Earlier this year, our research and development team MediaMonks Labs partnered with FLUX, our fashion and luxury team, to explore the virtualization of fashion. The report explored digital’s impact on fashion design, production and consumer experiences—one of those being the  opportunity to try on digital garments using AR.

 Now, the Labs team has completed a prototype that allows people to do just that. Based on full-body tracking, the prototype features an original digital garment designed by Brandi LaCertosa, a Creative at MediaMonks with a background in fashion design. But the immersive experience does more than let people virtually “wear” a garment; it also offers a glimpse into the ways that digital technology can help consumers engage with the meaning and inspiration behind a design through storytelling and interactivity.

Trying on a New Technology

 If you’ve ever played around with a face filter on Instagram or Snapchat, then you already have an inkling of how the try-on prototype works—the main difference is that the prototype tracks the whole body, rather than simply tracking the face. So just like how a face filter might let you try on cosmetics, full-body tracking lets you view an entire virtual outfit on your own body.

When the team first began experimenting with the prototype, only 2D tracking was available by Snapchat. Since then, the platform has released 3D body tracking, which recognizes the position and rotation of joints for a more convincing experience.

There are some limits to the technology. The camera’s view must frame the entire body, which is good to get an overall look at an outfit, but can make it tricky to capture the finer details (like buttons on a blouse) that require bringing the device in closer range to see.  The technology also doesn’t allow for sizing adjustments, meaning a single virtual garment won’t fit all body types. Grading (fashion-speak for making larger or smaller sizes) a virtual garment follows the same process as a physical one.

The team anticipates demand for 3D content will continue to grow in the fashion industry. Realizing this, they built their approach around the way fashion houses produce physical collections. “We used the industry standard tools for design, modeling and output to see how these tools work together, and what we need to learn for future projects using this production pipeline,” says Geert Eichhorn, Innovation Director.

Designing in a New Dimension

The process of designing an outfit and translating it into digital was a unique collaboration between cutting-edge technology and traditional fashion design. “I wanted this garment to be a heritage piece, something that I would design regardless of it being digital,” says LaCertosa, noting that a fashion brand wouldn’t take the digital aspect into consideration when designing—instead, executing digitally would be our challenge to solve. The team worked with a Marvelous Designer, which allowed the team to work with the same kind of digital patterns that brands are already using in their current design process.

The digital production process emulated the way that a garment comes together physically, with the Labs team translating LaCertosa’s designs into patterns that would join together in a 3D shape. “We weren’t physically together, so I couldn’t make patterns for them,” says LaCertosa. She provided the team with references—“We use very specific terminology in fashion,” she adds—and connected with them over calls to suggest any changes that needed to be made. “It’s the same process you’d have by physically meeting in a factory,” says LaCertosa. “We followed that same production flow, but virtually—and it was quite smooth.”

This process gave the team the chance to test the new value chain mapped out in their previous report—a fashion cycle transformed by new technologies. “It speaks to how we do things. We have so much expertise across our teams, and it’s about trusting each other and knowing what someone doesn’t have and needs,” says Eichhorn. “There’s an understanding that all these things feed into one another, from design to production to the end-consumer, so it’s natural for the Monks to work together in an integrated way.”

Translating Inspiration into Tactile Experiences

The technology prototyped by Labs is more than just a tool for trying on clothes digitally—it also opens up sophisticated forms of storytelling. The inspiration behind LaCertosa’s design hearkens back to the Greek island of Chios, her family’s homeland. Among the island’s most famous stories is that of the Ottoman invasion of Anavatos, a fortress-like village high up in the mountains. As the Ottomans stormed the village, the women made a drastic sacrifice to avoid falling into a life of slavery: they jumped from the cliffs to their deaths and were regarded as heroes by the locals.

