Fashion and game design as hybrid practices: approaches in education to creating fashion-related experiences in digital worlds

Figures & data

Table 1. List of interviewees.

List of interviewed specialists
Fashion design	FD1	Co-founder of an independent digital fashion brand
	FD2	CEO and founder of a digital fashion brand and factory
	FD3	CEO and founder of a digital fashion brand
Digital game development	GD1	CEO and co-founder of an independent digital game development studio
	GD2	Junior concept artist at an internationally renowned digital game development studio
	GD3	Art director at an independent digital game development studio
At the periphery of either of the two	P1	CEO and co-founder of a digital fashion brand
	P2	Freelance editor specialising in digital fashion
	P3	Director of business development at a major technology corporation

Table 2. The questions asked during the interviews.

Question structure for the interview procedure
Group 1 – Introducing the field of investigation
Q1: What do you think are the biggest differences between a) fashion and digital games, and b) digital-game fashion and real-life fashion?
Group 2 – Getting to know the participants’ backgrounds
Q2: How do you think fashion design companies see digital game companies and vice versa?
Q3: Based on your background and experiences, where do you see possible connections between fashion and digital games? Where do you see barriers between the two?
Group 3 – Emerging challenges and opportunities for designers
Q4: What do you think collaborations between actors and stakeholders in fashion and digital games should look like?
Group 4 – Informing alternative design practice
Q5: Do you see a need for hybrid designers?
Q6: What do you think that fashion designers can learn from character designers for digital games?
Q7: What do you think that character designers for digital games can learn from fashion designers?
Group 5 – Implications for education
Q8: How does higher education in fashion design need to change in relation to its digitalisation?

Table 3. Abstraction and interpretation of interview data based on the questions in Groups 1–3 in Table 2.

Identified relations between fashion design and character design for digital games
Field	Common dimensions
	Potential connections	Potential barriers	Fashion designers can learn	Character designers for digital games can learn
Fashion design	Both industries sell ideas and fantasies	The fashion industry lacks knowledge about digital 3D technology	About alternative functions of clothes in digital game environments	To connect designs more to emergences in pop culture
Digital game development	Expressing identity through self-customisation	The body and dress are seen as equally designable and function as one object	How to translate aesthetic concepts into functioning three-dimensional assets	Greater diversity in terms of body types, genders, dress codes
At the periphery of either of the two	Similar software is used by both fields, allowing for shared processes	The two fields are siloed due to set structures that make it difficult to break with traditions	To bring value to digital clothes that goes beyond physical limitations	About the complexity of designing for identity expression

Table 4. Abstraction and interpretation of interview data based on the questions in Group 4 in Table 2.

Identified characteristics for hybrid design practices
Field	Common dimensions
	Role and purpose	Challenges	Requirements	State of the field
Fashion design	Helps both industries to adapt to the changes inherent in growing closer together	Company structures today still rely on specialists rather than hybrid practitioners	To be able to work with more technologies than CLO3D	A minority of fashion practitioners knows how to work with CLO3D
Digital game development	Provides an understanding of how to combine meaning-making of clothes with technical requirements	Technologies are not developed to work together smoothly	To understand the technical limitations that come with different game engines	Character designers work in a hybrid manner without background fashion knowledge
At the periphery of either of the two	Mediates between the two worlds for better communication	Focus on conceptual and technological possibilities that go beyond copying the physical into the digital	A good understanding of how both worlds function	Established fashion designers focus on old ways instead of opening up for hybridity

Table 5. Abstraction and interpretation of interview data based on the questions in Group 5 in Table 2.

Identified requirements for a successful transition towards hybrid practices in higher education in fashion design
Field	Common dimensions
	Software compatibility	Design outcome	General changes	Desired transition
Fashion design	Learn about software with shared archives	Understand digital clothes as ever-changeable, rather than as defined design outcomes	See digital three-dimensional technology as being as important as traditional tools and methods	Keep openness in digital education as the fashion industry is still transitioning
Digital game development	Learn about software compatibility for connected workflows	Learn how to create three-dimensional characters, not just clothes	Approach fashion in digital spaces beyond designing solely for the present	Teach students about physical techniques before digital techniques
At the periphery of either of the two	Learn about digital tools beyond those made for fashion	See equal value in digital and physical clothes	Fashion should not focus on technological limitations as it only leads to copying old ideas	Understand the most important aspects of designing garments in a physical context before entering the digital