Digital Fashion and Sustainability: DressX, IoDF, and The Dematerialised | MVFW 2022 Panel Series

Leanne Elliott Young of the Institute of Digital Fashion, DressX co-founders Natalia Modenova and Daria Shapovalova, and Beata Wilczek of The Dematerialised join host David Cash to talk about sustainability in fashion and what digital clothing can change. Recorded at Metaverse Fashion Week in Decentraland, March 2022, the panel covers measuring the impact of digital garments, digital sampling and try-on, cultural sustainability, mental health, and access.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

1. 00:00 Welcome: sustainability in virtual fashion
2. 01:39 Leanne Elliott Young introduces the Institute of Digital Fashion
3. 02:41 DressX on sustainability as a founding mission
4. 06:37 Beata Wilczek on holistic sustainability at The Dematerialised
5. 08:31 From traditional fashion to digital fashion
6. 12:43 DressX research on the impact of digital garments
7. 20:04 Beata Wilczek on transparency and cultural sustainability
8. 24:19 Tangibility and the real effects of fashion
9. 25:24 DressX on mental health, size, and access
10. 32:30 Leanne Elliott Young on digital try-on and the digital atelier
11. 36:36 Beata Wilczek on why digital fashion is real
12. 39:43 Closing thoughts and initiatives

Speakers

• Leanne Elliott Young, CEO and co-founder, Institute of Digital Fashion
• Natalia Modenova, co-founder, DressX
• Daria Shapovalova, co-founder, DressX
• Beata Wilczek, Head of Digital Sustainability and Social Impact, The Dematerialised
• David Cash, curator of MVFW (host)
• From the conversation
• "digital fashion is real" (Beata Wilczek)
• "don't shop less, shop digital." (DressX)

Key topics

• How DressX measures the impact of digital versus physical clothing
• UN Sustainable Development Goals and digital fashion
• Digital sampling, AR try-on, and producing less
• Who made your clothes: transparency for digital garments
• Cultural sustainability and indigenous knowledge in the metaverse
• Mental health, sizing, and freedom of expression
• Digital waste and the digital divide
• Education and access for emerging designers

How to cite

APA: Cash, D. (2022). Digital Fashion and Sustainability: DressX, IoDF, and The Dematerialised | MVFW 2022 Panel Series [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/G7K62ALFB4Y

Chicago: Cash, David. "Digital Fashion and Sustainability: DressX, IoDF, and The Dematerialised | MVFW 2022 Panel Series." YouTube video, 2022. https://youtu.be/G7K62ALFB4Y.

About the series

The MVFW 2022 Panel Series is a set of ten conversations recorded during the first Metaverse Fashion Week in Decentraland in March 2022. The series was hosted and curated by David Cash and produced by Cash Labs, bringing designers, editors, artists, and technologists together to talk about where fashion goes when it moves into virtual worlds. Several of the artists and brands in the series also showed work in the Cash Labs Gallery in Decentraland during the week.

Transcript

Machine-transcribed and reviewed. Timestamps link to the moment in the video.

[0:09] Hello everybody, welcome back to the main stage of Decentraland's Metaverse Fashion Week. It's day four today is unfortunately the last day, but it's going to be a very exciting day nonetheless. This is the last day of the inaugural Metaverse Fashion Week here in Decentraland, and today we're joined with some leaders in the virtual fashion space to share a conversation about sustainability in virtual fashion. And many people might be thinking about how that works, but I think sustainability is something that is inherent to virtual fashion and the Metaverse because as we move out of the physical world and out of our very tangible commercial lives where we can exist in the Metaverse, and especially on chains like Polygon Mana where our actions really don't have any environmental impact. So it's a different space in a different world, and I'm looking forward to discussing this in more detail with all the incredible ladies that I'm joined with today on our main stage.

[1:02] I would love to just go through the panel. Of course, we have Lee-Ann Elliott-Lee Young, founder, co-founder, and CEO of Institute of Digital Fashion. We have Daria and Natalia, co-founders of DressX, one of the leaders in virtual fashion. And of course, we have Beata, the head of digital sustainability and social impact at the Dematerialize, another leader in this virtual fashion space. So we have an incredible panel of leaders in this space before us, and I would love to pass the mic around and let each of these incredible ladies tell all of you listening just a little bit more about what they do and how sustainability is relevant to their brands. So Lee-Ann, would you like to kick us off? Thank you so much for joining us. So it's a pleasure to be here. I've got to apologize as well. I've lost my voice a little bit, so I'm just sounding lovely and husky for you all. So yeah, so I'm Lee-Ann Elliott-Lee Young, CEO and co-founder of Institute of Digital

