For many years now, the fashion industry as we know it has, like the world, been on the edge of the precipice. As our relationship to technology continues to grow and morph, changing the nature of our jobs, relationships and day-to-day activities, it makes sense that our clothes would be next to undergo a technological paradigm shift. 

Unlike many other industries in which updated, digital versions of themselves have taken over, fashion business has always relied largely on their physical products, with designers building their brands around the focus: the clothes themselves. But as we have repeatedly seen in modern life, sometimes our most traditional and well-practiced methods become unsustainable or simply fall out of favour, their digital alternatives simply too convenient or too beneficial to be ignored. For many, the recent developments in our technology provides us with the perfect opportunity to shift the focus of clothing design altogether, maybe in a way that will provide us with answers to all our fashion related concerns. 

The fashion industry, as it stands today, is a global powerhouse of pollution, and, in the wake of COP21 a global pandemic and circulating videos of the ocean on fire, it is unsurprising that people are worried for the future - and more critical of what it is they’re buying. If you head the warnings of activists and scientists alike, we don’t have much time to reverse the damage we’ve done to the planet before it becomes permanent, and when it comes to reevaluating the way in which we live, we must look to the most polluting industries to make a change. And we cannot ignore the damning effects of the current fashion system -  effects that make the industry in the top five most polluting industries in the world.

Currently, whether you’re a luxury or a fast fashion shopper, every stage of your garment’s life cycle, from manufacture to production to sale and even after you’ve thrown them away, is an environmental nightmare. From the overconsumption of water and energy to the pollution of soil and air, there is no escaping the devastation that unavoidably follows using the lands resources to clothe all 7 billion of us. 

But what if we could enjoy the benefits of dressing to impress, buying and wearing all the styles we love, without having to compromise the stability and safety of the planet we live on? It may not be as far off as we think. 

Gucci, Off-White, Farfetch and Fendi are just some of the big names in fashion that are seemingly beginning to put their bets on a new phenomenon - Augmented Reality fashion.

Snapchat’s collaboration with Farfetch, allowing users to try on new collection products from their phones. 

Sold in the form of what has been recently dubbed an NFT, Augmented Reality, or AR,  uses the real, physical world around us as a starting point, merging it with digital artwork as a way of enhancing our world. Currently, Augmented Reality is accessible largely through phones - scan a QR code or look through your camera and suddenly you can see animations, images and sounds around you that were totally invisible before, merging and interacting with their surroundings as if they are right there with you. 

Already, this tech has seeped into the fashion world, with Off-White collaborating with Snapchat, allowing users to virtually “try on” collection pieces in their own homes, and Gucci creating an AR based sneaker app called “Gucci Sneaker Garage” in which customers can not only virtually wear the shoes but also design them themselves.

A screenshot from Gucci Sneaker Garage

It may seem like we have a long way to go before this kind of technology enters the mainstream, but if you believe Zuckerberg and his merry band of Silicon Valley tech nerds, maybe not as long as you think. Painting a picture of a future where humans navigate the world around us using accessories like AR glasses, effectively infusing our digital reality with our real one in real time, creating an alternate digital reality - the Metaverse.

Demands for fashion designers are only ever increasing, with social media accelerating trend cycles and large scale marketplaces churning out thousands of new pieces every day, people consistently want the newest, craziest and most expensive pieces to add to their wardrobes. As we know, this is an unsustainable system in terms of environmental impact but it also has its physical restrictions too. What happens when the newest craziest thing still isn’t new or crazy enough? 

If you subscribe to the hype, Augmented Reality fashion offers people the opportunity to try things that would be completely impossible to produce without it. Whether you want a pair of shoes that blend with their surroundings or a hat that breathes fire or even a pair of enormous wings to match your hair.. it is possible with Augmented Reality, and without the immense environmental demands that come with mass production.

An Example of the clothing available at digital fashion retailer DressX.

Generally, if you wanted to buy one of these Augmented Reality garments today, they usually have to be purchased in the form of an NFT, or a Non-Fungible Token. 

Unlike something like money, which is considered a fungible token, each NFT is completely unique and holds its own specific value. Where every pound coin is worth the same amount, each NFT has its own value - like a digital trading card. The idea is that in the future, when we may all be living in some kind of digital Metaverse, people can have their own unique art or fashion pieces that cannot be replaced with something else. 

In theory, the use of NFT’s means that artists and designers have protection of their work - it can be made and sold to a single person who cannot duplicate the piece - similar to real life design, people could replicate designs but it wouldn’t hold the same value as the original piece. 

But before you run off to invest in your future Metaverse wardrobe, its important to consider that already, NFT’s are stirring up quite the controversies - and they may not be the cure-all solution that futurists are claiming it to be. 

The first of the problems to consider is that most NFT’s are part of a digital blockchain called Ethereum. Ethereum is a cryptocurrency, but the blockchain also supports NFT’s. 

If you know anything about cryptocurrency, you already know that they’re far from an environmental fix-it. In order to access most crypto blockchains, you must utilise machines that are made to be highly energy inefficient, which is said to be done to decrease the profitability of botching the blockchain - this results in the cryptocurrency system using more electricity than the entire country of Libya. Still interested?

Additionally, where NFT’s have frequently been marketed as a huge benefit to digital artists, this too is up for debate. Anyone can attach a token to digital art and sell it as their own, even if they didn’t create it, and by the nature of the cryptocurrency, most of the transactions, while recorded on a digital ledger, are anonymous, making it increasingly difficult for artists to ensure their work is safe. 

There are people today working on greener alternatives known as CleanNFT’s. After speaking briefly with digital artist Memo Akten, who was known for his analysis of the carbon footprint of 18,000 NFT’s which found that the average one has a carbon footprint equivalent to more than a months worth of electricity for someone living in the EU, it became clear that there is a way to create NFT’s on eco-friendly blockchains that work on more energy efficient systems, and ensuring that anything you invest in uses these CleanNFT’s is increasingly important as this trend gains traction. 

The Ethereum blockchain itself has been set to switch to these energy efficient systems in 2022, but after years of delays leading up to that date, the questions remains as to whether it is really ever going to be a viable solution to fashions frustrations.