KHAITE has once again teamed up with ROSE to use AR technology to bring fashion to the masses at a time when fashion shows are canceled or postponed due to social distancing requirements. The two companies worked together to use AR to showcase items from the Spring 2021 line in September, but this new experience packs a lot more punch.
2021’s First AR Fashion Experience
It’s hard to believe it, but September was already three months ago. Granted it was almost nine months into the COVID-19 pandemic for most people, but adjusting has been hard. For fashion company KHAITE, as for so many others, adjusting meant turning to AR technology.
“There are so many untapped technological resources that luxury fashion has shied away from,” KHAITE Founder and Creative Director Catherine Holstein told Vogue in September. “If the pandemic hadn’t happened, we never would have been forced to explore this. But it’s changed our business forever.”
KHAITE worked with fellow New York company ROSE on an AR experience that was launched by scannable images in a lookbook, or online. The experience allowed users to interact with virtual models of footwear from the lineup, similar to a shoe unboxing experience that ROSE helped to create for adidas in 2018.
The experience led to a 400% increase in sales for KHAITE and increased customer engagement time by over four minutes. Holstein meant what she said about business changing forever, and she returned to ROSE for another bigger and better experience this month for their Pre-Fall 2021 lineup.
Bigger, Better, and More Augmented
The new experience works much like the previous experience. It still relies on AR technology to create an experience triggered by scannable images in KHAITE’s zine or online. As users scroll through the looks, those with AR experiences are labeled. Rather than playing a video or opening a folder of images, tapping the image opens an AR experience.
However, this time the experience displays full models that parade across the page. Further, there is a built-in shopping function that allows users to purchase looks from within the experience.
“We are excited to work with KHAITE’s visionary founder Cate Holstein to help bring the future of fashion to life through the Pre-Fall 2021 experience that brings looks into your home,” said ROSE Founder and CEO Evan Rose. “Being able to literally visualize and then shop a look is game-changing in the current socially-distanced landscape.”
AR Technology Is in Fashion’s Future
These collaborations between ROSE and KHAITE aren’t the only or the first examples of AR technology in retail or in fashion. However, as Holstein so astutely pointed out in September and as the second experience this month illustrates, these collaborations point to not only staying power but innovation and growth in the field.
AR technology will have changed a lot of industries by the time the pandemic lifts, and AR will not give up its influence.
