With the advent of new technologies comes the opportunity for industries to advance, and in the case of the fashion world, it’s turning towards alternative, digital methods of producing and distributing fashion. Digital fashion is a relatively new, experimental industry that subverts common systems of fashion consumption, as it’s bereft of the traditional wear that gives fashion its functionality. Instead, digital fashion offers commentary on speculative fashion and visual identity while producing far less waste than physical clothing. Physically, digital fashion doesn’t offer much, but virtually, these digital items can be mapped onto social media images and virtual avatars, downloaded as gaming skins, or purchased as fashion NFTs.

My first encounter with digital fashion happened over the summer when I visited the “Fashion Fictions” exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery. As I perused, I was struck by the work of digital designer Yimeng Yu. The series she exhibited at the gallery, Curvature Species, was founded upon generative design principles, using manual editing to create organic creatures within an imaginary universe. Inspired by microorganisms and motion, she created eight personalities woven into the virtual cloth to give it an organic, life-filled appeal.

What drew me to Yu’s work was her method of constructing fantastically exaggerated looks, which is a liberty offered by her media of choice. Yu is traditionally trained in fashion design, and having learned the craft of fashion, chose to apply her understanding of material, design, and construction to push the boundaries of fashion. Yet despite the differences between physical and digital fabrication, Yu doesn’t think that “there is a lot of difference between designing for digital bodies and physical ones, because [her] target is always a body.” She continues to consider design factors that respond to the body but appreciates the freedom and ease she can iterate through the outfit with the digital ware. As someone unfamiliar with the workflow of a fashion designer, I found her comment on the similarities between physical and digital design, yet as a designer, I appreciated what that means for the industry. Demystifying the digital fashion workflow may encourage the adoption of more digital fabrication throughout the physical clothing manufacturing process, decreasing the waste the industry produces. 

Outside of what Yu’s process may mean for the industry, I noticed that much of her work involves themes of order and disorder, macro universe and micro organism, real and imaginary. We have entered an era of environmental confusion that I believe stems from a fundamental confusion of the self. We perceive the world as “me” and “other”, and our deeply solipsistic attitudes toward what visibly seems the least like us obscures the complex intermixing between all things, resulting in a deep apathy towards non-human life, objects, and environments. To break boundaries in your work is to notice and take a step toward radical compassion that may lead us toward an optimistic future. Yu’s method of melding the human figure and natural geometric patterns together communicates this message of togetherness. While her work alone may not steer us toward an optimistic future, her organic, geometric, reality-bending inspirations, and techniques may rework our relationship with an overlooked object: clothing. 

However, since digital fashion lacks the functionality of traditional fashion, people are quick to point at it as a waste of time. This uninspired criticism reminds me of what Björk once said in her 1977 documentary about digitalism and music: “I think it’s so amazing when people tell me that electronic music has not got soul … you can’t blame the computer, if there’s no soul in the music, it’s because nobody put it there and it’s not the tool’s fault.” The same applies to digital fashion, and I’d sure as hell say Yimeng Yu’s work has nothing but soul.

Reach writer Sydney Lai at musemediauw@gmail.com.
Instagram @sydneyl4i