“WHY VIRTUAL FASHION IS THE FASHION FUTURE ANDHOW VIRTUALISATION TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATES WITH THE FASHION INDUSTRY? VIR- ” TUAL FASH- ION CONTENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 04 04 INTRODUCTION 06 08 METHODOLOGY PART 01: THE DEFINITION OF DIGITAL 10 FASHION PART 02: CONTEXTS 14 PART 03: CURRENT LANDSCAPE OF VIRTUALISATION FASHION 26 PART 04: CHALLENGES 44 PART 05: FUTURE STRATEGY 46 CONCLUSION 54 2 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The main purpose of this report is to response to these contexts. analyse the contextual drivers, the different performance of new virtualisation techs (3D Part 3 and AR) in the fashion industry, and how It shows the current landscape of 3D and virtualisation integrates with brands and augmented reality technology using in younger consumers from marketing to supply the industry, and how fashion brands take chain. advantages of them to respond to this new trend. There are some case studies of The Part 1 Fabricant, Carlings, Louis Vuitton and so on as In this part, it explains what digital fashion the evidences to support this part, combining means for the future fashion industry. The with the their SWOT analysis. rise of new digital technologies leads to the industry 4.0, which is a transformation process Part 4 of production. The utilisation of virtualisation Despite the fact that virtualisation fashion has technologies can gather and analyse data lots of advantages, there are some challenges or consumer feedbacks to set up relevant as well. It involves in costly investment and production strategy. It is no longer stop at limitation of designers 3D techniques skills. e-commerce, it becomes more virtual. Also, there is a comprehensive SWOT analysis Part 5 of virtualisation techs for fashion brands. It Eventually, four future strategies for brands, supports that virtualisation technologies are retailers and designers are come up with, beneficial for the future fashion industry. based on the previous four parts’ analysis. In this part, it explains workflows of gamification Part 2 fashion, digital clothing, 3D designs in supply Analysis of contexts of virtualisation chain and train the designers, including each technologies feasibility is this part’s main strategies’ objective evaluation. theme. Divided into three parts, it includes Macro environment, consumers psychological contexts and their latest interests. In the Macro analysis, it explains the impacts of policy, economy, social cultures, technologies, environment and Covid-19 pandemic. Mostly, millennials and Gen Z are the main research objects and target consumers.For consumers psychology, it is analysed by the reworked Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory for their needs of digitalisation, following trends, emotional connections, self-expression and sustainability. Thus, embracing virtualisation technologies is the way fashion brands in Figure 1: Courtesy of Getty Images 4 5 t the digital age, the lines between virtuality and reality become increasingly difficult to be distinguished (Langton, 2019). As the quality of technology has developed, digital and mixed reality fashion has taken advantages Aof it (Drinkwater, 2019), which have contributed to virtual reality experiences, virtual shopping and games (Love Magazine, 2019). When it comes to gaming, it is the next foremost thing in fashion since it has become an indispensable part of young generation and its potential of storytelling. Therefore, it is vital to integrate fashion with gaming and digital world (Owen, 2019). Players have been investing money on digital equipments such as apparel, weapons, beauty, accessories and decorations. Inspired by gamings, digital clothing has already been proved that it has the much more potential market in the future because of catering to the sustainability issue and young generation’s demands (Mcdowell, 2019). In terms of sustainability, it INTRO- is still a hot issue in the fashion industry for the reason that it is one of the most polluting industry with carbon emission, waste of water, and bury clothing in the landfill (Johnsen, 2020). By coincidence, digital fashion corresponds with the need of sustainability. For environmental-minded young consumers , they have changed their shopping attitudes and behaviours for prefer sustainability- focused brands and seek new ways to maintain balance between fashion and DUCTI- sustainability. In addition, young generation immerses in the virtual world of social media. Owing to express themselves and document their life, most young generation purposely post photos about their daily outfits styles and new fashion items they bought to manage their social media account homepages. Actually, fashion ON has shifted from streets to social media and those platforms are more likely to transform into virtual runway (Grubak, 2018). Eager for newness products that convey their personality and continue buying new clothes make them feel stressed (D’Arpizio et al., 2018; Hanbury, 2019). Under this circumstance, it has caused Instagram-inspired overconsumption. After taking photos, many items lie in their endless wardrobes or just are worn several times. Thus, digital fashion is making sense, and it is tend to expand to a more virtual area. Could virtualisation technologies such as 3D and AR address these issues? 