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George Yashin was working on his brand ZNY in 2019 when he saw The Fabricant’s Iridescence dress — the first recorded sale of a fashion NFT — and something clicked. He describes the moment as akin to Malevich’s Black Square, regarded by many artists as “the Hour Zero of modern art”, but for fashion. “When The Fabricant dropped this digital dress, a new era began,” he says.
Yashin was feeling burnt out from fashion’s breakneck pace — he was unable to finish ZNY’s Autumn/Winter 2020 collection for its 2019 Paris Fashion Week presentation. So the team brought "consciously unfinished" items to Paris, and called the collection "Unready to Wear". He clocked then that fashion was moving at an unsustainable speed. “When I came back from Paris, I started to think about what technologies could [mitigate] the problem.”
Yashin began testing new technologies, first by photoshopping digital items onto photos — which, he quickly realised, was unscalable — so he turned to AR, and founded his company Zero10 in 2020. He sought out an engineer and suggested real-time AR try-on to them; their reaction, Yashin says, was along the lines of: “You’re crazy. But I can do it.”
Zero10 offers tools such as an AR mirror, where customers can try on garments virtually in-store — or in front of a billboard or storefront window — and a software development kit which can be integrated into brands’ own applications to offer AR try-on. It has so far collaborated with brands including Edward Crutchley, Maisie Wilen, Barragán and Alexandra Sipa. More recently, Zero10 opened up its services to help fulfil Yashin’s vision for a more democratised fashion industry. In October 2021, the company launched its iOS app, and in November 2022, its AR Fashion Platform, to let designers and creators make their 3D designs AR compatible. This spring, it will debut a new feature: Custom Shop. Using generative AI, Custom Shop makes it possible for users — even those lacking the specific design skills and experience — to create digital designs to wear in AR.
The goal is to make AR technology easier to access, by placing it in the hands of emerging designers and individual creators. “Similar to how designers of physical clothing must have the knowledge and applied skills on tailoring and constructing technologies, designers of digital clothing must understand how technologies work, [and] have the skills and know-how to bring their creations to life,” Yashin says. By making creation easier via Custom Shop, Yashin hopes to build a community of professionals to participate in what he believes is fashion’s next stage. “2023 will be a big year for AR,” he says.
Zero10 has stiff competition. Snap is one of the leaders in the space, having boosted AR try-on tools for companies including Farfetch and Prada in 2021, before offering these up to other brands and companies in an effort to expand AR adoption and development outside of the Snapchat app. Major brands have dabbled. In June 2022, Burberry offered an AR shopping experience on its website (with Snap Inc.’s Vertebrae). Roksanda's NFT, which dropped in February last year, was available for AR try-on via an Instagram filter. And, that same month, Bottega Veneta launched an AR app to tease Matthieu Blazy's first show. Digital-native fashion companies such as DressX and Rtfkt have also long been testing and offering AR try-on.
The interest is there — Zero10 has raised $6 million in funding to date, and expects to raise another $3 million this year as part of its ongoing seed round. Its primary source of income is its B2B solutions for brands, with 70 per cent or revenue coming from its AR mirror, 20 per cent from the software development kit and 10 per cent from brand integration to the Zero10 app. Its projected revenue for this year is $1.5 million, based on preliminary estimations and upcoming brand collaborations. The company is looking forward in two directions: partnering with major players, and assessing how best to onboard more emerging designers to the tech.
AI design for all?
Zero10 launched its platform, open to independent creators and small brands, to increase AR accessibility and generate more content. Both brands and individual creators can upload their designs to the Zero10 app. The Zero10 3D team then takes the files and makes them AR-compatible so that a designer can release a digital fashion collection in the app. Through this, a brand can link to its website and give customers try-on options before purchasing. Soon, Zero10 will introduce in-platform monetisation opportunities.
Zero10 wants to support 3D creators — but knows that there’s a limited number of them. Because of this, it wants to help more people break into the space — which is where Custom Shop comes into play. “We want to make this kind of self-expression available for everyone,” Yashin says. Zero10’s Custom Shop will allow users to become creators. The first step is to create AR-ready items with AI tech (using Stability AI, users can input words to generate garments); the next is for users to try on and share the content. “I feel that we could see the new Margiela in the digital world,” Yashin says. “He could come not even from the creator community, but the user community. It’s an open tool for every kid to use to create digital fashion.”
Methods for creating digital, AR-wearable fashion are becoming much easier, says Matthew Drinkwater, head of the London College of Fashion’s Fashion Innovation Agency. “When you look at Lens Studio and SparkAI, we’re beginning to make this far more accessible to a much wider audience.” Even in the first month of 2023, there’s been a surge of interest in generative AI, particularly given ChatGPT’s hype.
This does, for some, engender a sense of angst — what does it mean for creatives? However, there’s still a level of human expertise required. It’s a tool set, says Drinkwater, who expects that we’ll start to see a hierarchy of who excels in its use, as new specialisms and skillsets develop. “This isn't an unskilled person,” Rupert Breheny, Google technical specialist in AI augmented creativity, recently told Vogue Business. “That person has to know the industry inside out, and they know how to express ideas in a way that is meaningful for the art.” However, it is a massive time-saver, and enables the creation of imagery (and fashion) that isn’t possible in the physical world.
