On the 18th of last month, Italian fashion brand’Fendi’ unveiled a virtual reality (VR) store. The Fendi store on the first floor of the Galleria Department Store in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, was implemented as it was, and the actual structure, product layout, and detailed interior and finishing materials were realistically expressed. There are escalators, emergency exits, and even nearby stores, so it feels like you’re walking through a real department store. If you click on a product on the counter, detailed description of the product will appear, and you can also link to the online mall. It is a new concept virtual store that appeared in the era of Corona 19, where it is difficult to visit stores.
Fendi Virtual Reality (VR) store created by Fassker. It is decorated just like a real department store, and you can access it with your smartphone anytime, anywhere. Photo fendi
Interview with Hyun-seok Choi, CEO of FNS Holdings, made by’Passer’
What is surprising is that this virtual store was developed and launched in just 10 days. The actual development time is less if it is calculated until the time it receives final confirmation from the Italian Fendi headquarters. “I did it quickly in Korean style, but the head office was surprised to know that it did so quickly with this quality. As the non-face-to-face issue with Corona 19 is a hot topic, we are seeing the Fendi store and requesting to make a virtual model house as well as other fashion companies.” FNS Holdings CEO Choi Hyun-seok said.
On the 7th, I met with CEO Hyun-seok Choi (right) and vice-president Eun-hye Kim at the Passer office located in Pangyo, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do. CEO Choi has been planning service development and planning at Naver, while Vice President Kim has devised digital strategies at luxury fashion companies such as Chanel and Dior. Photo FNS Holdings
Fashion that seems to be held in hands with VR AR
FNS Holdings is a technology-based fashion startup that operates a mobile fashion content platform’Passer’. Passer is an app (application) with about 200,000 subscribers with the concept of’a fashion playground for digital natives’. Fashion news and new product information are posted similarly to other fashion apps, but it is different that content with virtual and augmented reality technology is added in 3D instead of 2D. For example, a photo of Reebok’s shoes appears in 3D, and you can use an augmented reality camera to put it on the table at home.
Faster’s 3D showroom. You can observe a product picture with 3D technology by rotating it 360 degrees. Capture photo passer app
CEO Choi was founded in November 2018 while working for a new business team that developed foodies, snow, and looks at Naver. The dream of entrepreneurship began with the development of’Lux’, an application that virtually applies makeup on top of a face photo. At that time, 3D VR technology began to be applied to the fashion and beauty fields little by little. In the future, he hired vice president Eun-hye Kim, who had devised a digital strategy at Chanel, Dior, and Shinsegae International after setting up a company on the judgment that virtual fashion content is promising. CEO Choi said, “Fashion is the common language of all nations,” and said, “Because there is a base technology, we judged that there would be a win if we showed fashion content that the MZ generation, the future consumption generation, would like in digital.”
In Faster, 3D technology is used to show the product in three dimensions and rotate it 360 degrees to show details. With augmented reality (AR) technology, you can even put a product on the floor of your home virtually. It’s virtual, but it’s like running shoes and bags that actually exist. To produce such’super realistic’ content, quite tricky technology is required. Even with the same 3D film, it is expressed more realistically by reflecting the fact that the depth perceived by our eyes is different depending on the location and illumination of the light source. It holds only 22 related patents.
Using augmented reality (AR) technology, I am showing pictures of sneakers uploaded on the app to the space where I am. Photo passker Instagram
Currently, Fassker is actively collaborating with over 100 fashion brands thirsting for digital technology. There is also a space where users who enter the app to obtain realistic fashion information can post authentication shots so that they can show off their style. Although it has not yet included a function that is linked to sales and is thoroughly packed with a content sharing function, CEO Choi Hyun-seok’s close goal is’Next Farfetch’. Farfetch is the world’s largest online luxury editing shop. “Luxury brands don’t sell a single product, they sell all kinds of holistic experiences surrounding a product, such as the store’s atmosphere, visual image, and customer service. There is a limit to the current online shop alone. Could it be that technology-based realistic content could fill the limits of online shopping.”
In front of the virtual fashion era, selling designs rather than clothes
Currently, virtual fashion content is created based on actual clothes, bags, and shoes, but CEO Choi Hyun-suk expects the era of selling clothes that exist only virtually in the future. French luxury brand’Louis Vuitton’ has launched a virtual bag in 2019 so that users can own it with photos. At a digital conference held in 2019, virtual costumes without real objects were sold for $9,500 (about 10.35 million won). The buyer sent a photo of his face to the designer, received the file as if wearing the suit, and uploaded it to his SNS.
Virtual clothing sold by the digital fashion house’Fabricant’ for $9500. Photo Fabricant Homepage
CEO Hyun-Seok Choi explained the demand for virtual fashion, saying, “According to a survey of 2,000 British people by Barclay Card, a global financial company, 1 in 10 people buy clothes to wear once in order to share on social media.” If you don’t have to buy clothes to wear once but buy them virtually, you can prevent unnecessary production, so it is in line with the’sustainability’ value that the fashion world has recently put on. In Norway,’Carlings’, a brand that sells virtual clothing posted on social media, was born. Of course, it’s a virtual fashion, but the foundational technology is needed because you have to feel as if you were wearing a photo.
Users in the digital collection’Neo-X’ released by Norwegian’Carlings’. When a user uploads a picture of himself and purchases a digital product, Carlings’ team of 3D designers tailors the clothes to the image so that it looks like they are wearing the product. Photo Carlings Homepage
If the virtual fashion market is activated, it can be an opportunity for designers to test their designs without burdening inventory. Consumers can buy virtual designs first, and if they like, they can pay an extra fee to make real clothes. A new chapter can be opened for designers in that they can freely consume designs in virtual space without going into the actual production process. “There may be an era where people buy virtual Chanel and Gucci bags and present them to friends, just like buying emoticons. In the US, the virtual fittings and fashion market is expected to be worth 10 trillion won. I hope that our passer will become a holy place for virtual fashion content like this.”
Reporter Yu Ji-yeon [email protected]