6 7 METHODOLOGY The aims of research were examining the context of fashion, exploring the future capacity of virtualisation fashion, discussing how fashion brands respond to the virtualisation technologies currently, and collecting relevant datas. On the purpose of analysing its potential, the author searched fashion websites with systematic literature reviews, academic journals and books. However, the report lacks primary research because of Covid-19. Firstly, some keywords such as 3D, augmented reality, virtual fashion, digital fashion, game, esports, millennials and Gen Z were typed into search area. The relevant results mostly came out from business of fashion, Ls:n global, Vogue Business, WWD and McKinsey. At this stage, the whole report structure was confirmed. Secondly, the ideas were complemented by academic journals. The journals were searched in the Science Direct, ResearchGate and WARC, including the keywords : consumer psychological, circular fashion, sustainability, consumer behaviours and virtualisation. Next, it turned to search database ( Mintel, Euromonitor, Statista) for the purpose of supporting ideas. They evidences that virtual fashion has huge potential and consumers tend to engage in it. Furthermore, the negative arguments were searched and used for debating. The dark side of virtualisation should be considered and evaluated. Additionally, there are some case studies as evidences for supporting report ideas. For example, Louis Vuitton collaborated with League of Legends, Burberry launched its own game called B Bounce, Carlings sold digital clothing, and the Fabricant created 3D animation digital clothing. Figure 2: courtesy of @Johwska, 2020 8 9 PART 01 Digital and technology innovations have shifted the entire fashion industry. The development of e- commerce brings the distribution channels from offline to online. The Fashion and Apparel industry FuturE Report estimates that fashion e- commerce worldwide revenue will continue growing to $712.9 Figure 3: Digital Fashion Concept Image for an FASION- billion by 2022 (Statista, 2019). Unreleased Game, photo from IVA, 2019 Moreover, with the help of social media, brands expand to omni- VIRTUAL channel marketing. Not only can What is virtual fashion? brands marketing through emails, advertising and in-store posters, but FASHION also the influencer marketing and product-centric contents on social media platforms. Beyond that, social Virtual fashion is the evolution of using new virtualisation technologies media like Instagram also integrates in the fashion industry. It changes the relationship between virtual the direct-to-consumers retail and physical products, as well as experiences (Salamone, 2019). function achieving multi-channel e- Relying on the 3D, augmented reality, virtual reality and other commerce. As more brands shift to technological materials, brands launch the virtual clothing, provide digital-centric business models, the AR try-on service, hold virtual runway, create virtual influencers, and bound between reality and digital release their game programs. It’s a new way for brands to interact world is more blurry, and young with consumers, in response of younger generations’ demands. consumers are more long for digital things. In consequence, the current digital application is far from enough. The fashion industry is expected to embrace advanced digital transformation - virtual fashion. 10 11 PART 01 Strengths Weaknesses • offer a more sustainable alternative to the • Designers are traditionally not trained in 3D fashion industry modelling • relatively address the overconsumption and • Most 3D fashion visualisations are still overproduction relatively crude • Increase online engagement • From design to modelling in the softwares, • Offer an interesting way to experience and it is an elaborate process for designers and interact with consumers brands • Shorten production period • High investment and costs • Improve supply chain efficiency • Only can exist in the internet. Can not wear • SWOT Satisfy younger generation’ s demands for them out uniqueness and newness • Creating 3D clothing animation is time- • Personalised clothing. consuming and complicated • Improve loyalty • Virtual avatars lack of real experiences and • 3D images look more real and clear than