Digital Fashion - A Qualitative Assessment of the Digital Fashion Innovation System and its relation to Sustainability

The fashion practice is currently undergoing a 4th industrial revolution. Fashion 4.0 "operates in cyber-physical space and develops toward smart products, production and networks, automation, optimization, flexibility, as well as sustainability-oriented, datafied and customer driven processes" (Särmäkari, 2023, p. 88). This revolution came to public attention after the Dutch fashion startup The Fabricant auctioned a digital-only dress for $9500 (Renwick, 2019). Emerging technologies such as AI, blockchain, NFTs (non- fungible tokens), as well as virtual and augmented reality, is expected to bring drastic change to the fashion industry (Joy et al., 2022). These innovations are not infrequently associated with a sustainable transformation of the fashion industry. In a world characterized by overconsumption, virtual clothing supposedly offers a solution; consumption without real consequences? A literature review on digital fashion shows that while innovation and innovative technologies are mentioned in the literature, a systematic analysis of the innovation processes behind digital fashion is still under researched. Within the theoretical framework, systematic approaches to research innovation systems are presented and discussed. In addition, concepts of sustainability are proposed to contextualize digital innovation within the fashion industry in the ongoing sustainability movement. Using a qualitative research approach, interviews were conducted with the digital fashion community within Europe about their understanding of innovation, digital fashion, and sustainability. Results from the interviews were analyzed based on existing concepts and theories to enable a mapping of digital fashion as an innovation system. In addition, the results are embedded in the context of sustainability efforts. The findings suggest that digital fashion may be understood as an umbrella term that lacks a "one-fits- all" definition across differing perspectives. While the innovation system seems to have dispersed over the past years, its divers actors and institutions provide a foundation for radical and incremental innovation. Digital fashion's relation to sustainability, however, is characterized by numerous tensions resulting in a susceptibility to greenwashing.