Fashion Design students at the University of South Wales (USW) have worked with Welsh footwear brand Bedroom Athletics to launch the first ever pair of digital slippers.
Aiming to help customers better understand the construction and materials used in the design and manufacture of their products, Bedroom Athletics collaborated with the students to create four key styles, using the innovative design platform Clo3d.
The students worked with technical specifications and images supplied by the company for the designs, which will be used to further enhance digital techniques in the design and fit of its products.
Carys Ward, a final year Fashion Design student, was one of the designers on the project, and helped create the ‘Kate’ slipper using Clo3d.
She said: “Working with Bedroom Athletics has been a great experience. Recreating Harris Tweed along with Fur textures on Clo3d was exciting! It was a fascinating progress of watching the project come to life. The aim was to create the slipper to look as realistic as possible using digital fashion.
“This project has given an insight into how the fashion industry is constantly changing and adapting to digital technology. Digital fashion is the future of the fashion industry; with technology becoming more advanced, it allows us to take the boundaries of fashion and push them to create new, exciting pieces. This approach could help us tackle the issue of waste and consumption associated with fast fashion, and I look forward to using this sustainable approach within the fashion industry.”
Steven Wright, Academic Subject Manager for Fashion at USW, added: “Our lives are becoming ever more digital, and fashion is no different. The rise of digital fashion as a genre has been hastened due to the global lockdowns over the last two years.
“Collections are now designed and shown on entirely digital platforms. It is our role as a university to ensure we are on the cutting edge. This project has given our students a rare opportunity to work with a leading brand to develop something never seen before. We are proud of our students and our involvement.”
Howard Wetter, Managing Director at Bedroom Athletics, said: “Digital clothing and the expression of fashion through digital technology has become increasingly popular whilst we’ve all been forced to spend more time shopping online.
“We wanted to see how our products could be realised digitally, especially as a key factor for our customers when buying our footwear is what they’re made of and how they’re made. It’s all about comfort and having the right products next to your skin and supporting your feet.
“It’s important to have accurate imagery to show products when you can’t see and feel the real thing and we hope that by providing digital versions as well we can help even more of our customers make informed choices when buying online.”
