Digital transformation: how can it provide the most value to fashion brands while enabling sustainable change?

Abstract

This research project aims to assess how the digitalization of fashion can contribute to the sustainable development of the fashion industry, in line with the UN Agenda 2030. It seeks to determine how digital fashion can provide the most value to fashion brands focused on efficiency and growth, while enabling genuine sustainable change. Web3 technologies, enabling real-time community connectedness, provide an ideal environment for collaborative fashion creation, which can help brands optimize problematic large-scale physical production volumes. However, the uniqueness of these technologies poses challenges for the full understanding and adoption of them by non-technology professionals. In the prevailing managerial climate, this can lead to a centralized profit-driven approach, emphasizing the monetary value of digital fashion over its other material values. Qualitative research methods were used to gather the data for this study, including a literature review and a netnographic observation during Metaverse Fashion Week 2023, as well as a post-event social media analysis. The research confirms that due to the underdeveloped interoperability of Web3 worlds, the NFT route is currently a precarious solution. Nevertheless, when integrated into fashion brands’ design, production, marketing, and sales processes, digital 3D fashion shows the potential to drive long-term growth while contributing to sustainable transformation. This necessitates the interactive involvement of all stakeholders in the open internet. For equal participation in the co-creation of a decentralised internet, technology companies must provide comprehensive Web3 education to less technology-savvy users, including media, organisations, and individuals. This emphasizes the role of DAOs in promoting equity among individuals and simultaneously fostering economic development during Web3’s ongoing development stages.