iFashion: Apps, Stats and an Ethical Evolution
There they were, a great swell of strange prehistoric sea creatures emerging from an electrifying flood of cerulean seeped blues. They came forth, swaying gently, their long graceful limbs at odds with their large and distorted amphibian feet. Collectively this otherworldly spectacle was grotesque, fantastical and of course, beautifully hypnotic. From the beginning his creations surfaced as if from pools of the imagination, multi-sensory manifestations of the sub consciousness, and to think that we came so close to watching this live and online.
Back in 2009 Alexander McQueen was set to wow us once more with his 2010 ready-to-wear Spring/Summer (S/S) collection, Plato’s Atlantis. McQueen’s latest aesthetically arresting designs were not to be viewed first by privileged eyes-only. This feast of fashion was to be projected worldwide via Nick Knight’s SHOWstudio.com site, for well, us. Except it wasn’t. Well not yet anyway. The site crashed spectacularly as eager fans rushed to catch an earful of Lady Gaga’s latest single, which was premiering on McQueen’s catwalk. Disasters aside, this show was indeed a turning point for fashion and technology, and of course the effect caught on. Burberry, taking a leaf from the book of McQueen, live streamed their S/S 2011 collection into 25 stores, with pieces being snapped up in an instant. Buying live from the catwalk may well and truly be one of the next steps in online purchasing, high street heavyweight Topshop sold straight from their catwalk collection for ‘Topshop Unique’ S/S 2011.
E-tailer websites such as fashion and beauty retailer, ASOS and the luxury fashion retailer, Net-A-Porter have helped to change what it means to purchase fashion online. Buying live seems only like the next logical next step in the evolution of purchasing fashion. In the foreseeable future Net-A-Porter look set to launch Net-A-Porter live, where people can see in real-time what other customers from around the world are purchasing. Net-A-Porter have also recently introduced an app for the iPad, along with new and updated apps for the iPhone and iPad touch. Innovative style and fashion sites are also popping up in ever increasing numbers. Fashiolista.com, founded in 2010, is a style-discovery site that allows users to find, “love” and share their own sartorial discoveries from almost any online retailer. Wardrobes go back to the future with the website totalwardrobecare.co.uk which enables clients to plan their looks by photographing and logging their entire wardrobe online.
Technology is not only altering how we consume and view fashion but it is also changing the very nature of a fashion garment, from its design and creation to the materials used in its production. McQueen’s Plato’s Atlantis was a visual extravaganza for sure, with its hybridised aquatic humanoids, theatrical runway, cinematic screen and of course, not forgetting, the garments themselves. There were definitive elements of the futuristic and technological to the garments, seen in the digitally printed dresses, structured gargantuan heels and the armour-like effect of the multi-panelled fabrics. Similarly, in the Armani Privé stellar, sci-fi S/S 2011 couture collection fabric technology was used to excellent effect. The shimmering material appeared stiff and unyielding, yet as the fabric moved in motion with the model’s body it seemed altered, as if its properties had morphed into those of a malleable extraterrestrial metal.
McQueen’s computer-engineered graphic prints were not a particularly new technological feat. However, what McQueen succeeded in achieving through this medium (and through his collection as a whole) was the ability to covey an ethical metaphor for climate change. It can also be taken as a broader metaphor for changes that are occurring within the fashion industry, and have been gaining momentum for a while now. These changes are based on ecological and social ethics, a cause that has been aided by advancements in technology. One of the most exciting consequences of this ethical focus is the experimentation that has occurred by many an eco-conscious designer to produce designs that are ecologically sound but still stylish. Mark Liu is a designer known for his Zero Waste philosophy. It is a practice that seeks to eliminate the fifteen percent fabric waste that is usually produced in the cutting process of the average garment. Even his complex digital print designs adhere to the Zero Waste policy. Holly McQuillan is another such designer that favours the Zero Waste technique; her intricate digital print designs also integrate all waste into the garment itself. For Spring 2011 high-street heavyweight H&M launched their Conscious* Collection, a realisation of H&M’s continuous endeavouring for a more ‘sustainable fashion future’. The garments themselves were produced from materials such as recycled polyamide (which is made from materials such as carpets and fishing nets), recycled plastic bottles and hemp. Advances in technology have made it possible to reuse and transform these materials into finer, softer textiles. What we know and see as high-tech, futuristic and fast is excitingly, only the beginning. Who knows where the next few cyber steps will leave us, but I’m sure we won’t be waiting to long to find out.
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