The English brand Auroboros unveiled, on June 12, fourteen clothes to wear on your photos published on social networks. Virtual fashion, a solution against fast fashion and the "wear it once" phenomenon, harmful to the environment and to sentient beings, or a new trending expression of the cult of appearance in our society of overconsumption?

By Ludmilla Intravaia

Virtual clothes, as an alternative to In Real Life fashion? This is the concept developed by Auroboros which launched, on the occasion of London Fashion Week, on June 12, its first purely digital ready-to-wear collection, entitled Biomimicry. Dedicated, as its name suggests, to biomimicry consisting in drawing inspiration from living things and nature, the collection of the English brand was not made in a sewing workshop but in computer softwares, under the direction of the Spanish designer Sita Abellan, also a DJ and model.

Biomimicry, virtual collection by Auroboros, unveiled on June 12, 2021, during London Fashion Week (© Auroboros)

Auroboros proposes a virtual wardrobe, composed of 14 items of clothing and accessories that can be added, after purchase, on a picture sent by the customer. A retouched photo to use on social media for an outfit of the day post, for example.

Auroboros, which defines itself as the “first fashion house to merge science and technology with physical haute couture, as well as digital-only ready-to-wear”, aims to “evolve the luxury industry into deeper dimensions - redefining how we imagine, design and affect clothing consumption”, from a perspective of “innovation, sustainability and immersive design”.

Below, watch the presentation film of Auroboros’ Biomimicry collection, unveiled during London Fashion Week. The video is interactive and gives direct access to DressX website, where Auroboros’ virtual clothes are sold, as well as on the brand's official website.

For Auroboros, the launch of its virtual collection "marks the next step for building a digital wardrobe for all occasions, now exploring sustainable innovation and digital virtuosity within the world of luxury fashion". A vision shared by the website selling virtual brands DressX, which sets itself the mission of "reinventing multi-brand fashion consumption for an audience looking to fulfill a different type of need—constant fashion newness for their online persona". To discover more about DressX, watch the vidéo below.

At a time when, as already pointed out in a 2018 study by Barclaycard, the credit card subsidiary of the English bank Barclays, “almost one in ten Brits reveal that they have bought clothes online (nine per cent) to wear once with the aim of posting a photo to social media and subsequently returning their purchases”, virtual fashion is put forward as a solution to counter the rise of “wear it once”, result of the marriage between the excesses of fast fashion and the cult of appearance promoted by social media. This phenomenon of wearing a garment only once, for example for a selfie on Instagram but also on the occasion of a wedding or vacation, before abandoning it in a closet or sending it back has, in fact, a negative impact on the environment and on sentient beings, moreover weakened by the waste of resources, the emission of greenhouse gases and the pollution of a fashion industry whose practices are far from virtuous.

Screenshot of the #ootd (outfit of the day) Instagram page from June 24, 2021 (© Instagram)

On its website, DressX explains its approach to a more sustainable virtual fashion, in these words: “We strongly believe that the amount of clothing produced today is way greater than humanity needs. We share the beauty and excitement that physical fashion creates, but we believe that there are ways to produce less, to produce more sustainably, and not to produce at all”. To learn more about DressX’s arguments concerning the eco-responsibility of virtual fashion, watch the video below.

DressX concludes: “We aim to show that some clothes can exist only in their digital versions. Don't shop less, shop digital fashion.” If the virtual fashion initiatives seem to go in the direction of a more sustainable fashion and, likewise, more respectful of non-human animals, since it does not use any materials resulting from their exploitation, the injunction of DressX to “not shop less” will, however, perplex the defenders of a more reasoned and frugal consumption of fashion, less focused on the immediate satisfaction of superfluous narcissistic desires. Especially since a garment, however virtual it may be, is always manufactured with an environmental cost for the planet, for instance for the supply and cooling of the computer servers farms, where its data is stored, these data centers being henceforth denounced as disastrous energy gulfs. In flesh and clothes or in pixel mode, is the game of yet another self-centered post worth the candle of its carbon footprint? This is the core of the problem, in a world where human vanity and selfishness are matched only by the environmental and ethical challenges to be overcome.

* The clothes from the Biomimicry virtual collection are available on Auroboros website, here and on DressX website there.

* London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2022 took place from June 12 to 14, 2021. All the information on its online platform here.