The Digital Era: that bittersweet age we all live in. We turn face-to-face meetings into “a quick call”, learn through e-learning, update our friends with overly long voice notes, follow streaming yoga classes and fall in love with a swipe. We’ve even started sipping coffee in front of a camera, in a digital cafè focused on the importance of cultivating authentic connections. Reality is dematerialising before our eyes. Hidden among the pixels, a question crosses screens around the world: is being present in person doomed to go out of fashion?

The debate is far from theoretical: it’s already transforming the way we live, work and create: from algorithms that promise to find us our soul mate to NFTs that, far from fading away, are quietly transitioning from speculative assets into essential digital infrastructure. Technological revolution touches every field and reshapes every relationship —asking us, if not forcing us, to redefine even the relationship between brands and audience.

According to ANSA, today it only takes £50 to generate a credible deepfake. And in a recent study by iProov –a global leader in biometric identity verification – only 0.1% of participants managed to tell real from fake in images and videos. Translation: it is no longer just reality that is fragile, but also our perception. Are we part of the elite or the 99.9% who will fall into the trap? The question we need to answer urgently, then, is not how much being connected disconnects us, but rather how much we can realise it.

Better (not) to ask Chat GPT, it always has the right answer until you point out it’s wrong.

In the world of textile innovation, the issue is even more complex: if a computer can simulate the sheen of a yarn or the depth of a texture, what about the feel of a fabric on the skin, the imperceptible weight of a weave, the tactile memory that accompanies each material? In this sector, touch with reality is not the only sense we risk losing. And perhaps not even the most important.

If it is therefore certain that technology transforms the worlds and ways in which we live, blurring the boundaries between real and artificial, what remains for us to dispel all the other doubts that its acceleration brings with it?

At Mare di Moda—one of Europe’s leading B2B events for beachwear textiles—Jersey Lomellina offered an answer, inviting visitors to see and touch its evoluted textured fabrics firsthand. Intricate three-dimensional designs, soft and sophisticated structures, reversible surfaces and captivating tonal contrasts—already translated into garments that blend the effortless elegance of vintage fashion with the Caribbean vibes forecast for the coming season.

A tangible statement of authenticity, expressed not only in the innovative technical fabrics presented, but also in the choice of a spectacular key-shaped entrance to the stand. More than just design, it was a symbol of JL’s constant openness to exploration and creativity: core elements in the creation of all its textile solutions and, perhaps not coincidentally, tools that are uniquely human.

Was the made-in-Gravellona Lomellina brand sending us a hidden message within the colorful threads of its new collection? This suspicion is short-lived for those familiar with the vision of the pioneering circular knitwear brand, which has always viewed innovation as a means of enhancing – rather than replacing – skills.

It seems clear to me, then, that on the Croisette in Cannes, Jersey Lomellina didn’t aim to showcase blind faith in new textile technologies, but rather the opposite: the awareness that no circular loom can spin the threads of intuition, imagination, and personal sensitivity on its own. Nor can any cutting-edge machine or artificial intelligence ever replicate the value of direct, living, sensory experience.

And, maybe, that’s the answer we’ve been looking for all along.
In the digital age, true innovation is staying human.

Sources:

cointelegraph.com/news/nft-becoming-infrastructure
ansa.it/canale_tecnologia/notizie/tecnologia/2025/allarme-deepfake
iproov.com/press/study-reveals-deepfake-blindspot-detect-ai-generated-content