Woman in Long Sleeve Shirt Wearing VR Goggles
(Photo : Sound On)

The 2020s is a highly challenging era for fashion. The industry is facing a lot of issues requiring urgent attention - the need to increase profitability within a highly competitive environment, the lack of sustainability and the necessity to find meeting points with the new generation of consumers. To adapt to the fast-changing world, more and more brands are turning to emerging technologies, like augmented reality. 

AR can be used to solve a number of the above issues. There are already brands that use it, and the demand for the AR try-on is growing. But the luxury brands are still quite hesitant about implementing it. What makes them doubt it, and should they be more resolute in embracing AR? 

AR Try-on and What It Does for Retail

AR try-on, also known as virtual fitting, allows customers to try on beauty products, footwear, accessories, and clothing without visiting a brick-and-mortar store. Innovative companies developing AR try-on solutions use face tracking, segmentation, 3D modelling and other technologies to create the experience that would be similar to reality. During the process, digital visuals get layered upon a consumer's photo or in real time via their device's camera. 

Implementing AR try-on is beneficial for brands on many levels. Judging by an NPD research, at least half of consumers need to try on clothes to make a firm choice to purchase them. People are very likely to be no less keen on seeing how makeup and shoes are going to look on them prior to paying for them. Shopify's analysis shows that virtual fitting can boost e-commerce conversion by 97% and cut returns by 40%. 

Moreover, AR try-on can be a key to sustainability. According to Bloomberg, currently 11.3 million tons of textile go to waste every year. It's a combined result of the overproduction practised by fashion brands and the misguided and ill-judged shopping choices by consumers. The latter issue can be solved now with the help of AR try-on which assists people in making thoughtful decisions before buying clothes. The former problem can be tackled with the same tool in the future if brands will agree to producing clothing by request - customers will try on 3D models of apparel and then only the requested items will be manufactured.

Why Luxury Brands Hesitate to Implement AR

Understanding the potential of AR, a lot of fashion brands are already testing its capacity. Many luxury clothing brands, however, don't rush themselves to use AR and feel cautious about it. There are a few reasons behind this hesitation.

First of all, everything in the world of luxury fashion is about perfection. For brands in this category being good enough is never enough. Enormous efforts are invested not only into clothes themselves but also into their presentation - photography, video, store interiors, lighting, and smell, etc. Luxury fashion is about experience, not just physical items. 

This approach motivates luxury brands to be careful about the environment in which their products appear in the eyes of consumers. It means that they won't agree to have a brick-and-mortar store next to mass market shops and fast-food restaurants, as well as the fact that they don't want to see their visual content among some mediocre imagery. Currently luxury brands often doubt that AR try-on platforms can guarantee the necessary quality of virtual fitting and place the high-end items in the appropriate environment. 

AR clothing try-on is a relatively new technology, and there are indeed some imperfections in the way it's executed today. However, AR tech is constantly improving, and there are solutions that already can provide luxury brands' consumers with an impressive experience that matches their high expectations. It's just that some AR try-on platforms don't tailor themselves to fit the needs of the luxury fashion niche. They don't pay enough attention to nuances essential to a perfect virtual fitting experience and don't understand the concerns of upscale brands. 

It's Time for Luxury Brands to Join AR Fashion Revolution

In the early days of AR try-on technology virtual fitting might have looked clumsy, but since then a lot has changed. There are AR try-on developers, like Snap or ZERO10, who understand the full spectrum of intricacies to be addressed when recreating the process of trying on physical clothing in the digital form. They know the importance of accurate 3D body tracking and body shape estimation to achieve the perfect fit and see that it's necessary to recreate the quality of physical fabrics in the digital world, especially for the real-time try-on, because different textiles behave variously during movement. 

"We launched our company two years ago and ever since have been developing our proprietary AR try-on technology. In those two years, the quality of virtual fitting increased dramatically, and it'll continue improving every few months. We try to achieve the most accurate fit possible and put a lot of effort into our Cloth Simulation technology to transfer the physical qualities of diverse fabrics into the digital space. Fortunately, many people in our company have a background in fashion and can always tell if our digital clothes look right or wrong, so that we can iterate quickly and perfect our technology," says Alexey Borisov, CTO of ZERO10, a leading AR platform for fashion brands.

Speaking about impressive customer experience, today AR try-on can be shifted from a smartphone's display to a large screen inside an offline store or as a standalone pop-up and allow consumers to engage with brands' products in the most fascinating and vivid way in 4K quality. This is exactly what ZERO10 already offers to retailers with their AR Mirror. For a client, it means the possibility to easily play with clothes while being able to see and appreciate every little detail. 

Another reason for luxury brands to turn to virtual fitting is their interest in the Metaverse. Many high-end fashion houses want to join the Metaverse, and AR try-on is an opportunity to experiment with 3D clothing which can be both a product itself and a representation of a physical item available for purchasing (a try-before-buy feature). As for the former option, it may sound like a naive fantasy but, in fact, in 2021 internet users spent $60-70 billion on virtual goods within video games. So, selling digital only clothing, accessories, and makeup is a prospective direction. 

Even though luxury brands haven't been hasty in adapting Augmented Reality, it seems that the rapid evolution of this technology can change their minds in the near future. There are already AR fashion platforms that are capable of creating high-quality and detailed virtual fitting experiences that are suitable for the upscale fashion world. Those brands that will hesitate for too long may lose the chance to be in the avant-garde of the industry and take a firm place in the Metaverse, while the forward-thinking ones may achieve better sales and gain more attention from their audience.

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