Materials Are Changing

We have entered a new dimension; there is a broader understanding than ever before about climate change and the need to change our behaviours and practices worldwide. We are dependent on Earth’s materials for our very subsistence, yet we are using them up at an alarming rate. We spend our money and time purchasing items we want but we need to find ways to do this in ways that are kinder to the planet. So, in the passionate cyclic twist of fulfilling our natural rights through absorbing nature, the materials around us are changing. Fashion brands are making this easier for us, drawing on technological capabilities to reinvent the possible. Read more in Materials are Changing.

The shops closed overnight during the pandemic, shaking the commercial world. People are born and die, and the shops do not shut; the unthinkable happened and the memory is real. For the seemingly endless motion of rhythmic transactions persists in its own realm, we buy instinctively almost without thought, but does this need to harbour shame? To care about our planet does not strip apart our desire to own and wear the items of clothing we’ve set our hearts on. We still see the beauty of the made. We do not seek to kill or destroy the living world with our fashion.

The sound of logging onto your laptop, the everyday. They say it is to enter another world and maybe it is. The digital, we are inside of it, we are out of this world. Climate change, fashion and digital are they enemies or friends, or are they neither? They seem to suggest the necessary demise of the other, questioning whether the fashion industry or the digital world can flourish in the face of climate change. What role does the digital world play in the context of climate change and millions of people seeking fashion they love? Perhaps this triad are those unlikely and surprising connections.

Bridging fashion, innovative technology and a commitment to sustainability, the CYBR magazine and collective are gatekeepers to the cyber future. Focusing on futurism and tech culture and with Augmented Reality at their core, CYBR also invent posters, postcards and stickers with augmented capabilities. Transcending the limits of fashion too, CYBR Magazine have dropped their first digital collection OFF WORLD, sharing a glimpse at two first new looks. CYBR believe that digital fashion pieces meet the call for sustainability and experimentation all at once, wearing out-of-this-world clothes to our hearts’ desire without really wearing them at all.

How does this work? Digital fashion takes us by surprise without shocking us to the core, proof that we are the future. Made for when we are having our Zoom and digital calls that we are so familiar with, CYBR’s new fashion launch gives us the opportunity to wear the clothes we love on the screen without actually putting them on. The clothes will appear to be on us, we will fashion and style them with our bodies without ever merging directly with the material, wearing clothes in a realm outside of reality.

Beforehand, to buy vintage clothes or find unique pieces that we love from second-hand stores were the most-known ways to harmonise fashion with sustainability. Digital fashion gives us a futuristic way to wear novel items in 3D. It exists in the digital world yet with the same Earthly possibilities of depths of colour and pattern. Whilst there is nothing to touch with CYBR clothes, the feeling of touch transcends into the feeling of wearing your visions, not your clothes.

Collaborating with digital platform known Replicant, CYBR’s releases are borne out of exquisite digital tailoring skills, with inspirational performance. The 001 Jumpsuit is made from liquid metal, the cold, hard substance interlocking neatly with the celestial beyond. Indeed, the 002 trench-coat also consists of liquid metal as well; both pieces from the fashion drop are adorned with brushed metal hardware, a fascinating edge of technology.

Attempts to reconcile our fate and fashion. Defying physics: the vital principle of the life force. CYBR’s new digital fashion release permits us to wear what is not possible in the real world. It bridges both division and connection, since producing one digital garment emits 97% less CO2 than a physical version. CYBR state that they draw inspiration from future technology innovators, including the sportswear design brand Nike.

Nike are an inspiration for world athletes with their innovative sports clothing. Indeed, Nike believe that when it comes to sustainability, materials are what matter most since the largest part of environmental impact during production derives from using harmful materials. Here, a need for change meets the drive to create, reinvent and grow to overcome limits.

Their newest sustainable venture, Nike’s recent collaboration with Pineapple leather brand company Piñatex has brought us the Happy Pineapple trainer collection. It brings with it enhanced material performance along with being made from 95% renewable resources. Being sustainable is the opening rather than the closing of doors: we can have the products we adore in optimised quality whilst doing less harm.

Awakening us to plant-based leathers as opposed to animal skin, the new-generation Piñatex material continues to bring Nike’s classic designs into fruition. Namely, the Free Run Trail Premium, the Air Max 90, the Air Max 95, and the Air-Zoom Type have been sweetly revolutionised in the name of sustainability. Nature transformed into the wearable. We can then turn back into the very nature that we are, coming full-circle to the end from our beginning. We can be humans with clearer consciences because materials are changing.

Nike Trainers made from the pineapple fruit’s Piñatex material are available Here. If you have enjoyed reading Materials are Changing, why not read Timber.