Maisie Wilen Launches AR Fashion Try-on in Zero10 Collab
Maisie Schloss just can’t keep from augmenting fashion with tech.
After wowing the New York Fashion Week audience with a Yahoo-powered holographic presentation in February, the Los Angeles-based designer is at it again — this time diving into virtual fashion try-ons, courtesy of augmented reality platform Zero10.
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Three of Schloss’ Maisie Wilen brand’s looks will be available for free in digital form, giving fans a chance to see what they look like in rather unique Maisie Wilen originals. The AR versions take advantage of the virtual tech, creating distinct and artistic works of fashion that aren’t possible in the real world.
Schloss broke it down in exclusive remarks to WWD. “It’s our signature Orbit City turtleneck minidress and the Stardust sequined gown, which, in the app, has a mirrored effect, as well as the Utonium coat, which is a big belted trench made out of a “holographic” vinyl.
“But, of course, the main difference between what they see in real life versus on the app is, we’ve had animated effects added to everything — so the Orbit City dress fades from color to color, the Stardust dress sort of mirrors your surroundings and the Utonium coat has this cool glow to it,” she explained.
The digital work crafted by Schloss, a 2021 nominee for the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s Emerging Designer of the Year award, offers a refreshing take on virtual fashion.
All too often, maisons focus on duplicating their physical collections through NFTs and other wearables, effectively knocking off their own products. But for Schloss, fashion AR was about more than just promoting her line or building revenue. It was also a creative opportunity. The Stardust dress, for instance, doesn’t exist in real life.
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This spirit likely won’t shock anyone who’s familiar with her work, whose prints and playful themes have earned a fanbase that includes the Kardashians, Megan Rapinoe, Lorde, Charli XCX and Camila Mendes. Both Maisie, the thirtysomething former Yeezy designer and her breakout, Kanye West-backed fashion brand, are also digital natives excited by the space they inhabit — that amorphous, fascinating place where emerging fashion brushes up against emerging tech.
“My entire design process is digital, and I’m very tapped into the ways that people interact with clothing and fashion virtually, whether it’s social media or [via my] holographic fashion show last fashion week,” she said. “So this just felt so natural, as a progression for the brand, as a way for us to share what we make.”
Fortunately, the quality of the tech has matured enough at this point to convey fashion designers’ visions, and it could get even better relatively quickly.
Augmented reality for apparel was on a slow, iterative journey for years, before digital collectibles, 3D wearables and all things metaverse landed on retail’s radar. Now ravenous demand for virtual experiences is cranking up the dial on fashion AR and setting off a frenzied development pace.
Not that it will be easy. Several challenges remain, and they’re complicated ones. Ask George Yashin, chief executive officer and cofounder of Zero10, and he can rattle off a list: full-body tracking, difficult process for converting images for AR, cloth simulation, smartphone limitations and much more. But heightened demand has ignited the race to crack them, laying out plenty of motivation for tech providers big and small, including social media giant Snap Inc., which Yashin sees as his main competition.
Schloss could have gone with a large tech platform, but she saw something of a kindred spirit in Zero10. Both are start-ups in their respective fields, and Schloss was impressed by the partner’s “fashion-forward” portfolio, she said. The roster features noteworthy up-and-comers Alexandra Sipa, Tommy Cash, Barragan and Edward Crutchley.
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Of course, beyond the creative expression and good vibes, sales do still matter. As an AR platform, Zero10 focuses exclusively on fashion, but its work with Maisie Wilen is its first retail effort.
“We created three digital items with her, two dresses exist in real life and one item is fully digital. We also wanted to release our photo try-on feature and see how it works,” Yashin said. When it launches this weekend, people will have the option to see the virtual clothes layered over a selfie pic or view it in real time, with the virtual garment dynamically moving with the user.
“From Maisie’s website, users can download our app using a link or QR code, and they will go straight to our app, straight to this item and try it on,” he added. “They will also see a link to her website.”
The link to the e-commerce page allows shoppers to buy the real-world products — sales for which also kick off on Wednesday.
This circuitous purchase path loop casts the AR try on as closer to a product showcase or even a virtual dressing room than a full-fledged store. But for Zero10, it’s just the beginning of its retail expedition.
The plans include launching a software development kit in about a month, so fashion partners and e-commerce merchants can integrate Zero10’s tech into their own websites and mobile apps, though just for iOS. Another big project wants to bring back a previous emerging in-store technology that never quite caught on before but Yashin believes would be successful now with a bit of a metaverse makeover.
Prepare for the return of the AR mirror, coming this fall.
“They were really, really popular maybe two or three years ago, but brands and retailers just used them like a marketing thing, just to [let people] try some clothes on,” Yashin said. “We reimagined it as an AR pop-up store — no stock, no employees, no storage, etc. Just a mirror and iPads to control everything.”
What he envisions merchants selling takes direct aim at all the virtual trends in one shot. “You can try it on, order the physical item and the digital item will appear like an NFT in, for example, your Gucci metaverse wardrobe. So it will all be connected,” he said, adding that Zero10 is deep in development on this, among other physical retail solutions, and it’s in talks with numerous brands.
The company is also weighing the matter of fit, which is not part of its current AR experience. But it may come in a few months via an adaptive mannequin, Yashin added, with the release of a Zero10 3D engine.
It’s a big to-do list, which says as much about the state of fashion AR and all of its possibilities, as this particular tech company’s ambition. If Maisie Wilen and similar projects are just the beginning for Zero10 and its peers, virtual dressing rooms are about to become a very crowded space.
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