Fashion

With the introduction of digital sampling, virtual fashion and cloud systems, a huge hum of data is by now buzzing about. New technologies such as visualisation software, 3D body scanning and digital twins are taking the industry to a new leel. But in addition to its huge potential for increasing efficiency, digitization also poses a whole set of new challenges. Every click on the internet consumes energy and the statistics for the number of returned orders from online retail are breathtaking: a whopping 800,000 parcels are returned daily, causing 400 tons of CO2 emissions. This would be the equivalent of around 250 car journeys from Berlin to Beijing.

This year re:publica is collaborating with the Neonyt Hub for Fashion, Sustainability and Innovation to explore the current developments in fashion and textiles in the context of digitization as well as the future if ‘sustainable innovation’. All while keeping an eye on challenges and chances as well as the often invisible, yet real social and ecological impacts.

Virtually Fashionable will focus in particular—but not exclusively—on:

1. The supply/value chains.
→ How are digitization and automation changing the globalised production processes and logistics of the fashion & textile industry?

2. The shopper/user.
→ How data about shoppers is created, stored, connected and used —and the moral of this story.

3. The material/fashion.
→ How long will we still dress up in cloth? / Will digital fashion save the fashion waste problem?

Virtually Fashionable is co-curated by Max Gilgenmann and Carina Bischof of Kaleidoscope Berlin and presented by Neonyt.