[1:56] Fashion. And at IoDF, we really believe in using technology as a democratic tool for change. Our key pillars are inclusivity and diversity and also sustainability. And we really believe in the unison between the IRL and URL realities. Majority of our work right now is transitioning brands and the fashion industry into the metaverse, what that means. And it's a real privilege to be here with such staunch women in this industry. So yeah, hi, pleasure to be here. Pleasure to have you. Thanks so much for joining us. Daria and Natalia, would you once again, thank you for joining us once again on the main stage. Would you like to quickly introduce yourselves and tell everybody a little bit more about DressX and why sustainability is so important to the two of you? Natalia, you start. Let's start.

[2:45] Yes, I will not dig into long introductions. DressX founded in 2020 and our first employee was the chief sustainability officer because it was the reason why we started DressX, being in a traditional fashion industry for more than 15 years and seeing all the inefficiencies that we understood we have to change it. And digital fashion is a perfect way for that. Solving a lot of other different problems as well, but also fixing sustainability, which is super important. And here we come from the sustainability of the environmental impact, but the other facets to it, like inclusivity, accessibility, and long-term development. So yeah, that's an important topic.

[3:42] We didn't find any calculations back in 2020 about the sustainability of digital fashion and decided to start our own research and ready to annual reports that we released. I encourage everyone to dig into the details, everyone who is interested. It's on DressX.com slash sustainability, and we'll definitely share a lot of data today. Yes, thank you, Natalia, for the start. Basically, sustainability was a pillar why DressX was built because we are in fashion for 15 years and obviously we saw so many things that can be changed and that there are so many items of clothing that can exist only in digital and they should not be produced and maybe produced in a quality that is way less than they are being produced currently.

[4:38] So that all made us to understand that there are some other ways to shop. We saw this answer in digital fashion. And also, watching the movie true costs really changed the perception, I think, for so many people of how many processes in fashion should be changed. So basically, it's all in the making. We still can do so many things, but for us it was important from the very beginning to be a voice of sustainability and that's why the sustainability reports and the sustainability section was from the very first day of DressX when it started in August 2020. So it was really important for us and the methodology of how to calculate the impact of digital versus traditional fashion is being patented right now by us because we dived into that together with lawyers and together with some very high-profile professionals who reviewed that and kind of put the stamp of approval and basically working with such

[5:37] organizations as Ellen MacArthur Foundation and some others who also helped us to understand and who published the case of DressX at the website also kind of gave us a lot of visibility on things that we haven't seen but what we included as a part of our research and methodology. We really want all of our customers to understand how they can contribute and why it is important for them to sometimes switch into digital instead of physical when there is kind of a case for that. So that's why we believe that it's really important to find simple words of how to explain to everyone to masses of how we can be more sustainable when we are talking fashion. So that's one of the biggest missions of DressX that we started the company with. Beautiful, beautiful.

[6:24] So excited to dig into some of those aspects a little bit further, especially your studies and all the work that you're doing to quantify the difference with this industry. And I think that's amazing. So excited to dig into that some more. Last but certainly not least, Viata, I'm very excited about everything that you're doing and sustainability is inherent to your role. So we'd like to hear some thoughts on what you're doing with the Dematerialized and what sustainability and fashion means to you. Yeah, sure. Yeah, thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here and a very exciting topic. So my name is Viata Duchalke. I'm the head of digital sustainability and social impact at the Dematerialized. And to Dematerialize, it's a first fashion NFT market space. And how I like to think also about Demat, as we call it, is that it's more about like action space for doing things that are all about social impact and sustainability.

[7:16] And sustainability is a very big word that for many people means many different things. I personally come from academia and doing research on those topics and teaching about them for the last 10 years. For me, it's very important that we bring the understanding of sustainability that's very holistic and complex. So we also think about not only environmental, but also economic, social and cultural sustainability. So I would say this is very, very much crucial to what we do. I think it's crazy opportunity that we all have now to kind of create to making of new fashion worlds. So I think it also comes as a very heavy responsibility because I wouldn't like to see digital fashion replicate the issues and the problems we have in fashion industry as we know it now. So I think it's very important to not only think how we can apply the circular strategies or sustainable strategies as we know them in traditional fashion, but actually think about

