of clothing (…)”. Kim Felecia agreed on this and said when asked about the emotional
connection of digital clothing “(...) it will definitely not have any emotional connection, it will be like a fast rush. It's like fast food, it's like over and done”.
Kim Felecia’s comment also highlighted the fact that the Digital Collection was according to her adding on to the trend on fast fashion and fast consumption of clothes and continued by arguing that digital clothing would actually add on to the problem created by social media.
Other interviewees agreed on this, as according to Rasmus, the Digital Collection is
increasing instead of decreasing the trend and explained: “The problem with it (the Digital Collection), what Carling’s says, they are trying to do, is that they are. They are saying, you can buy a digital piece of clothes, and then you can still have your outfit of the day but it's just environmentally friendly. But it's, it is essentially not doing anything in terms of taking a stand against the outfit of the day, and the trend that that is pushing.” He also further elaborated on the issue of the collection “(It) is still feeding that newness monster and or feeding that understanding of you having to be something in the world, you need to have the right clothes at the right time in the right season.”
Another point of view in regard to the Digital Collection which was mentioned by the interviewees was that it was considered as “symptom treatment”. As one of the interviewees explained it, digital clothing does not solve the problem created by social media, instead it “treats the symptoms”. In other words, the consumers that consume clothing as disposable goods, will not change their habits by using digital clothing - it will only give them temporary satisfaction, and even that in the predefined context of social media. As Josefine explained: “For me it’s pure symptom treatment. We have a problem online on social media, where as an example a lot of influencers show clothes, which is huge consumption. I think it's a problem with very fast changing trends of real clothes, and then you make something virtual, so you create fast changing trends with virtual clothes. And then you can use that as trend based, because it’s not real.”However, the idea and concept of digital clothing was seen as having potential, as one of the interviewees suggested that it could be used by fashion companies in their collaboration with influencers. The creator of the Digital Collection mentioned that instead of companies having to send out clothes for
the influencers for them to then post pictures with the clothes on social media, the
influencers could instead be provided with digital clothing. Also, despite skeptical comments in regard to the concept of digital clothing, it was still considered as a more sustainable option than excessive purchasing of clothes. However, as Morten, the creator of the collection highlighted, the potential of digital clothing cannot yet be fully utilized and used by a large audience, as the current state of technology does not allow for technology such as virtual fitting being fully implemented to existing platforms, such as webshops and social media.
Besides discussing the Digital Collection and its potential, the interviewees brought up some other technologies which they considered as useful and potential to be used in the fashion industry, and also supporting the sustainability within it. One of the most popular
technologies discussed in the interviews was the one of AR, and more specifically its use in the form of virtual fitting rooms - an idea that emerged from the discussions around digital clothing and the technology behind it. The idea of virtual fitting rooms was seen as
extremely useful, but also as something that could be implemented in the near future by fashion companies. The interviewees also highlighted the possible impacts of the use of virtual fitting rooms also in terms of sustainability, as these fitting rooms might potentially provide the consumers and users a more accurate idea of size and fit, and thus have influence on the purchasing habits of fashion consumers. As Josefine explained: “I can imagine that this technology would be really good to use online for some clothes that people would really want, so as a virtual showroom or a virtual fitting room. I wish that you would put something concrete behind it and implement it in a way, so people could purchase some clothes that they would really use for many years.”
Another promising technology that could be utilized in fashion that was mentioned by the interviewees was artificial intelligence (AI). According to one of the interviewees AI could be useful in personalization in the fashion industry. By this, she referred to the use of different algorithms for instance to provide consumers with more personalized offerings and clothing - again something that would potentially be used by the consumers for a longer time. Also, different algorithms could according to the expert be used in the “made to order” process,
where consumers can order fitted clothes. In addition to these, AI is already used and could be used to an even larger extent in the context of consumer support, for example in the form of chatbots, and webshops that would remember the consumers’ personal
information such as specific size information.
Despite its potential, FashTech is still a fairly new concept within the fashion industry at large. As was highlighted by the interviewees, the implementation and creation of new technology especially, was described as extremely costly. This was explained to be the reason to why some potential new technologies within fashion has not been implemented, as the cost for implementation are high before the technology becomes widely used, as Kim Felecia highlighted “(...) everything in the beginning is always so expensive to try to achieve, and if the market is not there and if, then it will keep being expensive and then people as Bestseller they wait until I don't know how many years later (...)”. Moreover, FashTech was not considered as an option for all fashion companies, namely due to costs, as Josefine explained: “(...) the technology that the big companies are utilizing, is very difficult to implement and on the same hand with the technologies such as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, I think it’s something that the small companies can forget about.”
In the current state of the industry, FashTech was said to be mainly implemented in the production part of the value chain. Technology was mentioned to be useful in different parts of production, and as according to Josefine, could be helpful for the previously mentioned “zero waste” initiative, but also in the production of alternative textiles. Also, according to her estimation, the fashion industry will go backwards in terms of people buying less clothes and investing in quality and near produced clothes, but that this development will be strongly supported by the use of new technology in production.