the digital space.”
Digital fashion as an online form of expression
Jascha Samadi, co-founder and partner of the European crypto investment company Greenfield, spoke at the summit together with Hoppenbrouwer about the topic of Consumer Web3. “Our clothing choices are a reflection of our values, our identity and what we want to express or communicate to others,” said Samadi, who has been studying fashion from a crypto company perspective for the past two years. The desire for self-expression is deeply rooted in our culture, and he thinks it makes sense that there is a need for virtual fashion too.
“On Roblox [Anm. d. Red.: Online-Spieleplattform] “Last year, more than 100 million users bought or sold fashion items, and there are 11.5 million users who designed virtual clothes and accessories for their avatar,” explains Samadi.
Digital fashion is not just one thing, but includes several things, the speakers make clear. In addition to virtual clothing items such as Fortnite skins – looks that exist exclusively in the digital world and are intended for avatars – there are also products with augmented reality (AR). These garments add digital elements to the real-world environment when viewed through an AR device or application. Physical clothing equipped with computer chips that provide a bridge to digital experiences also falls into this category.
About The Fabricant and Web Summit
The Fabricant is a digital fashion house and platform that makes it possible to buy and wear digital clothing. The company also works with independent designers and major brands to transport their creations into the digital world.
The Web Summit is one of the largest technology conferences in the world, showcasing the latest developments in technology and innovation. This year the Web Summit welcomes more than 70,000 visitors from 153 countries. The conference will take place in Lisbon, Portugal until November 16th.
This translated and edited post previously appeared on FashionUnited.nl.