The Role of Digital Design in Building a More Sustainable Fashion Industry
By Sujain Thomas
Creativity, craftsmanship, and change are all hallmarks of the fashion industry. It also faces an increasing challenge to minimize the waste of materials, overproduction, and environmental impacts of material production. With brands looking for more ethical approaches to collections, digital design is playing an increasing role in the solution.
Digital tools can assist fashion companies make better decisions before physical production, ranging from the virtual prototype to 3D garment visualization. It is not only influencing the design of clothes, it is also shifting the perception of brands towards sustainability.
Preventing the production of waste
The advantages of digital design are among the greatest, as issues can be detected before cutting and garment manufacturing takes place.
Several physical specimens are typically required to assess the shape, fit, proportions and construction of a garment by designers and product teams in the traditional design process. Fabric, trims, packaging, transportation and labour is required for each sample. There may be several iterations through a design, and materials used may be substantial, especially if the design changes significantly from iteration to iteration.
Teams can use digital prototyping to virtually see how garments will look and make changes. Designers can test silhouettes, colors, and fabrics and even construction techniques without having to make a physical sample. This can decrease the amount of needless sampling and make the way brands develop a more resource-efficient process.
Ensuring better communication between the supply chain
Designers, product developers, manufacturers, suppliers and others involved in fashion production can work across various locations. Inaccuracies in the development process can result in the wrong samples, production delays and wasted materials.
Digital design platforms can offer a common visual point of reference for teams. Before making production, detailed measurement, construction information, material specifications and changes of design can be conveyed more clearly.
This is a more streamlined process where everyone involved can access up to date information. Minimizing misunderstandings can lead to reduced revision and streamlined transition from concept to the final product.
Digital Tech Packs and Better Product Development
One of the key developments is the digital garment documentation that has taken place in the garment development process. A digital tech pack can pull all the necessary information and details about measurements, materials, construction details, color specification, and more into one place.
If this information is structured properly, manufacturers will be better equipped to meet the designer's needs. A fashion techpack can also be easier to change, especially in the event that multiple individuals are on the product development team.
Digital documentation is more than a convenience. Having more accurate product information can help minimize design to manufacturing errors, potentially eliminating the need for unnecessary samples and corrections.
Materials Exploration in a More Efficient Way
Digital design can also help in making informed material choices. During the design development stage, designers can experiment with various combinations of fabrics, colors, textures, and finishes without creating a physical version of each one.
This is especially beneficial for brands creating several styles or colorways. Teams don't have to produce many samples for comparison to choose the options, but can run many possibilities virtually to reduce the options to the few samples that would be worth making physically.
While digital visualization can not replace the need of a physical evaluation of certain key characteristics of the fabric like hand feel, weight, stretch and durability, it is important to note that digital visualization is only part of the picture. It can, however, lower the number of real iterations that are needed in early development.
On-Demand and Small-Batch Fashion are supported
Business models designed to create closer to demand can be complemented by digital workflows. Overproduction is a serious issue in the fashion industry because the unsold products can lead to wastage of material, energy, space, transport etc.
Digital design can enable brands to prepare collections more efficiently by improving the speed and accuracy in product development. When paired with demand forecasting, made-to-order production, and small-batch manufacturing, digital workflows can help empower more flexible inventory management.
However, it is not a panacea for overproduction. Important roles are related to production planning, consumer demand, purchasing decisions and management of the supply chain. Better development of digital products, though, can give brands a more robust set of tools to make those decisions.
Virtual Presentation and Collaboration
The presentation of collections can also be altered by digital garments and 3D visualization. Designers can develop virtual models of products to review internally, present to buyers, market, and more during product development.
It is possible to review designs by remote teams, without always sending physical samples from one place to another. This can help to minimize some transportation involved in the sampling and approval process, and make international collaboration easier.
When teams and suppliers are located in several countries, these efficiencies are particularly valuable for global fashion companies.
What is the Next Generation Sustainable Digital Design?
Digital design should not be considered as a replacement of all the physical processes in fashion. Physical samples are still significant for fit, construction, comfort, material performance and final quality.
Rather, in the future, there will be a mix of digital and physical processes. Digital tools can be used to reduce the number of unnecessary iterations that brands must go through, while the physical development process can be reserved for those moments when it is really required.
Digital design technologies are continuing to evolve; perhaps they will make the biggest difference to the sustainability of fashion companies by assisting them to make better decisions earlier in the process. If designers are able to imagine, tweak, and discuss products before investing huge amounts of physical resources, they can get more efficient with the product design process.
Conclusion
In order to make the fashion industry more sustainable, transformations need to take place along the entire product journey. All parts and procedures are important, from materials to manufacturing to logistics to consumption to end-of-life. One aspect of this bigger change is digital design.
Digital tools can revolutionize the way fashion businesses approach the product lifecycle and streamline the process between the initial concept and the finished product by optimizing sampling, communication, documentation and collaboration.
It's not about making fashion digital, it's about making fashion more digital. It is to make good use of digital tools to blend creativity with responsible production. Digital design could be an increasingly significant component of a more efficient and sustainable fashion industry as brands continue to delve into new technologies.
Citations
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