Digital design has opened new doors for designers who want to enter the fashion industry in an alternative way. Although the tools and technology for this relatively new style of creation are still evolving, the medium offers almost limitless design possibilities and gives creatives the freedom to express themselves.
Some of them took advantage of the digitization of fashion, especially during the pandemic, when working from home became the norm and issues of sustainability and climate change took center stage. It served them not necessarily as a substitute for traditional design, but as a complement to their work and offered another way to explore their design identity in a more open format.
FashionUnited spoke to three of them, who are causing a stir in the industry, how they got started, how they have realized their vision and where they see the future of fashion going digital.
Davina India: “Digitalization cannot be stopped”
The German-based designer Davina India blends futuristic and organic shapes in her work. She is inspired by the art of nature and imagines what life might be like on other planets. Her path to digital design sprang from her love for avant-garde silhouettes, an interest she discovered while studying fashion design. The garment shapes she wanted to make were not malleable with conventional materials, she told FashionUnited. So she turned to the world of 3D digital design, an area she hadn’t explored before, and began experimenting and designing garments that didn’t obey the laws of physics.
Comparing digital versus physical design, India Davina said it gives her infinite possibilities and freedom in her design process. When she builds a digital design, she explains, “new ideas that change shape can still be implemented,” giving her experimental freedom. “The future is digital,” she says of the importance of this method. “Digitization cannot be stopped. Sooner or later it will affect every part of our lives. Nowadays you can even buy digital land. So I think we can also imagine what the future will be like. In the case of fashion, it is and will be the most sustainable way to create it.”
Although her designs are not yet available for purchase, she says there are numerous photographers, stylists and magazines who have expressed interest in her digital clothing and human body manipulation. When asked how she envisions the future of her work, the digital designer said she wants to evolve her design both physically and digitally: “I want to produce my digital pieces in real life as well. This includes accessories and more. We will see what happens.”
Xtended Identity: “Our goal is to expand the identity of everyone”
Xtended Identity is best described as a female-led digital design lab founded by creative trio Yunjia Xing, Ziqi Xing and Aria Bao. The three met while studying for a Masters in London and teamed up to develop a digital showroom for their work after struggling to showcase their designs due to lockdowns. At this point, they began to realize how far-reaching the possibilities of digitization are, as Ziqi Xing states: “It opens up new possibilities and opportunities for young designers.”
While the group is currently focused on building its brand image, it continues to explore its mythical design aesthetic, often characterized by pastel tones and imaginative shapes – elements that Xing says fit naturally with the audience that has discovered them. “We can design things that don’t actually exist, that defy gravity, time and space,” says Xing. “Our goal is to expand everyone’s identity and digital footprint.”
Users can wear the label’s digital clothing through real-time augmented reality (AR) filters, a medium the trio believe has a lot to offer and will continue to work with in the future, according to Xing. In this way, the AR tools have also enabled the group to work towards their goal of developing ‘phygital’ products.
Now, the collective is gearing up to launch a non-fungible token (NFT) that will explore Web3 for the first time, while also looking to the future and where its place will be in the gaming and fashion industries. The most important factor for Xing is that they represent women and the LGBTQ community in the digital world and express their values and efforts to a diverse audience. “We want to build a solid ecosystem for our audience and our brand,” the designer concludes.
Yimeng Yu: “It can push the boundaries of the physical world”
For Yimeng Yu, digital methodology has always played a major role in the different phases of her career. This is especially true during her time as an independent artist, during which she has collaborated with a range of companies, brands and magazines. As the pandemic spread, her main focus turned to digitization. She recognized the infinite possibilities of digital tools: “It was an interdisciplinary practice,” she adds.
With her limitless experiments, she explores the realm of digital design that can free the imagination. “You can break the boundaries of the physical world to renew artistic language in terms of textures, structures and silhouettes,” she said. “At the same time, digital design offers a sustainable opportunity to significantly improve the efficiency of designs and it can also be coupled with smart manufacturing.”
Her work, which primarily attracts people from the creative and cultural industries, revolves around the aesthetics of ‘Parametric Nature’. Yu’s use of artificial cuts contrasts with shapes that appear to have grown naturally. She says she uses ‘order’ to create ‘disorder’. Yu said of her designs, “In my work you can see the symbiosis between artificiality and nature, the combination of machines and biology, and the collision between reason and emotion.”
Going forward, the young creative hopes to continue making digital fashion part of her research by focusing on digital design and fabrication. She also hopes to expand her practice from fashion to other interdisciplinary areas and to develop new application scenarios.
This article was previously published on FashionUnited.uk. Translation and editing: Barbara Russ