It’s been 30 years since “Clueless” introduced us to Cher’s digitized closet, and millennials are still not over it. Tech brands are getting closer to making this virtual wardrobe concept a reality, and the innovation has been popping up in demos at events like festivals and sports events, with brands enhancing activations with e-commerce and seamless photo ops through VR, AR and AI.
Most recently, Google Shopping arrived at Lollapalooza with an interactive experience that encouraged festivalgoers to use its new AI tools to virtually try on fashion and beauty items before making a purchase. Brand ambassadors helped attendees take a photo and upload it to the platform, which instantly showed them fashion looks. Using their front-facing camera, participants could also see what mascara and lip products would look like on their faces.
Google’s real-time try-on features extended to the 2025 AT&T WNBA All-Star Weekend, where the brand returned to the WNBA Live fan fest with an activation that spotlighted Google Pixel and Google Search. At “Welcome to The W,” fans enhanced their tunnel fits using Google’s virtual try-on feature and perused Kelsey Plum’s and A’ja Wilson’s fashions with Google Lens. The Hall of Fits showcased the two players’ favorite looks in a mini-museum, and Circle to Search technology enhanced the display by providing information on the outfits.
On the golf side, at last year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, presenting sponsor Mastercard incorporated more than just an AI-powered putting simulator into its activation in Orlando, FL. A personalized AI shopping tool called “Virtual Retail” engaged attendees’ eyes to move a cursor around a screen to select products, and the “Shopping Muse” platform offered a shopping assistant with personalized virtual try-ons for cardholders.
Brands are even leveraging virtual try-ons to immerse consumers into a story. Ahead of the premiere of Paramount Pictures’ “Gladiator II,” fans were invited to visit The Pepsi COLAsseum in NYC’s Times Square, where they could virtually try on movie costumes via AR, with the image projected onto a two-story-tall screen.
And to hype up football fans for an Army-Navy game, USAA enlisted a costume designer to re-create both teams’ uniforms from 1922, displayed on mannequins inside the brand’s free exhibit at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field. When they scanned their ticket stub at an AR kiosk, the engagement recognized their name and what team they were rooting for, and displayed that particular uniform on them. Fans could then move around and have their photo taken with the uniform “on.”
A world without virtual try-on upgrades? Ugh, as if.
Featured photo credit: Google