[8:10] things that are more web-free native, that are more towards metaverse. So what we're trying to do is dematerialize, kind of distance ourselves maybe from comparison between digital product and physical product and kind of say actually what it is, this new product that we're creating. So, yeah, happy to have more about it. Awesome, so happy to have you as part of this conversation. I think one touch point that everybody on this panel can relate to is the transition from the traditional per se fashion world to this digital metaverse fashion world that we're all working and living in today. And I think that's really important, that transition, that shift and being cognizant of what that entails, I think is really important. And obviously for the past few years, you could say maybe even the past decade, there's been this trend on almost every fashion panel or fashion forecast, speaking about sustainability, but often in very broad terms, maybe up till more recently

[9:03] when I think it's been taken a little bit more seriously. But as I mentioned before, sustainability is inherent to digital fashion and especially from shifting from traditional fashion to digital fashion and finding use cases where digital fashion is either easier or more relevant, makes more sense for users than traditional fashion. So I would love to pass the mic around once again and just open up the discussion on sustainability, virtual fashion, and how each of you see this approach becoming more popular with people, with users, and in real life. So, Leanne, would you like to kick us off on this big topic? I think for all of us, it seems such a small industry and we're all part of this nucleus of change. And when we founded IoDF, we very much wanted to be an emblem for change.

[9:54] And I think we all come at this with a real sentiment of how can we activate and build from some of the pain points that exist in the physical fashion space. And if you just pull it all back and think about what fashion is about, it's about expression, it's about creative narrative, it's about freedom, it's about kinship, and it's about exploring the creativity and identity. There's all these wonderful things that whirl around fashion that actually digital fashion has the potential to explore further. What does it mean when a garment can be modular and can be collaborative? You can co-create together. What does it mean when a pattern isn't static, but instead it can move around the garment and there's all these amazing possibilities in digital fashion. I think right now, the general public still see it as very much a gimmick.

[10:51] And I think us all see the seismic potential of it and the fact that actually all the things that exist in actually inhabit physical fashion can happen in digital. And guess what? It doesn't affect the environment. You can explore more and further your creativity. And I think that that turning point is almost upon us. We see more and more people exploring digital fashion wearing it. We did a project for London Fashion Week in the middle of Covid and lockdown. And all of a sudden people were dancing in the street in digital fashion when everyone was stuck at home looking at a very flat website of the British you know, British Fashion Council London Fashion Week. And people were dancing exploring digital fashion.

[11:40] I think moments like that and what you can see on DressX when you see people moving and dancing around in this space and really, really exploring a new narrative and fashion. You can see slowly and incrementally that shift is occurring. And that's what I think is really exciting is that all you know, the moment is just upon us when people can really see that there's more there's more creative avenues to explore in this digital landscape. And it means that the environment isn't affected by that. You can it's not the the production schedule that happens in don't say like we always call it regular. I think in our circle, regular fashion, physical fashion. There's so many pain points. And I feel like there's just it's such a beautiful industry that we're all incubating.

[12:31] Absolutely. And, you know, we're all here right at the beginning of it, making it all happen. And and I'd say pretty much everybody here on stage has been for for quite some time now, really building it from the ground up. So absolutely great points. Thank you so much for that, Leanne. We'd love to pass it to Daria Natalia. Again, you know, we've all said it before. But of course, sustainability is inherent to your brand. It's one of the first things that you talked about. It's something that you conduct studies in and research and spend a lot of time and resources on as a company. So we'd love to talk about, you know, for maybe for people who might not be so familiar, because you guys do a great job of onboarding people. Why is why is sustainability so inherent to virtual fashion? And maybe you want to share some of the thoughts and statistics and, you know, amazing stats that you've, you know,

[13:13] researched and developed over so much time. Natalia. Sure. Yes, I'll start here. And first of all, I will remind that there are sustainable development goals that is established by the United Nations organization. And we have we've done research and digital fashion contributes to not just one of them, but to plenty. The goal number six, clean water and sanitation. Goal number 12, responsible consumption and production. Goal number 13, climate action and goal number 15, which is life on land. Goal number nine, industry innovation and infrastructure. And goal number number 13, climate action.

[14:04] I already named it. But anyways, climate action double. It's very important. And yes, we start from the notion that digital fashion is more sustainable compared to physical. And based on their calculations and so-called displacement rate. So if you replace just one percent of clothing that people wear in physical, it will be saving 35 million tons of CO2, which is annual CO2 emissions of Denmark. And it's just one percent. And there is a statistics from Barclays Bank. It's actually a statistic from a couple of years ago. They didn't do it in a previous year. But nine percent of clothing in the UK is bought for the sake of content creation for taking picture.

