“ This Craving for the one-off is taking hold in the world of machines as well” (Munari, 2013)
The rustle and chitter-chatter in the background from where I am sitting now, flicking through Munari’s seeking comfort in an uncomfortable chair, and towards one of the later pages I see this quote above. I find this really interesting as part of my experiment I have been upskilling in one of the software’s I teach, learning different digital stitching techniques and re-wiring my brain to think in a digital way rather than creating a physical garment. These are 2 different things…
The digital fashion realm has exploded recently particularly through the pandemic as the entry-level has been lowered substantially because of the accessibility of certain software’s such as Clo3D, which is available at affordable rates with lots of open-source help online, anyone can teach themselves and become a “digital designers” is this a good thing? To a certain extent yes it is, as the interest is there and the drive to want to learn, but is it still fashion? I attended a recent tech festival where they were talking about one-off digital pieces an NFT a Non-fungible token essentially from my understanding a digital asset which you can buy, it may be an augmented reality Karl Lagerfeld (image 1) or a digital dress which can be displayed in the Phy-gital (Image 2) meaning we are entering another world here. Where is the limitation, is this all still really classed as fashion or is this a brand new discipline. It kind of blows my mind as I don’t really fully understand it all and the speakers spoke so eloquently and knowledgeable about the subjects of NFT and the now new metaverse!!
Image 1: Karl Lagerfeld NFT (source: https://www.marketing-interactive.com/karl-lagerfeld-sells-out-nft-collection-in-pioneer-launch )
Image 2: Phyg-ital Dress – Digital clothes worn by a physical being. (Source: https://www.thisoutfitdoesnotexist.com/ )
Although Munari wrote this in 1944 the quote still stands but just in a very different way. In the Digital world or the now apparent metaverse, everyone is constantly trying to outdo each other “look what I’ve made, look what I own” It is mad to me to spend thousands of dollars on a digital asset, what do you do with this digital asset, who does this impress? I am clearly not thinking about this in the correct way as NFT’s seem to be the next (or are) big thing. The technology and skill that goes into creating a digital asset are insane, they are couture in their own right as some digital images/gifs/assets probably take as long to make as a couture garment would.
Clo3D is like a thorn in my side, as it seems everyone wants to be using it, but the university already owns software that is comparable but the difference is the software is “unreachable” or “less user-friendly”, because it has been developed by pattern cutting/fashion industry rather than the animation/gaming industry, therefore the simulations, are not as refined but not only that because digital pattern cutting companies are generally stemmed from legacy companies they still want you to pay them to learn how to use the software. This makes it less appealing to the students, as we don’t have student licenses and even if we did, most students have a MacBook and most of the digital pattern cutting software are only available on a windows based device. From the training, I have been having It has become very evident the technical preparation which is required to stitch a garment on Optitex is very complex as it derives from garment development – what is the fabric type, does the pattern need to be amended? Does It wrap around the body, how do you wrap it around the body? Simple gestures on physical garments become very complex when creating digitally, however, Clo3D has less of this technical preparation before simulation, meaning the user can freely move the garment around and effectively almost pull on a garment, whereas on Optitex the pieces must be placed around the avatar in a way where all the stitches can see each other, which when creating a more complex garment can become very time consuming and near impossible to replicate in 3D. Which begs the question what do you want to achieve from the simulation?
- Is it to create a digital simulation to say that you have done it, even though it is very challenging and may take substantially longer to replicate in 3D than it would to stitch up physically?
- Is it to check the fit digitally?
- Is it to use for marketing purposes?
- Or for something else?
There has now become a fine line between fashion and digital fashion and weighing up the benefits is important as it can quite easily be very time-consuming to create a garment digitally depending on the complexity of the garment. For me it is about upskilling, and knowing the parameters of the software, if a student asks how you do this, being able to advise them on how they can approach that type of garment or advising if another software may be more suitable for that garment type. It is fun to experiment and be in the know but some of the processes are so complex I think it would be very difficult to teach in a classroom setting.
Munari’s argument is would you buy the same thing as everyone else if you knew you would be comfortable? Or would you rather be uncomfortable? Writing this now is making me realise Optitex is the uncomfortable choice or the one-off, it’s not a sexy software like Clo 3D and the marketing around it, isn’t all razzle-dazzle, so although it may be the unattractive software, it is the one-off to me, as I want to try and make this software sexy, by being in the know-how and having the satisfaction of knowing I can do it. The thing is nothing is impossible, when there is a will there is way.
So therfore yet again I seem to like putting myself in uncomfortable positions, even the chair I am sat on is not particularly comfortable and the gas lift is broke so it always drops down to the lowest level, luckily I am short, but I like to be high….this is just rambling now but what I’m trying to say, when I first got the chair I never thought it was the most comfortable desk chair, but it became comfortable the more I got to know the chair and its little quirks and lets face it, I got it because it matched my sofa not because I knew it would be a comfortable and practical chair….
I am one of those people Munari talks about!!!! What a realisation………………………………
What is Munari going to teach me next, apart from the fact I am one of those people that follows the crowd even though I think I am not following the crowd in fact I am trying to do the exact same thing that everyone else is trying to do.
References:
Munari, B. (2013) Bruno Munari – Seeking Comfort in an Uncomfortable Chair. Verona: Corraini.