[News Inside Business] 'Clover Virtual Fashion' Loved by Gucci and Adidas

3D Virtual Clothing Technology Development Gains Attention
Praised by Global Fashion Companies

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Seung-gon] Interest is growing in 'CLO Virtual Fashion,' a digital clothing solution company with global fashion companies such as Gucci and Adidas as clients.

The company started in 2009 in a rooftop room near Hongik University in Mapo-gu, Seoul, and is currently expanding its presence in the three-dimensional (3D) clothing design market. Although it began in a rooftop room, it has grown enough to open a new office in Paris, France, last November. This is the third European office following Munich, Germany, and Madrid, Spain, and the twelfth global office overall.

CLO Virtual Fashion's main competitive edge lies in its time reduction technology during the 3D garment sample production process. According to the fashion design industry, it usually takes about 40 days to make a sample. However, this company has shortened the period to two days, maximizing the efficiency of the design-manufacturing-distribution process.

With this technological capability, the company counts Hugo Boss, Disney, Adidas, Blizzard, Meta, and others as clients, and it is known that 90% of its sales come from overseas. Hugo Boss has been using CLO Virtual Fashion's software and platform since 2016.

3D virtual clothing. Photo by Clover Virtual Fashion

Although it is a company related to virtual clothing production, examining the company's profile shows it is closer to an IT specialized company developing 3D software. This is because it independently developed the famous digital fashion design software 'CLO' and 'Marvelous Designer.' By using CLO, one can not only design clothing but also hold virtual runway shows in virtual spaces and implement all garment production processes in 3D. 3D technology is indispensable in the metaverse space, and various fashion items need to be produced there, which is also why Meta (Facebook) is one of its clients.

It is also noteworthy that among its clients is Blizzard, a game company rather than a fashion company. CLO and Marvelous Designer are software specialized in fashion and game design, respectively, capable of realistically simulating virtual clothing. They can easily express complex wrinkles and details, enabling the production of various 3D garments and speeding up work when mass-producing costumes for game or movie characters. In summary, the virtual clothing market is digitally converging and integrating not only the fashion industry but also computer graphics-related fields in games and movies. Additionally, since there is no need to produce physical clothing samples, it is also regarded as an eco-friendly clothing production system.