I’m not an artist, I don’t have the talent to paint or draw. My art form is #fashion. The eclectic mix of colours, textures and cultural influences fascinate me. They’re my art form.

I’ve never been much of a traditional gal. I hate spending 3 hours getting ready. I’ve never spent more than 10 minutes on my makeup and that’s if I’m really trying to ‘make an effort’. I’ve pretty much had the same standard ‘basic look’ for 15 years. I don’t do my hair, I remain to this day more of a wash-and-go girl. If you’re lucky I might do a basic straighten but only because my mane has bird’s nest tendencies. I love efficiency, most things are seen as burdensome to-dos. I only found a way to enjoy my mani/pedi rituals in the past few months.

But fashion… oh fashion I love. I remember the introduction of Next Issue when I was living in New York. It was my most delightful indulgence. 20 fashion magazines on my tablet without the weight of the beautiful traditional print (that smell of fresh ink though…).  I used to spend hours devouring fashion porn and creating inspiration boards. Never on trend or on time, because why would I follow the crowd?

But, let’s talk about the shopping part, I hate it to this day… Going in and having to try on 15 things to only walk away with one. It is a total workout which I do not enjoy, cramped into pokey fitting rooms making sure your curtain was sufficiently closed to try and maintain a modicum of dignity.

Then, of course, home deliveries became a thing at some point a few years ago. Which still required a lot of scrolling and searching unless you know EXACTLY what you’re looking for. So much time… Urgh… Time I want to spend doing far more interesting things.

Imagine a new reality. I can create my lookbook on Pinterest and Readly. I can connect these accounts to my Metaverse avatar which is pre-programmed with my real-world physical data points.

It takes my actual style from pictures on Instagram and Facebook. It suggests the right wardrobe at the right price point by trawling the internet, using AI tech and suggests what to buy and wear. I can at least try this on preliminarily on my metaverse avatar and purchase it directly to be delivered to my door.

But that’s not all,  it suggests the right makeup for me and hairstyles that take under 5 minutes to create because it knows who I am and what makes me tick. Remember that scene from Clueless, where Alicia Silverstone uses a programme to match her outfits before having to extract and we all swooned as if this was the holy grail? Yup, like that except 1000 times cooler.

Oh, be still my beating heart. Does the Devil still wear Prada? Damn straight she does, just more efficiently.

Science Fiction? Methinks the future is already here. Technology innovation has already been working towards this for quite some time ‘Smart Closet’, ‘Get Wardrobe’ and ‘Acloset’,  now this will all be integrated to create truly immersive dressing and shopping experiences.