DIGITAL FASHION – THE PHYGITAL NETWORK is a new platform at this year’s DMEXCO (September 20th/21st) that provides a forum for both, the rapidly growing market for purely digital clothing and the booming market for digital solutions for the development, production and sale of physical clothing.
According to McKinsey estimates, the digital fashion market will develop a potential of $2 trillion in the next seven years. As an analysis by Stanford University shows, Nike, for example, has already made well over 1.3 billion dollars in digital fashion, almost 200 millions of which came from the sale of NFTs alone.
But even that is just the tip of the iceberg, which can be seen from afar. Because these numbers only refer to phenomena in which the fashion end product is virtual. However, the market for digital solutions for the development and production of physical clothing is much larger. The view of the real thing is already being replaced by digital simulations along the entire value chain in order to reduce costs, save time and conserve physical resources. Where just a few years ago there were only isolated solutions, today there is a continuous process chain from the virtual weaving of virtual fabrics with virtually spun yarns to the virtual photography of virtual clothing on virtual models.
DMI and Koelnmesse have therefore jointly launched the business event “DIGITAL FASHION – The Phygital Network”, which will deal intensively with digitalization in the fashion industry. The core target group of the new event are all professionals involved in the digital value chain of the fashion industry. The first edition of DIGITAL FASHION will take place at the Cologne exhibition center as part of DMEXCO 2023 on September 20th and 21st and is a combination of specialist conference and expo in which selected best practice examples from the digital fashion industry will be shown.
DMI is thus continuing its successful “Re’aD Summit” conference, which the international fashion think tank had organized for professionals from the fashion and creative industries until 2022.
“Both the existing digital solutions for the development, production and distribution of physical clothing as well as the emerging range of purely digital fashion need a marketplace where they can present themselves and network. There was no such marketplace before – neither nationally nor internationally, neither B2B nor B2C. We are therefore very pleased to be launching this new platform together with Koelnmesse as part of DMEXCO 2023,” says Carl Tillessen, Managing Director of DMI.
“Digitalization offers immense opportunities for the fashion industry to optimize business processes and improve the customer experience. Companies that take advantage of these digitalization opportunities will be able to adapt to changing market conditions and remain competitive,” says Prof. Dominik Matyka, Chief Advisor of DMEXCO.