VR Designer: Revolutionizing Fashion Design with Immersive Technology
While VR and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies have rapidly advanced in various sectors, the fashion industry has been slower to adopt them. Companies like Meta, Apple, and Amazon have driven the growth of these technologies, yet fashion has been slow to adopt them. However, the rise of 3D design software is beginning to change this, promoting sustainability by reducing fabric waste and enabling efficient sharing of high-quality designs before manufacturing. Within this evolving landscape, the Horizon 2020 research and innovation project, eTryOn, aimed to modernize fashion creation, consumption, and experience through novel XR technologies (AR, VR). Concluded in 2023, eTryOn has significantly influenced the fashion design process.
Our recent research paper, “VR Designer: Enhancing Fashion Showcases through Immersive Virtual Garment Fitting,” published in the Virtual Reality Journal by Springer, details the development of VR Designer, one of three innovative applications from the eTryOn project (alongside Magic Mirror and DressMeUp app). VR Designer is a VR application designed for fashion designers, facilitating the creative process by providing realistic fitting of digital garments on 3D avatars. This innovative tool bridges the gap between digital design and VR, offering an immersive experience unmatched by current 3D design tools. It allows users to explore a virtual retail store, select various avatar-garment combinations, and view garments from multiple angles and body movements. VR Designer offers a precise representation of a garment’s aesthetics, fit, and functionality, serving as a pre-manufacturing tool that helps designers understand the final product better; it enables users to virtually inspect digital garments using different humanoid avatars, closely examining fitting properties such as drapes and wrinkles in high quality. This application also features a multiuser mode, allowing simultaneous collaboration and discussion within a shared virtual environment. Through comprehensive user feedback, the application has evolved, focusing on improving multiuser capabilities and overall user experience.
VR Designer represents a significant advancement for fashion designers, providing an interactive platform to explore and evaluate digital garments comprehensively. As the application evolves, future enhancements may include the ability to personalize the virtual space, further expanding its utility in presenting and refining fashion collections.
VR Designer not only enhances current design processes but also promises broader applications of VR in the fashion industry and beyond.
Read the full paper: Sarakatsanos O.∗, Chalikias A., Boikou, M., Chatzilari E., Jauk M., Hafliger U., Nikolopoulos S., Kompatsiaris I. (2024). VR Designer: enhancing fashion showcases through immersive virtual garment fitting. Virtual Reality. 28. 10.1007/s10055-024-00945-w.
