Leanne Elliott-Young

Leanne Elliott-Young is the cofounder and CEO of The Institute of Digital Fashion (IoDF), a new-era institute that aims to reframe the system, take digital to new realms, and lead the industry towards an inclusive and sustainable fashion future.

Here, she shares her thoughts on the future of fashion in 2021 and beyond.

‘The majority of the work I do is future mapping and strategising these questions – albeit right now in a Roksanda gown, breastfeeding via my WFH sofa/ office, gagging for IRL again more than ever. During the pandemic, the work we are delivering with IoDF has been very much business as usual. We build IRL x URL solutions, looking to reframe how technology is used from creation to consumer, so we’ve been very much “on” throughout this period.

‘The semantics of fashion are changing, and we collectively have a responsibility to rebuild, re-educate, and re-position our thinking into a new vernacular with innovation at the core. It’s a shame that it’s taken a pandemic to realise the potential of the digital arena. For an age I was screaming and wailing about IRL X URL futures (to much ridicule at times), as though we were curating an awful plan to introduce fembots to fashion week catwalks.

‘We are in a bold revolution and these new digital narratives need to continue to provide a harmonisation between IRL and URL fashion experiences. That’s something I believe in – never tech for tech’s sake. We live in a tactile physical reality and are all excited to step back into that.

‘There are a few key conversation points whirling around at the moment, especially in relation to digital sustainability, but diversity, inclusion and representation are all major issues that we are pushing at IoDF. With the blur between online and offline feeling even more abstract, we need to consider where the digital sphere is taking us. At IoDF, part of our mission is to push forward for a new wave of virtual and physical representation that is beyond the tired traditions we know. Digital isn’t just a pandemic fix and diversity isn’t just a reaction, it’s the backbone of our thinking and company structure.

‘So where are we heading? With this COVID-19 quagmire of sociopolitical uncertainty, we have heard a faint exhale from a lot of fashion houses as the whirling wheels of the industry ground to a halt and the very essence of fashion as a worthwhile commodity was even questioned. But within that and where we are headed is a reinvention of the old, tired models. Transparency is being demanded from consumers, and brands are being railroaded into airing their companies’ positions on the big topics of race and inclusion. Through digital, once-marginalised voices can now be heard, and have a platform and supporters. Digital fashion will be utilised and commonplace, used 360 from the studio floor, through production and to the consumer. Digital try-ons and personal avatars will alleviate the returns plague of the retail sector. And omnichannel will morph seamlessly into the 3D world of co-existing digital and physical with geo-location tags of augmented duality, purchased only by NFT VR vending machines.’