Representing the creative future

FabriX is for designers unsatisfied with a broken system

Digital fashion has been a buzzword for years now. We look at the potential of a platform like FabriX to turn these concepts into a reality.

As you probably already know – particularly if you’re a 1 Granary subscriber – running a brand is difficult right now. The traditional models of distribution are far less favourable to designers than they once were, particularly independent ones. But if wholesale, e-commerce sites and expensive runway shows represent the past, what represents the future? Despite some reluctance on the industry’s part, digital fashion is evolving every day, and is capable of illuminating new avenues to success.

While plenty of designers and most consumers are still learning to get their heads around digital fashion – and similarly, figure out the ratio of questions it answers versus those it invites – Hong Kong’s FabriX has been banging the drum for how liberating merging tech and apparel can be since 2022. As technology that supports it evolves, its ambition is to become an indispensable curated marketplace for digital fashion by providing designers with a platform to present and monetise their collections.

FabriX’s story began a couple years earlier, in 2020, amidst the pandemic’s demand for a specific kind of reinvention. It was during these nascent days that the then largely abstract potential of the virtual fashion show was first beginning to crystalise. As designers and fashion houses globally explored alternatives to the traditional IRL catwalk show, FabriX founder and creative director Shin Wong was in conversation with the Hong Kong government about how best to support their young designers who were unable to attend trade shows abroad.

In her work heading up curation for Hong Kong’s annual design festival, ‘deTour’ (a post she’s held for the past decade), Wong has been privy to various initiatives across different design disciplines. “So I had a lot of questions about digital fashion,” she says. “It’s been happening for the past five years, but we haven’t seen anything concrete. We started doing research, getting in touch with fashion tech houses. I came up with this platform, and the designers were subsidised by the Hong Kong government.” 

 

Photo by Yu Masui

 

The core work of FabriX is about connecting fashion designers with tech brands, providing digital solutions (think virtual try-ons and pre-orders) and curating programmes to bring designers’ wares to bigger audiences, effectively helping them negotiate this relatively new arena. In material terms, so far this looks like a series of showcases, the first of which took place in Hong Kong in 2022 with 12 designers, subsequently leading to activations in Paris and London for fashion weeks in 2023 and 2024. Participating designers, of which there are now more than 40, have included Paolina Russo and Bianca Saunders, while Mii Collection, Xander Zhou, Ouest Paris and Pronounce joined the roster more recently, currently exhibiting with FabriX at Pitti Uomo in Florence.  

“Digital is scary and exciting and fascinating at the same time,” says Lucie Bourreau and Bapan Dutta of Mii Collection, a French-Indian brand with a keen interest in the handmade and socially conscious. “We defend handwork and craftsmanship – we need to be able to touch fabrics, to see the beauty of embroidery work – but digital allows us to invent new worlds, so it’s an interesting new creative tool when used properly.” For Wong, who understands the role of digital fashion as enhancing current design practices, not replacing them, to be executed ‘properly’ means for the tech to be working in tandem with the designers. “Our focus is getting people to understand this idea of digital fashion being a facilitator for physical items,” she says. “I want FabriX to really be a platform for people to recognise and access fashion digitally – not to think it’s just hype or marketing, but actually use it as a tool for people to try on garments, get an idea of how things would fit and sell to customers.” 

Moreover, she’s wary of the novelty factor that accompanied the early iterations of digital fashion. “Five years ago, people were really into NFTs; the Dolce & Gabbana crown, for example, went for $1.3 million in the crypto world, and the landscape leaned towards collector’s items; it wasn’t accessible,” she says. “Slowly it’s changed – Facebook launched avatars, then Snapchat – and three or four years ago, it shifted into gaming; game skins became something brands were interested in, a tool to talk to younger audiences. So it’s all changing in a very short period of time.” Arthur Robert, who founded Ouest Paris in 2022, recognises himself in this trajectory. This is our first foray, as a brand, into digital fashion, but I have been following it for a while,” he says. “My first contact was dressing my Sims in cute fits. I’m quite amazed by how far we’ve come and how diverse it can be.”

 

Photo by Yu Masui

Indeed, as stylist, consultant, and FabriX fashion curator, Declan Chan adds, “FabriX is more focused on digital fashion as an experience. People have wrapped their heads around the idea of AI, and today, things that are virtual are more woven into the fabric of daily life. Also, when choosing the designers, we usually pick those that we can see have synergy between their work and digital fashion.” Game skins (essentially garments players can buy to customise their avatars in online gaming) are a prime example of this integration into the every day, and for their part, FabriX has collaborated with DressX to facilitate designer pieces on Roblox, an online gaming platform where prices are substantially lower than those garnered in the brief era of NFTs. 

Perhaps the most straightforward vehicle for Wong’s work, however, is the AR kiosk she debuted in Paris in 2023. Inspired by Tokyo’s Purikura photo booths, the kiosk acts almost as a fitting room: an AR-enabled mirror and photo booth hybrid for buyers to virtually try on garments straight from the catwalk. “We consolidated comments from fashion buyers and friends in the industry, who said that having the AR through iPhones or iPads just wasn’t translating because it was so small,” Wong says. “The kiosk was easy and tangible for people to interact with immediately and has helped the conversation move, changing the perception of how people see digital fashion. I wanted to do this two years ago, but people didn’t get it then. It’s really simple, but I need new collection designs prior to presentations, and designers find that hard. It takes a lot of people’s work and understanding.”

“Traditional fashion crowds don’t really connect with tech, but we’re trying to close that gap and make the conversation seamless,” she continues. Positioned in close proximity to the real thing during showcases, the kiosk underscores the need for cooperation between the disciplines. “Some designers initially don’t believe their work will translate, that it will lose a sense of craftsmanship,” Chan says, reflecting on the platform’s early obstacles and the further significance of the kiosk. “We were amazed when we saw the rendering,” Robert adds. “It’s been a total discovery for us, and we’re excited to see how people engage with the pieces. The possibilities feel quite endless!” For Bourreau and Dutta, who already have digital solutions in place for sales and stock management, FabriX provides a further bridge between established craft and design’s future. “We’re creative and super curious,” they say. “We’re always happy to take part in new experiments so that a wider audience can discover our work.”

While there are still limitations, namely the reliance on devices and 2D screens, and the high price point of AR kits – as well as the aforementioned timelines – Wong feels confident the next two years will see these digital practices becoming commonplace. “It’s going to be a useful tool for consumers trying on things without hassle, without judgment. And once Meta, Google, everyone, come to a common consensus, 3D models can be used on all platforms as a plugin, so it’s inevitable every designer will use tech and build 3D models for their clothes.”