How Luxury Retailers Are Using Augmented Reality

Many of us may have experienced reality in gaming or through filters on social media. But how are luxury retailers engaging with Augmented Reality? Stay tuned, because in this post, I'm going to share with you examples of how luxury brands like Chanel and Dior and more are using Augmented Reality to create an immersive and memorable experience for their customers.

We'll also talk about how Augmented Reality will continue to transform the future of luxury retail, especially in a post-covid-19 world. For the latest insights and expertise on the future of fashion and retail, subscribe to my channel and hit that bell, so you'll benotified when I post new posts. Now roll that intro. Welcome back.

My name is Amanda Costco and I have been reporting on digital culture since 2015, specifically on the many ways technology is changing the $2.4 trillion fashion industry.

So briefly, what is Augmented Reality? AR or Augmented Reality is the layering of digital components onto our physical reality, often done through a viewing device like a tablet, smartphone or even AR glasses. Augmented Reality is used to enhance or augment the world around us with digital technology. 

So let's get into some examples of how this exciting new tech is playing in luxury fashion. So the first thing I want to talk about is Augmented Reality lenses.

Augmented Reality in Fashion

Lenses are the perfect way to immerse audiences into your brand and extend physical marketing efforts, and that's exactly what Chanel did. So recently Chanel hosted a holiday pop-up at the Standard in New York. For four days.

The French Fashion brand transformed the Boutique Hotel in a busy shopping area into a winter wonderland, complete with hot chocolate, ice skating and plenty of photo opportunities for Instagram. Additionally, Chanel invited attendees to view an Augmented Reality Experience by accessing a lens on Snapchat or downloading an app via PayPal.com, and those at home could also use the lens, which created more access and variety for the campaign.

So, even if you couldn't be in New York to attend the pop-up, you were invited to view the world through the lens of Chanel, and that was pretty exciting. The next thing I want to talk about is virtual try-ons. This is one of the most exciting and common use cases for Augmented Reality in Fashion. So we've seen many makeup brands jump into this space, including YSL Beauty.

In fact, if you're looking for a whole post onaugmented retail for the beauty industry, I'll link mine below. But over the years we've seen examples like French Fashion House de Yor creating a series of filters for Snapchat and Facebook for trying on accessories such as Hat and sunglasses inaugmented reality.

What's New in AR?

And similarly, Gucci has launched a feature within its iOS app that allows users to try on its line of a sneakers in AR. Both experiences bring people closer to the brands and help them visualize themselves wearing its products.

Next, we're going to talk about embedded experiences. So recently, Berry launched an AR shopping tool through Google Search technology. The tool allows consumers to experienceberry products embedded in their environments around them, which enhances their research and shopping experience online.

And this AR experience was actuallyrolled out in tandem with the opening of Burberry's new retail shop in Tokyo. Once again, this is not meant to be an exhaustive list of everything that has been done in terms of luxury and ar.

What's Next for AR Fashion Shows?

So if I've missed your favorite example, please share it with us in the comment section below. Don't be shy. We can start a conversation down there. So there's a unique opportunity for reality in fashion, especially right now, because shops are closed due to covid-19 and runway shows are cancelled. So what further potentials are there in this space? I want to talk briefly about runway shows.

Reality mirrors, showrooms, and even windows. So let's get right into that AR runway shows. So runway shows are already expensive and resource-consuming to produce. For a long time in the fashion industry, there's been this question of like: What's the purpose of a fashion show, especially because we have access to everything online right after the show?

So anaugmented reality runway experience adheres to social staging rules and invites those who wouldn't normally have access to the front row of a fashion show into the experience, and in that way it democratics the runway.

The Next Opportunity For Reality and Luxury

And what I'm talking about here isn't just live streams of runway events–because live streaming, often, has been around for a long time–but reality that actually recreates the looks on Holographic or AR models that you can see walk around in your room. In fact, we're already seeing experimentation in this space.

What you're seeing here is the post capture of British fashion model Ottawa Abdoa who's strutted down the walk in reality. At London Fashion Week, the 3D imagery experiment was a collaboration between Central St Martins and the Internet Service Provider (3). The next opportunity I want to talk about is reality mirrors. So in the future, Reality Mirrors will help us try on different outfits, discover our personal style, and assist us with online purchases. And while we've seen a number of magic mirror experiences in stores. I'm curious to see how mirrors evolve to help us with everything from working to getting dressed for the day, and they move from retail into the home. The next opportunity I see for reality and luxury is AR showrooms. So we've seen a number of companiesexperimenting withaugmented reality to create a kind of showroom experience.

How Luxury Retailers Are Using Augmented Reality in the Fashion Industry

The one that I'm showing here is from Kohl's. In collaboration with Snapchat, they teamed up to transform any space into a retail experience. Through the lens on Snapchat, you can enter a Kohl's shopping room, and the question that they pose was: is this shopping in a post-covid-19 world? The last opportunity I want to talk about is AR windows.

So display windows have long been used as a way to showcase recent collections and lure passersby into your store. But reality can add a whole new layer of digital storytelling and interaction. Augmented reality specialist Helen Papagianis recently developed thisaugmented reality activation to show how Louis Vuitton could extend its window displays usingaugmented reality.

If you haven't already checked out Helen's work and her book, I'll include a link below. So now you know more about how luxury retailers are usingaugmented reality in the fashion industry, and hopefully you're inspired and excited about the possibilities in this space. If you'd like to access the slides I've used in this post, I've left a link to my slide share down below.