‘Virtual fashion: Is fashion for Metaverse realistic or can Metaverse make real fashion more popular?’ – Times of India

Virtual fashion is the new trend. 

Big fashion brands are dressing up as avatars and showcasing their collections at fashion shows on the Metaverse. Top designers are designing clothes and you begin to think that the world is going crazy.

The point is that virtual is the future and technology is making room for infinite innovation and experimentation. Imagine that you, through your digital avatar, had the choice to sport a D&G outfit on your next visit to your favorite Metaverse or that Jimmy Choos were your avatar’s shoes of choice at a virtual music concert. NFT, Blockchain and fashion are all coming together to make this happen for real and it’s happening fast.

Fashion heavyweights like Paco Rabanne, Selfridges, Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce & Gabbana, Esteé Lauder participated in the Metaverse Fashion Week held in Decentraland last year. Organizers reported that over 108,000 guests participated in the fashion event. 

But even as virtual fashion becomes fashionable on the Metaverse and we admire the innovation and creativity of virtual fashion models, Metaverse is finding many new uses in the fashion industry. Virtual malls and stores are becoming popular with consumers who want to buy real clothes.

Imagine that you want to beat the traffic on the weekend and avoid shopping at a crowded mall. You open your online shopping app on your smartphone and browse through a list of designs. There are high-res photos of models who you can see sporting various designs. You select a couple of outfits, hoping that they would fit you. You place the order and wait.

It takes about a week for the delivery and when you finally wear the outfits, you realize they are a size too small or maybe too big. The next logical step is to plan the return and select the next size, hoping that it would fit you. Probably it will, probably it won’t. It’s often a matter of chance.

The whole process can be frustrating for both the buyer and the seller. Plus it’s not a sustainable process. The business of returned goods is not easy and neither makes business sense. In fact there is a whole industry working on driving efficiencies into the process. But we will delve into that another time.

Metaverse is changing quite a few things for the fashion shopper and the seller. Advancing tech means buyers can now scan their body and use their ‘digital twin’ to shop for perfect fits on the Metaverse.

For example, in order to avoid the weekend rush and traffic and to save time, you visit the virtual store of your favourite fashion brand on the Metaverse. Your size, fashion, and colour choices are already with the store. You are shown clothes based on your preferences.

Using a VR headset, right there in the middle of the store, you can quickly see how the design looks on you. At the snap of your fingers, you can change into various clothes. The same goes for shoes and accessories. You get the right fit and the size right size then and there. Technology ensures that your body measurements match completely with the clothes and that there is minimal chance of error.

You make the payments and your physical clothes are delivered to your address. You can wear real clothes to work or to get-together with friends in the physical world. 

Technology is making personalization of clothes even easier. For example, your visit to the store on the Metaverse gave the store the option to ‘observe’ your choices, colors that you prefer, clothes that you prefer, and accessories that you prefer. Of course, all this is with your permission. This takes personalization of clothes to a different level during your future visits to the virtual store.

Next, let’s say, you love a maroon dress but you wish it was available in black. You can change the colour within seconds, and, if you want it, it can be manufactured and delivered to your address. 

If you are a person who prefers to travel to a mall or to a shop, you can still visit the trial room on the Metaverse, at the physical store. Again imagine being able to try on dresses without waiting in a queue on a weekend outside the trial room. Isn’t that something?

Metaverse and fashion are coming together to make real fashion more fashionable and accessible. And in the process it is making manufacturing clothes more sustainable, fashion eCommerce more efficient, and keeping the consumer at the center of everything. While fashion for Metaverse avatars is the new trend, buying real clothes on Metaverse is here to stay.

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