No abstract

The phenomenon of "digital fashion" has been lately addressed in media as the next significant step in the fashion industry. The increasing use of the 3D-software in fashion design processes is part of a wider "fashion 4.0" digitalization process. This article frames the phenomenon of digital fashion and presents an in-depth case study research on two pioneering companies in this area, Atacac and The Fabricant. How and why are they building their fashion design practice on digital 3D-design? How are these companies redefining the fashion design culture and the fashion designer? Drawing from sociology of professions, this article proposes that digital fashion is an emerging subfield within the field of fashion design, differentiating itself from the professional conventions and building new strategies of jurisdiction and legitimation. Driven by sociotechnical affordances and elevation of professional pride through ethical, conceptual, artistic and skill differentiation, digital fashion designer becomes also a digital artisan. In the increasingly virtual, or "phygital" space and a networked synergetic community of digital fashion, the professional, authorial, bodily and material boundaries of Natalia S€ arm€ akari is a Doctoral Candidate at Aalto University, Finland. S€ arm€ akari's professional background is in fashion design and her research interests concern fashion studies and design research, authorship and professionalism of fashion designers as well as the digitalization and datafication of the field of fashion design.

This paper investigates open-source fashion approach as a design philosophy and a phenomenon that demonstrates an alternative to the concept of authorship of fashion designers. We argue that the concept contests traditional professionalism in fashion design in today's digitalized, data-driven culture. Investigating opensource philosophy in fashion design as a dimension of professional fashion designers' authorship, the paper presents three case studies with different ways of applying opensource principles to existing fashion design practices. The article builds on multiplecase-study research conducted during 2018-2019. The case studies were analyzed from the perspective of authorship and professionalism. We ask whether, how, why and to what end fashion designers contest the authorial and professional conventions of fashion design. Secondly, we analyze the role of technology in such questioning.

No abstract

No abstract