‘Digital Fashion Technology’ will start in September 2025: a one-year full-time learning route of the Digital Design master’s program in which students learn to investigate how they can implement digital technologies and what their effects are on the entire fashion chain and the broader social playing field. José Teunissen, training manager at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI) and Lisette Vonk, teacher-researcher and coordinator of the Virtual Reality Lab are closely involved in the development of the learning route. “We want to train students who have both feet firmly in the fashion industry, and who also have the knowledge and skills to critically use digital technology to innovate and change the fashion industry.”
Interdisciplinary
‘Digital Fashion Technology’ focuses on students with different backgrounds – including ICT, fashion and design – who will work together in an interdisciplinary context and with different expertise. José Teunissen: “Transfer students, such as students who do the minor 3D Hypercraft or graduate within our faculty on a digital fashion project, have the opportunity to specialize in digital fashion technology at master’s level at ‘Digital Fashion Technology’. In addition, we also focus on international students – the language of the learning route is English – because the offer in this area is not yet that great internationally.”
Digital skills
After laying a strong technical foundation, challenges surrounding the themes of ‘the body’, ‘fashion systems’ and ‘fashion products’ are explored within a ‘community of practice’. This approach helps students gain hands-on experience with emerging technologies and learning to design, create, implement and test prototypes. José Teunissen: “The digitalization of product development and product design is very much on the rise in the industry. You see that large companies, such as PVH and Adidas, already develop their products digitally to a large extent and only produce them when they are fully developed. This saves a lot of waste and also works efficiently remotely. This means that in the future we will need more fashion designers who have mastered these digital skills. Students will learn how to tackle complex issues so that they can really change things in the industry. Consider, for example, research into digital workflows that are not yet coordinated and the automatic generation and use of digital representatives of physical substances. What students will learn here depends greatly on their background, learning wishes and developments within the digital and fashion industry. Students will work on real issues from industry and the research field for which they will design concrete digital solutions through ‘research through design’. There is a lot of independent manufacturing research, also in collaboration with our professorships, and students learn in a market that needs to change. Every student will soon have the necessary skills to critically use digital technologies and thus help the industry, digitize it and hopefully make it more sustainable.”
Sustainability battle
“We often think in sustainability terms, and we have to, because fashion is a polluting industry. And we see that everything has to be cheaper and cheaper. At the same time, we see that we have more and more data from a consumer, such as exact measurements via a body scan or specific wishes via a platform. Sooner or later we will see a shift to making ‘on demand’ instead of putting a large bulk on the market. And that is really a sustainability step. Digitizing product development ensures much less waste because you do everything digitally and only create something when everyone agrees: this is what it should be. This removes a lot of waste, waste and time from the production process. We will be working on this for the next ten years and of course ‘Digital Fashion Technology’ also plays a role in this. The fashion industry finds collaboration with education very important because many innovative solutions come from new generations.”
Quest
Lisette Vonk has been involved in the development of ‘Digital Fashion Technology’ from the start. “We want to train students who have both feet firmly in the fashion industry, and who also have solid digital skills that allow them to be a linchpin in the innovation of the fashion industry through digitalization. We need critical thinkers who can not only drive the industry, but who also really enjoy looking at what is possible with those technologies. If you design in a different way, what is the effect on production? And on manufacturing? And what is the effect on the consumer and on the world? So there is also a very important research layer in the curriculum. We are going to set up a ‘community of practice’ with industry, our professorships, students and lecturers, and perhaps also research groups from other faculties, colleges or universities, in which we will really embark on that quest together.”
Interesting mix
“It may seem as if the learning route is intended for ‘the student who can do everything’, but we have set it up in such a way that students from different backgrounds can participate,” says Lisette Vonk. “That’s what makes it so interesting. Suppose you are a Fashion Design student and you would like to collaborate with an HBO-ICT student and a student from the Film Academy, then the three of you take on a project. Students are given the opportunity to gain knowledge about the fashion industry in combination with new digital technologies. A unique combination of knowledge that not many people have yet, but which is in great demand from the fashion industry. Students build up a nice portfolio, actually collaborate with companies in the fashion industry, make contacts within the research field; they are building a network that will serve them well in the future.”
The future is now
“These students are concerned with the future of fashion, but the future that is already here. They really contribute to the transition of the fashion industry. And let’s not forget that it will be very fun and hands-on for students. They are making and what they make is largely up to them. They are the first to do this learning route and therefore also determine the direction as students,” says José Teunissen.
