THE EVOLUTION OF FASHION: THE WORLD'S FIRST CONCEPT STORE HOT: SECOND LAUNCHES

IMAGE CREDITS: THE FABRICANT: CARLING: CHRISTOPHER RAEBURN: HOT SECOND

To bring about radical change you have to think outside of the box!! Re-think the Future and Start again with a new beginning!! [NOT Digitise the Past]

The digitisation of the supply chain is now a critical driver for change within the Fashion Industry, and ultimately, will deliver sustainable manufacture, transparency and a new era of product design created within the circular economy.

For sure we are making steady progress, but as always, (and to my eternal frustration) the retail and manufacturing communities seems to focus on past process, to re-create the future by streamlining with new technologies to bring efficiency.

Launching this week is HOT:SECOND the world’s first concept store trading in physical products for digital experiences is to open at Protein Studios in Shoreditch, London, UK from Tuesday 19th –Thursday 21st November.

Overall, this retail prototype aims to induce a new kind of retail alchemy where the physical and digital combine to co-create a distinct and individualised experience that is considered to be both fun and thought provoking.

For those who would rather upcycle than donate, there will be live customisation stations offered by Frankie Noller, Giulio Miglietta and other independent artists. Here, the idea is that the customised garment is more likely to be reworn and reloved - and therefore does not end up as one of the weekly 11 million in landfill.

The idea for the store was initially conceived due to Fashion Futurist and Academic Karinna Nobbs’ field research. She has interviewed consumers and key industry stakeholders about their perceptions on digital fashion. Here the consumer research demonstrated considerable confusion and disbelief around what it was and how it worked.

This was further compounded in a recent UK survey Karinna undertook with One Pulse where 38% of those surveyed were unfamiliar with the term digital fashion. The general consensus from 60% of the sample was that they were curious and almost a quarter 27% said they thought an interaction with a digital garments could help them decide whether to buy the physical garment.

Refreshingly 22% thought that digital fashion could offer a way for them to enjoy fashion in a more sustainable way.

In the short term the emergent research results appear to suggest that digital fashion is more of a novelty marketing or PR tool until there is another place apart from social media where one can “wear” a digital garment. Whilst the store is open the research will be ongoing and the insights gained will be jointly published with Protein in early 2020.

The next evolution of the experiential digital fashion concept is planned to debut at Berlin Fashion Week in January 2020 in collaboration with LUKSO who are a blockchain company specialised in tokenising assets within the creative economies.

Jonathan Chippindale, CEO of Holition: “This project fundamentally addresses two issues that interest us, one is around sustainability, and what that actually means in relation to the circular economy, recycling and reusing products and maximising the lifespan of a product. The other element is digital. We are always interested in ideas which are at the beginning of their journey and digital clothing could well be a very big thing in the future, but the only way to understand it is to explore it and get consumers reactions”.

Kerry Murphy, Founder at The Fabricant: “The project is another step towards a more sustainable fashion industry by creating an experience that reduces the physical need of clothing while allowing for new business models to be tested outside of the gaming focus, purely transforming fashion towards its digital-only experience”.

Ronny Mikalsen, CEO of Carlings: “We got involved first and foremost because we loved the project one hundred percent. Both the innovative and sustainable aspect within it really plays along with our values. We see it part of our responsibility to contribute towards projects that do that”

Morten Gruback Exec Creative Director, VIRTUE - “As the fashion industry fuelled by social media race to speed up the supply chain, we are proud to have partnered with Carlings to cut it out entirely by launching the first ever fully digital clothing collection that overhauls a business model under pressure and challenges the environmental impact of an industry. The best Instagrammers are almost lifestyle artist. The square is their canvas, and their style is their brush. But the ones who are really pushing fashion aren’t always the ones with funds to realize their vision. We wanted to use technology to liberate style from money. HOT:SECOND is an amazing project that we are proudly part of in our quest to help reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry.”

David Segal, Raeburn Design Digital Manager: “We are always looking to innovate but also disrupt and challenge the industry as we know it, it therefore made perfect sense for us to get involved in HOT:SECOND. Digital clothing has real potential to drive responsible design and our inherent agility also allows us to be flexible with these ideas and, of course to learn.”

Emily Switzer, 3D Visual Artist (Christopher Raeburn Safety Parka) : ” When you work in a digital medium you rarely get to see any physical manifestation of that work, but this project will allow people to connect and enjoy my 3D garments in a palpable way, and as an artist it's always a pleasure to see how people will react to your work”.