[14:59] So we have the 35 tons multiplied by nine. It's a significant number. And then we also calculated our own performance at Resex. And within the 2020-21, we saved 93,000 kilograms of CO2 and six or over six millions of liters of water. And I know it sounds like a big number, but maybe it's a small number. How to compare it, how to calculate. So six million liters of water enough for 50 people to drink during 174 years.

[15:53] And speaking about carbon emissions, 93,000 kilograms is equal to the carbon emissions produced from 11 million fully charged smartphones. Why we are comparing it to the fully charged smartphones? Because this is something that we can relate. We are using it on a daily basis. And this is the way to consume and to wear digital fashion today, like the most common. Through avatars is something that is getting the adoption, but the phones are like there already. So we can just wear digital fashion for like 11 million people, you know, something like that.

[16:42] So it's just some of the numbers. Maybe I'll stop here and let everyone relax their mind with more like broader conceptual thinking and fast to Daria at this point. Thank you so much for providing all the numbers. And actually, I thought here that it would be amazing if Olga, our chief sustainability officer, would be here at this panel because she also knows so many things that we are kind of communicating here. And thanks to everything that she does within the company, we have all these beautiful numbers that we're happy to share with the world. And this is really important to understand to everyone. And also kind of a simple thing that can probably stains everyone's mind is that digital item, actually, while producing it, we emit 97% less CO2 emissions than with the physical item.

[17:37] So this is something 97%. Everyone can remember and relate to it. So basically, our goal is to continue to be the carbon neutral company that we are right now and even adding all of our new features that will require more energy, more consumption from us as a company, we'll continue to emit them. And we do have a couple of partners we're working with. And this is important for us to set up the standard. And we did have a cases in the past when we kind of encouraged a couple of our partners to also think about that. And a couple of our bigger partners than DressX is for so many reasons. They started earlier, they're like bigger tech companies, and they started to delve into the issue. So I think why it is important to talk, to communicate, and why we're so proud to be at this panel. Thank you so much, David, for inviting us.

[18:25] For us, it's an opportunity not only to talk to people, but also to talk to companies that are listening here and understanding that if they did not implement any sustainability actions as the companies, they should. And there is a kind of way to do that. And yes, definitely we will continue to publish all of our research numbers at DressX sustainability section. And it's like, you can find it on the website very easily. It's on the top of the website. And also as we venture back company and we continue to report to our investors. So actual sustainability numbers is one of the pillars of how we report about the development of the company and all of the numbers that we're mentioning here are also communicated to all of the stakeholders in the company.

[19:12] Because the reason why some of them believed in DressX is exactly because of our sustainability mission. Incredible, incredible. Thank you so much, Daria and Natalia. The work that you're both doing is really invaluable. I mean, the world will thank you for these statistics because I'm sure a lot of people working with you listening to this just in general will be blown away by those metrics. And when we consider something, I'm sure there's some musicians listening or some people who maybe work for a sports team or an arena or a company, somebody who might produce merch or clothes in any way, shape or form. And when they consider that just 1%, if you just switch 1% of the merchandise that you're producing to digital, the impact that you can make. So I think that's really powerful and hopefully puts it in perspective for some people. So really thank you so much for that.

[20:00] And can't wait to pass it back over to you. But thinking about sustainability and talking about sustainability officers, I'd love to pass it over to Beata because that is your role and that is what you do and how you think about this space. And I would love to hear some thoughts from you on how this is more relevant than ever now. And as so many companies are entering the metaverse, where maybe their minds should be at when we're thinking about sustainability and fashion. Yeah, sure, thank you. So kind of to also follow in the spirit of transparency, I think I can talk a little bit about that because this is something we're really working hard on. So first of all, I think at DMAT, we're trying to help brands achieve mutual sustainable goals. So the sustainable goals of digital fashion and whatever companies are there and brands that are entering the space, I think there should be mutual goals

[20:48] and it should always be perceived this way. So I think this is amazing to always emphasize that and whatever digital fashion company it is. From the things that we are doing and how actively we're tackling it because we're very interested in action and tangible outcomes is that we started from writing a manifesto and this manifesto is also available now on our website and the responsibility section. It was already available to our community that we really, really value their opinion and their feedback. And we share also our research findings with them on our Discord channel. And one of the things that comes directly from our community is that they want to know who made their clothes. So that is why we will be adding a kind of visualized transparency function to actually show that digital garments, they also take place, time, they're made by someone, by real people.

