Digital Fashion in Sustainable Clothing Design and Production

Abstract

This article explores the role of digital fashion as an innovative tool for sustainable design and garment production. The primary aim is to examine how digital fashion can help reduce the use of natural resources, minimize waste generated in traditional production processes, and promote environmentally responsible approaches to fashion development. Today, the fashion industry is widely recognized as one of the leading contributors to environmental degradation, particularly due to its heavy consumption of materials, high energy usage, and generation of non-biodegradable waste. However, advances in digital technology have introduced new tools that can support more sustainable design processes in the fashion industry. This study focuses on the potential of digital fashion, especially through the use of 3D design software such as CLO3D, which enables the creation of realistic virtual prototypes. These digital models can replace the need for physical samples in the early design stages, significantly reducing material usage and production waste. The main objective of this research is to evaluate how digital fashion technology can support sustainable design practices, particularly by shortening design timelines, lowering costs, and reducing material consumption. Additionally, the study considers how digital fashion enhances the ability to present design concepts in realistic and engaging ways. To investigate this, the article presents a case study on the design of a football uniform using CLO3D, a widely adopted 3D software in the international fashion industry. Football uniforms are a useful subject due to their need for precision in terms of proportion, pattern accuracy, and responsiveness to body movement. Therefore, the use of 3D software in this context clearly demonstrates the capabilities of digital fashion. The findings show that applying CLO3D in the design process significantly reduces redundant steps typically involved in traditional prototyping. Designers can accurately simulate fabric properties such as elasticity, folds, and how garments move in response to body motion. Results from this experiment reveal that digital fashion can generate outputs that closely resemble physical products, while also offering immediate flexibility to adjust design elements—such as color, material, or pattern—without the need to physically produce multiple sample versions. This allows for tangible reductions in time, cost, and resource use throughout the design and production process. From the case study, three main advantages of digital fashion are highlighted: (1) The ability to reduce the need for physical prototypes by relying on highly accurate digital garment simulations;
(2) The reduction of costs and waste associated with iterative sampling and design refinement common in traditional methods; and (3) The acceleration of the design, testing, and revision cycle, enabling more agile responses to market demands—especially important in commercial fashion contexts where designs change rapidly by season. Nevertheless, the article also discusses current limitations of digital fashion. These include the costs associated with acquiring and maintaining necessary software and hardware, the complexity of learning the technology for designers unfamiliar with digital tools, and certain technical constraints such as the inability to fully replicate physical properties like texture, tactile sensation, or the effects of actual sewing techniques. Despite these limitations, digital fashion still demonstrates strong potential for both academic exploration and practical application, especially in equipping new-generation designers with innovative skills. Moreover, digital fashion serves as a foundational knowledge base for integrating related technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR). Based on the findings, this study recommends incorporating digital fashion into fashion design curricula at the higher education level, to better prepare future designers to adapt to the evolving global landscape of sustainable fashion. Furthermore, collaboration among academia, industry, and technology sectors should be promoted in order to mainstream digital fashion practices in commercial garment production. Establishing a new ecosystem that supports the widespread adoption of digital fashion could serve as a key mechanism to drive the fashion industry toward long-term sustainability, benefiting both economic and environmental dimensions.