Luxembourg fashiontech startup Arxy Future Lab and winner of ICT Spring’s Mastermind Challenge will in September launch the world’s first immersive virtual showroom for the fashion industry, aimed at reducing costs and waste.
The nascent startup, which is housed at the Lycée des Arts et Métiers TalentHub, was founded by Meng Ji, a serial entrepreneur who wants to democratise the fashion industry for small and medium-sized designers.
“To be honest, the more I work in the fashion industry, the more I don’t like it,” the founder explains, adding: “It’s built by a very close circle of very influential people that are not easy to deal with and the industry has a lot of young people to jump in every year: designers, models and all these but the whole system is built in a way that it is very easy to be taken advantage of.”
One major pitfall is the costs charged by showrooms promising exposure to major buyers from stores like Galeries Lafayette or Selfridges, provided designers pay from €6,000 up to €15,000 per season for a spot. Designers also pay commissions on sales and if they don’t sell any products, often face a penalty fee.
For the past decade Ji has been supporting small and medium emerging designers in communication and commercialisation through his agency, Poly Global Advisory, and by organising fashion shows. But, when the pandemic pulled the brakes on fashion events, he began thinking about a solution benefiting designers and buyers.
For the past eight months, the serial entrepreneur has been leveraging his tech skills to fine-tune a VR 3D fashion showroom experience where designers place their virtual garments for potential buyers to discover. The Arxy Future Lab platform, which in a first iteration is accessed via web platform, uses computer game animation to ensure high-quality movement and detailed rendering of the garments.
Realistic textures
Ji demonstrated three different versions of a cashmere fabric jacket, all of which were surprisingly realistic. He said: “We’re trying different methodologies to recreate these digital fabrics to find the most realistic one.” If a potential buyer isn’t convinced, they can always request a fabric swatch. Later he will add an animated model feature showing how the garment will flow and he wants to integrate AI functionality to make interactions with the showroom assistant as fluid as possible.
Users can interact with the garments and access information on their launch date, their retail and wholesale price, colour and size options and more. And designers can customise their showrooms. “It would cost too much to build an installation to showcase their brand identity for a four to three-week period. But here their imagination is the limit,” says Ji.
Using the smart shopping cart, buyers can draft their orders and will eventually be able to track spending across different brands. Once an order is placed, the designer can still accept or refuse it. “It happens that the designer refuses,” says Ji, adding that one designer his agency supports would never allow their work to be sold in a store alongside items like wedding dresses. “Doesn’t matter how much money they pay. Fashion people!” he laughs. The platform also offers a live chat feature between the buyer and designer.
Saving time, energy and money
If adopted by the industry, the solution has the potential to save buyers money on travel while breaking down the geographic barriers to accessing emerging designers from all over the world. At the same time, designers developing their garments using digital 3D tools, could save money on making and sending samples and prevent wastage.
The company, which was officially incorporated in Luxembourg in April 2023, has already convinced seven brands and a dozen retailers, who are waiting for the launch. Arxy Future Lab, which has been bootstrapped, is now hiring a CTO and is looking to add sales roles to its four-strong team.
In the next three years, Ji expects to add two complementary platforms. The first will build a bridge between emerging designers and editors or stylists, and the second will be B2C, for consumers to purchase digital fashion for their gaming or metaverse avatars, as well as physical garments.