[21:43] So this is something that we think is very important to be able to show that. Other things that we're also doing around sustainability, so in terms of environmental impact and carbon emissions, I think it's very inspiring what TrisX is doing. And we are very much committed to measuring, reporting, and then hopefully making as small as possible. And lastly, of setting. So we are really looking into many partnerships that are, some are more blockchain related and more like on-chain. Others are more, let's say, more traditional ESG reporting formats that deliver on what are called the greenhouse gases emissions. So definitely, definitely working on that. Some of the projects that I'm very personally passionate about are projects around social impact and cultural sustainability.

[22:31] So we currently started at 10 months, so very, very long partnership with the SETI. It's a quite amazing school in Mexico where students are very versed with all the digital skills. Many of them already are making digital fashion. So we thought, okay, so what could be the thing that we can do in this partnership with them that we cannot do? Well, usually there's no space to talk about with brands. So we asked them to think how we can bring indigenous knowledge and native fashion to Metaverse, how we actually expand the notion of cultural sustainability, how we bring different cultures, heritage, tradition. So this is also something that we are very interested in, in seeing and also nurturing the future talent. This is also, I think we all kind of have this responsibility to give back to digital creators and nurture what they do.

[23:22] Amazing, amazing, such great points. I love the idea of cultural sustainability as well and our almost duty to be cognizant of our actions, especially as companies. And I think something that's universal to everything that you've all mentioned, there's two things I'd like to mention, but one of them is taking it a step deeper, just considering things one step deeper than surface value or surface level, which I think a lot of us can be guilty of when we're considering something to many as superfluous as fashion, but just considering the actions of doing something like buying a certain garment and what that implies. And that's why I love the fact that Natalia and Daria brought up water consumption because some people might be listening to this and considering why are we even bringing up a water statistic, but when you consider how many millions of barrels of water are required to produce a T-shirt,

[24:07] I forgot, I'm sure you know the statistic, but it's insane how many resources are allocated to clothing production. So I think it's just taking things a step further and considering the tangible effects of what we're doing. And that's the one other thing I want to pass around the mic one more time, just this idea of tangibility when it comes to fashion, especially when we're talking about sustainability. There are real outcomes and real effects to all the things that we do, whether that's producing a digital garment or a real garment. I mean, Leanne, when you mentioned people dancing in the streets in virtual fashion, that's tangible, that's real, that's something that people are doing and experiencing. Daria and Natalia, when you're mentioning these statistics, real world statistics, things that are happening right now in the industries that we're all supporting, we're all wearing clothes.

[24:51] I mean, we're supporting this actively. And then Beata, I love that you're mentioning this cultural sustainability and considering our actions and how we're supporting communities and allowing communities to be authentic to their narratives. I think this idea of tangibility is really important and considering the actual physical effects of virtual ideas on people. So we'd love to pass this idea around one more time. I saw Natalia un-miking a moment ago, so if it's okay with everybody, we can start it with DressX, but yeah, really excited about this conversation, Natalia. Well, I was just like agreeing with everything that you were saying. And yeah, there are so many aspects. It's not only like water or like CO2, there is also chemicals. There is also our mental health, which sometimes can have more damaging consequences than any kind of physical aspect.

[25:47] That's why it's really, I would say 360 approach, but even like not 360 approach, it's like three dimensional, four dimensional, five multidimensional approach to this sustainability because what is sustainable? Something that can last and can develop and can evolve. And now we watch this evolution of digital fashion on our own eyes and weaknesses and invite everyone to kind of join building and also experiencing because there are always part of creation and part of like consumption and saying it in a good way. And there is also this reality of feelings that we have when we wear digital fashion, which is also kind of physical experience.

[26:47] We don't think about it like that, but we see something in digital and we have chemical reaction in our brain and we react to it in a certain way. So it's all very much interconnected and that's why approach for building digital fashion should be how we save and develop the environments that help us to keep creating what we want to create. So yeah, that's just the starting point here. Daria, anything you'd like to add to that? Yeah, continue. Yeah, yeah, it's basically, I love that Natalia's point about the mental health, because when we started to work with some high profile consultants who helped us with our methodology, they actually mentioned that, don't you think that digital fashion actually creates more kind of issues in this mental health of people who are so much into social media?

