With the advent of COVID-19 virus, Jessica had to rethink how she designed clothes. Inspired by Congolese designer Hanifa’s 3D fashion show, Jessica picked up 3D-fashion design as well.

‍

‍

“I just knew I had to learn how to create garments in 3D. It was next level. This is where fashion is going, and it took the Coronavirus to get us there. We should have gotten there earlier because fashion causes a lot of waste and damage to the earth and the process of digitizing fashion helps us reduce waste”.

‍

Jessica Nwalozie is a multi-talented Nigerian designer who describes her relationship with fashion as something that happened to her. She has her hands in several pots, she runs a fashion apparel line called Jessica James RTW, a digital design company, and she is also a teacher. Jessica holds classes where she shares her knowledge with other aspiring designers. She wants to help budding designers avoid the mistakes she made while she was perfecting her craft.

‍

Trained at Martwayne Fashion School, Lagos, the experience equipped her with necessary skills of design, and she transferred that knowledge into the digital space. Jessica taught herself how to use CLO3D, the software that creates very realistic digital versions of clothes and also gives the artist freedom to design digital models called avatars. Running the CLO3D software is unique and requires computers with specific operating systems and fast processors to operate.

‍

“3D has improved the whole process of design for me, from concept to finished product. Instead of going all the way to like to create saying actual products, I can actually test it out digitally to see if it works first. This also helps me prevent waste of resources such as fabric and even money; it cuts my cost in half.”

‍

‍

With the cost of production of a fashion show being so high, it’s easier on the finances of an emerging designer to create digital fashion shows, eliminating the cost of photographers, models, makeup artists and giving her more control of her resources. Although time-consuming, Jessica plans to keep using digital illustrations and 3D designs to run her fashion business. Formerly a one-woman show, her business has grown to accommodate a team of tailors who work for her, easing the burden of combining the virtual and physical world of design.

Jessica is a winner of the 2019 Vlisco Fashion Fund. She describes her experience as the scariest thing she’s ever done. Her persistence paid off tremendously well, after applying for the Vlisco contest for three years, she got listed among the top 10 finalists. Although Nigeria had the highest number of applicants, she came out victorious.

As part of her mission to tutor other designers, she also creates and sells to croquis; a booklet of digital sketches and templates of fashion figures.  

‍