Elements of this story come to life in the details of LaCertosa’s design. Its silhouette takes inspiration from traditional Greek garb worn in the War of Independence, while ruffles climb up the shoulder to evoke ascension (“Anavatos” translates to “ascendable” or “climbable”). Worry beads made from resin produced by the mastic tree, which is most prevalent on the island, become shank buttons adorning the garment.

While it’s not unique for a piece of clothing to tell a tale, such stories are seldom shared with consumers. “Designers love telling their stories and sharing how they pull inspiration,” says LaCertosa. “Now, you have more opportunities to let people get to know the garment and learn more. Even small details incorporated through sound and animation could have a great effect.”

On that note, Guajardo continues to experiment with the prototype by adding different visual effects that make the try-on experience more unique, immersive and emotionally engaging. “I’m fascinated that you can mix different techniques that we use with lenses,” he says. “I’m using particles and segmentation to test different atmospheric effects.”

So, while some may use full-body tracking and 3D technology to show how a garment looks on their body, others might wield virtualization to tell feature-rich, emotionally driven narratives. From production to the consumer experience, digital’s unique ability to convey the inspiration behind a design and immerse people within the world of the brand continues to grow—and the team is keen to see where that takes the industry next.

There’s more where that came from.

Retail customers stand outside in a queue to ensure a safer shopping experience. Dressing rooms are closed. Fashion Week has gone virtual. And today’s fashion design students can’t meet in a studio to cut and sew materials. But the fashion industry isn’t in peril—it’s just taking on a new look.

This month, our research and development team MediaMonks Labs is collaborating with FLUX, our fashion and luxury team, to offer a special Labs report focused on the future of fashion. Bursting at the seams in digital innovation—from production to customer experiences—the report spares no effort to serve looks and inspired insight on the virtualization of fashion in its many forms. 

Virtualization is In-Season

For a long time, fashion-forward didn’t necessarily translate to being tech-forward. But in recent years, there’s been a growing desire to shake things up and break free from the cycle of seasonal releases and endless fashion weeks around the world. Suddenly, events that had long been exclusive became available to everyone through social feeds, completely changing the way brands engage with their audiences—like video game-inspired activations.

“It’s not just about the tech changing, but also how consumer behaviors are evolving,” says Ben Lunt, Head of Experience Design, Fashion & Luxury. “Brands knew they’d have to adapt, but the time never felt right until the past year.” Thanks to the pandemic, customer-facing digital experiences are increasingly in vogue—just recently, MediaMonks partnered with Verizon Media and IMG to bring Rebecca Minkoff’s new Spring 2021 collection to fashion lovers everywhere through 3D renders.

The technology lets people inspect looks up-close from any angle, either on a desktop device or directly superimposed in their surroundings using augmented reality. Previously, Rebecca Minkoff noted that customers are 30% more likely to buy when given the chance to engage with 3D product models online.

3D Production Connects People and Experiences

While the virtualization of the consumer experience has received a lot of attention from the fashion industry, it’s also aiding efforts in design and production. In response to sustainability concerns, today’s fashion students are learning to design in CLO3D, which allows designers to design, develop and sample garments in real time—software that’s also proven useful in the pandemic. The tool does more than let users design and collaborate from a safe distance—it streamlines the entire process.

In the traditional process, draping and patternmaking for each change in design can be time-consuming and wasteful. Virtualized production lets designers visualize these variations at speed, opening them up to more experimentation throughout the process. But it’s not about speeding up an already fast industry. “It’s about pinpointing parts of the process that can be streamlined in order to slow down others,” says Brandi LaCertosa, a Creative at MediaMonks. “We can create more space and time for thoughtful design and production.”

And these same assets can pull double duty by powering the kinds of touchpoints discussed above—or even inspire entirely new experiences. On the Labs team, MediaMonks Innovation Director Geert Eichhorn says: “If you switch to this digital pipeline you can make new products, like exporting designs onto video game avatars or letting users try on outfits with a digital twin.” While the digital twin idea is still some time away, it inspires some of the exciting D2C ecommerce solutions that forward-thinking brands might try out.