[27:47] And we tried to explain to them that actually there is a certain mental problem when you kind of can't wear an item that doesn't fit you in the right size. And that happens in the physical fashion a lot due to various reasons. And unfortunately that happens, right? We all know about that. In digital fashion, it gives us so much freedom and so many people can enjoy the variety of fashion and be of any culture, of any size, form. And that's why we love digital fashion so much because it provides so much freedom and you can express yourself. And in the end, like, I'm not even speaking about the avatar as well, like, let's just focus on the AR and part addressing this case, something that Drasek started to kind of pioneer from the very beginning of the existence of the company because it's all about how we can wear digital fashion, how we can enjoy it on a daily basis because that's why fashion is created,

[28:44] not only about collecting. And in physical fashion, it's first about how to wear it and then how to collect it. And yes, that's exactly why we love it in terms of sustainability on the various levels. And we spoke a lot about numbers. We spoke a lot about CO2, water, et cetera. But I love that aspect that Natalia started with and that's what I wanted to contribute to this thought because we're constantly thinking about that too of that also an opportunity to make fashion more democratic. You know that we're both coming from Ukraine. It's a very different country. And I, when I was small, never had the chance to purchase any brand dress because it was just like not what my family could afford. And now we want to give this opportunity to every person on a planet to enjoy the beauty of fashion, at least in digital, in AR.

[29:35] And maybe for someone who's just not a priority to spend thousands of dollars on a fashion item but they can still enjoy it in digital and that's fun and that's cool. And yes, that's why all these aspects also kind of a part of sustainability dialogue and fashion. And that's why we will keep like promoting the off-chain items AR because this is something that is available for literally everyone in the world. Absolutely. I have to add here a little bit, sorry, just a number, numbers and I'll stop. Just numbers from the research that we did with the psychic consumer research and 54% of people who bought digital fashion item told that they're gonna buy another one.

[30:23] 15 bought because they needed the content for their online presence. 31 purchased because they wanted to support sustainable initiatives in fashion and digital fashion is one of them. And what is interesting statistic as well that's 23% of response that agreed that purchasing a digital garment can fulfill their needs buying a physical item. So yeah, just a little bit of numbers here related to how we feel, why we do, why we should do that. And in general in the whole fashion industry not even related to digital fashion, 77% of customers are ready to pay more for sustainable fashion.

[31:18] So of course digital is that perfect option. Amazing, amazing. Such beautiful thoughts, really happy with those especially the idea of our mental health and what we can wear. I mean, we all consider our clothes or many of us in the industry, especially consider our clothes and how they affect the environment, trying to wear local brands, trying to bear brands from emerging designers or designers that we know. But yeah, what you've mentioned about mental health and how virtual fashion can allow anybody to experience fashion. I have to bring up just really briefly a quote from one of my dear friends but Christa Kim always mentions the idea that we all deserve to live in beauty and respect and have a life that we can be proud of. And I think that that in and of itself, that inherently dignity is the word that she uses specifically.

[32:06] We all deserve to live in beauty and dignity and having that respect for ourselves and having that respect for people I think is really important. I think I love that you touch on that Daria that digital fashion can allow people who otherwise would have no access to certain garments or certain styles experience a world maybe beyond their physical realities. So I think that's beautiful. And we'd love to pass that over to Leanne as we've been talking about tangibly experiencing fashion and that beautiful experience. Is there anything you wanted to add to that conversation? Yeah, I think I just wanted to feed in on some of the statistics and just from proof testing, there's obviously loads of within the fashion industry returns is a big issue. And I think there's so many ways in which the digital and the physical can work together as well as just the pivot to purely digital.

[32:54] How from our digital landscape, we can actually prove and test case some of the physical attributes, say color style that can then be tried on with a digital trial and through augmented reality, which means that the customer can then feedback at what they like. So it means that when it comes to physical production, the brand themselves can have data and analytics about what works and what doesn't. So it means that less goes into production. So there's less waste. So as much as I'm obviously all for digital fashion, and I think that the two worlds working in unison is something which is a really strong case for how the industry, the fashion industry can move forwards.

[33:47] And I think the exploration of digital fashion, we're only at the precipice of understanding how it can not only work within the apps through augmented reality, but actually how it can work within and alongside our physicality in our bodies. What is it, how the breath affects the heart rate, and they're all really interesting nuances of where our landscape is going to be going specifically, but then bringing it back to the industry as a whole, how and what it means and what digital fashion means to physical fashion and the industry is much more creativity, but also the data and analytics, what we can all bring to physical brands, physical production is so invaluable. And I think that that's one of the things that's missed a lot.

