As of 2016, the fashion show industry was supposed to be dominated by virtual reality.
Before the VR industry came in, many people were predicting that film fashion shows would eliminate the expensive runways and catwalks but to their surprise, catwalks and runways are still dominating almost every fashion show. Many tech giants have invested heavily in virtual reality devices like Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear, and Google Daydream so as to enhance the effectiveness of the fashion shows but the demand of these devices are still very low. In 2016 surveys, it was revealed that 55 percent of fashion show fans wanted to buy virtual reality devices, but only 24 percent of the fashion show organizers were ready to invest on virtual reality.
Good Reviews from Users
For the few people who had the privilege of testing the virtual reality devices, they gave positive reviews about them. Besides the extraordinary emotional enrichment on fashion collections that virtual reality devices gave to people, they were also cheap and affordable, an example being the Google Cardboard. Ideally speaking, the technology of vr is great but what is lacking is the consumer engagement and usefulness to the new inventions. If VR has to predominate the fashion industry, then a lot of brands should embrace and utilize it so that people can get used to it.
The Effectiveness Behind Virtual Reality
Fashion is based on emotions and experiences, if the fashion style yields an exceptional feeling to the customers, then it would definitely be chosen by many people. Virtual reality can create that feeling and emotion even though the brand itself might not be up to the standards. Virtual reality creates the environment, circumstance, and feeling where the customer is not there in reality, but he or she wants to be there. A good example is when virgin holidays made their customers to enjoy destinations using virtual reality. It brought windfall earnings because many customers stayed in those destinations for long.
John Lewis was also able to get a lot of clients when he used virtual reality to do his house remodeling work. A lot of people liked, it and he started getting endless contracts since people wanted to get something different and unique. If the fashion collection stores and shows can embrace virtual reality and make people use it in large numbers and frequently, then VR is definitely going to dominate the fashion industry.
The Bottom Line
As it stands, customers are ready to use the technology of virtual reality, but very few people are ready to stream their fashion shows in virtual reality technology. This is what is making the runways and catwalks to be predominant everywhere. Fashion shows have been using VR and 360 degrees videos. An example being the New York Fashion week which used Intel as there technology partner to stream their show using virtual reality. Mercedes Benz fashion week used the YouVist to stream their show in virtual reality technology from preparation to front and backstage. There is a dilemma on the fashion show organizers, whether to stay traditional or go for virtual reality technology. But by the look of the situation, virtual reality is far away from eliminating traditional fashion shows.
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