In conversation with "The Fabricant", the world's first virtual fashion house.
Michaela Larosse, Head of Communication and Marketing at the house, spoke to Demi Karanikolaou about the past, present and future of “The Fabricant” and explained why the future of fashion is digital.
This article was originally written by Demi Karanikolaou in Greek for Harper’s Bazaar Greece. You can find it here.
The landscape of fashion is changing rapidly. With the recent announcements of Facebook going into the Metaverse and getting rebranded into “Meta”, individuals and brands alike are slowly realizing the importance that avatars will have in their daily lives. In a world of endless possibility and innovation the way we view life and humanity will be completely revolutionized. People will need to find and demonstrate their personal identity online in order to solidify their values and needs. Fashion, a medium that has historically solved that exact problem in physical life, will assume this role in our digital lives as well. Virtual clothing and NFTs are no longer a far fetched curiosity project, but real products that can add value to our daily lives. The Fabricant has been a pioneer in this space as the world's biggest -virtual only- luxury fashion brand. Demi Karanikolaou of Harper's Bazaar met up with Michaela Larosse - the house's "Head of creative strategy and communications" to understand more about their story, vision and why digital fashion is the next big revolution
Michaela, could you introduce us to “ The Fabricant” and your mission?
Of course! “The Fabricant” was founded in 2018 by Kerry Murphy and Amber Slooten in Amsterdam. The founders have a very interesting background with Kerry having worked with big brands for years in the visual effects space as a filmmaker, while Amber was studying at AMFI (Amsterdam fashion Institute) training to be a classical fashion designer. Kerry realized that the fashion industry - traditionally driven by tradition and heritage- was the last big industry to digitize, unlike the film or photography industries who were already using visual effects. This opportunity spoke to Amber as well, as she was trying to find a medium to express her creativity in a sustainable way, teaching herself digital fashion practices (like Clo3d. In fact she ultimately became the first ever fashion design student to graduate with a purely digital collection. Still to this day, “The Fabricant” has innovation and sustainability at its core. We are not using any natural resources (eg: textiles) and do not pollute the environment, since our items are purely digital and will never be physically produced .
That is incredible! How did the company evolve through the years, and how open were brands to work with you from 2018 to today?
Our evolution since 2018 has been extraordinary. When we first started, we were pioneering a space that has never been talked about before. As a result, we appeared as a curiosity, very niche if you will, to the physical fashion industry. Our offering was definitely interesting to them, but not necessarily something that the physical world felt the need to participate in. Our mission was not easy. We had to convince everyone of our point of view and not just create a company, but rather an entire industry to have this company exist in. We were always very passionate and convinced about our vision. Our first big client came to us purely because of the quality of our digital garments. We are considered luxury (in digital fashion) since we have flawless (luxury) industry finish. After that collaboration, brands started coming to us one after the other, interested in sustainability and the idea of transitioning from photography, which is an old medium, to the hypereal palette and possibilities that today’s tech can offer us. We can create garments in a 3d way, create marketing assets that they could use online and of course offer them an asset for 3D sampling, so they can test products (and easily change colors, fit, fabric) before creating anything physical. Of course the whole NFT conversation, which came up in around 2018, intrigued us and in 2019 we dropped our first fashion NFT garment called “Iridescence”. This made global headlines as the first ever non physical garment to be auctioned 9.5 k dollars (54 ETH at the time). Suddenly people got confronted with the idea that fashion can be non physical and that someone was willing to pay good money for it. This made a lot of people think. But I believe that it was during the pandemic where the whole conversation shifted. With lockdowns, physical fashion grew to a hold, but virtual fashion went on. Suddenly, everything we did made 100% sense to the physical fashion industry, and we grew from a team of 8 to 32. Everyone was looking for a solution and realized that we were the ones who knew what to do. This brings us to today. We have actually just co created “The Fabricant Studio”, a platform that allows everyone to create digital fashion NFTs. This platform is all about creating the wardrobe of the metaverse as we are always trying to keep ahead.
Digital fashion is extremely innovative. Have you identified any specific opportunities or difficulties for brands and individuals alike? How is “The Fabricant Studio” solving these issues?
Fashion in the Metaverse will be our way of creating our personal identity and how we’ll self express ourselves in the virtual spaces, where our physical and digital lives merge. Everybody should be able to participate in this conversation. The only difficulty in creating digital fashion is that individuals are required to have software knowledge of platforms that can help them create these virtual garments, like Clo3d. This of course means that it can take a lot of time and effort in terms of learning and practicing, before someone can create quality work and get into the digital fashion space. We created “The Fabricant Studio” to resolve this exact issue. Part of our belief system, particularly around creating a virtual wardrobe for the metaverse, is that we are going to need billions of garments, so everyone has to join the conversation. Instead of a simple transition from photography formats to digital, we believe in radical change and the democratization of fashion creation. We want to conceptualize the whole idea of the industry. Historically, fashion companies have operated under the idea that a creative director dictates what a fashion collection is and how everything would look like. With “The Fabricant Studio” we are aiming at taking away the software obstacle for our audience and giving them an easy tool to cocreate our collections with us. We start with giving the general art direction and a series of 50 blank virtual master garments - created by 3d creators and brands - to be used as a base. We are then giving them out for free, in order to be tweaked by our audience and asking them to take our version and change it as they please, creating their own version and becoming part of our story. Everyone can become a collector and a creator on our platform and then monetize their work. Creations made by our audience are autominted as NFTs and can be sold (with the profits split between the creator and us) in our marketplace, which is launching next week. This process is something very radical in the industry and it is really showing you the new type of creative possibilities that exist in the virtual fashion. It is really exciting to see the new chapter starting to solidify.
How vital is it for brands to understand the importance of virtual fashion?
I believe that all brands need to start strategizing for the future. We understand that physical brands need to transition gradually into believing in non physicality, but they have to begin experimenting with virtual spaces and virtual garments. The future consumer - Gen Z and younger- has only ever known a digital world , hence they treat their virtual life with equal relevance as their physical one. Brands need to participate in that conversation, whether the platform is Fortnight, Snapchat or any other virtual space. NFTs are already a market and their relevance is growing in the industry. Cryptocurrencies are getting more and more established. There are solid reasons why huge heritage brands, like Balenciaga and Gucci are becoming more and more active in virtual fashion. For example, they understand the importance of online gaming and how that can help them become relevant to younger generations. Lastly, from a sustainability perspective, 3d sampling is such an easy intervention that can be implemented instantly.
What is in the future for “The Fabricant”?
Apart from our collections and our marketplace, a big mission right now is to pull more people into the studio. We want to collaborate with artists and brands we believe in, people who align with our values. What is really exciting about “The Studio” is that individual 3d creators who are very young and new in this space can participate right alongside a big brand. There is no hierarchy. Big brands are also new to virtual fashion after all. Everyone is treated as an equal both in terms of opportunity and economically. We also want to push brands to think about themselves in a new way and begin collaborating with people who have an existing audience in crypto virtual worlds. Ultimately, we want to keep pushing for a more democratic, more sustainable fashion industry. To rewrite the rules and to help everyone get inspired by each other. Big and small, newer and already established players.