[34:38] And Beata, what you were saying about the humans that are behind it, goodness, there's so many times we talk about that, like tech is seen as this magical push button, but no, there's craft and artisans, there's a hell of a lot of excellence involved. I mean, we made a digital couture garment and with our hands and eyes of the digital atelier, we created it and there was no physical fashion and it was showed at Paris Water Couture, the detail that went into that. And I think there's transparency is needed through all these different areas, particularly about who makes your clothes. People speak about that all the time in their physical production, but less so is there a conversation about the craft, artisan time that's put into the digital manufacture and the amazing work that we're all bloody doing.

[35:32] So, yeah, I think that we're super interested in this holistic approach to how we can push along our industry as a whole, as well as the massive support for digital fashion, that how it can all work together is a super exciting prospect, I think. Yeah, that's beautiful. I absolutely agree. And I think those are excellent, excellent points that we have to move towards this future together in a way that is accessible to all of us and that we can all engage in. And I think that companies like yours and organizations like all the other lovely ladies here on stage, DressX, Dematerialized, these are the types of organizations that are facilitating this future. So, thank you so much for that. And speaking of, I would love to finally, again, last but of course not least, pass it over to Biata.

[36:24] If you have any final thoughts on this, the tangibility, as you were already discussing, how this immediate human effect exists when we're considering fashion, even virtual fashion. So, yeah, I would love to hear from you. Yeah, sure. So, maybe when I'm hearing all of us speaking here, I think what is really important to emphasize is that digital fashion is real, that it's not something that does not exist or it's very speculative. It's real because it's... I love that, I love that. It's crazy to hear. So, I think it's real because somebody creates it, you can own it, it makes you feel something, it makes you experience something, and it also exists somewhere in this world as data, as pixels, and even if it has much, much lower carbon, it still has some of it.

[37:15] So, it still exists, it still impacts people. So, we really need to emphasize that it's very tangible, it's very real. And thinking about things that are important that have been just mentioned here, I think, yeah, bringing awareness to mental health and even using digital fashion as a kind of, it's like narrative potential to, for example, share empathy around mental health. This is what Dematerialized did in the partnership with EBIT. So, we were very interested in kind of exploring this also as a narrative, I think it's very important. But the things like care and thinking how we care about communities and communities here, I think about makers, about creators, about people who want to be part of digital fashion, I think is very important. Our work around sustainability is very much guided by ethics of care and data feminism.

[38:07] So, this is pretty obvious that this is important to us if we follow those kinds of things. But I think in terms of fungibility, we can also not shy away from talking about digital waste. So, that any kind of tech developments are producing digital waste and also a big digital divide. So, there's only, you know, 55% people have access to the internet today. So, I think it's also in our interest and our responsibility to also address. So, yeah, I think that's pretty much it. Yeah, absolutely. We have to be mindful of the state, beyond the state of the arts, on the state of the world and where we're at right now, because we can't just create for everybody who has full access to the highest speeds of processing. We have to be cognizant of people who don't have access to the internet or who just barely have access to the internet, either through a cellular device or a small Wi-Fi connection or something like that.

[39:05] We have to be cognizant. And that's why I love some of the experiences being created. And even, I do understand that Decentraland is an example of for some people, your computer might have difficulty loading it, but at the very least, this is an example, like where we are all right now is somewhere where we can all access if we have a computer. And even though that is only 55%, we haven't added that extra barrier of VR headset yet, which is sometimes a barrier in this space. And I think accessibility is something really important when we're considering this space. Even if we can make it as accessible as possible via the internet, it's still not gonna be entirely accessible. And what can we do to improve that in the coming years as technology continues to move forward? I think that's a beautiful point. So we're beginning to come to the end of our conversation, the beginning of the end. Unfortunately, these are always too short.

