How luxury brands are using CGI models, AR and VR to attract online-savvy Gen Z shoppers
As digital advertisers innovate with augmented reality and virtual reality, fashionable internet users can now deck their Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Weibo app avatars out in Gucci apparel
Luxury campaigns have come a long way since they relied solely on traditional print advertising, and digital has become a fundamental piece of the brand narrative puzzle. Today’s tech advancements allow brands to showcase their offerings in alternate realities: virtual and augmented.
Flexible yet instant, these tools are sliding into chat apps and social platforms. Fluid yet experiential, they appeal to the experience-hungry, high-flying crowd. Despite the innovation, the human approach still reigns.
What I saw in augmented reality was a new medium for human beings to communicate. Still images and video haven’t evolved much since creation. We’ve digitised them, but that’s about it. So it got me thinking, what’s the next step?
The next evolution of fashion tech will be responsible, feature a heightened level of personalisation and champion the human spirit.
Gen Z-friendly company Genies understands this. Its app provides intelligent and dynamic avatars that can be integrated into messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Weibo. Users can create digital clones of themselves with more than a million clothing and facial options.
Last year, Gucci became the app’s first global advertiser and provider of luxury apparel, allowing users to deck their avatars out in the Italian brand’s most iconic pieces. It may seem like an unlikely partnership at first sight, but the hope is that users will one day be able to buy items they see on their friends’ avatars through a few simple clicks.

“Digital marketing primarily consists of monotonous and passive scrolling through newsfeeds and ads, but marketers should be looking at emerging new tools as ways to break into a more active and personalised way to engage with their customers,” the brand’s founders, Akash Nigam and Evan Rosenbaum, said in a shared statement.
In an era where retail has truly become 24/7, this collaboration has hit the mark on delivering fashion to consumers exactly where they are, when they want it and, most importantly, how they want it.
Nigam and Rosenbaum say: “The yearning for individualisation is being powered by Gen Z.”