A fascinating and up-and-coming area of application for extended reality (XR) is fashion and e-commerce. With the development of AR and VR technology, the way that consumers and designers respectively interact and create fashion pieces has evolved into something more dynamic, fun and creative.

With the technology, consumers can not only interact virtually with the products but with the store space as well, which can be reimagined into a creative world limited only by the tools used to make it. It allows brands to create immersive experiences to showcase and advertise their products in a virtual space, allowing it to be accessible to the masses because now you do not need to be present physically in order to enjoy it. In high-end fashion design, the digital space also broadens the potential for creativity from designers because they need not be limited to physical and real materials, allowing them to express themselves more freely. Overall, I believe it makes for a really cool and artistic marketing strategy!

Furthermore, companies can create something that Rock Paper Reality has called a “frictionless shopping experience” [1], which allows for virtual try-ons and try-outs of different products that range from clothing, accessories, and even makeup, allowing users to visualize the on themselves, before buying it. This has helped to improve buyer confidence, which then encourages additional purchases, and also decreases product return. [2]

While this is yet to be a common sight among the retailers for the masses, some of the bigger or more luxurious brands have explored the capabilities of XR in various initiatives.

Specific examples include:

• Vogue Business Metaverse Atelier (created by Journee and powered by Epic Games) [3]
  • Walk-through Video link: Vogue Business Metaverse Atelier
  • A walk-through virtual experience showcasing digital fashion pieces in the metaverse, along with designer-narrated exhibitions and hologram interviews.
  • This application offered viewers a close-up view of the intricacies and versatility of digital designs, as well as showcase for the first time the first recorded fashion NFT that was put up for sale. The works displayed around a beautiful immersive environment created a surreal and unique experience that very much felt like walking through an art exhibition and learning about the different designs and their inspirations.

• DressX AR try-ons
  • Website: https://dressx.com/
  • Try out the app here: https://dressx.app.link/rIHv48pwbtb
  • This mobile app boasts collections of designs from a long list of fashion designers and brands, some of which are free to try on through AR filters, modelled like what that many of us may be familiar with on Instagram and Snapchat. These digital clothing pieces are for sale and can be installed into your very own Metacloset, which can become a fairly interesting avenue for self-expression in the Metaverse.

Application Specific Analysis: DressX

Why do I like this?

I like this application because they showcase really creative pieces, and there’s just something novel about it which makes it exciting. I also like the AR body mapping that they have done that allows the viewer to see the clothing pieces in a full 360-degree view. Some of the more flowy fabrics also delicately dance whenever you sway from side to side, so that kind of interaction and an almost “real” feel is really fascinating to witness.

Why is it engaging?

Because it makes use of AR, by overlaying the product on a live feed from your camera, you are then able to see the product on yourself, not just have it modelled on a blank mannequin model. And as mentioned before, little effects or details like the garment flowing along with your movement, or shimmering in the light, and allowing for a 360-degree view, really add to the extended reality experience of a user because of the live interactivity.

Because these are digital pieces, you can do rapid-fire try-ons of any number of pieces (given what is available on the application at least), which helps a user to stay engaged for much longer, similar to how hooked one can get while scrolling on social media. This experience is very unlike physically trying on clothes, which can be troublesome and take a lot of time.

What features can be improved?

• Adding virtual fitting. Many of the pieces are made for the stereotypical skinny/slim fit body shapes and sizes, and unfortunately, the application typically does not map the clothes as accurately when it comes to a wider range of body types. It would be much better and inclusive to be able to add dynamic sizing, with the use of AI and smarter models, and also take advantage of 3D scanning technology, like using the LiDAR scanner and TrueDepth technology on the iPhone 12 Pro [4]. Understandably not all devices are ready for that yet, but it could be something to look forward to when virtual try-ons become more common. [4]
• At the moment the application only presents a limited and niche collection of (digital) clothes, mostly because it serves to provide a Metaverse fashion experience. So instead of an improvement, this is more of an extension, to extend this concept to more normal clothes and retailers like the ones we frequent for our everyday looks (ahem Uniqlo?), to enhance our shopping experience and allow us as consumers to try before we buy.

Conclusion:

As someone who likes to shop and constantly struggles to gauge my size when buying online, I can definitely appreciate if an application like this is available on the various sites I may frequent because it would allow me to have a “feel” of the product long before I plan to purchase it and even in the comfort of my own home.

The fashion and shopping world has a lot of potential to benefit from XR, and I am excited to see where the technology will bring us (or rather, where we bring the technology, given that a batch of us would most likely go on to create and innovate with XR).

Resources

[1] Rock Paper Reality, & Patrick. (2023, January 11). Saks Fifth Avenue. Rock Paper Reality. Retrieved January 17, 2023, from https://rockpaperreality.com/our-work/saks-fifth-avenue/

[2] Using AR technology to lower your ecommerce return rate. Loop Returns. (2022, April 13). Retrieved January 17, 2023, from https://www.loopreturns.com/blog/using-ar-technology-to-lower-your-ecommerce-return-rate/#:~:text=The%20Virtual%20Try%2DOn%20service,reducing%20the%20likelihood%20of%20returns.

[3] Vogue Business Metaverse Atelier. (2022). YouTube. Retrieved January 17, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKI4zVa0JFk&t=5s.

[4] Mikalai, Z., Andrey, D., Hawas, H. S., Tеtiana, Н., & Oleksandr, S. (2022, January 24). Human body measurement with the iPhone 12 pro lidar scanner. AIP Publishing. Retrieved January 17, 2023, from https://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/5.0078310 or

http://rep.vstu.by/bitstream/handle/123456789/15312/5.0078310.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y for full text