A new wave of digital fashion proponents are making the case for virtual fashion, but is it a passing trend or is it here to stay?
The online metaverse is coming and if we're going to be spending more time in virtual worlds, there’s one crucial question: What are you going to wear?
“When I first started talking about this, my friends were like, ‘What are you talking about?’” said 27-year-old Daniella Loftus.
“But my 14-year-old cousins understood it immediately.”
For many, the idea of buying clothes that don’t exist is a conceptual leap too far.
But emerging digital fashion stores are tapping into a growing market—not actual clothes but digitally generated outfits that stores simply Photoshop onto a customer’s photos or videos to be posted onto Instagram and elsewhere.
Soon they are likely to become a way to dress your avatar when interacting in online games and meeting places, all potentially while reclining in sweatpants in your own home.
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British influencer Loftus sees so much potential that last month she gave up her job with a fashion consultancy to devote herself full-time to her website, This Outfit Does Not Exist.
Her Instagram shows the potential of virtual clothing that doesn’t need to obey the laws of physics—from a shimmering silver liquid pant suit with tentacles, to a wobbling pink creation with lasers firing out of her bustier.
“Digital is coming to overtake physical. Kids are asking each other: ‘What skin did you have in this game yesterday?’” said Loftus.