• by Colin Kirkland , May 11, 2023

Epic Games -- the creators of Fortnite and Unreal Engine and CLO Virtual Fashion, a digital fashion company -- have purchased shares in each other, furthering their investments in “convergence of fashion with entertainment and the metaverse.”

“We strongly believe that digital garments will play a significant role in the future of digital entertainment and metaverse platforms,” wrote CLO's CEO Simon Kim in a recent statement, adding that both companies “are committed to building the future that we envision.”

CLO Virtual Fashion boasts an ecosystem of products like a 3D garment design software that is already integrated into Epic's Unreal Engine, as well as a digital CMS and collaboration platform and an open marketplace where garment designs can be bought and sold.

Originally designed for game development, Unreal Engine is beginning to extend across a wider range of use cases and industries. Last year, for example, Volvo became the latest automaker to use Unreal Engine to bring “photorealistic visualization” to its new generation of electric vehicles.

It seems the fashion industry is next. CLO plans to make integrated workflows more easily accessible to a host of digital developers such as 3D designers, character artists, animators, and fashion professionals -- a move the company hopes will result “in games and metaverse platforms that feature true-to-life clothing options” and maximizes the value of digital garments.

“Bringing high-quality digital fashion into real-time virtual worlds is complex and can be a creative barrier for digital fashion creators,” says Epic’s CTO Kim Libreri. “It is exciting to see how CLO Virtual Fashion's solutions work with Unreal Engine to help designers across industries make life-like digital fashion garments.”

Overall, as metaverse hype continues to wane, Epic Games and CLO remain committed to the concept.

Together, both companies seem set on maximizing the overall utility of digital garments alongside other digital fashion creators like DressX -- which launched clothes in Roblox earlier this year -- and Decentraland's ongoing Metaverse Fashion Week, as well as dozens of fashion brands that have showcased new collections in virtual worlds.