IT’S ALL IN THE DETAILS WITH IDIAT SHIOLE
When Idiat Shiole was looking for “something new” to add to her skillset as a fashion illustrator, she didn’t expect that she would soon be taking part in a new era in the fashion industry. Her experience as a fashion illustrator in Nigeria had its frustrations – one of them being that designers reasons’ for not working with her rooted in prejudice and bias. “Nobody believed in my skill and nobody thought I could deliver”, Shiole says. She wears a hijab in accordance with the Muslim faith and people often assumed that since she wore a hijab, her illustrations would depict women wearing hijabs as well. We’re speaking in mid-July and she’s halfway around the world in Nigeria – on Zoom my camera is on and hers is off – you can hear the passion with a slight tinge of frustration in her voice as she recounts her experience. I had asked Shiole about how she got into digital fashion, a loaded question, and she willingly takes me along on her journey.
She has an accomplished resume, including working with digital fashion house, The Fabricant on their Adidas x Karlie Kloss campaign, and starting an atelier brand, Hadeeart Atelier. Her answer to how she got started – curiosity. “I’m a very curious person and I don’t like to be left behind.” She continues, “Whenever I’m doing something or learning anything, I want to be at the forefront. I want to know what’s happening.” You can understand where she’s coming from. We’re now living in a time where technological innovations and developments are rapidly emerging – disrupting industries left and right, and widening the gap between those who get it, get it, and those who don’t, don’t. If you’re not actively looking for the next thing and you’re not around people who are, it is very easy to get left behind.
Take a look at her work on her Instagram page and you will see that Shiole takes skill development into her own hands – pushing and challenging herself to learn more about this uncharted territory. The attention to detail is exquisite – the use of vibrant colors and textures on garments that look so real it’s as if you can reach through the screen and throw it in your closet – her devotion to the craft is evident from the beginning. Continue to scroll down her Instagram page and you’ll see a virtual model adorned in gold earrings, sporting an afro so full and freshly picked that surely Diana Ross would envy it – that’s Awele, the afro-futuristic inspired virtual brand ambassador of Hadeeart Atelier.
Shiole went to great lengths to prove that she was more than capable of creating illustrations, going far as taking less pay to showcase her skills. She knew what she was capable of, all she needed was a little something extra to not only set her apart from the rest, but work for herself. “I began searching on YouTube and asking people about the new thing in town so that I could continue to develop my skills,” she says. She came across digital fashion.
One quickly gets the sense in speaking with Shiole that she is passionately curious, relentlessly pursuing thoughts and ideas that she finds interesting, remaining primed to learn anything new to add to her incessantly expanding toolbox. An example of this is when she visited her friend one weekend and learned about virtual worlds, Sansar and Second Life. Shiole finds herself in yet another unique position – the skills she developed learning digital fashion applied to creating gaming assets as well. “When I first started [digital fashion] I believed that, “Oh, I just need to learn Marvelous Designer if I want to be a digital fashion designer.” She soon found out that it was going to take more than that. Thankfully, that skillset was already in her toolbox and ready to be expanded upon. Shiole continues, “For example, if you want to create a gaming asset, from your CLO [3D] you still need to do something called topology.” (This remains a foreign concept to me, but simply put, topology is an important concept in game design when creating 3D renderings.)
She also immersed herself into video games, like Fortnite, to understand how people used gaming skins – how are skins being used, what types of skins do people like the most, how are people buying skins, etc. – she soon became a creator on Second Life and began creating skins for her own avatar. As a freelance virtual designer for gaming apparel, she “tries as much as possible to play the game” and interact with other gamers on Discord to make sure that she creates skins that they really want.
There lies the power of co-creation and collaboration in the virtual world. If you’re playing a video game and looking for a gaming skin to adorn your avatar with, wouldn’t you want to have a say in what it looks like? What about your avatar in a Metaverse? If avatars are going to be (for most of us, they already are) tied to our virtual identities and the way we express ourselves, it’s important that we have the knowledge and the tools to create and customize ourselves online the way we see fit. Shiole says, “Digital fashion is not just creating clothing for fashion shows made by the fashion designer. Now, digital fashion, or fashion itself, is beyond that.”
Take a look at The Fabricant, for example. As the world’s first digital-only fashion house, they have begun to revolutionize what it means to be a fashion designer – by giving everyone the tools to do so (no experience with physical clothing necessary, although it would be helpful). Doing so lowers the barrier to entry for those who simply want to create something for themselves and their community – it’s about authorship, community, and creativity. All of the magic happens in The Fabricant Studio. Say you like a dress that Idiat Shiole designed and you want to make the dress your own. You can download the file to the dress for free, customize it – the fabric, color, textures, etc., and soon enough you’ll be sporting around your new dress in the virtual world or on Instagram. You’ve just made your first co-creation with a designer. Creators also have the opportunity to mint their creation as an NFT, registering its unique design on the Flow blockchain.
What The Fabricant is doing “is really interesting”, says Shiole. Reminiscing on her collaboration with the digital fashion house, she says, “I saw what people were creating with my items, and people were creating things I was not even thinking about.” With immense excitement in her voice, she continues, “It opened my own mind to the level of my creativity, to see that, oh, I could do this or I could do that.” Sharing knowledge and files in the virtual world adds an element of transparency and inclusivity as opposed to how the traditional fashion industry operates today.
To Shiole, digital fashion means one thing, “Freedom.” The freedom to be judged solely on the quality and content of her work. Her work is now at the forefront. When they see Idiat Shiole and Hadeeart Atelier, they see her awe-inspiring designs. As she looks to the future, Shiole hopes to see digital fashion practices used in the production of physical clothing. Shiole says, “You only produce clothes that people are buying, not producing clothes with hope that they will buy.”
In order for the full potential of the digitalization of the fashion industry to be realized, the skills gap between traditional fashion designers and digital fashion designers must be addressed. The best way to address this is through access to resources and empowering emerging designers – especially those from marginalized communities – to expand their skillset. During this pivotal time, we all must be willing to be both master and student. “The industry is changing. People are willing to talk and willing to share things with you.”
