Product development has long been undergoing a digital revolution, but the pandemic pushed these efforts into overdrive. Today, fashion companies continue to experiment with digital product creation software, and one of the main ingredients required is virtual materials.

Even ahead of 3D design’s work-from-home boost, research and promotion organization Cotton Incorporated was supporting the industry’s digital switch with FABRICAST™, a library of cotton-rich materials that can be used in programs like CLO and Browzwear. Cotton Incorporated continues to grow this range of virtual fabrics and develop new ways for the industry to explore its offerings. A prime example of this is Cotton Incorporated’s virtual showroom, which was launched in November. 

Virtual visitors can “walk” through the showroom to view prototypes of garments made from FABRICAST™ textiles in categories such as activewear and denim. “It’s sort of like a native environment for digital fashion and digital fabrics,” said Katherine Absher, manager, fashion and digital design marketing in the Global Supply Chain Marketing Department at Cotton Incorporated, during a fireside chat with Jessica Binns in December. “And we use it to show brands, mills and…students what our fabrics could be and how they could be used, and what they could be doing with cotton in digital product creation.”

In this conversation, Absher and Binns discuss the development of the showroom and Cotton Incorporated's other efforts to encourage the industry and students to create fashion digitally.

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