From Glossy.co…..
The last year has seen some of the most basic tenets of the fashion industry upended. Brands don’t need stores to attract customers. Social media advertising doesn’t need to be polished to be effective. But now, there’s an even bigger disruption on the way: Clothes don’t need to physically exist to sell.
Virtual fashion has been hovering on the margins of the industry for years now, but like many things, the pandemic helped speed its movement into the mainstream.
In the last year alone, big influencers have made virtual fashion a more widely known concept and big brands have started experimenting with it in a more visible way. While still marginal to the overall industry, fashion insiders from a variety of brands believe it’s only a matter of time before virtual clothes turn into a very real trend.
“I believe that we are on our way to a fully virtual, augmented reality future,” sneaker designer Jeff Staple told Glossy in late April. “We’ll see a world where you don’t even have to own the physical shoes. You can just own a virtual version of them and post on social media with those augmented reality shoes on your feet and get the same social credibility.”
