Megu / Blog / Virtual Try-On: What It Is, What It Can't Do
Virtual Try-On: What It Is, What It Can't Do
Virtual try-on puts a look from your closet onto a photo of you. It is useful, it is imperfect, and it is worth knowing which is which.
How it works
You provide a portrait, once. When the app proposes a look, it can render that look on your portrait: your face and build, those clothes. The render is generated, not photographed; the app is producing a new image that combines a reference of you with references of the garments.
What it is good for
- Proportion. Whether that jacket length works with those trousers on your build is much easier to judge on a picture of you than on a flat lay.
- Colour against your colouring. The same rust jumper reads differently on different people. The render shows it on you.
- Deciding between two looks without changing twice. This is the morning use case, and it is the one that sticks.
What it cannot do
- Fit. It does not know whether the shirt is tight across the shoulders. It is showing you the look, not the size.
- Fabric. Drape, weight and sheen are approximations. Linen and cotton can look alike in a render and feel nothing alike on.
- Exactness. Details drift: a print may simplify, a logo may soften. Treat the image as a sketch of the outfit, not a photograph of it.
Why the image is labelled
A try-on render is, technically, a synthetic image of a real person. Megu labels its renders as AI-generated, both visibly and in the file's metadata, and asks for consent before using a portrait. That is required in some places and right everywhere: an image of you that never happened should say so, especially if you share it.
On the portrait
You do not need one to use a closet app; the closet, the stylist and the planner all work without it. Try-on is the one feature that does need it. If you would rather not, skip it and lose nothing else.
Open your closet.
Megu photographs your clothes, polishes each piece into a studio shot, and has a look ready before you are out of bed. iPhone, iOS 18 or later, with a free trial.
Keep reading
- What an AI Stylist App Actually Does — The phrase covers everything from a rules engine to a chat window. What to expect from one, what it needs from you, and the difference between styling your closet and styling a shop.
- What to Wear Today? How a Weather-Aware Outfit App Decides — What actually happens between the forecast and the look on your screen: the hours that matter, the pieces that qualify, and why you should be able to say no.
- Megu vs Alta Daily: Two AI Stylists, Two Ideas — Alta is the AI closet app with the press coverage and the biggest ratings count. Megu is the quiet one. What each does with your closet, compared.