© The Fabricant x Toni Maticevski
When Daniele Scarante began his career in sport-performance apparel design over a decade ago, few had even imagined what digital fashion could become. In 2012, he made a bold pivot, moving from physical product development into the emerging world of 3D design. Teaching brands how to use software like Clo3D, he helped early adopters digitise their development processes, reducing the need for physical samples. After a stint at Adidas, he joined The Fabricant in 2020 as a 3D Fashion Lead. Today, he is shaping the next generation of creators through The Fabricant Academy – an educational initiative guiding designers through the evolution of fashion in a digital-first era.
The Fabricant has been building a blockchain-native digital fashion house since 2018, creating tools for individuals to design and trade virtual garments in the metaverse. The Fabricant Studio is their latest offering, a platform that invites creators to co-create with 3D artists like Stephy Fung and Scarlett Yang and brands to trade creations with equal revenue share. “A creator is a doer,” says Scarante. “Everyone applies creativity which is lateral thinking to build something. It can be artists, fashion designers, architects and people who want to learn how to operate in fashion or Web3.” In collaboration with World of Women, The Fabricant will launch a 27-piece collection that allows female-led Web3 communities to customise and trade their own creations to build an inclusive and equitable digital fashion economy. “It’s a beautiful moment to start as a designer”, he adds. “Back then, there were still Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop CDs with a big manual and it was intense. Now you can learn on Discord.”
“The learning curve is short, so you can learn in three months without being a tailor. This is another layer why digital fashion is becoming popular because everybody can create something realistic. You don’t even need to be good at drawing. When you have an idea, you can realise it and make it.” – Daniele Scarante, The Fabricant
© The Fabricant
Digital Fashion and the Sustainability Question
Digital fashion raises bold questions about the future of identity, expression and how we create clothes. As fashion increasingly takes places online, avatars and digital assets are becoming an extension of self. “Fashion is about expressing identities, but you have physical limitations when producing. Digital fashion is removing this part and enhancing what self-expression is. You can wear whoever you feel like you are,” says Scarante. There is a temptation to assume that the absence of physical products equals zero impact. But digital systems have their own costs, particularly in blockchain infrastructure. Read more about our critical take in our previous post. “Digital fashion doesn’t produce anything and it is cutting the whole supply chain which is a huge environment. So on a scale, the proof of work mechanism creates a huge demand for energy and resources,” Scarante acknowledges.
“I hope that everyone doing digital fashion can successfully remove the toxicity of the environment that fashion nowadays creates. When we talk about sustainability, it’s not only about the environment but the people. Digital fashion will have to remove the toxicity and create a much more healthy environment for people who want to create and be part of it without limitations and being exclusive at all.” – Daniele Scarante, The Fabricant
The Fabricant Marketplace runs on the decentralised Flow blockchain that uses a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism, ensuring a more environmentally friendly option to mint NFTs. In fact, minting an NFT on Flow requires less carbon than a post on Instagram. Minting on Ethereum consumes the equivalent energy of powering a household for over 7.74 days. “Everything that creates value consumes resources, so we cannot say that digital fashion has zero emissions. This is a lie. We continue to build the knowledge of how to constantly improve the sustainability part and also spread awareness”, says Scarante. The devil is in the details and the fashion industry increasingly adopts digital tools. The challenge is not only to innovate, but to do so with intention. Transparency and accountability must be embedded at every layer, ensuring that this new frontier benefits not only creators and companies, but the planet itself.
Words by Melenie Hecker
Cover by The Fabricant
24 June 2022
The Fabricant on Shaping the Next Generation of
Digital Creators
What inspires Daniele:
Read: “Sneaker Freaker: The Ultimate Sneaker Book!” by Simon Wood. Highlight: Understanding the culture behind a product and how a shoe can become a symbol for a generation.
Watch: “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” by Stanley Nelson junior. Highlight: “Creativity is all about change”. The keystone of artistic evolution is how the artist can regenerate himself by collaborating with young emerging artists and giving them space to grow and why change.
Listen: “The Business of Fashion Podcast” by The Business of Fashion. Always a good listen.