Edward Crutchley and Maisie Wilen designer Maisie Schloss and both emphasise the physical impossibility of their Zero10 collaboration designs. Crutchley explored ideas that could never exist in the “real world”, such as crystalline structures and lightning effects. Though Schloss found limitations (she couldn’t make a bodycon dress), she leaned into animated garments and colour-changing fabrics.
Zero10 is investing in emerging designers and creators, and offering tutorials and workshops to onboard those interested because building up that community is as important as the platform itself, Yashin says. “We believe that creators are the new fuel for the fashion industry and they will help to lower the entry barrier.”
Proof of concept
Though brands have shown interest, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Zero10 is now fielding requests from big names, but at the beginning, it was the one approaching — and sometimes paying — designers to partner on collaborations. “We needed proof more than the brands needed projects with us,” Yashin says matter-of-factly. He wanted to speed up the process of proving Zero10’s value, so he allocated a budget to have partners to participate in the project on a commercial basis. “It helped tremendously,” Yashin says. Costs varied from $5,000 to $25,000. Now, the two sides of Zero10’s business — the brand opportunity side and customer-facing side — coexist. By proving the concept, Zero10 showed brands why they ought to get onboard, and in turn, can use funds raised via brand collaborations and solutions to invest back into the platform to educate and onboard those interested.
“The first year when we came out with the app, it was super hard,” Yashin says. Fashion was resistant. Zero10 sought out brands with the same passion about new technologies. Both Schloss and Crutchley had already been experimenting with digital design; Schloss designs and manipulates digitally, while Crutchley had done a 3D design partnership before. “The clothes I design do lend themselves to AR both thematically (the work regularly explores contemporary digital culture) and technically (digital assets were ready to share with Zero10's team),” Schloss says.
Yashin credits Zero10’s NYFW collaboration with Crosby Studios as its main project. At NYFW, the two hosted a physical pop-up store. The hook? All items were digital-only. Customers tried on virtual garments in store via QR codes, with the option to purchase the digital goods or share to social media. “Everybody saw that it works,” he says. It was a big investment, and it paid off. Visitors spent an average of 30 minutes in the space, and there were over 25,000 digital try-ons via the Zero10 app.
AR integration is inevitable, says Drinkwater. The perks of 3D imaging for brands are long proven at the Fashion Innovation Agency. “If you have a 3D asset on your website, you’re looking at a click-through rate anywhere between 20 to 40 per cent higher than a flat 2D image,” he says. “Your conversion rate is higher, your return rate is lower.” Layer AR on top of that, and you can give existing products added dimension. “You can build a much more layered experience for consumers through AR, whether that be through storytelling or more experiential events.”
It also offers a way to access brands with a high price point. Sipa’s handmade recycled plastic lace garments are expensive and time-consuming to produce. “They are all one of a kind and some too expensive to sell, like the ruffle coat that Zero10 reproduced,” she says. Sipa was excited to see people having fun with her designs and sharing them on social media. For Crutchley, there’s value in that it enables small brands to reach new customers who don’t currently have access to his products, “but could easily become future purchasers”.
AR also presents interesting growth opportunities for brands. As Sipa grows her brand, she’s shifting away from one-of-a-kind recycled pieces to “more sustainable commercial fashion design”. She views AR as a means for her wire pieces to exist alongside the regular wholesale business.
Bigger brands are opting in. Coach will integrate Zero10’s proprietary technology into its retail strategy this spring. Zero10 is also offering three AR items to Private Policy’s NYFW show attendees. Guests will be able to virtually try on these designs right off the runway — an AR approach to Carolina Herrera’s immediately available Roblox dress (which sold out and spiked in value).
Zero10’s Custom Shop feature has also piqued brands’ interest. Explaining why, Yashin nods to Levi’s, Nike and Tommy Hilfiger, all of whom offer or have offered physical customisation. “You can make your custom shop available to try on before purchase,” he offers as an example. “It’s not only fun for users. It’s quite a cool tool for businesses.”
AR will change how we engage with fashion, Drinkwater says, by bringing audiences into brand storytelling narratives. Plus, beyond financial and business operation benefits, “there’s an element of joy to that experience which is sometimes forgotten,” he says. This is key when thinking about building an emotional reaction in consumers, which is so often a reason for making a purchase. “It’s just not a typical KPI for brands,” Drinkwater says.
Key takeaway: Zero10 is moving forward with a business strategy that is twofold: partnering with traditional fashion brands to offer B2B solutions for AR try-on and offering emerging designers, individual creators and other users open access to 3D and AR fashion design tools. The former is how Zero10 generates most of its revenue, much of which is invested in its AR Fashion Platform to achieve the latter. Custom Shop is the next step in achieving the goal of making AR fashion accessible, by integrating generative AI so that “any kid” can produce AR fashion.
Correction: The amount of time visitors spent in the Crosby Studios space was updated for accuracy, as was Yashin's role at ZNY, the Custom Shop launch timeframe and app release date.
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