In the fantastical metaverse, fashion still craves realism

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A new app is helping people find their true-to-life style and identity in the metaverse, where fantastical fashion has taken a front seat, as brands look to figure out how to connect with customers in virtual worlds.

Idoru, now in private beta, addresses the desire for “realism” through both fashion and personal identity, creating a more familiar and desirable format for the fashion community which has, at times, lamented the often-rudimentary look of metaverse design. It’s also a welcoming forum for people who might have found previous avatar-creation tools limiting. Past studies on avatars and identity have shown that, while a majority of people want to be able to represent their real-life identities in their digital avatars, customisation options are limiting. Users have been calling for more diverse skin tone, hair style, body size and clothing options. Idoru aims to meet those demands.

Idoru users customise an avatar, browse digital fashion options and create an outfit. The looks are meant to be shared: users then drop the avatar in AR, choose an expression and body pose and take a picture. Idoru is free to use, as are the designers’ pieces in the app. Rolling access in now open, and the app is slated for wide release in the autumn To begin, users can share their avatar selfies to social media, with videos to come later this year. The company is also exploring partnerships with other virtual spaces.

The app makes fashion accessible that otherwise might not be, thanks to financial limitations or otherwise. At launch, users will have access to pieces from past and current collections from designer James Flemons’s Phlemuns brand. “The most amazing part to me is so many people being able to actually see themselves in my clothes and not have to question it,” says Flemons. “As a small independent brand most of our presence exists on the internet where people don’t have physical access to the clothing.” Other brands will launch from late September, including New York designers Shanel Campbell’s Bed on Water and Raffaella Hanley’s Lou Dallas.

While many physical designers have translated their items into digital versions, these are rarely in a hyper-realistic context that mimics the physical world. This is partly because metaverse spaces are often an extension of gaming culture, and because the technology required is largely not powerful enough to render intricate details and movements in real time. In Roblox, The Sandbox and Zepeto, for example, items from brands such as Ralph Lauren, Burberry and Gucci tend to have a more stylised, simplified look that is more characteristic of children’s video games. Similarly, at Metaverse Fashion Week, the design aesthetics had to be simplified to translate in Decentraland.