Digital clothing is fast becoming the latest groundbreaking fashion trend.
It may sound like an abstract concept more suited for a futuristic world but people have already been wearing digital accessories through social media filters for years. So why not push the creative boundaries by allowing customers to "wear" digital clothing through augmented reality and digitally altered photos?
The demand is there. As Vice points out, there is a multibillion-dollar industry that allows gamers to purchase custom outfits, or "skins," for their avatars. Now imagine applying that to the physical human form. This is what designers envision as they continue to create more reality-bending fashion pieces. Digital fashion is the next big step. It may even be cheaper, easier, and more ethical than buying real clothes, as Dhanush Shetty, a 22-year-old product manager based in San Francisco, discovered.
"Usually, when you buy clothes, you have to consider the fit, how it would look in pictures, and, sometimes, how ethical the purchase is. I don’t need to worry about being ‘too big’ for digital fashion or whether [it] was made in a sweatshop," Shetty told Vice.
Shetty purchased his first few digital fashion pieces through DressX, a company that was launched in August 2020. DressX uses augmented reality to allow customers to try on their digital clothing. If you are wondering what augmented reality clothing try-on is, you are not alone. Vogue Business provides a clear explanation.
"AR clothing try-on generally refers to the ability for three-dimensional digital clothing to automatically appear on a person as they move in real time, usually either via their phones but also via laptop or other devices," the outlet states.
This is how customers decide whether they want to purchase an item from DressX. If they decide to purchase, they upload a photo of themselves to the website, or via the app, and in a day or two receive their digital fashion piece that has been professionally edited onto their bodies. This is particularly appealing to social media users and influencers wanting to post these images to their platforms.
"Our goal is to give every person their digital closet," said DressX co-founder Natalia Modenova.
Setting her eyes on the future, DressX co-founder Daria Shapovalova imagines that everyone will have digital clothing "which you can wear on social media, on still images, on video calls, online conferences, and soon, in gaming and other multiverses."
"I think the best part of digital fashion is that there is an escapism effect in it," added Roei Derhi, the founder of the digital fashion house Placebo, and whose designs have also been featured on DressX. "Digital fashion is bigger than reality and makes people not only wear clothes, they wear fantasies," Derhi said.
An augmented reality creator from Manchester, U.K., who goes by the name Doddz, believes that digital fashion will become more and more common as designers push boundaries.
"We’re all heading towards working and living in different metaverses, or digital worlds, so as people care even more about their online presence, then digital fashion will become commonplace," Doddz said. "Why would anyone interested in fashion not be interested in wearing the most beautiful garment that’s physically impossible to make, with floating objects all around you?"
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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