Abstract:
Virtual fashion is becoming the latest trend being adopted by most fashion designers and apparel manufactures.
The purpose of this study was to explore methods that can be adopted by fashion design students to have digital or virtual
fashion exhibitions instead of having physical exhibitions that would imply physical attendance in the wake of the Covid-19
pandemic. In this study in- depth interviews and questionnaires were used for gathering data from the purposively sampled
participants. Lecturing staff in the faculty offering the fashion design degree programme were interviewed and students were
given an online questionnaire with closed and open-ended questions. The study revealed that virtual fashion exhibitions can be
successfully integrated into the fashion design degree programme as students exhibit a high level of digital literacy and
competency. The study highlights the need for more support in terms of ICT infrastructure at institution level so that students
can develop their digital literacy skills. The findings reveal that virtual or digital exhibitions are feasible, though there are cost
implications as there are prerequisites in software and hardware requirements. The study recommends institutions offering
fashion design degree programme to embrace and invest in the new fashion technologies
