In November 2019, Richard Ma, CEO of San-Francisco based security company Quantstamp, bought a £7,500 (S$13,580) dress for his wife Mary Ren. A long-sleeved maxi with a lightweight, oil-slicked rainbow iridescent cape over the front.
But here’s the catch: this dress does not exist. Designed by Amsterdam-based digital fashion label The Fabricant, the dress was a digital garment Photoshopped onto an image of Ren to look like she was wearing it.
Enter the mystifying world of digital clothes.
Imagine shirts made of wisteria flowers that remain forever fresh, pants made of heavyweight PVC pipes, and glass slippers that now fit on everyone’s feet.
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Shards of glass and concrete that belong in a construction junkyard are now in the designer’s playground with the emergence of digital clothes, and these cutting-edge technologies will not be cutting anyone.
Made with 3D software programmes like CLO and Blender, digital clothes are realistic garments that are designed and rendered onto images. Naturally, some digital brands have also jumped onto the NFT bandwagon. To commemorate Earth Day on April 22, Singapore-based virtual clothing brand Republiqe added four crypto fashion looks into its NFT collection and is available for auction at rarible.com/republiqe until May 20.
From sophisticated wearable art to cyber punk rock, here are the fashion brands leading the way into the world of digital garments.