A system allows a user to select designs for apparel and preview these designs before manufacture. The previews provide photorealistic visualizations in two or three dimensions, and can be presented on a computer display, projected on a screen, or presented in virtual reality (e.g., via headset), or augmented reality. The system can also include a projection system that projects the new designs onto garments on mannequins in a showroom. The garments and the new designs projected onto the garments have a three-dimensional appearance as if the garments having the new designs are worn by people. Software and lasers are used in finishing the garments to produce garments with the new designs and the finished garments have an appearance of the three-dimensional appearance of the garments and new designs on the mannequins with the new designs projected onto the garments by the projection system.