New Feedback Loops Transform the Industry

 Accelerated production and design can transform the value chain—a linear process that moves from designing and planning to sourcing and supply, and finally the consumer experience—into more of a Venn diagram where different steps overlap. Consider if 3D garments worn by players in a video game were the same used in a virtualized look book for retail buyers—but were originally made during the design and production process of the physical garments.

These assets can also be used for market testing. RTFKT presents 3D designs to its audience, inviting them to vote on those that make it to physical production. Fashion brand Finesse uses AI and social listening to source data-driven designs. Using CLO3D, the brand can act on trends quickly through accelerated production. For brands that serve as tastemakers, this same data can act as a trend forecast report in the design process, helping curate which pieces of the collection to take from runway to production. “Many designers crave an understanding of the people who will wear their clothes,” says LaCertosa. “Take Virgil Abloh for example, who is extremely active on Clubhouse for exactly this reason.”

Emulating the Analogue Aesthetic

Despite the advantages of virtualization, could it all be a fad—is it the emperor’s new clothes, bound to fall out of fashion once the pandemic subsides? Lunt notes that there’s always been a tension between fashion labels—luxury ones in particular—and new technologies, particularly because those brands have honed a more analogue aesthetic that can feel at odds with virtualization at first blush.

“They operate at a deep, impressionistic level,” he says. “If you look at a campaign image from Bottega Veneta, there’s a lot going on there—it touches you at a deep level, but a lot of those soft signals are analogue. Digital currently has its own aesthetic codes which can often be antithetical to luxury.” But it’s not a zero-sum game. By way of example, Lunt mentions Pixar’s painstaking efforts to emulate an analogue aesthetic in its CG films—like the split diopter lens, a unique tool that puts two objects in focus with no continuous depth of field to provoke a specific emotion in the viewer. 

Virtualized fashion also runs the risk of falling into “uncanny valley” territory, in which the slightest imperfection in an otherwise faithful reproduction can induce revulsion. “From the way the trim falls when moved to folds in the fabric, the smallest thing that looks off can trigger that response,” says Eichhorn.

But these challenges shouldn’t turn brands away from virtualization. Instead, it should prompt them to think more thoughtfully about where technology has the most potential to fuel creative innovation or build stronger relationships with consumers. “Luxury codes are already evolving to accommodate, appropriate, and ultimately push digital aesthetics forward,” says Lunt. “And you can still take that stylized photoshoot to capture the human element, then use 3D so consumers can see how it actually looks on them,” adds LaCertosa. “It’s about using this technology to support your brand and its aesthetic, not replace it.” 

There’s more where that came from.

Consumer behaviors have changed dramatically throughout 2020. We’ve become dependent on digital to discover, engage with and purchase from brands like never before. As consumer behaviors and expectations have undergone several years of accelerated (and irrevocable) change in a matter of months, it’s clear that brands must be prepared to draw the offline and online experience closer through premium digital experiences moving forward.

The fashion industry has been especially affected by this hyperadoption of digital, and across the end-to-end value chain—from supply logistics to buying & merchandising, all the way through to the consumer’s point of purchase. As fashion brands address the need to virtualize their processes, both creatively and operationally, MediaMonks stands ready to offer the industry a range of bespoke solutions with its new fashion and luxury practice.

This new team of strategic and creative category experts is helmed by the former leadership team of specialist fashion agency Wednesday, and is backed by our global team of multidisciplinary talent. Led by Liam Osbourne, formerly Group Business Director at Wednesday London, the team will bolster fashion brands’ efforts to infuse the customer decision journey (CDJ) with cultural relevance and resonance, and create the kinds of premium experiences online that customers have come to expect offline.

