Making a case for playing dress up — virtually

What’s the biggest challenge we — or rather, I — face with shopping? Storage space! So, imagine a world where you can have all the clothes, accessories, shoes that you want and not worry about storage because you’ll never run out of it, and will never need to ‘Marie Kondo’ in order to create space for your new purchases.

That is just one of the premises of a fast-emerging fashion trend that merges augmented reality with real fashion. Imagine having a 3D version of yourself – either your replica or your wildest fantasy — living in a virtual world, where you ‘meet up’ with friends or play a virtual game all decked out in your favorite Dior bar jacket or YSL le smoking tuxedo blazer. These 3D versions are produced in collaboration with the fashion houses, so they are indeed the bona fide pieces at a fraction of the actual cost. (Of course, you can still purchase the actual piece in stores.)

The virtual garments and accessories will be created in limited numbers, just like in real life, in order to protect the brand value. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that challenges arose from an interlinked global supply chain, sales and distribution channels. The repercussions and disruptions are widespread and undesirable, forcing us to rethink sustainability and selfsufficiency. All of which makes a virtual reality seem more realistic than ever.

For now, the main users of ‘skins’ – the gaming world’s term for the virtual outfits – are gamers but that looks poised to change. In the future, according to Andy Ku, the brain behind ADA, the platform from Singapore-based Unmatereality. ADA is a 3D interactive gamified fashion platform that features real-world branded items from the most recognized global luxury fashion brands. With more than 40 brands currently signed with the platform, and a growing number expected to join, ADA is the only fully interactive 3D platform available for brands to feature their latest collections straight off the runway.

Using a customizable game avatar, users can virtually try on and buy products or collections and add them to their in-game virtual closets. Shoppable virtual spaces, branded content, in-game advertising, and promotional campaigns represent new frontiers for both consumers and brands to explore. ADA’s fundamental mission is to revolutionize the fashion and the luxury goods industry by democratizing fashion through virtual item ownership.

ADA was officially launched in Asia last month, with global launch slated in Q3 this year.

This interesting concept transcends just fashion and gaming. It is a total lifestyle package, as Andy aptly explained. For instance, the chatrooms in the app where avatars reside and interact can be fully customized, replicating what they did with fashion on interior design, artworks, and furnishings. Imagine recreating the real world virtually, such that both universes exist in parallel to each other. Whatever products we own in the real world can also be recreated in our virtual world — with virtual ownership.

Advanced data mining technology can filter users and connect them to other like-minded users, creating communities and groups in the virtual world, much like the way the Instagram algorithm identifies users with common interests. (So, no, it’s not a coincidence that a bakery’s account page popped up on your explorer page after you started searching for pastries.)

Fashion brands can also collaborate with brand ambassadors and create their avatars, dress them up in their products as they interact with their fans in these virtual worlds. They can also create virtual pop-up showrooms to showcase their virtual collections. ADA’s parent company, Unmatereality, recently scanned Balmain’s creative director Olivier Rousteing and supermodel Natalia Vodianova.

Vodianova’s avatar provides an in-game photo opportunity for her fans, much like autograph hunters in real life. Her avatar can also chat and interact with fans in the virtual chat rooms. It has made her omnipresent, providing a wider reach to her global fan base. Imagine all celebrities having access to their avatars and virtual spaces to communicate with fans. It will reshape the way ‘mere mortals’ interact with their idols. These celebrities can also handle their avatars and interact directly with other users in the virtual realm, leaving one to guess if they are indeed chatting with the real McCoy or a pre-programmed response, fine-tuned by AI and delivered via the avatar.

This sci-fi fantasy is not entirely unfathomable, considering we are now spending more time interacting remotely and virtually. It is a matter of time — sooner rather than later – that we start having multiple identities in our augmented reality.

In a way, having avatars levels the genetics playing field, because anyone can be a supermodel in the virtual realm. We can be as young, gorgeous or fit as we want, just as long as we have access to the technology that enables the virtual creation of our wildest imagination. It’s almost like a blank canvas, a clean slate, new rules — and anything goes! As Picasso once said, “Everything you can imagine is real” and I guess even if it’s ‘virtual’.