Blog •
10/01/25
In a LinkedIn poll I ran with fashion professionals, I asked what they saw as the biggest challenge when adopting digital fashion technologies. Skills came out on top, ahead of time, cost and interoperability.
It was only a snapshot of one professional network, but the result reflected something I was already seeing through my own work: access to technology does not automatically translate into the ability to use it effectively.
Fashion has faced similar transitions before. The move from manual illustration into tools such as Adobe Illustrator, and from manual pattern cutting into digital CAD systems, also required people to learn new skills while adapting established ways of working.
The current transition into 3D, AI and more connected digital product-development workflows is different in scale and speed, but there is still something useful to learn from those earlier shifts. The question is not simply how quickly we can introduce new technology, but how we give people the knowledge, time and practical support to use it well.
Earlier shifts towards digital working also changed what was taught within fashion education. As tools such as Adobe Illustrator became established within design workflows, digital illustration became a more common part of fashion courses. Digital pattern-cutting systems also created a need for learners to understand CAD alongside traditional pattern skills. The same principle is still relevant for 3D fashion today. Collaboration between education and industry can help courses stay connected to changing workflows, while giving students opportunities to understand how digital tools are being used in practice. What that looks like will vary by course, institution and the roles students are preparing for.
Related reading: I’ve explored the education side of this question further in Is Fashion Education Keeping Pace with the Skills Industry Now Needs?, including how traditional, technical and newer digital skills need to work together rather than compete for curriculum space.
Previous technology transitions did not happen solely in classrooms. Businesses also invested in training to help teams adapt existing workflows and develop new digital skills. For businesses introducing 3D today, workplace learning can be just as important. Depending on the team, that might mean structured training, workshops, mentoring or time to practise with real products and workflows. The most useful approach will depend on what the business actually needs people to do with the technology.
See this in practice: I’ve also shared how I delivered an 11-week CLO3D programme for the J.Crew design team through INHOUSE, taking learners from no previous 3D experience towards applying CLO3D within an existing fashion workflow.
Read the J.Crew CLO3D team training case study
During previous transitions, people who adopted new technologies early often played an important role in helping colleagues build confidence. That kind of knowledge sharing is still valuable today, whether through internal champions, peer support, mentoring or simply creating space for teams to share what they are learning.
Digital tools have also made self-guided learning much more accessible. Tutorials, webinars, forums and online communities allow people to develop skills at their own pace and return to specific topics when they need them. These resources can make digital fashion learning more flexible, particularly when they are supported by opportunities to apply those skills in practice.
Upskilling is much harder when learning a new system feels like another task added to an already busy workload. People need to understand where the technology fits into their role and what problem it is intended to solve.
Depending on the product and workflow, 3D can help teams resolve more decisions digitally before sampling, communicate garment ideas more clearly, iterate more quickly and reduce some unnecessary physical development.
But those benefits do not come from installing the software alone. They depend on the skills of the people using it, the quality of the underlying product information and how well the technology connects with the wider development process.
For students and early-career professionals, digital capability is becoming another useful part of the fashion skill set. That does not mean abandoning traditional design, pattern or technical knowledge. In many roles, it is the combination of those skills with digital tools that makes the technology genuinely useful.
There is unlikely to be one solution to the digital skills gap. Different roles, businesses and education providers need different levels of digital capability, but there are several areas where education and industry can work together more effectively.
1. Build digital skills into education where they are relevant
Digital fashion tools can be introduced alongside existing creative and technical skills rather than treated as a replacement for them. The level and type of 3D learning will depend on the course and the careers students are preparing for, but giving learners opportunities to understand how these tools connect to real fashion workflows can make the learning much more meaningful.
2. Make workplace learning practical and accessible
Businesses introducing new technology need to consider more than access to software. Structured training, flexible learning, time to practise and opportunities to work with relevant products can all help teams build confidence. For some, a foundation course may be enough. Others may need more role-specific support around the products and workflows they actually work with.
3. Be clearer about what digital capability means
Terms such as CLO3D skills or 3D experience can cover a very wide range of abilities. A designer, pattern cutter and technical developer may all use the same software very differently. Clearer skills frameworks could help educators, employers and learners understand what capability looks like for different roles, rather than treating software knowledge as a single level of competence.
4. Create more opportunities for knowledge sharing
Formal training is only part of the picture. Internal champions, mentoring, peer learning, industry events, communities and accessible online resources can all help people continue developing once the initial training is over. Sharing challenges as well as successful outcomes can also make digital adoption feel much more achievable.
5. Give people the opportunity to apply what they learn
Digital skills become useful when they can be applied to real work. Organisations introducing 3D need to give people the time, support and relevant projects to put those skills into practice. The aim should not simply be to introduce another piece of software, but to understand where it can genuinely improve the way products are designed, developed or communicated.
The tools will continue to change. We are already seeing that in the speed at which 3D, AI and connected product-development platforms are evolving.
That makes it even more important to build capability rather than simply teach individual software functions. People need strong foundations, opportunities to practise, access to feedback and enough understanding of the wider fashion workflow to question what the technology produces.
Closing the digital skills gap is therefore not about teaching everyone every new tool. It is about helping people develop the right combination of technical, fashion and digital knowledge for the work they actually need to do.
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