First question that comes to mind - what are the use cases?

I see how owning the first digital dress gives you bragging rights but what about the 1000000th dress? What is the utility in owning a digital dress then?

A digital dress doesn’t replace physical clothing - it can’t protect you from the elements. However we don’t choose clothes for that reason. If we did, there would be no fashion industry to start with. Fashion’s utility isn’t to protect from the elements. It’s a form of self-expression. It’s a language. It’s a way of communicating with the outside world. Wearing a doctor’s coat says “I’ve done medical training, I know what I’m doing”, wearing a suit says “I do something important”, wearing a uniform says “I am part of X”. It tells the world what group you belong to. Even if you pay no attention to what you wear you are still communicating that you don’t pay attention… and there are connotations there like “caring too much is superficial” etc.

But if clothing is a means of communication, what are the opportunities for communication? We communicate every time we leave the house, go to work, go on holiday. I’m sure when there were lockdowns people dramatically reduced their spending on new clothing because there were much fewer opportunities to communicate. In fact people spent more on beauty because that was what people saw more of on Zoom. Social media has expanded our opportunities for communication - we might live in a remote place with only sheep around but we might still put effort into how we look if we take photos or videos of ourselves. It’s also true that the audience matters. We might put less effort in when we don’t value the audience as much.

What are the channels for communicating in the digital world? And what are the verticals of communication? We can share photos and stories on Instagram, showing our full self from head to toe. Currently we can use face filters to touch up and enhance our face. I’m sure the same is already out there or is being developed for bodies. I can imagine a filter that makes people look more muscular or skinnier (which I am sure will pose all sorts of backlash). Right now people wear real clothing they own or temporarily own (either rent or plan to return immediately after the post). It would obviously be a lot more efficient if influencers could download a dress in AR and post in it, rather than brands having to send physical items or having to spend cash buying it for the post. I see that as very close to where we are today. Brands continue manufacturing physical clothing items but use AR to create digital versions that enables more efficient marketing and removes frictions in online shopping such as try-ons. But in that world, the purpose of digital fashion is to enable more consumption of physical fashion. Because people still communicate mostly in the physical world as they still go to work, meet up with friends, go to birthdays and weddings etc.

What would it take to have a world in which people attended birthdays and weddings virtually? Clearly zoom is not a replacement for physical world interaction. It is a limited sensory experience. You can’t easily see the full individual, you can’t touch, you can’t smell, camera quality isn’t as seeing through your eyes - you can’t see the detail in the individual’s face. The metaverse is a massive leap from the tools we use today to interact both passively and consciously. Passive means of interaction would be walking down the street and being seen by people in cars, other passerbys, cafe people watchers. The digital world equivalent could be posting a photo or story on Instagram or writing a Twitter post. You are putting yourself out there in the world at large. Active means of interaction are calling your friend on facetime or sharing a photo with your family group. We still prefer physical world interactions because there are no digital world equivalents that are good enough yet. The metaverse feels like a lot to ask for. We want it to offer everything the physical world can: it needs to replace the quality of the sight and audio we have in the physical world, it needs to offer touch and smell. Then we need to decide who we are in the digital world. In the physical world nature decides how our faces and bodies look and how we sound. We can intervene and enhance these but only to an extent. If we now interact in a digital world, we can decide this for ourselves. Could we also choose our intelligence? We would technically still be the ones operating our avatar so maybe not? But we could maybe elect another human brain to operate it for us? But is it really as simple as us being a Sim like avatar that we can customize from scratch? Could it be a world where we have a digital version of our physical selves that exists in real time? If we gain or lose weight our digital self changes too? We would still care about our physical selves because it would directly affect our digital self.