Chapter 1: Beyond the Runway: A Comprehensive Review of XR Opportunities, Applications and Challenges in the Fashion Industry

With the growth of e-commerce, the fashion retail industry is exploring new technologies like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR), together known as extended reality (XR). According to the extended-self theory, the symbolic high-involvement fashion products become a part of their extended self, enhancing consumers’ self-concept and resulting in cognitive and affective outcomes due to self-exploratory engagement. Therefore, due to high body surveillance experience and strong fashion consciousness, consumers seek means and technologies to alter their appearance or body image. XR technologies are disrupting how fashion brands interact with customers by re-orienting their business models, going digital and using immersive technologies blending the physical and virtual worlds, enabling a more interactive personalised experience. Through virtual try-ons, AR apps and shopping on the Metaverse, the brands engage in multi-sensory stimulation, high interactivity and vividness, resulting in high utilitarian and hedonic value to the consumers. Consumers’ initial stimulation by an aesthetic experience develops into a combination of relational, emotional and interactive experiences through these technologies. Brands can now tell their story in XR, moving beyond the 2D user phase and resulting in brand differentiation. This work addresses the recent advances in fashion industries where XR technologies allow brands to create compelling stories and build the right brand experiences for consumers, resulting in customer engagement and brand loyalty.