What Will Apple’s Vision Pro Mean for Fashion?
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My husband has never cared about much tech hype, but last week, he became fixated on a news segment about Apple’s new Vision Pro glasses. “Look how cool these are! I think you’d use them a lot!” he said, as a man demonstrated how the augmented-reality device could let you stare a 3D dinosaur in the face, lie on your couch watching a movie on the ceiling (why?), or read and write with the words appearing basically inside your eyeballs.
“What would I use them for?” I asked, wondering how nauseous they would make me.
“It would make cooking so much easier,” he replied. “You could watch or listen to something while reading a recipe and chopping at the same time!” I thought about slicing off one of my fingers.
A few days later, I was invited to test-drive the Apple Vision Pro. The same thoughts ran through my mind again: nausea, heaviness, unnecessary digital gimmicks. But then I slipped the device—which weighs a little over a pound and fits like a pair of ski goggles—over my head. A screen appeared in front of my face, floating in the center of the room, and I realized that this was not about some VR type of trickery. The visuals were astounding, and I immediately knew that this thing could have real implications for fashion—how we see it, how we interact with it, and how it can inspire us.
The best thing about Apple Vision Pro is that it’s designed to make the wearer still feel grounded in reality, to maintain the sense that you are still in your own space. Sure, the goggles were a bit heavy and big for my small face, but I was pleasantly surprised by how easy they were to navigate. You scroll the screens with your eyes and tap your thumb and index finger anywhere in the air to select an app or function.
And the imagery was next-level, especially when combined with the new iPhone 15 technology that can capture spatial photos and videos. With the Vision Pro glasses on, you feel as if you’re inside your own pictures, standing within videos with family and friends. The immersive videos that Apple filmed for the launch blew my mind even more: I felt like I was truly coming face-to-face with a mountain climber walking on a tightrope high in the sky, and standing on the field for a stadium soccer match.
I saw the 3D dinosaur and watched a Star Wars trailer from the inside of a spaceship on Tatooine. If Luke Skywalker isn’t your thing, you can view anything with no environmental background at all, just the screen in front of you, or you can be surrounded by a nature scene like a lakefront or a mountaintop. And yet, even floating at the top of Mount Haleakala in Hawaii, I was not at all dizzy and still very much aware that I was inside a room in downtown Manhattan.
It was soothing in so many ways. (The meditation app experience almost put me to sleep in a single minute.) But although it felt like some kind of escape, I was surprised by how much it made me crave human interaction and experiences. I wanted to cook with my daughter like the family in the spatial video was doing, and travel somewhere far-flung like a rainforest or Yosemite National Park. Which made me wonder: While this kind of technology can take us further from one another, couldn't it also be used as a mechanism to inspire? Specifically, what implications could this have for my industry—fashion designers, fashion lovers, fashion consumers, and more importantly, fashion neophytes?
I thought about two recent shows that nobody can stop talking about, for good reason: Marc Jacobs last Friday and Maison Margiela couture two weeks ago. Whereas Jacobs made an impact through proportions and perspective (the show marked his brand’s 40th anniversary), John Galliano transfixed and transported at Margiela. If you weren't in the audience for either show, you could look at the photos and videos—but Apple Vision Pro would make them come to life. You'd be able to see Galliano’s exquisite handwork up close, and understood his models' broken-doll walks and glass faces more clearly.
Most of my nearest and dearest don’t quite get what I do and why I do it. When they see an article of clothing—high-end, low-end, or somewhere in the middle—their first thought is about wearability, not the dream. Couldn’t something like the Vision Pro democratize fashion and open more eyes to the idea of clothing as art?
Let's say someone is looking back at Daniel Roseberry's Spring 2024 couture collection for Schiaparelli. They're trying to figure out if the faux animal-head sculptures attached to dresses were real or fake. They're angry that there's even a chance they could be real—offended, even. But what if they could see the details up close, contextualizing what they're viewing within the exquisite workmanship and measured cleverness? Then maybe they'd have a different perspective about how much time and care went into making the thing that caught their eye on a social media scroll.
It would be a win for the brand, too: The moment would still go viral thanks to Kylie Jenner, but maybe consumers will have a more positive outlook on the creativity and craftsmanship it took to build the collection and tell the full story.
To be clear, I am not advocating for a world where all fashion shows are virtual. But I came away from testing Apple’s latest digital catnip with a sense that this kind of virtual reality could be used for some serious good in the industry.
Beyond opening up access to the inner workings of fashion, the Vision Pro could also be used by emerging designers who, for as much praise as the get from critics and editors, still can’t afford to reach certain customers. They don’t have the Kardashians sitting in their front row, nor do they have the financial backing to make their own equivalent of an It bag, at least not yet. If those outside of the industry could experience the energy and theatricality of a show from, say, Raul Lopez of Luar or Willy Chavarria or Martine Rose, beyond social media clips and flat runway shots, perhaps they’d be more tuned in, less inclined to scroll past, and, potentially, more willing to buy from a name previously unknown to them.
And what if designers could reimagine the runway show landscape entirely, experimenting with hybrid shows that incorporate 3D renderings of clothes or immersive visuals from their seasonal mood boards? Imagine being able to join Chavarria at a family gathering, seeing and feeling the vibe of the very real people who inspire him. Or what about dancing along with Martine Rose and her models during one of her party-centric presentations?
Of course, the Apple Vision Pro isn’t cheap. It’ll cost you $3,499 as of now, but let’s imagine that there will someday soon be a version two or three of this thing that won’t cost as much as a Bottega Veneta Jodie bag. Imagine Apple using Vision Pro to empower and elevate small, independent brands, perhaps by partnering with an organization like the CFDA or 1Granary to sponsor and film these kinds of collections specifically for viewing through the glasses. Additionally, designers across the spectrum could use Vision Pro for new design techniques and for holding global meetings, through which interactions with factories, design teams, and the like could be streamlined and precise.
If some people experience a flatness after removing the glasses, I had the opposite reaction–when I took them off, I saw potential everywhere. They made me want to traverse the globe, hug my kid, make a new dinner recipe and, yes, they got me pumped for fashion month, which kicks off in New York on February 9th. This was creativity on steroids. Using Vision Pro didn’t make me feel FOMO or jealousy the way Instagram or TikTok can. Instead, I appreciated that I get to do what I do, and I felt, above all else, inspired.
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