Today's fashion supply chain is multi-continental and intertwined with diverse elements scattered all over of the world. The best option, probably the only option, to make it truly transparent, sustainable, and effectively manageable, is to digitalise it seamlessly.
While industrial and social digitalisation gained pace during the Covid-19 pandemic and more and more digital solutions for Industry 4.0 applications are appearing on the market, digitalisation along the global fashion supply chain is not happening at the same depth and speed. Especially on the manufacturers’ side in the countries such as Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Vietnam and others, it is far behind the situation on the retailers’ side in Europe and North America. As a result, designers, fashion buyers/merchandisers and sustainability professionals on the European and North American retailers’ side struggle to implement and manage digital solutions while working with their Asian counterparts. The transparency and sustainability of products from fashion companies are facing increasing scrutiny. On the other hand, digital fashion is not just limited to computer-aided design (CAD) and manufacturing (CAM), but rather runs throughout the fashion business, from product life cycle management and developing new business models that promote sustainability to connecting virtual and augmenting reality with fashion to enhance consumers’ experience through smart solutions. It has emerged as a multidisciplinary field of knowledge that attracts overlapping interests from academics, researchers and professionals coming from fashion design, business and technology, computer science, software engineering, animation and gaming, anthropometrics, supply chain management and Industry 4.0, big data and artificial intelligence, and industrial sustainability. Realising the complexity of the issue, action is required to bring all parties of digital fashion together to streamline the adoption and development of innovative solutions along the global fashion supply chain. This is to be done through the proposed Digital Fashion Network (DFN).
The Network
The Network will be formed with members from industry and academia covering diverse disciplines and geographical locations related to digital fashion and will be expanded throughout the project life-time. It will organise several hybrid events including four workshops, one of which will be hosted by the Co-I in Bangladesh to better connect with the fashion manufacturers, six online webinars (one in every three months) on the latest innovations in digital fashion, an international conference on “Digital Fashion Innovation”, a research paper competition for postgraduate research students, one 3D design and illustration competition for students and an online exhibition. An edited book titled “Advances in Digital Fashion Innovations” through Textile Institute’s Professional series (CRC Press and Taylor & Francis) will be published with chapter contributions by the shortlisted speakers of the aforesaid conference. It also aims to deliver an international research group for post-project collaboration in research and bidding activities.
DFN will be unique in its kind as no such network focusing specially on digital fashion exists at present. The network will echo the ethos of the multiple United Nation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). It will contribute towards the achievement of the target 9.5 of SDG 9 through promotion of scientific research and upgradation of the technological capabilities of textile and fashion industrial sectors in developing countries in particular Bangladesh.
It will also complement the target 12.a of SDG 12 by promoting digital fashion innovations in developing countries, e.g. Bangladesh, and catalysing the strengthening of their scientific and technological capacity to move towards more sustainable patterns of textile and fashion production.
DFN will be unique in its kind as no such network focusing specially on digital fashion exists at present. The network will echo the ethos of the multiple United Nation’s sustainable development goals (SGDs). It will contribute towards the achievement of the target 9.5 of SDG 9 through promotion of scientific research and upgradation of the technological capabilities of textile and fashion industrial sectors in developing countries in particular Bangladesh.
It will also complement the target 12.a of SDG 12 by promoting digital fashion innovations in developing countries, e.g. Bangladesh, and catalysing towards the strengthening of their scientific and technological capacity to move towards more sustainable patterns of textile and fashion production.