For years now, multibillion brands and up-and-coming designers alike experimented with new technologies. Fashion houses used digital tools to invent new branding strategies, strengthen their relationships with customers and reach wider audiences. Fashionistas similarly took advantage of new tech breakthroughs, especially after e-commerce became so widespread. Shopping has never been easier, now that all brands’ latest campaigns include 4k videos showcasing their garments from all angles. Or when the online market spaces allow users to “try on” items on their digital twins.
But the key motivation behind the flourishing phenomenon of digital clothes is not just convenience in buying things. Technology’s ability to make things easier and more accessible has created endless possibilities to satisfy another human need — the need for self-expression. Digital clothing allows people to experiment and play with fashion at their fingertips. Particularly, when it comes to dressing their own digital twins or avatars.
This new virtual playground increases the number of opportunities and reduces the price of mistakes. Now, you can get your hands on a digital version of something you couldn’t physically afford before. It also prevents you from buying an item for the sake of trying out a new style and then never wearing it. No wonder, the foolproof method of expressing yourself appeals to the younger, more open to experimentation, and yet more environmentally conscious, demographic.
Gen Z’s are the primary audience for digital clothes. In the social media app TikTok, teenagers create videos trying on the latest virtual fashions. In the video game Fortnite, players can purchase high fashion outfits for their characters. In the dating app XOXO, users can dress their totems (digital avatars that represent people’s personalities) into items that reflect their changing moods. In other words, fashion has firmly entered the virtual world and the young generations will be the ones who carry it into the future.
