I often get this question:
"Why would anyone buy
a piece of clothing that doesn't exist?"
And as you can see,
it's not that it doesn't exist.
Digital fashion is real, and it exists
in so many virtual universes,
ranging from basic social networks
to fully developed virtual worlds
known as the metaverse,
letting people express themselves
in a way not possible before.
I’ve been playing video games
since I [can] remember,
dressing up my game character.
Actually, I enjoyed it more
than dressing up myself.
Five years ago, I was running
a physical fashion brand.
But because of my gaming experience,
I kept thinking:
“How and why could people
wear digital garments?”
And there was a reason
I believed they would.
In 2016, I did research
on “hypebeast culture.”
You know, those people
buying and selling garments
that are always sold out.
As part of this research,
I've joined various Facebook groups
where they were gathering.
What I noticed was
they were usually buying those pieces
just to post a photo of themselves
wearing it on their social channels.
And later on, they would resell it.
So they didn't need or want
the actual garment.
They wanted its image,
and that image was being used online.
And it made sense to me,
because, like most of my generation,
they had their friends, peers,
role models in the virtual space,
and this is where we care
to express ourselves.
This is when I started experimenting
with what today we know
as digital fashion.
Now I run the world's first
direct-to-consumer digital fashion brand
and a fashion tech house.
We officially started last year,
and our growth has been unimaginable
from a traditional fashion perspective.
Apart from doing our own designs,
we regularly collaborate
with the biggest names from the industry.
With Carolina Herrera,
we collaborated on a runway dress
and developed an app
where you can wear the dress
on your phone using augmented reality.
And with Jean Paul Gaultier,
we collaborated on a piece
that was part of their couture collection.
We even have our flagship store
in the Decentraland,
a metaverse owned
and created by its users.
And we are not the only ones.
For example, on Demat, an NFT marketplace,
fashion brands are selling authenticated
digital fashion items
that are usually sold out
as soon as they are released.
And as it was for me,
the games are becoming
a gateway to digital fashion for many.
The biggest names in the luxury segment
are eagerly trying to enter this space.
Balenciaga has collaborated with Fortnite,
and Gucci bag was sold inside Roblox
for more than its worth in real life.
Fortnite itself has sold more than two
billion worth of skins and game extras
for in-game character dressing.
But it's a misconception that creating
digital fashion is quick and easy.
We often have to play by the same rules
as in real-life physical fashion.
Think back to a time
when there were no computers
and people were making posters by hand.
When the software like
Adobe Photoshop finally arrived,
they thought making posters
is going to be so much quicker and easier.
But obviously that wasn't true
because technology just replaced outdated
principles with new possibilities.
So instead of doing most
of the development in the physical space,
we do it in front of our screens.
The process is the same,
just the tools are different.
And in the end,
everything falls back to a complexity
of a piece or a concept.
For example,
there's a huge difference
in creating a basic T-shirt
or a couture-like dress,
regardless of the medium.
And the digital realm somehow forces you
to go into that exploratory direction.
Because do you even need
a physical T-shirt in a virtual space?
With digital fashion, you can experience
fashion in its purest form,
devoid of functional barriers.
You don't need your sleeves there.
You don't even need your hands.
Digital fashion is not an alternative
but an evolutionary step.
And we are currently
at the beginning of this new era.
An era where digital garments could become
an added layer to our reality,
where you will be able to instantly choose
to whom you want to present yourself
wearing multiple different
outfits at the same time
and using most advanced technology,
like AR or VR for example.
And not only does it allow
for self-expression
in totally different contexts,
but digital fashion can be zero-waste
and inclusive, available to users,
regardless of their gender, size or race.
I come from Croatia,
a country that is nowhere
on the fashion map,
yet my company is considered
one of the pioneers of this field.
When we started,
we were among the few doing it.
And since then,
a whole new evolving market
has grown around it.
Digital fashion market
is going to be huge.
But from my experience,
no one knows how far it could go.
It's fairly simple.
Technology usually grows exponentially,
and so will our virtual presence.
And someone has to dress these people.
Thank you.