Can The Fabricant Convince The Industry Fashion's Future Is Online?

The digital fashion bubble isn’t bursting anytime soon. At least not in New York City where the first ever AI Fashion Week took place in April, showcasing AI generated creations from around the globe. The CFDA is upping the ante by hosting a virtual fashion show from The Fabricant this week, positioning the pioneering digital fashion house among New York Fashion Week's top talents. Dubbed ‘Wholeland: Primal Rave’, the virtual fashion show is set to reveal The Fabricant's first digital couture collection while making the case for an alternative to traditional fashion shows. But how ready is the world for a digital wardrobe? I spoke with The Fabricant co-founder Andrea Pereira to find out.

‘We’re always trying to reinvent the way fashion exists,' Pereira tells me over Zoom. A virtual meeting with the digital pioneer only feels appropriate. Since 2016, the Netherlands-based fashion house has been at the forefront the digital fashion space with a team of in-house designers. Their first major project, 'Wholeland', launched in 2022 with a series of wearable digital accessories aptly dubbed XXories, sold as NFTs that allow owners exclusive access to an evergrowing fashion journey. The next chapter being Primal Rave.

Looking to sell The Fabricant's upcoming show as close to a traditional show is Pereira's agenda during our discussion. Like an average walkthrough she begins by discussing the inspiration behind looks dubbed 'Door Bitch' and 'Skullfck', telling me the inspiration came from an IRL rave one of their co-founders attended. As if AI generated the moodboard she goes on to show me reference images of runway looks from designers like Rick Owens, 90s ravewear, and 17th traditional Dutch dress. It's difficult not to think about the on-going tragedy currently taking place at Burning Man. A cohort of affluent caucasians stranded in a desert wearing nothing more than the visual signifiers of 'I take psychedelics' with just a hint of cultural insensitivity.

Let me be clear. Any critiques I have has little to do with the digitalness of the fashion. On the contrary, The Fabricant makes a lot of valid points in why the industry should be taking digital fashion seriously. The first being the sustainable applications of digitising the design process. Pereira tells me everyone on the in-house design team went to traditional fashion school and spend as much time perfecting their digital designs as any couturier.

'As if it's true jacquard', she says while zooming the screen in on one of the collection's assets. While it isn't real, there is no reason it couldn't be. She continues, 'the patterns are true fashion patterns', meaning each of the designs could be produced in real life if the need ever arose. A practice that real ateliers could explore as a means to reduce waste along with making size adjustments easier than ever. In the open source spirit of Web 3.0, the patterns are also readily available for anyone to work with. 'It's about sharing and building a community rather than just pushing and selling'.

Of course, the real issue with The Fabricant's aspirations, like any of the major digital fashion players at the moment, will be whether it can convince the average consumer that digital fashion is worth investing in. A recurring factor in the selling of digital fashion has been the limitlessness of the designs. Creating silhouettes and utilising 'materials' that otherwise wouldn't be applicable in the physical realm. But does anyone really want jellyfish-esque sleeves or 6 additional floating arms like the Hindu goddess Kali?

The overemphasis on aesthetics might work with video games, where fantasy and escapism are key but even the most theatrical designers of the last century like Alexander McQueen and Mugler bookended their collections with real, desirable garments. While digital fashion pioneers like drawing comparisons between skin sales on games like Fortnite and League of Legends, doing so feels misplaced for the audience that keeps up with the official fashion week schedule. With designs more akin to Final Fantasy characters than even the most ostentatious streetstyle fixtures, it begs the question: who is this really for?

Like any creative director, for Pereria the point of the upcoming show will be to generate desire for the designs. 'It's about evoking emotions', she says of fashion shows when I ask about the lack of tactility in the virtual space. 'How can we actually increase the amount of emotional connection to the item that goes beyond the physical? With the show you immerse yourself in the environment though the music and the visuals', she says. 'It's not tactile but it creates a different sensorial experience'. Will the smokeshow of sound and visuals be enough to convert the digital pessimists among us or (like the collection itself) leave much to be desired. Either way, I prefer to rave IRL.

Watch 'Wholeland: Primal Rave' at 16:00 BST here.