F-Tech: Fast Forward Fashion
Technology Ramps Up To Fashion Week 2023, Globally
Next in #Fashion is #Technology. From #NewYork to #London to #India, in multifarious Fashion Weeks, designers have adopted #AI, 3-D Printing, and Smart Fabrics; Experimenting with technology in their collections brought an unprecedented transformational, sensational, and novel experience for #designers, #models, and audiences alike.
The recent Digital Fashion Week New York 2023 took to breaking the tradition to blur the lines between the real and the virtual by introducing #Phygital Fashion with designers Dope Universe and Right Direction as a new form of creativity and immersive experiences with tenets of AI, #Metaverse, and #NFT to the show.
The #FashionVerse, Digital Fashion Week London 2023, was an immersive fashion delight. Currently, in #LakmeFashionWeek India 2023, #FDCI launches its initiative, The Spotlight, to invite young designers to showcase their collections using immersive technology in Fashion and, thus, take India on a world stage with F-tech.
Augmented Reality (#AR) to visualize design ideas, AI to lend styling recommendations, #Robots to run production effectively, innovative garments made of versatile and sustainable or recycled fabric, IoT-enabled – built-in sensors or temperature-controlled options, and 3-D printing to enliven the customer experience is not beyond imagination anymore. It is very much happening in the studios. In beauty, Lakme is harping on Virtual Try-On or virtual online makeup with Click-Pick-Play. Likewise, other beauty players too!
Nevertheless, technology has its shortcomings too. As a #creative thinker and #educator in fashion, I feel doing the work with your own hands, through repeated trials and changes in the garments, and then putting together a collection is a work of art and science, unparalleled #creativity and hard work that goes on display in a physical fashion which to me is not even close to a digital fashion show. Nothing can replace the ‘human touch’ in its entirety. Mostly, fashion shows in New York and London were physical fashion shows this season, but they had a #digital asset gallery. This goes to say that we are evolving and experimenting, which is good, but in the end, one must strive for harmony. We must also find the right balance because digital is disruptive and leaves many creative hands jobless.
Getting our young designer students’ future ready calls for much #experimentation and #empowering them to use technology in fashion designs.