[39:49] And I'm sure that these talks will go on for hours, especially with some of our specialists here. But I do wanna just give each of our panelists a chance just one more time to mention anything that they're doing this week, or if anybody has any closing thoughts that are just itching that you wanna mention before we close out this conversation, I would love to give all of you that opportunity. And just being conscious, Beata, we've ended with you each time, so I'd love to start with you this time. Do you have any other thoughts or any other links or resources or places you think people should go check out from either yourself or the Dematerialized? Yeah, please join Dematerialized Discord. We're happy to hear back from you, give us feedback on what we are trying to do now and promote. You can also go to dematerialized.com. And our manifesto is there in the responsibility section. So we're very happy to hear from anyone

[40:40] who has any feedback or would like to work with us. And yeah, and I think that equity, accessibility, and transparency are the things that we really need to work towards too, and it's always a process, but I think it's an important and valuable one. Beautiful, thank you so much. And if anybody wants to see some of the Dematerialized work, you can go over to the Cash Labs Gallery, a few of their Karl Lagerfeld pieces are going to be there. So thank you so much, Beata, and thank you by extension to Dematerialized for participating in Fashion Week. Really happy to have you here. Next, I'd love to pass it to Leanne, if that's okay. Leanne, any closing thoughts, anything you'd like to plug? Yeah, I would love to pass it over to you. I mean, that next big moment is pride. So as a lot of our work is about identity, queerness, and what it means in this new digital reality, thinking about how we propose

[41:34] our avatar version of ourselves and the gender politics is wrapped around that. So watch out for pride. We've got lots coming up. And then also we have our IRL URL Academy, which is work that we really, we're a heart-driven company, a third of all our projects are philanthropic. We have 277K last year to emerging designers in different projects. So we have, yeah, our IRL URL Academy is effectively teaching some of the skills that we've realized that education aren't teaching right now. We forever were drawn into hour-long tutorials on Clo3D, Blender. You realize you can't lock this in for an hour. So we've launched the Academy, which is for free. So reach out to us to sign up.

[42:21] And primarily it's for those that marginalized groups that may not have the opportunity to go to university. So yeah, reach out because we want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to step into this amazing, exciting new utopia that we're all building because it's super exciting to be a part of. So yeah, join us in that. Make sure to check out the Institute of Digital Fashion. You do some amazing work in the space. I really appreciate you taking the time to be here. I know it's late in the UK right now and recording this. So again, really thank you. I've got some chips waiting. I'm really excited about what you're saying to this point. I'm very excited for you. You do cry. I can barely hear it. Thanks so much, Leanne. Thank you. Last but certainly not least, Darya and Natalia, thank you for joining us again.

[43:09] On this closing day of Decentraland, obviously I'm sure many people have already checked out some of your work, but what can people still see and where can they see some of your pieces this week if they're still around? This is topic about sustainability. This whole conversation is about sustainability. We talked a lot about the mix of IRL and transition, IRL, digital, what digital means, how it is sustainable. And yeah, we did this catwalk with it, the gallery with Cash Labs catwalk with Metaverse Travel Agency. We host experience in our pop-up store, in our store with Metajuku in Metajuku district. But at the same time, I hope when it's interview life, people are safe.

[44:06] But actually we are coming from Ukraine and I have to remind that there is still, the station is not sustainable at all. And let's just think about what we did today to stop the war and to help someone who suffered. And for that, we have an ongoing initiative running, which is called Fashion for Peace. So I just encourage everyone to check that and to think about how we can build and think about sustainable future if we destroy our kind of real world current lives. So let's be sustainable in all the ways possible. And to add to that, yes, obviously let's not kind of forget what happens in real world because we're building the Metaverse but we definitely want this Metaverse to be kind, to be open and to follow the best examples of the real life.

[45:12] And there are so many things that we can change on a daily basis and especially visible now with the situation with our country and Europe in general. But anyway, if talking about fashion, so don't shop less, shop digital. That's the motto of DressX. That's what I feel like everyone should remember on a daily basis and lots of things that we did in the fashion week and will continue to do on a daily basis to deliver our mission. An excellent note to end us on and considering things on a global scale, even when many of us are here in the Metaverse, finding our distraction is still important. And I think that's really vital to mention and please check out Fashion for Peace if you have a moment right now and everything else that DressX is doing and really, really beautiful work. And thank you both for taking the time to be here. So again, unfortunately we've come to the end of today's talk.

[45:58] I'm sure you're all very interested in all the things these incredible ladies are doing. So I highly encourage you to go check out their virtual spaces in the Metaverse, check out their websites and just take a moment to read through all of their literature, especially DressX, all these amazing statistics that they've put together. Thank you again so much for all of your time. And we appreciate you being here on day four of Decentralance Metaverse Fashion Week. We'll have another panel later on today on the main stage and check the schedule for more details. And if you wanna stick around, you might get to catch some of these incredible ladies in their avatar form for a Q&A. So thank you all again for being here and we hope to see you in the next one. Take care.