By Anabella Pacheco. Cover image: Fortown project. Courtesy of Customix.
Customix is the first italian fashion tech hub specializing in 3D production, NFT and Metaverse creations, and immersive technologies for the fashion industries. They offer digitisation services to brands that want to bring their products to the digital world, helping them use new technologies to their advantage.
Digital fashion is the most recent mountain that fashion designers and brands want to climb. For those with no background in 3D fashion design, Customix can be an ideal partner to translate their designs to the digital world and teach them how to do it themselves.
I’M Firenze Digest got the opportunity to talk to the CEO and Co-founder of Customix, Marco Bisato, about his views of this new fashion frontier and what companies like Customix expect from students in contests like this one.
I’MF: How do you see the future of digital fashion?
MB: Thanks to digital fashion, people can express their identity within virtual environments, representing new places of socialization and interaction for the new generations. The ability to express one’s digital identity will be as important as being able to express one’s physical identity, if not more.
In our time, self-expression is not only limited to the physical dimension but extends into the digital world. Thanks to digital fashion, companies can use physical products even in virtual environments.
In a few years, it will no longer be conceivable to buy a product that does not have a digitally wearable replica; it would mean limiting the occasions for its use. Companies must consider how to allow customers to dress their avatars, which could be hyper-realistic or gaming avatars.
Additionally, if we consider the potential of 3D technology, digital fashion is a powerful tool for companies to accelerate their time to market, decrease prototyping costs and reduce waste, in line with the demand for a more sustainable production model.
On e-commerce platforms, 3D models and AR visualisation make it possible to improve the level of interaction with products by partially bridging the experiential gap between physical and digital and allowing for improved KPIs such as conversion rate and return rate. Finally, digital fashion will democratise creativity, allowing anyone with talent to showcase their collections.
I’MF: What do you think are the greatest benefits that digital fashion can contribute to our society?
MB: Inclusion, democratization, sustainability.
I’MF: What impact does this kind of contest have on developing digital fashion, especially for Fashion Design students?
MB: The first step to evolving the traditional fashion business is to create consciousness about how technology can be applied and used to generate new opportunities and solve specific issues.
Fashion Design students can approach a new way of thinking about the creative process, leveraging the 3D modeling techniques that will represent a technological standard for most fashion companies in the coming years.
I’MF: What did you look for in the designs submitted to the contest? What sets students apart?
MB: I expected innovation, freedom, and self-expression from the projects. I was not disappointed. The students provided an incredibly fresh and genuine take on contemporary fashion, demonstrating that they have control over their creativity and sensitivity to the technique. The winners found the right balance of imagination and function, creating collections and outfits that are highly representative of their identity, and feeling free to experiment with 3D design.
Marco Bisato is the CEO and Co-founder of Customix.
Anabella C. Pacheco is a Fashion Business and Digital Marketing student at Istituto Marangoni Firenze.
