You are probably confused about all things 'digital fashion' and virtual terms such as NFTs, ‘metaverse’, ‘NFTs’, and ‘blockchain’. Indeed, we are at the beginning of a new transformation where fashion takes an active role in participation. For instance, luxury powerhouses such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci are pioneers in virtual gaming and entertainment. For now, digital fashion is a good way to diversify your portfolio but currently, it is more of an entertainment than an alternative business model. Currently, the best thing brands can do is focus on being more sustainable and using alternative business models in the physical world.
Is it better to buy a digital item rather than a real one? Currently, it’s hard to say better or worse, it’s different, and difficult to compare. The price can be comparable, however, the question is how we utilise them. We need physical clothes, it is a fact. Providing the environmental impact is not negative, then a digital fashion product could be better than a physical one for obvious reasons such as zero pollution and zero landfills.
Are digital clothes going to replace real clothes? Probably not. And then, most importantly, the environmental impact of technology is huge. It takes so much energy and no one can measure that impact yet as there is no life cycle analysis for the virtual world.
Can NFT be “sustainable”? Let’s start with the definition of sustainability. It incorporates both the environmental issue and social justice issue – planet and people – so we don’t know whether an NFT can be sustainable because nobody yet has done full credible research into both these impacts.
So while digital fashion could be argued to be better on the environment than buying physical fashion, the question remains unanswered because there is no clear understanding of how the physical and digital worlds could be sustainably intertwined.
Source: Eco-age, 2022
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