How Metaverse clothing is revolutionizing fashion

It may still be in its infancy, but the Metaverse is emerging as the new frontier for any industry, including clothing, interested in connecting with its customers in new ways. A recent McKinsey study indicated that 59% of consumers were excited about exploring the transition of everyday activities to the Metaverse.

Brands in the fashion industry have joined others in exploring technological boundaries to offer consumers a virtual shopping experience where they immerse themselves in never-seen-before shopping experiences. 

The emerging virtual retail experience

As the younger generations adopt Augmented Reality (AR) and its offer of utilities and use cases beyond work, play, and entertainment, fashion brands are responding with Metaverse clothing. The emerging Metaverse offers a platform for brands to connect with customers through personalized shopping experiences or hosted virtual events.

High-end retailers are using the virtual world as a chance to display limited-edition fashion products users can't find in the physical world besides transporting viewers into the designers' world.

Target demographic for Metaverse clothing

In integrating metaverse clothing, the fashion industry targets a generation that thrives on time spent online, using avatars in virtual worlds where they can express themselves fully.

Studies have shown that members of Generation Z, aka Gen Z, spend an average of eight hours online daily, twice as much as socializing in real life. Personal expression, the ability to freely express thoughts and opinions, is essential to Gen Z, and fashion is one of the ways they express themselves. Since this desire carries over into digital life, fashion brands are establishing their presence in the Metaverse, where users can use a virtual product to self-express in a virtual world using a virtual persona.  

Users' experience of Metaverse fashion

Modern mid to high-end smartphones have an optical feature featuring high-definition optics integrating 3D scanning, allowing them to reproduce pictures as avatars digitally.

While the feature is still under development and can't yet allow an overlap between real and virtual bodies, it can identify issues like tightness and show how a garnet fits when it's worn.

3D virtual clothing technology enables users to overlap dresses they buy digitally over their pictures. You can buy a Ralph Lauren dress for $10 – a mind-blowing price compared to the actual real-world prices of Ralph Laurens. Moreover, Metaverse clothing can be grander than reality since people wear more than clothes in the Metaverse; they wear their imagination. 

Having realized the massive potential of the leverage between Metaverse and fashion, various industry giants have already made the intelligent move, where they're testing, exploring, and harnessing the potential impact of Metaverse fashion. Among the brands already leveraging the Metaverse opportunities are Burberry, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga, Ralph Lauren, Dolce & Gabbana, and Zara.

How Metaverse clothing is transforming fashion

Integrating Metaverse and fashion is revolutionizing how we experience fashion by introducing new ways brands showcase products, engage with customers and generate revenue. The following are three new ways Metaverse clothing is impacting the fashion industry: 

1.   Virtual fashion shows

Brands now use virtual fashion shows to create 3D immersive experiences to engage with their customers. The Metaverse-based shows are more inclusive as they allow virtual customers from anywhere worldwide to experience the events in real time. The brands incur lower costs hosting high-end fashion events since they no longer have to hire out expensive venues, while attendees don't have to incur travel and accommodation expenses. 

2.   NFTs in fashion

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital collectibles that have become a new revenue stream for leading fashion brands. By introducing NFTs in fashion, developers have introduced authentic and unique digital creations users can own, trade, and sell like physical collectibles.

The creation of limited-edition NFTs tied to physical fashion items enables customers to relate with their favorite brands. Designers and brands are thus shifting the way admirers experience fashion. In some instances, they make millions of dollars selling some of these digital assets. 

3.   Virtual dressing rooms

Virtual dressing rooms are the future of Metaverse clothing as they enable potential customers to fit new clothes in an immersive virtual environment, thereby introducing a 3D interactive shopping experience.

Virtual dressing rooms promote metaverse e-commerce by reducing the risk of any returns since the potential buyer will see precisely how clothing fits before purchasing. Moreover, virtual dressing rooms are more sustainable than brick-and-mortar dressing rooms by reducing the waste associated with the fashion industry. The Metaverse enables users to test NFT wearables using their avatars, engaging them via an immersive and gamified experience.  

The future of fashion

The merge between Metaverse and fashion is already having a massive impact on the fashion industry as Metaverse clothing skyrockets the fashion world into new levels of reality that eliminate the bands of physical limitations. Integrating augmented reality and artificial intelligence has produced endless potential for fashion brands that want to leverage the virtual world.

The emerging technology facilitates 360-degree views of virtual avatar models walking on 3D virtual fashion runways to showcase their seasonal collections through online showrooms. The Metaverse clothing journey began, and there's a bright future ahead. However, the technology must become accessible to everyone, or it will remain a distant dream within the fashion industry.