What is virtual fashion? How does someone create it — or wear it? These are great questions, especially for aspiring designers in the 3D space. If you’re a technology nerd like me, you’ll be pleased to hear that the answer requires a look back through the history of fashion, culture, and technology. Let's talk about 3D and fashion y’all! 😎
One of my favorite things about 3D is how much it overlaps with other disciplines. Today, I wanted to get into 3D and its applications for fashion.
If you're new to 3D, XR, or fashion design, virtual fashion is the practice of designing clothes, cosmetics, and other wearables with 3D software — and sharing them through different virtual outlets.
From Instagram Live to AR apps to Superrare auctions, virtual fashion is a booming trend in 3D.
One of the most appealing aspects of virtual fashion is that it allows people to design and model wearables and cosmetics that might be impossible to create in real life due to financial and physical or material limits.
People are making absolutely beautiful work in this space and the talent on display is breathtaking.
The history of digital wearables goes back to the advent of customizable avatars in video games and virtual worlds. But 3D's growing ubiquity outside of games has allowed for new kinds of sartorial expression.
Outside of games, virtual fashion started to gain traction with 3D artists around 2018. Then, in 2020, it really took off as part of the fashion industry when the newly founded label, Hanifa, appeared on the scene
Designer and Hanifa founder, Anifa Mvuemba, was invited to New York Fashion Week 2020. The event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the face of this challenge, Anifa decided to innovate, leveraging social media to host a virtual fashion show of her Pink Label Collection.
She turned to 3D and hosted an Instagram Live event that allowed her to showcase the collection without requiring live models or any in-person gatherings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ1h0Zj5gAs
Anifa's fashion label is leveraging 3D to sell real-world products, but that's not the only application for 3D in the fashion world! Digital artists, like Stephy Fung, are exploring how to use fashion design and 3D for the creation of purely virtual products.
image credit: https://www.instagram.com/p/CTxexPkN1m0/
Created for Karlie Kloss x Adidas competition hosted by The Fabricant and Known Origin — image credit: https://stephyfung.com/karlie-kloss-x-adidas-makingstrides-competition
Stephy has also been making a name for herself in virtual fashion. She’s a 3D artist and Twitch streamer who started making digi-fashion in 2019. Her work in virtual fashion specifically showcases wearables that might be impossible to create in real life.
Her work captures the fun, sometimes otherworldly feel of 3D while leveraging the power of visualizing these outfits on live models.
image credit: https://www.instagram.com/p/CTpY0YbBBeH/
And that got me thinking: I wanted to dig a bit into the history of fashion and how it has always been deeply integrated with changes in technology.
Virtual fashion is a relatively new field — and an exciting one for 3D artists looking to share their work more widely. But virtual fashion and its XR applications, despite being a recent development in 3D, are operating in a long tradition of using technology to make fashion available to the average consumer.