Who is a digital clothing designer, and what skills are needed to master the profession?
The development of the digital industry and the active development of metauniverses have led to new professions appearing on the market. Judging by the vacancies, the need for them is growing every day. The digital clothing designer is one of them.
What is the fundamental difference between a clothing designer and a digital clothing designer?
As you might guess, all work takes place exclusively in the digital space. To understand in more detail, let’s delve into manufacturing physical clothing.
It starts with an artistic sketch of the designer, based on which a technical sketch is made, where all the lines, materials, and accessories are drawn. The technologist checks the sketches to send off this or that model as soon as possible. Since the imagination of the designer does not always correspond to the real possibilities of production.
It is worth noting that another specialist comes into play when choosing fabrics and accessories. This confectioner purchases all the materials and allows the designer to create something unique.
After creating a technical sketch, the model is transferred to the designer to build patterns, according to which the future product will be cut on the fabric. Then, according to these patterns, the cutter cuts out the details of the cut, and already in the sewing workshop, the model takes on an almost finished look. After sewing, the finishing stage follows: the product is cleaned of excess threads and debris, ironed, labeled, and packaged.
And we considered the process when the product does not need to be adjusted and finalized. In real life, a brand may alter a dress several times to achieve the perfect fit or design before finally putting it into production.
How much time does all this take? And how many people are involved in the creation of one physical product? The answer to both questions is a lot.
And only one person can create a virtual product from scratch. And the production process is speeding up at times!
That is why working in the digital fashion industry is so attractive: a lower entry threshold, time and money costs are reduced, there is no need to look for a large number of specialists, as for the production of physical clothes, there is no need to spend huge funds on shooting clothes, lookbooks, and offline stores.
Required software
A digital bow is clothes created in special 3D applications, and modern programs for creating 3D models provide tremendous opportunities incomparable to what can be created in the real world. However, for this, you need to master the necessary software.
Clo3D or Marvelous Designer is the main program for creating digital clothes.
Blender is a 3D software that allows you to create more complex products, scenes, and environments needed for presentations, digital shows, and clothing lookbooks.
Additionally, you can learn DAZ3D to create custom avatars if you need them to represent your collection. And also Photoshop – for your prints or textures for fabric.
How can you make money as a digital designer?
1. You can create your clothes collections to try on in the photo. Now this direction is gaining popularity among bloggers. Since unusual, futuristic clothing attracts attention and can spice up even the most boring pictures. You expose your products on your website or digital clothing marketplace, where the client selects the models he likes and sends photos of which clothes need to be applied. Such models cost, on average, from $20 to $1000 per photo.
2. One of the most promising areas is clothing for games and metaverses. You can choose to create your line of clothing under your brand or develop designs in a team for a custom game.
There are already a sufficient number of platforms where you can post your work: Roblox, Decentraland, AltspaceVR, Zepeto, and others, each with its capabilities, limitations and principles for creating digital products. In some metaverses, you can even host your content for free.
The market for digital products in the metaverse is increasing, users spend vast amounts of money on customizing their avatars, so you need time to occupy a promising niche.
3. Digital designer of NFT clothes for collecting. Some digital designers create their brands and make exclusively NFT clothes, collections with a particular idea and unique styling. If clothes for trying on are often not limited in the number of uses, then NFT clothes are sold in only a few copies and cost many times more.
Idea models and interesting collaborations attract the attention of collectors and become a good investment option, especially now, at an early stage in the development of digital fashion.
4. Collaboration with physical brands to use digital technologies in physical business. Creating virtual clothing helps physical clothing brands save money on collection development and be environmentally friendly. With the help of digital visualization, you can test the collection models, collect customer feedback and send off exactly as much as there were pre-orders. And we have already found out that creating one product takes enormous time and labor, and then not all models are entirely sold out. Also, digital designers help in creating spectacular virtual shows and lookbooks, as global brands are already doing.
Digital technologies make it possible to achieve incredible results and create unique images digitally. There are already enough reasons to choose this profession and realize yourself. The salary and its ceiling depend only on you and your ambitions because the more successful your brand or, the better you create designs, the higher the cost of your work. And the possibilities of applying the skills of a digital designer, we are sure, will only expand over time, and income will grow accordingly.
