Can 3D be part of fashion's go-to-market strategies?

Fashion brands are looking for talented 3D designers and digital artists to help them on their digital product creation journey, from creating beautiful 3D collections to optimising relationships with suppliers through digitised processes. But is that the full potential of 3D technology?

“Brands, in general, understand the impact of 3D in the supply chain. But how to put that into practice? I see lots of challenges, but also opportunities” says Christine Lindeloo, digital selling expert at Stitch, who works closely with brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and The North Face. These brands already have a digital-first approach to their go-to-market strategies. While communicating with their wholesale customers, they went from using only 2D photography and a large amount of physical samples to a combination of 3D styles next to the product photos, marketing materials, and key samples for the brand assortment.

Lindeloo states that there is real potential for 3D to help the buyer better understand the product: “the 3D rendering will need to be further perfected and much closer to the reality of a physical sample. But eventually - with 3D - you can interact with the product, zoom in, dive inside, see the details. It offers a lot of potential, better even than a 2D photograph or detail shots.”

"We're not there yet," she said, even though the quality of 3D renders is already quite impressive. This raises questions during sales conversations: which looks more realistic, the photograph or the render? “It happened the other day: I was speaking to a fashion brand salesperson and they had two 2D photographs, and one 3D render, all meant to be the same colour. The assumption from their buyer was that the photograph would be more true to life, but actually the 3D render had the better colour accuracy.”

“People assume that 2D photographs are the north star for garment colour accuracy. While 3D actually is the truth", says 3D specialist Fayette Van Dijck. “If you're presenting on a digital showroom or laptop screen, keep in mind that colours may vary due to different settings. The beauty of 3D is that you can create standards. This applies not only to the 3D garments created in the software, but also how they appear on screens while presenting the collection. This is more difficult to achieve with photographs. Creating a product photoshoot in a 3D space makes it easier to maintain a consistent lighting."

Having those standards can help people across all fashion teams to be more confident about the garments and items they are working with. “Once you have that standardisation, it increases the confidence of the salesperson, since they know what to expect”, says Lara Paulino Pereira, transformation expert at Stitch.

"Collaboration is actually facilitated when using 3D and digital tools", adds Paulino Pereira. 3D creates more space for cooperation between teams from different departments within a fashion brand. Breaking the silos, 3D renders and digital assets circulate from design to sales faster. Also, a few brands are reportedly connecting fashion designers to sales teams to exchange and train each other on their ways of working. “The creative inspiration that a designer uses at the start of the collection lands immediately with go-to-market teams this way, and the ideas don't get lost” she concludes.

The fashion industry still has a long way to go to fully embrace 3D design. However, some brands are leading the journey, creating opportunities for better practices. Collaboration and change management are at the basis of these processes, paving the road for technology to enhance the fashion experience for everyone, from designers to end-consumers.

This conversation was part of a webinar hosted by Stitch about how fashion teams can make the best while working with 3D. You can watch the entire session here:

If you're keen to learn 3D fashion, Stitch has a free online educational platform. Join the Stitch Academy now.