Could you tell us, based on your experience, how do traditional brands and organizations (fashion weeks for instance) react to starting to experiment with digital creation? Do you think, as a designer, that digital creators should create communities that will help them achieve their goals?
Before my introduction to digital fashion, I worked for many years as a fashion designer at several large clothing companies. I was very familiar with all the standard production processes. Material consumption during the initial development stages of collection samples, sewing samples for Instagram photos, showrooms, and presenting the collection to buyers. And also piles of unsold items in warehouses from previous collections. Yes, it's not environmentally friendly and it's also an unnecessary expenditure of funds. And yet a more powerful argument for the brand owner was the financial savings. Since 2020, when I began to experience digital fashion, I saw a huge advantage for brands. Yes, for pioneers like me at the time it was not so easy to reach and convince companies to introduce 3D models at production stages. But still, I succeeded and we tried to implement such a model: several samples of the same model were sewn for the physical showroom. The same model was created in 3D but in all kinds of colors and materials. With this 3D model also created content for orders on the brand's website, for a video presentation on Instagram. And if not every brand owner could be convinced to comply with the environmental agenda, everyone noticed and appreciated the saving of money at the stages of launching a collection from production start to sales. As it was possible to avoid unnecessary expenses for sewing a color palette, and unnecessary expenses for photo/video shooting for model presentation. And as for fashion weeks, I would like them to be more technically adapted for virtual shows. Again we can go back to the example, which I have already talked about. Like Anyma music shows. And it would be cool to have more conferences, where designers and brand founders, founders of start-ups, and well-known companies that offer presentations of innovative technological solutions for the symbiosis of digital and physical fashion, could meet each other. Almost all digital designers are faced with the fact that it takes them a long time to explain some obvious things to the customers (to the brand owners, and the organizers of fashion shows).
Metaverse Fashion Council would like to express sincere gratitude to CLARE TATTERSALL, Hanene Maupas, and Galina Ildetkina for their great support of Lena Semenenko and her great talent