Zoom + Digital Fashion
Zoom, but make it fashion. From virtual backgrounds to AR filters, how brands are creating mini worlds via the camera.
In my last article, I wrote about “Virtual Tourism” in a time of self-isolation, with virtual visits — to places real and imagined — currently being the safest form of travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the examples I shared was from Gucci’s 2019 holiday campaign: a virtual beach experienced in Snapchat. I commented how we’ll see more brands embrace and expand upon this Augmented Reality portal method to create virtual spaces for users to explore, hang out in, and even shop.
Zoom could be that virtual space right now, a digital environment ripe for exploring where millions of people around the world are working from home and attending social gatherings via video-conference.
Zoom’s virtual backgrounds (a feature that allows you to display an image or video as your background during a Zoom Meeting) have been wildly popular. They’re a means to hide the real background in your home, serve as an icebreaker, and are a way to express yourself and be creative in these stressful times.
Zoom comes with a few virtual background options: a video of a beach with rolling waves, a forest with the aurora borealis dancing above, and a still photo of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. You can also upload your own images or videos.
Brands — like Behr Paint, and furniture and home decor chain West Elm — have begun to offer free image backgrounds that you can use in Zoom to help beautify your video-calls. In a statement to its customers and community, Behr wrote:
“As a paint company, it’s our job to help people feel good in their homes. And right now, that means their virtual homes, too.
Introducing BEHR® Your Background, a library of styled homes that anybody can download for free and use in their next video call. So don’t worry about tidying up the living room or folding that laundry, instead, just focus on the important stuff, like staying connected even while we’re apart for now.”
Behr virtual backgrounds in Zoom. Image via Behr
I suspect we’ll see more brands offering virtual backgrounds with videos and animations too, not just static photos and images.
These backgrounds are a way to play virtual dress up right now and imagine another reality. These aren’t just video-chats; they are living mini social worlds we’re authoring.
Worlds we might be spending more time in than anticipated as we continue to physically distance and stay at home.
And while we’re at home, spending hours in front of the camera with our virtual backgrounds, we’ll need something to wear. Perhaps something digital.
Zoom could be the gateway to digital fashion (clothes you don’t physically wear) becoming commonplace, previously considered a niche market for early experimenters and Instagram influencers.
In November 2018, Scandinavian retailer Carlings launched a clothing capsule titled “Neo-Ex,” which only existed digitally. The collection worked by selecting the desired digital clothing item, uploading an image of yourself to Carlings’ website, placing your order, and the designer then ‘dressing you’ digitally by fitting the 3D clothes on the photograph you submitted. The result (pictured below) is a still photo that makes it appear like you are wearing the digital clothing in real life.
Digital clothing, fashion accessories, and even beauty products can come to life in Zoom beyond a photo. This can be done via Snap Camera, and I’m surprised we haven’t seen any fashion or beauty brands explore this in Zoom, yet.
Launched in October 2018, Snap Camera is a free application designed for the desktop that enables you to experience the fun of Snapchat’s AR Lenses while using your favourite video-sharing platforms on your computer like Skype, Google Hangouts, and Zoom.
With AR filter submission approvals for Instagram and Facebook halted until further notice (in response to the coronavirus outbreak and sending Spark AR reviewers home), creators and brands are likely turning to Snapchat. And they may even find themselves benefitting from reaching a larger demographic via the integration with Zoom.
Let’s take a look at how brands could use Snap Camera within Zoom. We’ll use Gucci as an example.
Gucci is a brand that is already offering AR virtual try-on experiences in its app: using the front-facing camera on your smartphone, you can see what you look like in Gucci hats, eyewear, masks, and lipstick colours. You can also use the camera on the back of your phone to place items from Gucci’s furniture collection in your home.
Augmented Reality Try-On experiences in the Gucci app
Gucci could repurpose the 3D digital content from its app for Snap Camera in Zoom, as I mocked up below. You could sport a pair of Gucci frames to your next social hangout, wear your favourite shade of lipstick to a team meeting, or bundle up in a cozy beanie on a virtual coffee date. All while in front of your favourite Gucci Décor virtual background.
Mockup by Helen Papagiannis
Mockup by Helen Papagiannis
Mockup by Helen Papagiannis
Snap Camera and Zoom virtual backgrounds also work together. That could enable you to mix and match your favourite brands for a personalized look. You could have a Zoom virtual background with a selection of Louis Vuitton Objets Nomades while wearing a pair of Dior glasses as a Snap Camera filter (both fashion houses are in the LVMH group).
It could all be a way to interact with and try-on brands that might not otherwise be accessible, and also a playful way to apply some self-care and feel dressed up beyond our staple sweats and pyjamas.
Mockup by Helen Papagiannis
In the coming months, we may even see brands begin to charge for virtual fashion goods that you could either rent or purchase. Think a virtual Rent the Runway for digital fashion.
Earlier this month, artist Brian Donnelly (KAWS) debuted an AR art exhibition entitled “Expanded Holiday” in collaboration with Acute Art. The app features AR sculptures you can rent for 7 to 30 days. Last December, I wrote an article about digital goods as the future of luxury shopping, complete with mockups.
It’s possible and the technology exists. Is the need and opportunity now here with physical retail slowing while we stay home? As we attend more personal events via video conference like birthday parties, weddings, and holiday celebrations, will we be showing up in digital garments for these special occasions? Will virtual fashion finally take off in Zoom? It’s certainly a good time to experiment.
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