Making the Intangible Tangible

With purchase decisions being made increasingly online, the tactility and physicality of the experience has never been more important, whether it’s evoking the feel of the materials up-close, or the excitement of trying on an outfit. And this is especially true when it comes to premium brands, who excel in providing unparalleled craftsmanship and service to loyal audiences. “A premium customer experience within the fashion and luxury industry is one of the most important elements of success,” says Victor Knaap, CEO of MediaMonks. “Technology plays an instrumental role in conveying both the tangible and intangible aspects of luxury that are so important.”

Having long honed brand-consumer relationships in person and through retail, fashion brands must rethink the CDJ to meet customers wherever and whenever they’re in the mood to shop, from offering premium digital shopping experiences like experiential ecommerce, producing enticing original content, partnering with influencers who drive conversation and more. And what’s true for consumers is equally true for industry professionals, as buyers unable to visit the physical showroom turn increasingly to virtual experiences to evaluate the brand’s collections, and inform their wholesale purchase decisions.

Our own expertise in 3D content and AR empowers customers everywhere to examine the products up close, and from every angle. We brought these skills to bear for Nike earlier this year, helping them to unveil the latest Air Jordan release to an eager fan base unable to view them in-store. And in establishing our specialist fashion and luxury practice, we will continue to take this kind of work to the next level.

Reframing the Catwalk and Redefining the Event

One way or another, Fashion Week has evolved in recent years into an increasingly consumer-facing event. And, in the face of reduced travel and social distancing rules, 2020 has seen brands forced to reimagine the fashion show itself, exploring new formats through which to unveil their new collections.

Even as the industry returns to something like business as usual, we expect the fashion show to remain increasingly untethered from the physical catwalk, empowering each brand’s creative director to experiment more freely with how they express their vision. This will enable them to deliver an exclusive, real world experience for key opinion leaders and category decision makers, while continuing to reach a wider audience of highly engaged fans virtually.

Moments like this are defined by the confluence of creativity and technology. Our existing expertise in live streaming, experiential, VR and digital installations will be supercharged by the arrival of our specialist team, allowing us to stage breakthrough events that reflect the very exacting and highly nuanced codes of fashion and luxury. Consider how we turned any environment into a virtual catwalk for Tommy Hilfiger using volumetric AR, or how Circus (who merged with MediaMonks earlier this year) helped beloved Brazilian brand Havaianas drive real cultural impact by hosting virtual weddings during Pride month. Imagine what else could be achieved by some of the category’s most premium brands.

Matching Surface with Substance

This category has always existed as the pinnacle of expression in a commercial context—expressive imagery, evocative language and exquisite products, all providing the ultimate platform for aspiration. As brands rely increasingly on digital to reach consumers, we will be concentrating on aesthetics and innovation in equal measure.

But just as digital is transforming consumer behaviors, so is it also shifting attitudes. Matters of sustainability, longevity and more ethical standards of production are an increasing priority, and not just for younger audiences. These shifts encourage fashion brands to find new ways to exhibit their ethos through retail, content and digital platforms. And as craftspeople ourselves, we have an ambition to support brands by reinforcing the purpose and quality they promise to consumers whilst weaving digital into their social fabric.

“This is a pivotal moment for the fashion world, and the digitization of the industry is more important than ever before,” says Osbourne. “Together we can supercharge luxury, bring the brand’s purpose to life and elevate consumer experiences—both in the physical and the digital world.”

While the way in which we all, as consumers, engage with the category may have changed substantially—and will continue to change from season to season, year on year—fashion has always been a powerful conduit for creative expression, enabling each of us to explore and convey our individual identity. Fashion is more than just fabric; it’s about how it feels to be you. And just as style is unique to every consumer—and specific to their day-to-day situation—brands must be equipped to cater to those multifaceted needs.

Fashion is, by definition, intrinsic to culture and individual self-expression. As fashion labels aim to enhance the cultural relevance of their brand and products within a fiercely competitive industry, our team of experts is primed to create indelible digital experiences, services and content at speed and scale, helping premium brands make their mark on the most discerning of audiences.